Toh 205The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The City Beggar Woman”

Summary

This short Mahāyāna sūtra tells of a beggar woman from the city of
Śrāvastī whose modest offering of a lamp at Prince Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍada’s park, is contrasted with the
lavish offering of lamps being made at the same time by Prasenajit, who was the king of
Kośala and a major benefactor of the Buddha Śākyamuni and his community. While
King Prasenajit’s extravagant donations fill a thousand large lamps with oil and
burn so bright that a wide area around the monastery is illuminated, the beggar
woman has only a tiny amount of oil with which to make her modest offering. As
she lights the lamp, she does so with the sincere prayer that she too may one
day achieve enlightenment and become a teacher of the Dharma, just like the
Buddha. Her small lamp burns bright through the night and cannot be
extinguished, no matter what Maudgalyāyana does as he tries to douse it. When
the beggar woman returns the next day and sees her lamp still burning, she is
filled with joy, whereupon the Buddha gives one of his magnificent smiles that
lights up the cosmos. Asked by Ānanda to divulge the reason for his smile, the
Buddha prophesies the almswoman’s fortuitous future rebirths and her eventual
awakening as a buddha. He then reprises the whole tale in a series of
verses.

Acknowledgements

Translated and introduced by George FitzHerbert, in consultation with a
draft translation by Khenpo Kalsang Gyaltsen and Chodrungma Kunga Chodron of the
Sakya Pandita Translation Group.

The translation was completed under the patronage and supervision of
84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha. David Fiordalis edited the
translation and the introduction, and Dawn Collins copyedited the text.
Celso Wilkinson was in charge of the digital publication process.

Introduction

The City Beggar Woman is a short
Mahāyāna sūtra that tells of a poor woman in Śrāvastī who lights an oil lamp
in veneration of the Buddha Śākyamuni, makes a vow to become a buddha in the
future, and then receives a prophecy of her future buddhahood from the
Buddha. As Peter Skilling notes in the introduction to his translation of
this sūtra, there are at least two other iterations of this story found
elsewhere in the Tibetan Kangyur. One is
in The Chapter on Medicines in the Vinayavastu of the Mūlasarvāstivāda
Vinaya, and the other is chapter 37 of
The Sūtra of the Wise and the Foolish
. The version in the Tibetan Vinaya also has a close
parallel preserved in Sanskrit in the Divyāvadāna. Skilling also notes that the story was among those
selected for illustration in Ming dynasty woodcuts of events from the
Buddha’s life and in other Chinese artworks.

The different versions of the story all tell of a pauper woman who
is “dependent on the city for her livelihood” (Skt.
nagarāvalambikā). In all versions,
this woman lights an oil lamp at Prince Jeta’s Grove that cannot be extinguished due
to her great determination of mind in vowing to become a buddha. While
sharing this basic plot and some other narrative details, such as a disciple
trying to douse the lamp with the edge of his robe, the different versions
diverge in various ways. For instance, in the Vinaya and Divyāvadāna versions, it is Ānanda who tries
to extinguish the lamp, while in this sūtra, and the version found in The Sūtra of the Wise and the Foolish, it is
Maudgalyāyana.

The framing of the story is also diverse across the different
iterations. While the Vinaya and Divyāvadāna versions present it as the last of several episodes
in a series, in The Sūtra of the Wise and the
Foolish it is followed by a past life story. The patterns of convergence and divergence between the
different iterations, in these and other ways, are therefore somewhat
complicated.

The standalone sūtra does not appear to have been translated into
Chinese, and no extant Sanskrit for it has been identified. It was
translated into Tibetan during the height of the Tibetan imperial patronage
of Buddhism (snga dar) in
the late eighth or early ninth century and is listed in both the Denkarma
and Phangthangma imperial catalogs. Its colophon states that it was
translated by Jñānagarbha and Lui Wangpo, and edited by Vidyākarasiṃha and
Devacandra, all of whom were active in Tibet in the early ninth century. It
is one of four texts in the Kangyur credited to this particular translation
and editorial team, the other three all being dhāraṇī texts (Toh 545/892, Toh 546/893, and Toh
718/1037).

This English translation was made from the Tibetan as found in the
Degé Kangyur, with reference to the variant readings recorded in the
Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma), and the
Stok Palace Kangyur. Peter Skilling’s English translation was also
consulted.

The Translation

The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra

The City Beggar Woman

Homage to all buddhas and bodhisattvas.

Thus did I hear at one time. While staying in Śrāvastī, in Prince Jeta’s Grove,
Anāthapiṇḍada’s park, the Blessed One was served, honored,
venerated, and revered by gods, nāgas, yakṣas, gandharvas, asuras,
garuḍas, kinnaras, and mahoragas; by Śakra, Brahmā, and the world
protectors; by kings and ministers; and by bodhisattvas, monks, nuns,
laymen, and laywomen. Yet he remained like a lotus unsullied by water.

At that time, in order to venerate the Thus-Gone One, on the full
moon day of the last month of autumn, King Prasenajit had a thousand large
copper cauldrons filled with grain oil and set them out so that the entire
area for four leagues around was illuminated by their flames.

