Toh 278The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Eight Auspicious Ones”

Summary

While the Buddha is dwelling in Vaiśālī at Āmrapālī’s
grove, a Licchavi youth named Superior Skill requests him to
reveal those buddhas presently dwelling in fulfillment of
their former aspirations, such that venerating them and
remembering their names can dispel fear and harm. The Buddha
responds by listing the names of eight buddhas and the names
of their buddha realms. He instructs Superior Skill to
remember these buddhas’ names and to contemplate them
regularly to develop their good qualities himself and ensure
success before beginning any activity. After Superior Skill
departs, Śakra, lord of the gods, declares that he has taken
up this practice as well. The Buddha exhorts Śakra to
proclaim this discourse before engaging in battles with the
asuras to ensure his victory, and then enumerates the good
qualities of those who proclaim this discourse.

Acknowledgements

The sūtra was translated by Bhikṣuṇī Thubten Damcho
of Sravasti Abbey.

The translation was completed under the patronage and
supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the
Buddha.

Introduction

This sūtra belongs to the genre of Mahāyāna
literature that emphasizes the transformative power
of remembering and contemplating buddhas’ names. In
this way it resembles some other short texts found
in the same part of the Kangyur such as The Eight Buddhas (Aṣṭabuddhaka, Toh
271),
The Ten Buddhas (Daśabuddhaka, Toh 272), and The
Twelve Buddhas (Dvādaśabuddhaka, Toh 273, 511,
853).
While these other sūtras appear primarily to
elucidate how the practice of remembering and
contemplating buddhas’ names leads to the
accomplishment of spiritual goals in this and future
lives up to the attainment of buddhahood, The Eight Auspicious Ones
emphasizes the practice’s worldly benefits.

The sūtra’s main interlocutor, a Licchavi youth
named Superior Skill, is primarily concerned about
warding off fear as well as physical, verbal, and
mental harm he might experience in battle, at a
royal palace, or in his dreams. In response to
Superior Skill’s request to reveal those buddhas who
can help dispel such obstacles, the Buddha teaches
about eight buddhas residing in buddha realms in the
eastern direction whose names embody the qualities
of their former aspirations. The Buddha tells
Superior Skill that by remembering the names of
these buddhas and contemplating them when going to
sleep, waking up, and before beginning any activity,
he will not only develop these buddhas’ good
qualities but also experience success in all his
endeavors.

The names of these eight buddhas continue to be
recited by Tibetan Buddhist practitioners today in a
prayer popularly known as “The Verses for the Eight
Noble Auspicious Ones,” composed in 1896 by
Jamgön Mipham Gyatso (1846–1912). In his
autocommentary to the verses,
Jamgön Mipham Gyatso gives a summary of The Eight Auspicious Ones,
emphasizing the Buddha’s instructions to remember
and recite the names of these eight buddhas and the
benefits that accrue from doing so. Contemporary
Buddhist teachers from all the Tibetan schools thus
encourage students to recite Jamgön Mipham Gyatso’s
prayer daily, especially before commencing any new
activity. Another prayer for auspiciousness with the
same title as this sūtra, found in the tantra
section of the Tengyur (bkra shis brgyad pa, Toh 3784) and said to have been spoken by
Ārya Tārā, appears to be unrelated to this
sūtra.

No Sanskrit version of this sūtra appears to be
extant. It is listed in both the Denkarma and Phangthangma catalogs of the Tibetan imperial
translations, which shows that the Tibetan
translation was completed prior to the compilation
and publication of the Denkarma catalog in 812 ce. While the colophon in
the Degé Kangyur version attributes the Tibetan
translation to Surendrabodhi and Yeshé Dé, the
colophon in the Stok Palace (stog pho brang) Kangyur
version attributes it to Prajñāvarman, Yeshé Dé, and
others.

All the translations of the Aṣṭabuddhakasūtra and
Maṅgalāṣṭakasūtra
feature buddha realms located in the east. While the
Chinese and Tibetan translations of each sūtra share
similar narrative frameworks, their lists of the
eight buddhas and their buddha realms differ
completely. This is the case even across the four
Chinese translations of the Aṣṭabuddhakasūtra. There is also no
mention of “auspiciousness” in the Chinese
translation of the Maṅgalāṣṭakasūtra; the title The Eight Auspicious Ones
(Bajixiang
八吉祥, Taishō 430) is instead
given to the Chinese translation of the Aṣṭabuddhakasūtra by
Saṅghabhadra produced between 506–20 ce.

The Translation

The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra

The Eight Auspicious Ones

Homage to all buddhas and
bodhisattvas.

Thus did I hear at one time. The Blessed One was
dwelling in Vaiśālī at
Āmrapālī’s grove. A Licchavi youth, Superior Skill,
went to where the Blessed One was. Upon arriving, he
bowed his head at the Blessed One’s feet and
addressed the Blessed One with these
words:

“There are some blessed, thus-gone, worthy,
perfect buddhas presently dwelling in fulfillment of
their former aspirations. If I hear about those
blessed ones, I will venerate them on the crown of
my head. By venerating them on the crown of my head,
I will not be threatened or harmed by human or
nonhuman beings, Blessed One, and when I speak at a
royal palace, whatever I say will not be repudiated
or overruled under any circumstance. If I remember
their names, I will not even dream bad dreams while
sleeping, and if I enter into a battle where swords
are drawn, those swords will not strike me, and I
will be delivered from it safely. I request the
blessed, thus-gone, worthy, perfect Buddha to reveal
their names.”

