Devadatta
提婆達多品第十二
The Buddha tells a story from a former life in which he served, for a thousand years, as the personal attendant of a sage who taught him this very sūtra — and reveals that this sage is now Devadatta, the cousin and rival who spent this present lifetime trying to destroy him. Then an eight-year-old daughter of the dragon king Sāgara, dismissed by Śāriputra as no fit vessel for the Dharma, attains complete buddhahood before the assembly's eyes, faster than the time it takes to make an offering.
- This part covers
- The Buddha's account of a former life as a king who served a sage for a thousand years to receive this sūtra, and the revelation that the sage is now Devadatta, together with a prediction of Devadatta's own future buddhahood; Mañjuśrī's return from the palace of the dragon king Sāgara at the bottom of the sea, bringing countless beings he has taught there; and the dragon king's eight-year-old daughter, who, after Śāriputra objects that a female body cannot be a vessel for buddhahood, transforms and attains complete awakening before the entire assembly.
- Why it matters
- This is not a chapter Kumārajīva translated as part of his original Lotus Sūtra — see the reading note in Section 1 for what is actually known about how it entered the text. And its second half raises a question this site's other reading notes have tried not to resolve on the reader's behalf: what to make of a passage that both insists buddhahood is available to a small girl instantly, and stages that attainment through her transformation into a male body first.
1. The Buddha's Past Life, and Devadatta's Kindness
爾時佛告諸菩薩及天人四眾：「吾於過去無量劫中，求法華經，無有懈惓。於多劫中常作國王，發願求於無上菩提，心不退轉。為欲滿足六波羅蜜，勤行布施，心無悋惜，象、馬、七珍、國、城、妻、子，奴婢、僕從，頭、目、髓、腦，身、肉、手、足，不惜軀命。時世人民壽命無量，為於法故，捐捨國位，委政太子，擊鼓宣令四方求法：『誰能為我說大乘者，吾當終身供給走使。』時有仙人來白王言：『我有大乘，名妙法華經。若不違我，當為宣說。』王聞仙言，歡喜踊躍，即隨仙人，供給所須——採菓、汲水、拾薪、設食，乃至以身而為床座——身心無惓，于時奉事。經於千歲，為於法故，精勤給侍，令無所乏。」 爾時世尊欲重宣此義，而說偈言： 「我念過去劫， 為求大法故， 雖作世國王， 不貪五欲樂。 搥鍾告四方， 誰有大法者， 若為我解說， 身當為奴僕。 時有阿私仙， 來白於大王： 『我有微妙法， 世間所希有。 若能修行者， 吾當為汝說。』 時王聞仙言， 心生大喜悅， 即便隨仙人， 供給於所須， 採薪及菓蓏， 隨時恭敬與， 情存妙法故， 身心無懈惓。 普為諸眾生， 勤求於大法， 亦不為己身， 及以五欲樂。 故為大國王， 勤求獲此法， 遂致得成佛， 今故為汝說。」 佛告諸比丘：「爾時王者，則我身是；時仙人者，今提婆達多是。 由提婆達多善知識故，令我具足六波羅蜜，慈悲喜捨，三十二相，八十種好，紫磨金色，十力、四無所畏、四攝法、十八不共神通道力，成等正覺，廣度眾生，皆因提婆達多善知識故。」 告諸四眾：「提婆達多却後過無量劫，當得成佛，號曰天王如來、應供、正遍知、明行足、善逝、世間解、無上士、調御丈夫、天人師、佛、世尊。世界名天道。時天王佛住世二十中劫，廣為眾生說於妙法，恒河沙眾生得阿羅漢果，無量眾生發緣覺心，恒河沙眾生發無上道心，得無生忍，至不退轉。時天王佛般涅槃後，正法住世二十中劫。全身舍利起七寶塔，高六十由旬，縱廣四十由旬，諸天人民，悉以雜華、末香、燒香、塗香，衣服、瓔珞、幢幡、寶蓋，伎樂、歌頌，禮拜供養七寶妙塔。無量眾生得阿羅漢果，無量眾生悟辟支佛，不可思議眾生發菩提心，至不退轉。」 佛告諸比丘：「未來世中，若有善男子、善女人，聞妙法華經提婆達多品，淨心信敬不生疑惑者，不墮地獄、餓鬼、畜生，生十方佛前，所生之處，常聞此經。若生人天中，受勝妙樂，若在佛前，蓮華化生。」
At that time the Buddha said to the bodhisattvas, gods, humans, and the fourfold assembly: "In immeasurable kalpas past, I sought the Lotus Sūtra without ever growing weary. Through many kalpas I was constantly a king of the world, vowing to seek unsurpassed awakening, my mind never turning back. Wishing to fulfill the six pāramitās, I diligently practiced giving, my mind never begrudging anything — elephants, horses, the seven treasures, my kingdom, my walled cities, my wife, my children, my male and female servants and attendants, my head, eyes, marrow, and brain, my very flesh, hands, and feet — I never spared even my own body or life. At that time people's lifespans in the world were immeasurable. For the sake of the Dharma, I set aside my royal throne, entrusted the government to the crown prince, and beat a drum, proclaiming to the four directions my search for the Dharma: 'Whoever is able to teach