Introduction

i.1Putting an End to Karmic Obscurations presents a prayer used for karmic purification, and it includes an account of this prayer’s effectiveness during the time of a previous buddha. It relates the story of a woman named Gaṅgadevī, who, through practicing this sūtra, became a buddha in another realm. In addition to the confession of negative actions, the prayer describes rejoicing in the good actions of others as a method for accumulating merit, the dedication of one’s merit to the welfare of others, requesting the buddhas to teach the Dharma, and beseeching the buddhas to not pass into nirvāṇa. Thus, it contains five of the elements (lacking homage and offering) of the ubiquitous seven-branch prayer commonly recited in present-day Tibetan Buddhist practice.

i.2The sūtra begins with Śāriputra asking the Buddha how to confess previous negative deeds. The Buddha gives a recitation that should be done three times during the day and three times at night in order to free oneself from karmic obscurations and attain whatever is aspired to‍—from rebirth into a good human family or various paradises, to the attainment of ultimate wisdom. The Buddha explains that one should also recite the words of rejoicing in the good actions done by others, requesting the buddhas in all worlds to teach the Dharma, and beseeching them to not pass away. He teaches that this creates greater merit than any other kind of Dharma practice, and that one should recite a dedication of merit to the enlightenment of all beings.

i.3Next, the assembly promises to promulgate this sūtra, and Śakra states that it can bring an end to the obscurations of karma. In response, the Buddha describes a buddha in the distant past named Mahāraśmiskandha and a woman named Gaṅgadevī who received this very teaching from him. Through her dedication to this teaching, Gaṅgadevī was subsequently always reborn as a man until she became a buddha by the name of Ratnārci. At present, Ratnārci teaches in a realm a vast distance away in the eastern direction, and the sūtra states that any woman who hears the name of this buddha will no longer be reborn as a woman. The sūtra concludes with the Buddha naming the teachings, and all those who are present rejoice.

History of the Sūtra

i.4While the time of its emergence is unknown, this sūtra possibly predates The Sūtra of the Sublime Golden Light, the longer versions of which include Putting an End to Karmic Obscurations as their fifth chapter. Putting an End to Karmic Obscurations seems to have become important as one of the principal recitations used to bring about purification through confession, as evidenced by several Indian Buddhist works that mention it. The author of Precious Lamp of the Middle Way recommends its recitation, as does a certain Alaṁkārabhadra. In the eleventh century, Atiśa (982–1054), also known as Dīpaṁkaraśrījñāna, who came to Tibet in 1042 and is the source of the Kadampa tradition, recommends its recitation in his Commentary on Difficult Points in “The Lamp of the Path to Enlightenment” and also does so twice in his Opening a Precious Casket: Instructions on the Middle Way.

i.5Methods to purify the obscuration of karma are a common topic in Mahāyāna sūtras, and this is certainly the case in The Sūtra of the Sublime Golden Light. There are three versions of The Sūtra of the Sublime Golden Light in Tibetan: a twenty-one-chapter version (Toh 557), a twenty-nine-chapter version (Toh 556), and a thirty-one-chapter version (Toh 555). The contents of Putting an End to Karmic Obscurations are absent in the shortest version but are included in both of the longer versions of the sūtra as their fifth chapter. The brief introduction and conclusion of Putting an End to Karmic Obscurations in its independent form are omitted in the versions of The Sūtra of the Sublime Golden Light, so instead of it being taught in Śrāvastī, it is, like the rest of The Sūtra of the Sublime Golden Light, taught on Vulture Peak near Rājagṛha.

i.6The key chapter in The Sutra of the Sublime Golden Light in all three versions is that which provides a prayer of confession heard by a young man of Rājagṛha who, in a dream, hears that prayer emanating from a drum. The Buddha then teaches that this prayer is to be recited in order to purify oneself of karmic obscurations. The sūtra gives other methods of purification, even a purifying bath, and therefore it is not surprising that Putting an End to Karmic Obscurations may have later been included as one of its chapters.

i.7In the Degé Kangyur, Putting an End to Karmic Obscurations is preceded by the similarly titled The Purification of Karmic Obscurations, and these two are preceded by Eliminating Ajātaśatru’s Remorse and The Śrīgupta Sūtra. Both of these deal with individuals who have committed extremely bad actions‍—King Ajātaśatru committed patricide and the householder Śrīgupta attempted to assassinate the Buddha‍—but are able to be saved from the effects of those actions by following the Buddha’s teachings.

i.8The colophon of Putting an End to Karmic Obscurations states that it was translated by Jinamitra, Dānaśīla, and Yeshé Dé, which would have been in the early ninth century. This and chapter 5 of the twenty-nine-chapter version of The Sūtra of the Sublime Golden Light (Toh 556) are identical, so it appears that the Tibetan translators either incorporated a translation of Putting an End to Karmic Obscurations into The Sūtra of the Sublime Golden Light or extracted its chapter 5 with the addition of a translation of its introduction and conclusion.

i.9The thirty-one-chapter Tibetan version of The Sūtra of the Sublime Golden Light was translated from Yijing’s Chinese translation. The Chinese version of Putting an End to Karmic Obscurations, which is titled Da sheng san ju chan hui jing 大乘三聚懺悔經, is very similar to Yijing’s translation of chapter 5. However, the language of chapter 5 in the Tibetan translation of Yijing’s version differs considerably from the Tibetan translation from the Sanskrit of the twenty-nine-chapter version (Toh 556) and the present sūtra.