Rājāvavādakasūtra

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राजाववादकसूत्र
Rājāvavādakasūtra
འཕགས་པ་རྒྱལ་པོ་ལ་གདམས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
'phags pa rgyal po la gdams pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
The Sūtra of Advice to the King (84000)
Text


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Rājāvavādakasūtra (The Sūtra of Advice to the King; Tib. 'Phags pa rgyal po la gdams pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo; Toh 221, Derge Kangyur, vol. 63, ff. 78a–84b) is a Mahāyāna sūtra set in Jetavana, Anāthapiṇḍada’s park near Śrāvastī, where King Prasenajit of Kosala comes with his royal retinue to see the Buddha and hear the Dharma. The Buddha urges the king to rule by Dharma and not against it, and devotes most of the teaching to impermanence and death. Four great mountains, old age, sickness, death, and decline, are bearing down from every direction, and no speed, strength, wealth, mantra, or medicine can turn them back. Like a deer seized by a lion, a person in the grip of the Lord of Death is helpless; at that time only the Dharma can be a refuge, as fire is for the cold or food for the hungry. The comforts of royal life, fine food, clothing, and beds, cannot keep the body from death and the charnel ground. The sūtra was translated by the Indian preceptors Jinamitra and Śīlendrabodhi and the chief editor-translator Yeshé Dé, and revised according to the new terminology. It should be distinguished from two other Kangyur texts that share its Tibetan title, Rgyal po la gdams pa (Toh 214 and 215), whose Sanskrit title is Rājadeśa.

With respect to the text's citation in the Śikṣāsamuccaya, Śāntideva’s chapter 12 quotations from the Rājāvavādaka (on impermanence, death, and Dharma as the only refuge) correspond to the Derge Kangyur translation (ff. 80a–82b). His chapter 1 quotations, on rejoicing in and dedicating merit and on the fruits of the mind of awakening, have not been located in the Derge text; the version Śāntideva knew may have differed from, or been longer than, the one preserved in Tibetan translation.

Quoted in the aligned translations
Reference
Rājāvavādakasūtra [राजाववादकसूत्र]. 'phags pa rgyal po la gdams pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo [འཕགས་པ་རྒྱལ་པོ་ལ་གདམས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།]. [The Sūtra of Advice to the King (84000)]. Translated by Jinamitra, Śīlendrabodhi, Ye shes sde, Chu-ch'u-ching-sheng, Xuanzang, Dānapāla, Yijing. Kangyur, RKTSK 221 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=221&typ=1.
Interconnections
1 Full translations
Questioning the Buddha-front.jpg
Books2021About this item
In the forty-five years the Buddha spent traversing northern India, he shared his wisdom with everyone from beggar women to kings. Hundreds of his discourses, or sutras, were preserved by his followers, first orally and later in written form. Around thirteen hundred years after the Buddha’s enlightenment, the sutras were translated into the Tibetan language, where they have been preserved ever since. To date, only a fraction of these have been made available in English. Questioning the Buddha brings the reader directly into the literary treasure of the Tibetan canon with thoroughly annotated translations of twenty-five different sutras. Often these texts, many translated here in full for the first time, begin with an encounter in which someone poses a question to the Buddha.

Peter Skilling, an authority on early Buddhist epigraphy, archaeology, and textual traditions, has been immersed in the Buddhist scriptures of diverse traditions for nearly half a century. In this volume, he draws on his deep and extensive research to render these ancient teachings in a fresh and precise language. His introduction is a fascinating history of the Buddhist sutras, including the transition from oral to written form, the rise of Mahayana literature, the transmission to Tibet, the development of canons, and a look at some of the pioneers of sutra study in the West.