me the Great Vehicle, I shall serve him as his attendant for the rest of my life.' At that time there was a seer who came and said to the king: 'I have a teaching of the Great Vehicle, named the Wonderful Dharma Lotus Flower Sūtra. If you will not disobey me, I shall teach it to you.' The king, hearing the seer's words, leapt with joy, and at once followed the seer, providing him with whatever he required — gathering fruit, drawing water, collecting firewood, preparing meals, even offering his own body as a seat — his body and mind never weary, serving him in this way. For a thousand years, for the sake of the Dharma, he diligently and earnestly attended him, so that he lacked for nothing." At that time the World-Honored One, wishing to restate this same meaning once more, spoke in verse: "I recall a past age, when, for the sake of seeking the great Dharma, though I was a king of the world, I had no craving for the pleasures of the five desires. I struck a bell and proclaimed to the four directions: whoever possesses the great Dharma, if he will explain it for me, I shall become his very servant. There was then the seer Asita, who came and said to the great king: 'I have a subtle and wondrous Dharma, rare in all the world. If you are able to practice it, I shall teach it to you.' The king, hearing the seer's words, gave rise to great joy in his heart, and at once followed the seer, providing him with whatever he required, gathering firewood and fruit, offering it with reverence at each proper time; because his heart was set on this wondrous Dharma, his body and mind were never weary. Everywhere, for the sake of every being, he diligently sought the great Dharma, not for his own sake, nor for the pleasures of the five desires. Thus, as a great king of the world, diligently seeking, he attained this Dharma, and so came at last to accomplish buddhahood — and this is why I now teach it for you." The Buddha said to the monks: "The king at that time was I myself; the seer at that time is now Devadatta. Because of Devadatta's good spiritual friendship, I was able to become complete in the six pāramitās, in loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity, in the thirty-two marks and eighty subtle excellences, in a body of deep golden hue, in the ten powers, the four fearlessnesses, the four means of attracting others, the eighteen exclusive qualities, and the power of spiritual penetration and the path — I accomplished perfect and complete awakening and broadly delivered beings across, all because of Devadatta's good spiritual friendship." He said to the fourfold assembly: "Devadatta, after immeasurable kalpas from now, shall attain buddhahood, named Devarāja Tathāgata, Worthy of Offerings, Perfectly and Fully Awakened, Complete in Understanding and Conduct, Well-Gone, Knower of the World, Unsurpassed Being, Tamer of Those to be Tamed, Teacher of Gods and Humans, Buddha, World-Honored One. His world will be named Heavenly Path. That Buddha Devarāja shall abide in the world for twenty intermediate kalpas, broadly teaching the wondrous Dharma for beings; beings as numerous as the sands of the Ganges shall attain the fruit of arhatship, immeasurable beings shall give rise to the mind of the pratyekabuddha, and beings as numerous as the sands of the Ganges shall give rise to the mind of the unsurpassed path, attaining the forbearance of the unborn, reaching the stage of never turning back. After that Buddha Devarāja's parinirvāṇa, the true Dharma shall remain