Introduction

i.1In this sūtra the Buddha Śākyamuni gives a teaching on the workings of karma, the relationships between actions and their effects. The setting for the teaching is Jeta’s Grove near the city of Śrāvastī, which the benefactor Anāthapiṇḍada donated to the Buddha at great expense. Prompted by questions posed by the merchant Pratibhānamati, who is concerned that monastics may indulge in hypocritical behavior in the future during degenerate times, the Buddha elucidates the actions that cause rebirth in ten possible states of existence: as a god, a human, a hell being, an animal, a hungry spirit, a high-caste human, a slave, a fortunate human, an unfortunate human, or a human on the Buddhist path. Additionally, he describes the physical, verbal, and mental traits associated with each of those rebirths. These illustrate the doctrine, shared by most Indian religions, that beings’ good or bad deeds determine their future modes of birth and existence. In this way, the sūtra provides a moral framework geared toward the whole of society established on the basis of karma theory.

i.2Following the discourse, Pratibhānamati invites the Buddha to his home for the midday meal. As a final illustration of the law of karma, we are introduced to two beggars who seat themselves among the saṅgha when the midday meal is being served. One of them does not observe the proper etiquette of ensuring honored guests are served first and thus is not served anything to eat or drink. Enraged, he leaves, harboring a very negative judgment of the assembly and perversely vowing revenge. As a result, he soon suffers an unfortunate death followed by millions of eons in hell. The other beggar, however, observes proper etiquette and is served abundant food and drink. He entertains a virtuous aspiration to serve the Buddha and his assembly for an entire week. The effect of this noble wish is that he soon becomes the king of a neighboring land whose ruler has perished without an appropriate heir. He is astounded at his sudden reversal of fortune and seeks to understand its source. Through the blessings of the Buddha he realizes how his past actions determined his current fortune. He therefore invites the Buddha and the saṅgha and serves them just as he had aspired to do. The Buddha delivers a teaching that propels the king to the state of a stream enterer. The sūtra concludes with the audience praising the Buddha and rejoicing in his teaching. Through its descriptions and examples of the workings of karma, the sūtra underscores the importance and benefits of upholding core Buddhist virtues of kindness, gratitude, generosity, honesty, and respect, while warning of the grave consequences awaiting those who do the opposite.

i.3To our knowledge there is no extant Sanskrit version of this sūtra. It was, however, translated into Chinese (Taishō 544) by Fa Chang 法場 during the early sixth century ᴄᴇ. Although it appears that the sūtra did exercise some influence in China, it does not seem to have had a particularly significant impact in Tibet. The colophon to the Tibetan translation states that it was produced by the Indian preceptor Prajñāvarman and the Tibetan translator Yeshé Dé. The text is also recorded in the Denkarma and Phangthangma inventories of Tibetan imperial translations, so we can establish that it was first translated from Sanskrit into Tibetan no later than the early ninth century, as the Denkarma is dated to 812 ᴄᴇ. The primary Tibetan text used for the present translation was the Degé (sde dge) edition, but the other editions included in the Comparative Kangyur (dpe bsdur ma) were also consulted.