Me, too! If we stick to DA this year, I should. It was apparently a popular sutra, as there are three other translations in Chinese.
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Hi cd , mind provide the chinese for above example you saids ? Thks
Sure. The four right “efforts” are translated as 四正斷 in the Madhyama and Samyukta; only a couple times is it translated as 四正勤 (so the reading of effort wasn’t unknown, but rare). In the Dirgha Agama and the Ekottarika it’s translated also as 四意斷. There’s lots of passages; a text search will find them.
In DA 11, there’s another example I’ll quote:
[0057c27] 「又有五成法、五修法、五覺法、五滅法、五證法。云何五成法？謂五滅盡支：一者信佛、如來、至真，十號具足。二者無病，身常安隱。三者質直無有諛諂，真趣如來涅槃徑路。四者專心不亂，諷誦不忘。五者善於觀察法之起滅，以賢聖行盡於苦本。云何五修法？謂五根：信根、精進根、念根、定根、慧根。云何五覺法？謂五受陰：色受陰，受、想、行、識受陰。云何五滅法？謂五蓋：貪欲蓋、瞋恚蓋、睡眠蓋、掉戱蓋、疑蓋。云何五證法？謂五無學聚：無學戒聚、無學定聚、慧聚、解脫聚、解脫知見聚。
What I translate as the five factors of complete cessation is 五滅盡支. In the Pali Dasuttara sutta, the parallel is pañca padhāniyaṅgāni, which Sujato translates as “five factors that support meditation” because the Pali reading of padhāniya is “connected with exertion” or “to be striven for”. The Chinese reads what’s probably prahāṇ- as “complete cessation.”
It’s the same in Tibetan translation, too, according to Edgerton. It’s interpreted as “getting rid of, abandonment” instead of exertion or effort.
Re: what I was saying about Analayo, he translates that term as “five limbs of exertion,” though he does point out the Chinese in a footnote without explaining that he’s changed it. I guess he assumes his audience knows.
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In MĀ 146, the first precept is: “He parts with killing, stops killing, and he discards blades and bludgeons. With conscience and modesty and with kindness and compassion, he’s beneficial to all living things, even insects and worms.”
In MN 27 it’s “Once they’ve gone forth, they take up the training and livelihood of the mendicants. They give up killing living creatures, renouncing the rod and the sword. They’re scrupulous and kind, living full of compassion for all living beings.”
I’ve often wondered why, when the Agamas express the first precept, that they include insects and the Pali does not. Any insight into why?
Thank you!
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There was a general tendency to add expressions that clarify or reiterate terms in Buddhist texts, which is the main reason they grew in size as the centuries went by. I imagine sometimes someone would ask, “But what about insects or worms I might step on?” So then that gets inserted to make it clear, yes, even crawling things you might step on. It seems to often be to resolve ambiguities.
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It’s time again for the monthly update. Since the beginning of March, I’ve added two new translations from the Dīrgha Āgama, one from the Madhyama Āgama, and 9 more sutras from the Saṃyukta Āgama. I’ve also re-edited MĀ 1-10 and all my current translations and drafts for SĀ 1 (41 sutras) for release on SuttaCentral.
The plan for April is to translate one short Dīrgha Āgama sutra per week while I edit the Ambāṣṭha Sutra (DĀ 20) and continue that pace of ~3 sutras a month. I’ll also go back and forth between the other three Āgamas, editing previously released translations and drafts for SuttaCentral.
New Dīrgha Āgama Translations
DĀ 4 Janavṛṣabha (DN 18)
This mythological sutra picks up a scene from the Parinirvāṇa Sutra in which Ananda asks the Buddha to describe the fates of Buddhist followers of Magadha who had passed away, especially King Bimbisāra. After Ānanda asks about this, the Buddha has an encounter with a yakṣa spirit named Janavṛṣabha (P. Janavasabha) who tells the Buddha a number of stories about the goings-on in the heavens. Nestled in among the stories, he notes the rebirths of Magadha followers of the Buddha.