in the world for twenty intermediate kalpas. His entire body, as relics, shall be enshrined in a stūpa of the seven treasures, sixty yojanas high and forty yojanas square; the gods and people shall all, with every kind of flower, powdered incense, burning incense, perfumed ointment, robes, garlands, banners, jeweled canopies, music, and hymns, bow before and make offerings to this wondrous stūpa of the seven treasures. Immeasurable beings shall attain the fruit of arhatship, immeasurable beings shall awaken to the state of the pratyekabuddha, and inconceivable beings shall give rise to the mind of awakening, reaching the stage of never turning back." The Buddha said to the monks: "In an age to come, if there is a good son or good daughter who, hearing this chapter on Devadatta in the Wonderful Dharma Lotus Flower Sūtra, believes and reveres it with a pure mind, giving rise to no doubt, he shall not fall into the hells, among the hungry ghosts, or among the animals, but shall be born before the buddhas of the ten directions, and wherever he is born, shall constantly hear this sūtra. If he is born among humans or gods, he shall receive the finest and most wondrous happiness; and if he is born before a buddha, he shall be born by transformation from within a lotus flower."
This chapter is not part of what Kumārajīva originally translated. Jizang, writing in the early seventh century, records this plainly at the opening of his own commentary: Kumārajīva's translation had only twenty-seven chapters, with no Devadatta chapter among them. According to the account he cites, from Shi Daohui's Song-Qi Catalogue, a monk named Shi Faxian, of Dinglin Temple in the Liu Song dynasty, obtained a Sanskrit manuscript of this material in Khotan; a monk named Shi Fayi, of Waguan Temple, translated it as a standalone text, the "Devadatta Chapter Sūtra," in the twelfth month of the eighth year of Yongming (490 CE) — not yet placed inside the Lotus Sūtra itself. Only near the end of the Liang dynasty did a translator from western India, Paramārtha, translate it again, and it was then inserted into the Lotus Sūtra, placed after the chapter on the jeweled stūpa.
Jizang also records a debate over why Kumārajīva, whose Sanskrit sources plainly differed from Dharmarakṣa's earlier translation (which did contain comparable material after its own stūpa chapter), chose not to translate this content at all. He offers three possible explanations, without insisting on one: that manuscripts differed by region, with this material more common west of the desert and largely absent to its east, since some traditions held that Mahāyāna vaipulya sūtras generally were fabrications attributed to Devadatta, leading various communities to omit passages closely tied to his name; that Kumārajīva was known to abridge freely according to what his audience could absorb, as he did far more drastically with other massive translations; or that the jeweled-stūpa chapter's own closing command to "uphold and proclaim" this sūtra flows directly into the chapter that follows it in Kumārajīva's version, and inserting this material between them would break that continuity and risk confusing later readers. This site's translation follows the text as it has stood, with this chapter included, for many centuries — but the reader deserves to know, at the point where the chapter begins, that its presence in the received Lotus Sūtra reflects a later editorial decision, not a firsthand transmission from Kumārajīva's own hand.
