Introduction

i.1The Episode of Dṛḍhādhyāśaya is a relatively short sūtra that begins by introducing the bodhisattva-monk Dṛḍhādhyāśaya, who instantly falls in love with a merchant’s daughter while on an alms round. He tries to remedy his desire with thoughts of the unpleasantness of her body but fails, and so removes himself from her presence without receiving alms. The Buddha, who is nearby, is aware of Dṛḍhādhyāśaya’s situation and, in order to tame him, chases him with an apparition of the beautiful girl. The bodhisattva flees in fright, but the apparition catches up with him and tells him that fleeing will not help‍—only relinquishing his desire will. Distressed, the bodhisattva Dṛḍhādhyāśaya goes to the Buddha to request a teaching through which he can understand the nature of these events.

i.2Now that the bodhisattva Dṛḍhādhyāśaya is primed for such a teaching, the Buddha delivers a concise yet uncompromising and profound discourse on nonduality using the analogies of a magical illusion, a dream, a mirage, a reflection, the son of a barren woman, and a visual hallucination. Each analogy is used to indicate the erroneous way certain bhikṣus, bhikṣuṇīs, laymen, and laywomen present in the audience perceive things that do not really exist, and how they analyze whether they should take up or discard them, affirm or negate them. Of such practitioners the Buddha repeatedly states, “I do not say of such foolish people that they are cultivating the path; they should be said to be on the wrong course.” He declares that only a nondualistic approach is the correct way to practice: from the standpoint of the dharmadhātu one should not take up, discard, negate, or affirm any phenomenon.

i.3While there is no extant Sanskrit manuscript of The Episode of Dṛḍhādhyāśaya, the work was clearly known to Indian scholars, and indeed bears the distinction of being cited as scriptural authority in treatises both on Madhyamaka and on buddha nature. A longer portion of this text is cited in the twenty-third chapter of Candrakīrti’s The Clear Words (Prasannapadā, Toh 3860), of which there are multiple Sanskrit manuscripts extant. This citation is made in the commentary to verse 14 of the “Examination of Errors” chapter of Nāgārjuna’s Fundamental Treatise on the Middle Way (Mūla­madhyamaka­kārikā, Toh 3824).

i.4The Episode of Dṛḍhādhyāśaya has also been used as a scriptural source for the first three of the seven vajra topics (vajrapāda) in Maitreya’s Ratnagotra­vibhāga (Toh 4024)‍—namely, Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha. The prose commentary (vyākhyā, Toh 4025) to the root verses, which the Tibetan tradition attributes to Asaṅga, cites the following passage from a section that describes the text’s entrustment to Ānanda near the end of The Episode of Dṛḍhādhyāśaya:

“Ānanda, the Tathāgata is indemonstrable. He cannot be seen with the eyes. Ānanda, the Dharma is inexpressible. It cannot be heard with the ears. Ānanda, the Saṅgha is unconditioned. It cannot be honored with body, speech, or mind.”

i.6The Commentary on the Meaning of the Words, one of the earliest Tibetan commentaries on the Ratnagotra­vibhāga and its commentary, which has no author attribution, states that this sūtra passage is used as a source for the first three vajra topics because it indicates that they are difficult to realize nonconceptually‍—which is the fundamental feature of all seven vajra topics.

i.7The sūtra itself is unrelated in theme to any of the sources of buddha-nature doctrine itself, but because it is cited by Asaṅga in his commentary, it has been included in lists of sūtras of “definitive meaning” (Tib. nges don) by various Tibetan commentators such as Rinchen Yeshé (thirteenth/fourteenth century) and Gorampa Sönam Sengé (1429–89).

i.8This sūtra appears in all Kangyurs with the same Tibetan title, lhag pa’i bsam pa brtan pa’i le’u, but with two different Sanskrit titles: Sthīrādhyāśaya­parivarta and Dṛḍhādhyāśaya­parivarta. Some Kangyurs do not give a Sanskrit title. The sūtra is cited in Sanskrit manuscripts of the Ratnagotra­vibhāgavyākhyā with the title Dṛḍhādhyāśaya­parivarta and in Candrakīrti’s The Clear Words with the title Dṛḍhādhyāśaya­paripṛcchā in chapter 1 but Dṛḍhāśaya­paripṛcchā in chapter 23. Given these mentions in the Sanskrit literature, it is likely that the title Sthīrādhyāśaya­parivarta represents was a back-translation from the Tibetan.

i.9According to the colophon, The Episode of Dṛḍhādhyāśaya was translated into Tibetan by the Indian preceptors Surendrabodhi and Prajñāvarman and the Tibetan Yeshé Dé. The title is listed in the early ninth-century Denkarma (ldan dkar ma) and Phangthangma (’phang thang ma) imperial inventories, but in both, as well as in the lists of canonical texts compiled by Chomden Rikpai Raltri and Butön in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries respectively, the corresponding text is said to have four bam po (fascicles), i.e., to be much longer than the present text, so we cannot be entirely sure that this text is the one referenced. Despite these discrepancies, it seems reasonably likely that it was translated by the early ninth century. It is not present in the Chinese canon.

i.10This 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 version. Arihiro Kosaka’s (2021) translation and Sanskrit critical edition of the twenty-third chapter of Candrakīrti’s The Clear Words, which (as mentioned above) contains a lengthy citation from this sūtra, proved helpful for this translation.