Comparing this version of the sutra with the Pali carefully yields a good case study of the way ancient stories varied from source to source, sharing most of the important parts but often putting them in the mouths of different characters or rearranging their order.
DĀ 24 Dhruva (DN 11)
Despite the main character being named differently, this is a close parallel to the Kevaddha Sutta in the Dīgha Nikāya. The story follows the Pali rendition fairly closely, with most of the variations being minor details like names. One notable difference is that the monk who goes on a tour of the heavens looking for a god with knowledge of cessation is identified as the disciple Aśvajit (P. Assaji). The famous verses at the end are also a bit more straightforward.
Madhyama Āgama Translations
MĀ 8 Seven Suns (AN 7.66)
When I put my translations of MA 1-10 through a review and update, I also cleaned up a draft of MA 8 and released it, completing the first chapter of the Madhyama. Like the other sutras in the chapter, it’s parallel is found in AN 7 and centers around a parable about the impermanence of even things like oceans, mountains, and world. In it, the Buddha describes what happens when 1-7 suns arise in the world.
For science fiction fans out there, this sutra sounds very similar to the MMO game depicted in Cixin Liu’s The Three-Body Problem, though there’s only three suns in that story.
Saṃyukta Āgama Translations
SĀ 1.19 Enjoyment (SN 22.28)
SĀ 1.20 Enjoyment (2) (SN 22.27)
These two sutras present the argument that the five aggregates can be pleasurable and painful. Because they are pleasurable, sentient beings become attached to them, but because they are also painful, sentient beings become disillusioned with them.
SĀ 1.21 Tendencies (SN 22.35-36)
SĀ 1.22 Proliferation (SN 22.35-36)
These two sutras present some difficulties in translating them, mainly because of confusion about the meaning of words that appear to be shared between the Chinese and Pali sutras. While this is usually helpful, in this case it causes confusion because modern Pali dictionaries define the terms differently that older sources like these Chinese translations and Theravada commentaries. I posted a brief article about the translation issues.
SĀ 1.153 Five Turns (SN 22.56)
This is one of the SĀ/SN sutras that defines the five aggregates in more specific terms.
SĀ 1.159 Faithful (SN 22.146)
SĀ 1.160 Faithful (2) (SN 22.147)
In these two sutras, the Buddha says that new renunciates should focus on becoming disillusioned with the five aggregates in order become liberated from them.
SĀ 1.161 Ānanda (SN 22.37)
SĀ 1.163 What’s Destroyed (SN 22.32)
These two sutras make the point that the problem of impermanence, i.e. the arising and ceasing of things, lies with the five aggregates, and it’s escaped by completely ceasing them.
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Keep doing the good work. Hats off to you.
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Since my last update, I’ve added two Dīrgha Āgama and 16 Saṃyukta Āgama translations to Dharma Pearls. This brings the DĀ translation project up to 10 sutras complete and 13% of DĀ by length (~20 of 149 pages of Taisho). For the Saṃyukta Āgama, I’m continuing to edit drafted sutras, releasing them as I go.
In addition to these new translations, I’ve also created an initial index table of the Ekôttarika Āgama at the Dharma Pearls wiki site. Aside from copying over the Pali parallels, I also incorporated the existing uddāna verses and individual fascicles to help visualization the internal evidence we have of how EĀ was apparently redacted after the initial translation, which seems to have added about 10 fascicles of new material.
Below are the translations that were added last month:
This version of DN 25 doesn’t vary in any significant way from the Pali version. One thing to notice, which is evident in other DĀ sutras about non-Buddhists, is that the wanderers aren’t cast in such a bad light as they are in the Pali version. For another good example of this, compare the depiction of Ajātaśatru in DĀ 27 to DN 2.
DĀ 13 The Great Method of Conditionality (DN 15)
This sutra follows the Pali text fairly closely. The main differences are that the introduction initially presents the classic 12 links of dependent origination that begin with ignorance and action. As the discourse continues, however, it covers the same ten links that are described in the Pali version. It also has the list in the middle that traces craving as the condition for conflict and violence, which segues into a continuation of the ten links.
