Introduction

Setting and Storyline

i.1The Strength of the Elephant is set on Gṛdhrakūṭa Mountain where the Buddha presides over a large assembly of monks and bodhisattvas. One afternoon, after the Buddha is addressed by Śāradvatīputra with a brief discourse on the empty nature of all phenomena, he convenes a large audience of monks, bodhisattvas, and people from the city of Rājagṛha to share Śāradvatīputra’s insight. The Buddha proceeds to inform Mañjuśrī and the others that previous buddhas have also taught this Dharma discourse on transcendent insight, which is “like the strength of the elephant,” on Gṛdhrakūṭa Mountain, the very place where their assembly is gathered. At the request of Ānanda, the Buddha gives a series of teachings, in the form of replies to questions posed by Mañjuśrī, that concern the most beneficial, though often counterintuitive, forms of knowledge and activities characteristic of bodhisattvas who have realized emptiness.

i.2A number of “arrogant monks” in the assembly, however, misunderstand the Tathāgata’s teaching and the Buddha is asked to clarify the intentions behind this discourse. Upon hearing his explanations, realization dawns in the minds of the various listeners and the monks affirm their new understanding. Mañjuśrī then inquires into the training in transcendent insight and the Buddha responds with a concluding teaching on the value and efficacy of this Dharma discourse. He describes twenty laudable qualities that are possessed by those who have faith in it. He also recounts how in a previous lifetime he himself became accomplished in it. The Buddha then gives instructions on the practices of bodhisattvas who wish to realize this profound insight. In the end, the Buddha commands Ānanda to remember it, and everybody rejoices and praises the Buddha’s words.

Key Doctrines in the Discourse

The sūtra repeatedly draws attention to the empty and thus illusory nature of all phenomena, which includes everything from sensory appearances up to central Buddhist conceptions such as the six perfections, monastic discipline, morality, merit, and even the Buddha himself. The realization of this empty and illusory nature of all phenomena is transcendent insight, which allows one to rest naturally in a state of absorption. Phenomena as well as transcendent insight are said to be like space: “Space is not something to be realized, nor is it something to be abandoned. Likewise, no phenomenon is something to be realized or abandoned.” Because of this empty nature of phenomena, all conceptions about them as substantial or real are completely mistaken. To realize this is to correctly understand emptiness.

Bodhisattvas accomplish a wide range of compassionate activities without departing from the profound insight of emptiness, which is transcendent insight. In this way, bodhisattvas are able to compassionately engage in the different realms of beings without disregarding their empty nature. Through such practices as samādhi or dhāraṇī recitation, they are able to go to buddhafields without actually coming or going and are able to speak different languages without mixing them up.

This sūtra emphasizes that transcendent insight and the illusory nature of phenomena are difficult to understand for ordinary beings, hearers, solitary realizers, and bodhisattvas who cling to phenomenal appearances. Those who are unaware of the Tathāgata’s intention behind this teaching are in danger of completely misunderstanding him. The upshot of this observation is that all conceptions, even that concerning the Tathāgata, are false, and thus all views are mistaken. This applies not only to metaphysical views of a self, a being, a soul, and a person, but to conceptions such as “me” or “mine” and preconceptions such as Buddha, Dharma, and Saṇgha.

One noteworthy feature of this sūtra is its outspoken condemnation of the shortcomings of “outcast bodhisattvas.” Such bodhisattvas are practitioners who reside in remote places but have failed to realize transcendent insight and remain attached to their disciplined practices. Those outcast bodhisattvas will consequently look down on other bodhisattvas who dwell near a village or town. Such passages may be understood as a criticism targeting “the susceptibility of forest monks to pride and conceit,” which accords with the Buddha’s chastisement of “arrogant monks” in this sūtra.

