Published Translations
For quick and easy access, this list gathers into a single page the texts completed and published so far, as well as showing which sections of the Kangyur they are found in.
Publications: 145 | Total Pages: 11,232 |
All Published Translations
The Chapter on Going Forth
རབ་ཏུ་འབྱུང་བའི་གཞི། · rab tu ’byung ba’i gzhi
Pravrajyāvastu
Summary
“The Chapter on Going Forth” is the first of seventeen chapters in The Chapters on Monastic Discipline, a four-volume work that outlines the statutes and procedures that govern life in a Buddhist monastic community. This first chapter traces the development of the rite by which postulants were admitted into the monastic order, from the Buddha Śākyamuni’s informal invitation to “Come, monk,” to the more elaborate “Present Day Rite.” Along the way, the posts of preceptor and instructor are introduced, their responsibilities defined, and a dichotomy between elders and immature novices described. While the heart of the chapter is a transcript of the “Present Day Rite,” the text is interwoven with numerous narrative asides, depicting the spiritual ferment of the north Indian region of Magadha during the Buddha’s lifetime, the follies of untrained and unsupervised apprentices, and the need for a formal system of tutelage.
Title variants
- འདུལ་བ་གཞི་ལས། རབ་ཏུ་འབྱུང་བའི་གཞི།
- ’dul ba gzhi las/ rab tu ’byung ba’i gzhi
- “The Chapter on Going Forth” from The Chapters on Monastic Discipline
- Vinayavastu Pravrajyāvastu
- 「律儀根本」之《出家根本》
The Transcendent Perfection of Wisdom in Ten Thousand Lines
ཤེས་ཕྱིན་ཁྲི་པ། · shes phyin khri pa
Daśasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitā
Summary
While dwelling at Vulture Peak near Rājagṛha, the Buddha sets in motion the sūtras that are the most extensive of all—the sūtras on the Prajñāpāramitā, or “Transcendent Perfection of Wisdom.” Committed to writing around the start of the first millennium, these sūtras were expanded and contracted in the centuries that followed, eventually amounting to twenty-three volumes in the Tibetan Kangyur. Among them, The Transcendent Perfection of Wisdom in Ten Thousand Lines is a compact and coherent restatement of the longer versions, uniquely extant in Tibetan translation, without specific commentaries, and rarely studied. While the structure generally follows that of the longer versions, chapters 1–2 conveniently summarize all three hundred and sixty-seven categories of phenomena, causal and fruitional attributes which the sūtra examines in the light of wisdom or discriminative awareness. Chapter 31 and the final chapter 33 conclude with an appraisal of irreversible bodhisattvas, the pitfalls of rejecting this teaching, and the blessings that accrue from committing it to writing.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་ཁྲི་པ་ཤེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa khri pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Transcendent Perfection of Wisdom in Ten Thousand Lines”
- Āryadaśasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitānāmamahāyānasūtra
- 般若波羅密多萬頌
The Chapter Teaching the Purification of Boundless Gateways
སྒོ་མཐའ་ཡས་པ་རྣམ་པར་སྦྱོང་བ་བསྟན་པའི་ལེའུ། · sgo mtha’ yas pa rnam par sbyong ba bstan pa’i le’u
Anantamukhapariśodhananirdeśaparivarta
Summary
The Chapter Teaching the Purification of Boundless Gateways consists of an extended discourse presented by the Buddha to his bodhisattva disciple Anantavyūha. The instruction consists of a so-called dhāraṇī gateway, a teaching that involves a series of dhāraṇī spells, which are interspersed throughout. The teaching is generally concerned with well-known Mahāyāna Buddhist themes, ranging from the lack of inherent identity to the qualities of complete awakening, but these topics are here presented within a larger exegesis on the meaning of the dhāraṇī gateway.
Title variants
- ’phags pa sgo mtha’ yas pa rnam par sbyong ba bstan pa’i le’u zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- འཕགས་པ་སྒོ་མཐའ་ཡས་པ་རྣམ་པར་སྦྱོང་བ་བསྟན་པའི་ལེའུ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- Āryānantamukhapariśodhananirdeśaparivartanāmamahāyānasūtra
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Chapter Teaching the Purification of Boundless Gateways”
- Āryānantamukhaviśodhananirdeśanāmamahāyānasūtra
- Anantamukhaviśodhananirdeśasūtra
- Anantamukhaviśodhananirdeśa
- 指示淨化無量門經 (大寳積經無邊莊嚴會)
The Teaching on the Indivisible Nature of the Realm of Phenomena
ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས་ཀྱི་རང་བཞིན་དབྱེར་མེད་པ་བསྟན་པ། · chos dbyings rang bzhin dbyer med bstan pa’i mdo
Dharmadhātuprakṛtyasambhedanirdeśa
Summary
While the Buddha is in the Jeta Grove, he asks Mañjuśrī to teach on the nature of reality. Mañjuśrī’s account upsets some of the monks present in the gathering, who subsequently leave. Nevertheless, by means of an emanation, Mañjuśrī skillfully teaches the distraught monks, who return to the Jeta Grove to express their gratitude. The monks explain that their obstacle has been a conceited sense of attainment, of which they are now free. At the request of the god Ratnavara, Mañjuśrī then teaches on nonduality and the nature of the bodhisattva. Next, the Buddha prophesies the future awakening of Ratnavara and other bodhisattvas present in the gathering. However, the prophecies cause Pāpīyān, king of the māras, to appear with his army. In a dramatic course of events, Mañjuśrī uses his transformative power on both Pāpīyān and the Buddha’s pious attendant, Śāradvatīputra, forcing both of them to appear in the form of the Buddha himself. He then makes Pāpīyān and Śāradvatīputra teach the profound Dharma with the perfect mastery of buddhahood. Numerous bodhisattvas appear from the four directions, pledging to practice and uphold the sūtra’s teaching. The Buddha grants his blessing for the continuous transmission of the sūtra among bodhisattvas in the future.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས་ཀྱི་རང་བཞིན་དབྱེར་མེད་པ་བསྟན་པཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa chos kyi dbyings kyi rang bzhin dbyer med pa bstan pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Teaching on the Indivisible Nature of the Realm of Phenomena”
- Āryadharmadhātuprakṛtyasambhedanirdeśanāmamahāyānasūtra
The Exposition on the Universal Gateway
ཀུན་ནས་སྒོའི་ལེའུ། · kun nas sgo’i le’u/
Samantamukhaparivarta
Summary
In The Exposition on the Universal Gateway, the bodhisattva Amalagarbha arrives in this world from a distant pure land to request teachings from the buddha Śākyamuni. The Buddha proceeds to explain to all assembled bodhisattvas, monks, and lay devotees the manner in which the five aggregates are equal to meditative absorption. He also explains how the various classes of beings and all other phenomena are absorption as well. In conclusion, he lists the names of various absorptions and the benefits one obtains upon attaining these states.
Title variants
- ’phags pa kun nas sgo’i le’u zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- འཕགས་པ་ཀུན་ནས་སྒོའི་ལེའུ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Exposition on the Universal Gateway”
- Āryasamantamukhaparivartanāmamahāyānasūtra
The Questions of Pūrṇa
གང་པོས་ཞུས་པ། · gang pos zhus pa
Pūrṇaparipṛcchā
Summary
In Veṇuvana, outside Rājagṛha, Pūrṇa Maitrāyaṇīputra asks the Buddha about the conduct of bodhisattvas practicing on the path to awakening. The Buddha replies by describing the attitudes that bodhisattvas must possess as well as their benefits. Then, at the request of Maudgalyāyana, the Buddha recounts several of his past lives in which he himself practiced bodhisattva conduct. At the end of the teaching, the Buddha instructs the assembly about how to deal with specific objections to his teachings that outsiders might raise after he himself has passed into nirvāṇa.
Title variants
- ’phags pa gang pos zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- འཕགས་པ་གང་གང་པོས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- Āryapūrṇaparipṛcchānāmamahāyānasūtra
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Questions of Pūrṇa”
- 富樓那所問經
- (大正藏:大寶積經富樓那會第十七)
Inspiring Determination
ལྷག་བསམ་སྐུལ་བ། · lhag bsam skul ba
Adhyāśayasaṃcodana
Summary
Inspiring Determination is directed at reforming the conduct of sixty bodhisattvas who have lost their sense of purpose and confidence in their ability to practice the Dharma. The bodhisattva Maitreya leads them to seek counsel from the Buddha, who explains the causes these bodhisattvas created in former lives that resulted in their current circumstance. They make a commitment to change their ways, which pleases the Buddha, and this leads him to engage in a dialog with the bodhisattva Maitreya on how bodhisattvas, including those in the future age of final degeneration, the final half-millennium, should avoid faults and uphold conduct that accords with the Dharma.
Title variants
- ’phags pa lhag pa’i bsam pa bskul ba zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- Āryādhyāśayasaṃcodananāmamahāyānasūtra
- འཕགས་པ་ལྷག་པའི་བསམ་པ་བསྐུལ་བ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “Inspiring Determination”
The Sūtra of the Question of Subāhu
ལག་བཟངས་ཀྱིས་ཞུས་པའི་མདོ། · lag bzangs kyis zhus pa’i mdo
Subāhuparipṛcchāsūtra
Summary
In this scripture Śākyamuni Buddha describes how a bodhisattva should ideally train in the six perfections. In the Veṇuvana near Rājagṛha, the Buddha teaches this sūtra in response to a single question put to him by the bodhisattva Subāhu: what are the qualities a bodhisattva should have in order to progress to perfect awakening? The Buddha responds by first listing the six perfections of generosity, ethical discipline, patience, diligence, concentration, and insight, and then expounding in greater detail on each perfection in turn.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་ལག་བཟངས་ཀྱིས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa lag bzangs kyis zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Question of Subāhu”
- Āryasubāhuparipṛcchānāmamahāyānasūtra
The Questions of Guṇaratnasaṅkusumita
ཡོན་ཏན་རིན་ཆེན་མེ་ཏོག་ཀུན་ཏུ་རྒྱས་པས་ཞུས་པ། · yon tan rin chen me tog kun tu rgyas pas zhus pa
Guṇaratnasaṅkusumitaparipṛcchā
Summary
In The Questions of Guṇaratnasaṅkusumita, the sūtra’s interlocutor, Guṇaratnasaṅkusumita, asks the Buddha Śākyamuni whether there might be other buddhas in other realms whose names carry the power to produce awakening. The Buddha responds that there are, in fact, buddhas whose names are so efficacious that simply by remembering them, the disciple will be awakened. The Buddha then names the buddhas of the ten directions, their worlds and eons, and the specific effects that knowing each of their names will have on disciples with faith.
Title variants
- ’phags pa yon tan rin chen me tog kun tu rgyas pas zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- འཕགས་པ་ཡོན་ཏན་རིན་ཆེན་མེ་ཏོག་ཀུན་ཏུ་རྒྱས་པས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- Āryaguṇaratnasaṅkusumitaparipṛcchānāmamahāyānasūtra
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Questions of Guṇaratnasaṅkusumita”
The Questions of Bhadrapāla the Merchant
ཚོང་དཔོན་བཟང་སྐྱོང་གིས་ཞུས་པ། · tshong dpon bzang skyong gis zhus pa
Bhadrapālaśreṣṭhiparipṛcchā
Summary
In The Questions of Bhadrapāla the Merchant, the Buddha’s principal interlocutor is a wealthy merchant who asks him to explain what consciousness is, and what happens to it when one dies and is reborn. In his characterization of consciousness, the Buddha relies heavily on the use of analogies drawn from nature. The sūtra also reflects common cultural beliefs of ancient India, such as spirit possession. In addition, it presents graphic and vividly contrasting descriptions of rebirth in the realms of the gods for those who have lived meritorious lives and in the realms of hell for those who lack merit.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་ཚོང་དཔོན་བཟང་སྐྱོང་གིས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa tshong dpon bzang skyong gis zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Questions of Bhadrapāla the Merchant”
- Āryabhadrapālaśreṣṭhiparipṛcchānāmamahāyānasūtra
The Questions of the Girl Vimalaśraddhā
བུ་མོ་རྣམ་དག་དད་པས་ཞུས་པ། · bu mo rnam dag dad pas zhus pa
Dārikāvimalaśraddhāparipṛcchā
Summary
Vimalaśraddhā, the daughter of King Prasenajit, comes to see the Buddha in Jetavana, together with a retinue of five hundred women. She pays homage to the Buddha and asks him to explain the conduct of bodhisattvas. The Buddha responds by presenting twelve sets of eight qualities that bodhisattvas should cultivate. Vimalaśraddhā also asks the Buddha how a woman may avoid female rebirth in the future, to which the Buddha answers with two further sets of eight qualities that can ensure rebirth as a man. Finally, Vimalaśraddhā and her five hundred companions, having developed the mind set on awakening, join the ranks of the bodhisattvas, and the Buddha prophesies her future attainment of awakening.
