Translating Classical Buddhism to Modern English

The Medium Discourses

The Sevens

2. The Pārijāta Tree

1. Thus I have heard:[1] One time, the Buddha traveled to the country of Śrāvastī and stayed at Anāthapiṇḍada’s Park in Jeta’s Grove.

The Seasons of the Pārijāta Tree

2. It was then that the Bhagavān addressed the monks, “When the leaves of the Trāyastriṃśa Heaven’s[2] pārijāta tree[3] turn yellow, the Trāyastriṃśa gods are delighted and rejoice: ‘It won’t be long before the pārijāta tree’s leaves begin to fall!’

3. “Furthermore, once the leaves of the Trāyastriṃśa Heaven’s pārijāta tree have fallen, the Trāyastriṃśa gods are delighted and rejoice: ‘It won’t be long before the pārijāta tree’s leaves grow back!’

4. “Furthermore, once the leaves of the Trāyastriṃśa Heaven’s pārijāta tree have grown back, the Trāyastriṃśa gods are delighted and rejoice: ‘It won’t be long before the pārijāta tree grows a web of buds!’[4]

5. “Furthermore, once the Trāyastriṃśa Heaven’s pārijāta tree has grown a web of buds, the Trāyastriṃśa gods are delighted and rejoice: ‘It won’t be long before the pārijāta tree’s buds will grow like bird beaks!’[5]

6. “Furthermore, once the Trāyastriṃśa Heaven’s pārijāta tree has grown buds like bird beaks, the Trāyastriṃśa gods are delighted and rejoice, ‘It won’t be long before the pārijāta tree’s buds open like bowls!’

7. “Furthermore, once the buds of the Trāyastriṃśa Heaven’s pārijāta tree have opened like bowls, the Trāyastriṃśa gods are delighted and rejoice: ‘It won’t be long before the pārijāta tree will be in full bloom!’

8. “Once the pārijāta tree is in full bloom, the light that it shines, the colors that it reflects, and the fragrance that it produces have a range of a hundred yojanas.[6] During the four months of summer, the Trāyastriṃśa gods entertain themselves with the five heavenly pleasures and the virtues with which they’re endowed. This is called the gathering under the Trāyastriṃśa Heaven’s pārijāta tree.

The Seasons of the Noble Disciple

9. “The meaning of the noble disciple is like this, too. When they consider leaving home, the disciple is called ‘leaves turning yellow.’ They’re like the Trāyastriṃśa Heaven’s pārijāta tree when its leaves turn yellow.

10. “Furthermore, when they cut off their hair, put on the reddish-brown robes, attain faith, leave home, go into homelessness, and train on the path, then the noble disciple is called ‘falling leaves.’ They’re like the Trāyastriṃśa Heaven’s pārijāta tree dropping its leaves.

11. “Furthermore, the noble disciple parts with desire and bad and unskillful things.[7] With perception and examination,[8] this seclusion produces joy and happiness, and they attain the accomplishment of the first dhyāna.[9] The noble disciple then is called ‘growing back leaves.’ They’re like the Trāyastriṃśa Heaven’s pārijāta tree growing back its leaves.

12. “Furthermore, once perception and examination have stopped, the noble disciple has an inner stillness and unified mind. Without perception or examination, this samādhi produces joy and happiness, and they attain the accomplishment of the second dhyāna.[10] The noble disciple then is called ‘growing a web of buds.’ They’re like the Trāyastriṃśa Heaven’s pārijāta tree growing a web of buds.

13. “Furthermore, the noble disciple parts with desire for joy, and they abide with equanimity and pursue nothing. With right mindfulness and right knowledge, they personally experience the happiness that’s described by noble people as equanimity, mindfulness, happy abiding, and emptiness.[11] They attain the accomplishment of the third dhyāna. The noble disciple then is called ‘growing buds like bird beaks.’ They’re like the Trāyastriṃśa Heaven’s pārijāta tree growing buds like bird beaks.

