Losing and Gaining Prajñāpāramitā
The Buddha opens his teaching to Mahākāśyapa with three matched pairs of "four dharmas" — what causes a bodhisattva to lose prajñāpāramitā and what causes him to gain it, what makes him forget the bodhisattva mind and what keeps it always present, and what makes wholesome qualities decline or grow.
Translation Method
The Chinese source is an anonymous Jin-dynasty translation (失譯, "translator lost"), one of four surviving Chinese versions of the Kāśyapaparivarta, one of the oldest Mahāyāna sūtras to survive in Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Chinese alike. No commentary on this sūtra by any premodern figure survives; this collection's reading notes are Ru-Yi Meditation Center's own. The sūtra takes the form of the Buddha's direct address to his disciple Mahākāśyapa, and this first part opens with three matched pairs of "four dharmas" describing what a bodhisattva does and does not do. Classical text is set in the left-hand column below, our English in the right. See also this site's note on translation method.
What Loses, and What Gains, Prajñāpāramitā
聞如是：一時，佛遊王舍城耆闍崛山中，與大比丘眾八千人俱，菩薩萬六千人，從諸佛國而來集此，悉志無上正真之道。
爾時，世尊告尊者大迦葉曰：「菩薩有四法，失般若波羅蜜，云何為四？一者，不尊法、不敬法師；二者，為法師者慳惜悋法；三者，欲得法者為法作礙，呵責輕易不為說法；四者，憎慢貢高、自大譽毀他。是謂迦葉！菩薩有四法失般若波羅蜜。
「復次迦葉！菩薩有四法，得般若波羅蜜。云何四？一者，尊法、敬重法師；二者，隨受聞法、廣為他說，心無愛著亦無所求，為般若波羅蜜故，捨一切財物，求多學問如救頭然；三者，聞已受持；四者，行法不著言說。是謂迦葉！菩薩有四法得般若波羅蜜。」
Thus have I heard. At one time the Buddha was traveling at Rājagṛha, on Vulture Peak, together with a great assembly of eight thousand monks, and sixteen thousand bodhisattvas who had gathered there from buddha-lands in every direction, every one of them intent upon the unsurpassed, true path.
Then the World-Honored One said to the Elder Mahākāśyapa: "A bodhisattva has four dharmas that cause the loss of prajñāpāramitā. What are the four? First, not honoring the Dharma, and not respecting one's Dharma-teacher; second, being a Dharma-teacher who is stingy and begrudging with the Dharma; third, obstructing the Dharma for one who wishes to attain it, rebuking and belittling them rather than teaching them; fourth, harboring hatred and pride, exalting oneself and disparaging others. These, Kāśyapa, are the four dharmas by which a bodhisattva loses prajñāpāramitā.
"Furthermore, Kāśyapa! A bodhisattva has four dharmas that gain prajñāpāramitā. What are the four? First, honoring the Dharma and deeply respecting one's Dharma-teacher; second, receiving and hearing the Dharma and broadly teaching it to others, with a mind free of attachment and seeking nothing in return, and, for the sake of prajñāpāramitā, giving up every possession and seeking learning as urgently as one would put out a fire burning on one's own head; third, upholding what one has heard; fourth, practicing the Dharma without clinging to mere words. These, Kāśyapa, are the four dharmas by which a bodhisattva gains prajñāpāramitā."
The sūtra's opening move sets the pattern for nearly everything that follows across the next three parts: a fault named in four items, immediately mirrored by its remedy named in four matching items. Here the mirroring is close but not exact — losing prajñāpāramitā is described mostly in terms of how one treats a Dharma-teacher (disrespect, stinginess, obstruction, contempt), while gaining it adds something the fault-list never mentions: "seeking learning as urgently as one would put out a fire burning on one's own head" (求多學問如救頭然), a stock simile for extreme urgency that recurs throughout early Buddhist literature. The asymmetry is worth noticing — avoiding the four faults is necessary but evidently not sufficient; gaining prajñāpāramitā additionally requires an active urgency that mere non-obstruction does not supply on its own.
Forgetting, and Never Forgetting, the Bodhisattva Mind
「復次迦葉！菩薩成就四法，忘菩薩心。云何為四？一者，欺誑師尊長老；二者，他無惡事說有所犯；三者，摩訶衍者毀呰誹謗；四者，諂偽心無至誠。是謂迦葉！菩薩成就四法忘菩薩心。
「復次迦葉！菩薩成就四法，一切始生至于道場，菩薩之心常現在前，終不忘失。云何為四？一者，寧死終不妄語；二者，一切菩薩起世尊想，四方稱說；三者，無有諂偽其心至誠；四者，不樂小乘。是謂迦葉！菩薩成就四法，一切始生至于道場，菩薩之心常現在前、終不忘失。」
"Furthermore, Kāśyapa! A bodhisattva who accomplishes four dharmas forgets the bodhisattva mind. What are the four? First, deceiving one's own teachers and elders; second, saying that another has committed some wrong when they have done nothing evil at all; third, disparaging and slandering those who follow the Mahāyāna; fourth, a flattering, false mind that lacks any sincerity. These, Kāśyapa, are the four dharmas by which a bodhisattva forgets the bodhisattva mind.