Title variants
- 淨信童女會
- bu mo rnam dag dang bas zhus pa’i mdo
- dārikāvimalaśraddhāparipṛcchāsūtra
- ’phags pa bu mo rnam dag dad pas zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- Āryadārikāvimalaśraddhāparipṛcchānāmamahāyānasūtra
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Questions of the Girl Vimalaśraddhā”
- འཕགས་པ་བུ་མོ་རྣམ་དག་དད་པས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
The Question of Maitreya
བྱམས་པས་ཞུས་པ། · byams pas zhus pa
Maitreyaparipṛcchā
Summary
In The Question of Maitreya, the bodhisattva Maitreya asks the Buddha what qualities a bodhisattva needs to attain enlightenment quickly. The Buddha outlines several sets of qualities, foremost among them the altruistic intention of perfect bodhicitta. The Buddha then recounts to Ānanda how, in a former life, Maitreya revered a previous Buddha and, wishing to become just like him, at once realized that all phenomena are unproduced. Ānanda asks why Maitreya did not become a buddha sooner, and in answer the Buddha compares Maitreya’s bodhisattva career with his own, listing further sets of qualities that differentiate them and recounting examples of the hardships he himself faced in previous lives. Maitreya, on the other hand, has followed the easy bodhisattva vehicle using its skillful means, such as the seven branch practice and the training in the six perfections; the aspirations he thus made are set out in the famous “Prayer of Maitreya” for which this sūtra is perhaps best known. The Buddha declares that Maitreya will become enlightened when sentient beings have fewer negative emotions, in contrast to the ignorant and turbulent beings he himself vowed to help.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་བྱམས་པས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa byams pas zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Question of Maitreya”
- Āryamaitreyaparipṛcchānāmamahāyānasūtra
The Question of Maitreya on the Eight Qualities
བྱམས་པས་ཆོས་བརྒྱད་ཞུས་པ། · byams pas chos brgyad zhus pa
Maitreyaparipṛcchādharmāṣṭa
Summary
In The Question of Maitreya on the Eight Qualities, Maitreya asks the Buddha what qualities bodhisattvas need in order to be sure of completing the path to buddhahood. In response, the Buddha briefly lists eight qualities. Starting with the excellent intention to become enlightened, they include loving kindness, as well as realization of the perfection of wisdom, which the Buddha explains in terms of reflection on the twelve links of dependent origination.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་བྱམས་པས་ཆོས་བརྒྱད་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa byams pas chos brgyad zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Question of Maitreya on the Eight Qualities”
- Āryamaitreyaparipṛcchādharmāṣṭanāmamahāyānasūtra
The Play in Full
རྒྱ་ཆེར་རོལ་པ། · rgya cher rol pa
Lalitavistara
Summary
The Play in Full tells the story of how the Buddha manifested in this world and attained awakening, as perceived from the perspective of the Great Vehicle. The sūtra, which is structured in twenty-seven chapters, first presents the events surrounding the Buddha’s birth, childhood, and adolescence in the royal palace of his father, king of the Śākya nation. It then recounts his escape from the palace and the years of hardship he faced in his quest for spiritual awakening. Finally the sūtra reveals his complete victory over the demon Māra, his attainment of awakening under the Bodhi tree, his first turning of the wheel of Dharma, and the formation of the very early saṅgha.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་རྒྱ་ཆེར་རོལ་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa rgya cher rol pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Play in Full”
- Āryalalitavistaranāmamahāyānasūtra
- 廣大遊戲經 (方廣大莊嚴經)
The Miraculous Play of Mañjuśrī
འཇམ་དཔལ་རྣམ་པར་རོལ་པ། · ’jam dpal rnam par rol pa
Mañjuśrīvikrīḍita
Summary
The Miraculous Play of Mañjuśrī presents a series of profound teachings within a rich narrative structure involving a beautiful courtesan’s daughter, Suvarṇottamaprabhāśrī. A banker’s son has purchased her favors, but while they are riding together toward a pleasure garden the girl’s attention is captivated instead by the radiantly attractive Mañjuśrī, who gives her instructions related to the meaning of the mind set on awakening. She then expresses her new understanding in a dialogue with Mañjuśrī, in the presence of King Ajātaśatru, his retinue, and the citizens of Rājagṛha. Meanwhile the banker’s son, with the help of Mañjuśrī and Śakra, experiences his own realization and receives teaching from the Buddha himself. The sūtra deals with well-known Mahāyāna themes, but places special emphasis on the emptiness and sameness of all phenomena.
Title variants
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Miraculous Play of Mañjuśrī”
- Āryamañjuśrīvikrīḍitanāmamahāyānasūtra
- འཕགས་པ་འཇམ་དཔལ་རྣམ་པར་རོལ་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa ’jam dpal rnam par rol pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
The Chapter on Mañjuśrī’s Magical Display
འཇམ་དཔལ་རྣམ་པར་འཕྲུལ་པའི་ལེའུ། · ’jam dpal rnam par ’phrul pa’i le’u
Mañjuśrīvikurvāṇaparivarta
Summary
In The Chapter on Mañjuśrī’s Magical Display, the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī answers a series of questions posed by the god Great Light concerning the appropriate conduct for bodhisattvas and the potential pitfalls and obstacles presented to bodhisattvas by Māra. Midway through the sūtra, the demon Māra himself appears and, after being captured and converted by Mañjuśrī, he begins to teach the Buddha’s Dharma to the audience. After revealing that Māra was never truly bound by anything other than his own perception, Mañjuśrī resumes his teaching for the remainder of the sūtra.
Title variants
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Chapter on Mañjuśrī’s Magical Display”
- ’phags pa ’jam dpal rnam par ’phrul pa’i le’u zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- འཕགས་པ་འཇམ་དཔལ་རྣམ་པར་འཕྲུལ་པའི་ལེའུ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- Āryamañjuśrīvikurvāṇaparivartanāmamahāyānasūtra
The Precious Discourse on the Blessed One’s Extensive Wisdom That Leads to Infinite Certainty
བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་ཀྱི་ཡེ་ཤེས་རྒྱས་པའི་མདོ་སྡེ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་མཐའ་ཡས་པ་མཐར་ཕྱིན་པ། · bcom ldan ’das kyi ye shes rgyas pa’i mdo sde rin po che mtha’ yas pa mthar phyin pa
Niṣṭhāgatabhagavajjñānavaipulyasūtraratnānanta
Summary
The Buddha’s disciple, the monk Pūrṇa, oversees the construction of a temple dedicated to the Buddha in a distant southern city. When the master builder suggests that the building may be used by others in the Buddha’s absence, Pūrṇa argues that no one but an omniscient buddha may rightly take up residence there. Enumerating the kinds of knowledge that are unique to a buddha’s perfect awakening, Pūrṇa then delivers a lengthy exposition that also relates each of these qualities to the knowledge of the four truths. Following Pūrṇa’s teaching, the master builder invites the Buddha and his followers from afar to the inauguration of the newly built structure. They arrive, flying through the sky. After the inauguration, the Buddha pauses with his monks on the shores of the ocean, where he receives the worship of numerous nāga kings, teaches and inspires them, and predicts their awakening. At Maudgalyāyana’s request, the Buddha then recounts each of the specific events in his past lives that ultimately led to the unfolding of each of his particular kinds of knowledge.
This long sūtra thus serves as a detailed guide to the different aspects of the Buddha’s awakened wisdom, particularly those that, in many accounts of the qualities of buddhahood, are known as the ten powers or strengths.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་ཀྱི་ཡེ་ཤེས་རྒྱས་པའི་མདོ་སྡེ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་མཐའ་ཡས་པ་མཐར་ཕྱིན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa bcom ldan ’das kyi ye shes rgyas pa’i mdo sde rin po che mtha’ yas pa mthar phyin pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Precious Discourse on the Blessed One’s Extensive Wisdom That Leads to Infinite Certainty”
- Āryaniṣṭhāgatabhagavajjñānavaipulyasūtraratnānantanāmamahāyānasūtra
- 薄伽梵智慧顯現無盡經藏
The Ornament of the Light of Awareness that Enters the Domain of All Buddhas
སངས་རྒྱས་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི་ཡུལ་ལ་འཇུག་པའི་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྣང་བའི་རྒྱན། · sangs rgyas thams cad kyi yul la ’jug pa’i ye shes snang ba’i rgyan
Sarvabuddhaviṣayāvatārajñānālokālaṃkāra
Summary
The main topic of this sūtra is an explanation of how the Buddha and all things share the very same empty nature. Through a set of similes, the sūtra shows how an illusion-like Buddha may dispense appropriate teachings to sentient beings in accordance with their propensities. His activities are effortless since his realization is free from concepts. Thus, the Tathāgata’s non-conceptual awareness results in great compassion beyond any reference point.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་སངས་རྒྱས་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི་ཡུལ་ལ་འཇུག་པའི་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྣང་བའི་རྒྱན་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa sangs rgyas thams cad kyi yul la ’jug pa’i ye shes snang ba’i rgyan zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Ornament of the Light of Awareness that Enters the Domain of All Buddhas”
- Āryasarvabuddhaviṣayāvatārajñānālokālaṃkāranāmamahāyānasūtra
Upholding the Roots of Virtue
དགེ་བའི་རྩ་བ་ཡོངས་སུ་འཛིན་པ། · dge ba’i rtsa ba yongs su ’dzin pa
Kuśalamūlasaṃparigraha
Summary
This sūtra, one of the longest scriptures in the General Sūtra section of the Kangyur, outlines the path of the Great Vehicle as it is journeyed by bodhisattvas in pursuit of awakening. The teaching, which is delivered by the Buddha Śākyamuni to a host of bodhisattvas from faraway worlds as well as a selection of his closest hearer students, such as Śāradvatīputra and Ānanda, elucidates in particular the practice of engendering and strengthening the mind of awakening, as well as the practice of bodhisattva conduct for the sake of all other beings.
Title variants
- ’phags pa dge ba’i rtsa ba yongs su ’dzin pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- འཕགས་པ་དགེ་བའི་རྩ་བ་ཡོངས་སུ་འཛིན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- Āryakuśalamūlasamparigrahanāmamahāyānasūtra
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “Upholding the Roots of Virtue”
- dge ba’i rtsa ba yongs su ’dzin pa/
- Kuśalamūlasamparigrahasūtra
- 總持善根經 (佛說華手經)
The Teaching by the Child Inconceivable Radiance
ཁྱེའུ་སྣང་བ་བསམ་གྱིས་མི་ཁྱབ་པས་བསྟན་པ། · khye’u snang ba bsam gyis mi khyab pas bstan pa
Acintyaprabhāsanirdeśa
Summary
This sūtra is a story in which the spiritual realization of the child Inconceivable Radiance is revealed through a dialogue with the Buddha Śākyamuni. The Buddha furthermore recounts events from the child’s past lives to illustrate how actions committed in one life will determine one’s future circumstances. The teaching concludes with the Buddha prophesying how the child Inconceivable Radiance will eventually fully awaken in the future.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་ཁྱེའུ་སྣང་བ་བསམ་གྱིས་མི་ཁྱབ་པས་བསྟན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་གྲངས།
- ’phags pa khye’u snang ba bsam gyis mi khyab pas bstan pa zhes bya ba’i chos kyi rnam grangs
- The Noble Account of Dharma “The Teaching by the Child Inconceivable Radiance”
- Āryācintyaprabhāsanirdeśanāmadharmaparyāya
Unraveling the Intent
དགོངས་པ་ངེས་འགྲེལ། · dgongs pa nges ’grel
Saṃdhinirmocana
Summary
In Unraveling the Intent, the Buddha gives a systematic overview of his three great cycles of teachings, which he refers to in this text as the “three Dharma wheels” (tridharmacakra). In the process of delineating the meaning of these doctrines, the Buddha unravels several difficult points regarding the ultimate and relative truths, the nature of reality, and the contemplative methods conducive to the attainment of complete and perfect awakening, and he also explains what his intent was when he imparted teachings belonging to each of the three Dharma wheels. In unambiguous terms, the third wheel is proclaimed to be of definitive meaning. Through a series of dialogues with hearers and bodhisattvas, the Buddha thus offers a complete and systematic teaching on the Great Vehicle, which he refers to here as the Single Vehicle.
Title variants
- ’phags pa dgongs pa nges par ’grel pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- Āryasaṃdhinirmocananāmamahāyānasūtra
- The Noble Sūtra of the Great Vehicle “Unraveling the Intent”
- Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra
- dgongs pa nges par ’grel pa/
- 解深密經
- འཕགས་པ་དགོངས་པ་ངེས་པར་འགྲེལ་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
The White Lotus of the Good Dharma
དམ་པའི་ཆོས་པད་མ་དཀར་པོ། · dam pa’i chos pad ma dkar po
Saddharmapuṇḍarīka
Summary
The White Lotus of the Good Dharma, popularly known as the Lotus Sūtra, is taught by Buddha Śākyamuni on Vulture Peak to an audience that includes bodhisattvas from countless realms, as well as bodhisattvas who emerge out from the ground from the space below this world. Buddha Prabhūtaratna, who has long since passed into nirvāṇa, appears within a floating stūpa to hear the sūtra, and Śākyamuni enters the stūpa and sits beside him. The Lotus Sūtra is celebrated, particularly in East Asia, for its presentation of crucial elements of the Mahāyāna tradition, such as the doctrine that there is only one yāna, or “vehicle”; the distinction between expedient and definite teachings; and the notion that the Buddha’s life, enlightenment, and parinirvāṇa were simply manifestations of his transcendent buddhahood, while he continues to teach eternally. A recurring theme in the sūtra is its own significance in teaching these points during past and future eons, with many passages in which the Buddha and bodhisattvas such as Samantabhadra describe the great benefits that come from devotion to it, the history of its past devotees, and how it is the Buddha’s ultimate teaching, supreme over all other sūtras.
Title variants
- དམ་པའི་ཆོས་པད་མ་དཀར་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- dam pa’i chos pad ma dkar po zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Mahāyāna Sūtra “The White Lotus of the Good Dharma”
- Saddharmapuṇḍarīkanāmamahāyānasūtra
- 妙法蓮華經
The King of the Array of All Dharma Qualities
ཆོས་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི་ཡོན་ཏན་བཀོད་པའི་རྒྱལ་པོ། · chos thams cad kyi yon tan bkod pa’i rgyal po
Sarvadharmaguṇavyūharāja
Summary
The events recounted in The King of the Array of All Dharma Qualities take place outside Rājagṛha, where the Buddha is residing in the Bamboo Grove together with a great assembly of monks, bodhisattvas, and other human and non-human beings. At the request of the bodhisattvas Vajrapāṇi and Avalokiteśvara, the Buddha teaches his audience on a selection of brief but disparate topics belonging to the general Mahāyāna tradition: how to search for a spiritual friend and live in solitude, the benefits of venerating Avalokiteśvara’s name, the obstacles that Māra may create for practitioners, and warnings on how easy it is to lose one’s determination to be free from saṃsāra. The sūtra also includes two dhāraṇīs that the Buddha and Vajrapāṇi teach in turn, along with details of their benefits and Vajrapāṇi’s ritual recitation instructions. Throughout the text, the Buddha repeatedly insists on the importance and benefits of venerating and propagating this teaching as well as those who teach it.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་ཆོས་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི་ཡོན་ཏན་བཀོད་པའི་རྒྱལ་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa chos thams cad kyi yon tan bkod pa’i rgyal po zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The King of the Array of All Dharma Qualities”
- Āryasarvadharmaguṇavyūharājanāmamahāyānasūtra
- Sarvadharmaguṇavyūharājasūtra
- chos kyi yon tan bkod pa’i rgyal po’i mdo/
The Display of the Pure Land of Sukhāvatī
བདེ་བ་ཅན་གྱི་བཀོད་པ། · bde ba can gyi bkod pa
Sukhāvatīvyūha
Summary
In the Jeta Grove of Śrāvastī, Buddha Śākyamuni, surrounded by a large audience, presents to his disciple Śāriputra a detailed description of the realm of Sukhāvatī, a delightful, enlightened abode, free of suffering. Its inhabitants are described as mature beings in an environment where everything enhances their spiritual inclinations. The principal buddha of Sukhāvatī is addressed as Amitāyus (Limitless Life) as well as Amitābha (Limitless Light).
