Toh 192Kinh Thọ Ký Kṣemavatī — Toh 192 (Kṣemavatīvyākaraṇasūtra)

Summary

On their morning alms round, the Buddha and Maitreya meet Queen Kṣemavatī who is
bedecked in all her royal jewelry. When the Buddha asks her about the source of such fine
jewelry, referring to it metaphorically as fruit, Queen Kṣemavatī explains that her
worldly position is the fruit of the tree of her previous good deeds. The remainder of the
sūtra describes how one’s good actions can eventually lead to buddhahood, and it concludes
with a prophecy of the queen’s future awakening.

Acknowledgements

Translated by the Subhashita Translation Group. The translation was produced by
Benjamin Ewing, who also contributed to the introduction (later completed by the 84000
editors). Lowell Cook checked the translation against the Tibetan and edited the text.

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

Introduction

The Prophecy of Kṣemavatī begins with the Buddha and his
disciple, the bodhisattva Maitreya, walking through the city of Rājagṛha on their
morning alms round. As they near King Bimbisāra’s palace, they are met by Queen
Kṣemavatī, who is adorned with a dazzling display of royal jewelry. The Buddha asks
the queen, in a seemingly playful way, for the name of the tree that produced the
magnificent fruit that she is wearing. Kṣemavatī continues the analogy by describing
her jewelry and her current station in life as the “fruit” borne by the “tree” of her
past good deeds accumulated over lifetimes.

This exchange emphasizes one of the main themes of the text: one’s current
situation is the result of previous actions, so if we desire a good future we should
persevere in meritorious behavior. This applies not just to ordinary happiness but to
spiritual pursuits as well. While Kṣemavatī’s “fruit” might at first seem worldly, she
firmly sets the “tree” of her own past and present actions within the framework of the
bodhisattva path, with her aspiration to awakening and her practice of the six
perfections. The fruit and tree analogy continues throughout the sūtra, with the
Buddha describing his own station, that of complete awakening and all its excellent
qualities, as also being the result of his past good deeds. His account of his own
path reflects that of Kṣemavatī, similar to his even if much less advanced in
time.

The text concludes with Kṣemavatī declaring that she will dedicate all her
future good deeds toward reaching buddhahood and thereby be of benefit to all beings.
The Buddha responds to this prayer by prophesying the queen’s eventual awakening to
buddhahood.

Kṣemavatī is mentioned in at least one other sūtra in the Kangyur as
one of Bimbisāra’s queens. She may well represent the same person as the Khemā who
appears in the Pali literature as Bimbisāra’s consort, at first infatuated by her own
beauty but later, on meeting the Buddha, becoming an arhat and bhikṣuṇī. Here,
however, she is described as a bodhisattva who has already embarked on accumulating
merit on the initial stage of her “natural career” (prakṛticaryā) and has vowed to attain awakening on the subsequent
stage of her “resolution” (praṇidhānacaryā), as
implied in

. In the present narrative she
reinforces her previous vow and receives her “prophecy” (vyākaraṇa) of future buddhahood from the Buddha himself.

Twice in this sūtra, Queen Kṣemavatī aspires to be reborn as a man so that she
may continue to progress on her path to awakening. It may be jarring to modern readers
to hear the queen lamenting her womanhood, but such attitudes are not uncommon in
Mahāyāna sūtras, in some of which it seems to be assumed without question that not
only buddhas but bodhisattvas, too, are male. This sūtra, in which the focus
is on a bodhisattva who is a woman, can therefore be seen as belonging to a distinct
but quite large genre of texts that counter such assumptions. The genre includes other
Kangyur sūtras featuring women bodhisattvas who are also queens or princesses and who,
like Kṣemavatī, receive their predictions of future awakening, such as The Sūtra of Aśokadattā’s Prophecy (Toh 76),
The Questions of Vimalaprabhā (Toh 168),
The Questions of the Girl Vimalaśraddhā (Toh 84),
The Questions of Vimaladattā (Toh 77), and The Lion’s Roar of Śrīmālādevī (Toh 92), as well as those in which
nonroyal laywomen are the main interlocutors, like The Questions
of the Girl Sumati (Toh 74),
The Questions of Gaṅgottara (Toh 75),
The Questions of an Old Lady (Toh 171),
The Miraculous Play of Mañjuśrī (Toh 96),
The Sūtra of the Girl Candrottarā’s Prophecy (Toh
191), and, notably, The Prophecy Concerning Strīvivarta (Toh 190). In some of
these sūtras gender is dismissed as irrelevant or merely notional, yet all these
accounts—even those of Strīvivarta and Vimalaprabhā, the most advanced bodhisattvas in
their abilities to manifest in different forms—culminate in the prediction that the
female protagonist will ultimately become male, at least for the final stages of the
path to buddhahood. So while this sūtra, like the others mentioned, imposes the
traditional stance of male primacy, it is perhaps in countering texts that make no
mention of women bodhisattvas at all that it is framed as an inspiration to women, and
ends with many thousands of women developing the intent to reach buddhahood.