Source Texts

i.7There is to our knowledge no extant complete Sanskrit version of the Hasti­kakṣya­sūtra. Apart from fragments of Khotanese and Sanskrit versions of the text, the complete text is extant only in Tibetan and Chinese translations. The Hasti­kakṣya­sūtra was translated into Chinese by Dharmarakṣa in the third century and by Dharmamitra in the fifth century (Taishō 813 and 814 respectively). The text is found in Kangyur collections of different periods and is also recorded in the Denkarma and Phangthangma catalogs of Tibetan imperial translations. Thus it appears that it was first translated from Sanskrit into Tibetan by an unknown translator no later than the early ninth century, as the Denkarma is dated to 812 ᴄᴇ. The Tibetan translations do not mention the names of the translators. According to the findings of Liu and Chen, the earliest Chinese and the Sanskrit versions share an earlier source text, while the later Chinese and the Tibetan and Khotanese versions share a later source text. This English translation was prepared based on the Tibetan translation in the Degé Kangyur in consultation with the Comparative Edition (Tib. dpe bsdur ma) and the Stok Palace Kangyur.

i.8There are a number of references to the Hasti­kakṣya­sūtra in Buddhist canonical literature. The Hasti­kakṣya­sūtra is referred to in chapter six of the Sikṣasamuccaya and it is cited by Kamalaśīla in his Sarva­dharmāsvabhāva­siddhi (Toh 3889) as well as in the tantric work Mahā­yāna­melāyana­pradīpa (Toh 3720). A verse ascribed to the Hasti­kakṣya­sūtra is cited by Candrakīrti in his Mūla­madhyamaka­vṛtti­prasanna­padā (Toh 3860) and Bodhi­sattva­yogācāra­catuḥśataka­ṭīkā (Toh 3865) commentaries, but, notably, the verse is not found in any versions of the sūtra contained in the Kangyur. This “missing” citation, as well as numerous other passages that are found in the Kangyur versions of this sūtra, have been widely quoted by indigenous Tibetan scholars. The Hasti­kakṣya­sūtra is also cited a number of times in the Chinese Buddhist canon, which suggests that it may have once been an important Mahāyāna text that circulated throughout regions of Central and East Asia.

Remarks on the Title

i.9Since no Sanskrit source text is available, and because of differing interpretations of the title’s translations that involve certain linguistic ambiguities, the translation of the sūtra’s title into English needs to be critically discussed. Liu and Chen’s study includes a detailed discussion of all the variant titles found in the different translations, and their findings are summarized for the reader in what follows.

i.10Concerning first of all the Chinese versions, the Catalog of Nie Daozhen attests the title “The Elephant’s Armpit” (Xiangye or *Hastikakṣa), which also corresponds to the title of Dharmamitra’s translation. The sūtra contains no direct reference to the armpit of an elephant, but the title bearing this phrase is cited widely in medieval Chinese Buddhism because of the popularity of Dharmamitra’s works. Dharmarakṣa’s translation speaks of “The Metaphor of the Elephant” (Yuxiang or *Hastyupama), which would indicate that the power of the text is equivalent to the effort of an elephant. Also attested based on his translation is a title that does not make reference to an elephant: “Without Desire” (Wuxiwang or *Akāṅkṣa). The use of this title, however, is without sufficient evidence and may be due to a misreading or miscopying, possibly based on Gāndhārī or Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit written in Kharoṣṭhī or Brāhmī scripts, resulting in the readings of *Nāstikāṅkṣa or *Asakāṅkṣa instead of Hastikakṣya. A paraphrase of the title as “The Stride of an Elephant” (Xiangbu, *Hastigati or *Hastivikrama) is found in the translations of both Dharmarakṣa and Dharmamitra. The Tibetan translation could be understood in a similar way, since rtsal can mean both “effort” and “stride.”

i.11The Tibetan title (glang po’i rtsal) features as an entry in the early ninth century Sanskrit-Tibetan glossary known as the Mahāvyutpatti (Hastikakṣyam, Mvyut 1339 in section LIX on dam pa’i chos kyi ming). Csoma de Körös’ textual edition of the Mahāvyutpatti, which comes with an accompanying English translation, translates the title as “The Elephant’s Dexterity (or Girth).” However, note that in the Mahāvyutpatti, the Denkarma, and the Phangthangma this is the only instance where kakṣya corresponds to rtsal and ākrama and vikrama are given as its more usual correspondents, which would yield Sanskrit forms such as *Hastyākrama or *Hastivikrama. Liu and Chen thus argue that the sūtra itself may actually be the source for this entry in the Mahāvyutpatti. They indeed note that glang po’i rtsal “should not be regarded as a correct interpretation of the Sanskrit word Hastikakṣya.”

