Introduction

i.1Inspiring Determination appears in the Heap of Jewels (Skt. Ratnakūṭa; Tib. dkon brtsegs) section of the Kangyur. The sūtra opens with the bodhisattva Maitreya observing a group of sixty among the five hundred bodhisattvas who have gathered around the Buddha in the Deer Park on the outskirts of Vārāṇasī. These sixty bodhisattvas have strayed from the bodhisattva path. Rather than studying and practicing in solitude, they have become distracted by worldly concerns and have stopped applying themselves to the Dharma. Seeking to help them restore their commitments, Maitreya invites them to approach the Buddha, confess their faults, and request his guidance. The bodhisattvas then reveal and confess to the Buddha their failings and their doubts about being able to live up to the bodhisattva ideal.

i.2The Buddha explains the causes and conditions they created in a former lifetime that have led to their current predicament. Specifically, during the previous period of the Buddha Krakucchanda, these bodhisattvas denigrated and slandered two monks, creating schisms and doubts in the Saṅgha and the wider community. Many lifetimes of painful ripening of this negative karma ensued.

i.3The Buddha further prophesies, however, that although the bodhisattvas’ negative karma will continue to ripen in subsequent lives, once it is finally exhausted, during a period in which the Dharma is declining, they will attain rebirth in the realm of the Buddha Amitābha. Hearing this, the bodhisattvas are newly inspired and resolve not to repeat their mistakes. Maitreya asks the Buddha whether they will abide by their renewed commitment, and he confirms that they will.

i.4This is followed by a lengthy series of enumerations by the Buddha, in response to inquiries by Maitreya, concerning the negative consequences of each fault of conduct in which the sixty bodhisattvas had engaged, as well as the advantages of refraining from each one. In several instances, these lists are presented first in prose form and then repeated in verse as an aide-memoire. Maitreya’s questions also prompt the Buddha to caution about the future degeneration of the Dharma, when it will be corrupted by the materialistic interests of teachers. He describes the pitfalls of teaching the Dharma without ridding oneself of attachment to personal gain and honor.

i.5The Buddha’s countervailing instruction is to refrain from judging the veracity or quality of a Dharma teaching by the character or motivation of the teacher who offers it. Śāntideva (late seventh to mid-eighth century) emphasizes this point in his Śikṣāsamuccaya , citing this sūtra at length to assert that a genuine follower of the Buddha must refrain from judging the conduct of fellow practitioners of the Bodhisattva Vehicle; instead, one must focus on detecting and correcting one’s own faults. The Buddha later advises Maitreya that what marks someone as a follower of his teachings, and as an ordained member of his community, is not the formality of vows or the semblance of piety, but rather one’s cultivation of the qualities of the path, including renunciation, concentration, restrained speech, and the pursuit of wisdom.

i.6An important corollary teaching imparted by the Buddha in this sūtra is how to determine whether a teaching qualifies as authentic Dharma. His rule, also quoted and discussed by Śāntideva, is that everything that is well spoken is the speech of the Buddha, no matter what it is or by whom it is offered. Moreover, to qualify as well spoken, an instruction must be meaningful, consistent with the Dharma, and designed to reduce mental defilements, and it must laud the qualities of nirvāṇa as opposed to saṃsāra. This sūtra appears to be the locus classicus for this doctrine in the Mahāyāna tradition.

i.7The sūtra concludes on a positive note, with the Buddha outlining the ten positive attitudes that lead to rebirth in the realm of the Buddha Amitāyus, which is another name for the Buddha Amitābha. This serves as a valediction to his earlier prophecy of the future rebirth in Amitāyus’ realm of the sixty bodhisattvas whose confessions and renewed commitments prompted this teaching. In this way, Inspiring Determination fulfills its intention and serves as a set of guidelines and an exhortation for aspiring bodhisattvas to follow suit.

i.8Many sūtras in the Kangyur mention the obstacles and difficulties practitioners may encounter, often in the context of the degenerate future times when the Dharma will be in decline. Few, however, relate in such detail the lapsed conduct of bodhisattvas or explain so precisely its consequences and cures. One sūtra on a similar theme that does share these features is Not Forsaking the Buddha (Buddhākṣepaṇa, Toh 276).

i.9While there is no known extant version of this sūtra in Sanskrit, as noted earlier, a number of lengthy quotations from and other references to it are found in the surviving Sanskrit version of Śāntideva’s eighth-century work, the Śikṣāsamuccaya . Two separate classical Chinese versions of this sūtra are found in the Taishō Tripitaka. One version is included in Bodhiruci’s translation from Sanskrit of the Heap of Jewels section, completed during the early part of the eighth century ᴄᴇ (Tang Dynasty). The other is an earlier work translated by Jñānagupta during the sixth century ᴄᴇ (Sui Dynasty).

i.10In producing this translation, we have based our work on the Degé xylograph, while consulting the Comparative Edition (Tib. dpe bsdur ma) and the Stok Palace manuscript. We also have made occasional use of Bodhiruci’s Chinese translation for issues of terminology. The colophon of the sūtra states that it was translated by the Indian preceptors Jinamitra and Surendrabodhi, together with the translator and editor Bandé Yeshé Dé. Consequently, we can date the Tibetan translation to the late eighth to early ninth century, a date further evidenced by the text’s inclusion in the early ninth-century Denkarma (Tib. ldan dkar ma) catalog.