Introduction
i.1Taking Refuge in the Three Jewels unfolds in the Jeta’s Grove at Śrāvastī, where the Buddha Śākyamuni is residing with a large gathering of monks. The sūtra begins as the venerable Śāriputra, who is practicing meditation alone in the forest, wonders how much merit is obtained by those who take refuge in the Three Jewels: the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṅgha. After finishing his meditation practice, Śāriputra goes before the Buddha Śākyamuni and requests the Buddha to teach on that topic. In his answer, the Buddha presents an analogy that is meant to describe the enormous merit that such devotees obtain. Even if someone could magically erect a stūpa the size of the entire world and make vast, miraculous offerings to it for eons on end, the merit gained thereby would not constitute even a fraction of the merit gained by those who take refuge in the Three Jewels. After the Buddha has delivered this teaching, the earth quakes, lightning strikes, and the gods in the heavens play divine music to celebrate the teaching. Finally, the Buddha instructs Ānanda to remember the teaching so that he can pass it on to others.
i.1《皈依三寶》這部經典的場景設在舍衛城的祇樹給孤獨園，佛陀釋迦牟尼在那裡與大量僧眾聚集在一起。經典開始時，尊者舍利弗獨自在森林中修習禪定，他思考著那些皈依三寶的人會獲得多少功德。三寶是指佛陀、法和僧伽。舍利弗完成了禪定修習後，來到佛陀釋迦牟尼的面前，請求佛陀教導關於這個主題的內容。在回答中，佛陀提出了一個比喻，目的是說明那些皈依者所獲得的巨大功德。即使有人能夠神奇地建立一座與整個世界一樣大的塔，並在無數劫中向它進行廣大、不可思議的供養，由此獲得的功德也不會構成那些皈依三寶之人所獲得功德的一分。佛陀傳授完這個教法後，大地震動，閃電劃過，天界的諸神奏響天樂來慶祝這個教法。最後，佛陀囑咐阿難記住這個教法，以便他能將其傳授給他人。
i.2Very little is known about the history of this text in India. The Sanskrit version of this sūtra is no longer extant, and it seems to have never been translated into Chinese. Hence, the only witness of this sūtra available today is the Tibetan translation included in the Kangyur. The colophon of the Tibetan translation states that it was produced by the Indian paṇḍita Sarvajñādeva and the Tibetan translator-editor Paltsek, thus locating its translation in the late eighth or early ninth century. This dating is also confirmed by the text’s inclusion in the Denkarma (lhan/ldan dkar ma) catalog of the early ninth century ᴄᴇ. The text has previously been translated into English by Kenneth Liberman with the assistance of Jampa Losel in 1988, and most recently, there is another English translation by Peter Skilling, along with some helpful notes, found in his 2021 anthology Questioning the Buddha: A Selection of Twenty-Five Sutras. The translation presented here was made primarily based on the Degé edition, in consultation with the Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma) and the Stok Palace manuscript edition.
i.2關於此經在印度的歷史，所知甚少。此經的梵文版本已不復存在，似乎也從未被翻譯成中文。因此，目前僅有的此經記載就是藏文版《甘珠爾》中所收錄的藏譯本。藏譯本的末記載明，此譯本由印度班智達一切智天和藏地譯者兼編輯巴楚克共同完成，因此將其翻譯時間定在八世紀末或九世紀初。這個年代判斷也得到九世紀初《丹噶爾瑪》目錄中包含此經而得以確認。此經曾於一九八八年由肯尼思·利伯曼在詹巴·洛塞爾的協助下翻譯成英文，最近彼得·斯基林在其二〇二一年出版的論文集《質疑佛陀：二十五部經典精選》中也提供了英文翻譯以及一些有用的註釋。本譯文主要以《德格版》為基礎，並參考了《對勘版》和斯托克皇宮手稿版本而成。