King of Samadhi Sutra
The King of Samadhi Sutra (Skt. Samādhirāja Sūtra; Tib. ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་གྱི་རྒྱལ་པོའི་མདོ་, ting ngé dzin gyi gyalpö do, Wyl. ting nge 'dzin gyi rgyal po'i mdo) aka the Moon Lamp Sutra (Skt. Candrapradīpa Sūtra; Tib. ཟླ་བ་སྒྲོན་མེའི་མདོ་, dawa drönmé do, Wyl. zla ba sgron me'i mdo) is a famous mahayana sutra that is frequently cited in Madhyamika treatises, as well as teachings on Mahamudra.
Text
The Tibetan translation of this sutra can be found in the General Sutra section (Toh. 127) of the Kangyur (Derge edition). The translators from Sanskrit to Tibetan were Shilendrabodhi and Chönyi Tsultrim.
The full Tibetan title is: (Wyl.) 'phags pa chos thams cad kyi rang bzhin mnyam pa nyid rnam par spros pa ting nge 'dzin gyi rgyal po zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo/ Sanskrit title: arya-sarvadharmasvbhavasamatavipancitasamadhirja-namamahayanasutra
English Translations
- 'The Sūtra of the King of Samādhis: Chapters I-IV' in Luis O. Gómez and Jonathan A. Silk (ed.s), Studies in the Literature of the Great Vehicle: Three Mahāyāna Buddhist Texts
- Konstanty Régamey, Philosophy in the Samādhirājasūtra, Motilal Banarsidass (Delhi 1990), reprint of 1938 Warsaw edition. (Includes Sanskrit, Tibetan and English versions of chapters 8, 19 and 22)
- 84000:
The King of Samādhis Sūtra
Famous Quotations
སེམས་ནི་རྒྱ་ཆེན་མཆོག་ཏུ་རབ་བསྐྱེད་དེ། །
འགྲོ་བ་འདི་དག་མ་ལུས་སངས་རྒྱས་རྒྱུ། །
The essence of the sugatas pervades all beings.
Generate the most vast and sublime of intentions,
For each and every being has the cause of awakening—
There is not a single sentient being who lacks this potential.
འཇིག་རྟེན་མགོན་པོ་ཀུན་ཏུ་མཛེས་པ་སྟེ། །
དམིགས་པ་དེ་ལ་གང་གི་སེམས་འཇོག་པ། །
His pure body is the colour of gold,
Beautiful is the Protector of the World.
Whoever visualizes him like this,
Practises the meditation of the bodhisattvas.
གཙང་དང་མི་གཙང་འདི་ཡང་མཐའ་ཡིན་སྟེ། །
དེ་ཕྱིར་གཉིས་ཀའི་མཐའ་ནི་རབ་སྤངས་ནས། །
Existence and non-existence are extremes,
Purity and impurity are extremes as well,
Thus, having relinquished both extremes,
The wise do not dwell even in the middle.
བུ་ཕོ་བྱུང་ཞིང་ཤི་བ་དེ་མཐོང་ན། །
བྱུང་ནས་དགའ་ཞིང་ཤི་ནས་མི་དགའ་ལྟར། །
If, in her dream, a young girl
Has a baby boy who later dies,
She feels joy at first, then grief—
Know all things to be like this.
རྟ་དང་གླང་པོ་ཤིང་རྟ་སྣ་ཚོགས་བྱས། །
དེ་ལ་ཇི་ལྟར་སྣང་བ་གང་ཡང་མེད། །
Just as a magician makes illusions
Of horses, oxen, carts and other things,
Nothing whatsoever is as it appears—
Know all things to be like this.
Further Reading
- Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, King of Samadhi. Rangjung Yeshe Publications
- Skilton, Andrew. Samādhirājasūtra, contained in: Jens Braarvig, Paul Harrison, Jens-Uwe Hartmann, Kazunobu Matsuda, Lore Sander, ed., Buddhist Manuscripts in the Schøyen Collection, Volume II (Hermes Academic Publishing (Oslo 2002), pp. 97-178.
- Skilton, Andrew. 'Dating the Samādhirāja Sūtra ' in Journal of Indian Philosophy, Volume 27, Number 6, 635-652