Introduction

i.1The Dharma Council is a Great Vehicle sūtra in which the view, practices, and modes of conduct of a bodhisattva are taught, debated, and confirmed communally by the Buddhist saṅgha. Though the Buddha does teach in this sūtra, his primary role is to confirm and authorize the statements of his disciples as genuine expressions of the Dharma. The majority of the teachings are instead delivered by a host of bodhisattvas and śrāvakas present in his assembly. Among them, the bodhisattva Nirārambha takes center stage, delivering long discourses and engaging in dialogues and debates on the key points of Great Vehicle Buddhism. Following Nirārambha’s example, numerous bodhisattvas and śrāvakas express their own understanding of the path, and they win praise and confirmation from the Buddha for their eloquent expositions of the Dharma. As a Great Vehicle sūtra, The Dharma Council is grounded in the themes of emptiness, nonconceptuality, and skillful compassionate conduct; from these doctrinal touchstones spring a wide-ranging articulation of the Dharma that is the fruit of the saṅgha’s collective engagement with the teachings of the Buddha.

i.2The Sanskrit title of this sūtra by which it is most widely known is the Dharma­saṅgīti­sūtra. This is the Sanskrit title given by the Tibetan translators, and it is the title by which the sūtra is cited in numerous Indian commentarial sources. The term dharmasaṅgīti has nuanced shades of meaning that find expression in both the setting and content of the sūtra. In perhaps its most basic sense, the term saṅgīti describes a chorus or ensemble musical performance. In a specifically religious setting, it can refer to the communal recitation and rehearsal of doctrine, of dharma. In the Buddhist tradition, dharmasaṅgīti can thus refer to a gathering of the Buddhist saṅgha to collectively recite sections of the Tripiṭika, the “Three Baskets” of the Buddhist canon: Sūtra, Vinaya, and Abhidharma. Such a gathering would have been led by one or more groups of Dharma reciters (dharmabhāṇaka; chos smra ba) who were responsible for memorizing and faithfully transmitting specific sections of the canon.

i.3More broadly, the term dharmasaṅgīti refers not only to a communal oral rehearsal of the Dharma, but also to a gathering or “council” in which the Dharma is collectively confirmed, refined, and codified. It is just such a gathering that is depicted here in The Dharma Council. The sūtra describes an event in which the saṅgha has gathered to listen to the teachings of the Buddha, to discuss and debate the Dharma among themselves, and then to present their understanding to the Buddha as a way of refining that understanding and ultimately receiving confirmation that it is genuine and correct. The notion of a “Dharma council” would eventually take on a new shade of meaning after the passing of the Buddha, when the responsibility to maintain the integrity of the Dharma, sustain its faithful transmission, root out unwanted accretions, and resolve disputes fell to the saṅgha. This latter kind of Dharma council is not precisely what is described in this sūtra, but it does further underscore the role of saṅgītis in constituting and preserving the Dharma as it has been transmitted since the earliest days of the Buddhist community.

i.4While the term dharmasaṅgīti generally refers to a communal event, it is also frequently used to identify a specific “Dharma discourse” given by the Buddha or one of his disciples. Thus, the sūtra may have been titled the Dharma­saṅgīti­sūtra as a reflection of its narrative setting, but also because the sūtra is composed of numerous individual discourses delivered by a range of figures that includes the Buddha, bodhisattvas, śrāvakas, and even a god ( devaputra ). In this series of discrete discourses, a given member of the saṅgha presents or discusses their understanding of the Dharma and then asks the Buddha if their discourse is in accord with his. The Buddha consistently agrees that it is, thereby establishing that individual discourse as part of the collective Dharma. Thus, The Dharma Council (Dharmasaṅgīti) describes an event in which multiple Dharma discourses (dharmasaṅgīti) are articulated and authorized as the true Dharma.

i.5This dual valence of dharmasaṅgīti is apparent in the way the Sanskrit term was handled by the Tibetan translators. The title of the sūtra, which is consistent across all versions of the Tibetan canon consulted, is chos yang dag par sdud pa'i mdo. The root verb sdud pa means to “gather” or “collect,” thus bringing to the fore the communal, collective sense of the term. In the body of the translation, however, the Tibetan translators exclusively used chos yang dag par brjod pa. The root verb used here, bjod pa, means to “speak,” “express,” or, as translated below, “discourse” on the Dharma.

