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Teaching the Four Factors
Homage to all the buddhas and bodhisattvas!
Thus did I hear at one time. The Blessed One was dwelling in the Sudharmā assembly hall in the Heaven of the Thirty-Three, together with a great gathering of five hundred monks,8 and very many bodhisattva mahāsattvas, including Maitreya and Mañjuśrī.
At that time the Blessed One said to the bodhisattva mahāsattva Maitreya, [F.59.b] “O Maitreya, bodhisattva mahāsattva, if you possess four factors, the misdeeds you have committed and accumulated will be overcome.
“What are these four? The action of repentance, antidotal action, the power of restraint, and the power of support.
“The action of repentance is to feel intense remorse for any non-virtuous action you have committed.
“Antidotal action is to put great effort into virtuous actions once you have committed a non-virtuous action.
“The power of restraint is to make a pledge and thereby refrain from any similar action.9
“The power of support is to take refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha, and not to forsake the mind of awakening. By relying on such powerful forces, you will be immune to misdeeds.
“O Maitreya, bodhisattva mahāsattva, if you possess these four factors, you will overcome any misdeeds that you have committed and accumulated. The bodhisattva mahāsattva should continually read this sūtra, recite it aloud, and reflect and meditate on it, doing so many times. Through this, the effects of negative conduct will not come about.”
Once the Blessed One had said this, the whole assembly, including the bodhisattva mahāsattva Maitreya, the monks, the bodhisattvas, and the ranks of the gods, such as Śakra, were overjoyed and full of praise for what the Blessed One had taught.
This concludes the noble Mahāyāna sūtra entitled Teaching the Four Factors.
Translated by Adam Pearcey
under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha
SUMMARY
While Buddha Śākyamuni is residing in the Sudharmā assembly hall in the Heaven of the Thirty-Three, he explains to the great bodhisattva Maitreya four factors that make it possible to overcome the effects of any negative deeds one has committed. These four are: the action of repentance, which involves feeling remorse; antidotal action, which is to practice virtue as a remedy to non-virtue; the power of restraint, which involves vowing not to repeat a negative act; and the power of support, which means taking refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha, and never forsaking the mind of awakening. The Buddha concludes by recommending that bodhisattvas regularly recite this sūtra and reflect on its meaning as an antidote to any further wrongdoing.
As its name suggests, the Caturdharmanirdeśasūtra (Sūtra Teaching the Four Factors) is an explanation of four dharmas, here meaning factors or qualities.1 These factors relate to the practice of confession (even though no equivalent of that word occurs in the sūtra itself) and the purification of misdeeds or negative, harmful actions (pāpa). The four are: (1) the action (or correct approach) of repentance or self-reproach (vidūṣaṇāsamudācāra; rnam par sun ’byin pa kun tu spyod pa), which involves feeling remorse for past negative actions; (2) antidotal or remedial action (pratipaṣasamudācāra; gnyen po kun tu spyod pa), which means cultivating virtuous actions as an antidote to misdeeds; (3) the power of restraint (pratyāpattibala; sor chud par byed pa’i stobs), which means vowing not to repeat a negative action; and (4) the power of support (āśrayabala; rten gyi stobs), which means taking refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha, and never forsaking the mind of awakening. Through employing these four factors, the sūtra says, any negative act, no matter how grave, can be “overcome” in the sense that its karmic consequences can be transformed. This became a crucial idea for Mahāyāna ethics, both in theory and in practice.
The importance of the Caturdharmanirdeśasūtra is evident from the numerous references to it that appear in Indian Mahāyāna literature. The Bodhyāpattideśanāvṛtti (Commentary on the Confession of Bodhisattva Downfalls), for example, which is attributed to Nāgārjuna, cites the sūtra and elaborates on the four powers (stobs bzhi), as the four factors came to be known, despite the fact that only the final two are labeled “power” (stobs; bala) in the sūtra itself. Bhāviveka’s Tarkajvālā, too, refers to the sūtra in support of the view that even the very gravest of negative actions can be purified. And chapter eight of Śāntideva’s Śikṣāsamuccaya (Compendium of Training), on the purification of misdeeds (pāpaśodhana; sdig pa sbyong ba), not only quotes from the Caturdharmanirdeśasūtra, but even takes the four factors as its central theme.
Tibetan authors, too, make it clear that the four powers are the key elements of confessional practice (bshags pa). In his famous Ornament of Precious Liberation (dwags po thar rgyan), Gampopa Sönam Rinchen (sgam po pa bsod nams rin chen, 1079–1153) relates the powers to episodes in the lives of the Buddha’s contemporaries Nanda, Aṅgulimāla, Ajātaśatru, and Udayana, in order to demonstrate the necessity of each factor. Tsongkhapa Losang Drakpa (tsong kha pa blo bzang grags pa, 1357–1419) draws on both the Caturdharmanirdeśasūtra itself and Śāntideva’s discussion in the Śikṣāsamuccaya to explain the powers in some detail in his magnum opus, the Lamrim Chenmo.2 It is also common to find reference to the four powers in Tibetan purificatory rites and commentaries on them.3 There are slight variations in the spelling of the names and the sequence of these powers, and not all Tibetan works cite the Caturdharmanirdeśasūtra as their source, but the derivation is clear enough.4
At least two Sanskrit editions of the Caturdharmanirdeśasūtra exist today.5 One is a manuscript from a collection held in the Potala library in Lhasa, which recently became available in a critical edition.6 It exhibits several variations from the versions in the Tibetan canon, most notably in its inclusion, near the end, of a four-line verse that it attributes to the Buddha himself:
“Even minor transgressions prove the downfall of the foolish,
Whereas even serious transgressions do not affect the wise.
A lump of iron, though small, sinks in water;
But even a great mass of iron, when made into a vessel, floats.”7
Some other minor differences are also noted below. The following translation was made primarily on the basis of the Degé block print and the Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma), although it follows the Peking Yongle and Kangxi recensions on one significant point, for reasons that are explained in a note. Otherwise, since the various Tibetan canonical versions vary among themselves only slightly in matters of orthography, such instances have not been specified here.
THE TRANSLATION
The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra Entitled
Teaching the Four Factors
Homage to all the buddhas and bodhisattvas!
Thus did I hear at one time. The Blessed One was dwelling in the Sudharmā assembly hall in the Heaven of the Thirty-Three, together with a great gathering of five hundred monks,8 and very many bodhisattva mahāsattvas, including Maitreya and Mañjuśrī.
At that time the Blessed One said to the bodhisattva mahāsattva Maitreya, [F.59.b] “O Maitreya, bodhisattva mahāsattva, if you possess four factors, the misdeeds you have committed and accumulated will be overcome.
“What are these four? The action of repentance, antidotal action, the power of restraint, and the power of support.
