Toh 305The Sūtra “Declaring What Is Supreme”

Summary

In The Sūtra “Declaring What Is Supreme”, the
Buddha, while spending the rainy season at the Bamboo Grove in Rājagṛha, teaches his
saṅgha of śrāvakas that the Buddha is supreme among all beings, the Dharma of being free
of attachment is supreme among all dharmas, and the Saṅgha is supreme among all
communities and groups. Those who have faith in these three will be reborn as supreme among gods or humans.

Acknowledgements

This sūtra was translated by Giuliano Proença, who also prepared the
introduction, glossary, and notes. The English translation and ancillary materials were
proofread by Daniela Espíndola. Thanks to Karin Kerb for making otherwise unavailable
bibliographical material accessible to us.

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

Introduction

The Sūtra “Declaring What Is Supreme” is a short discourse set in
the Bamboo Grove at Rājagṛha, in which the Buddha teaches that the Three Jewels are supreme:
the Buddha is supreme among all beings, the Dharma of being free of attachment is supreme among all dharmas, and the Saṅgha is supreme among all communities and groups.
In this way, the sūtra presents a declaration of faith in the Three Jewels. The Buddha also states that the
reward of being well disposed toward the Three Jewels is rebirth as a supreme god or human.

Little is known about the history of The Sūtra “Declaring What Is Supreme” as an independent text in India, but the existence of
similar texts in the Pali and Chinese canons testifies to its antiquity. The closest Pali parallel is the Aggappasādasutta (Iti 90), while the Aggappasādasutta (AN 4.34) and the Cundīsutta (AN 5.32) are also closely related. In the Aggappasādasutta (Iti 90), the Three Jewels are taught to be supreme,
using similar language, and they are said therein to be the objects of the supreme kinds
of confidence, faith, or favorable disposition.

The Sūtra “Declaring What Is Supreme” may have
had a significant status in early Buddhist Central Asia, since we find Sanskrit
fragments of the sūtra and its commentaries in a variety of manuscripts unearthed in
present-day Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China. In addition to an unpublished
fragment in the Hoernle Collection, a fragment in the Pelliot Collection was
published by Bernard Pauly. . The Turfan Collection also holds two fragments from commentaries on the sūtra: a Sanskrit fragment
partially edited by Ernst Waldschmidt that includes the colophon, and an Old Turkish and Sanskrit
bilingual fragment containing the beginning of a commentary on the sūtra.

A version of this teaching is also
found in the Avadānaśataka, a Sanskrit anthology of
avadānas, where this teaching appears almost in its entirety in two different passages (stories 9 and 57). The Tibetan translation of the Avadānaśataka is included in
the Kangyur (Toh 343)
and
the wording in these passages is almost identical to the present sūtra. Moreover, an abridged
form of this teaching is also contained in the
Divyāvadāna
as well as in the Great Upholder of the Secret Mantra (Toh 563,

1.45–

1.47).

Several versions of The Sūtra “Declaring What Is Supreme” are extant in the Chinese Tripitaka: the closest
version is found as part of the Ekottarikāgama (Zeng yi a
han jing
增壹阿含經, Taishō 125). The Chinese translation of the Ekottarikāgama was, for the most part, completed by Zhu
Fonian (竺佛念) in 384 ce. However, the
discourse in this text has a different setting, and unlike Toh 305, it is presented by means of
similes and in verse. The other versions of this teaching in the Chinese canon are three sūtras (nos. 902–904) in the
Saṃyuktāgama (Za a han jing
雜阿含經, Taishō 99), which likewise teach that the Buddha, Dharma and Saṅgha are supreme. The Saṃyuktāgama was translated into Chinese between 435 and 443 ce by Guṇabhadra (394–468) and Baoyun 寶雲 (376–449) in Jiankang (today’s Nanjing).