Buddha Śākyamuni further explains how virtuous people who focus single-mindedly on Buddha Amitābha will obtain a rebirth in Sukhāvatī in their next life, and he urges all to develop faith in this teaching. In support, he cites the similar way in which the various buddhas of the six directions exhort their followers to develop confidence in this teaching on Sukhāvatī.
The sūtra ends with a short dialogue between Śāriputra and Buddha Śākyamuni that highlights the difficulty of enlightened activity in a degenerate age.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་བདེ་བ་ཅན་གྱི་བཀོད་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa bde ba can gyi bkod pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Display of the Pure Land of Sukhāvatī”
- Āryasukhāvatīvyūhanāmamahāyānasūtra
The Basket’s Display
ཟ་མ་ཏོག་བཀོད་པ། · za ma tog bkod pa
Kāraṇḍavyūha
Summary
The Basket’s Display (Kāraṇḍavyūha) is the source of the most prevalent mantra of Tibetan Buddhism: oṁ maṇipadme hūṁ. It marks a significant stage in the growing importance of Avalokiteśvara within Indian Buddhism in the early centuries of the first millennium. In a series of narratives within narratives, the sūtra describes Avalokiteśvara’s activities in various realms and the realms contained within the pores of his skin. It culminates in a description of the extreme rarity of his mantra, which, on the Buddha’s instructions, Bodhisattva Sarvanīvaraṇaviṣkambhin obtains from someone in Vārāṇasī who has broken his monastic vows. This sūtra provided a basis and source of quotations for the teachings and practices of the eleventh-century Maṇi Kabum, which itself served as a foundation for the rich tradition of Tibetan Avalokiteśvara practice.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་ཟ་མ་ཏོག་བཀོད་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa za ma tog bkod pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Basket’s Display”
- Āryakāraṇḍavyūhanāmamahāyānasūtra
- 大乘莊嚴寶王經
The Sūtra on Wisdom at the Hour of Death
འདའ་ཀ་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཀྱི་མདོ། · ’da’ ka ye shes kyi mdo
Atyayajñānasūtra
Summary
While the Buddha is residing in the Akaniṣṭha realm, the bodhisattva mahāsattva Ākāśagarbha asks him how to consider the mind of a bodhisattva who is about to die. The Buddha replies that when death comes a bodhisattva should develop the wisdom of the hour of death. He explains that a bodhisattva should cultivate a clear understanding of the non-existence of entities, great compassion, non-apprehension, non-attachment, and a clear understanding that, since wisdom is the realization of one’s own mind, the Buddha should not be sought elsewhere. After these points have been repeated in verse form, the assembly praises the Buddha’s words, concluding the sūtra.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་འདའ་ཀ་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa ’da’ ka ye shes zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “Wisdom at the Hour of Death”
- Āryātyayajñānanāmamahāyānasūtra
The Jewel Mine
དཀོན་མཆོག་འབྱུང་གནས། · dkon mchog ’byung gnas
Ratnākara
Summary
In this sūtra the Buddha Śākyamuni recounts how the thus-gone Sarvārthasiddha purified the buddha realms in his domain. In his explanation, the Buddha Śākyamuni emphasizes the view of the Great Vehicle, which he explains as the fundamental basis for all bodhisattvas who aspire to attain liberation. The attendant topics taught by the Buddha are the six perfections of generosity, discipline, patience, diligence, concentration, and wisdom. The Buddha explains each of these six perfections in three distinct ways as he recounts the past lives of the buddha Sarvārthasiddha. First, he describes how Sarvārthasiddha learned the practices that purify buddha realms, namely the six perfections. Next, he explains how to seal these six virtuous practices with the correct view so that they become perfections. Finally, he recounts how Sarvārthasiddha, as a bodhisattva, received instructions for enhancing the potency of the perfections.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་དཀོན་མཆོག་འབྱུང་གནས་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa dkon mchog ’byung gnas zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Jewel Mine”
- Āryaratnākaranāmamahāyānasūtra
- 信力入印法門經
The King of Samādhis Sūtra
ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་གྱི་རྒྱལ་པོའི་མདོ། · ting nge ’dzin gyi rgyal po’i mdo
Samādhirājasūtra
Summary
This sūtra, much quoted in later Buddhist writings for its profound statements especially on the nature of emptiness, relates a long teaching given by the Buddha mainly in response to questions put by a young layman, Candraprabha. The samādhi that is the subject of the sūtra, in spite of its name, primarily consists of various aspects of conduct, motivation, and the understanding of emptiness; it is also a way of referring to the sūtra itself. The teaching given in the sūtra is the instruction to be dedicated to the possession and promulgation of the samādhi, and to the necessary conduct of a bodhisattva, which is exemplified by a number of accounts from the Buddha’s previous lives. Most of the teaching takes place on Vulture Peak Mountain, with an interlude recounting the Buddha’s invitation and visit to Candraprabha’s home in Rājagṛha, where he continues to teach Candraprabha before returning to Vulture Peak Mountain. In one subsequent chapter the Buddha responds to a request by Ānanda, and the text concludes with a commitment by Ānanda to maintain this teaching in the future.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་ཆོས་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི་རང་བཞིན་མཉམ་པ་ཉིད་རྣམ་པར་སྤྲོས་པ་ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་གྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa chos thams cad kyi rang bzhin mnyam pa nyid rnam par spros pa ting nge ’dzin gyi rgyal po zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The King of Samādhis, the Revealed Equality of the Nature of All Phenomena”
- Āryasarvadharmasvabhāvasamatāvipañcitasamādhirājanāmamahāyānasūtra
- 三摩地王經
The Absorption of the Miraculous Ascertainment of Peace
རབ་ཏུ་ཞི་བ་རྣམ་པར་ངེས་པའི་ཆོ་འཕྲུལ་གྱི་ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན། · rab tu zhi ba rnam par nges pa’i cho ’phrul gyi ting nge ’dzin
Praśāntaviniścayaprātihāryasamādhi
Summary
In this sūtra the Buddha Śākyamuni teaches how bodhisattvas proceed to awakening, without ever regressing, by relying on an absorption known as the miraculous ascertainment of peace. He lists the very numerous features of this absorption, describes how to train in it, and explains how through this training bodhisattvas develop all the qualities of buddhahood. The “peace” of the absorption comes from the relinquishment of misconceptions and indeed of all concepts whatsoever, and the sūtra provides a profound and detailed survey of how all the abilities, attainments, and other qualities of the bodhisattva’s path arise as the bodhisattva’s understanding and realization of what is meant by the Thus-Gone One unfold.
Title variants
- ’phags pa rab tu zhi ba rnam par nges pa’i cho ’phrul gyi ting nge ’dzin zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- འཕགས་པ་རབ་ཏུ་ཞི་བ་རྣམ་པར་ངེས་པའི་ཆོ་འཕྲུལ་གྱི་ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- Āryapraśāntaviniścayaprātihāryanāmasamādhimahāyānasūtra
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Absorption of the Miraculous Ascertainment of Peace”
- Āryapraśāntaviniścayaprātihāryanāmasamādhināmamahāyānasūtra
- 寂照神變三摩地經
The Illusory Absorption
སྒྱུ་མ་ལྟ་བུའི་ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན། · sgyu ma lta bu’i ting nge ’dzin
Māyopamasamādhi
Summary
In this sūtra Buddha Śākyamuni explains how to attain the absorption known as “the illusory absorption,” a meditative state so powerful that it enables awakening to be attained very quickly. He also teaches that this absorption has been mastered particularly well by two bodhisattvas, Avalokiteśvara and Mahāsthāmprāpta, who live in Sukhāvatī, the distant realm of Buddha Amitābha. Buddha Śākyamuni summons these two bodhisattvas to this world and, when they arrive, recounts the story of how they first engendered the mind of awakening. Finally the Buddha reveals the circumstances surrounding the future awakening of Avalokiteśvara and Mahāsthāmprāpta.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་སྒྱུ་མ་ལྟ་བུའི་ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་ཅེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa sgyu ma lta bu’i ting nge ’dzin ces bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Illusory Absorption”
- Āryamāyopamasamadhināmamahāyānasūtra
The Absorption of the Thus-Gone One’s Wisdom Seal
དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཀྱི་ཕྱག་རྒྱའི་ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན། · de bzhin gshegs pa’i ye shes kyi phyag rgya’i ting nge ’dzin
Tathāgatajñānamudrāsamādhi
Summary
In The Absorption of the Thus-Gone One’s Wisdom Seal, a vast number of bodhisattvas request the Buddha Śākyamuni to teach them about his state of meditative absorption. In his responses to various interlocutors, including the bodhisattvas Mañjuśrī and Maitreya, the Buddha expounds on this profound state, exhorting them to accomplish it themselves. The sūtra also describes the qualities of bodhisattvas and their stages of development.
Title variants
- ’phags pa de bzhin gshegs pa’i ye shes kyi phyag rgya’i ting nge ’dzin ces bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- Āryatathāgatajñānamudrāsamādhināmamahāyānasūtra
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Absorption of the Thus-Gone One’s Wisdom Seal”
The Absorption That Encapsulates All Merit
བསོད་ནམས་ཐམས་ཅད་བསྡུས་པའི་ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན། · bsod nams thams cad bsdus pa’i ting nge ’dzin
Sarvapuṇyasamuccayasamādhi
Summary
The Absorption That Encapsulates All Merit tells the story of Vimalatejā, a strongman renowned for his physical prowess, who visits the Buddha in order to compare abilities and prove that he is the mightier of the two. He receives an unexpected, humbling riposte in the form of a teaching by the Buddha on the inconceivable magnitude of the powers of awakened beings, going well beyond mere physical strength. The discussions that then unfold—largely between the Buddha, Vimalatejā, and the bodhisattva Nārāyaṇa—touch on topics including the importance of creating merit, the centrality of learning and insight, and the question of whether renunciation entails monasticism. Above all, however, Vimalatejā is led to see that the entirety of the Great Vehicle path hinges on the practice that forms the name of the sūtra, which is nothing other than the mind of awakening (bodhicitta).
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་བསོད་ནམས་ཐམས་ཅད་བསྡུས་པའི་ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་ཅེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa bsod nams thams cad bsdus pa’i ting nge ’dzin ces bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Absorption That Encapsulates All Merit”
- Āryasarvapuṇyasamuccayasamādhināmamahāyānasūtra
- 集一切福德三昧經
The Ratnaketu Dhāraṇī
རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ཏོག་གི་གཟུངས། · rin po che tog gi gzungs
Ratnaketudhāraṇī
Summary
The Ratnaketu Dhāraṇī is one of the core texts of the Mahāsannipāta collection of Mahāyāna sūtras that dates back to the formative period of Mahāyāna Buddhism, from the first to the third century ᴄᴇ. Its rich and varied narratives, probably redacted from at least two independent works, recount significant events from the lives, past and present, of the Buddha Śākyamuni and some of his main followers and opponents, both human and nonhuman. At the center of these narratives is the climactic episode from the Buddha’s life when Māra, the personification of spiritual death, sets out to destroy the Buddha and his Dharma. The mythic confrontation between these paragons of light and darkness, and the Buddha’s eventual victory, are related in vivid detail. The main narratives are interwoven with Dharma instructions and interspersed with miraculous events. The text also exemplifies two distinctive sūtra genres, “prophecies” (vyākaraṇa) and “incantations” (dhāraṇī), as it includes, respectively, prophecies of the future attainment of buddhahood by some of the Buddha’s followers and the potent phrases that embody the Buddha’s teachings and are meant to ensure their survival and the thriving of its practitioners.
Title variants
- Āryamahāsannipātaratnaketudhāraṇīnāmamahāyānasūtra
- ’phags pa ’dus pa chen po rin po che tog gi gzungs shes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Ratnaketu Dhāraṇī” from the Great Collection
- འཕགས་པ་འདུས་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ཏོག་གི་གཟུངས་ཤེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- 大集寶幢陀羅尼經
- (大正藏:寳星陀羅尼經)
The Dhāraṇī “Entering into Nonconceptuality”
རྣམ་པར་མི་རྟོག་པར་འཇུག་པའི་གཟུངས། · rnam par mi rtog par ’jug pa’i gzungs
Avikalpapraveśadhāraṇī
Summary
The Dhāraṇī “Entering into Nonconceptuality” is a short Mahāyāna sūtra that came to be particularly influential in Yogācāra circles. The central theme of the sūtra is the attainment of the nonconceptual realm, reached through the practice of relinquishing all conceptual signs by not directing the mind toward them. The sūtra presents the progressive stages through which bodhisattvas can abandon increasingly subtle conceptual signs and eliminate the erroneous ideas that lead to the objectification of phenomena.
Title variants
- ’phags pa rnam par mi rtog par ’jug pa zhes bya ba’i gzungs
- Āryāvikalpapraveśanāmadhāraṇī
- The Noble Dhāraṇī “Entering into Nonconceptuality”
- rnam par mi rtog par ’jug pa’i gzungs/
- འཕགས་པ་རྣམ་པར་མི་རྟོག་པར་འཇུག་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་གཟུངས།
- Avikalpapraveśadhāraṇī
Cultivating Trust in the Great Vehicle
ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་ལ་དད་པ་རབ་ཏུ་སྒོམ་པ། · theg pa chen po la dad pa rab tu sgom pa
Mahāyānaprasādaprabhāvana
Summary
In Cultivating Trust in the Great Vehicle, the Buddha Śākyamuni gives a discourse on the nature of trust (dad pa, prasāda) according to the Great Vehicle. The teaching is requested by a bodhisattva known as Great Skillful Trust, who requests the Buddha to answer four questions concerning the nature of trust in the Great Vehicle: (1) What are the characteristics of trust? (2) How is trust developed? (3) What are the different types of trust? (4) What are the benefits of having trust? Over the course of the sūtra, the Buddha answers all four questions, each in a separate chapter.