14. “Furthermore, the noble disciple ceases to feel pleasure ceases and ceases to feel pain. The basis of joy and sorrow having ceased, they’re neither discomforted nor delighted. Equanimous, mindful, and pure, they attain the accomplishment of the fourth dhyāna. The noble disciple then is called ‘opening like a bowl.’ They’re like the Trāyastriṃśa Heaven’s pārijāta tree when its buds open like bowls.

15. “Furthermore, once the noble disciple’s contaminants have ended, their mind is liberated, and their wisdom is liberated. In the present life, they know and recognize for themselves the accomplishment of this realization: ‘Birth has been ended, the religious practice has been established, the task has been accomplished. I truly know that I’m no longer subject to existence.’ The noble disciple then is called ‘in full bloom.’ They’re like the Trāyastriṃśa Heaven’s pārijāta tree when it’s in full bloom.

Conclusion

16. “He becomes an arhat[12] monk whose contaminants have ended. The Trāyastriṃśa gods assemble in the Sudharmā Meeting Hall, sighing admiringly and praising them, ‘Some worthy disciple at some town cut off their hair, put on the reddish-brown robes, became faithful, left home, went into homelessness, and trained on the path. Once their contaminants had ended, their mind was liberated, and their wisdom was liberated. In the present life, they know and recognize for themselves the accomplishment of this realization: “Birth has been ended, the religious practice has been established, and the task has been accomplished. I truly know that I won’t be subject to another existence.”’

17. “This is called the assembly that coincides with the end of an arhat’s contaminants, which is like the gathering held under the Trāyastriṃśa Heaven’s pārijāta tree.”