At the same time, in the great city of Śrāvastī, there was a city
beggar woman
called Maker of Joy. She had bought a
tiny amount of oil, as a result of which she had gone without food for four
days and had grown weak. She took the
oil to Prince Jeta’s Grove and, using it to light a lamp at the edge of the
courtyard, she made this wish:

“Blessed One, with this root of virtue, may I too become a teacher
in the future. May I teach the Dharma and gather a community,
just as the thus-gone, worthy, perfect, and complete Buddha does now. If I
am to become a buddha in the future, may this oil lamp continue to burn
until I return.” Whereupon she lit the lamp, and returned to the city.

The light of that oil lamp illuminated all of Jambudvīpa and the
following day the lamp was still burning. Then Venerable Mahāmaudgalyāyana
tried to put it out with the edge of his robe, but he could not. Venerable
Mahāmaudgalyāyana then tried to extinguish it with gales of wind, but still
he could not put it out. Venerable Mahāmaudgalyāyana then went to the Brahmā
realms and caused sheets of rain the size of chariot axles to fall upon this whole
trichiliocosm. However, even though he directed the deluge right over the
lamp, still he could not douse it.

Then the Blessed One said, “Let it be, Maudgalyāyana! This lamp has
been lit with a mind set on awakening, and a mind set on awakening cannot be
overcome by a śrāvaka. How so? Because no śrāvaka or
pratyekabuddha can ever overcome a mind set on omniscience.”

A while later, as the sun was rising, the woman returned from the
city. When she saw that the lamp was still burning brightly, she was filled
with tremendous joy.

At that moment, the Blessed One smiled. It is the nature of things that whenever a
blessed buddha smiles, rays of light of many colors—blue, yellow, red,
white, crimson, and the colors of crystal and silver—stream forth from the
blessed buddha’s mouth. These illuminate and pervade worlds without end,
reaching as far as the Brahmā realms where they outshine even the sun and
the moon. They then return once again, and, after circling the blessed one
thrice, descend into the uṣṇīṣa at the crown of that blessed one’s head. So,
indeed, did such rays of light, having circled the Blessed One thrice,
disappear into the uṣṇīṣa of the Blessed One’s head.

Venerable Ānanda then spoke the following verse to the Blessed
One:

“Excellent victor, guide, and best of men,

You do not smile without reason,

So please, with compassion, for the benefit of the world,

Tell us what gives you cause to smile.”

The Blessed One replied, “Ānanda, this city beggar woman will not
fall into a lower rebirth for twenty-eight eons. She will experience only
the abundance of the human and god realms, and then will become a thus-gone,
worthy, perfect, and complete buddha called All-Illuminating.”

Then the Blessed One spoke these verses:

“To venerate the holder of ten powers, Prasenajit lit a thousand fine
lamps

In huge copper cauldrons, which illuminated everything for four
leagues.

The city beggar woman lit a lamp with a tiny amount of oil

And, by the power of the mind set on awakening, it illuminated the whole world.

“Maudgalyāyana wanted to extinguish the lamp with his vast magical
powers,

But even powerful gales could not extinguish it.

Sending down sheets of rain the size of chariot axles from the Brahmā
realms,

Still he could not douse that lamp, which shone like the sun.

“After four days with no food, she came to the delightful Jeta Grove

And, with joyful heart, paid respects with folded hands to the feet of
the Sugata.

The peerless one smiled, and Ānanda, thoroughly delighted, asked,

‘What kind of result does this smile foretell, infinitely radiant
one?’

“In twenty-eight eons, this Maker of Joy will be a victor, a self-arisen
one

Known as All-Illuminating, and she will illuminate four great
chiliocosms.

In the future, she will make offerings to ten million sugatas;

She will become a universal monarch and venerate the victors.

“This exemplary tale about a future buddha will delight the faithful

And the wise who hear it will also feel joy.

In this way, the qualities of innumerable victors with the ten powers are
inconceivable.

So the matchless result of rejoicing in them will also be inconceivable.”

Thus spoke the Blessed One, and Venerable Ānanda, the city beggar
woman, the bodhisattvas and monks, along with the gods, humans, asuras, and
gandharvas of the world, rejoiced and thoroughly praised what the Blessed
One had said.

This concludes The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra
“The City Beggar Woman.”

Colophon

Translated by the Indian preceptor Jñānagarbha and Lotsawa Bandé Lui
Wangpo. Edited and finalized by the Indian preceptor Vidyākarasiṃha and
senior editor Lotsawa Bandé Devacandra.

Notes

Bibliography

Tibetan Language

Western Languages

thus-gone

gales

Mahāmaudgalyāyana

Prince Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍada’s park
rgyal bu rgyal byed kyi tshal mgon med zas sbyin gyi kun dga’ ra ba
རྒྱལ་བུ་རྒྱལ་བྱེད་ཀྱི་ཚལ་མགོན་མེད་ཟས་སྦྱིན་གྱི་ཀུན་དགའ་ར་བ།
jetavanam anāthapiṇḍadasyārāmaḥ