Lalitavistara Sutra
The Lalitavistara Sutra (Skt. Lalitavistarasūtra; Tib. རྒྱ་ཆེར་རོལ་པ་, gyacher rolpa, Wyl. rgya cher rol pa; Eng. The Play in Full) 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]
Sanskrit Text
The Dharmachakra Translation Committee writes:[2]
- This scripture is an obvious compilation of various early sources, which have been strung together and elaborated on according to the Mahāyāna worldview. As such this text is a fascinating example of the ways in which the Mahāyāna rests firmly on the earlier tradition, yet reinterprets the very foundations of Buddhism in a way that fit its own vast perspective. The fact that the text is a compilation is initially evident from the mixture of prose and verse that, in some cases, contains strata from the very earliest Buddhist teachings and, in other cases, presents later Buddhist themes that do not emerge until the first centuries of the common era. Previous scholarship on The Play in Full (mostly published in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries) devoted much time to determining the text’s potential sources and their respective time periods, although without much success. [...] Although this topic clearly deserves further study, it is interesting to note that hardly any new research on this sūtra has been published during the last sixty years. As such the only thing we can currently say concerning the sources and origin of The Play in Full is that it was based on several early and, for the most part, unidentified sources that belong to the very early days of the Buddhist tradition.
- In 1874, Salomon Lefmann published a Sanskrit edition of the text
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 Lalita Vistara, translated by Mitra, R. L. in 1875 (Delhi: Sri Satguru Publications, 1998)
- 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, translated by the Dharmachakra Translation Committee
French Translations
- Rgya Tch'er Rol Pa, ou Développement des Jeux, contenant l'histoire du Bouddha Çakya-Mouni, traduit sur la version tibétaine du Bkah Hgyour, et revu sur l'original sancrit (Lalitavistâra), translated by Philippe-Édouard Foucaux from the Tibetan text. (1847)
- Lalitâvistara. Vie et doctrine du Bouddha tibétain, translated by Jean-Pierre Pauthier and Pierre-Gustave Brunet (1866)
- Le Litara Vistara. Développement des jeux : contenant l'histoire du Bouddha Çakya-Mouni depuis sa naissance jusqu'à sa prédication, translated by Philippe-Édouard Foucaux from the Sanskrit text (1884)
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.