On the Pāramitā of Ingenuity

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Descriptionངོ་སྤྲོད།

Upāya (方便) is difficult to translate into English properly. It has been rendered as skillfulness, ingenuity, expediency, and so forth, but none of these translations can cover the broad implications of the word. In this sūtra, the basic meaning and specific implications of upāya are discussed. Since the advanced Bodhisattvas have all perfected their upāya, how can they ever make any mistakes or blunders? A meaningless or accidental act by an enlightened Bodhisattva is unthinkable. Hence, the author of this sūtra is compelled to explain every deed of Gautama Buddha teleologically. When a religious leader is deified, new problems ensue. This is perhaps universal. We believe that this sūtra will be highly interesting to those who are interested in the comparative study of religions and in the history of the development of Buddhist thought. (Chang, prologue to A Treasury of Mahāyāna Sūtras, xv)

Citation

The Buddhist Association of the United States, trans. "On the Pāramitā of Ingenuity." In A Treasury of Mahāyāna Sūtras: Selections from the Mahāratnakūṭa Sūtra, edited by Garma C. C. Chang, 427–68. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1991.

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Works related to this item

1 Full translation of

Upāyakauśalyasūtra [आर्योपायकौशल्यनाममहायानसूत्र]. 'phags pa thabs mkhas pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo [འཕགས་པ་ཐབས་མཁས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།]. [The Sūtra on Skill in Means (84000)]. Translated by 'gos chos grub, Nandi, Dharmarakṣa, Dānapāla. Kangyur, RKTSK 261 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=261&typ=1.

Classical WorksAbout this item

Upāyakauśalyasūtra. (T. Thabs la mkhas pa'i mdo; C. Dasheng fangbian hui; J. Daijō hōben'e; K. Taesǔng pangp'yǒn hoe 大乘方便會). In Sanskrit, "Skillful Means Sūtra," an early Mahāyāna sūtra included in the Ratnakūṭasūtra collection, where it is also known as the Jñānottarabodhisattvaparipṛcchā. (In addition to the recension embedded in the 410 CE Chinese translation of the Ratnakūṭa, as transcribed above, there are also two other Chinese translations, one made in 285 CE, the other c. 980.) The first part of the sūtra extols the virtues of the practice of "skillful means" (upāyakauśalya), generally understood in this context to refer to the dedication of the merit from a virtuous deed, such as offerings made for the welfare and ultimate enlightenment of all beings. The sūtra goes on to explain how apparently nonvirtuous acts, such as sexual misconduct, become virtues when performed by a bodhisattva with skillful means, noting, "Something that sends other sentient beings to hell sends the bodhisattva who is skilled in means to rebirth in the world of Brahmā." Also recounted is the famous story of the Buddha's previous life as a ship captain, when he kills a potential murderer in order to save others' lives. In the second part of the sūtra, the Buddha recounts the events of his life (see Baxiang), from his entry into his mother's womb to his decision to teach the dharma as instances of his skillful means; none of these events are presented as the consequences of his own past nonvirtuous actions or indeed of any fault whatsoever on his part. For example, after his enlightenment, the Buddha has no hesitation to teach the dharma; nonetheless, he compels the god Brahmā to descend from his heaven to implore the Buddha to teach. He forces this act so that beings who worship Brahmā will have faith in the Buddha and so that the myriad forms of the god Brahmā will generate bodhicitta. The sūtra concludes with a discussion of ten cases in the life of the Buddha in which he apparently undergoes suffering (such as a headache, backache, and being pierced by a thorn) that had previously been ascribed to his nonvirtuous deeds in a past life; in each case, these are instead explained as being examples of the Buddha's skillful means. (Source: "Upāyakauśalyasūtra." In The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, 943. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)

1 Chapter or part of

Chang, Garma C. C., ed. A Treasury of Mahāyāna Sūtras: Selections from the Mahāratnakūṭa Sūtra. Translated from the Chinese by The Buddhist Association of the United States. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1991.

Books1991About this item

Contains 22 of the 49 Sūtras of the Mahāratnakūṭa (or "Treasury") Sūtra, many translated for the first time in a Western language