While the text does not include a colophon that identifies its translators,
The Prophecy of Kṣemavatī is listed in the earliest
Tibetan textual catalog, the Denkarma, so we can say with certainty that it appeared
in Tibet at some point during or before the early ninth century ce. Despite being among the main body of sūtras
translated in the early period, The Prophecy of Kṣemavatī
does not seem to have been the subject of any scholarly attention in Tibet. It was
translated into Chinese (Taishō 573, Chamopo di shouji
jing, 差摩婆帝授記經) in the year 525 ce by the Indian monk Bodhiruci, who translated some
thirty-nine Buddhist texts in the early sixth century. The
Prophecy of Kṣemavatī was translated into Mongolian and Korean and is
included in the Buddhist canons in those languages. It was translated into French in
1866 by Henri Léon Feer as part of his collection of Kangyur excerpts, and an English
translation by Peter Skilling was published in 2021.

The English translation presented here was prepared based on the Degé Kangyur
version of the text in consultation with the Stok Palace manuscript and the
Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma).

The Translation

The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra

The Prophecy of Kṣemavatī

Homage to all buddhas
and bodhisattvas.

Thus did I hear at one time. The Blessed One was residing in Rājagṛha on
Vulture Peak together with a large monastic congregation of twenty thousand monks and
many bodhisattva great beings including Maitreya and Mañjuśrī. At dawn, the Blessed One donned his
robes, picked up his alms bowl, and, together with the bodhisattva great being
Maitreya, went to the city of Rājagṛha for alms. As they progressed through their
rounds in the city of Rājagṛha, they neared the palace of King Bimbisāra. From atop
the royal residence, King Bimbisāra’s queen, Kṣemavatī, could see the Blessed One
approaching from a distance. Filled with joy at the sight of the Blessed One,
Kṣemavatī descended from the palace and laid out ornate cushions made of white silk
for the Blessed One and the bodhisattva great being Maitreya. The Blessed One and the
bodhisattva great being Maitreya seated themselves on the seats that had been prepared
for them, and Kṣemavatī, bedecked in all her jewelry, bowed her head at their feet. So
that she might hear teachings on the Dharma, she sat before the Blessed One with great
respect and reverence for him.

The Blessed One saw Queen Kṣemavatī bedecked in all her jewelry and, although
he knew the answer, addressed her in order to benefit all beings. He asked,
“Kṣemavatī, what is the name of the tree that bears the kind of brilliant, dazzling,
shining fruit that adorns your body?”

Queen Kṣemavatī answered the Blessed One with the following verses:

“The great being has asked,

‘What is the name of the tree

That bears the fruit you wear?’

Even though, great hero, you already know.

“It is called the tree arisen from the merit

Generated in the past.

Guide, these fruits I now enjoy

Are from a tree such as that.

“This very same fruit tree

Belongs to disciples of the Buddha.

Those who wish to obtain the wisdom of a buddha

Sit before it in order to awaken.

“Watered with generosity and discipline,

This fruit tree has been well tended.

And when it fully blossoms,

It will bear sublime fruits.

“With the powers of patience and diligence,

I have carefully tended this fruit tree,

And when it blossoms,

It will bear flawless fruits.

“This tree is beautiful to behold,

Covered with flowers of concentration and insight.

Guide, all that I enjoy

Is the fruit of that tree.

“Just like trees

Rooted in the mountains

Have outstretched limbs and leaves

That they spread far and wide without moving,

“In that way I carefully tended

This excellent broad fruit tree in the past

By seeking the essence of buddhahood

With the aim of benefiting all beings.

“Guide, this tree of merit

Will have many more fruits besides.

I will experience more

Than the mere flowers.

“I will attain the fruits of that tree—

Supreme awakening,

The unsurpassed awakening of a buddha.

When I leave this lowly station of womanhood behind,

“I will be reborn as a man

Who is sublime among all beings,

Has perfected all qualities,

And is all-knowing and all-seeing.

“I will liberate those beings

Who are oppressed by suffering,

And become a compassionate refuge

For the denizens of the world.”