i.6There is yet another valence of the term dharmasaṅgīti operative in this text, one that can be inferred through the Tibetan title chos yang dag par sdud pa. The Tibetan term yang dag par sdud pa specifically conveys the sense of a Dharma “collection” or “compendium.” This is also the sense given by the Chinese title 法集經 (fa ji jing), where 集 (ji) means to “compile,” “collect,” or “assemble.” The Dharma Council is precisely that: a comprehensive and detailed presentation of Great Vehicle Buddhism that incorporates many of its most prominent doctrines, categories, guidelines, and terminologies. The dual valence of the Tibetan term to mean both “a Dharma gathering” and “a compendium of the Dharma” may have been appealing to its translators, and might have been particularly apt for the Tibetan community who first received and then transmitted the sūtra in a textual format.

i.7Despite being well known in India, China, and Tibet as the Dharma­saṅgīti­sūtra, this is not the title given in the sūtra’s colophon as preserved in the Tibetan translation. There, the text is identified as the “Nirārambha Chapter” (rtsom pa med kyi le’u) of a sūtra titled chos thams cad yang dag par sdud pa stong phrag brgya pa, Discourse on All Dharmas, a Sūtra in One Hundred Thousand Lines. This sūtra is counted as the twelfth chapter of that text, and it is named after its primary figure, Nirārambha. Thus, the text that is now known as the Dharma­saṅgīti­sūtra was considered by its compilers to be just one chapter of a much longer text, which, given the title, may have included the Dharma discourses of additional śrāvakas, bodhisattvas, and perhaps other classes of beings. We may never be able to determine the constitution of such a text or what its other chapters may have been‍—there are no other extant texts that are identified with this title or as chapters thereof, and all available evidence suggests that this sūtra was known by the title Dharma­saṅgīti­sūtra in India. It is nonetheless noteworthy that a sūtra that already contained a wealth of Dharma discourses delivered by a variety of Buddhist figures was itself at one time considered part of a much longer collection of discourses on the Dharma.

Summary

i.8The Dharma Council presents an account of a gathering of the Buddhist saṅgha in which the Dharma is collectively taught, discussed, debated, and ultimately confirmed. The Buddha Śākyamuni is at the center of this gathering, gives the first brief teaching, and acts as the final arbiter of the Dharma discourses given, but he is not the primary teacher in the sūtra nor its most prominent figure. That distinction goes to the bodhisattva Nirārambha, whose long discourse on the Dharma and his dialogues with other members of the saṅgha comprise the bulk of the sūtra. Nirārambha is at times in dialogue with the Buddha and other bodhisattvas and śrāvakas‍—primarily the bodhisattva Mativikrama and the great śrāvakas Śāriputra and Subhūti‍—but the majority of the sūtra consists of his long monologues on a wide range of Great Vehicle topics and themes. Following Nirārambha’s discourses, a host of śrāvakas and bodhisattvas rise from their seats to present their understanding of the Great Vehicle through a series of individual discourses. The Buddha confirms each discourse to be in perfect accord with his realization and teachings, thereby authorizing their statements as the genuine Dharma to be upheld and propagated. Thus, while The Dharma Council is a sūtra about the Dharma, it also provides insight into the Buddhist community’s perspective on the collective constitution of the Dharma through teaching, discussion, and debate.

i.9The sūtra takes place in a palace of inestimable size and grandeur miraculously emanated by the Buddha, but beyond this detail we are not given a precise location for the proceedings. Śākyamuni is joined in this palace by a large assembly composed of śrāvakas (most of whom are arhats), bodhisattvas, and a contingent of gods and supernatural beings. The Buddha is the first to speak, delivering a relatively short discourse he names Entering the Gate of the Progressive Approach to All Dharmas (chos thams cad kyi go rims kyi tshul gyi sgo la ’jug pa) that consists primarily of short, aphoristic phrases that touch on many of the core concepts and categories of Great Vehicle Buddhism. It is a teaching that is exhaustive in content while being pithy in expression.

i.10After the Buddha completes his teaching, the scene shifts to another location in the palace, away from the Buddha, where the bodhisattvas Nirārambha and Mativikrama have met to take up a Dharma discourse they call Vast Intelligence (blo gros yangs pa). It is this discourse that occupies most of the sūtra’s length‍—fifty-three of the text’s ninety-nine folios‍—and consists of a series of monologues by Nirārambha prompted by the questions of Mativikrama. The Vast Intelligence discourse can be roughly divided into two long sections. In the first, Nirārambha responds to Mativikrama’s questions on the view and comportment of a bodhisattva by describing the various “approaches” (tshul la ’jug pa) bodhisattvas should adopt. To each of Mativikrama’s questions Nirārambha responds with numerous sets of ten such approaches. Each set of ten is unpacked at length, thereby providing a fine-grained examination of the full range of Great Vehicle topics.

