Introduction

i.1The Questions of the Nāga King Anavatapta is a Mahāyāna discourse that provides guidance on core features of the bodhisattva path, including the perfections, mindfulness, and meditation. As the sūtra opens, the Buddha is teaching at Vulture Peak Mountain near Rājagṛha. A nāga king named Anavatapta approaches, accompanied by myriad nāgas bearing lavish gifts, and presents a wide-ranging set of questions on how one should follow the bodhisattva path. Rather than respond to each question individually, the Buddha replies that if bodhisattvas simply have one quality, they have them all: this single quality is “the mind of omniscience that does not overlook any being.” As the Buddha elaborates, it becomes clear that the term mind of omniscience is used in this discourse synonymously with the more common mind of awakening (bodhicitta), the bodhisattva’s intent to achieve awakening and its attendant omniscience, not only for themselves but for all beings. The Buddha goes on to enumerate the many qualities of bodhisattvas who develop the mind of omniscience, his explanation culminating in an analogy of “the tree of the mind of omniscience,” the seeds, roots, trunks, branches, leaves, flowers, and fruits of which symbolize the various motivations, virtues, practices, and attainments that together constitute the bodhisattva path and its results.

i.2Delighted with the Buddha’s answer, the nāga king Anavatapta seeks further clarification about “the pure path of bodhisattvas.” In response, the Buddha states that although the pure path of bodhisattvas may be pursued through eight frameworks starting with the path of the perfections, all eight paths are one in the perspective of ultimate truth. The emphasis then turns to the theme of purity (Tib. rnam par dag pa, Skt. pariviśuddha), which is presented here as synonymous with emptiness and the true nature (Tib. chos nyid, Skt. dharmatā), in which “the purity of space, the purity of all phenomena, and the purity of the self are inseparable” and “cannot be divided.”

i.3The nāga king Anavatapta then asks how the path of the noble ones may be cultivated through meditation. The Buddha replies that the path is cultivated when the body, speech, and mind are pure. In this context, the pure body refers to the realization that the body, like everything material, is ultimately of the same illusory nature as all phenomena. Pure speech is the realization that all speech is insubstantial, like an echo, and that words and terms are merely conventional designations. Pure mind means recognizing the true nature of the mind as unafflicted and luminous.

i.4After some further teachings on cultivating the path through nonconceptual meditation, the nāga king invites the Buddha to visit his home at Lake Anavatapta , the legendary lake close to Mount Meru considered to be the source of the four great rivers of Jambudvīpa. When the Buddha signals his acceptance of the invitation, the nāga king returns home and busily prepares the land between Lake Anavatapta and “the king of snow mountains” (evocative of the area between Lake Manasarovar and Mount Kailash) to receive the Buddha, miraculously adorning the entire area with trees and palaces. Once all preparations have been made, Anavatapta again intones his invitation and is heard from afar by the Buddha, who then departs from Vulture Peak Mountain along with an enormous entourage of bodhisattvas and a smaller company of hearers. Soaring together through the sky, they attract many gods and other beings, who follow in their wake.

i.5Upon arrival at “the southern slope of the king of snow mountains,” the Buddha instructs Maudgalyāyana to travel ahead and ask the nāga king Anavatapta whether it is time for the Thus-Gone One to arrive. Maudgalyāyana rises into the sky and, taking on the form of a garuḍa, surveys Lake Anavatapta . The nāgas are terrified on seeing him, but the nāga king calms them, recognizing the garuḍa as the magical emanation of Maudgalyāyana, and the nāgas welcome the Buddha and his entourage into their magically-transformed realm.

i.6The Buddha’s first teaching at Lake Anavatapta is on the quality of “heedfulness that holds fast to the profound Dharma.” In elaborating on this, he explains “heedfulness” as the quality that characterizes those who properly understand dependent origination. For it is only through the genuine understanding of dependent origination that one obtains insight into the true nature. Those who have this knowledge and keep it, he explains, are the “heedful.”