Thus requested, the Blessed One said to the
Licchavi youth Superior Skill, “Superior Skill, to
the east there is a world system called Famous. The
thus-gone, worthy, perfect buddha named Pradīparāja
resides there.

“Superior Skill, to the east there
is a world system called Free from Obstacles. The
thus-gone, worthy, perfect buddha named Glorious
Ornament of Loving-Kindness resides there.

“Superior Skill, to the east there is a world
system called Variegated. The thus-gone, worthy,
perfect buddha named Glory of Being Renowned for
Superior Skill That Is Noble like Mount Meru resides
there.

“Superior Skill, to the east there is a world
system called Blazing Glory. The thus-gone, worthy,
perfect buddha named Glory of Being Renowned for
Considering Everyone resides there.

“Superior Skill, you should remember these
blessed buddhas’ names very well, fully comprehend
them, and uphold them. Superior Skill, while all
blessed buddhas are indeed endowed with
inconceivable good qualities, the buddha realms of
these thus-gone, worthy, perfect buddhas, Superior
Skill, are thoroughly pure and free from the
degenerations.

“Superior Skill, when you receive and remember
these thus-gone, worthy, perfect buddhas’ names, you
will thereby develop their particular good qualities
and others, because these names of blessed buddhas
embody the qualities of their former aspirations.
You should
contemplate these names whenever you lie down at
dusk or at night, and you should contemplate them
whenever you get up. If you contemplate these names
whenever you begin any kind of worldly activity, you
should know that such activities will only be for
your gain and not for your loss. You should abide by
this.”

Having heard this
teaching, the Licchavi youth Superior Skill was
satisfied and pleased, and he rejoiced. Rejoicing,
he felt delighted and happy and proclaimed these
thus-gone ones’ names. He scattered eight thousand
flowers made of the seven precious substances over
the Blessed One and circumambulated him. Remembering
this Dharma discourse on the eight auspicious ones
proclaiming thus-gone ones’ names, he left the
Blessed One’s presence.

Then because Śakra, lord of the gods, had joined
that assembly and was present, he paid homage to the
Blessed One and said to him, “Blessed One, I too
have taken up the practice of this Dharma discourse
on the eight auspicious ones proclaiming thus-gone
ones’ names.”

“Why is that so? Because whoever proclaims these
thus-gone ones’ names is proclaimed to be blissful and fearless.
Because whoever proclaims these names is proclaimed
to be not overwhelmed. Because whoever proclaims these
thus-gone ones’ names proclaims the names of
reality. Because whoever proclaims these thus-gone
ones’ names is proclaimed to completely transcend
all battles. Because whoever proclaims these thus-gone ones’ names is proclaimed to be invincible,
proclaimed to be peaceful,
proclaimed to be free from torment, and proclaimed to be fearless.”

Then, to venerate this
Dharma discourse, Śakra, lord of the gods, scattered
divine mandārava flowers over the Blessed One, bowed
his head to the Blessed One’s feet, and
circumambulated him three times.
With a joyful mind, a virtuous mind, an unobscured
mind, and a mind free from fixation, he bore in mind
this Dharma discourse proclaiming thus-gone ones’
names and said, “May I see the Blessed One’s face
again in the future!” Then together with the gods of
the Heaven of the Thirty-Three, he departed from the
Blessed One’s presence.

Colophon

Notes

Bibliography

Tibetan Sources

Chinese Sources

Secondary Literature

Superior Skill

rtsal rab
རྩལ་རབ།

Intent on Accomplishing Aims through Steadfast Skill

rtsal brtan don grub dgongs pa
རྩལ་བརྟན་དོན་གྲུབ་དགོངས་པ།

Greatly Renowned for Considering All

kun la dgongs pa rgya cher grags pa can
ཀུན་ལ་དགོངས་པ་རྒྱ་ཆེར་གྲགས་པ་ཅན།

Glorious Ornament of Loving-Kindness

byams pa’i rgyan gyi dpal
བྱམས་པའི་རྒྱན་གྱི་དཔལ།

Excellent Glory Renowned for Virtue

dge bar grags pa dpal dam pa
དགེ་བར་གྲགས་པ་དཔལ་དམ་པ།

Glory of Being Renowned for Superior Skill That Is Noble like Mount Meru

lhun po ltar ’phags pa rtsal rab grags pa’i dpal
ལྷུན་པོ་ལྟར་འཕགས་པ་རྩལ་རབ་གྲགས་པའི་དཔལ།

Glory of Being Renowned for Considering Everyone

sems can thams cad la dgongs pa grags pa’i dpal
སེམས་ཅན་ཐམས་ཅད་ལ་དགོངས་པ་གྲགས་པའི་དཔལ།

Glory of Being Renowned for Superior Skill That Brings Satisfaction

yid tshim par mdzad pa rtsal rab grags pa’i dpal
ཡིད་ཚིམ་པར་མཛད་པ་རྩལ་རབ་གྲགས་པའི་དཔལ།

Yeshé Dé

ye shes sde
ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ།

Famous

grags ldan
གྲགས་ལྡན།

Free from Sorrow

skyo ba med pa
སྐྱོ་བ་མེད་པ།

Blissful

bde ldan
བདེ་ལྡན།

Free from Obstacles

bgegs med pa
བགེགས་མེད་པ།

Nihilism Relinquished

chad pa spangs pa
ཆད་པ་སྤངས་པ།

Variegated

sna tshogs ldan
སྣ་ཚོགས་ལྡན།

Blazing Glory

dpal ’bar ba
དཔལ་འབར་བ།

Joyful Renowned Diamond

rdo rje grags pa dga’ ba can
རྡོ་རྗེ་གྲགས་པ་དགའ་བ་ཅན།