Introduction

i.1The Illusory Absorption is a sūtra that belongs to the general sūtra section of the Kangyur. In the fashion typical of Great Vehicle sūtras, the Buddha’s discourse unfolds within a worldview vastly different in scope from ordinary reality. Here we meet bodhisattvas who have journeyed across billions of universes to hear the Buddha’s teaching, bringing with them samples of the splendors and pleasures that adorn their distant buddha realms. The vast scope of this sūtra pertains not only to the distances traveled, but also to the timespan covered. Through his omniscience, the Buddha recalls events that happened at the dawn of time and predicts affairs yet to unfold in a far-distant future. In this way our ordinary perceptions of time and space are challenged as we enter the worldview of the Great Vehicle.

i.2The sūtra begins outside Vārāṇasī, in the Deer Park where the Buddha first turned the wheel of Dharma after his awakening. This time, however, he is not just speaking to his five previous companions, the audience for his first teaching. Now, we are told, there are 20,000 monks, 12,000 bodhisattvas, 20,000 deities, and several hundred thousand other beings present.

i.3As is customary in sūtra literature, the Buddha delivers his Dharma talks at the request of someone who poses a particular question and asks for clarification. In this particular sūtra, the role of the questioner is played by a bodhisattva named Padmaśrīgarbha, who asks the Buddha how one can attain a particular type of absorption known as “the illusory absorption” and, after attaining that absorption, quickly attain complete awakening.

i.4The Buddha is pleased with this request and praises Padmaśrīgarbha for asking such a meaningful question. He then proceeds to explain that there is one quality that underlies all attainments of awakened qualities and the state of awakening itself. When in possession of this one quality, a bodhisattva will naturally proceed along the path until finally gaining perfect buddhahood. The Buddha reveals that this crucial and indispensable quality is not to abide anywhere in the three realms, whether internally in the mental sphere or externally in the outer world.

i.5If one is able not to abide in this manner, one will come to understand that all phenomena are unborn, an understanding that enables one to practice the bodhisattva path. With the realization that all phenomena are unborn comes the understanding that phenomena are likewise illusory and empty. This is the point at which one attains the illusory absorption. When this absorption is attained, one is able to display a variety of bodies in order to teach and guide sentient beings. At that point, full and complete awakening is not far off.

i.6Padmaśrīgarbha continues to ask the Buddha about the illusory absorption, and he wonders whether anyone among his peers in the Buddha’s retinue might have obtained this absorption. Indeed, the Buddha confirms, several students have gained this absorption, but all of them have attained their realization by associating with two bodhisattvas, Avalokiteśvara and Mahā­sthāmaprāpta, who live in Sukhāvatī, the distant realm of Buddha Amitābha.

i.7Padmaśrīgarbha implores the Buddha to manifest a miraculous sign that will summon these two bodhisattvas, so that others may be blessed by their presence in this world and likewise attain the illusory absorption. The Buddha consents and emits a light from the hair between his eyebrows, a light so bright that it illuminates the entire world of Sukhāvatī. When all the bodhisattvas in Sukhāvatī ask Amitābha about the origin of this light, he reveals that it is being emitted by Buddha Śākyamuni to indicate that a Dharma teaching will shortly be delivered. Avalokiteśvara and Mahā­sthāmaprāpta request permission to attend the teaching, and Amitābha encourages them to go. The two bodhisattvas bring with them on the journey no fewer than 840 million other bodhisattvas, who each manifest a beautiful mansion as an offering to the Buddha Śākyamuni. Avalokiteśvara and Mahā­sthāmaprāpta multiply this offering by emanating 840 million exact copies within each mansion, thus producing a mind-boggling display of gifts.

i.8The pilgrimage to this world is not an arduous one by any means, being completed within a single second. Once the bodhisattvas arrive, they pay homage to Buddha Śākyamuni and sing his praises in a series of beautiful verses. The bodhisattvas and hearers in the retinue of Buddha Śākyamuni are, of course, amazed by the arrival of all the bodhisattvas from Sukhāvatī and their impressive display of offerings. So they ask the Buddha about the merit that allows Avalokiteśvara and Mahā­sthāmaprāpta to perform such a display. The Buddha reveals how these two bodhisattvas are able to multiply their bodies in inconceivable ways, thus gaining merit by serving countless buddhas in endless realms.

i.9Next, Buddha Śākyamuni recounts the story of how Avalokiteśvara and Mahā­sthāmaprāpta first gave rise to the mind of awakening that signifies the beginning of the bodhisattva path. We hear how these two beings, in a far, far distant past, were born miraculously from two lotus flowers in the realm of a buddha known as King of the Golden-Hued Lion’s Play, who himself was a previous emanation of Buddha Amitābha. The place where it all unfolded, we are told, was none other than the world of Sukhāvatī, at that time known as Boundless Accumulation of Precious Qualities and Full Display of Happiness.

