Notes
n.1On the etymology of the term poṣadha, see the introduction (i.3) in The Questions of Dīrghanakha the Wandering Mendicant, Toh 342 (84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2021).
n.2This order varies from the typical series in which eating at the improper time (i.e., after noon) is listed sixth and the series concludes with the prohibition against using high and large beds. While the first five of these correspond to the standard vows observed by lay practitioners, namely upāsakas (Tib. dge bsnyen) and upāsikās (Tib. dge bsnyen ma), the three additional abstentions render them closer in kind to novice monastics, though the vows for novices count the abstentions related to entertainment and adornment separately and include a further vow not to accept money.
n.3According to Gregory Schopen, The Sūtra of Vasiṣṭha represents a “version of an old sūtra which occurs in five slightly different versions as the first of five suttas of the Uposathavagga of the Pali Aṅguttara-nikāya (iv 248–62).” See Schopen 1982, p. 227. Indeed, several Pali suttas overlap at various points with The Sūtra of Vasiṣṭha, perhaps most notably the Mūluposathasutta (AN 3.70), the Saṅkhittūposathasutta (AN 8.41), the Vitthatūposathasutta (AN 8.42), the Visākhūposathasutta (AN 8.43), and the Bojjhasutta (AN 8.45). For much of the text, the Vāseṭṭhasutta within the Aṅguttara Nikāya (i.e., AN 8.44) follows the Vitthatūposathasutta, but it also goes on to laud the benefits of observing the uposatha in general. The Vāseṭṭhasutta one finds in Sutta Nipāta 3.9 (cf. Majjhima Nikāya 98) is a sutta in which a brahmin named Vāseṭṭha asks the Buddha how to discern who is a true brahmin, and deals more with the topic of lay ethics in general without mention of the uposatha. For resonance with works that can be found within the Tengyur, it is worth mentioning Sunāyaśrīmitra’s Eight Verses on the Vows of Laypersons (Upāsakasaṁvarāṣṭaka, Toh 4141) and its commentary, An Explanation of “Eight Verses on the Vows of Laypersons” (Upāsakasaṁvarāṣṭakavivaraṇa, Toh 4142), wherein we find a section detailing the poṣadha. See the text beginning at folio 158.b.1. Giulio Agostini, in his 2010 edition and translation of the verses and their commentary, dates these works between the last quarter of the eleventh century and the first quarter of the twelfth.
n.4The Devatā Sūtra (Skt. Devatāsūtra; Tib. lha’i mdo, Toh 329) and the Maitreyavyākaraṇa (Tib. ’phags pa byams pa lung bstan pa). Although this latter text does not appear in the Degé Kangyur, it can be found in several others. See Resources for Kanjur and Tanjur Studies , Universität Wien, accessed March 27, 2022.
n.5Preserved in Persian and Arabic, this work was authored by Rashīd al-Dīn Hamadani (1247–1318), who used information obtained from a Kashmiri monk known as Kamālashrī Bakhshī to produce the India- and Buddhism-related sections. On this topic, see Schopen 1982 and Jahn 1956. Karl Jahn, writing in the middle of the twentieth century, produced a summary of the section that Schopen later determined to be a version of The Sūtra of Vasiṣṭha within the Compendium. Based on Jahn’s summary, the Vasiṣṭha account that Rashīd al-Dīn includes does, indeed, seem to be a version of the sūtra translated here. However, Jahn’s summary offers certain details that are absent from Toh 333. See, for example, Jahn 1956, p. 100, where the Buddha is said to list six days of the month on which one might fast if one wishes to be reborn in the Heaven of the Thirty-Three.
n.6Both catalogs (Denkarma folio 301.a and Phangthangma 2003, p. 22) classify The Sūtra of Vasiṣṭha as a “Hīnayāna sūtra” (theg pa chung ngu’i mdo).