Title variants
- ’phags pa theg pa chen po la dad pa rab tu sgom pa ces bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- Āryamahāyānaprasādaprabhāvananāmamahāyānasūtra
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “Cultivating Trust in the Great Vehicle”
- འཕགས་པ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་ལ་དད་པ་རབ་ཏུ་སྒོམ་པ་ཅེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
The Dhāraṇī of the Jewel Torch
དཀོན་མཆོག་ཏ་ལ་ལའི་གཟུངས། · dkon mchog ta la la’i gzungs
Ratnolkādhāraṇī
Summary
The Dhāraṇī of the Jewel Torch starts with a profound conversation between the Buddha and the bodhisattvas Samantabhadra and Mañjuśrī on the nature of the dharmadhātu, buddhahood, and emptiness. The bodhisattva Dharmamati then enters the meditative absorption called the infinite application of the bodhisattva’s jewel torch and, at the behest of the millions of buddhas who have blessed him, emerges from it to teach how bodhisattvas arise from the presence of a tathāgata and progress to the state of omniscience. Following Dharmamati’s detailed exposition of the “ten categories” or progressive stages of a bodhisattva, the Buddha briefly teaches the mantra of the dhāraṇī and then, for most of the remainder of the text, encourages bodhisattvas in a long versified passage in which he recounts teachings by a bodhisattva called Bhadraśrī on the qualities of bodhisattvas and buddhas. Some verses from this passage on the virtues of faith have been widely quoted in both India and Tibet.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་དཀོན་མཆོག་ཏ་ལ་ལའི་གཟུངས་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa dkon mchog ta la la’i gzungs zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- Āryaratnolkānāmadhāraṇīmahāyānasūtra
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Dhāraṇī of the Jewel Torch”
- Ratnolkadhāraṇīsūtra
- dkon mchog sgron me’i mdo
- dkon mchog sgron ma’i mdo
- 寶燈陀羅尼經
The Teaching on the Great Compassion of the Tathāgata
དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་རྗེ་ཆེན་པོ་ངེས་པར་བསྟན་པ། · de bzhin gshegs pa’i snying rje chen po nges par bstan pa/
Tathāgatamahākaruṇānirdeśa
Summary
The Teaching on the Great Compassion of the Tathāgata opens with the Buddha presiding over a large congregation of disciples at Vulture Peak. Entering a special state of meditative absorption, he magically displays a pavilion in the sky, attracting a vast audience of divine and human Dharma followers. At the request of the bodhisattva Dhāraṇīśvararāja, the Buddha gives a discourse on the qualities of bodhisattvas, which are specified as bodhisattva ornaments, illuminations, compassion, and activities. He also teaches about the compassionate awakening of tathāgatas and the scope of a tathāgata’s activities. At the request of a bodhisattva named Siṃhaketu, Dhāraṇīśvararāja then gives a discourse on eight dhāraṇīs, following which the Buddha explains the sources and functions of a dhāraṇī known as the jewel lamp. As the text concludes, various deities and Dharma protectors praise the sūtra’s qualities and vow to preserve and protect it in the future, and the Buddha entrusts the sūtra and its propagation to Dhāraṇīśvararāja. The sūtra is a particularly rich source of detail on the qualities of bodhisattvas and buddhas.
Title variants
- ’phags pa de bzhin gshegs pa’i snying rje chen po nges par bstan pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- Āryatathāgatamahākaruṇānirdeśanāmamahāyānasūtra
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Teaching on the Great Compassion of the Tathāgata”
- 如來大悲經
- (大正藏:大哀經)
- དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་རྗེ་ཆེན་པོ་ངེས་པར་བསྟན་པ།
- འཕགས་པ་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་རྗེ་ཆེན་པོ་ངེས་པར་བསྟན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- The Sūtra of Dhāraṇīśvararāja
- The Questions of Dhāraṇīśvararāja
- gzungs kyi rgyal po’i mdo
- gzungs kyi dbang phyug rgyal po’i mdo
- dbang phyug rgyal pos zhus pa
- Dhāraṇīśvararājasūtra
- Dhāraṇīśvararājaparipṛcchā
The Inquiry of Avalokiteśvara on the Seven Qualities
སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས་དབང་ཕྱུག་གིས་ཞུས་པ་ཆོས་བདུན་པ། · spyan ras gzigs dbang phyug gis zhus pa chos bdun pa
Avalokiteśvaraparipṛcchāsaptadharmaka
Summary
The sūtra is introduced with the Buddha residing on Vulture Peak Mountain in Rājagṛha, together with a great monastic assembly of 1,250 monks and a multitude of bodhisattva mahāsattvas. The Buddha is approached and asked by the bodhisattva mahāsattva Avalokiteśvara about the qualities that should be cultivated by a bodhisattva who has just generated the altruistic mind set on attaining awakening. The Buddha briefly expounds seven qualities that should be practiced by such a bodhisattva, emphasizing mental purity and cognitive detachment from conceptuality.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས་དབང་ཕྱུག་གིས་ཞུས་པ་ཆོས་བདུན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa spyan ras gzigs dbang phyug gis zhus pa chos bdun pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Inquiry of Avalokiteśvara on the Seven Qualities”
- Āryāvalokiteśvaraparipṛcchāsaptadharmakanāmamahāyānasūtra
The Questions of Pratibhānamati
སྤོབས་པའི་བློ་གྲོས་ཀྱིས་ཞུས་པ། · spobs pa’i blo gros kyis zhus pa
Pratibhānamatiparipṛcchā
Summary
The subject matter of this sūtra is indicated by the alternative title suggested by the Buddha himself in its conclusion: The Teaching That Clarifies Karma. In the opening section, the merchant Pratibhānamati, concerned about the state of society and what will become of the saṅgha in times to come, requests the Buddha Śākyamuni for a teaching that offers moral guidance to future beings. With the Buddha’s encouragement, he asks what actions lead to rebirth in ten different human and non-human states. The Buddha answers with descriptions of the actions associated with each of these states and the effects they will bring. Pratibhānamati then invites the Buddha to his home in Śrāvastī. Two beggars arrive there, and on account of their opposing aspirations and conduct in the presence of the Buddha and retinue, one soon becomes a king while the other is killed in an accident. The sūtra concludes as the Buddha, invited to the newly anointed king’s land, explains the karmic reasons for his unexpected fortune.
Title variants
- ’phags pa spobs pa’i blo gros kyis zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- Āryapratibhānamatiparipṛcchānāmamahāyānasūtra
- འཕགས་པ་སྤོབས་པའི་བློ་གྲོས་ཀྱིས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
The Questions of Sāgaramati
བློ་གྲོས་རྒྱ་མཚོས་ཞུས་པ། · blo gros rgya mtshos zhus pa
Sāgaramatiparipṛcchā
Summary
Heralded by a miraculous flood, the celestial bodhisattva Sāgaramati arrives in Rājagṛha to engage in a Dharma discussion with Buddha Śākyamuni. He discusses an absorption called “The Pristine and Immaculate Seal” and many other subjects relevant to bodhisattvas who are in the process of developing the mind of awakening and practicing the bodhisattva path. The sūtra strongly advises that bodhisattvas not shy away from the afflictive emotions of beings—no matter how unpleasant they may be—and that insight into these emotions is critical for a bodhisattva’s compassionate activity. The sūtra deals with the preeminence of wisdom and non-grasping on the path. In the end, as a teaching on how to deal with māras, the sūtra illuminates the many pitfalls possible on the path of the Great Vehicle.
Title variants
- ’phags pa blo gros rgya mtshos zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- འཕགས་པ་བློ་གྲོས་རྒྱ་མཚོས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Questions of Sāgaramati”
- Āryasāgaramatiparipṛcchānāmamahāyānasūtra
- blo gros rgya mtshos zhus pa’i mdo/
- sāgaramatiparipṛcchāsūtra
- 海意菩薩所問淨印法門經
The Questions of the Nāga King Sāgara (2)
ཀླུའི་རྒྱལ་པོ་རྒྱ་མཚོས་ཞུས་པ། · klu’i rgyal po rgya mtshos zhus pa
Sāgaranāgarājaparipṛcchā
Summary
The Questions of the Nāga King Sāgara presents a discourse given by the Buddha Śākyamuni on the importance of considering the effects caused by actions. At the start of his teaching, the Buddha remarks how the variety of forms that exist, and in fact all phenomena, come about as the result of virtuous and nonvirtuous actions. By understanding this law of cause and effect and by taking great care to engage in virtue, one will avoid rebirth in the lower realms and enter the path to perfect awakening. In the rest of his discourse he explains in great detail the advantages of engaging in each of the ten virtues and the problems associated with not engaging in them.
Title variants
- ’phags pa klu’i rgyal po rgya mtshos zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- འཕགས་པ་ཀླུའི་རྒྱལ་པོ་རྒྱ་མཚོས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Questions of the Nāga King Sāgara”
- Āryasāgaranāgarājaparipṛcchānāmamahāyānasūtra
- Chinese Title
The Questions of the Nāga King Sāgara (3)
ཀླུའི་རྒྱལ་པོ་རྒྱ་མཚོས་ཞུས་པ། · klu’i rgyal po rgya mtshos zhus pa
Sāgaranāgarājaparipṛcchā
Summary
In this very short sūtra, the Buddha explains to a nāga king and an assembly of monks that reciting the four aphorisms of the Dharma is equivalent to recitation of all of the 84,000 articles of the Dharma. He urges them to make diligent efforts to engage in understanding the four aphorisms (also called the four seals), which are the defining philosophical tenets of the Buddhist doctrine: (1) all compounded phenomena are impermanent; (2) all contaminated phenomena are suffering; (3) all phenomena are without self; (4) nirvāṇa is peace.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་ཀླུའི་རྒྱལ་པོ་རྒྱ་མཚོས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa klu’i rgyal po rgya mtshos zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Questions of the Nāga King Sāgara”
- Āryasāgaranāgarājaparipṛcchānāmamahāyanasūtra
The Questions of the Kiṃnara King Druma
མི་འམ་ཅིའི་རྒྱལ་པོ་སྡོང་པོས་ཞུས་པ། · mi ’am ci’i rgyal po sdong pos zhus pa
Drumakinnararājaparipṛcchā
Summary
The Questions of the Kiṃnara King Druma, initiated by the questions of the bodhisattva Divyamauli, consists of a series of teachings by the kiṃnara king Druma, given within a rich narrative framework in which music plays a central role in teaching the Dharma. This sūtra presents a variety of well-known Great Vehicle Buddhist themes, but special attention is given to the six bodhisattva perfections and the perfection of skillful means, as well as to the doctrine of emptiness that is discussed throughout the text.
Title variants
- ’phags pa mi ’am ci’i rgyal po sdong pos zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- འཕགས་པ་མི་འམ་ཅིའི་རྒྱལ་པོ་སྡོང་པོས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- Āryadrumakinnararājaparipṛcchānāmamahāyānasūtra
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Questions of the Kiṃnara King Druma”
- 大樹緊那羅王所問經
The Questions of Brahmadatta
ཚངས་པས་བྱིན་གྱིས་ཞུས་པ། · tshangs pas byin gyis zhus pa
Brahmadattaparipṛcchā
Summary
The Questions of Brahmadatta begins with the bodhisattva Amoghadarśin departing from the Jeta Grove of Śrāvastī, where the Buddha is residing. Together with more than five hundred bodhisattvas, he travels to the region of Pañcāla, where King Brahmadatta requests Amoghadarśin to impart teachings to him and his citizens. The bodhisattva discusses the attributes and correct practices of a king who is a protector of the Dharma. The king requests that the bodhisattva remain in his kingdom to observe the summer vows in retreat. Sixty wicked monks already residing there treat Amoghadarśin poorly, and after three months he leaves Pañcāla and returns to the Jeta Grove.
King Brahmadatta later goes to see the Buddha, who explains to the king how the wicked monks behaved and the negative consequences of such actions. The Buddha then goes on to explain what a monk and others who wish to attain awakening should strive for, namely, to rid themselves of pride, anger, and jealousy. Upon hearing these instructions, King Brahmadatta expels the sixty wicked monks from his kingdom. Many beings then generate the mind of awakening, and King Brahmadatta is irreversibly set on the path of complete awakening. The Buddha smiles and radiates multicolored lights throughout the whole world. Finally, the king apologizes to Amoghadarśin and the bodhisattva forgives him.
Title variants
- ’phags pa tshangs pas byin gyis zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- འཕགས་པ་ཚངས་པས་བྱིན་གྱིས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- Āryabrahmadattaparipṛcchānāmamahāyānasūtra
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Questions of Brahmadatta”
The Questions of Ratnajālin
རིན་ཆེན་དྲ་བ་ཅན་གྱིས་ཞུས་པ། · rin chen dra ba can gyis zhus pa/
Ratnajāliparipṛcchā
Summary
Prompted by a dream, the young Licchavi boy Ratnajālin invites the Buddha to the city of Vaiśālī. When the Buddha arrives Ratnajālin asks whether there are other buddhas whose names, when heard, bring benefit to bodhisattvas. The Buddha replies that there are, and he proceeds to describe the power of the names of buddhas in the four cardinal directions as well as above and below. Once Ratnajālin has understood the teaching on the power of the names of these thus-gone ones, the Buddha provides encouragement for the future propagation of this discourse.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་རིན་ཆེན་དྲ་བ་ཅན་གྱིས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa rin chen dra ba can gyis zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Questions of Ratnajālin”
- Āryaratnajāliparipṛcchānāmamahāyānasūtra
The Questions of Ratnacandra
རིན་ཆེན་ཟླ་བས་ཞུས་པ། · rin chen zla bas zhus pa
Ratnacandraparipṛcchā
Summary
The Questions of Ratnacandra is a sūtra in which Ratnacandra, a prince from the country of Magadha, requests the Buddha Śākyamuni to reveal the names of the ten buddhas who dwell in the ten directions. Prince Ratnacandra has been told that hearing the names of these ten buddhas ensures that one will attain awakening at some point in the future. The Buddha confirms this and discloses their names, as well as details of their respective buddha realms, such as the names of these realms and their many unique qualities.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་རིན་ཆེན་ཟླ་བས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa rin chen zla bas zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- Āryaratnacandraparipṛcchānāmamahāyānasūtra
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Questions of Ratnacandra”
- rin chen zla bas zhus pa’i mdo/
- Ratnacandraparipṛcchā
The Question of Kṣemaṅkara
བདེ་བྱེད་ཀྱིས་ཞུས་པ། · bde byed kyis zhus pa/
Kṣemaṅkaraparipṛcchā
Summary
The Question of Kṣemaṅkara contains a teaching given by Buddha Śākyamuni to the Śākya youth Kṣemaṅkara, in response to a question he poses about the qualities of bodhisattvas and how to develop such qualities. The Buddha teaches him about bodhisattvas’ qualities, first in prose and later reiterated in verse, and then equates the teaching of this sūtra with the perfection of insight, stating that even if one practices the first five perfections for many eons, one will not make much progress without knowing what is taught in this sūtra.
Title variants
- ’phags pa bde byed kyis zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- འཕགས་པ་བདེ་བྱེད་ཀྱིས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- Āryakṣemaṅkaraparipṛcchānāmamahāyānasūtra
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Question of Kṣemaṅkara”
- bde byed kyis zhus pa’i mdo/
- Kṣemaṅkaraparipṛcchāsutra
The Questions of an Old Lady
བགྲེས་མོས་ཞུས་པ། · bgres mos zhus pa
Mahallikāparipṛcchā
Summary
This sūtra contains teachings given by the Buddha to a 120-year-old woman in the city of Vaiśalī. Upon meeting the Buddha, she asks him questions concerning the four stages of life, the aggregates, the elements and the faculties. In response, the Buddha gives her a profound teaching on emptiness, using beautifully crafted examples to illustrate his point.