i.10As is typical of many Great Vehicle sūtras, the Buddha proceeds to reveal the circumstances surrounding the future awakening of the protagonists in question, in this case Avalokiteśvara and Mahā­sthāmaprāpta. Once Buddha Amitābha has passed into nirvāṇa and no trace remains of his teachings, Avalokiteśvara will fully awaken at dawn on the very next day and receive the name Buddha Samanta­raśmyabhyudgata­śrī­kūta­rāja. At that point the realm will no longer be known as Sukhāvatī, but rather Complete Gathering of Wealth. Next, once this particular buddha passes into nirvāṇa, Mahā­sthāmaprāpta will awaken in a similar fashion and be known as Supra­tiṣṭhita­guṇa­maṇi­kūṭa­rāja.

i.11The names of these two future buddhas turn out to be of key importance in the sūtra, because anyone who happens to hear them will be irreversibly destined to unsurpassed and perfect awakening. The blessing of hearing these two names is also such that any woman will be able to put an end to future female rebirths, and in that way join the saṅgha of monks.

i.12At this point the Buddha’s teaching is complete, and everyone in attendance rejoices and arouses the mind set upon unsurpassed and perfect awakening. Many of the listeners in attendance develop various signs of accomplishment and become free from obscurations. Avalokiteśvara and Mahā­sthāmaprāpta also cause a miracle so that the entire retinue can behold all the limitless, uncountable buddhas in all directions, who are making prophecies for their unsurpassed and perfect awakening.

i.13As is typical of Great Vehicle sūtras, toward the end of the story the Buddha speaks of the great amount of merit to be gained by upholding and propagating the sūtra, and everyone gathered at the occasion promises to spread the teaching to the best of their ability. The Buddha repeats his statement that any woman who hears this teaching will be transformed immediately into a man. (Today’s readers should keep in mind that these teachings were given in a society where the status of women was generally low, and women were expected to be subservient and deferential to men. It is also important to remember that the Buddha did allow women into his order, which at the time was a radical endorsement of women as worthy spiritual practitioners.)

i.14Finally, while thousands of gods scatter flowers and praise on the Buddha and the assembled bodhisattvas, a young girl stands up and announces that she has decided to give up the negative emotions that cause beings to be born as women. Instead, she promises, she will set her mind on complete awakening. In front of the Buddha she vows to become an example for other women by relinquishing her female body, and she requests the Buddha’s blessings to help her do so. Immediately her body is transformed and becomes that of a man. With this metamorphosis complete, the Buddha foretells that she is destined to become a future buddha known by the name Repeller of All Disturbing Emotions, and the sūtra comes to an end.

i.15No Sanskrit version of the text is known to exist, but in addition to this Tibetan translation the sūtra survives in two earlier Chinese translations. The Tibetan translation, by Surendrabodhi and Bandé Yeshé Dé, must have been completed in the early translation period, as it is listed in both early ninth century inventories, the Denkarma (ldan dkar ma) and Phangthangma (phang thang ma). According to the catalogues of both the Degé and Narthang Kangyurs, the sūtra has nine chapters or sections (le’u), and the Narthang catalogue mentions that the existence of nine le’u is mentioned by the Great Fifth Dalai Lama in the list of texts of which he received the transmission (gsan yig). However, no such formal section breaks can be seen in the Tibetan text as preserved in the different Kangyurs, and it would be unusual for a relatively short text such as this to be divided into formally distinct chapters. It may be that in this and similar catalogue entries the term le’u is being used to denote “episodes” or “scenes,” rather than in its more usual sense of chapters; it would not be impossible to discern nine or more parts to the narrative in this text.

i.16Unlike the names of some of the specific absorptions described in sūtras, “the illusory absorption” is a term that occurs in a wide range of canonical texts, including the Prajñāpāramitā sūtras, the Laṅkāvatāra, and in several tantras and their Tengyur commentaries. This sūtra, as would be expected from its title, is indeed sometimes mentioned or cited in later Tibetan works in connection with the illusory absorption itself. More often, however, it is mentioned as one of the scriptural sources of the stories of Avalokiteśvara and Mahā­sthāmaprāpta. The other notable source is the Saddharma­puṇḍarīka (Toh 113), which contains a similar but much more detailed account of the predictions of these two bodhisattvas’ future attainment of complete buddhahood, as well as a different episode from their previous lives.