The Sutra of the Householder Uncouth

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The Sutra of the Householder Uncouth: A Teaching of the Buddha Showing All-Knowing Wisdom and the Householder's Way

Book

Translations of Sutras (Tib-Eng)

• A Buddha Within: The Tathāgatagarbhasūtra
• Ascertaining the Vinaya: Upāli's Questions: Vinayaviniścayopāliparipṛcchā (Erdene-Ochir, B.)
• Bodhisatvapiṭaka (Bibliotheca Polyglotta)
• Creatures: Saṅgharakṣita and the Shape-Shifting Nāga
• Describing the Benefits of Producing Representations of the Thus-Gone One: Tathāgatapratibimbapratiṣṭhānuśaṃsasaṃvarṇana (Teleki, K.)
• Inspiring Determination: Adhyāśayasaṃcodana (Dorje, Lama Sherab)
• Marici-Dharani
• Teaching How All Phenomena Are without Origin: Sarvadharmāpravṛttinirdeśa (Hinkle, T.)
• The Absorption of the Miraculous Ascertainment of Peace: Praśāntaviniścayaprātihāryasamādhi (Hinkle, T.)
• The Application of Mindfulness of the Sacred Dharma: Saddharmasmṛtyupasthāna (Doctor, T.)
• The Array of Virtues of Mañjuśrī's Buddha Realm: Mañjuśrībuddhakṣetraguṇavyūha (Hinkle, T.)
• The Avalokinī Sūtra: Avalokinīsūtra (Collet-Cassart, B.)
• The Bodhisattva Path: Based on the Ugraparipṛcchā, a Mahāyāna Sūtra
• The Detailed Account of the Previous Aspirations of the Blessed Bhaiṣajyaguruvaiḍūryaprabha: Bhagavānbhaiṣajyaguruvaiḍūryaprabhasya pūrvapraṇidhānaviśeṣavistāra (Krug, A.)
• The Dhāraṇī of the Jewel Torch: Ratnolkādhāraṇī (Jackson, D.)
• The Diamond Sutra (Conze)
• The Exalted Mahāyāna Sūtra on the Wisdom Gone Beyond Called The Vajra Cutter
• The Fortunate Aeon: How the Thousand Buddhas Become Enlightened
• The Good Eon: Bhadrakalpika (Doctor, T.)
• The Holy Teaching of Vimalakīrti
• The Jewel Cloud: Ratnamegha (Doctor, T.)
• The King of Glorious Sutras called the Exalted Sublime Golden Light
• The King of Samādhis Sūtra: Samādhirājasūtra (Roberts, P.)
• The Legend of Saṃgharakṣita
• The Lion's Roar of Queen Śrīmālā
• The Miraculous Play of Mañjuśrī: Mañjuśrīvikrīḍita (Braarvig, J.)
• The Origins and Early History of the Mahāratnakūṭa Tradition of Mahāyāna Buddhism with a Study of the Ratnarāśisūtra and Related Materials
• The Play in Full: Lalitavistara (Doctor, A.)
• The Precious Discourse on the Blessed One’s Extensive Wisdom That Leads to Infinite Certainty: Niṣṭhāgatabhagavajjñānavaipulyasūtraratnānanta (Doctor, A.)
• The Questions of Rāṣṭrapāla (1): Rāṣṭrapālaparipṛcchā (Brockhausen, K.)
• The Questions of Sāgaramati: Sāgaramatiparipṛcchā (Hinkle, T.)
• The Questions of the Nāga King Sāgara (1): Sāgaranāgarājaparipṛcchā (Hinkle, T.)
• The Questions of the Nāga King Sāgara (2): Sāgaranāgarājaparipṛcchā (Ewing, B.)
• The Questions of the Nāga King Sāgara (3): Sāgaranāgarājaparipṛcchā (Gyaltsen, Kalsang)
• The Range of the Bodhisattva: A Study of an Early Mahāyānasūtra - Āryasatyakaparivarta
• The Rice Seedling Sutra
• The Rice Seedling: Śālistamba (Raktrul, 6th)
• The Seal of Engagement in Awakening the Power of Faith: Śraddhābalādhānāvatāramudrā (Beer, Z.)
• The Skill in Means (Upāyakauśalya) Sūtra
• The Sky as a Mahāyāna Symbol of Emptiness and Generous Fullness: A Study and Translation of the Gaganagañjaparipṛcchā: Volume 1: Introduction
• The Sky as a Mahāyāna Symbol of Emptiness and Generous Fullness: A Study and Translation of the Gaganagañjaparipṛcchā: Volume 2: Edition and Translation
• The Stem Array: Gaṇḍavyūha (Roberts, P.)
• The Strength of the Elephant: Hastikakṣya (Forgues, G.)
• The Sutra of the Householder Uncouth
• The Ten Bhūmis: Daśabhūmika (Roberts, P.)
• The Ugraparipṛcchā, the Mahāratnakūṭasūtra and Early Mahāyāna Buddhism
• The Vajradhvajapariṇāmanā: An Edition and Translation of the Tibetan Version
• The Voice of the Buddha
• The White Lotus of the Good Dharma: Saddharmapuṇḍarīka (Roberts, P.)
• The Ākāśagarbha Sūtra: Ākāśagarbhasūtra (Tenzin, Jampa, et al)
• The Śālistamba Sūtra
• The Śālistamba Sūtra and Its Indian Commentaries, Volume I
• Vagrakkhedikâ, The Diamond-Cutter
• Śāntideva and the Mādhyamika: The Prajñāpāramitā-Pariccheda of the Bodhicaryāvatāra

