What is the Sūtra in Forty-Two Sections?
«Tứ thập nhị chương» means forty-two sections. The Vietnamese text runs to about 3,600 words, some 14 minutes of reading. Each section has a number and a short title, such as «Leaving home and attaining the fruits», «Bearing with the wicked without anger», «The Middle Way» and «Knowing the world as illusion». Most sections open with «The Buddha said»; a few are a monk's question and the Buddha's answer, or a short story. The sūtra closes as the great monks, having heard it, joyfully put it into practice.
Tradition holds that it was translated into Chinese in the Later Han and counts it among the first Buddhist sūtras in China; the second preface of the Blue Cliff Record (Bích Nham Lục), also in the library, says that China came to know the Buddha when this sūtra arrived. In form it reads like an anthology: some sections share their point and their images with discourses of the Pāli Canon, and scholars generally regard it as a compilation of selected teachings.
The preface and how the 42 sections are arranged
The preface tells that after his awakening the World-Honoured One reflected that to leave craving behind and gain stillness is best. He abode in deep meditation and overcame the obstacles of Māra, then turned the Dharma wheel in the Deer Park near Vārāṇasī, taught the Four Noble Truths and brought Kauṇḍinya's group of five to the path. It ends with monks bringing their doubts and the Buddha's instruction opening their understanding.
The sections are not grouped into chapters, but clusters can be seen. The first three concern those who have left home: what a śramaṇa is, the four fruits from stream-entry to arahantship, a life of alms with one meal a day. Sections 4 to 8 distinguish the ten wholesome and ten unwholesome deeds and teach recognising one's faults and correcting them, and patience towards the wicked. Sections 10 to 15 speak of the merit of giving and of rejoicing in others' giving, twenty things that are hard to do, and monks' questions about knowing past lives, about what is good, and about strength and clarity. Sections 16 to 20 speak of the settled mind, the light of wisdom, impermanence and non-self. From 21 to 33 a run of sections deals with fame and gain, wealth and sensual desire, craving and guarding the mind. The last sections speak of the Middle Way, keeping the precepts, the brevity of life, worship that comes from the heart, and seeing all things as illusion.
Some well-known sections
Section 7: a man comes and abuses the Buddha, who stays silent; when he has finished, the Buddha asks: if you offer someone a gift and it is not accepted, to whom does it go? — Back to the giver. Abuse that the Buddha does not accept likewise returns to the one who gave it, as an echo follows a sound and a shadow its form. The Pāli Canon has a story with the same point, about a brahmin who abuses the Buddha (SN 7.2). Section 8 likens the wicked man who harms the good to someone who spits at the sky only to have it fall back on him, or throws dust against the wind only to have it settle on himself.
Section 10 says that rejoicing in and supporting another's generosity brings great merit, and that this merit is not used up, like a torch from which hundreds of thousands of people light their fires while it burns on as before. Section 16 likens a heart still full of craving to clear water stirred up, in which no one can see their reflection; section 17 likens one who understands the Way to someone carrying a torch into a dark room, where the darkness vanishes at once.
Section 34 holds the famous simile of the lute. A monk chanting at night sounds sad and hurried and is close to giving up. The Buddha asks what he used to do at home; he liked to play the lute. Strings too slack give no sound, strings too tight lose their tone, tuned just right every note rings out. Training in the Way is the same: with a balanced mind one can reach the Way; straining too hard tires the body, saddens the mind and makes practice slip back. The Pāli Canon has the same simile, in the discourse where the Buddha teaches Venerable Soṇa (AN 6.55).
Section 38: the Buddha asks his monks how long a human life lasts. One says a few days, another the space of a meal; neither has understood the Way. The one who answers that it lasts only the space of a breath, in and out, is praised for understanding. Section 42, «Knowing the world as illusion», closes the sūtra with the Buddha saying that he regards a throne as dust drifting through a crack, gold and jade as broken tiles, a whole world-system as a single jujube…
Reading the sūtra at home
Every section is short, so you can read one a day and carry one image with you through the day; in about six weeks you will have read the whole sūtra. To read aloud, open the page and press «Chant»: the screen stays on, the text scrolls and a wooden fish keeps the beat. Many sections concern the precepts and the life of monastics; lay readers can take them as reminders to keep the mind clean and desires few. The library holds the Vietnamese translation; there is no Chinese text, Sino-Vietnamese transliteration, PDF or recording yet.