i.11In the second section of Vast Intelligence, Mativikrama engages Nirārambha in a further dialogue on specific points of the Dharma. Here, Mativikrama asks about the six perfections, the nature of awakening, the four truths of the noble ones, and the ten applications of mindfulness, among other topics. Nirārambha’s discourse on the ten applications of mindfulness is particularly detailed and extensive and takes up most of this section of his teaching. Throughout his discourse, no matter the specific topic, Nirārambha returns again and again to the themes of emptiness, love and compassion, and nonconceptuality, thus underscoring the nondualistic and altruistic orientation at the heart of bodhisattva practice. When the two bodhisattvas conclude their dialogue, they approach the Buddha to seek confirmation of their understanding of the Dharma. Śākyamuni readily approves, declaring their discourse to be in accord with the discourse of all buddhas and to have furthered the Buddha’s work.

i.12With the conclusion of the Vast Intelligence discourse, Mativikrama cedes the stage, but Nirārambha’s central role continues. For the remainder of the sūtra Nirārambha stays near the Buddha, fielding questions from members of the assembly and posing questions of his own to Śākyamuni. The first to speak is the Buddha’s great śrāvaka disciple Śāriputra, who rises from the assembly to ask Nirārambha about the meaning of his name, which can be interpreted to mean “disengaged,” and presses him further on some of the points he made in his earlier discourse. Nirārambha’s responses to Śāriputra’s many questions again focus on emptiness, nonduality, and nonconceptuality as the determining principles behind not only his own, but all bodhisattvas’ activities. Their conversation involves much back-and-forth, and some chiding from Nirārambha concerning Śāriputra’s narrow and mistaken views, but in the end Śāriputra accepts Nirārambha’s position as superior to his own and rejoices in Nirārambha’s confident command of the Dharma.

i.13Following this exchange, Nirārambha adopts the role of interlocutor and turns to the Buddha to ask questions of his own. Briefly then, and for the first moment since the opening folios of the text, the Buddha is the primary voice of the Dharma. Following this relatively short teaching, the remainder of the sūtra presents a communal articulation of the Dharma. Several bodhisattvas and śrāvakas, as well as one god, stand up in turn to present their own understanding of the Dharma to the Buddha, and in each case he confirms their understanding as a genuine Dharma discourse. Mativikrama is the first to speak, followed by Śāriputra, Maudgalyāyana, Pūrṇa Maitrāyaṇīputra, Kātyāyana, Kāśyapa, Subhūti, Aniruddha, Rāhula, Upāli, Ānanda, Maitreya, Priyadarśana, Sunetra, Sujāta, Sārthavāha, Prabhāketu, Vimukticandra, Sāgaramati, Avalokiteśvara, Dṛḍhamati, Excellent Discipline, Gaganagañja, and Mañjuśrī.

i.14At the completion of this collective expression of the Dharma, Nirārambha offers the Buddha a precious pearl necklace, which, through the Buddha’s miraculous power, becomes an ornate palace that floats in the air above his head and follows him wherever he goes. The Buddha smiles at this, and so initiates a short vignette on the Buddha’s smile that is common to many sūtras: rays of multicolored light shine forth from his mouth, illuminate infinite world systems and bring relief to the beings suffering there, and then return to dissolve into the crown of the Buddha’s head. As in other sūtras, this miraculous display prompts Ānanda to ask why the Buddha is smiling so. It is because the Buddha, pleased by Nirārambha’s offering and his elucidation of the Dharma, is about to give him the prophecy of his awakening to complete buddhahood. Subhūti then turns to Nirārambha to offer words of congratulations, but Nirārambha detects in his statements the traces of the narrow conceptual view of a śrāvaka and critiques him. Following Nirārambha’s incisive interrogation, Subhūti concedes that the conventions of śrāvakas are the same as those of worldly beings, which in Nirārambha’s view are only appropriate to protect worldly beings, who are scared of the ultimate, and not for noble ones, who take joy in ultimate truth. Nirārambha then summarizes the truth of emptiness, dependent arising, and nonarising and explains that the prophecy of buddhahood is for those for whom success does not exist, who feel no joy in hearing the prophecy, and who do not leave ordinary people behind.

i.15The final discourse of the text belongs to the Buddha and involves a conversation not with a bodhisattva or śrāvaka, but with a god named Excellent Mind (bzang sems). Excellent Mind asks the Buddha about the scope of a bodhisattva’s awakening, and what guidelines keep the bodhisattvas firmly on their path. The Buddha’s instruction consists of a long series of pithy statements that, much like his introductory discourse, cover the entire range of Great Vehicle doctrines, practices, and modes of conduct. At the completion of the Buddha’s teaching, Excellent Mind presents his own understanding as the bodhisattvas and śrāvakas before him had, and the Buddha confirms his understanding as a clear and effective articulation of the Dharma.

