38. Yaśaḥprabha

Overall Teaching

This chapter teaches the merits of  the Samādhi, emphasizing patience, generosity, and the realisation of emptiness, and that by them, one can uphold the Dharma even amidst adversity. The Buddha also encourages transcending worldly attachments, cultivating virtues like compassion and loving-kindness, and understanding that all dharmas are like illusions.

Summary

• The Buddha speaks again to reveal the merits and benefits of this Samādhi, the bodhisattva’s past practices, and to manifest and increase the power of the youth Candraprabha.

• The Buddha describes how, across hundreds of thousands of kalpas, he made offerings to innumerable Tathāgatas. All these efforts were for obtaining this supreme tranquil Samādhi:

1. • In an inconceivable number of past kalpas, there appeared a Buddha named Gaṇeśvara who had a retinue of sixty billion highly achieved followers in a very tranquil land.

1. • A renowned king, Varapuṣpa, had five hundred sons, all with mindfulness and wisdom. He offered countless things for the saṅgha and had faith, respect, and compassion; he gave all for the sake of the Buddha.

   • The king upheld the ten ways of wholesome action and guided others to do the same. Hundreds of thousands of millions of citizens followed him to see the Buddha, bearing offerings.

     • The assembly of a thousand bhikṣus, along with humans, devas, asuras, nāgas, yakṣas, waited in silence. Knowing their wish for Dharma, and understanding the king’s “supreme mind,” the Buddha expounded this Samādhi. As the Buddha spoke miracles occured like earthquakes, rains of flowers, and the arising of lotus flowers.

1. • • The Buddha, teaching this Samādhi, taught that:

       • All existence and non-existence arise from delusion; everything is like a mirage, foam, or moving clouds. No intrinsic self or being in phenomena; all past and future dharmas are empty. Dharmas are without solidity, forever pure, and like space.

       • The Dharma is ungraspable and cannot be exhausted by words or speech. Even though hundreds of thousands of Buddhas speak countless sūtras, the Dharma remains inexhaustible. True expounders of Dharma understand emptiness and do not cling to the written word and they recognize verbal sounds as echoes—with no attachment to words.

       • All dharmas are empty and quiescent. Through this supreme Samādhi, one realizes the emptiness of dharmas. Wisdom sees dependent origination as an illusion, and the mind remains pure, ungraspable, abiding in emptiness.

     • Upon hearing this teaching, eighty thousand people attain the patience at non-arising and realized the truth that beings have no birth or cessation, and phenomena are unborn and eternally quiescent.

     • King Varapuṣpasa, moved by the Dharma, abandons his royal position and leaves home to become a monk. His five hundred sons and countless others also renounce the household life. The Tathāgata teaches them for two thousand years before entering nirvāṇa.

1. • After Buddha Gaṇeśvara’s parinirvāṇa and the śrāvakas’ parinirvāṇa, the true Dharma gradually declined. King Varapuṣpasa’s lineage continued through his superior son named Puṇyamatin, who possessed right faith. 

     • At that time, the Dharma teacher Yaśaḥprabha upheld this supreme tranquil Samādhi. He was known for upholding pure precepts, endowed with supernatural powers. But his unmatched merit and power, inspired jealousy among countless bhikṣus.

     • Jealous bhikṣus, not believing in emptiness, rose up with swords to harm Yaśaḥprabha. They regarded him as a “false teacher” and thought that killing him will bring merit.

       • Yaśaḥprabha remained unafraid, contemplating the empty nature of beings. Joining his palms, he invokes “Namo Buddhāya,” wishing that if the empty Dharma is true, the swords turn into flowers. Instantly, the swords transform into fragrant flowers; the earth shakes, flowers rain from the sky. The hostile bhikṣus become ashamed and terrified, unable to move their hands.

       • The Yaśaḥprabha resolves: If anyone shows anger towards him, he will practice bodhi for their sake. He has cultivated patience for countless kalpas. Despite oppression by evil bhikṣus, he continues to expound the Tathāgata’s treasury of the Dharma of emptiness for eighty years.

1. • King Varapuṣpasa’s superior son, Puṇyamatin, protects Yaśaḥprabha and has five hundred thousand soldiers guard the Dharma teacher and the evil bhikṣus are driven away.

• The Buddha Śākyamuni reveals that in a past life, he was the bhikṣu Yaśaḥprabha, who upheld the precepts and taught emptiness amidst adversity.

• Puṇyamatin, who protected Yaśaḥprabha, was a lifelong friend to the Buddha in many past lives. The Buddha prophesies that Puṇyamatin will become Maitreya Bhagavān.

• The king who once made offerings to Buddha Gaṇeśvara and left the worldly life becomes a future king called Padmottara. Emphasizes the long cultivation of patience, generosity, and Samādhi.

• After the Parinirvāṇa of Śākyamuni the true Dharma will disappear. Certain bhikṣus, delighting in non-Buddhist texts, become frivolous and greedy. They slander the supreme Dharma of emptiness, seeking disputes.