i.12Turning now to the (Buddhist Hybrid) Sanskrit titles, we can see that kakṣyā is derived from the Vedic kakṣa, which indeed has the meaning of “armpit.” Based on a reading in the Sanskrit manuscript and considering the primitive form Hastikakṣa, Liu and Chen reconstruct the sūtra’s title in its Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit form as *Hastikaccha, which later was sanskritized into Hastikakṣya. Liu and Chen note the following: “We have the contemporaneous appearance of three titles: Yuxiang (*Hastyupama) and Wuxiwang (*Nāstikāṅkṣa, *Akāṅkṣa or *Asakāṅkṣa) in Taishō 813 and, according to the Catalogue, a Xiangbu (*Hastigati or *Hastivikrama). Then after more than a century, we have Xiangye (Hastikakṣa or Hastikaccha in its BHS form, Hastikakṣya in its developed Skt. form) in Taishō 814, with its Sanskrit correspondence, Hastikaccha, in the Sanskrit fragment and Hastikakṣya in the Tibetan translation. Finally, the word Hastikakṣya is transmitted into glang po’i rtsal and glang po’i rtsal lta bu (*Hasti­kakṣyopama) in Tibetan.” They then conclude that “with the exception of Wuxiwang, all the others can possibly be affiliated with a Sanskritization process from Middle Indic via Gāndhārī or BHS.” As a nominal compound, Hastikakṣya is clearly a genitive tatpuruṣa or dependent determinative compound. According to Monier-Williams’s Sanskrit dictionary, the compound hastikakṣya may have the meaning of “lion” or “tiger.” Next, let us look at the individual members of the compound: hasti and kakṣya. Hasti stands in the compound for hastin, which can clearly be established as meaning “elephant.” The second member, kakṣya, however, has a whole range of possible meanings. Monier-Williams notes them as “abiding in shrubs or dry grass,” “well fed,” “girth (of an animal),” “the enclosure of an edifice,” “similarity,” and “effort, exertion.” The Tibetan translation of this member (rtsal) carries similar meanings, but tends more toward meanings such as “skill,” “dexterity,” “potency,” “capacity,” “potential,” or “power.”

i.13Unfortunately, the sūtra itself does not give any really convincing pointers to the correct interpretation of its title, since references to both elephants (hasti) and their supposed strength (kakṣya) are few. Toward the beginning of the sūtra, Śāradvatīputra declines the Buddha’s initial request to assemble the monks and bodhisattvas in the area by stating that “elephants are difficult to please (mgu ba, ‘satisfy, content, please, convince’).” Toward the end of the sūtra, the Buddha recounts to Ānanda that “beings who yearn for this Dharma discourse will be subdued by the strength of the bull or the strength of the elephant.” Based on these elements, we decided to translate the title as “The Strength of the Elephant,” although we are aware that further research would be necessary to validate this reading.

Relevant Academic Research

i.14Until recently there had been no extensive academic research on the Hasti­kakṣya­sūtra. In the last several years, however, a number of scholars have authored studies with direct or indirect reference to the sūtra’s contents and development. Chen (2012) addresses newly identified fragments of a Khotanese translation of the Hasti­kakṣya­sūtra together with their Chinese parallels. Liu and Chen (2014) include a translation of a Sanskrit fragment of the Hasti­kakṣya­sūtra in light of its Chinese and Tibetan parallels as well as a lengthy discussion of all title variants and their possible Sanskrit equivalents. Their study looks at the early development of Mahayāna sūtras and also includes a concordance of the contents found in the different translations. James Apple (2014) considers the Hasti­kakṣya­sūtra from the perspective of his research on the historical developments of entrusted transmissions of written texts in India after the fourth century. In the process, he compares the textual differences between the Tibetan translation and the earlier and later Chinese translations of the Hasti­kakṣya­sūtra. Regarding the narrative variants of the story of Victory Banner of the Vajra told by the Buddha toward the end of the sūtra, Apple points out that the Dharma discourse is passed on as a Dharma scripture in the Tibetan version, but in the earlier Chinese versions of Dharmarakṣa and Dharmamitra it is said to be passed on as a mantra or a dhāraṇī respectively.

i.15Regarding Tibetan mentions of the Hasti­kakṣya­sūtra, Karma Phuntsho briefly states that, according to the master Ju Mipham Gyatso, the Hasti­kakṣya­sūtra stands as one of the sūtras teaching the doctrine of mind-only (sems tsam) understood as the cittamātra taught in canonical scriptures (bka’i sems tsam) as opposed to cittamātra qua doctrinal system (grub mtha’i sems tsam).