The Sūtra on Dependent Arising: Pratītyasamutpādasūtra

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The Sūtra on Dependent Arising: Pratītyasamutpādasūtra

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Descriptionངོ་སྤྲོད།

While the Buddha is residing in the Realm of the Thirty-Three Gods with a retinue of deities, great hearers, and bodhisattvas, Avalokiteśvara asks the Buddha how beings can gain merit from building a stūpa. The Buddha responds by stating the Buddhist creed on dependent arising:

All phenomena that arise from causes,
The Tathāgata has taught their cause,
And that which is their cessation,
Thus has proclaimed the Great Renunciant.

The Buddha then explains that this dependent arising is the dharmakāya, and that whoever sees dependent arising sees the Buddha. He concludes the sūtra by saying that one should place these verses inside stūpas to attain the merit of Brahmā.

Citation

Scheuermann, Rolf, Casey Kemp, and Tom Tillemans (Buddhavacana Translation Group), trans. The Sūtra on Dependent Arising (Pratītyasamutpādasūtra). 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2025. First published 2016. https://read.84000.co/translation/toh210.html.

Table of contents

• ti. Title
  
• im. Imprint
  
• co. Contents
  
• s. Summary
  
• ac. Acknowledgments
  
• i. Introduction
  
• tr. The Translation
  
  • 1. Dependent Arising
    
  • c. Colophon
    
• n. Notes
  
• b. Bibliography
  
  • Tibetan Texts
    
    • Works in English
      
• g. Glossary

Interconnections

Works related to this item

1 Full translation of

pratītyasamutpādasūtra. 'phags pa rten cing 'brel bar 'byung ba zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo [འཕགས་པ་རྟེན་ཅིང་འབྲེལ་བར་འབྱུང་བ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ]. [The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra on Dependent Arising (84000)]. Kangyur, RKTSK 212 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=212&typ=1.འཕགས་པ་རྟེན་ཅིང་འབྲེལ་བར་འབྱུང་བ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ

Classical WorksAbout this item

While the Buddha is residing in the Realm of the Thirty-Three Gods with a retinue of deities, great hearers, and bodhisattvas, Avalokiteśvara asks the Buddha how beings can gain merit from building a stūpa. The Buddha responds by stating the Buddhist creed on dependent arising:

All phenomena that arise from causes,
The Tathāgata has taught their cause,
And that which is their cessation,
Thus has proclaimed the Great Renunciant.

The Buddha then explains that this dependent arising is the dharmakāya, and that whoever sees dependent arising sees the Buddha. He concludes the sūtra by saying that one should place these verses inside stūpas to attain the merit of Brahmā. (Source: 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha)

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

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Puṇya - The positive energy or potential created through performing good deeds, such as generosity or kindness. In Buddhism, accumulating this positive force is seen as essential for finding happiness in future lives, and crucial as a foundation for following the spiritual path. Skt पुण्य  Tib བསོད་ནམས་  Ch 福;功德  

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Pratītyasamutpāda - The notion that all phenomena arise in dependence on causes and conditions. Skt प्रतीत्यसमुत्पाद  Tib རྟེན་ཅིང་འབྲེལ་བར་འབྱུང་བ་;རྟེན་འབྲེལ་  Ch 緣起  

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Dharmakāya - "Truth body" or "true being" — One of the three bodies of a buddha. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, it often refers to a kind of fundamental principle or the true nature of reality itself. Skt धर्मकाय  Tib ཆོས་སྐུ་  Ch 法身  

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Sūtra - Sūtras mainly refer to the discourses delivered by the Buddha and his disciples, and the Sūtra corpus is one of the three main sets of teachings which form the Buddhist canon. Skt सूत्र  Tib མདོ།  Ch 佛经  

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Sūtra - Sūtras mainly refer to the discourses delivered by the Buddha and his disciples, and the Sūtra corpus is one of the three main sets of teachings which form the Buddhist canon. Skt सूत्र  Tib མདོ།  Ch 佛经  

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pratītyasamutpādasūtra. 'phags pa rten cing 'brel bar 'byung ba zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo [འཕགས་པ་རྟེན་ཅིང་འབྲེལ་བར་འབྱུང་བ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ]. [The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra on Dependent Arising (84000)]. Kangyur, RKTSK 212 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=212&typ=1.

Go to the page with the definition of 'Pratītyasamutpādasūtra'