Toh 189Toh 189 — Kinh Đại Thừa Thánh Thiện "Thọ Ký Cho Brahmaśrī"

Summary

The Prediction for Brahmaśrī
features a brief encounter between the Buddha, out on his
daily alms round, and a group of children playing on the
outskirts of Śrāvastī. A boy named Brahmaśrī offers the
Buddha the pavilion he has made of sand or dirt. The Blessed
One accepts it and transforms it into one made of precious
metals and jewels. Seeing this wonder, Brahmaśrī makes a vow
to become a buddha himself in the future. This prompts the
Buddha to smile and predict Brahmaśrī’s future
awakening.

Acknowledgements

This publication was completed under the patronage and
supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the
Buddha.

The text was translated, edited, and introduced by the
84000 translation team. Sophie McGrath produced a draft of
the translation and introduction with input from Laura
Goetz. David Fiordalis revised and edited the translation
and introduction. Dawn Collins copyedited the text. Martina
Cotter was in charge of the digital publication process.

Introduction

The Prediction for
Brahmaśrī is a short dialogue that
features an encounter between the Buddha, out on his
daily alms round, and a group of children playing on
the outskirts of Śrāvastī. One precocious boy named
Brahmaśrī offers the Buddha the pavilion he has made
of sand or dirt. The Blessed One accepts it and then
transforms it into one made of precious metals and
jewels. Seeing this wonder, the boy Brahmaśrī makes
a vow to become a buddha himself in the future, and
this prompts the Buddha to smile and give a
prediction of Brahmaśrī’s future awakening.

“And those children playing here and there

Who pile up sand

So as to create stūpas of the jinas:

They will all of them attain enlightenment.”

This theme of a simple act of generosity, faith,
and devotion to the Buddha generating incredible,
inconceivable results is a common one found in
narratives throughout various Buddhist traditions.
For instance, in The Hundred
Buddhist Tales (Avadānaśataka) there are numerous stories
that are quite similar to the one told in The Prediction for
Brahmaśrī, which also feature the Buddha’s
extraordinary powers and his wondrous smile. So, while its longer
title in the Kangyur describes it as a
Mahāyāna sūtra, the narrative type, its themes, and its
motifs are not unique to the Mahāyāna tradition.

The Prediction for
Brahmaśrī is found in the General Sūtra
section (mdo
sde) of the various Kangyurs.
Most of its colophons indicate that it was
translated by the Indian scholar Viśuddhasiṃha and
the translator Bandé Gewa Pal and edited by
Vidyākarasiṃha and Devacandra, all of whom are known
to have been active during the height of the Tibetan
imperial patronage of Buddhism in the late eighth
and early ninth centuries. That it
was translated into Tibetan during the early
translation period is further supported by the fact
that its title is listed in the Phangthangma and
Denkarma imperial catalogs of translated texts. There is no
known extant Sanskrit version of this sūtra and
there is no known Chinese translation.

This English translation is based on the Tibetan
translation in the Degé Kangyur in consultation with
the Pedurma (dpe bsdur
ma) Comparative Edition. The Tibetan text
was also compared with the Stok Palace and Phukdrak
editions of the Kangyur, but none of the differences
found therein were deemed noteworthy.

The Translation

The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra

The Prediction for

Brahmaśrī

Homage to all
buddhas and bodhisattvas!

Thus did I hear at one time. The Blessed One was
dwelling in Śrāvastī, in Prince Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍada’s
Park, together with a great assembly
of monks. At that time, one morning the Blessed One
put on his lower robe and his upper robe, took his
begging bowl, and walked toward the city of Śrāvastī
to collect alms.

At that same time, on the outskirts of Śrāvastī,
there was a group of children sitting and playing
with houses of sand, surrounding walls of sand, and
pavilions of sand. The group of children saw the
Blessed One approaching from afar. As soon as they
saw him, they were elated, delighted, and glad at
heart, and they continued sitting there and
playing.

Then, out of compassion for those children, the
Blessed One went over to where they were sitting and
playing. Among the children, there was one boy named
Brahmaśrī, who bowed at the feet of the Blessed One
and sat right down in front of him.

Even though he already knew what they would say,
the Blessed One asked the children, “What are you
doing, children?”

Then, through the power of the Buddha, the
pavilion of sand was instantaneously transformed
into a pavilion made of the seven precious jewels,
and it stood there right in front of the Blessed
One. On its eastern side were 84,000 pillars of
gold; on its southern side were 84,000 pillars of
silver; on its western side were 84,000 pillars of
beryl; and on its northern side were 84,000 pillars
of crystal.

When the boy Brahmaśrī saw this wondrous display
of extraordinary power, he became even more elated.
The most immense joy welled up inside him, and he
addressed the Blessed One with these verses:

“O, the World Protector has displayed

The immense expanse of his extraordinary
power!

The Buddha has displayed his extraordinary
power

Out of compassion for me alone!

“This offering of a pavilion of sand,

Which I made to the great sage,

Has become something made of jewels!

O, the Buddha is inconceivable!

“O, O, a field such as this one,

A field of a buddha, cannot be surpassed!

The blind, those with loss of vision, and

Those with little wisdom do not know it.

“Best of those who walk on two feet,

I aspire to achieve awakening,

Having obtained this field of beings,

This opportunity so hard to obtain.

“I, too, wish to train in the qualities

That you possess, O Leader, so that,

Having attained unsurpassable awakening,

I can use extraordinary powers such as
yours!”

The venerable Ānanda then addressed the Blessed
One with this verse:

“The supreme victors, the leaders, the chiefs
among beings

Do not display their smile without a reason.

Compassionate one, for the world’s benefit,

Please tell us why you displayed a smile just
now.”

“Yes, Blessed One, I see him,” he replied.

“Ānanda,” said the Blessed One, “as a result of
this root of virtue and this aspiration in his mind,
this boy will not become a hell being for 3,200
eons, and then, once he has achieved awakening, he
will be a tathāgata, a worthy one, a perfect and
completely awakened buddha named The One Exalted
above All the Worlds.”

The Blessed One then addressed the venerable
Ānanda with these verses:

“Faith in the Buddha generates

Merit in no small measure.

So, too, does hearing the supreme Dharma

And showing respect to the Sangha.

“For those with faith in the Buddha,

Attaining awakening is not difficult.

Hence, those who aspire for awakening

Should venerate the leaders of the world.

“Ānanda, this boy will become

A glorious one, best of those who walk on two
feet,

A leader of the world,

Called The Exalted One.

“In this way, the buddhas are inconceivable

And so, too, are the qualities of the
buddhas;

Faith in those who are inconceivable

Bears fruit that is like that as well.”

Colophon

Notes

Bibliography

Prince Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍada’s Park
jetavanam anāthapiṇḍadasyārāmaḥ
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།