Āryacaturdharmakanāmamahāyānasūtra
From Bodhicitta
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आर्यचतुर्धर्मकनाममहायानसूत्र
Āryacaturdharmakanāmamahāyānasūtra
འཕགས་པ་ཆོས་བཞི་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
'phags pa chos bzhi pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra on the Four Factors (84000)
Text
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Description
While residing in the Jeta's Grove in Śrāvastī, the Buddha explains to an assembly of monks and bodhisattvas four factors of the path that bodhisattvas must not abandon even at the cost of their lives: (1) the thought of awakening, (2) the spiritual friend, (3) tolerance and lenience (which are here counted as one), and (4) dwelling in the wilderness. The sūtra concludes with two verses in which the Buddha restates the four factors and asserts that those who do not relinquish them will attain complete awakening. (Source: 84000)
Quoted in the aligned translations
Reference
āryacaturdharmakanāmamahāyānasūtra [आर्यचतुर्धर्मकनाममहायानसूत्र]. 'phags pa chos bzhi pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo [འཕགས་པ་ཆོས་བཞི་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།]. [The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra on the Four Factors (84000)]. Kangyur, RKTSK 251 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=251&typ=1.
Interconnections
All 11Books 2Articles 1Classical Works 8
2 Full translations
Takashi Fujinaka and Keikyō Nakamikado's 2011 article (Acta Tibetica et Buddhica 4: 155–198) presents a Japanese translation and study of Yeshe Gyaltsen's Byang chub sems dpa'i ltung ba bshags pa'i ṭīkka. It surveys the confession-to-the-thirty-five-buddhas tradition rooted in the Upāliparipṛcchāsūtra and its role in Śāntideva's Śikṣāsamuccaya, outlines the sūtra's content and Yeshe Gyaltsen's biography and text structure, provides a fully annotated translation of the commentary itself, and appends a translation of the Caturdharmanirdeśasūtra, the doctrinal source for the "four powers" of purification underlying the practice.
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 Classical commentaries
The Āryacaturdharmakavyākhyāna (Tib. 'Phags pa chos bzhi pa'i rnam par bshad pa; Toh 3990; RKTST 3330), by Vasubandhu, is a short commentary on the Āryacaturdharmakanāmamahāyānasūtra (Toh 251), a brief Mahāyāna sūtra teaching four factors that a bodhisattva must never abandon for as long as they live, even at the cost of their life. Vasubandhu explains why the sūtra was taught, why it gives its teaching as a numbered set of four, and why it calls its audience both bodhisattvas and great beings. He then reads the four factors as the remedies for the obstacles to gathering the accumulations for awakening and as the foundation for the qualities that support it. The commentary closes by explaining why those who strive for the awakening of śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas are not called bodhisattvas. The colophon names no translators. A subcommentary on this work, attributed to Jñānadatta, is also preserved in the Tengyur (Toh 3990a).
2 Similar title
In this short sūtra the Buddha explains that throughout one's life there are four beliefs one should not hold: (1) that there is pleasure to be found among women, (2) or at the royal court; (3) that happiness can be ensured by depending on health and attractiveness, (4) or on wealth and material possessions. (Source: 84000)
While Buddha Śākyamuni is residing in the Sudharmā assembly hall in the Heaven of the Thirty-Three, he explains to the great bodhisattva Maitreya four factors that make it possible to overcome the effects of any negative deeds one has committed. These four are: the action of repentance, which involves feeling remorse; antidotal action, which is to practice virtue as a remedy to non-virtue; the power of restraint, which involves vowing not to repeat a negative act; and the power of support, which means taking refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha, and never forsaking the mind of awakening. The Buddha concludes by recommending that bodhisattvas regularly recite this sūtra and reflect on its meaning as an antidote to any further wrongdoing. (Source: 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha)
1 Related
In this short sūtra the Buddha explains that throughout one's life there are four beliefs one should not hold: (1) that there is pleasure to be found among women, (2) or at the royal court; (3) that happiness can be ensured by depending on health and attractiveness, (4) or on wealth and material possessions. (Source: 84000)
2 Related
In this short sūtra the Buddha explains that throughout one's life there are four beliefs one should not hold: (1) that there is pleasure to be found among women, (2) or at the royal court; (3) that happiness can be ensured by depending on health and attractiveness, (4) or on wealth and material possessions. (Source: 84000)
While Buddha Śākyamuni is residing in the Sudharmā assembly hall in the Heaven of the Thirty-Three, he explains to the great bodhisattva Maitreya four factors that make it possible to overcome the effects of any negative deeds one has committed. These four are: the action of repentance, which involves feeling remorse; antidotal action, which is to practice virtue as a remedy to non-virtue; the power of restraint, which involves vowing not to repeat a negative act; and the power of support, which means taking refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha, and never forsaking the mind of awakening. The Buddha concludes by recommending that bodhisattvas regularly recite this sūtra and reflect on its meaning as an antidote to any further wrongdoing. (Source: 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha)
3 A topic of
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)The Āryacaturdharmakavyākhyāna (Tib. 'Phags pa chos bzhi pa'i rnam par bshad pa; Toh 3990; RKTST 3330), by Vasubandhu, is a short commentary on the Āryacaturdharmakanāmamahāyānasūtra (Toh 251), a brief Mahāyāna sūtra teaching four factors that a bodhisattva must never abandon for as long as they live, even at the cost of their life. Vasubandhu explains why the sūtra was taught, why it gives its teaching as a numbered set of four, and why it calls its audience both bodhisattvas and great beings. He then reads the four factors as the remedies for the obstacles to gathering the accumulations for awakening and as the foundation for the qualities that support it. The commentary closes by explaining why those who strive for the awakening of śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas are not called bodhisattvas. The colophon names no translators. A subcommentary on this work, attributed to Jñānadatta, is also preserved in the Tengyur (Toh 3990a).
Āryacaturdharmakavyākhyānaṭīkā (Tib. 'Phags pa chos bzhi pa'i rnam par bshad pa rgya cher 'grel pa; Toh 3990a), by Jñānadatta (Tib. Ye shes byin), is a subcommentary on Vasubandhu's Āryacaturdharmakavyākhyāna (Toh 3990), itself a commentary on the Āryacaturdharmakanāmamahāyānasūtra (Toh 251). In his opening verse, Jñānadatta says that although learned masters have already explained the sūtra, he writes for the benefit of those of lesser understanding. He works through Vasubandhu's commentary phrase by phrase, glossing its terms and filling in what Vasubandhu leaves implicit. He comments on the sūtra's setting at Jetavana, and he names the four factors themselves (the thought of awakening, the spiritual friend, tolerance and lenience, and dwelling in the forest), showing how each serves as the remedy for the obstacles, and the foundation for the qualities, that Vasubandhu discusses. It was translated by the Indian preceptors Dānaśīla and Prajñāvarman with the chief editor-translator Ye shes sde.
