Lalitavistara Sutra
The Lalitavistara Sutra (Skt. Lalitavistarasūtra; Tib. རྒྱ་ཆེར་རོལ་པ་, gyacher rolpa, Wyl. rgya cher rol pa; Eng. The Play in Full) (Toh 95) tells the story of how Buddha manifested in this world and attained enlightenment as perceived from the perspective of the Mahayana.
The sutra, which is structured in twenty-seven chapters, first presents the events surrounding the Buddha's birth, childhood, and adolescence in the royal palace of his father, king of the Sakya nation. It then recounts his escape from the palace and the years of hardship he faced in his quest for spiritual awakening. Finally the sutra reveals his complete victory over the demon Mara, his attainment of awakening under the Bodhi tree, his first turning of the wheel of Dharma, and the formation of the very early Sangha.[1]
Translations
Early Translations
- The Lalitavistara Sutra was first translated into Chinese in 308.
- It was translated into Tibetan in the 8th century by Jinamitra and Bandhé Yeshé Dé
English Translations
- The Lalitavistara Sūtra: The Voice of the Buddha, the Beauty of Compassion, translated by Gwendolyn Bays, Berkeley: Dharma Publishing, 1983 (2 vols.)
Lalitavistara, འཕགས་པ་རྒྱ་ཆེར་རོལ་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ། The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra "The Play in Full", Āryalalitavistaranāmamahāyānasūtra
Common Quotations
བདུད་རྩི་ལྟ་བུའི་ཆོས་ཤིག་བདག་གིས་བརྙེས། །
སུ་ལ་བསྟན་ཀྱང་གོ་བར་མི་འགྱུར་བས། །
Profound and peaceful, free from complexity, uncompounded luminosity—
I have found a nectar-like Dharma.
Yet if I were to teach it, no-one would understand,
So I shall remain silent here in the forest.
འགྲོ་བའི་སྐྱེ་འཆི་གར་ལ་བལྟ་དང་མཚུངས། །
སྐྱེས་བུའི་ཚེ་འགྲོ་ནམ་མཁའི་གློག་འདྲ་སྟེ། །
This existence of ours is as transient as autumn clouds.
To watch the birth and death of beings is like looking at the movement of a dance.
A lifetime is like a flash of lightning in the sky,
Rushing by, like a torrent down a steep mountain.
- Lalitavistara Sutra, 13.79
མི་དང་ལྷ་དང་ངན་སོང་རྣམ་གསུམ་པོ། །
འགྲོ་བ་ལྔ་པོ་དག་ཏུ་མི་མཁས་འཁོར། །
Because of craving, attachment and ignorance
Men, gods, animals, hungry ghosts and hell-beings
Foolishly go round,
Like the turning of a potter’s wheel.
- Lalitavistara Sutra, 13.80
བསྟན་པ་དང་ནི་གྲུབ་མཐའ་འོ། །
བྱིས་པ་རྣམས་ལ་བསྟན་པ་བཤད། །
My Dharma has two aspects,
General advice and philosophy,
To ordinary people I give advice,
And to the yogis, philosophy.
འཇིག་རྟེན་ཐམས་ཅད་རྨོངས་པར་གྱུར། །
དེ་བས་མགོན་པོ་ཐབས་མཁས་པས། །
If things were not given names,
The world would be bewildered.
So Lord Buddha, skilled in means,
Gives names to various phenomena.
References
- ↑ 84000 Translating the Words of the Buddha