2. Mañjuśrī Returns from the Dragon Palace
於時下方多寶世尊所從菩薩，名曰智積，白多寶佛：「當還本土。」釋迦牟尼佛告智積曰：「善男子！且待須臾。此有菩薩，名文殊師利，可與相見，論說妙法，可還本土。」 爾時文殊師利坐千葉蓮華，大如車輪——俱來菩薩亦坐寶蓮華——從於大海娑竭羅龍宮自然踊出，住虛空中，詣靈鷲山，從蓮華下，至於佛所，頭面敬禮二世尊足。修敬已畢，往智積所，共相慰問，却坐一面。 智積菩薩問文殊師利：「仁往龍宮，所化眾生，其數幾何？」 文殊師利言：「其數無量，不可稱計，非口所宣，非心所測，且待須臾，自當有證。」所言未竟，無數菩薩坐寶蓮華，從海踊出，詣靈鷲山，住在虛空。此諸菩薩，皆是文殊師利之所化度，具菩薩行，皆共論說六波羅蜜。本聲聞人，在虛空中說聲聞行，今皆修行大乘空義。文殊師利謂智積曰：「於海教化，其事如是。」 爾時智積菩薩以偈讚曰： 「大智德勇健， 化度無量眾， 今此諸大會， 及我皆已見。 演暢實相義， 開闡一乘法， 廣導諸眾生， 令速成菩提。」 文殊師利言：「我於海中，唯常宣說妙法華經。」
At that time a bodhisattva who had come with the Buddha Prabhūtaratna from below, named Prajñākūṭa, said to the Buddha Prabhūtaratna: "We should return to our own land." Śākyamuni Buddha said to Prajñākūṭa: "Good son! Wait a moment yet. There is here a bodhisattva named Mañjuśrī; you may meet with him, and discuss the wondrous Dharma together, and then return to your own land." At that time Mañjuśrī, seated upon a thousand-petaled lotus as large as a carriage wheel — the bodhisattvas who came with him likewise seated upon jeweled lotus flowers — rose up of itself from the palace of the dragon king Sāgara in the great ocean, and, standing suspended in the air, went to Vulture Peak, descended from his lotus, and, arriving before the buddhas, bowed his head in reverence at the feet of the two world-honored ones. Having paid his respects, he went to where Prajñākūṭa was, and, exchanging greetings with him, withdrew to sit to one side. Prajñākūṭa Bodhisattva asked Mañjuśrī: "In going to the dragon palace, how many beings did you transform?" Mañjuśrī said: "Their number is immeasurable, beyond any count or calculation, impossible to state in words, or to fathom in thought. Wait a moment, and there shall be proof of it." Before he had finished speaking, countless bodhisattvas, seated upon jeweled lotus flowers, rose up out of the sea, went to Vulture Peak, and stood suspended in the air. All these bodhisattvas were those whom Mañjuśrī had transformed and delivered; complete in the bodhisattva's own practice, they discussed together the six pāramitās. Those who had originally been śrāvakas now spoke, in the midst of the sky, of the practice of the śrāvaka, yet all of them now cultivated the meaning of emptiness according to the Great Vehicle. Mañjuśrī said to Prajñākūṭa: "Such is what was accomplished in teaching within the sea." At that time Prajñākūṭa Bodhisattva praised him in verse: "Great in wisdom and virtue, valiant and strong, you have transformed and delivered immeasurable beings; this whole great assembly, and I myself, have now seen it for ourselves. Expounding the meaning of the true mark, opening and revealing the Dharma of the one vehicle, you broadly guide every being, causing them swiftly to accomplish awakening." Mañjuśrī said: "Within the sea, I have constantly taught only the Wonderful Dharma Lotus Flower Sūtra."
This brief exchange sets up the question that drives the rest of the chapter without answering it directly: Prajñākūṭa's amazement at the sheer number of beings Mañjuśrī has taught beneath the ocean prepares the ground for the more pointed question he is about to ask — not just how many, but how fast a single being might actually attain buddhahood through this teaching. Mañjuśrī's answer, "within the sea, I have constantly taught only the Wonderful Dharma Lotus Flower Sūtra," is the same claim this sūtra's own Part 11 made about itself: not one teaching among many, but the one being offered wherever real transformation of this scale is happening.
