Introduction

i.1Discussions of Thus-Gone Ones takes place in the Jeta’s Grove at the end of the monsoon. It begins with the Buddha Śākyamuni emerging from a meditative absorption in which he has rested for the entire three-month rainy season retreat. A variety of beings arrive to pay homage and ask the Buddha what he has been occupied with in this meditative state. In response, the Buddha reveals that he has been engaged in conversation with other buddhas across a number of worlds. The text then consists primarily of the Buddha relaying those conversations to various interlocutors, beginning with Mañjuśrī, and replying to their questions about the meaning of these discussions. From their conversations, we learn that the buddhas take turns asking each other about the fundamental nature and basis of their awakening. Rather than offering direct answers to these questions, the buddhas make use of a series of equivalencies to indirectly point out the nonconceptual basis on which their awakening is founded. In order to make the point that this nonconceptual basis is in fact shared by all phenomena, they equate their awakening to a wide range of worldly phenomena, including even the ignorance of beings and various negative deeds. Thus, it appears that the central teaching of this discourse is the revelation that all phenomena, including buddhas themselves, share one fundamental basis.

i.2While the Tibetan version has no structural divisions, the sūtra can be understood to have five parts based on its narrative turns. The first part consists of a conversation between the Buddha and the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī in which the Buddha describes many of his conversations with other buddhas in other worlds. In this section we learn that buddhas of the past and future also teach this sūtra at the exact spot at which the Buddha is currently teaching it. We also learn about the absorption through which the Buddha Śākyamuni is able to communicate with buddhas across various world systems. The second part consists of a visit from King Prasenajit of Kośala and his conversation with the Buddha, which includes a teaching on four important principles that a Buddhist king should observe and a teaching on the nonconceptual, empty nature of all phenomena. The third and fourth parts consist of conversations between the Buddha Śākyamuni and various members of the audience, in which they discuss the nonconceptual nature of phenomena as well as the benefits of receiving this teaching. Here the Buddha reveals that an inconceivably large number of buddhas who exist in various worlds are all simultaneously expounding this very same teaching. The Buddha also reveals that the absorption through which he communicates with the other buddhas is called freedom from the realm of phenomena . The fifth and final part of the teaching begins with a student named Heart of the Glorious Lotus making an offering of his understanding of the Buddha’s teaching on the inconceivable nature of phenomena. In response to questioning from Śāriputra, he causes himself to disappear in order to demonstrate the way words are merely symbolic designations used to describe things that do not exist in any ultimate sense.

i.3We know very little historically about this text. To the best of our knowledge, a Sanskrit version of this sūtra is no longer extant. It also appears that it was never translated into Chinese. Hence, the only witness we have today is the Tibetan translation included in the Kangyur. In the absence of any Sanskrit manuscript or Chinese translation, it is difficult to determine much about the history of this scripture in India and East Asia, or to evaluate its importance in Buddhist India.

i.4The colophon of the Tibetan translation states that it was produced by the Indian paṇḍita Jñānagarbha and the Tibetan monk named Palgyi Yang (Tib. dpal gyi dbyangs), and was subsequently edited during the same period by the prolific translator Paltsek. Thus, the Tibetan translation, which we have rendered into English here, would have been completed during the early translation period, a dating that is also attested to by the text’s inclusion in the early ninth-century Denkarma (Tib. ldan dkar ma) catalog. In Tibet, we are only aware of one citation of Discussions of Thus-Gone Ones from the scholar Chökyi Drakpa (Tib. chos kyi grags pa, 1595–1659), who mentions this text as scriptural proof of the existence of an infinite number of buddhas. Apart from that, it does not appear that this text had a large influence within the Tibetan scholastic tradition. Within the Degé Kangyur, this text is placed immediately after another similarly titled sūtra, Discussions of Buddhas (Buddhasaṅgīti, sangs rgyas bgro ba, Toh 228). The exact relationship, if any, between these two texts is unclear to us, but both are similar in presenting accounts of the Buddha Śākyamuni’s discussions with other buddhas across world systems.

i.5The translation presented here was made based on the Degé edition, in consultation with the Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma) and the Stok Palace manuscript edition.