Sutras included in this volume are: Four Dharmas Not to Be Taken for Granted; The Benefits of Giving; The Exposition of Four Dharmas; The Merit of the Three Refuges; Four Dharmas Never to Be Abandoned; Advice for Bodhisatva Dharmaketu; Advice for Bodhisatva Jayamati; Sūtra Comparing Bodhicitta to Gold; Bodhisatva Maitreya’s Question about the Gift of the Dharma; Four Summaries of the Dharma Spoken to the Nāga King Sāgara; The Stanza of Dependent Arising; The Heart Formula of Dependent Arising; Prediction of the Boy Brahmaśrī’s Future Buddhahood; Kṣemavatī’s Prediction to Future Buddhahood; The City Beggar Woman; An Old Woman’s Questions about Birth and Death; The Questions of Śrīmatī the Brahman Woman; The Questions of the Laywoman Gaṅgottarā; Brahmā Sahāṃpati’s Question; Advice to King Prasenajit; Passage to the Next Life; Instructions for King Bimbisāra; Instructions for King Udayana; Buddhas as Rare as a Grain of Golden Sand; and Predictions on the Eve of the Great Final Nirvāṇa. (Source: Wisdom Experience)
1 Partial translations
Radlov Vasily Wikipedia.jpg
Articles1911About this item
Fragment of the Mahāyāna Sūtra called Ārya Rājāvavādaka translated into German with notes by Vasily Radlov. Published in the book Kuan-ši-im Pusar: Eine türkische Übersetzung des XXV. Kapitels der chinesischen Ausgabe des Saddharmapuṇḍarīka, 1911.
1 Scholarship
Radlov Vasily Wikipedia.jpg
Articles1911About this item
Fragment of the Mahāyāna Sūtra called Ārya Rājāvavādaka translated into German with notes by Vasily Radlov. Published in the book Kuan-ši-im Pusar: Eine türkische Übersetzung des XXV. Kapitels der chinesischen Ausgabe des Saddharmapuṇḍarīka, 1911.
2 A topic of
Radlov Vasily Wikipedia.jpg
Articles1911About this item
Fragment of the Mahāyāna Sūtra called Ārya Rājāvavādaka translated into German with notes by Vasily Radlov. Published in the book Kuan-ši-im Pusar: Eine türkische Übersetzung des XXV. Kapitels der chinesischen Ausgabe des Saddharmapuṇḍarīka, 1911.
Questioning the Buddha-front.jpg
Books2021About this item
In the forty-five years the Buddha spent traversing northern India, he shared his wisdom with everyone from beggar women to kings. Hundreds of his discourses, or sutras, were preserved by his followers, first orally and later in written form. Around thirteen hundred years after the Buddha’s enlightenment, the sutras were translated into the Tibetan language, where they have been preserved ever since. To date, only a fraction of these have been made available in English. Questioning the Buddha brings the reader directly into the literary treasure of the Tibetan canon with thoroughly annotated translations of twenty-five different sutras. Often these texts, many translated here in full for the first time, begin with an encounter in which someone poses a question to the Buddha.

Peter Skilling, an authority on early Buddhist epigraphy, archaeology, and textual traditions, has been immersed in the Buddhist scriptures of diverse traditions for nearly half a century. In this volume, he draws on his deep and extensive research to render these ancient teachings in a fresh and precise language. His introduction is a fascinating history of the Buddhist sutras, including the transition from oral to written form, the rise of Mahayana literature, the transmission to Tibet, the development of canons, and a look at some of the pioneers of sutra study in the West.

Sutras included in this volume are: Four Dharmas Not to Be Taken for Granted; The Benefits of Giving; The Exposition of Four Dharmas; The Merit of the Three Refuges; Four Dharmas Never to Be Abandoned; Advice for Bodhisatva Dharmaketu; Advice for Bodhisatva Jayamati; Sūtra Comparing Bodhicitta to Gold; Bodhisatva Maitreya’s Question about the Gift of the Dharma; Four Summaries of the Dharma Spoken to the Nāga King Sāgara; The Stanza of Dependent Arising; The Heart Formula of Dependent Arising; Prediction of the Boy Brahmaśrī’s Future Buddhahood; Kṣemavatī’s Prediction to Future Buddhahood; The City Beggar Woman; An Old Woman’s Questions about Birth and Death; The Questions of Śrīmatī the Brahman Woman; The Questions of the Laywoman Gaṅgottarā; Brahmā Sahāṃpati’s Question; Advice to King Prasenajit; Passage to the Next Life; Instructions for King Bimbisāra; Instructions for King Udayana; Buddhas as Rare as a Grain of Golden Sand; and Predictions on the Eve of the Great Final Nirvāṇa. (Source: Wisdom Experience)