After the presentation of dependent origination, DĀ 13 explicitly treats the two types of arhats, implying that one can be liberated through the wisdom developed by dependent origination. This segues into the discussion of different views about self, which isn’t as clear in the discourse in the Pali version. It then ends with the same discussion of the abodes of consciousness and the eight liberations.
SĀ 2.1 Impermanent (SN 35.155-157)
SĀ 2.2 Painful (SN 35.155-157)
SĀ 2.3 Empty (SN 35.155-157)
SĀ 2.4 Not Self (SN 35.155-157)
SĀ 2.5 Correctly Contemplated (SN 35.158-159)
SĀ 2.6 Not Knowing (SN 35.26-27)
SĀ 2.7 Not Knowing (2)
SĀ 2.8 Not Knowing (3)
These sutras are very similar to SĀ 1.1-8, using the same templates applied to the six sense fields instead of the five aggregates. This parallelism is missing from the two Pali saṃyuttas, but parallels do exist for some of these sutras in SN 35.
SĀ 2.123 Samṛddhi (SN 35.68)
SĀ 2.124 Samṛddhi (2) (SN 35.66)
SĀ 2.125 Samṛddhi (3) (SN 35.65)
SĀ 2.126 Samṛddhi (4) (SN 35.82)
SĀ 2.127 Samṛddhi (5) (SN 35.85)
This group of sutras all feature a monk named Samṛddhi who asks the Buddha about the meaning of different expressions such as the world, ‘the world is empty,’ sentient beings, and Māra.
SĀ 2.128 The World (~SN 12.44)
SĀ 2.129 The End of the World (SN 35.116)
These sutras are interesting in that they confirm the experiential vs. ontological view of the world in Buddhist thinking.
SĀ 2.130 Having a Teacher and a Disciple (SN 35.151)
This sutra uses a metaphor of having a teacher or students who live nearby (presumably referring to the social irritations that can bring) as being similar to being affected by sensory experiences that give rise to the three poisons and abiding in them.
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Hi, everyone. I skipped a month for these updates, largely because the number of texts I’m releasing in a given month will be going down sharply as I focus on larger Dīrgha Āgama sutras. At this point, I’ve now released English translations of 15 DĀ sutras (out of 30), which brings the project to about 25% completed by length. (Three large DĀ sutras make up about 45% of the entire Āgama.)
I’m expecting this month and next to be the busiest in terms of releasing sutra translations. Going into the fall, things will slow down as I soldier through larger sutras like the Parinirvāṇa and Mahâvadāna sutras. I’m also planning to begin the work of adding these new translations to SuttaCentral in the Fall or Winter when I’m working on those larger projects.
For those who are unaware, these new translations are based both on my own studies of the text and the meticulous scholarship that produced the Japanese translation of DĀ. So, it’s a much more faithful translation than others that are currently available in English. I do occasionally disagree with the Japanese reading now and again, but on the whole it’s been a big help to have on hand.
Below are the translations that have been added at Dharma Pearls since May:
DĀ 5 Smaller Teaching on Origination [DN 27]
DĀ 6 The Noble Wheel-Turning King’s Cultivation [DN 26]
DĀ 9 The Gathered Saṅgha [DN 33]
DĀ 16 Sujata [DN 31]
DĀ 25 The Naked Wanderer [DN 8]
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Oh, cool. I might gift those to someone I know.
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It’s been a little more than a month since the last update, and I’ve released four more initial translations from the Dīrgha Āgama, which tally up to about 23,500 words in English. I recently decided to total up how many words in English that Dharma Pearls has published so far, and I was a bit astonished.
As of today, I’ve released at Dharma Pearls:
- 19 Dīrgha Āgama sutras totaling 85,700 words
- 40 Madhyama Āgama sutras totaling 91,100 words
- 22 Ekôttarika Āgama sutras totaling 29,600 words
- 102 Saṃyukta Āgama sutras totaling 32,900 words
For a grand total of about 240,000 words, most of which have been translated over the past 18 months thanks to supporters at SuttaCentral and Patreon. The translations are beginning to pile up like snow on the Minnesota plains.