18. This is what the Buddha said. Those monks who heard what the Buddha taught rejoiced and approved.


Notes

  1. Direct parallels to this sūtra include AN 7.69, EĀ 39.2, and T28. [back]
  2. Trāyastriṃśa Heaven. C.三十三天, G. trayatriśa, P. tāvatiṃsa, S. trāyastriṃśa. The C. translates S. trāyastriṃśa lit. as “Heaven of the Thirty-Three.” This was a Buddhist heaven where thirty-two Vedic gods and Indra reside at the top of Mount Sumeru. [back]
  3. pārijāta. C. 晝度 (EMC tɪəu-do), G. ?, P. pāricchattaka, S. pārijātaka. Previously, I believed that the C. was perhaps a partial transliteration (-jāta), based on the Mandarin pronunciation of 晝度 (M. zhòudù), but the EMC pronunciation (EMC tɪəu-do) doesn’t support this idea. It seems instead to be an interpretive translation that means lit. “day liberation,” which we find in EĀ, too. In any case, I’ve decided to replace the C. with the S. name.
    This is also the present-day name for Nyctanthes arbor-tristis, which is commonly called the night-flowering jasmine tree in English. Perhaps more relevant to this sūtra, however, is the sacred Parijat tree located in the modern village of Kintoor of Uttar Pradesh in India. This Parijat tree is actually a Baobab tree estimated to be 800 years old and from a species native to Africa. Local Hindu legends claim that it descends from a tree brought from the heavens by Arjun, or that it was a gift made by Lord Krishna. It’s existence suggests that there was a sacred tree tradition that dates back at least to classical times. This sūtra may be a Buddhist adaptation of this Vedic tradition. While Buddhists created their own sacred tree connected to the Buddha’s awakening, they apparently felt the need to incorporate this sacred tree as well. [back]
  4. grows a web of buds. C. 生網. The Pali parallel reads: Na cirass’eva dāni jālakajāto bhavissati. Bhikkhu Bodhi reports that the Manorathapūraṇī commentary says: “The occasion when the tree gives birth to webs of leaves and flower, which come forth together.” C. 網 can also mean “web.” I take it to describe the overall appearance of a budding tree, so I’ve added “buds” to my translation. [back]
  5. grow into bird beaks. C. 生如鳥喙. Pali: Na cirass’eva dani kharakajato bhavissati. Bhikkhu Bodhi translates the commentary as: “The occasion when it becomes possessed of a web of leaves and of flowers well divided and growing separately.” The C. 鳥喙 lit. means “bird beak;” presumably, it refers to the shape of the buds as they grow larger and prepare to open. [back]
  6. hundred yojanas. C. 百由延 (EMC “hundred” + yiəu-yiɛn = G. śada yoyan[a]). S. yojana was an ancient Indic measure of distance. Traditional accounts of a yojana’s length range from 7 to 9 miles. [back]
  7. bad and unskillful things. Elsewhere in MĀ, this expression is glossed as the five hindrances plus several other emotional and behavioral dysfunctions. For example, at T26.577b26, they are defined as “longing (C. 增伺, S. abhidhyā), angry thoughts, enveloping sleepiness, agitation, pride, doubt, physical violence, defiled thoughts, disbelief, laziness, forgetfulness, and lack of samādhi, and frequently acting stupidly (C. 惡慧, S. duṣprajña).” (增伺、瞋恚心、睡眠纏、調貢高、疑惑、身諍、穢污心、不信、懈怠、無念、無定、多行惡慧). A very similar list is found in Pali sources (e.g., AN 10.53). [back]
  8. perception and examination. C. 有覺、有觀. MĀ translates S. vitarka and vicāra as 覺 and 觀. In Indic language, these two words were literally “thought” and “investigation.” In C., the translations literally mean “to notice” and “to examine.” It should be noted that these are very general psychological terms in classical Chinese that are not limited to verbal or conceptual thought.
    In Sarvāstivāda sources, these two terms taken together refer to the process of noticing and considering objects of awareness (S. vijñāna) as the mind moves from one thing to the next. I.e., it describes the process of distraction. In the first dhyāna, distractions disrupt samādhi, which forces the practitioner to end them to reach the next dhyāna. A meditation manual written by Kumārajīva likens this to wind blowing on a burning lamp. The wick remains lit, but the flame gutters in the breeze (cf. T616.15.290a5). Thus, the first dhyāna is an unstable form of samādhi. [back]
  9. dhyāna. C. 禪 (EMC ʒɪɛn = G. j̄ana), P. jhāna, S. dhyāna. Dhyāna was an early form of Buddhist meditation in which the mind is calmed into a stillness of activity through four graduated steps. Other translators have rendered it as “trance,” “meditation,” and “absorption.” In Sanskrit, outside of the Buddhist context, the word meant “thought, reflection, meditation,” from the root dhyā. [back]
  10. samādhi. C. 定, G. samasi, P. samādhi, S. samādhi. C. 定 meant “fixed, established, settled, stabilized,” but it’s often translated to English as “concentration” when it translates S. samādhi. In Buddhist language, which was not very different from Sanskrit literature in this case, samādhi meant the fixing on the mind on one subject without distraction, which was considered a purification of mind. It was also described as the merging of the subject and object in the mind. Given this special usage, I’ve chosen not to translate the term to English. [back]
  11. emptiness. The addition of a fourth item to this traditional formula is unique to MĀ. The older editions before the Taisho have varying readings for this item elsewhere in MĀ (“emptiness,” “dwelling,” and “samādhi”) that are visually similar in Chinese (空, 室, and 定), which suggests that it’s origin was a copyist error. The Taisho editors corrected some of these passages to read “dwelling” (室) but not all of them. The CBETA edition corrected all the passages to read “emptiness,” which is the reading that I’ve followed. The reader should be aware that this last item doesn’t occur in other sources and may well be a spurious addition. [back]
  12. arhat. C. 阿羅訶 (EMC •a-la-ha = G. araha), P. arahant, S. arhat. The title arhat originally meant “worthy, venerable, deserving [of alms],” and was sometimes interpreted as “unattached one” in C. translations. It was a title used by Indian ascetics (Buddhists and Jains) to mean a person fully liberated in this life, and it was one of the most common titles given to the Buddha (along with Bhagavān, Tathāgata, and Sugata). Here, it was used to refer to a fully liberated disciple who was destined for parinirvāṇa. I’ve left the term untranslated as a title of special religious significance. [back]

Translator: Charles Patton

Last Revised: 27 August 2023