Introduction

i.1The Questions of Bhadrapāla the Merchant (Bhadra­pāla­śreṣṭhi­paripṛcchā) is the thirty-ninth of the forty-nine sūtras that comprise the Ratnakūṭa collection. Like most of the sūtras in the Ratnakūṭa, it was translated into Tibetan from a Sanskrit original that is now lost, but that may have dated back as far as the first or second centuries ᴄᴇ, i.e., several centuries before the collection itself was compiled.

i.2The Tibetan Kangyur translation of the sūtra is attributed in its colophon to the Indian preceptors Jinamitra and Surendrabodhi, and the Tibetan Bandé Yeshé Dé. This would date its Tibetan translation to the early ninth century. As well as the Tibetan version, The Questions of Bhadrapāla the Merchant is extant in two Chinese translations, one (T. 310) by the late sixth century Jnānagupta, and another (T. 347) by Divākara, who flourished in the late seventh century. Divākara’s Chinese version of the sūtra forms the basis of a partial English translation by Garma C.C. Chang, included in his Treasury of Mahāyāna Sūtras.

i.3In its present form, the sūtra consists of the questions of two interlocutors in addition to Bhadrapāla: Candrabhūti the merchant, and the prince Mahauṣadhi. The second section of the text, in which Mahauṣadhi features, reads in its opening passages rather like the beginning of a new sūtra, and may have once been a separate text.

i.4The sūtra focuses on the topic of consciousness: what is its nature, how does it relate to the physical body, and what happens to it after death? In his explanations, the Buddha employs metaphors and examples drawn from observation of the natural world, as well as from common Indian cultural beliefs.

i.5The Buddha declares that consciousness is formless or immaterial, but manifests through volition, feelings, and the domain of mental objects, or “element of dharmas.” In a similar way to a seed producing a sprout, consciousness generates a body for itself, and then controls that body just as a puppeteer controls a puppet.

i.6Doctrinally, the sūtra’s explanations of the relationship between consciousness and the body’s various constituents are not fully consistent with classic Abhidharma or Yogācāra theory. Chang, in a note to his translation of the text from Chinese, points to its unusual treatment of consciousness as an individual unity, and Lindtner, referring to the Chinese translations of the sūtra, sees in it “pre-canonical” elements that may go back to ideas in the Upaniṣads. Nevertheless, it is very common in both the Kangyur and Tengyur that consciousness (as a unitary item) is listed as sixth in enumerations of the elements, and it is to that context that the term “the element of consciousness,” so frequently used in this text, is surely a reference.

i.7In a statement that could be read as foreshadowing the Cittamātra conception of an immaculate substratum consciousness, and the tathāgatagarbha or Buddha-essence doctrine, the Buddha says that “the element of consciousness is completely purified; it encompasses all things, but it is not tainted by anything.” Consciousness acquires merit and non-merit in a similar way to a jewel taking on the color of whatever light it is exposed to.

i.8The sūtra nonetheless underscores the benefits of meritorious action: the marvelous wealth and comforts enjoyed by Bhadrapāla, described in sumptuous detail, are the result of his virtuous conduct in former lives. Furthermore, the suffering of beings whose negative actions cause them to be reborn in the hell realms is vividly contrasted with the pleasures of those whose merit results in a higher rebirth, such as in the realms of the gods.