(It gets deep some winters. This is more like after the first big snowfall. “Time to get the shovels out and break a sweat!” It’s that type of feeling when I look at how much needs another polish-edit.)
The new Dīrgha Āgama sutras that have been released since the last update are:
DĀ 18 Personal Gladness (DN 28)
Śāriputra realizes that the Buddha’s teaching is the best that there is and other teachers aren’t able to match him, and he declares this to the Buddha. The Buddha, however, questions Śāriputra closely about how he came to such a conclusion. What follows is a lengthy summary of what Śāriputra considered to be the strong points of the Buddhist path.
DĀ 20 Ambāṣṭha (DN 3)
Speaking of word counts, this turned out to be the longest Āgama sutra that I’ve translated so far at over 11,000 words in English. This is largely due to it containing the largest presentation of the gradual path (and parallel to that found in DN 2, which is abbreviated out of DN 3). There’s an interesting plot structure to the sutra as a whole, which I discussed in a post at SuttaCentral. In this sutra, a priest sends an arrogant student to visit the Buddha, who is subsequently humbled with a story about his background. The Buddha then proceeds to convert his teacher, who becomes a non-returner.
DĀ 26 Knowledge of the Three Vedas (DN 13)
In this sutra, the Buddha explains to a pair of priests why the priesthood that studies the three Vedas doesn’t make any spiritual progress and makes false claims about the attainments of their teachings. He then teaches them the proper way to be reborn in the Brahma Heaven.
DĀ 28 [Poṭṭhapāda] (DN 9)
The Buddha decides to pay a visit to a wanderer, who tells him about the various theories that were debated at a recent meeting of priests and wanderers. The Buddha explains the problems with their positions using meditative attainments as an example. Later, the same wanderer visits the Buddha, and he’s converted by a critique of theories of self.
At this point, nearly two-thirds of the Dīrgha Āgama sutras have been released, which account for about one-third of its total length.
There’s another 8 short sutras to translate in the next couple months before I tackle the three sutras that make up about half of the entire collection’s length (the DĀ 1 Mahâvadāna, DĀ 2 Parinirvāṇa, and DĀ 30 Record of the World Sutras). Those sutras will take three or four months to complete.
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This month’s update includes two new Dīrgha Āgama sutras, bringing the total to 21. I also decided to begin editing and releasing Madhyama Āgama sutras that are sitting in draft form. In between these projects, I edited another story from the Chinese commentary on the Dharmapāda.
DĀ 3 Govinda [DN 19]
In this classic Jataka tale, a gandharva visits the Buddha to relate to him an extraordinary conversation between the gods. He recounts a legend of one of the Buddha’s past lives as told by Brahma. The Buddha confirms that the story is true. Note that a version of this legend also appears in the Mahāvastu, which is confirmed by a late Chinese translation that matches it closely.
DĀ 14 Questions Asked by Śakra the Lord of Gods [DN 21]
Lord Śakra decides to visit the Buddha while he’s in a secluded location away from people. He sends a gandharva ahead to perform music for the Buddha as an offering and announce that Śakra and the Trāyastriṃśa gods are coming to visit. What follows is a rather remarkable (for a Buddha text) inclusion of a romantic song sung by a suitor, which likens the Buddha’s resolve for awakening to be like a lover’s desire for their paramour. Afterward, the Buddha helps Śakra resolve several questions he has about the higher practice and resolves to become a once-returner born in a higher heaven.
MĀ 83 A Senior Elder’s Drowsiness [AN 7.61]
The Buddha realizes that Mahāmaudgalyāyana is suffering from drowsiness while attempting to meditate and visits him with ten ways to combat drowsiness so that a practitioner can get back to meditating effectively.
MĀ 101 Progressive Mental States [MN 20]
In this sutra, the Buddha describes five practical strategies for managing unskillful thoughts that arise and obstruct one’s ability to maintain focus. By mastering the way to control unbidden thoughts that are detrimental to meditation, a meditator can freely pursue their practice.
