Introduction

i.1The Sūtra on the Benefits of the Five Precepts, or, as it is also called, The Sūtra That Teaches the Benefits of the Five Disciplines, is among the few texts in the Tibetan Kangyur that also belong to the Theravāda tradition. It is the seventh of the so-called “thirteen late-translated sūtras.” These were translated into Tibetan from Pali in the first decade of the fourteenth century at Tharpaling by Tharpa Lotsawa Nyima Gyaltsen Palsangpo and the visiting Sinhalese monk Ānandaśrī, at the request of Drakpa Gyaltsen, the local ruler of Zhalu.

i.2This sūtra is, however, unique within this group of thirteen texts in that part of its content has no closely matching parallel in the Pali literature.

i.3As observed by Peter Skilling, the first part of the sūtra is almost identical in content to a short sutta extant in the Pali canon, the Samajīvīsutta, and may be considered a direct translation of it. In this sutta, the householder Nakulapitā and his wife Nakulamātā, who have been together since they were very young without even the thought of infidelity, ask the Buddha how they can ensure that they will remain together in future lives. The Buddha replies that when both partners share the wish to remain together, and when both are “equal in faith, ethical discipline, generosity, and wisdom,” their continuing association can be achieved. This short discourse with the couple then concludes with three verses in which the Buddha again affirms that when a husband and wife are loving toward each other, practice the Dharma together, and are equal in ethical discipline, they will be reborn together in a heavenly realm where they will enjoy all the sense pleasures.

i.4The Tibetan text of Benefits of the Five Precepts continues with a further teaching given by the Buddha to some monks on the topic of the five “precepts” or “trainings” (Tib. bslab pa, Pali sikkhā, Skt. śikṣā), also called “ethical disciplines” (Tib. tshul khrims, Pali sīla, Skt. śīla). This longer section of the text has no direct parallel in the Pali canon, nor is it attested in any other Buddhist canonical language. The subject matter, however, is familiar to all Buddhist traditions, namely the five precepts, which are resolutions to abandon the five negative deeds of (1) killing, (2) stealing or taking what has not been given, (3) adultery or sexual misconduct, (4) lying and slander, and (5) consuming intoxicants. These are the five basic precepts undertaken by all committed Buddhists, whether lay or monastic, that are to be cultivated so as to become second nature (the core sense of the Sanskrit word śīla, meaning “character,” “nature,” or “habit”).

i.5In this sūtra, the presentation of the five precepts follows a general pattern: First, the negative karmic results of committing the negative deed are described‍—first during rebirth in a particular hell and then as a human‍—and then, conversely, the positive karmic results of refraining from the negative deed are described‍—first during rebirth as a human and then in a heaven.

i.6Thus, the five negative deeds are each associated here with a particular great hell. For killing, it is the hell called Reviving; for stealing, the hell called Wailing; and for sexual misconduct, the hell called Loud Wailing; and, for each of these three, secondary or neighboring hells are also mentioned. Lying or slander leads to the hell called Black Thread, and, finally, the misuse of alcohol leads to the hell called Burning . Fuller descriptions of each of these hells can be found elsewhere in the Kangyur, in particular chapter 2 of The Application of Mindfulness of the Sacred Dharma (Saddharma­smṛtyupasthāna).

i.7Whether this second part of the sūtra also formed part of an original Pali source text translated by Tharpa Lotsawa and Ānandaśrī, or whether it was based on Ānandaśrī’s oral testimony, remains a matter of conjecture. It can be observed that the sūtra’s title in Tibetan matches the contents of the second part better than it does the contents of the first, since the narrative concerning the married couple mentions only four, rather than five, doctrinal virtues. Accordingly, the Samajīvīsutta is located within The Book of the Fours (Catukkanipāta) of the Aṅguttaranikāya in the Pali canon. With regard to the second part of the Tibetan sūtra, although there are texts in the Pali canon whose contents match those of our text in general terms‍—for example, a very short sutta in The Book of the Fives (Pañcakanipāta) of the Aṅguttaranikāya enumerates the five negative deeds that lead to rebirth in the hells and the respective renunciations that lead to rebirth in the heavens‍—none reflects the Tibetan text precisely. If a composite text matching the Tibetan did indeed exist in Pali, then, according to the logic of what Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi has called “composite numerical suttas,” it may have been an example of those texts now found in The Book of the Nines (Navakanipāta). However, The Book of the Nines, as presently constituted in the Aṅguttaranikāya, does not contain any sutta that combines the four qualities and the five precepts in this way.

i.8These considerations suggest two possible conclusions. One is that the fourteenth-century Tibetan translation of The Benefits of the Five Precepts is based on a no-longer-extant, or perhaps paracanonical, Pali original. The other is that the second part of this text, whose first part is a translation of a canonical version of The Benefits of the Five Precepts, is an augmented or commentarial section added, perhaps from an oral tradition, by Ānandaśrī.

i.9It is in this regard that mention should be made of a short passage within the second part that is (as far as we can determine) unique to this text, and that many readers‍—even those fortified with a strong dose of historical and cultural relativism‍—will find strikingly discordant with present-day values. It is an extra description, seemingly interposed as a supplement to the section on sexual misconduct, that places a woman’s lack of subservience and obedience to her husband in a stark moral light with descriptions of its own specific fruition in the experience of the hell realms. None of the other descriptions in this text of negative actions and the violent sufferings experienced by hell beings as their fruition make pleasant reading; nor indeed do comparable passages in a number of other canonical works and in the later literature. But this particular passage stands out as an outlier, and it would seem justifiable that its canonical status might at least be questioned.

i.10To our knowledge, this is the first full English translation of the sūtra to be published. A full translation into French was published by Léon Henri Feer in 1881, and partial English translations can be found in Cabezón 2017.

i.11This English translation was prepared from the Tibetan and compared with the Pali witnesses when they were available. The first part of the sūtra concerning the married couple was translated in close consultation with the Pali Samajīvīsutta as found in the Pali Text Society’s edition of the Aṅguttaranikāya and with Bhikkhu Bodhi’s English translation. Comparison with the Pali was very helpful, since, as observed by Skilling, there are some difficulties with the Tibetan of the “thirteen late-translated sūtras.” Where the Tibetan translation diverges in any significant way from the Pali it has been recorded in notes, as have significant variants in the Pali text across the major lineages of the Pali canon. The second part of The Benefits of the Five Precepts was translated from the Tibetan alone, as found in the Degé Kangyur, in consultation with the variant readings noted in the Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma) and the Stok Palace Kangyur. Variant readings that have been preferred over the Degé version or that offer plausible alternatives have also been recorded in notes.