This Sanghata Sutra is a Mahayana sutra containing stories illustrating the power of invoking the bodhisattva wish when interacting with others, and the power of past and present actions to produce expansive results. Imbued with the blessings of the power of prayer invoked by Shakyamuni Buddha himself, recitation of this sutra produces a great mass of positive karma that can quickly ripen, even in this life.
This new version (2006) is the long-anticipated complete translation from Tibetan by Ven. Lhundup Damchö.
2006 Edition.
The Sanghata Sutra is a direct teaching by the Buddha that promises to transform all who read or recite it.
The speech of buddhas is profound; Sarva-shúra, listen to me: The Sanghāta Sutra is a teacher, manifesting in the form of a sage. The Sangháta manifests, out of kindness, even bodies of buddhas. As many grains of sand as the Ganges holds, in just that many forms it teaches. It teaches in the form of a Buddha. It teaches even the essence of Dharma. Who wishes to see a Buddha, Sanghāta is equivalent to a Buddha. Wherever the Sanghāta is, always there the Buddha is.”
Lama Zopa Rinpoche on the Benefits of the Sanghatasutra
The Ārya Saṅghāṭa Sūtra is a Mahāyāna Buddhist scripture that promises to transform all those who read it. Like other sutras, the Sanghāta records a discourse given by the Buddha, but unlike other sutras, the Buddha tells us he himself had heard the Sanghāta from a previous buddha.
The Sanghāta is a text that talks about itself by name—and talks in great detail about what it will do to anyone who encounters it. It is also an extraordinary literary adventure, full of stories of death, discovery and magical transformations. It is about many things, but first and foremost, the Sanghāta is about what can happen to its readers. That is to say: Most of all, the Sanghāta is about you.
The speech of buddhas is profound; Sarva-shúra, listen to me: The Sanghāta Sutra is a teacher, manifesting in the form of a sage. The Sangháta manifests, out of kindness, even bodies of buddhas. As many grains of sand as the Ganges holds, in just that many forms it teaches. It teaches in the form of a Buddha. It teaches even the essence of Dharma. Who wishes to see a Buddha, Sanghāta is equivalent to a Buddha. Wherever the Sanghāta is, always there the Buddha is.
The Sanghāta is one of a special set of Buddhist sutras called dharma-paryāyas, or ‘transformative teachings,’ that function to transform those who hear or recite them in particular ways.
In general, the recitation of Mahāyāna sutras is one of the six virtuous practices specifically recommended for purification, and the recitation of this sutra in particular has far-reaching karmic consequences that last for many lifetimes, as the Sanghāta Sūtra itself explains in detail. Within the sutra, the Buddha provides numerous descriptions of the ways in which the sutra works on those who recite it to clear away their seeds of suffering, and to assure their future happiness all the way up enlightenment.
Bhaishajya-séna, some young sentient beings here do not understand birth, although they have seen it. Cessation, aging, sickness, sorrow, weeping, separation from loved ones, coming into contact with what is unpleasant, parting with friends, dying, untimely death — they do not understand any of these unbearable sufferings. Even though they have seen them, they are not moved and revolted by them, so how could they possibly understand them? Bhaishajya-séna, they must be taught again and again.
The sutra also includes some forceful teachings on death and impermanence, including a teaching on the physical and mental processes that occur at the time of death.
Although it was visited often and with great enthusiasm for centuries by Mahāyāna Buddhists in India and Central Asia, the wondrous world of the Sanghāta Sūtra was largely forgotten by Buddhist communities from the eleventh century onwards. In 2002, the text was re-introduced to Buddhist practitioners by academic scholars in North America.
Since then, the Sanghāta has become the subject of renewed activity: the text has been translated into many modern languages, recited, studied and copied by thousands of Buddhists worldwide, due in large part to the efforts of Lama Zopa Rinpoche. After over one thousand years of quiet slumber, this discourse of the Buddha has again taken a vibrant place at the center of the spiritual life of practicing Buddhists around the world.
Benefits of Reciting the Arya Sanghata Sutra
Probably I don’t need to tell you what the text says about how much merit you collect
each time you hear this sutra. Each time you hear it, how much merit do you collect?