MĀ 176 Dhyāna Practitioners [n/a]
This important sutra on practicing dhyāna doesn’t have a known parallel and appears to be unique to the Sarvâstivāda’s Madhyama Āgama. It discusses the way a meditator moves from one level of dhyāna to another, whether higher or lower, and how they manage this transition successfully or not.
Dvs 1.3 Like Cattle Led to Their Slaughter [?]
After finishing their almsround, the Buddha and a group of monks encountered a herd of cattle being driven back to the city, looking fat and ready for slaughter. Inspired by this sight, the Buddha composed verses about the way ordinary people go through their lives ignoring the fact that they will die at some point.
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Hello, everyone! It’s been a couple months since my last update. It seems like longer time than that! I traveled in September and visit family I hadn’t seen in over a year, which included an adventurous roadtrip as well as a less enjoyable time flying. It feels more like four or six months after going basically nowhere but the corner grocer for 18 months due to the Pandemic.
The translation of the Dīrgha Āgama continues apace. I’m not sure if I’ll hit my self-imposed deadline of March 1 to have the entire Āgama initially released, but there’s still a chance of it. I’ve also begun more in-depth studies of the Chinese Ekôttarika Āgama in preparation for a translation project that’s planned for next year. So, I’ve been quiet because I’ve been busy.
As of today, I’ve released 24 out of the 30 DĀ sutras, which looks very impressive. But it’s actually about 50% of the entire collection (~115,000 words in English). As winter approaches, I’ll be tackling the largest of the DĀ sutras in December and January, which include the Parinirvāṇa Sutra (DA 2) and the Description of the World Sutra (DĀ 30). (Yeah, it may spill over into March.)
Sutras Released Since September 5
The Buddha’s disciple Kaumāra (or Kumāra) Kāśyapa has an encounter with an unusual priest who holds nihilistic views and engages him in a colorful debate consisting of dueling stories. The priest at the end reveals that he was only testing Kāśyapa and becomes a layman. He assigns a subordinate to arrange for a large donation to the Saṃgha, but gets a dressing down by both Kāśyapa and his subordinate about relying on the merit of alms while still living an immoral life or giving low quality gifts. This sutra is unusual in admitting that it takes place after the Buddha’s Nirvāṇa and lacks the traditional “Thus I have heard” introduction.
At Anomiya (P. Anupiya), the Buddha decides to pay a visit to a wanderer, who tells him about an encounter he had with a former Buddhist monk. The Buddha recounts for him a number of stories about that monk, explaining his stubborn unwillingness to trust the Buddha’s instruction. The sutra develops from there into a dramatic comedy, culminating in a story of a wanderer who challenges the Buddha to a duel of miracle-working but can’t seem to show up for the event. At the end, the Buddha addresses a series of wrong views held by non-Buddhists about the origin of the world and sentient beings.
DĀ 17 Purification (∥ DN 29)
While staying at a town near Kapilavastu, a novice monk brings news to the Buddha about the death of the founder of the Jain ascetics and the schism among his disciples. The Buddha gives the monk a discourse on the conditions that lead to the success and failure of religious teachings and the difficulties disciples have after founders pass away. This leads to a general criticism of the unreasonable beliefs of other ascetic traditions and a summary of how such pitfalls are avoided by the Buddha’s teaching.
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I never found all these 3
“What are the three things to be cultivated? They are the three concentrations: The concentration of emptiness, the concentration without appearances, and the concentration without action.
Sāriputta says he went in emptiness. But what are all of them?
@Upasaka_Dhammasara You can also find them here
MN44
“But ma’am, when a mendicant has emerged from the attainment of the cessation of perception and feeling, how many kinds of contact do they experience?”
20.2“They experience three kinds of contact: emptiness, signless, and undirected contacts.”
If you want to have a discussion about them, perhaps start a new thread as this one is for updates to Dhamma Pearls 
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I’m really looking forward to reading the Ekôttarika Āgama, so thank you again for your hard work.
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Wow, it’s been three months since my last update! Yes, it’s true, I’m still working my way through the Dīrgha Āgama. It’s been quite a couple of months, drafting the Mahâvadāna (DA 1 ~ DN 14) and Parinirvāṇa (DA 2 ~ DN 16) sutras, which I’ve been dreaming of translating for nearly 20 years. Dreams do become realities sometimes.
