聞分館君 Ask BunKanKun

佛說懈怠耕者經

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Text ID
KR6i0533
Date
457–464
Dynasty
劉宋

Fó shuō xièdài gēngzhě jīng 佛說懈怠耕者經

The Buddha Speaks: The Sūtra of the Lazy Ploughman translated by 惠簡 (Huìjiǎn, alternate spelling 惠簡, 譯)

About the work

T827 in one fascicle is a brief narrative sūtra on the missed opportunity to encounter the Buddha, translated by the Liú-Sòng monk 慧簡 (Huìjiǎn, here under the alternate spelling 惠簡 Huìjiǎn) at the Lùyě Monastery in Mòlíng (Jiànkāng) c. 457. The text is one of three principal works ascribed to Huìjiǎn (the other two being the two recensions of the [[KR6i0502|Pínqióng lǎogōng jīng]]).

Abstract

The text opens with the Buddha and his disciples leaving Rājagṛha (羅閱祇 Luóyuèqí) on the road to Śrāvastī (舍衛 Shèwèi). The procession is glorious: bodhisattvas lead in front, Indra and Brahmā attend in their guise of catur-mahā-rāja (the four heavenly kings), the bhikṣu-saṃgha follows, and devas, nāgas and spirits hover above making offerings.

Outside the city a man is at his ploughing in the field, sees the Tathāgata’s procession from afar, and is moved to prīti by the Buddha’s perfect golden body, the thirty-two marks, and the radiance like the moon among stars. He resolves to go and venerate the Buddha and ask for instruction — “Buddhas are hard to encounter; they appear only at long intervals” (佛世難值，時時一現). But then he reconsiders: “My field is not yet ploughed; my seed is not yet sown. I shall finish my work and visit the Buddha later when I am free.”

The Buddha, knowing his thought of laziness (kausīdya) by his telepathic-faculty (心發此懈怠), smiles. A five-coloured ray issues from his mouth, illuminates the ten directions, and gathers all beings of the pañcagati (the five destinies — hell-beings, hungry ghosts, animals, humans, devas) to the assembly: in the hells the torments cease for a moment; the hungry ghosts are satiated; the animals turn to good thoughts; the humans seek liberation; the devas listen for the Dharma.

Ānanda asks the meaning of the smile. The Buddha responds with a doctrinal exposition on the kṣaṇa-pratyutpanna-nature of the encounter with a Buddha: opportunities to meet a Buddha are exceedingly rare and must be seized in the moment; postponement to a more convenient time is the surest way to lose the opportunity entirely. The ploughman, having postponed his audience, will not see the Buddha in this life and will need countless kalpas before another such opportunity arises. The doctrinal point — kṣaṇa-saṃpad (“the achievement of the moment”), the doctrine that a Buddha-encounter is not infinitely repeatable — is foundational for the Mahāyāna doctrine of pratyutpanna-buddha-saṃmukhāvasthita-samādhi and the urgency of practice.

Translations and research

No standalone Western translation located. On the doctrine of kṣaṇa-saṃpad in early Chinese Buddhism see:

  • Harrison, Paul M. The Samādhi of Direct Encounter with the Buddhas of the Present. Tokyo: International Institute for Buddhist Studies, 1990.

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