Introduction

i.1Distinguishing Phenomena and What Is Meaningful is a scripture that in the Degé Kangyur belongs to the General Sūtra section. The sūtra is set in Śrāvastī, in Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍada’s Park, where the Buddha Śākyamuni is residing with a gathering of monks and bodhisattvas. In delivering his teaching, Śākyamuni describes an ancient world known as Flower Origin, in which lived a buddha called Arisen from Flowers. That world was governed by a king known as Attainment of Victory, under whose rule everyone practiced the Great Vehicle. Prompted by the prince Ratnākara, the royal family goes to meet Arisen from Flowers. That buddha then teaches the audience about the insubstantial and unsatisfactory nature of the aggregates, and describes beings’ tendency to perceive the aggregates in a flawed manner: while the aggregates are actually impermanent, repulsive, unclean, and unreal, sentient beings conceive of them as lasting, beautiful, pure, and true. The Buddha Śākyamuni further explains how beings are themselves a product of their actions, and that the five aggregates (the components that together constitute a sentient being) are not purposely created by anyone.

i.2The sūtra thus presents a version of the well–known “four errors” (catvāro viparyāsāḥ, phyin ci log pa bzhi), often described in Buddhist canonical literature as the main underpinnings of sentient beings’ mistaken view of the world: erroneously perceiving (1) the impermanent to be permanent, (2) the painful to be pleasant, (3) the dirty to be clean, and (4) what has no self to have a self. The four errors are discussed extensively not only in the Abhidharma, but also in the Catuḥśataka of Āryadeva (fl. third century), where each is treated in a separate chapter (chapters 6–9). The present sūtra invokes the four errors, but instead of presenting the illusion that the painful is pleasant, it speaks of the illusion that the repulsive (mi sdug pa) is beautiful (sdug pa). Aside from this minor twist, the context remains that of the usual four errors.

i.3Once the Buddha Arisen from Flowers has taught the audience, the king, queen, prince, and the entire retinue all take ordination. The thus-gone one then prophesies Prince Ratnākara’s awakening, revealing his future name, world, lifespan, and the nature of his teachings. Toward the end of the sūtra, the Buddha Śākyamuni reveals the current identity of the main characters of his narrative. Arisen from Flowers has now become the buddha Amitābha, and Ratnākara has become the bodhisattva known as Avalokiteśvara. In the remainder of the sūtra, Śākyamuni reveals that anyone who faithfully receives this Dharma teaching will be reborn in Sukhāvatī (the buddha realm of Amitābha) and that all women who touch or read this sūtra will be able to exchange their female bodies for male forms and never again take rebirth in a female body.

i.4The title of the sūtra could be interpreted in a number of different ways, some of which would require translations other than the one we have chosen. Chos (dharma) could refer to qualities, factors, practices, states, phenomena, or the teachings, while don (artha), too, has a wide range of meanings including object, referent, goal, purpose, worth, use, meaning, and cause. We have inevitably had to narrow the possibilities down to produce a rendering in English.

i.5There is no extant Sanskrit version of this scripture, and the sūtra does not appear to have been translated into Chinese. In producing this translation, we have based our work on the Degé xylograph Kangyur while consulting the Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma), as well as the Stok Palace manuscript Kangyur. The colophon of the sūtra states that it was translated by the Indian preceptors Jinamitra and Dānaśīla, as well as the prolific Tibetan translator Yeshé Dé. We can therefore date the Tibetan translation to the late eighth or early ninth century, and this is confirmed by the text’s inclusion in the early ninth century Denkarma (ldan dkar ma) and Phangthangma (’phang thang ma) catalogues.