Introduction
The doctrinal term “aids to enlightenment” (bodhipakṣa), referring to a set of essential Buddhist practices, represents a perennial theme in Buddhist scriptures. While its role is particularly prominent in non-Mahāyāna texts, it also occupies an important place in Mahāyāna sūtras. Even in Buddhist tantric texts, certain attributes of deities and features of maṇḍalas are explained as symbolizing items included in the aids to enlightenment.1
The Teaching on the Aids to Enlightenment, the sūtra translated here, has a distinctive Mahāyāna tone. It comprises a conversation between Buddha Śākyamuni and Mañjuśrī that begins with a discussion of how one comes to be trapped in saṃsāra and how, with the aim of extricating oneself from this undesirable state, one should relate to various phenomena. Within this framework, the topic of the dialogue moves from the four truths to some of the sets of qualities included among the aids to enlightenment. In conclusion, the Buddha himself conveniently provides the following summary of the content of his teaching:
Mañjuśrī, I proclaim that those who see the four truths of the noble ones, the four applications of mindfulness, the eightfold path of the noble ones, the five faculties, and the seven branches of enlightenment in such a manner have crossed over. (1.61)
Leaving aside the four truths of the noble ones, it is noteworthy that the sets of qualities discussed here comprise only four of the seven categories into which the thirty-seven aids to enlightenment are usually grouped. The Mahāvyutpatti gives the seven categories as follows: (1) the four applications of mindfulness (smṛtyupasthāna, dran pa nye bar bzhag pa, nos. 952–956); (2) the four kinds of effort (prahāṇa, yang dag par spong ba, nos. 957–965); (3) the four bases of supernatural power (ṛddhipāda, rdzu ’phrul gyi rkang pa, nos. 966–975); (4) the five faculties (indriya, dbang po, nos. 976–981); (5) the five powers (bala, stobs, nos. 982–987); (6) the seven branches of enlightenment (bodhyaṅga, byang chub kyi yan lag, nos. 988–995); and (7) the eightfold path of the noble ones (aṣṭāṅgamārga, ’phags pa’i lam yan lag, nos. 996–1004).2 The second, third, and fifth categories in this list are not explicitly discussed in this sūtra.
As mentioned above, the aids to enlightenment are frequently mentioned in the Pali canon,3 and The Teaching on the Aids to Enlightenment does indeed make references to these foundational Buddhist teachings. In connection with the four truths of the noble ones, for instance, it cites the common formula, “suffering is to be known, its origin is to be abandoned, its cessation is to be realized, the path is to be cultivated.” Similarly, in the context of the four applications of mindfulness, the Buddha tells Mañjuśrī that he will teach the meditation on the body as “ugly,” feeling and mind as “arising and ceasing,” and phenomena as devoid of “notions of them as wholes.” However, the sūtra uses these early Buddhist teachings only as a starting point on which to build those of its own. For example, in reference to the application of mindfulness of feelings, the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta states:
He lives in this way observing feelings internally, … or externally, or … internally and externally.4
On the other hand, The Teaching on the Aids to Enlightenment shows that there is more to such foundational Buddhist teachings and points beyond them by saying what appears to be the opposite:
Mañjuśrī, whoever does not perceive feelings—which, being neither inside, nor outside, are non-existent in both—is applying mindfulness that carefully considers feelings. (1.31)
In the initial part of its discourse, this sūtra also places an emphasis on conceptualization as a source of unenlightened existence. It sets out the traditional description of how beliefs in notions of the self and what belongs to the self are the origin of karma and saṃsāra, but then also discusses in detail a variety of other kinds of mental constructions and conceptual ideas that cause problems on the path. This move calls to mind Nāgārjuna’s exposition in the eighteenth chapter of the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā, where, after deconstructing the self and what belongs to the self, the pioneer Mahāyāna thinker writes that “karma and afflictions arise from conceptualization, and those [conceptual thoughts] come from conceptual elaboration.”5 In other words, conceptual elaboration (prapañca), with its dualistic tendency to construct pairs of ideas—agent and action, or man and woman—conditions conceptualization, which leads to emotions, actions, and finally our ordinary existence.6
What is valuable about The Teaching on the Aids to Enlightenment is not the fact that it speaks about traditional Buddhist subjects in a different way, but how it does so. The sūtra’s exposition is for the most part based on the Mahāyāna Buddhist doctrine of emptiness, but what it offers on some of the individual aids to enlightenment is highly varied in terms of how each Buddhist practice is to be viewed in light of its empty nature. It is in these detailed descriptions that the reader will find fresh resources for approaching these traditional Buddhist topics from a distinctive Mahāyāna Buddhist perspective.
In the year 984,7 the Indian monk *Devaśāntika (Tianxizai 天息災) translated this sūtra into Chinese, with the title Foshuo dacheng shanjian bianhua wenshushili wenfa jing (佛說大乘善見變化文殊師利問法經, Taishō 472). The Tibetan and Chinese translations diverge quite considerably in certain details, as can be seen, for instance, in the presentations of the individual aids to enlightenment. The two translations generally follow the same structure, although here too there are a few differences. While the Chinese takes the seven categories of the aids to enlightenment in their usual order, the Tibetan presents the eightfold path immediately after the applications of mindfulness. Moreover, the Chinese translation has the Buddha teaching the four kinds of effort and five powers, two of the three categories that are missing in the Tibetan. It also makes mention of the bases of supernatural power as a category, although without discussing the four bases individually.
There is no extant Sanskrit text of The Teaching on the Aids to Enlightenment. The present translation from the Tibetan is based on the Degé Kangyur, with reference to the Stok Palace manuscript Kangyur and the variant readings recorded in the Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma) of the Kangyur.