After hearing these teachings her doubts are dispelled and she is freed from clinging to the perception of a self. Ānanda asks the Buddha why he has given such profound teachings to this woman. The Buddha reveals that the woman has been his mother five hundred times in previous lifetimes and that he had generated the root of virtue for her to become enlightened. Because of her own strong aspirations, after dying, she would be born in the buddha field of Sukhāvatī; and after sixty-eight thousand eons she would finally become the buddha Bodhyaṅgapuṣpakara.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་བགྲེས་མོས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa bgres mos zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Questions of an Old Lady”
- Āryamahallikāparipṛcchānāmamahāyānasūtra
The Inquiry of Lokadhara
འཇིག་རྟེན་འཛིན་གྱིས་ཡོངས་སུ་དྲིས་པ། · ’jig rten ’dzin gyis yongs su dris pa
Lokadharaparipṛcchā
Summary
In The Inquiry of Lokadhara, the bodhisattva Lokadhara asks the Buddha to explain the proper way for bodhisattvas to discern the characteristics of phenomena and employ that knowledge to attain awakening. In reply, the Buddha teaches at length how to understand the lack of inherent existence of phenomena. As part of the teaching, the Buddha explains in detail the nonexistence of the aggregates, the elements, the sense sources, dependently originated phenomena, the four applications of mindfulness, the five powers, the eightfold path of the noble ones, and mundane and transcendent phenomena, as well as conditioned and unconditioned phenomena.
Title variants
- ’phags pa ’jig rten ’dzin gyis yongs su dris pa zhes bya ba’i mdo
- Āryalokadharaparipṛcchānāmasūtra
- The Noble Sūtra “The Inquiry of Lokadhara”
- 持世所問經 · (大正藏:持世經)
- འཕགས་པ་འཇིག་རྟེན་འཛིན་གྱིས་ཡོངས་སུ་དྲིས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་མདོ།
The Teaching of Akṣayamati
བློ་གྲོས་མི་ཟད་པས་བསྟན་པ། · blo gros mi zad pas bstan pa
Akṣayamatinirdeśa
Summary
The bodhisatva Akṣayamati arrives in our world from the buddha field of the buddha Samantabhadra. In response to Śāriputra’s questions, Akṣayamati gives a discourse on the subject of imperishability. In all, Akṣayamati explains that there are eighty different aspects of the Dharma that are imperishable. When he has given this explanation, the Buddha praises it and declares it worthy of being spread by the countless bodhisatvas gathered there to listen.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་བློ་གྲོས་མི་ཟད་པས་བསྟན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa blo gros mi zad pas bstan pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Teaching of Akṣayamati”
- Āryākṣayamatinirdeśanāmamahāyānasūtra
- 總持善根經 (佛說華手經)
The Teaching of Vimalakīrti
དྲི་མེད་གྲགས་པས་བསྟན་པ། · dri med grags pas bstan pa
Vimalakīrtinirdeśa
Summary
While the Buddha is teaching outside the city of Vaiśālī, a notable householder in the city—the great bodhisattva Vimalakīrti—apparently falls sick. The Buddha asks his disciple and bodhisattva disciples to call on Vimalakīrti, but each of them relates previous encounters that have rendered them reluctant to face his penetrating scrutiny of their attitudes and activities. Only Mañjuśrī has the courage to pay him a visit, and in the conversations that ensue between Vimalakīrti, Mañjuśrī, and several other interlocutors, Vimalakīrti sets out an uncompromising and profound view of the Buddha’s teaching and the bodhisattva path, illustrated by various miraculous displays. Its masterful narrative structure, dramatic and sometimes humorous dialogue, and highly evolved presentation of teachings have made this sūtra one of the favorites of Mahāyāna literature.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་དྲི་མ་མེད་པར་གྲགས་པས་བསྟན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa dri ma med par grags pas bstan pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Teaching of Vimalakīrti”
- Āryavimalakīrtinirdeśanāmamahāyānasūtra
The Teaching on the Aids to Enlightenment
བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་ཕྱོགས་བསྟན་པ། · byang chub kyi phyogs bstan pa
Bodhipakṣanirdeśa
Summary
In response to a series of queries from Mañjuśrī, Buddha Śākyamuni first exposes the error that prevents sentient beings in general from transcending saṃsāra, and then focuses more particularly on errors that result from understanding the four truths of the noble ones based on conceptual notions of phenomena. He then goes on to explain how someone wishing to attain liberation should skillfully view the following five sets of qualities: (1) the four truths, (2) the four applications of mindfulness, (3) the eightfold path, (4) the five faculties, and (5) the seven branches of enlightenment.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་ཕྱོགས་བསྟན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa byang chub kyi phyogs bstan pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- Āryabodhipakṣanirdeśanāmamahāyānasūtra
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Teaching on the Aids to Enlightenment”
- 佛說大乘善見變化文殊師利問法經
Teaching the Relative and Ultimate Truths
ཀུན་རྫོབ་དང་དོན་དམ་པའི་བདེན་པ་བསྟན་པ། · kun rdzob dang don dam pa’i bden pa bstan pa
Saṃvṛtiparamārthasatyanirdeśa
Summary
In Teaching the Relative and Ultimate Truths, the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī is summoned by Buddha Śākyamuni from a faraway buddha realm to teach in a way that demolishes all dualistic experience. As Mañjuśrī begins to teach, the main message of the sūtra unfolds as an explanation of the two truths. The general theme of Mañjuśrī’s discourse is centered on the particular circumstances in Ratnaketu’s buddha realm, but the message is equally applicable to the experiences of beings here in this world.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་ཀུན་རྫོབ་དང་དོན་དམ་པའི་བདེན་པ་བསྟན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa kun rdzob dang don dam pa’i bden pa bstan pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “Teaching the Relative and Ultimate Truths”
- Āryasaṃvṛtiparamārthasatyanirdeśanāmamahāyānasūtra
The Perfection of Generosity
སྦྱིན་པའི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ། · sbyin pa’i pha rol tu phyin pa
Dānapāramitā
Summary
In this sūtra a bodhisattva asks the Buddha how bodhisattvas should exert themselves after having given rise to the mind set on awakening. The Buddha replies by describing the ten virtuous actions and the motivation that bodhisattvas should engender when they engage in those practices. Next, after explaining how they should exert themselves in the ten perfections, the Buddha presents a detailed explanation of the perfection of generosity, focusing on the compassionate motivation that bodhisattvas cultivate while practicing it. A particular feature of this sūtra is how it details the significance of making different kinds of offering, in terms of the spiritual attainments, qualities of awakening, and other benefits that will result.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་སྦྱིན་པའི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa sbyin pa’i pha rol tu phyin pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Perfection of Generosity”
- Āryadānapāramitānāmamahāyānasūtra
- ’phags pa sbyin pa’i pha rol tu phyin pa bstan pa
- sangs rgyas kyi chos thams cad kyi rgyan dang / spud pa dang / lhab lhub bkod pa
Teaching the Practice of a Bodhisattva
བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་སྤྱོད་པ་བསྟན་པ། · byang chub sems dpa’i spyod pa bstan pa
Bodhisattvacaryānirdeśa
Summary
This sūtra takes place in the city of Vaiśālī, where the Buddha Śākyamuni and his retinue of monks have gone to gather alms. When the Buddha enters Vaiśālī a number of miracles occur in the city, and these draw the attention of a three-year-old boy named Ratnadatta. As the child encounters the Buddha, a dialogue ensues with the monks Maudgalyāyana and Śāriputra and the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī, in which the boy delivers a teaching on the practice of bodhisattvas and a critique of those who fail to take up such practices.
Title variants
- bodhisattvacaryānirdeśasūtra
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “Teaching the Practice of a Bodhisattva”
- ’phags pa byang chub sems dpa’i spyod pa bstan pa shes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- Āryabodhisattvacaryānirdeśanāmamahāyānasūtra
- འཕགས་པ་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་སྤྱོད་པ་བསྟན་པ་ཤེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
Introduction to the Domain of the Inconceivable Qualities and Wisdom of the Tathāgatas
དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་ཡོན་ཏན་དང་ཡེ་ཤེས་བསམ་གྱིས་མི་ཁྱབ་པའི་ཡུལ་ལ་འཇུག་པ་བསྟན་པ། · de bzhin gshegs pa’i yon tan dang ye shes bsam gyis mi khyab pa’i yul la ’jug pa bstan pa
Tathāgataguṇajñānācintyaviṣayāvatāranirdeśa
Summary
In the Introduction to the Domain of the Inconceivable Qualities and Wisdom of the Tathāgatas, the bodhisattva Sarvanīvaraṇaviṣkambhin expounds at length on how the awakened activity of the buddhas spontaneously unfolds in a limitless variety of ways to benefit beings, in all their diversity, throughout the universe. He also describes the inestimable benefits a bodhisattva derives from following a virtuous spiritual friend.
Title variants
- ’phags pa de bzhin gshegs pa’i yon tan dang ye shes bsam gyis mi khyab pa’i yul la ’jug pa bstan pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “Introduction to the Domain of the Inconceivable Qualities and Wisdom of the Tathāgatas”
- Āryatathāgataguṇajñānācintyaviṣayāvatāranirdeśanāmamahāyānasūtra
- འཕགས་པ་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་ཡོན་ཏན་དང་ཡེ་ཤེས་བསམ་གྱིས་མི་ཁྱབ་པའི་ཡུལ་ལ་འཇུག་པ་བསྟན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- 大方广入如来智德不思议经
The Teaching on the Extraordinary Transformation that is the Miracle of Attaining the Buddha’s Powers
སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་སྟོབས་སྐྱེད་པའི་ཆོ་འཕྲུལ་རྣམ་པར་འཕྲུལ་པ་བསྟན་པ། · sangs rgyas kyi stobs skyed pa’i cho ’phrul rnam par ’phrul pa bstan pa
Buddhabalādhānaprātihāryavikurvāṇanirdeśa
Summary
In this sūtra, the Buddha displays supernatural powers three times. First, he magically transports his entire audience and retinue to Vārāṇasī. Secondly, having incited Avalokiteśvara and Vajrapāṇi to use their own miraculous powers to gather there all the beings who must be led to awakening, he makes the whole world appear as a pure realm like Sukhāvatī. He explains that a tathāgata’s various powers are like a doctor’s skills, and teaches, with Mañjuśrī’s help in a series of dialogues with other protagonists, on how the tathāgatas manifest to beings, displaying his supernatural powers a third time by making many other buddhas appear all around him. The meaning of the Tathāgata’s miracles are gradually disclosed to the audience, as well as some other essential points including the merit to be gained by honoring the teachings.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་སྟོབས་སྐྱེད་པའི་ཆོ་འཕྲུལ་རྣམ་པར་འཕྲུལ་པ་བསྟན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa sangs rgyas kyi stobs skyed pa’i cho ’phrul rnam par ’phrul pa bstan pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Sūtra of the Great Vehicle “The Teaching on the Extraordinary Transformation that is the Miracle of Attaining the Buddha’s Powers”
- Āryabuddhabalādhānaprātihāryavikurvāṇanirdeśanāmamahāyānasūtra
The Prophecy of Śrī Mahādevī
ལྷ་མོ་ཆེན་མོ་དཔལ་ལུང་བསྟན་པ། · lha mo chen mo dpal lung bstan pa
Śrīmahādevīvyākaraṇa
Summary
This sūtra recounts an event that took place in the buddha realm of Sukhāvatī. The discourse commences with Buddha Śākyamuni relating to Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara the benefits of reciting the various names of Śrī Mahādevī. The Buddha describes how Śrī Mahādevī acquired virtue and other spiritual accomplishments through the practice of venerating numerous tathāgatas and gives an account of the prophecy in which her future enlightenment was foretold by all the buddhas she venerated. The Buddha then lists the one hundred and eight blessed names of Śrī Mahādevī to be recited by the faithful. The sūtra ends with Buddha Śākyamuni giving a dhāraṇī and a brief explanation on the benefits of reciting the names of Śrī Mahādevī, namely the eradication of all negative circumstances and the accumulation of merit and happiness.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་ལྷ་མོ་ཆེན་མོ་དཔལ་ལུང་བསྟན་པ།
- ’phags pa lha mo chen mo dpal lung bstan pa
- The Noble Prophecy of Śrī Mahādevī
- Āryaśrīmahādevīvyākaraṇa
The Sūtra of the Inquiry of Jayamati
རྒྱལ་བའི་བློ་གྲོས་ཀྱིས་ཞུས་པའི་མདོ། · rgyal ba’i blo gros kyis zhus pa’i mdo
Jayamatiparipṛcchāsūtra
Summary
The sūtra is introduced with the Buddha residing in Anāthapiṇḍada’s grove in Jeta Wood in Śrāvastī together with a great assembly of monks and a great multitude of bodhisatvas. The Buddha then addresses the bodhisatva Jayamati, instructs him on nineteen moral prescriptions, and indicates the corresponding effects of practicing these prescriptions when they are cultivated.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་རྒྱལ་བའི་བློ་གྲོས་ཀྱིས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེ་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa rgyal ba’i blo gros kyis zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Inquiry of Jayamati”
- Āryajayamatiparipṛcchānāmamahāyānasūtra
The Dwelling Place of Mañjuśrī
འཇམ་དཔལ་གནས་པ། · ’jam dpal gnas pa
Mañjuśrīvihāra
Summary
The Dwelling Place of Mañjuśrī first presents a dialogue between Mañjuśrī and Śāriputra regarding the activity of “dwelling” (vihāra) during meditation, the nature of dharmas, and the “true nature” (tathatā). This opens into a conversation between Mañjuśrī and a large gathering of monks whereby Mañjuśrī corrects the monks’ misinterpretations. Mañjuśrī then instructs Śāriputra on the enduring and indestructible nature of the realm of sentient beings and the realm of reality. Finally, the power of Mañjuśrī’s teaching is explained and reiterated by the Buddha.
Title variants
- ’phags pa ’jam dpal gnas pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- འཕགས་པ་འཇམ་དཔལ་གནས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Dwelling Place of Mañjuśrī”
- Āryamañjuśrīvihāranāmamahāyānasūtra
- Chinese Title
The Nectar of Speech
བདུད་རྩི་བརྗོད་པ། · bdud rtsi brjod pa
Amṛtavyāharaṇa
Summary
In this sūtra, in answer to a question put by Maitreya, the Buddha Śākyamuni teaches five qualities that bodhisattvas should have in order to live a long life free of obstacles and attain awakening quickly: (1) giving the Dharma; (2) giving freedom from fear; (3) practicing great loving kindness, great compassion, great joy, and great equanimity; (4) repairing dilapidated stūpas; and (5) causing all beings to aspire to the mind of awakening. Maitreya praises the benefits of this teaching and vows to teach it himself in future degenerate times. Both Maitreya and the Buddha emphasize the positive effects on beings and the environment that upholding, preserving, and teaching The Nectar of Speech will bring about.