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Descriptionངོ་སྤྲོད།

This book presents a Great Vehicle sutra of the third turning of the wheel of dharma which has not been translated until now and which is regarded as specially important for two reasons. Firstly the sutra deals with the issue of whether a bodhisatva can live a householders life and effectively practice dharma at a high level. In the time when the Buddha gave this discourse it was regarded in Indian culture as a whole that it was necessary to leave the household and additionally to become ordained as a monk or nun in order to practice dharma at the highest level. The Buddha ends the sutra by saying that not only is it possible to practise whilst living as a householder but that a householder bodhisatva can be a much more capable and effective bodhisatva than a bodhisatva living the celibate life of an ordained bodhisatva.

The person who petitioned the Buddha for his authoritative statements on this matter was a householder bodhisatva named Uncouth. His concerns, which are the main issues in the sutra, result in the sutra fitting very closely with the situation of today's Western Buddhists, most of whom do not wish to leave home and become mendicants and most of whom are equally determined that this should not mean that they are relegated to a life which has been officially stamped as lesser than that of an ordained life. These have become prominent issues for Western Buddhists at this time and a careful consideration of the actual meaning embodied in this sutra can be a very fruitful exercise for today's Western Buddhists. I have found that investigating the sutra carefully raises many issues of great relevance and interest to today's Western Buddhists, but more than that, the issues are raised in the environment of the Buddha giving his authoritative statements about them. We found it to be very provocative but very rich at the same time.

The sutra is very rich; it has many very interesting threads. Aside from the above, it has another very important feature, which is that it teaches non-dual wisdom at the highest level. It is one of the ten sutras which the Other Emptiness followers of Tibet marked out as the ten essential sutras of the third turning that show the Other Emptiness meaning. We have also translated another of those ten, which has the title Point of Passage Wisdom Sutra. These two sutras are indispensable for those who are trying to understand the Other Emptiness teaching. A lot more could be said about this but it would take up too much space here. The book includes a long introduction which deals with the main themes of the household bodhisatva and Other Emptiness that appear in the sutra. (Source: Padma Karpo Translation Committee)

Citation

Duff, Tony, and Tamás Agócs (Padma Karpo Translation Committee), trans. The Sutra of the Householder Uncouth: A Teaching of the Buddha Showing All-Knowing Wisdom and the Householder's Way. Buddhist Sutra Series. Kathmandu: Padma Karpo Translation Committee, 2013.

Publisher Link

http://www.pktc.org/pktc/books/HouseholderUncouth.htm

Table of contents

• INTRODUCTIONv
  • About The Noble Great Stack of Jewelsv
    • Authoritative Statementvii
  • The Sūtra Petitioned by the Householder Uncouthix
    • The Main Themes of the Sutraix
    • The Householder Theme of the Sutraxi
      • Modern Parallelsxiv
      • Learning to Read the Sutras and Honouring the Master who Teaches Themxv
    • The Non-Dual Wisdom Theme of the Sutraxvi
      • Modern Parallelsxix
      • Other Emptiness and This Sutraxx
  • Related Mattersxxv
    • Sourcesxxv
    • Sanskrit and Diacriticalsxxv
    • Supports for Studyxxvi

• The NINETEENTH CHAPTER OF THE NOBLE ONE, THE GREAT STACK OF JEWELS' DHARMA ENUMERATIONS IN A HUNDRED THOUSAND CHAPTERS: THE ONE PETITIONED BY THE HOUSEHOLDER UNCOUTH1

• GLOSSARY OF TERMS93

• ABOUT THE AUTHOR, PADMA KARPO TRANSLATION COMMITTEE, AND THEIR SUPPORTS FOR STUDY107

• Tibetan Text
  • The Great Vehicle Sūtra Petitioned by the Householder Uncouth113

• INDEX179

Interconnections

Works related to this item

1 Full translation of

Gṛhapatyugraparipṛcchāsūtra [गृहपत्युग्रपरिपृच्छासूत्र]. 'phags pa khyim bdag drag shul can gyis zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo [འཕགས་པ་ཁྱིམ་བདག་དྲག་ཤུལ་ཅན་གྱིས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།]. [The Sūtra of Ugra's Questions (84000)]. Translated by Surendrabodhi, Ye shes sde, Saṅghavarman, Yen Fo-t'iao, Dharmarakṣa. Kangyur, RKTSK 63 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=63&typ=1.

Classical WorksAbout this item

A group of wealthy householders led by Ugra ask the Buddha for guidance on the proper conduct for married, male, lay practitioners. The Buddha answers by laying out, in great detail, the many challenges presented by remaining in a household as compared to the many advantages of going forth as an ordained monk and renouncing worldly life. Instructions are also given on how laymen should behave when visiting a monastery. Convinced of the superiority of monastic renunciation, Ugra and the other householders request to go forth and receive monastic ordination. The Buddha then lays out the proper conduct for renunciant bodhisattvas while living in retreat in the wilderness. (Source: 84000)

Prajñā - One of the key terms for wisdom or knowledge, most often having the sense of insight, transcendent knowledge, or perhaps gnosis. In some contexts it can also refer to cognition or intellectual understanding. Skt प्रज्ञा  Tib ཤེས་རབ་  Ch 般若  

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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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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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