"Furthermore, Kāśyapa! A bodhisattva who accomplishes four dharmas keeps the bodhisattva mind always present before him, from the moment it first arises until he reaches the very seat of awakening, never once forgetting it. What are the four? First, resolving to die rather than ever speak falsely; second, regarding every bodhisattva with the same reverence as the World-Honored One, and proclaiming this in every direction; third, a mind free of flattery or falseness, utterly sincere; fourth, taking no delight in the lesser vehicle. These, Kāśyapa, are the four dharmas by which a bodhisattva keeps the bodhisattva mind always present before him, from its first arising until he reaches the seat of awakening, never once forgetting it."
Three of the four items in each list here concern truthfulness and sincerity in some form — deception, false accusation, and insincerity on the losing side; a vow to die rather than lie, and utter sincerity on the retaining side — making this pairing more tightly matched than the previous one. The second item on the retaining side stands out: regarding every bodhisattva with the same reverence due the Buddha himself, "proclaiming this in every direction" (四方稱說). Read alongside the sūtra's later teaching that a bodhisattva newly arisen outranks even senior arhats in the one currency that matters — sincerity and duration of resolve, not formal seniority — this instruction to publicly revere every bodhisattva as one would the Buddha reads less like hyperbole and more like the sūtra's own consistent position, stated here before it is dramatized later.
What Makes Good Decline, and What Makes It Grow
「復次迦葉！菩薩成就四法，生善法則滅、善不增長。云何為四？一者，貢高憍慢學世經典；二者，貪著財物數至國家；三者，嫉妬誹謗；四者，未曾聞經聞說誹謗。是謂迦葉！菩薩成就四法，生善則滅、善不增長。
「復次迦葉！菩薩成就四法，善不衰退、增長善法。云何為四？一者，樂聞善法、不樂聞非法，樂六度無極、菩薩篋藏；二者，下意，不慢眾生；三者，以法知足，除去邪慢，他犯不犯、不說其過，不求他人誤失之短；四者，所不知法，不說是非：『以如來證，如來無量境界隨眾生根，佛所說法我不能達。』是謂迦葉！菩薩成就四法，善不衰退、增長善法。」
"Furthermore, Kāśyapa! A bodhisattva who accomplishes four dharmas causes whatever wholesome quality has arisen to be extinguished, and no wholesome quality to grow. What are the four? First, studying worldly scriptures out of pride and arrogance; second, greedily attaching to wealth and possessions, and going often among the halls of state; third, harboring envy and slander; fourth, slandering a scripture one has never even heard taught. These, Kāśyapa, are the four dharmas by which a bodhisattva causes whatever good has arisen to be extinguished, with no good left to grow.
"Furthermore, Kāśyapa! A bodhisattva who accomplishes four dharmas has every wholesome quality never decline, and every wholesome quality grow. What are the four? First, delighting to hear the good Dharma and taking no delight in hearing what is not the Dharma, delighting in the six boundless perfections and the bodhisattva's own treasury of teachings; second, a humble mind that holds no contempt for any being; third, being content with the Dharma, casting off false pride, neither condemning another whether they have transgressed or not, nor speaking of their faults, nor seeking out the shortcomings of another's mistakes; fourth, of any dharma one does not understand, saying neither that it is right nor that it is wrong, but rather: 'By the Tathāgata's own realization — the Tathāgata's domain is immeasurable, matched to the capacities of every being — I myself am simply unable to fathom what the Buddha has taught.' These, Kāśyapa, are the four dharmas by which a bodhisattva has every wholesome quality never decline, and every wholesome quality grow."
The fourth item on the growing-good side is the most quietly demanding of the twelve items in this part: rather than judging an unfamiliar teaching as right or wrong, the bodhisattva is instructed to defer outright — "I myself am simply unable to fathom what the Buddha has taught" — grounding that deference not in humility for its own sake but in a specific claim about scale, that the Tathāgata's domain is immeasurable and matched to capacities the bodhisattva cannot see the whole of. This site's Śrīmālādevī Sūtra collection translates a strikingly similar position at length — one of its "three kinds of good sons and daughters" who do not slander the deep Dharma is precisely the one who "looks up to the Tathāgata" without presuming personal understanding — and this site's Anūnatvāpūrṇatvanirdeśa Sūtra treats the opposite failure, presuming to judge a teaching one does not understand, as the very root of its own two condemned wrong views. Three separate early Mahāyāna sūtras, on this evidence, converge on the same diagnosis: mistaking one's own incomprehension for a verdict on the teaching is itself the fault, not a symptom of some other fault.
Part 1 Complete
This closes Part 1: three matched pairs of "four dharmas" on prajñāpāramitā, the bodhisattva mind, and the growth or decline of wholesome qualities. Part 2 continues the same catalogue form with eight further sets of four — crookednesses to remove, compliant marks, evils, wisdoms, deviations, the bodhisattva's own path, and the difference between a good friend and a bad one.
Continue to Part 2 — Crookedness, Compliance, and the Bodhisattva's Path →