Introduction

i.1The Question of Maitreya on the Eight Qualities, like most of the sūtras that comprise the Ratnakūṭa collection, 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. Apart from the Tibetan Kangyur version, translated in the ninth century, the sūtra is extant only in an earlier Chinese translation.

i.2Both the work translated here and the work that precedes it in the collection, The Question of Maitreya, focus on the important figure of the bodhisattva Maitreya, who is generally accepted as destined to be the future Buddha of this world-system.

i.3In this sūtra, Maitreya asks the Buddha what qualities bodhisattvas need in order to be sure of completing the whole path to buddhahood. The Buddha responds with a list of eight qualities that, while individually all standard elements of the Mahāyāna path, as a set of eight appear to be specific to this text. The Buddha briefly explains each quality and, in his explanation of the last‍—the perfection of wisdom‍—outlines the doctrine of the twelve links of dependent origination in both their “forward” and “reverse” orders, corresponding to causation and cessation.

i.4It is difficult to determine the precise historical relationship of The Question of Maitreya on the Eight Qualities with The Question of Maitreya (Toh 85), the longer sūtra that immediately precedes it. Their themes are obviously closely linked‍—in both, Maitreya questions the Buddha about the bodhisattvas’ qualities. However, their geographic settings differ: The Question of Maitreya on the Eight Qualities takes place on Vulture Peak Mountain near Rājagṛha, like many other Ratnakūṭa sūtras, while The Question of Maitreya is delivered in a relatively obscure location, Mount Śuśumāra in the country of the Bhargas.

i.5Both texts are included in the Denkarma (ldan dkar ma) inventory of early translations, dated to a year of the dragon thought to be most likely 824 (but possibly 812), so they must have been translated by that date. The translation of this one, the shorter sūtra, is attributed to Jinamitra and Danaśila, and Yeshé Dé is said to have corrected it using the revised terminology (skad gsar). Since The Question of Maitreya appears to have needed no such revision, its first Tibetan translation by Jinamitra and Surendrabodhi, under the editorial supervision of Yeshé Dé, may have been slightly later.

i.6In the Degé Kangyur, the text has two different titles: the first, in the initial line introducing it as the forty-second section of the Ratnakūṭa, calls it “The Noble Elucidation of the Question of Maitreya on the Eight Qualities” (’phags pa byams pas chos brgyad zhus pa lung bstan pa), while the second, immediately afterwards, is simply “The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra of the Question of Maitreya” (’phags pa byams pas zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo), which is the same as the title of the preceding text. The Sanskrit titles of both sūtras, as transliterated in Tibetan in the Degé Kangyur, are also the same: Maitreya­paripṛcchā. In other Kangyurs, a variety of similar titles are given, while in some‍—e.g. the Narthang (snar thang) and Stok Palace Manuscript (stog pho brang bris ma) Kangyurs‍—the Sanskrit title includes mention of the eight qualities: Maitreya­paripṛcchā­dharmāṣṭa. Whether the reference to the “eight qualities” figured in the title of the Sanskrit original or, if not, at what stage it was integrated into the title as a convenient way of distinguishing this text from the preceding one, is difficult to determine. In the Tibetan title, at least, inclusion of the eight qualities was a feature in some Kangyurs and text catalogues early in the imperial period, even if it was not universal. It is found (as ’phags pa byams pas zhus pa’i chos brgyad pa) in the early ninth century Denkarma inventory mentioned above.

i.7This sūtra and the preceding one in the Ratnakūṭa section, both often simply called The Question of Maitreya, are not to be confused with a third sūtra of the same name in the General Sūtra (mdo sde) section, Toh 149, a short work (also set in Rajagṛha) in which Maitreya asks a quite different question.

i.8The main Tibetan text used for the present translation was the Degé (sde dge) edition of the Kangyur. Other Kangyurs were also consulted but, apart from the one noted, no significant variations were found.