i.7There then follows a discourse with five hundred nāga princes, who ask further questions about how a bodhisattva should practice, relating in particular to faith, to how to turn the wheel of Dharma, and how to maintain the sacred Dharma. One of the nāga princes is inspired to speak, presenting his own summary of what the Buddha has taught, after which he is questioned by various members of the Buddha’s entourage. An interesting feature of the ensuing discussion is an apparent disagreement that emerges when the nāga princes express an intention to create a shrine after the Buddha’s death, at which his body could be venerated “undivided and whole.” This is challenged by Mahākāśyapa, who says that this would deprive most beings of the opportunity to develop virtuous qualities, and that greater benefit would be achieved by dividing his body into many relics, a point to which the nāgas accede. Following this debate, a lotus blooms in the middle of Lake Anavatapta , and the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī, along with thousands of other bodhisattvas, arrives from the distant buddha field of Ratnavyūhā.

i.8Mahākāśyapa and Mañjuśrī then discuss the relative merits of the hearer and bodhisattva paths. A number of nāga princes and other figures, such as Subhūti, join the debate, which concludes with King Anavatapta, along with his entire retinue of wives and relatives, taking refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṅgha. When the nāga king recites an aspiration prayer that all beings may achieve complete awakening, the Buddha gives one of his radiant smiles, and he proceeds to give a prophecy concerning the nāga king’s future lives and his eventual complete and perfect awakening. At the end of the sūtra, King Anavatapta escorts the Buddha and his entourage back to Vulture Peak Mountain, where he repeats the teaching for an audience of people from the surrounding area.

i.9The Questions of the Nāga King Anavatapta is included in all Tibetan Kangyur collections and the Mongolian canon, but its position within them varies. In the Kangyurs of the Tshalpa line, which includes the Degé Kangyur, the text appears in the middle of the General Sūtra (mdo sde) section, grouped together with four other sūtras that feature questions from nonhuman kings. In those of the Thempangma line, such as the Stok Palace Kangyur, it appears much later in the sūtra section.

i.10While there are no commentaries focused specifically on this sūtra, one verse in particular has been widely cited throughout the centuries by Indian and Tibetan authors, including Kamalaśīla and Sakya Paṇḍita, who quote this verse in their writings on dependent origination:

i.12Additionally, Shapkar Tsokdruk Rangdröl (zhabs dkar tshogs drug rang grol) quotes another verse from the sūtra in his defense of nonsectarianism:

i.14No extant Sanskrit or other Indic versions of The Questions of the Nāga King Anavatapta have as yet been identified. However, its textual history can be traced back to at least 308 ᴄᴇ, when it was translated into Chinese (Taishō 635) by Dharmarakṣa, among the most prolific of the early translators of Mahāyāna Buddhist texts into Chinese. The tradition whereby the Buddha gave teachings at Lake Anavatapta is also attested in what is known as the Anavatapta­gāthā (Verses of Anavatapta), iterations of which are found in a number of Gāndhārī manuscripts and a version of which is found in the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya included in the Tibetan Kangyur. Another narrative version, different but with clear correspondences to the Mūlasarvāstivādin rendering, is found in a Mahāyāna sūtra, The Precious Discourse on the Blessed One’s Extensive Wisdom That Leads to Infinite Certainty. However, aside from its setting at Lake Anavatapta and the presentation of its teachings in verse, The Questions of the Nāga King Anavatapta does not appear to have any further overlap in content with these versions related to the Anavatapta­gāthā tradition.

i.15The Questions of the Nāga King Anavatapta was translated into Tibetan no later than the early ninth century ᴄᴇ, as evidenced by its inclusion in both the Phangthangma and Denkarma imperial catalogs of translated texts. Its colophon does not name a translator but states that it was “edited and finalized” by the Indian preceptors Jinamitra and Dānaśīla along with the Tibetan editor-translator extraordinaire Yeshé Dé, all of whom were prolific during the height of the Tibetan imperial sponsorship of Buddhism during the late eighth and early ninth centuries. The colophon also names a “scribe” (Tib. yi ge pa) called Gönlingma as a member of the editorial team. This is the only mention of Gönlingma in the entire Kangyur and Tengyur.

i.16This English translation, which to our knowledge is the first to be published, was made from the Tibetan as found in the Degé Kangyur, in consultation with the variants listed in the Comparative Edition (Tib. dpe bsdur ma) Kangyur and the Stok Palace Kangyur.