n.7The unexplained shift from the sage Kapila to the brahmin Vasiṣṭha seems abrupt here. The text most obviously appears to imply that the great sage Kapila is out and about with others, perhaps his own followers, and one of them, a brahmin named Vasiṣṭha, proceeds with Kapila to where the Buddha is staying. This echoes the beginning of Sutta Nipāta 3.9 (cf. Majjhima Nikāya 98), in which we read that among the many brahmins who are staying at the Icchānaṅgala grove, two in particular—Vāseṭṭha and Bhāradvāja—while walking and wandering about for exercise, decide to approach the Buddha so that he can advise them on the question of true brahminhood. Alternatively, there is perhaps here a conflation of the two sages, Kapila and Vasiṣṭha. One might also speculate that at some point in the evolution of the text a distortion of some further reference to the setting, Kapilavastu, may have caused Kapila’s appearance as a protagonist in the narrative instead. The great sage Kapila is more usually mentioned as a figure of the distant past after whom the city of Kapilavastu was named, as for example in the story of the Śākya clan lineage near the beginning of the Saṅghabhedavastu (Toh 1, chapter 17, Degé Kangyur vol. 4, ’dul ba, ga, F.271.b).
n.8The “month-long fast” (dgung zlar smyung ba) might refer to the ancient brahmanical cāndrāyaṇavrata, or simply the cāndrāyaṇa, a month-long observance in which one begins by eating fourteen mouthfuls of food and decreases food intake by one mouthful every day until the new moon day, during which one does not eat anything at all. Then, during the moon’s waxing phase, one increases food intake by one mouthful a day until the full moon. See the Baudhāyana Dharmasūtra 3.8 as well as Manusmṛti 11.217–18 and the accompanying note provided by Olivelle 2009, p. 290.
n.9The term “special days” (cho ’phrul gyi phyogs) likely reflects the Sanskrit prātihāryapakṣa or the Pali pāṭihāriyapakkha , defined in The Pali Text Society’s Pali–English Dictionary as “an extra holiday, an ancient festival, not now kept.” (Here, “extra” likely means in addition to the new moon, the full moon, and the two days that fall halfway in between these two.) Ultimately, there is a lack of commentarial and scholarly consensus regarding what, exactly, this special holiday or festival period once entailed and when it is supposed to have occurred. However, certain sources take care to note that “special days” does not necessarily mean single extra days during the lunar fortnight. For monastics, at least, it might also refer to longer stretches of time, such as the three months of the summer rains retreat. On this topic, see, for example, Bodhi 2003, p. 480, n. 573; Bodhi 2012, p. 1642, n. 387.
n.10This is to say that one maintains the eightfold observance for a whole day, from the time one gets up, through the evening, and until the following day’s sunrise.
n.11Although the text only states the full formula for the first and last branches of the observance, it should be understood that one recites the same formula for each of the eight branches in turn.
n.12Tentative translation. The Tibetan here reads gang gA dang / ya mu na dang / mtsho ldan dang / khyim ldan dang / sa ste. The series of five sacred rivers in Pali is often the Ganges, the Yamunā, the Ajiravatī, the Sarabhū, and the Saritā. The Tibetan sa ste could be a phonetic approximation of the Saritā. The designation mtsho ldan, literally “has a lake,” could refer to the Sarasvatī river, or one of the rivers connected to Lake Manasarovar, perhaps the Brahmaputra. The designation khyim ldan, literally “has houses,” is difficult to identify with any certainty, and looking to sources on rivers in Vedic literature yields several possibilities. In another canonical use of the simile, we find dper na chu bo chen po lnga po ’di lta ste / gang gA dang / ya mu na dang / sar yu dang / gnas ldan dang / chen po zhes bya ba, i.e., the Ganges, the Yamunā, the Sarabhū, the Ajiravatī, and the Mahī. See The Chapter on Medicines (Toh 1–6), 8.227. Searching the Buddhist Digital Resource Center’s database of e-texts reveals that where later Tibetan texts refer to The Sūtra of Vasiṣṭha, the last river in the series varies especially (i.e., sa ste above), such that one also finds palgu (i.e., Phalgu) and pak+Sha.