First of all, one buddha has completed the merit of wisdom and the merit of virtue – there
is nothing more to collect…and then how many buddhas? The number of buddhas
equaling the number of sands of grain in the Ganga River times twelve. And these sand
grains are not ordinary grains of sand. It is explained in the teachings, in the great
enlightened Pabongkha Rinpoche’s notes, that these grains are made of extremely subtle
atoms. There are seven kinds of subtle atoms, water atoms, earth atoms, and so forth.
These sand grains are much, much finer than what we usually think.
In addition to that, when it comes to talking about the benefits of bodhichitta, or the
benefits of the Arya Sanghata Sutra, the Ganga does not refer to the Indian River Ganges.
It refers to the Pacific Ocean. Now, that many numbers of buddhas times twelve. The
merit of just one set of buddhas equaling the number of sand grains in the River Ganga,
even just one set – how much merit that is…is beyond words, unimaginable. Even just
the merit that one buddha has collected is beyond words. So, now, beyond that, the merit
that you collect every time you hear the Arya Sanghata Sutra is equal to twelve times the
merit of the number of buddhas as there are sand grains in the River Ganga.
So, that is just by hearing it. This means that anyone hearing it - animals, frogs, birds, so
no question about pets like your beautiful cat, your darling cat, even spirits – collects that
much merit. Can you imagine? It is like an impossible thing in the life that happens.
When those animals, your cat and other animals, hear you recite Buddha’s teachings, it
definitely makes them to receive higher rebirth and to meet Dharma.
The very minute you hear it, the five uninterrupted negative karmas - the extremely
heavy negative karmas that right after death, immediately without interruption of another
life, you get born into hell; you get reborn in the lowest hot hell, which has the heaviest
suffering of the lower realms, of which the life span lasts for one intermediate eon – those
get completely purified. This happens even for the sentient beings who hear the sutra, the
minute they hear the sutra. Therefore, in the past, when I was in Washington, I played the
CD in the car going on the way to go shopping, which is a 40-minute drive away. I was
sitting in the front of the car, so I kept the window down. Sitting behind me there were
two nuns, Holly and Chosang. It was not sunshine weather; it was a bit foggy and cold.
The cold wind was going back through the window and making them cold. But if I had
cared only for them, then all those people living in the houses along the road and all the
cows and animals, they could not hear. There is a big difference. So, I kept the window
down and played the CD very loud, like young people playing their music in the car –
those young people, teenagers who have that strange hair that goes straight up onto their
head or who have a lot of rings on their ears or on their face, around the eyes or
whatever…just to be descriptive.
So, just going one way to shopping, you are liberating so many sentient beings on the
way there – just one way. During that time there was one deer in the road, so the car
stopped and then, they had the opportunity to hear a little bit. So, (if the five
uninterrupted actions get purified), that means no question about the ten non-virtuous
actions, they get purified also. So, I thought that was a great thing to do. But also, the
people in the car get purified of all those negative karmas – collect that unbelievable
merit. It is such an unbelievably easy way to make the life meaningful. You just put the
CD in the car and you play it, that’s it. As long as you are not deaf and can hear, you
don’t need to put much effort there. It’s the easiest way to purify negative karma, the
easiest way to collect unimaginable extensive merit. That means it is the quickest easiest
way to achieve liberation from samsara, to finish all the oceans of samsaric suffering that
one has experienced over and over numberless times without beginning, from time
without beginning. Not only the people in the car, but also for anyone who hears it – it is
a quick way to achieve enlightenment. Also, more merit makes it easy and quick to
realize the emptiness of the “I,” the aggregates, phenomena; it is a quick way to eliminate
the root of samsara, ignorance, and a quick way to actualize bodhichitta. You need so
much merit, unbelievable, unbelievable merit to actualize bodhichitta. If you have
bodhichitta, you are a bodhisattva. In that second, you become the spiritual son of all the
buddhas, you receive the name. You become the supreme object of offerings of all the
sentient beings. They collect inconceivable merits when they make offerings to you. So
when they see you, hear your voice, or you give something to them, or touch them. Even
if some of the sentient beings harm you, after you have realization of bodhichitta, then
from your side, you only benefit in return. You pray for good things to happen to that
person. There is a saying with the bodhisattvas, “if you can’t make a good connection by
doing good things, then by doing some harm, make a connection with the bodhisattva.”
