Introduction

i.1Vidyutprāpta’s Questions is a Mahāyāna sūtra in which the bodhisattva Vidyutprāpta (“Lightning Attainment”) asks the Buddha how someone can help other beings attain enlightenment while remaining aware of the emptiness of all phenomena. The Buddha responds by explaining five “treasures” that enable bodhisattvas to teach the Dharma without being attached to the world. The first four include understanding sentient beings of various temperaments and the attitude necessary to teach them. The fifth, the treasure of the Dharma, is knowledge of the true nature of dharmas and skill in explaining this to ordinary beings.

i.2The description of the first treasure, for the lustful, is quite long. Bodhisattvas understand that different sentient beings have different desires and that even the most lustful can be brought to maturity, that is to say, to the completion of the Buddhist path and the verge of liberation, by the bodhisattva’s skillful means. The Buddha emphasizes that bodhisattvas can teach spontaneously, without effort or attachment, and he gives several analogies to illustrate the nondualistic action to which the bodhisattva must aspire.

i.3The treasures for the angry and for the deluded are described following a similar pattern, but more briefly and with only one analogy. In the case of the angry, the Buddha tells bodhisattvas to be patient and compassionate to free beings from their anger. For the deluded, bodhisattvas must use their vast knowledge of doctrine to remove various false views, like a doctor who uses the appropriate medicine to cure a specific disease.

i.4The description of the treasure for those who are afflicted equally by lust, anger, and delusion is longer and more elaborate. More analogies are given, as well as two extended parables, which show how important it is for bodhisattvas to understand the individual temperaments and abilities of sentient beings yet remain impartial and detached.

i.5The fifth treasure, the treasure of the Dharma, enables bodhisattvas to teach sentient beings who are attached to the objects of consciousness, i.e., the objects of sight up to mental objects. The sūtra does not relate this treasure specifically to one of the four temperaments, and it seems to be intended for all sentient beings. The treasure of the Dharma consists of analytical knowledge of meaning, dharmas, language, and eloquence, and it is the basis of the bodhisattva’s teaching of the undifferentiated nature of dharmas.

i.6Finally, after the Buddha explains to Vidyutprāpta the five inexhaustible treasures, another bodhisattva, Candradhvaja (“Moon Banner”), asks about the phrase “wisdom without effort.” In his answer, the Buddha describes the wisdom of a bodhisattva who can lead sentient beings to liberation while knowing that sentient beings ultimately do not exist.

Sources

i.7Vidyutprāpta’s Questions is no longer extant in Sanskrit. It has come down to us as the twentieth chapter or “assembly” of the Ratnakūṭa, a collection of forty-nine sūtras. The title of the Tibetan translation, glog thob kyis zhus pa, corresponds to the Sanskrit title, while the Chinese translation is called The Assembly on the Inexhaustible Treasures.

i.8The Tibetan translation was not made from the Sanskrit. Rather, it is one of the nine sūtras in the Tibetan Ratnakūṭa that were translated from Bodhiruci’s Chinese translation, perhaps by Chödrup (chos grub, ca. 745–849). The sūtra appears in the Denkarma (Tib. ldan dkar ma), a ninth-century catalog of translations made during Tibet’s imperial period, which confirms its early ninth-century origins. However, in the Denkarma, it appears under the alternative title ’phags pa glog sbyin gyis zhus pa, which translates into English as The Noble Questions of Vidyuddatta, Vidyuddatta being an attested Sanskrit equivalent to glog sbyin, meaning “Lightning Gift.” Interestingly, this sūtra also appears under yet another title in the Phangthangma imperial-period catalog, namely, ’phags pa klog gi dbyig gis zhus pa’i mdo, which translates as The Noble Sūtra of the Questions of Jewel of Recitations, the name klog gi dbyig lacking any attested Sanskrit equivalent.

i.9The Chinese translation (Taishō 310 [20]), like the translations of many of the other sūtras in the Ratnakūṭa, was made by Bodhiruci sometime between 706 and 713. Two versions of the Chinese title are found on lists of Ratnakūṭa sūtras in Chinese catalogs: Wu jin fu zang hui 無盡伏藏會 (The Assembly on the Inexhaustible Treasures) and Wu jin fu zang jing 無盡伏藏經 (The Sūtra on the Inexhaustible Treasures).