The Blessed One responded, “Kṣemavatī, you have acted to bring benefit and happiness to
many people and have compassion for the world. You have acted for the sake of the vast
assembly of beings, for the happiness and benefit of gods and humans alike. Excellent,
excellent indeed!”

“Blessed One,” Queen Kṣemavatī replied, “the Blessed One has the thirty-two
major and eighty minor bodily marks of a great being, the ten powers of the thus-gone
ones, the four fearlessnesses, the four special modes of knowledge, the eighteen
unique qualities of a buddha, great loving-kindness, great compassion, great joy, and
great equanimity. Where do all of your qualities come from? And, furthermore, where do
the unfathomable, inconceivable, immeasurable, ineffable, incalculable qualities of
the Buddha come from?”

The Blessed One answered Queen Kṣemavatī with these verses:

“Desiring the wisdom of the buddhas

In order to benefit all beings,

I too, in the past, have done nothing

But carefully tend such a tree.

“I gathered generosity, discipline, patience,

And likewise diligence and concentration.

For a long time, I applied myself

To absorption and insight.

“Beings have biased minds,

Yet my mind is impartial

Without needing to be cultivated.

Thus I discovered buddhahood itself.

“With an impartial mind

That equalizes

Beauty and ugliness, friend and foe,

I grew the tree of merit.

“As a result, this broad tree

Gained many excellent qualities.

I attained the state of a universal monarch

And the level of Śakra.

“I surpassed the many-formed Maheśvara,

And even Brahmā himself.

I realized the characteristics

Of the inconceivable features of buddhahood.”

After hearing of the qualities of the Blessed One, Queen Kṣemavatī praised the
Blessed One’s well-spoken teaching and rejoiced, offering these verses:

“Just as the supreme human, the excellent one,

With his endless ocean of qualities,

Trained his conduct in the past,

So will I train.

“As you have perfected all qualities,

I train to emulate your qualities.

Abandoning the suffering of existence,

I too will become like that.

“I fully dedicate

All the generosity I cultivate

In all my subsequent lives

To the attainment of unparalleled wisdom.

“I fully dedicate

All the discipline I maintain

In this life and any other

To the attainment of the wisdom of the buddhas.

“I dedicate

All the patience, diligence, absorption,

Insight, and virtue I cultivate

To be of benefit to the Buddha’s teachings.

“All the virtuous deeds I accrue

Through body, speech, and mind

I dedicate to awakening,

For the sake of the wisdom and qualities of the buddhas.

“May I leave this woman’s body behind

And take the supreme form of a man.

Upon attaining the body of a man,

May I become the most sublime of beings.

“Once that has come to pass, I will turn

The unsurpassed wheel of the well-gone ones.

I will free the masses of beings

Who are trapped in the prison of saṃsāra.”

The Blessed One then offered his approval to Queen Kṣemavatī with this
verse:

“Those words were well spoken,

Your mind is well disciplined,

And you have subdued Māra well!

You will awaken to perfect buddhahood!”

Queen Kṣemavatī was joyful, elated, and jubilant. Filled with joy and delight,
she offered the Blessed One and the bodhisattva great being Maitreya plenty of food
and drink until they were satisfied. After the Blessed One put away his bowl and
washed his hands, he gave Queen Kṣemavatī extensive Dharma teachings, encouraged her
to uphold them, inspired her, delighted her, and then made this prophecy:

“In the future, Kṣemavatī, many eons from now, you will become a thus-gone,
worthy, perfected buddha, a teacher for gods and humans. You will be a blessed buddha
known as Guṇaratnaśrī, and your buddha field will be supremely pure. It will be free
of the suffering of descending to lower rebirths and the lower realms. It will be an
abode of beautiful, pleasant, and supremely pure bodhisattvas. Such will be your
buddha field.”

As this teaching was given, many thousands of laywomen developed the intent to
reach unexcelled, perfect awakening. Thousands of beings and many gods and humans
obtained the light of the Dharma.

When the Blessed One had finished speaking, Queen Kṣemavatī, her retinue, and
the entire world with its gods, humans, asuras, and gandharvas all rejoiced and
praised what the Buddha had taught.

This concludes the noble Mahāyāna sūtra “The
Prophecy of Kṣemavatī.”

Notes

Abbreviations

K
Kangxi

Y
Yongle

N
Narthang

H
Lhasa

S
Stok Palace

C
Choné

J
Lithang

Bibliography

Tibetan Canonical Texts

Secondary Sources