What it means is – it is not saying you must harm a bodhisattva, but in the case that it
happens – it is saying it is worthwhile. In return the bodhisattva only benefits, only
prays, so in return that sentient being is guided by that bodhisattva from life to life. For
example, the Buddha, during his time as a bodhisattva, sacrificed his blood for the five
yakshas; they drank his blood. Then, due to that connection, in the next life, they became
his disciples as human beings – they became the first five disciples and Buddha gave
them teachings at Sarnath. That was the first turning of the Dharma Wheel. They drank
his blood, but what the bodhisattva made as a prayer for them was in the next life for
them to be his direct disciples and to be able to receive teachings, and so forth; and, of
course they go forth to liberation and enlightenment. There is unbelievable benefit for
sentient beings if one is a bodhisattva. Only with bodhichitta can you complete the two
types of merits and achieve the two kayas. Without bodhichitta, even if you have wisdom
directly perceiving emptiness, you cannot achieve the two kayas. The highest you can
achieve is arhatship, liberation from samsara – ceasing the delusions and karma.
So, if you read the Arya Sanghata Sutra, there is far greater merit (than just hearing it);
then, if you write it – much, much more. Remember the merit of the buddhas equaling
the number of grains of sand in the Ganges River times twelve? The amount of merit if
you write it is eight times that (e.g., 96 x one set of buddhas).
The last time that I went to Singapore, and Malaysia, because of my little advertisement
about how much more merit there is if you write it, many people wrote it and have
finished it already. This is unbelievable. The director of the Singapore center told me
about when they recited it - incredible things happened. Each time they gave me a little
bit from that. That happened already two times. Also, it happened in Malaysia.
Somebody offered $100K for a school. In New Zealand, Bruce Farley just read it maybe
one time. When he read it in the gompa, he thought, “Buddha wouldn’t lie,” and with that
strong faith he read it. He won the lottery – a large house in Australia. He didn’t tell his
wife or his parents. He invited his wife and his parents to Australia to see the house. He
didn’t tell them about the house, he just invited them. He wanted it to be a surprise. His
idea was to sell the house and to use the money for Dharma projects. Then, a lady in
Istituto Lama Tsong Khapa (in Italy) who had been smoking her whole life - she has been
translating Dharma texts for Dharmarucci Publishing. She was unable to stop smoking
for so many years. When she read this the first time, she was able to stop smoking like
that (finger snap). That means that, really, Buddha is working, blessing through this text.
Buddha is really in action.
So, through this merit, how much you collect, then you are able to fulfill all the wishes of
all the sentient beings. You should realize that - the numberless hell beings, you are able
to liberate them; bring them to higher rebirth, and then liberation from samsara, and to
enlightenment. Then, it is the same, you are able to help the numberless hungry ghosts,
able to help the numberless animals, able to help the numberless humans, able to help the
numberless sura beings, and able to help the numberless asura beings. Also, you are able
to help all the numberless intermediate state beings. So, remember these things. These
incredible advantages for yourself and for others you can offer from collecting so much
merit – remember them each time you begin to recite the Sanghata Sutra….
Not only you, but so many people who have recited the Arya Sanghata Sutra have
received so much benefit to their mind and to their heart, becoming more and more
Dharma. So, also, every day to write even a few lines is extremely, unbelievably good.
When you write it, of course you don’t finish many pages, it is quite slow, but when you
write, also you read, so that is the benefit. The only thing is if you only read it, you can
finish in that day, in those hours. Of course, one can do a few lines writing and then read
the whole text. That also can be done. Like that then, gradually, you can finish writing. I
am extremely happy that you enjoy so much. You see the benefit that is working for your
mind and you see that it is an amazing sutra.
Colophon:
From letter dictated by Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, April 12
2006. Scribed and edited by Kendall Magnussen.
https://fpmt.org/education/teachings/sutras/sanghata-sutra-in-various-languages/
https://www.sanghatasutra.net/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanghata_Sutra