The Inexhaustible Treasures in Mahāyāna Literature

i.10In addition to the discussions of the inexhaustible treasures found in this sūtra, references to them appear elsewhere in Buddhist literature. In The Teaching of Vimalakīrti (Vimalakīrti­nirdeśa, Toh 176), for example, two passages refer to them. In the first, the layman Vimalakīrti is said to have in his house four inexhaustible treasures from which the poor can help themselves without the treasures being emptied. In the second, bodhisattvas are said to be inexhaustible treasures for the poor: they make the poor produce the thought of enlightenment. Lamotte points out that these metaphorical “treasures” later became the basis for the establishment of charitable institutions in China.

i.11Inexhaustible treasures are described more extensively in the Buddhāvataṃsaka­sūtra. An entire chapter of this sūtra is devoted to ten treasures of faith, ethics, shame, conscience, learning, giving, wisdom, recollection, preservation, and elocution. The chapter on the ten treasures, which is chapter 22 in Śikṣānanda’s Chinese version (the version translated by Cleary) and chapter 27 in the Tibetan version, explains in general the special features and activities of the bodhisattva. Although there is no clear relationship between the Buddhāvataṃsaka­sūtra chapter and Vidyutprāpta’s Questions, certain topics are found in both, such as the importance of the bodhisattva’s knowledge of conditioned arising and the ability to teach individuals according to their differing faculties and desires.

i.12Finally, the entry on Vidyutprāpta’s Questions in the Japanese dictionary of Buddhist literature, Bussho kaisetsu dai jiten, suggests that the sūtra contains a forerunner of the theory of buddha nature and that there is a connection between the sūtra and the theories of mind nature in The Principles of the Perfection of Wisdom in One Hundred and Fifty Lines (Prajñā­pāramitānayaśata­pañca­śatikā, Toh 17) and dharma nature in the Buddhāvataṃsaka­sūtra.

A Note on the Bodhisattva Vidyutprāpta

i.13Vidyutprāpta is not a very well-known bodhisattva in Mahāyāna literature. The Sanskrit name is found only in Tibetan transliteration of the title of the sūtra. The name in the Tibetan translation, Lokthob (glog thob), corresponds to the Sanskrit Vidyutprāpta but does not appear anywhere else in the Kangyur. The name Diande 電得 in the Chinese translation appears in several places in the Taishō Tripiṭaka: in the Aṅgulimālīya­sūtra (Yangjuemolu jing 央掘魔羅), where it is the name of a buddha, not a bodhisattva; in The Sūtra on the Names of the Buddha (Foming jing 佛名經), in a list of names of bodhisattvas, about whom nothing is said individually; and in Sengzhao’s commentary on The Teaching of Vimalakīrti, the Zhu weimojie jing 注維摩詰經, giving Kumārajīva’s explanation of the name Diande.

i.14However, Sengzhao’s apparent reference to the bodhisattva Vidyutprāpta is misleading, and some clarification is necessary. In fact, the name Diande 電得 is not found in any extant version of The Teaching of Vimalakīrti itself. In the Zhu weimojie jing, the name appears as one of many bodhisattvas in a long list, each explained individually by Sengzhao or Kumārajīva. In the Sanskrit text of the sūtra, the corresponding name is Vidyuddeva, “Lightning God”; in Zhiqian’s Chinese translation, Mingshi 明施, “Luminous Charity”; in Xuanzang’s translation, Diantian 電天, “Lightning God”; and in the Tibetan translation, glog gi lha, “Lightning God.” In Kumārajīva’s translation, the name is given as Diande 電徳. McRae translates this as “Lightning-Like Virtue.” However, Harrison, in his translation of the Pratyutpanna­buddha­saṃmukhāvasthita­samādhi­sūtra, notes that Jñānagupta translates Vidyuddeva, “Lightning God,” as Diande 電德. In light of the testimony of the Sanskrit, the Tibetan, and Xuanzang’s Chinese translation of The Teaching of Vimalakīrti, it is likely that Kumārajīva’s Diande 電德 refers to Vidyuddeva and should be translated as “Lightning God.”

i.15The following table illustrates the various permutations of the bodhisattva’s name:

Kumārajīva: Diande 電德 (Lightning God) Xuanzang: Diantian 電天(Lightning God) Sengzhao: Diande 電得(Lightning Attainment) Sanskrit: Vidyuddeva (Lightning God) Tibetan: glog gi lha (Lightning God)

i.16With this in mind, we can understand the apparent occurrence of the name Vidyutprāpta (“Lightning Attainment,” Diande 電得) in the Zhu weimojie jing. Since de 德, “virtue,” and de 得, “attainment,” were pronounced identically in Old Chinese and Middle Chinese, it is very likely that it was a scribal error in the transmission of Sengzhao’s commentary that resulted in 德 becoming 得. Therefore, we can rule out any connection between the Diande in the Zhu weimojie jing and the Diande in the Vidyutprāpta­pari­pṛcchā.

The Present Work

i.17This is the first English translation of the Tibetan version of Vidyutprāpta’s Questions. It was prepared based on the Tibetan version preserved in the Degé Kangyur and Bodhiruci’s Chinese translation preserved in the Taishō Tripiṭaka. The Chinese version has been translated into Japanese in the Kokuyaku issaikyō series. A somewhat incomplete English translation of the Chinese translation is found in Garma C. C. Chang’s A Treasury of Mahāyāna Sūtras.