Title variants
- ’phags pa bdud rtsi brjod pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- འཕགས་པ་བདུད་རྩི་བརྗོད་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Nectar of Speech”
- Āryāmṛtavyāharaṇanāmamahāyānasūtra
- Ambrosial Speech
- Amṛtavyāharaṇa
The Strength of the Elephant
གླང་པོའི་རྩལ། · glang po’i rtsal
Hastikakṣya
Summary
This sūtra contains a Dharma discourse on the profound insight into the emptiness of all phenomena, also known as transcendent insight. Following a short teaching in verse by Śāriputra, the Buddha delivers the primary discourse at the behest of Ānanda and Mañjuśrī amid a vast assembly of monks, bodhisattvas, and lay devotees. He specifically addresses hearers and so-called “outcast bodhisattvas” who have not realized transcendent insight and who thus remain attached to phenomenal appearances. Responding to a series of questions posed by Mañjuśrī and Śāriputra, the Buddha explains that all phenomena are as empty as space, with nothing to be either affirmed or rejected. Yet that very emptiness is what makes everything possible, including the bodhisattvas’ altruistic activities.
Title variants
- glang po’i rtsal zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- གླང་པོའི་རྩལ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- Hastikakṣyanāmamahāyānasūtra
- The Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Strength of the Elephant”
The Rice Seedling
སཱ་ལུའི་ལྗང་པ། · sA lu’i ljang pa
Śālistamba
Summary
In this sūtra, at the request of venerable Śāriputra, the bodhisattva mahāsattva Maitreya elucidates a very brief teaching on dependent arising that the Buddha had given earlier that day while gazing at a rice seedling. The text discusses outer and inner causation and its conditions, describes in detail the twelvefold cycle by which inner dependent arising gives rise to successive lives, and explains how understanding the very nature of that process can lead to freedom from it.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་སཱ་ལུའི་ལྗང་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa sA lu’i ljang pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Rice Seedling”
- Āryaśālistambanāmamahāyānasūtra
Teaching the Fundamental Exposition and Detailed Analysis of Dependent Arising
རྟེན་ཅིང་འབྲེལ་བར་འབྱུང་བ་དང་པོ་དང་རྣམ་པར་དབྱེ་བ་བསྟན་པ། · rten cing ’brel bar ’byung ba dang po dang rnam par dbye ba bstan pa
Pratītyasamutpādādivibhaṅganirdeśa
Summary
In the Jeta Grove outside Śrāvastī, monks have gathered to listen to the Buddha as he presents the foundational doctrine of dependent arising. The Buddha first gives the definition of dependent arising and then teaches the twelve factors that form the causal chain of existence in saṃsāra as well as the defining characteristics of these twelve factors.
Title variants
- rten cing ’brel bar ’byung ba dang po dang rnam par dbye ba bstan pa zhes bya ba’i mdo
- རྟེན་ཅིང་འབྲེལ་བར་འབྱུང་བ་དང་པོ་དང་རྣམ་པར་དབྱེ་བ་བསྟན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་མདོ།
- Pratītyasamutpādādivibhaṅganirdeśanāmasūtra
- The Sūtra “Teaching the Fundamental Exposition and Detailed Analysis of Dependent Arising”
The Sūtra on Dependent Arising
རྟེན་ཅིང་འབྲེལ་བར་འབྱུང་བའི་མདོ། · rten cing ’brel bar ’byung ba’i mdo
Pratītyasamutpādasūtra
Summary
While the Buddha is residing in the Realm of the Thirty-Three Gods with a retinue of deities, great hearers, and bodhisattvas, Avalokiteśvara asks the Buddha how beings can gain merit from building a stūpa. The Buddha responds by stating the Buddhist creed on dependent arising:
The Buddha then explains that this dependent arising is the dharmakāya, and that whoever sees dependent arising sees the Buddha. He concludes the sūtra by saying that one should place these verses inside stūpas to attain the merit of Brahmā.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་རྟེན་ཅིང་འབྲེལ་བར་འབྱུང་བ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa rten cing ’brel bar ’byung ba zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra on Dependent Arising
- Āryapratītyasamutpādanāmamahāyānasūtra
Purification of Karmic Obscurations
ལས་ཀྱི་སྒྲིབ་པ་རྣམ་པར་དག་པ། · las kyi sgrib pa rnam par dag pa
Karmāvaraṇaviśuddhi
Summary
The Buddha is residing at Āmrapālī’s Grove in Vaiśālī, when Mañjuśrī brings before him the monk Stainless Light, who had been seduced by a prostitute and feels strong remorse for having violated his vows. After the monk confesses his wrongdoing, the Buddha explains the lack of inherent nature of all phenomena and the luminous nature of mind, and the monk Stainless Light gives rise to the mind of enlightenment. At Mañjuśrī’s request, the Buddha then explains how bodhisattvas purify obscurations by generating an altruistic mind and realizing the empty nature of all phenomena. He asks Mañjuśrī about his own attainment of patient forbearance in seeing all phenomena as non-arising and recounts the tale of the monk Vīradatta, who, many eons in the past, had engaged in a sexual affair with a girl and even killed a jealous rival before feeling strong remorse. Despite these negative actions, once the empty, non-existent nature of all phenomena had been explained to him by the bodhisattva Liberator from Fear, he was able to generate bodhicitta and attain patient forbearance in seeing all phenomena as non-arising. The Buddha explains that even a person who had enjoyed pleasures and murdered someone would be able to attain patient forbearance in seeing all phenomena as non-arising through practicing this sūtra, which he calls “the Dharma mirror of all phenomena.”
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་ལས་ཀྱི་སྒྲིབ་པ་རྣམ་པར་དག་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa las kyi sgrib pa rnam par dag pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “Purification of Karmic Obscurations”
- Āryakarmāvaraṇaviśuddhināmamahāyānasūtra
Taking Refuge in the Three Jewels
གསུམ་ལ་སྐྱབས་སུ་འགྲོ་བ། · gsum la skyabs su ’gro ba
Triśaraṇagamana
Summary
In Taking Refuge in the Three Jewels, the venerable Śāriputra wonders how much merit accrues to someone who takes refuge in the Three Jewels: the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṅgha. He therefore seeks out the Buddha Śākyamuni and requests a teaching on this topic. The Buddha proceeds to describe how even vast offerings, performed in miraculous ways, would not constitute a fraction of the merit gained by someone who takes refuge in the Three Jewels.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་གསུམ་ལ་སྐྱབས་སུ་འགྲོ་བ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa gsum la skyabs su ’gro ba zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “Taking Refuge in the Three Jewels”
- Āryatriśaraṇagamananāmamahāyānasūtra
The Jewel Cloud
དཀོན་མཆོག་སྤྲིན། · dkon mchog sprin
Ratnamegha
Summary
On Gayāśīrṣa Hill, Buddha Śākyamuni is visited by a great gathering of bodhisattvas who have traveled miraculously there from a distant world, to venerate him as one who has vowed to liberate beings in a world much more afflicted than their own. The visiting bodhisattvas are led by Sarvanīvaraṇaviṣkambhin, who asks the Buddha a series of searching questions. In response, the Buddha gives a detailed and systematic account of the practices, qualities, and nature of bodhisattvas, the stages of their path, their realization, and their activities. Many of the topics are structured into sets of ten aspects, expounded with reasoned explanations and illustrated with parables and analogies. This sūtra is said to have been one of the very first scriptures translated into Tibetan. Its doctrinal richness, profundity, and clarity are justly celebrated, and some of its key statements on meditation, the realization of emptiness, and the fundamental nature of the mind have been widely quoted in the Indian treatises and Tibetan commentarial literature.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་དཀོན་མཆོག་སྤྲིན་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa dkon mchog sprin ces bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Jewel Cloud”
- Āryaratnameghanāmamahāyānasūtra
- 寶雲經
- (大正藏:佛說除蓋障菩薩所問經)
Proper Dharma Conduct
ཆོས་ཀྱི་ཚུལ། · chos kyi tshul
Dharmanaya
Summary
Proper Dharma Conduct takes place in the Jeta Grove at Śrāvastī. Knowing that many bodhisattvas are wondering about proper Dharma conduct, the Buddha Śākyamuni gives a teaching on this topic to a great number of bodhisattvas. The teaching follows a format in which the Buddha first makes a short cryptic statement that seems to go against the conventions of proper behavior for bodhisattvas. The bodhisattvas then inquire as to the meaning of this statement, and the Buddha proceeds to explain how to interpret the initial statement in order to decipher the underlying meaning. Because of his teaching, many gods and bodhisattvas are able to make great progress on the path.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་ཚུལ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa chos kyi tshul zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “Proper Dharma Conduct”
- Āryadharmanayanāmamahāyānasūtra
The Sections of Dharma
ཆོས་ཀྱི་ཕུང་པོ། · chos kyi phung po
Dharmaskandha
Summary
In this sūtra some of Buddha Śākyamuni’s senior disciples request a teaching on the nature of “the sections of Dharma.” The Buddha responds by first delivering a teaching on the absence of birth with regard to phenomena, as an antidote to the poison of desire. On that basis, the Buddha then presents a longer explanation of the repulsiveness of the human body, and of the female body in particular.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་ཕུང་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa chos kyi phung po zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Sections of Dharma”
- Āryadharmaskandhanāmamahāyānasūtra
Distinguishing Phenomena and What Is Meaningful
ཆོས་དང་དོན་རྣམ་པར་འབྱེད་པ། · chos dang don rnam par ’byed pa
Dharmārthavibhaṅga
Summary
There are two main themes in Distinguishing Phenomena and What Is Meaningful. One is in the narrative structure: The Buddha Śākyamuni tells how, countless eons ago, in a world called Flower Origin, a buddha named Arisen from Flowers gave instructions to a royal family, and prophesied the awakening of the prince Ratnākara. Arisen from Flowers, the Buddha Śākyamuni then relates, has since become the buddha Amitābha, and the prince Ratnākara the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara. The other theme is doctrinal, and lies in the content of the teaching given by Arisen from Flowers: it explains the four mistakes made by ordinary beings in the way they perceive the five aggregates, and how bodhisattvas teach them how to clear away these misconceptions, so that they may be free of the sufferings that result.
Title variants
- ’phags pa chos dang don rnam par ’byed pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- Āryadharmārthavibhaṅganāmamahāyānasūtra
- འཕགས་པ་ཆོས་དང་དོན་རྣམ་པར་འབྱེད་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “Distinguishing Phenomena and What Is Meaningful”
- don dang chos rnam par ’byed pa/
- Dharmārthavibhaṅga
The Sūtra Teaching the Four Factors
ཆོས་བཞི་བསྟན་པའི་མདོ། · chos bzhi bstan pa’i mdo
Caturdharmanirdeśasūtra
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.
Title variants
- ’phags pa chos bzhi bstan pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- Āryacaturdharmanirdeśanāmamahāyānasūtra
- འཕགས་པ་ཆོས་བཞི་བསྟན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “Teaching the Four Factors”
The Fourfold Accomplishment
བཞི་པ་སྒྲུབ་པ། · bzhi pa sgrub pa
Catuṣkanirhāra
Summary
The Fourfold Accomplishment revolves around a dialogue between the god Śrībhadra and the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī that takes place in the Jeta Grove at Śrāvastī. At Śrībhadra’s request, Mañjuśrī recalls a teaching that he previously gave to Brahmā Śikhin on the practices of a bodhisattva. The teaching takes the form of a sequence of topics, each of which has four components.
Title variants
- ’phags pa bzhi pa sgrub pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- Āryacatuṣkanirhāranāmamahāyānasūtra
- bzhi pa sgrub pa’i mdo/
- Catuṣkanirhārasūtra
- འཕགས་པ་བཞི་པ་སྒྲུབ་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
The Ākāśagarbha Sūtra
ནམ་མཁའི་སྙིང་པོའི་མདོ། · nam mkha’i snying po’i mdo
Ākāśagarbhasūtra
Summary
While the Buddha is dwelling on Khalatika Mountain with his retinue, an amazing display of light appears, brought about by the bodhisattva Ākāśagarbha’s liberating activities. As he joins the gathering, Ākāśagarbha manifests another extraordinary display, and the Buddha, praising his inconceivable accomplishments and activities, explains how to invoke his blessings. He sets out the fundamental transgressions of rulers, ministers, śrāvakas, and beginner bodhisattvas, and, after explaining in detail how to conduct the rituals of purification, encourages those who have committed such transgressions to turn to Ākāśagarbha. When people pray to Ākāśagarbha, Ākāśagarbha adapts his manifestations to suit their needs, appearing to them while they are awake, in their dreams, or at the time of their death. In this way, Ākāśagarbha gradually leads them all along the path, helping them to purify their negative deeds, relieve their sufferings, fulfill their wishes, and eventually attain perfect enlightenment.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་ནམ་མཁའི་སྙིང་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa nam mkha’i snying po zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Mahāyāna Ākāśagarbha Sūtra
- Āryākāśagarbhanāmamahāyānasūtra
Calling Witness with a Hundred Prostrations
དཔང་སྐོང་ཕྱག་བརྒྱ་པ། · dpang skong phyag brgya pa
Summary
Calling Witness with a Hundred Prostrations is widely known as the first sūtra to arrive in Tibet, long before Tibet became a Buddhist nation, during the reign of the Tibetan King Lha Thothori Nyentsen. Written to be recited for personal practice, it opens with a hundred and eight prostrations and praises to the many buddhas of the ten directions and three times, to the twelve categories of scripture contained in the Tripiṭaka, to the bodhisattvas of the ten directions, and to the arhat disciples of the Buddha. After making offerings to them, confessing and purifying nonvirtue, and making the aspiration to perform virtuous actions in every life, the text includes recitations of the vows of refuge in the Three Jewels, and of generating the thought of enlightenment. The text concludes with a passage rejoicing in the virtues of the holy ones, a request for the buddhas to bestow a prophecy to achieve enlightenment, and the aspiration to pass from this life in a state of pure Dharma.