The translators of The Sūtra “Declaring What Is Supreme” into Tibetan remain unidentified and the sūtra is not listed in any
catalogs of the Tibetan imperial period. However, the striking similarity between the Tibetan of the sūtra and the version that appears in the Tibetan
translation of the Avadānaśataka (Toh 343) suggests that
these translations were unlikely to have been made independently of one another. The
colophon of the Tibetan translation of the Avadānaśataka (Toh 343) states
that it was translated by the scholars Jinamitra and Devacandra who were active in Tibet
in the early ninth century. By extension therefore, the Tibetan translation of the
The Sūtra “Declaring What Is Supreme” can perhaps also tentatively be dated
to the early ninth century.

The sūtra is only
found as an independent text in the Sūtra section of Kangyurs of the Tshalpa line, the
Lhasa and Narthang Kangyurs, and in the Tholing Collection from Western Tibet. The
Tibetan title of the text is the same in all Kangyurs included in the Comparative Edition (Tib. dpe bsdur ma), mchog tu gdags pa’i mdo, while the Tholing Collection has
’phags pa mchog tu gdags pa’i mdo. Versions such as the Yongle,
Lithang, Kangxi, Narthang, and Choné, do not present the name of the text at the
beginning. The Sanskrit title of the sūtra is missing in all versions. Nevertheless, the
colophon of the abovementioned fragmentary Sanskrit commentary clearly refers to the
sūtra using the title Agraprajñaptisūtra.

This English translation is based on the Degé Kangyur print of Toh 305, in
consultation with the Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur
ma) and Pauly’s edition of the Sanskrit fragment. We also compared the Tibetan
text line by line with the corresponding passages in the Avadānaśataka in both Sanskrit and Tibetan. The
translators also consulted Léon Feer’s early French translation of the Avadānaśataka
and Naomi Appleton’s more recent partial English translation of the
same.

The Translation

The Sūtra “Declaring What Is Supreme”

Homage to all
buddhas and bodhisattvas.

Thus did I hear at one time. The Bhagavān, together with a saṅgha of śrāvakas,
was staying at Kalandakanivāsa in the Bamboo Grove at Rājagṛha, observing the pledge to
stay in retreat during the rains. Then the Bhagavān spoke to the monks:

“Monks, there are three declarations of what is supreme. What are the three? They are the declaration of the
Buddha as supreme, the declaration of the Dharma as supreme, and the declaration of the
Saṅgha as supreme.

“In this regard, what is the
declaration of the Buddha as supreme? It is taught that among all beings—those without
legs, with two legs, with four legs, or with many legs;
those with form or without form; those with perception, without perception, or neither
with perception nor
without perception —the tathāgata, the arhat, the completely perfect
Buddha is supreme. Those who are well
disposed toward the Buddha are well disposed toward what is supreme. Those who are well disposed toward what is supreme should understand that the ripening thereof will always be as a supreme god among gods, or a supreme human among humans. This is called the declaration of the
Buddha as supreme.

“What is the declaration of the Dharma as supreme? It is taught that among
all dharmas, conditioned or unconditioned, the Dharma of being free from attachment is
supreme.
Those who are well disposed toward the Dharma are well disposed toward the supreme. Those who are well disposed toward what is supreme should understand that the ripening thereof will always be as a supreme god among gods, or a supreme human among humans. This is called the
declaration of the Dharma as supreme.

“What is the declaration of the Saṅgha as supreme? It is taught that among
all assemblies, gatherings, crowds, and retinues, the Saṅgha of śrāvakas of the
tathāgata, the arhat, the completely perfect Buddha is supreme. Those who are well disposed toward the Saṅgha are well disposed
toward the supreme. Those who are well disposed toward what is supreme should understand that the ripening thereof will always be as a supreme god among gods, or a supreme human among humans. This is called
the declaration of the Saṅgha as supreme.”

After the Bhagavān had spoken thus, the monks rejoiced and praised his words.

Thus ends The Sūtra “Declaring What Is Supreme.”

Notes

Abbreviations

AN
Aṅguttara Nikāya

EĀ
Ekottarikāgama

Frgm
Sanskrit fragment of the Agraprajñapti edited by Pauly (1960)

H
Lhasa (zhol) Kangyur

Iti
Itivuttaka

KY

Yongle
(g.yung lo) Kangyur

Bibliography

Tibetan Source Texts

Works Related to the Source Texts

Editions, Translations, and References