Fó shuō jiěyōu jīng 佛說解憂經
The Buddha Speaks: The Sūtra Dispelling Sorrow translated by 法天 (Fǎtiān, Dharmadeva, 譯)
About the work
T804 in one fascicle is a doctrinal sūtra on the contemplation of impermanence and the saṃsāra-cycle, framed as an antidote to the sorrow of separation from the beloved (愛別離苦), translated at the Sòng Institute for the Translation of Sūtras at Kāifēng by 法天 (Fǎtiān, Dharmadeva; d. 1001) by imperial order. The translation falls between the Institute’s inauguration in 982 and Fǎtiān’s death in 1001. The colophon’s repetition of his title 試鴻臚卿傳教大師 reflects a transmission slip in the printed text rather than two separate posts.
Abstract
The text opens with three gāthā-prologues to the Three Jewels (Buddha, Dharma, Saṃgha), parallel in structure to the opening of [[KR6i0507|Wúcháng jīng]] (T801). A second long gāthā sequence then expounds the universal applicability of impermanence as the cure for sorrow at separation: the gāthās argue that since all beings — from one’s own family to the whole of the three realms — are equally subject to anitya, lamentation over a particular separation is irrational; that even Mt Sumeru and the great seas are dissolved at the kalpa-saṃvarta; that the only true refuge is the perfectly-awakened (samyak-saṃbuddha), whose teaching alone is “true reliance” (真依仗處).
The prose narrative frame then opens at the Jetavana, where the Buddha presents the doctrine of beginningless saṃsāra through a sequence of striking quantitative similes: (1) the earth-pellet simile — were one to compress all the soil of the great earth into mustard-seed-sized pellets and lay one pellet for each parent, child, or sibling one has had since beginningless time, the pellets would be exhausted long before the kin-relations were enumerated; (2) the bone-heap simile — the bones of the bodies one has worn through endless rebirths would heap up like Mt Sumeru, undecayed; (3) the molten-copper simile — the molten copper one has been forced to drink in past lives in the hells exceeds the volume of the great seas; (4) the tear-water simile — the tears one has wept at separations equal the volume of the seas; (5) the decapitation-heap simile — the heads severed in mutual killing across past lives would heap up beyond the Brahma-heaven.
The sūtra concludes with a typological tour of the six destinies — hell, hungry ghost, animal, human, asura, and deva — emphasising that even the highest deva-births of trāyastriṃśa yield only temporary pleasure followed by descent. The Buddha closes by enjoining the bhikṣus to “study the cutting of saṃsāra” (學斷輪迴), and assures them that the sūtra will endure as long as the world endures, “for the sake of bringing all beings to the cessation of saṃsāra.”
The text belongs to the genre of “consolation-sūtras” addressing grief at separation, with parallels in the Saṃyukta-āgama (cf. SĀ 947, the earth-pellet simile in particular).
Translations and research
No standalone Western translation located. For the anavarāgra-saṃsāra (beginningless saṃsāra) doctrine and its similes see:
- Anālayo, Bhikkhu. “The Beginnings of Saṃsāra.” In Buddhist Studies Review 32 (2015): 75–86.
- Bareau, André. Recherches sur la biographie du Buddha. Paris: École française d’Extrême-Orient, 1963.
Links
- CBETA online
- Kanseki DB
- Dazangthings date evidence (980): [ T ] T = CBETA [Chinese Buddhist Electronic Text Association]. Taishō shinshū daizōkyō 大正新脩大藏經. Edited by Takakusu Junjirō 高楠順次郎 and Watanabe Kaigyoku 渡邊海旭. Tokyo: Taishō shinshū daizōkyō kankōkai/Daizō shuppan, 1924-1932. CBReader v 5.0, 2014. https://dazangthings.nz/cbc/source/1/