Title variants
- དཔང་སྐོང་ཕྱག་བརྒྱ་པ།
- dpang skong phyag brgya pa
The Seven Buddhas
སངས་རྒྱས་བདུན་པ། · sangs rgyas bdun pa
Saptabuddhaka
Summary
The Seven Buddhas opens with the Buddha Śākyamuni residing in an alpine forest on Mount Kailāsa with a saṅgha of monks and bodhisattvas. The Buddha notices that a monk in the forest has been possessed by a spirit, which prompts the bodhisattva Ākāśagarbha to request that the Buddha teach a spell to cure diseases and exorcise demonic spirits. The Buddha then emanates as the set of “seven successive buddhas,” each of whom transmits a dhāraṇī to Ākāśagarbha. Each of the seven buddhas then provides ritual instructions for using the dhāraṇī.
Title variants
- ’phags pa sangs rgyas bdun pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- འཕགས་པ་སངས་རྒྱས་བདུན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Seven Buddhas”
- Āryasaptabuddhakanāmamahāyānasūtra
The Eight Buddhas
སངས་རྒྱས་བརྒྱད་པ། · sangs rgyas brgyad pa
Aṣṭabuddhaka
Summary
While the Buddha is dwelling together with a great saṅgha of monks in Śrāvastī, at the garden of Anāthapiṇḍada in the Jeta Grove, the whole universe suddenly begins to shake. The sounds of innumerable cymbals are heard without their being played, and flowers fall, covering the entire Jeta Grove. The world becomes filled with golden light and golden lotuses appear, each lotus supporting a lion throne upon which appears the shining form of a buddha. Venerable Śāriputra arises from his seat, pays homage, and asks the Buddha about the causes and conditions for these thus-gone ones to appear. The Buddha then proceeds to describe in detail these buddhas, as well as their various realms and how beings can take birth in them.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་སངས་རྒྱས་བརྒྱད་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa sangs rgyas brgyad pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Eight Buddhas”
- Āryāṣṭabuddhakanāmamahāyānasūtra
The Twelve Buddhas
སངས་རྒྱས་བཅུ་གཉིས་པ། · sangs rgyas bcu gnyis pa
Dvādaśabuddhaka
Summary
The Twelve Buddhas opens at Rājagṛha with a dialogue between the Buddha Śākyamuni and the bodhisattva Maitreya about the eastern buddhafield of a buddha whose abbreviated name is King of Jewels. This buddha prophesies that when he passes into complete nirvāṇa, the bodhisattva Incomparable will take his place as a buddha whose abbreviated name is Victory Banner King. Śākyamuni then provides the names of the remaining ten tathāgatas, locating them in the ten directions surrounding Victory Banner King’s buddhafield Full of Pearls. After listing the full set of names of these twelve buddhas and their directional relationship to Victory Banner King, the Buddha Śākyamuni provides an accompanying mantra-dhāraṇī and closes with a set of thirty-seven verses outlining the benefits of remembering the names of these buddhas.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་སངས་རྒྱས་བཅུ་གཉིས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa sangs rgyas bcu gnyis pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Twelve Buddhas”
- Āryadvādaśabuddhakanāmamahāyānasūtra
The Sūtra on the Threefold Training
བསླབ་པ་གསུམ་གྱི་མདོ། · bslab pa gsum gyi mdo
Śikṣātrayasūtra
Summary
In The Sūtra on the Threefold Training, Buddha Śākyamuni briefly introduces the three elements or stages of the path, widely known as “the three trainings,” one by one in a specific order: discipline, meditative concentration, and wisdom. He teaches that training progressively in them constitutes the gradual path to awakening.
Title variants
- བསླབ་པ་གསུམ་གྱི་མདོ།
- bslab pa gsum gyi mdo
The Sūtra on the Three Bodies
སྐུ་གསུམ་པའི་མདོ། · sku gsum pa’i mdo
Trikāyasūtra
Summary
As the title suggests, this sūtra describes the three bodies of the Buddha. While the Buddha is dwelling on Vulture Peak in Rājgṛha, the Bodhisattva Kṣitigarbha asks whether the Tathāgata has a body, to which the Buddha replies that the Tathāgata has three bodies: a dharmakāya, a saṃbhogakāya, and a nirmāṇakāya. The Buddha goes on to describe what constitutes these three bodies and their associated meaning. The Buddha explains that the dharmakāya is like space, the saṃbhogakāya is like clouds, and the nirmāṇakāya is like rain. At the end of the Buddha’s elucidation, Kṣitigarbha expresses jubilation, and the Buddha declares that whoever upholds this Dharma teaching will obtain immeasurable merit.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་སྐུ་གསུམ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa sku gsum zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Three Bodies”
- Āryatrikāyanāmamahāyānasūtra
The Dedication “Fulfilling All Aspirations”
བསམ་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཡོངས་སུ་རྫོགས་པའི་ཡོངས་སུ་བསྔོ་བ། · bsam pa thams cad yongs su rdzogs pa’i yongs su bsngo ba
Summary
This text is a prayer of dedication, and is meant to be recited. Its structure partly reflects the liturgy of “seven branches” or “seven limbs,” a set of practices that serves as the basic structure of many Mahāyāna Buddhist prayers and rituals. In this instance, however, the text consists of two sections: the first is a detailed prayer of confession, and the second a prayer of rejoicing, requesting that the wheel of the Dharma be turned, beseeching the buddhas not to pass into nirvāṇa, and extensively dedicating the merit.
Title variants
- ’phags pa bsam pa thams cad yongs su rdzogs par byed pa zhes bya ba’i yongs su bsngo ba
- The Noble Dedication “Fulfilling All Aspirations”
- འཕགས་པ་བསམ་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཡོངས་སུ་རྫོགས་པར་བྱེད་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་ཡོངས་སུ་བསྔོ་བ།
The Dedication “Protecting All Beings”
འགྲོ་བ་ཡོངས་སུ་སྐྱོབ་པར་བྱེད་པའི་ཡོངས་སུ་བསྔོ་བ། · ’gro ba yongs su skyob par byed pa’i yongs su bsngo ba/
Summary
This text is a prayer of dedication that strongly resonates with the later Tibetan literature of mind training (blo sbyong). In addition to the classic element of dedication of merit to all beings, a substantial part of the text comprises a passage that enumerates the many faults, shortcomings, and afflictions that burden sentient beings, as well as the many possible attainments that they consequently may not have realized, and culminates in the wish that everything negative that would otherwise ripen for sentient beings may ripen instead for the reciter, so that all sentient beings may thus be liberated and purified.
Title variants
- ’phags pa ’gro ba thams cad yongs su skyob par byed pa zhes bya ba’i yongs su bsngo ba
- འཕགས་པ་འགྲོ་བ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཡོངས་སུ་སྐྱོབ་པར་བྱེད་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་ཡོངས་སུ་བསྔོ་བ།
- The Noble Dedication “Protecting All Beings”
The Application of Mindfulness of the Sacred Dharma
དམ་པའི་ཆོས་དྲན་པ་ཉེ་བར་གཞག་པ། · dam pa’i chos dran pa nye bar gzhag pa
Saddharmasmṛtyupasthāna
Summary
While on the way to Rājagṛha to collect alms, a group of newly ordained monks are approached by some non-Buddhists, who suggest that their doctrine is identical to that of the Buddha, since everyone agrees that misdeeds of body, speech, and mind are to be given up. The monks do not know how to reply, and when they later return to the brahmin town of Nālati, where the Buddha is residing, Śāradvatīputra therefore encourages them to seek clarification from the Blessed One himself. In response to the monks’ request, the Buddha delivers a comprehensive discourse on the effects of virtuous and unvirtuous actions, explaining these matters from the perspective of an adept practitioner of his teachings, who sees and understands all this through a process of personal discovery. As the teaching progresses, the Buddha presents an epic tour of the realm of desire—from the Hell of Ultimate Torment to the Heaven Free from Strife—all the while introducing the specific human actions and attitudes that cause the experience of such worlds and outlining the ways to remedy and transcend them. In the final section of the sūtra, which is presented as an individual scripture on its own, the focus is on mindfulness of the body and the ripening of karmic actions that is experienced among humans in particular.
Title variants
- ’phags pa dam pa’i chos dran pa nye bar gzhag pa
- The Noble Application of Mindfulness of the Sacred Dharma
- Āryasaddharmasmṛtyupasthāna
- 正法念處經
- dam chos dran pa nyer bzhag
- འཕགས་པ་དམ་པའི་ཆོས་དྲན་པ་ཉེ་བར་གཞག་པ།
The Gaṇḍī Sūtra
གཎ་ཌཱིའི་མདོ། · gaN DI’i mdo
Gaṇḍīsūtra
Summary
While the Buddha is dwelling in the Bamboo Grove monastery near Rājagṛha, together with a thousand monks and a host of bodhisattvas, King Prasenajit arises from his seat, bows at the Buddha’s feet, and asks him how to uphold the Dharma in his kingdom during times of conflict. In reply the Buddha instructs the king about the gaṇḍī, a wooden ritual instrument, and tells him how the sound of this instrument, used for Dharma practice in a temple or monastery, quells conflict and strife for all who hear it. He describes how to make, consecrate, and sound the gaṇḍī. He explains that the gaṇḍī symbolizes the Perfection of Insight and describes in detail the many benefits it confers.
The Sūtra on Reliance upon a Virtuous Spiritual Friend
དགེ་བའི་བཤེས་གཉེན་བསྟེན་པའི་མདོ། · dge ba’i bshes gnyen bsten pa’i mdo
Kalyāṇamitrasevanasūtra
Summary
Just prior to his passing away, Buddha Śākyamuni reminds his disciples of the importance of living with a qualified spiritual teacher. Ānanda, the Blessed One’s attendant, attempts to confirm his teacher’s statement, saying that a virtuous spiritual friend is indeed half of one’s spiritual life. Correcting his disciple’s understanding, the Buddha explains that a qualified guide is the whole of, rather than half of, the holy life, and that by relying upon a spiritual friend beings will be released from birth and attain liberation from all types of suffering.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་དགེ་བའི་བཤེས་གཉེན་བསྟེན་པའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa dge ba’i bshes gnyen bsten pa’i mdo
- The Noble Sūtra on Reliance upon a Virtuous Spiritual Friend
- Āryakalyāṇamitrasevanasūtra
Questions Regarding Death and Transmigration
ཚེ་འཕོ་བ་ཇི་ལྟར་འགྱུར་བ་ཞུས་པ། · tshe ’pho ba ji ltar ’gyur ba zhus pa
Āyuṣpattiyathākāraparipṛcchā
Summary
Questions Regarding Death and Transmigration contains explanations of Buddhist views on the nature of life and death, and a number of philosophical arguments against non-Buddhist conceptions, notably some based broadly on the Vedas. The sūtra is set in the town of Kapilavastu at the time of the funeral of a young man of the Śākya clan. King Śuddhodana wonders about the validity of the ritual offerings being made for the deceased by the family and asks the Buddha seven questions about current beliefs on death and the afterlife. The Buddha answers each of the questions in turn. After two interlocutors interrupt to test the Buddha’s omniscience, the discourse continues to present the Buddhist account of death and rebirth using a set of eight analogies, each of which complements the others in a detailed explanation.
Title variants
- ཚེ་འཕོ་བ་ཇི་ལྟར་འགྱུར་བ་ཞུས་པའི་མདོ།
- tshe ’pho ba ji ltar ’gyur ba zhus pa’i mdo
- The Sūtra of Questions Regarding Death and Transmigration
- Āyuṣpattiyathākāraparipṛcchāsūtra
- འཆི་འཕོ་བ་ཇི་ལྟར་འགྱུར་བ་བསྟན་པ།
- འཆི་འཕོ་བ་ཇི་ལྟར་འགྱུར་བ་ལུང་བསྟན་པ།
- ’chi ’pho ba ji ltar ’gyur ba’i bstan pa
- ’chi ’pho ba ji ltar ’gyur ba’i lung bstan pa
The Sūtra on Impermanence
མི་རྟག་པ་ཉིད་ཀྱི་མདོ། · mi rtag pa nyid kyi mdo
Anityatāsūtra
Summary
In this brief sūtra, the Buddha reminds his followers of one of the principal characteristics of saṃsāric existence: the reality of impermanence. The four things cherished most in this world, the Buddha says—namely good health, youth, prosperity, and life—are all impermanent. He closes his teaching with a verse, asking how beings, afflicted as they are by impermanence, can take delight in anything desirable, and indirectly urging his disciples to practice the path of liberation.
Title variants
- མི་རྟག་པ་ཉིད་ཀྱི་མདོ།
- mi rtag pa nyid kyi mdo
The Mahāsūtra “On Entering the City of Vaiśālī”
ཡངས་པའི་གྲོང་ཁྱེར་དུ་འཇུག་པའི་མདོ་ཆེན་པོ། · yangs pa’i grong khyer du ’jug pa’i mdo chen po
Vaiśālīpraveśamahāsūtra
Summary
Invited to visit the city of Vaiśālī, which has been ravaged by a terrible epidemic, the Buddha instructs Ānanda to stand at the city’s gate and recite a proclamation, a long mantra, and some verses that powerfully evoke spiritual well-being. Ānanda does so, and the epidemic comes to an end. One of the mahāsūtras related to the literature of the Vinaya, this text, like other accounts of the incident, has traditionally been recited during times of personal or collective illness, bereavement, and other difficulties.
Title variants
- ’phags pa yangs pa’i grong khyer du ’jug pa’i mdo chen po
- འཕགས་པ་ཡངས་པའི་གྲོང་ཁྱེར་དུ་འཇུག་པའི་མདོ་ཆེན་པོ།
- The Noble Mahāsūtra “On Entering the City of Vaiśālī”
- Āryavaiśālīpraveśamahāsūtra
The Verses of Nāga King Drum
ཀླུའི་རྒྱལ་པོ་རྔ་སྒྲའི་ཚིགས་སུ་བཅད་པ། · klu’i rgyal po rnga sgra’i tshigs su bcad pa
Nāgarājabherīgāthā
Summary
The Verses of Nāga King Drum contains the Buddha’s narration of a tale from one of his past lives as the nāga king Drum. While traveling with his younger brother Tambour, they come under verbal attack by another nāga named Drumbeat. Tambour’s anger at their mistreatment and desire for retaliation prompts Drum to counsel Tambour on the virtues of patience and nonviolence in the face of aggression and abusiveness. Through a series of didactic aphorisms, he advises his brother to meet disrespect and persecution with serenity, patience, compassion, and insight, in order to accomplish what is best for oneself and others. The Buddha now recounts King Drum’s wise counsel as a helpful instruction for his own followers.