I’ve added a couple more Dīrgha Āgama sutras to Dharma Pearls that have been patiently waiting for a final edit while I was focused on DĀ 1 & 2. I’m now beginning the draft of the DĀ 30 on Buddhist cosmology, which will take a solid month to complete. Besides the three large sutras, I still need to edit of DĀ 19. I’ve been keeping it for last because it’s a special case due to the need to decode its transliterated dhāraṇīs back into meaningful verses that turn out to be parallel to DN 20’s verses. But when I look at the index page for the Dīrgha Agama, it’s nearly complete in terms of sutras. Only four left!
The last sutras should be posted to Dharma Pearls by the end of May this year. At that point, I will be taking a few months off from new translations to get my DĀ and MĀ sutras added to SuttaCentral before I begin work on the Ekôttarika Āgama. Which means segmented Chinese and side-by-side views on Dharma Pearls, too! I’m also contemplating an ebook edition of the Dirgha Āgama and even a print-on-demand hardcopy sometime this year.
Below are the sutras that were recently added:
DĀ 10 Going Up to Ten (~DN 34)
This is the DA version of DN34 Dasuttara Sutta. The two are very close parallels with a few differences in lists.
DĀ 20 Kūṭatāṇḍya (~DN 5)
This is the DĀ version of DN 5 Kūṭadanta. The two versions are fairly close, with DA being more developed in terms of storytelling (which is a common pattern throughout). Also, in this version, Kūṭatāṇḍya passes away shortly after the Buddha departs. Curious about his rebirth, monks approach the Buddha and ask him about it, and the Buddha tells them Kūṭatāṇḍya attained Nirvana. This is all missing from DN 5. (But it would be interesting to know if any of this is found in Pali commentaries.)
Later this month, I should have the final edit of DĀ 19 ready and perhaps be ready to release DĀ 1 as well.
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Wow. Looking forward to getting hard copies of your translations.
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I have great news. The Dīrgha Āgama is completely drafted, all 22 fascicles of it (which comes to about 235,000 words of English). The past few months have been non-stop drafting, and at times it’s been quite challenging, especially DĀ 19’s mysterious transliterations and the long tract in DĀ 30 about all the various Hells, which puts modern horror film screenwriters to shame. But now I will be focusing for the next 6 weeks or so on editing the final four sutras and releasing them at Dharma Pearls.
DĀ 1 (Mahāvadāna) and DĀ 2 (Parinirvāṇa) will be released this month, then DĀ 30 (Description of the World) in May. DĀ 19 (Mahāsamaya) may take longer because I want to consult with outside help on its transliterated Gandhari passages. It may be an intractable problem, but I want to explore all the avenues before I finalize a release.
I did push a couple updates to Dharma Pearls last month that aren’t related to the Dīrgha Āgama. I began re-editing my translations of Samyukta Āgama sutras, and as this continues there are drafts that will be released in the next couple months. I also released a translation of MĀ 210 Dharmadinnā, which is one of the few EBTs that depicts a bhikṣuṇī as a teacher.
Some may have also noticed this new bit:
I’ve been working with the Śāriputra Abhidharma as I research passages in DĀ, and I’ve been finding sutra quotes that appear to be unrecognized EBT parallels to date. I’ll be collecting such extracts and releasing them on Dharma Pearls in the future as it appears to be the only source of Dharmaguptaka sutras that exists outside of DĀ.
Looking beyond the release of the last of the DĀ sutras, I’ll be shifting gears and working on other projects this summer that have been neglected while working on this big project. I’ll get back to polishing SĀ and MĀ sutras (and editing drafts that have been waiting for attention), and there’s a couple other DĀ publications to work on once the translation is polished (hardcopy books and SuttaCentral).
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Can you do a new translation of The Sutra of Forty-two Chapters And any similar of the same author made? Because that’s real EBT. They say there is many versions. BDK says theirs is from a early version. It’s interesting that china got Buddhism first in this form.