  • Future bhikṣus will renounce the world but lack sincerity, follow Māra’s intentions, indulging in desires, pursue food, drinks, and personal comfort, and reject emptiness and tranquility.

  • The Buddha advises Candraprabha to revere monks who delight in emptiness and tranquility: They truly uphold the Buddha’s teachings. They are free from defilements and abide in pure precepts.

  • He points out that:

    1. The external supports for practice are making offerings, building stūpas, making Buddha images, and so forth.

    2. The internal supports for practice are contemplating the buddhas in the ten directions, practising the pāramitās, and contemplating impurity to remove defilements; practicing loving-kindness against anger; understanding dependent origination to destroy ignorance.

       • Moreover one should contemplate the body as like foam, the five aggregates as empty, and let go of views of the self and soul. Remaining unmoved by gain, loss, praise, or slander—like Mount Sumeru. Not seeking fame or benefit, swiftly attaining the teacher’s status among devas and humans.

       • One should also maintain right speech, not belittling others; not wish for lower attainments (like arhatship); and be steadfast in one's commitment for buddhahood with courageous resolve.

       • Ideally, the bodhistatva will abide in quiet, secluded forests, dedicating themselves to liberation. They should continuously develop loving-kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity. They should avoid bad friends and draw near to good people. They will respect parents, teachers, and all sentient beings, reject worldly busy-ness, abiding in peace and stillness. They should become a “lamp in the world” to subdue Māra’s power and spread the supreme true Dharma.

       • If one follows the teachings on emptiness, upholds the supreme Samādhi, and sincerely cultivates the paramitas (virtues), one will surely attain Buddhahood.

Commentary

Thrangu Rinpoche's commentary highlights the role of proper motivation in both learning and practicing the Dharma for oneself, and in teaching it to others. Three core motivations are outlined:

1. Purifying One’s Own Obscurations:
   The primary intention is to remove personal disturbing emotions and any obstacles preventing genuine progress or realisation.

2. Becoming a Field of Merit for Others:
   One practices with the aspiration to reach complete enlightenment, thus becoming a source of inspiration and a “field of merit” from which others can receive pure teachings and deepen their own practice.

3. Yearning for the Twofold Wisdom:
   Finally, practitioners cultivate the wish to attain the perfect wisdom of the Buddhas—both insight into the true nature of reality and the capacity to perceive all dharmas—so that they can accurately guide other beings on the path out of compassion.

Mañjuśrīkīrti's commentary is many times longer than the actual chapter.

He begins by emphasising the importance of cultivating patience and consistently practising the teachings related to the samādhi of tranquillity. He highlights three essential bases of practice:

• Eliminating unwholesome tendencies

• Strengthening merit

• Aspiring to the Buddha’s wisdom

He stresses that consistent hearing, reflecting, and meditating form the foundation for genuine engagement with the Dharma.

Mañjuśrīkīrti goes on to explain that the non-arising samādhi taught to the king fundamentally reveals how dharmas lack inherent existence and resemble illusions. Although they function within the realm of cause and effect, they remain “unborn” in the ultimate sense. Language, concepts, and karma are shown to be conventionally valid yet ultimately empty, underscoring the need for a quiescent concentration that uproots attachment and confusion.

Through logical refutations, he demonstrates that neither self-based nor other-based production withstands scrutiny. Dharmas arise dependently but are devoid of intrinsic reality—an insight reinforced by analysing past, present, and future as mere conventional designations rather than ultimate truths.

Moreover, Mañjuśrīkīrti emphasises the absence of a permanent “I,” showing that the body, mind, and consciousness are aggregates without an inherent core. By examining notions of permanence and employing valid cognition, one concludes that any posited self is merely a conceptual construct that dissolves upon deeper analysis.

Thus, all dharmas—internal and external—are revealed to lack true essence, resembling dreams. Karmic outcomes, while conditionally real, are ultimately insubstantial. Recognising this emptiness fosters profound patience and inspires spiritual renunciation and commitment to the path.

He points to the story of Yaśaḥprabha as an example of a monk who upheld the teaching of emptiness amid opposition. The narrative illustrates how powerful merit and unwavering patience can transform hostility into reverence. By remaining fearless and compassionate, the teacher exemplifies the bodhisattva’s vow to forgo retaliation and embody selfless endurance.

In closing, the commentary depicts all manifestations as arising from emptiness and explains how practitioners can overcome afflictions through compassion, loving-kindness, and wisdom. Furthermore, true realisation surpasses mere conceptual understanding, and practitioners are encouraged to dedicate themselves wholeheartedly to benefiting all beings while honouring every Tathāgata equally.

Discussion

How does the emphasis on patience, emptiness, and the bodhisattva's compassionate response to adversity in the story of Yaśaḥprabha illustrate the interplay between personal spiritual practice and broader social impact, and how might these principles be applied in contemporary contexts of conflict or misunderstanding?