3. The Dragon Princess: Two Ways of Reading
智積問文殊師利言：「此經甚深微妙，諸經中寶，世所希有。頗有眾生，勤加精進，修行此經，速得佛不？」 文殊師利言：「有娑竭羅龍王女，年始八歲，智慧利根，善知眾生諸根行業，得陀羅尼，諸佛所說甚深祕藏，悉能受持。深入禪定，了達諸法，於剎那頃發菩提心，得不退轉，辯才無礙。慈念眾生、猶如赤子，功德具足，心念口演，微妙廣大，慈悲仁讓，志意和雅，能至菩提。」 智積菩薩言：「我見釋迦如來，於無量劫難行苦行，積功累德，求菩提道，未曾止息。觀三千大千世界，乃至無有如芥子許非是菩薩捨身命處，為眾生故，然後乃得成菩提道。不信此女於須臾頃、便成正覺。」 言論未訖，時龍王女忽現於前，頭面禮敬，却住一面，以偈讚曰： 「深達罪福相， 遍照於十方， 微妙淨法身， 具相三十二， 以八十種好， 用莊嚴法身。 天人所戴仰， 龍神咸恭敬， 一切眾生類， 無不宗奉者。 又聞成菩提， 唯佛當證知， 我闡大乘教， 度脫苦眾生。」 時舍利弗語龍女言：「汝謂不久得無上道，是事難信。所以者何？女身垢穢，非是法器，云何能得無上菩提。佛道懸曠，經無量劫勤苦積行，具修諸度，然後乃成。又女人身猶有五障：一者、不得作梵天王，二者、帝釋，三者、魔王，四者、轉輪聖王，五者、佛身。云何女身速得成佛？」 爾時龍女有一寶珠，價直三千大千世界，持以上佛。佛即受之。龍女謂智積菩薩、尊者舍利弗言：「我獻寶珠，世尊納受，是事疾不？」 答言：「甚疾。」 女言：「以汝神力，觀我成佛，復速於此。」 當時眾會，皆見龍女忽然之間變成男子，具菩薩行，即往南方無垢世界，坐寶蓮華，成等正覺，三十二相、八十種好，普為十方一切眾生演說妙法。 爾時娑婆世界，菩薩、聲聞、天龍八部、人與非人，皆遙見彼龍女成佛，普為時會人天說法，心大歡喜，悉遙敬禮。無量眾生，聞法解悟，得不退轉；無量眾生，得受道記。無垢世界，六反震動；娑婆世界，三千眾生住不退地，三千眾生發菩提心而得受記。智積菩薩及舍利弗，一切眾會，默然信受。
Prajñākūṭa asked Mañjuśrī: "This sūtra is profound and subtle, a treasure among all sūtras, rare in all the world. Are there any beings who, diligently applying themselves, practicing this sūtra, swiftly attain buddhahood?" Mañjuśrī said: "There is a daughter of the dragon king Sāgara, only eight years old, whose wisdom is sharp and keen, who well understands the faculties and conduct of beings, who has attained dhāraṇī, and who is able to uphold in full the profound, secret treasury taught by every buddha. She has entered deeply into meditative concentration, penetrated all things, and, in the space of a single instant, gave rise to the mind of awakening, attaining the stage of never turning back, her eloquence unobstructed. She holds every being in mind with compassion, as though they were her own newborn child; her merit is complete, and what her mind conceives, her mouth expresses, subtle and vast alike; gentle in compassion, humble and yielding, her resolve is harmonious and refined — she is able to reach awakening." Prajñākūṭa Bodhisattva said: "I have seen how the Tathāgata Śākyamuni, through immeasurable kalpas, practiced difficult and arduous austerities, accumulating merit upon merit, seeking the path of awakening, never once resting. Surveying the whole trichiliocosm, there is not even so much space as a single mustard seed where he did not give up his own body and life for the sake of beings, before he was at last able to accomplish the path of awakening. I cannot believe that this girl, in the space of a single moment, could accomplish perfect awakening." Before he had finished speaking, the dragon king's daughter suddenly appeared before them, bowed her head in reverence, and, withdrawing to one side, praised the Buddha in verse: "Deeply penetrating the mark of transgression and merit, illumining every direction alike, your subtle, pure Dharma-body is complete with the thirty-two marks, adorned further with the eighty subtle excellences. Gods and humans look up to and revere you; dragons and spirits, every one, honor you; among every kind of being, there is none who does not look to you as their own. And I have heard that the attainment of awakening is something only a buddha can bear witness to; I now proclaim the teaching of the Great Vehicle, to deliver suffering beings across." At that time Śāriputra said to the dragon girl: "You say that you shall soon attain the unsurpassed path — this is hard to believe. Why is this so? A woman's body is impure, and is not a fit vessel for the Dharma — how could you attain unsurpassed awakening? The buddha-path is vast and far, reached only after immeasurable kalpas of diligent, arduous practice, fully cultivating every pāramitā, and only then accomplished. Moreover, a woman's body still has five obstructions: she cannot become a Brahmā king, cannot become Śakra, cannot become a Māra king, cannot become a wheel-turning sage king, and cannot become a buddha. How, then, could a woman's body swiftly attain buddhahood?" At that time the dragon girl had a precious pearl, worth as much as a whole trichiliocosm, which she offered up to the Buddha. The Buddha at once accepted it. The dragon girl said to