n.13In Aṅguttara Nikāya 3.70 and 8.43, both of which are suttas on the uposatha, we find the sixteen kingdoms listed as Aṅga, Magadha, Kāsi, Kosala, Vajji, Malla, Ceti, Vaṅga, Kuru, Pañcāla, Maccha, Sūrasena, Assaka, Avanti, Gandhāra, and Kamboja.
n.14Not identified. Cases can be made for sreg pa (var. srag pa) as one of the kingdoms (without an obvious correlate) listed in n. 17 above, e.g., Ceti or Assaka, but further research is needed to determine exactly which kingdom it might be—if it might be any of these at all. For the variant srag pa, see the Phukdrak (phug brag) Kangyur vol. 65, folio 321.a.3, and the Hemis Kangyur vol. 78, folio 57.b.3.
n.15kA mA, possibly for Kāmarūpa, which is identified with modern-day Assam. On the history of this region, see Shin 2017.
n.16The spelling for this region varies. While the Degé and Comparative Edition read dpal sde, the Stok Palace Kangyur reads dpe sde, and the Hemis and Phukdrak Kangyurs read dpa’ sde. The latter is reflected above.
n.17nor bu (Skt. and Pali maṇi) typically denotes a “gem” or “jewel.” Since the text is enumerating specific precious items, however, “crystal” is used over the generic sense. On this point, see esp. The Pali Text Society’s Pali–English Dictionary, p. 516.
n.18shang ka shi la (Skt. śaṅkhaśilā; Pali sankhasilā). See the entry for sankha, “shell,” in The Pali Text Society’s Pali–English Dictionary, p. 663.
n.19spug. Understandings of what this term refers to vary, but it could be musāragalva (Pali masāragalla), i.e., a green precious stone like a green cat’s eye, or it could refer to pukh as in pukhraj, i.e., yellow sapphire.
n.20Tib. rgyal srid, literally “kingship” or “kingdom,” is an unexpected term here, not having been mentioned so far in the comparisons of merit. The term is sometimes found as a synonym of mtho ris, “the higher realms,” but we have chosen to interpret this term in line with the parallels to this part of the text in the Pali (as seen in the Vitthatūposathasutta, AN 8.42 and the texts that follow it, see n.3) where the comparison made is with the worth of kingship over the countries mentioned in the preceding passage, rather than (as in this text) with the merit of making of offerings with the precious substances contained in them.
n.21As written, the total numbers of years calculated in human time do not always seem to reflect the longhand multiplication of the initial number of god years by thirty, twelve, and x years. Here, the text reads lo brgya phrag dgu stong, i.e., nine hundred thousand years. However, multiplying fifty (years) times thirty (days) times twelve (months) times five hundred (years) yields nine million years.
n.22lo bye ba phrag bcu bzhi dang / lo stong phrag bcu bzhi. Multiplying two hundred (years) times thirty (days) times twelve (months) times two thousand (years) yields one hundred and forty-four million years.
n.23lo bye ba phrag nyis stong sum brgya dang / lo brgya phrag stong bzhi bcu. Multiplying eight hundred (years) times thirty (days) times twelve (months) times eight thousand (years) yields two billion three hundred four million years.
n.24lo bye ba phrag dgu brgya nyi shu rtsa gcig dang / lo brgya phrag stong drug cu [=bcu]. The numbers in this passage are even more curious than they are in the previous passages, given that here the initial number of years in human time, stong phrag drug cu [=bcu], i.e., sixty thousand, departs from the pattern in which the initial numbers increase twofold at each juncture. Following the pattern, eight hundred years would become sixteen hundred years. Multiplying sixteen hundred (years) times thirty (days) times twelve (months) times sixteen thousand (years) yields nine billion two hundred sixteen million years.