The Hundred Deeds

The Hundred Deeds (Skt. Karmaśataka; Tib. ལས་བརྒྱ་ཐམ་པ།, Wyl. las brgya tham pa) or The Hundred Karmas is a sutra comprising more than 120 individual texts. This sutra is perhaps the best known of the many works in the Kangyur on the theme of karmic ripening of actions across multiple lifetimes.

Text

• The original Sanskrit version is no longer extant.
• The Tibetan translation is found in the General Sutra section of the Kangyur, Toh 340.
  • English translation: The Hundred Deeds

Quotations

ལུས་ཅན་དག་གི་ལས་རྣམས་ནི། །

བསྐལ་པ་བརྒྱར་ཡང་ཆུད་མི་ཟ། །
ཚོགས་ཤིང་དུས་ལས་བབས་པ་ན། །

འབྲས་བུ་ཉིད་དུ་སྨིན་པར་འགྱུར། །

When the time arrives—and even if
A hundred eons pass—
Fruit is born of every act
That sentient beings amass.

Buddha Shakyamuni, The Hundred Deeds, 1.72 (first occurrence)

The ocean, home of creatures fierce,
Could fail to send its tides on time.
But when the time has come to tame
Their offspring, buddhas never fail.

Buddha Shakyamuni, The Hundred Deeds