i.16The Dharma Council concludes with a challenge from the Buddha: who present in the assembly has the courage to uphold and propagate this approach to the Dharma? A number of the bodhisattvas who previously spoke again rise to make a final statement of their commitment, and in each case the words of their promises are directly related to their name or a well-known quality. Thus, Nirārambha (“Disengaged”) says that he will do so while free of engagement; Avalokiteśvara (“The Lord Who Watches Over,” associated with compassion) will do so through great compassion; Maitreya (“Loving”) will do so through love; Priyadarśana (“Pleasing to Behold”) will do by satisfying those beings who behold him; Sārthavāha (“Caravan Leader” or “Captain”) will guide beings while putting their welfare above his own; and Mañjuśrī (associated with wisdom) will do so through correct orientation to the path. The Buddha once again approves of these statements and confirms their efficacy. The sūtra then comes to a close as everyone in the assembly and throughout the world system rejoices and sings the Buddha’s praises.

Textual History

i.17Though it is difficult to determine precisely when and in what circles The Dharma Council first circulated, the sūtra appears to have gained some degree of renown in India by the eighth century ᴄᴇ, as we find it cited in a number of important works by luminaries of Great Vehicle Buddhism beginning in that period. It is cited most frequently by Śāntideva, the eighth-century Indian master who composed the Bodhi­caryāvatāra. He cites The Dharma Council twenty-three times in the Śikṣāsamuccaya, itself a compendium of Great Vehicle Buddhist practice, as scriptural support for his own perspectives and guidance on a diverse array of practices. It is also cited in another famous Dharma compendium, the Sūtrasamuccaya attributed to Nāgārjuna, as well as by the eighth-century master Kamalaśīla, who refers to it in his survey of Great Vehicle practice, the Bhāvanākrama, as well as in the Vajra­cchedikāṭīkā, his commentary on the Vajracchedikā of the Prajñāpāramitā corpus. The Dharma Council is also cited by Prajñākaramati (ca. eighth–ninth century), Haribhadra (ca. ninth century), Atiśa Dīpaṅkaraśrījñāna (982–1055), and the tantric exegetes Ratnākaraśānti (ca. eleventh century) and Abhayākaragupta (ca. eleventh–twelfth century), among others. The Dharma Council thus appears to have been highly regarded as a scriptural touchstone by a number of prominent Indian masters of the Great Vehicle and the Vajrayāna. This high regard was sustained in Tibet, where The Dharma Council was cited extensively, including by Tsongkhapa Losang Drakpa (tsong kha pa blo bzang grags pa, 1357–1419). The Sakya patriarch Phakpa Lodrö Gyaltsen (’phags pa blo gros rgyal mtshan, 1235–80) even cited the sūtra in his written advice to the Mongol warlord and emperor Qubilai Khan.

i.18Despite the richness of The Dharma Council’s legacy in the writings of subsequent Indian masters, no complete version of the sūtra is extant in Sanskrit. Some passages from the text are recoverable in Sanskrit witnesses of the texts listed above, but a complete version of the text is only available in Chinese and Tibetan translation. The Dharma Council was translated into Chinese by Bodhiruci (菩提流支) in 515 ᴄᴇ with the title 佛說法集經 (Taishō 761), making it centuries earlier than the Tibetan translation. The Tibetan translation was completed by Bandé Yeshé Dé in collaboration with the Indian masters Mañjuśrīgarbha, Vijayaśīla, and Śīlendrabodhi. This locates the translation of The Dharma Council in the late eighth or early ninth century, a fact further confirmed by the sūtra’s inclusion in the Denkarma and Phangthangma catalogs of imperial-period translations. While this translation appears to be common to all Kangyurs (as evinced by the use of the same colophon), the version found in the Stok Palace Kangyur uniquely preserves a number of semantically synonymous yet variant translations, suggesting that the Tibetan translation of The Dharma Council has been significantly redacted at some point in its textual history.

About this Translation

i.19The English translation presented here is based on the Degé version of the Tibetan translation. The Stok Palace and Phukdrak versions were also consulted, as were the variant readings reported in the Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma) of the Degé Kangyur. Though no complete version of the sūtra is extant in Sanskrit, a number of passages attested in the sources listed above, particularly those in the Śikṣāsamuccaya, informed the translation of the relevant sections of the text. Passages where Sanskrit sources were consulted have been noted.