Prajñākūṭa Bodhisattva and the venerable Śāriputra: "I have offered this precious pearl, and the World-Honored One has accepted it — was this quick?" They answered: "Very quick." The girl said: "Then, by your own spiritual power, watch me become a buddha — it shall be quicker still than this." At that moment the whole assembly saw the dragon girl suddenly transform into a man, complete with the bodhisattva's own practice, and go at once to the Spotless World in the south, where, seated upon a jeweled lotus, she accomplished perfect and complete awakening, complete with the thirty-two marks and the eighty subtle excellences, and broadly expounded the wondrous Dharma for all beings of the ten directions. At that time, in the sahā world, the bodhisattvas, śrāvakas, the eightfold host of gods and dragons, humans and non-humans, all saw from afar that dragon girl attain buddhahood, and teach the Dharma for the whole assembly of humans and gods gathered there; their hearts filled with great joy, they all bowed in reverence from afar. Immeasurable beings, hearing the Dharma, understood and awakened, attaining the stage of never turning back; immeasurable beings received a prediction of the path. The Spotless World shook in six ways; in the sahā world, three thousand beings abided in the stage of never turning back, and three thousand beings gave rise to the mind of awakening and received a prediction. Prajñākūṭa Bodhisattva, Śāriputra, and the whole assembly, in silence, believed and accepted it.
Kuiji's commentary explains Śāriputra's objection by drawing directly on doctrine stated elsewhere in classical Buddhist literature, not treating it as Śāriputra's private prejudice. He cites the Sūrāṅgama-samādhi Sūtra's own detailed rationale for each of the "five obstructions" — that a woman cannot become Brahmā because that station requires conduct free of the desire a woman's nature is assumed to carry; cannot become Śakra, Māra, or a wheel-turning king for comparable reasons tied to specific virtues held to be closed to her; and cannot become a buddha because buddhahood requires "extinguishing the five aggregates and transforming the six kinds of decline" through a path assumed to have no place for her. He quotes the Yogācārabhūmi stating the position even more starkly: "every woman accomplishes only affliction and defiled cognition; no buddha attains unsurpassed great awakening through so debased a body — and so it is said that a woman cannot become a buddha." On this reading, the dragon girl's transformation into a male body immediately before her buddhahood is not incidental to the story; it is the doctrinally necessary step that makes her buddhahood intelligible at all within the framework Śāriputra is speaking from, and Kuiji records it without softening or apologizing for it.
A reader coming to this passage now will likely notice something the classical commentary does not pause over: that the sūtra's own most emphatic claim, repeated across every chapter this site has translated so far, is that buddhahood is available to any being who has once formed a connection to this teaching — arhats who thought themselves finished, a destitute son who did not know he was already the heir, five thousand who walked out and are promised, even so, to return. Measured against that claim, a passage that stages instantaneous buddhahood as proof of the sūtra's power, yet routes that proof through a change of sex the text treats as necessary rather than incidental, sits in real tension with the sūtra's own surrounding argument. This site will not resolve that tension by explaining away what Kuiji's sources say plainly, and will not resolve it by reading backward into the seventh century a conclusion the text and its earliest commentators did not themselves draw. Both readings are offered here as what they are: the doctrine this passage was written and first explained within, and the friction a reader today will likely feel reading it against everything the sūtra has said elsewhere about who is capable of awakening.