The Sūtra on the Ringing Staff
འཁར་གསིལ་གྱི་མདོ། · ’khar gsil gyi mdo
Summary
In this short sūtra, the Buddha first instructs the monks to carry the ringing staff and then provides a brief introduction to its significance. In response to Venerable Mahākāśyapa’s queries, the Buddha gives a more detailed explanation of the attributes of the staff and the benefits that can be derived from holding it. In the course of his exposition, he also elucidates the rich symbolism of its parts, such as the four prongs and the twelve rings. Finally, the Buddha explains that while the ringing staff is carried by all buddhas of the past, present, and future, the number of prongs on the staff might vary.
Title variants
- ’phags pa ’khar gsil gyi mdo
- འཕགས་པ་འཁར་གསིལ་གྱི་མདོ།
- The Noble Sūtra on the Ringing Staff
The Rite for the Protocols Associated with Carrying the Ringing Staff
འཁར་གསིལ་འཆང་བའི་ཀུན་སྤྱོད་པའི་ཆོ་ག · ’khar gsil ’chang ba’i kun spyod pa’i cho ga
Summary
The Rite for the Protocols Associated with Carrying the Ringing Staff is a short text that deals with the practical matters relating to the use of the mendicant’s staff known in Sanskrit as a khakkhara, or “rattling staff.” It begins with a simple ritual during which a Buddhist monk ceremoniously takes up the ringing staff in front of his monastic teacher. The text then provides a list of twenty-five rules governing the proper use of the staff. The rules stipulate how a Buddhist monk should or should not handle it in his daily life, especially when he goes on alms rounds and when he travels.
The Sūtra of the Wheel of Dharma
ཆོས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོའི་མདོ། · chos kyi ’khor lo’i mdo
Dharmacakrasūtra
Summary
The Sūtra of the Wheel of Dharma contains the Buddha’s teaching to his five former spiritual companions on the four truths that he had discovered as part of his awakening: (1) suffering, (2) the origin of suffering, (3) the cessation of suffering, and (4) the path leading to the cessation of suffering. According to all the Buddhist traditions, this is the first teaching the Buddha gave to explain his awakened insight to others.
Title variants
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོའི་མདོ།
- chos kyi ’khor lo’i mdo
Exposition of Karma
ལས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་པར་འགྱུར་བ། · las kyi rnam par ’gyur ba
Karmavibhaṅga
Summary
In Exposition of Karma the Buddha is staying in Prince Jeta’s Grove in Śrāvastī, where he is visited by the brahmin youth Śuka, who asks the Blessed One to explain the reason why living beings appear so diversely. The Buddha answers Śuka’s question with a discourse on various categories of actions as well as rebirth and the actions leading to it. The discourse presents fifty-one categories of actions, followed by explanations of the negative consequences of transgressing the five precepts observed by all Buddhists, the advantages gained through caitya worship, and the meritorious results of specific acts of generosity.
Title variants
- las kyi rnam par ’gyur ba zhes bya ba’i chos kyi gzhung/ bam po gcig go
- The Dharma Scripture “Exposition of Karma” in one fascicle
- Karmavibhaṅganāmadharmagrantha
- las rnam par ’gyur ba chos kyi gzhung /
- Karmavibhaṅgadharmagrantha
- ལས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་པར་འགྱུར་བ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་ཆོས་ཀྱི་གཞུང་། བམ་པོ་གཅིག་གོ།
The Hundred Deeds
ལས་བརྒྱ་པ། · las brgya pa
Karmaśataka
Summary
The sūtra The Hundred Deeds, whose title could also be translated as The Hundred Karmas, is a collection of stories known as avadāna—a narrative genre widely represented in the Sanskrit Buddhist literature and its derivatives—comprising more than 120 individual texts. It includes narratives of Buddha Śākyamuni’s notable deeds and foundational teachings, the stories of other well-known Buddhist figures, and a variety of other tales featuring people from all walks of ancient Indian life and beings from all six realms of existence. The texts sometimes include stretches of verse. In the majority of the stories the Buddha’s purpose in recounting the past lives of one or more individuals is to make definitive statements about the karmic ripening of actions across multiple lifetimes, and the sūtra is perhaps the best known of the many works in the Kangyur on this theme.
Title variants
- las brgya tham pa
- 百业经
- Karmaśataka
- The Hundred Deeds
- ལས་བརྒྱ་ཐམ་པ།
The Account of the Noble Deeds of Puṇyabala
བསོད་ནམས་ཀྱི་སྟོབས་ཀྱི་རྟོགས་པ་བརྗོད་པ། · bsod nams kyi stobs kyi rtogs pa brjod pa
Puṇyabalāvadāna
Summary
In Śrāvastī, at Prince Jeta’s Grove, several elder monks in the Buddha’s assembly cannot agree on which human quality is most valuable and beneficial: beauty, diligence, artistry, or insight. They ask the Buddha, who replies that merit, which gives rise to all the qualities they have noted, is of most benefit to beings. To illustrate this point, he tells the story of a past life in which he was born as Puṇyabala, with four older brothers who were each named after their most prized quality: Rūpabala, Vīryavanta, Śilpavanta, and Prajñāvanta. In an ensuing contest to determine which quality produces the best outcomes in real life, Puṇyabala wins, and through his merit is granted dominion over much of the world. The Buddha then goes on to tell the story of his even earlier lifetime as Dyūtajaya, during which he developed the intention to attain buddhahood through the accumulation of merit.
The Account of the Noble Deeds of Śrīsena
དཔལ་གྱི་སྡེའི་རྟོགས་པ་བརྗོད་པ། · dpal gyi sde’i rtogs pa brjod pa
Śrīsenāvadāna
Summary
In this discourse, the Buddha Śākyamuni describes his past life as King Śrīsena of Ariṣṭa, a bodhisattva renowned for his unstinting generosity and spiritual resolve. In that life, a sage orders his disciple to ask King Śrīsena for his beautiful wife, Jayaprabhā. Out of compassion, King Śrīsena gives his wife to the disciple. Śakra, lord of the gods, then claims that King Śrīsena is also able to give away his own body. The other gods have doubts about this, so to prove his point, Śakra disguises himself as an old brahmin whose lower body has been eaten by a tiger, and then asks King Śrīsena to gift him his own lower body. With altruistic motivation, King Śrīsena agrees to the request and orders carpenters to saw him in half. He offers the bottom half to the brahmin, whose body is magically made whole again. King Śrīsena claims he has felt no regrets and by the power of his words, his own body is restored. During this ordeal, Śakra has kept the king alive and carefully monitored his reactions. Observing nothing but pure altruism, Śakra then confirms that the king is a true bodhisattva who is capable of the highest acts of generosity. With this past life story, the Buddha illustrates the kinds of personal sacrifice a bodhisattva will make to attain awakening, even when these go against the protestations of those closest to him.
Summary of Empowerment
Warning: Readers are reminded that according to Vajrayāna Buddhist tradition there are restrictions and commitments concerning tantra. Practitioners who are not sure if they should read this translation are advised to consult the authorities of their lineage. The responsibility for reading this text or sharing it with others who may or may not fulfill the requirements lies in the hands of readers.
དབང་མདོར་བསྟན་པ། · dbang mdor bstan pa
Sekoddeśa
Summary
The Summary of Empowerment is considered to be the only extant portion of the root text of the Kālacakratantra. According to the Buddhist tantric tradition, the Sekkodeśa was transmitted by the Buddha in his emanation as Kālacakra, to Sucandra, the first king of Śambhala. The text’s 174 verses cover a wide range of topics. After a short introduction to the eleven empowerments that constitute a gradual purification of the aggregates, body, speech, mind, and wisdom, the treatise turns to the so-called “sixfold yoga.” It begins by teaching meditation on emptiness via the contemplation of various signs, such as smoke or fireflies. Following the description of the control of winds and drops within the body’s channels and cakras, along with the signs of death and methods of cheating death, the text goes on to describe the three mudrās—karmamudrā, jñānamudrā, and mahāmudrā. After a concise criticism of cause and effect, the text concludes by describing six kinds of supernatural beings closely related to the Kālacakratantra, along with their respective families.
Title variants
- [Note: a section of the (lost) Kālacakra Mūlatantra]
Emergence from Sampuṭa
Warning: Readers are reminded that according to Vajrayāna Buddhist tradition there are restrictions and commitments concerning tantra. Practitioners who are not sure if they should read this translation are advised to consult the authorities of their lineage. The responsibility for reading this text or sharing it with others who may or may not fulfill the requirements lies in the hands of readers.
ཡང་དག་པར་སྦྱོར་བ། · yang dag par sbyor ba
Sampuṭodbhavaḥ
Summary
The tantra Emergence from Sampuṭa is an all-inclusive compendium of Buddhist theory and practice as taught in the two higher divisions of the Yoga class of tantras, the “higher” (uttara) and the “highest” (niruttara), or, following the popular Tibetan classification, the Father and the Mother tantras. Dating probably to the end of the tenth century, the bulk of the tantra consists of a variety of earlier material, stretching back in time and in the doxographical hierarchy to the Guhyasamāja, a text traditionally regarded as the first tantra in the Father group. Drawing from about sixteen well-known and important works, including the most seminal of the Father and Mother tantras, it serves as a digest of this entire group, treating virtually every aspect of advanced tantric theory and practice. It has thus always occupied a prominent position among canonical works of its class, remaining to this day a rich source of quotations for Tibetan exegetes.
Title variants
- ཡང་དག་པར་སྦྱོར་བ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་རྒྱུད་ཆེན་པོ།
- yang dag par sbyor ba zhes bya ba’i rgyud chen po
- The Foundation of All Tantras, the Great Sovereign Compendium “Emergence from Sampuṭa”
- Saṃpuṭodbhavasarvatantranidānamahākalparājaḥ
- 大續「正相合」
The Glorious King of Tantras That Resolves All Secrets
Warning: Readers are reminded that according to Vajrayāna Buddhist tradition there are restrictions and commitments concerning tantra. Practitioners who are not sure if they should read this translation are advised to consult the authorities of their lineage. The responsibility for reading this text or sharing it with others who may or may not fulfill the requirements lies in the hands of readers.
དཔལ་གསང་བ་ཐམས་ཅད་གཅོད་པའི་རྒྱུད་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ། · dpal gsang ba thams cad gcod pa’i rgyud kyi rgyal po
Śrīguhyasarvacchindatantrarāja
Summary
As its title suggests, this tantra is specifically concerned with the proper interpretation, or “resolution,” of the highly esoteric or “secret” imagery and practices associated with deity yoga in both its development and completion stages as described in the Yoginītantra class of tantras. The work is organized according to a dialogue between the Buddha and Vajragarbha—the lead interlocutor throughout many of the Yoginītantras—and the Buddha’s responses give particular attention to the specifications of the subtle body completion-stage yoga involving manipulations of the body’s subtle energy channels, winds and fluids in conjunction with either a real or imagined consort. The tantra sets its interpretation of these common Yoginītantra themes and imagery within the wider context of the four initiations prevalent in this class of tantras. In resolving the secrets connected with each initiation, the text elaborates the different levels of meaning connected with each initiation’s contemplative practices.
Title variants
- གསང་བ་ཐམས་ཅད་གཅོད་པའི་རྒྱུད།
- gsang ba thams cad gcod pa’i rgyud
- The Tantra That Resolves All Secrets
- Guhyasarvacchindatantra
The Mahāmāyā Tantra
Warning: Readers are reminded that according to Vajrayāna Buddhist tradition there are restrictions and commitments concerning tantra. Practitioners who are not sure if they should read this translation are advised to consult the authorities of their lineage. The responsibility for reading this text or sharing it with others who may or may not fulfill the requirements lies in the hands of readers.
སྒྱུ་འཕྲུལ་ཆེན་མོའི་རྒྱུད། · sgyu ’phrul chen mo’i rgyud
Mahāmāyātantra
Summary
The Mahāmāyātantra, named after its principal deity Mahāmāyā, is a tantra of the Yoginītantra class in which Mahāmāyā presides over a maṇḍala populated primarily by yoginīs and ḍākinīs. The practitioner engages the antinomian power of these beings through a threefold system of yoga involving the visualization of the maṇḍala deities, the recitation of their mantras, and the direct experience of absolute reality. As well as practices involving the manipulation of the body’s subtle energies, the Mahāmāyātantra incorporates the transgressive practices that are the hallmark of the earlier tantric systems such as the Guhyasamājatantra, specifically the ingestion of sexual fluids and other polluting substances. The tantra promises the grace of Mahāmāyā in the form of mundane and transcendent spiritual attainments to those who approach it with diligence and devotion.
Title variants
- དཔལ་སྒྱུ་འཕྲུལ་ཆེན་མོའི་རྒྱུད་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ།
- dpal sgyu ’phrul chen mo’i rgyud kyi rgyal po
- The King of Tantras, the Glorious Mahāmāyā
- Śrīmahāmāyātantrarājanāma
The Tantra of Caṇḍamahāroṣaṇa
Warning: Readers are reminded that according to Vajrayāna Buddhist tradition there are restrictions and commitments concerning tantra. Practitioners who are not sure if they should read this translation are advised to consult the authorities of their lineage. The responsibility for reading this text or sharing it with others who may or may not fulfill the requirements lies in the hands of readers.
ཁྲོ་བོ་ཆེན་པོའི་རྒྱུད། · khro bo chen po’i rgyud
Caṇḍamahāroṣaṇatantram
Summary
Written around the tenth or the eleventh century ᴄᴇ, in the late Mantrayāna period, The Tantra of Caṇḍamahāroṣaṇa represents the flowering of the Yoginītantra genre. The tantra offers instructions on how to attain the wisdom state of Buddha Caṇḍamahāroṣaṇa through the practice of the four joys. The tantra covers a range of practices and philosophical perspectives of late tantric Buddhism, including the development stage, the completion stage, the use of mantras, and a number of magical rites and rituals. The text is quite unique with its tribute to and apotheosis of women and, in this regard, probably has few parallels anywhere else in world literature. It is written in the spirit of great sincerity and devotion, and it is this very spirit that mitigates, and at the same time empowers, the text’s stark imagery and sometimes shocking practices. This text certainly calls for an open mind.
Title variants
- དཔལ་གཏུམ་པོ་ཁྲོ་བོ་ཆེན་པོའི་རྒྱུད་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ་དཔའ་བོ་གཅིག་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ།
- dpal gtum po khro bo chen po’i rgyud kyi rgyal po dpa’ bo gcig pa zhes bya ba
- The Glorious Caṇḍamahāroṣaṇa Tantra “The Sole Hero”
- Ekallavīrākhyaśrīcaṇḍamahāroṣaṇatantram
- 大忿怒續
The Practice Manual of Noble Tārā Kurukullā
Warning: Readers are reminded that according to Vajrayāna Buddhist tradition there are restrictions and commitments concerning tantra. Practitioners who are not sure if they should read this translation are advised to consult the authorities of their lineage. The responsibility for reading this text or sharing it with others who may or may not fulfill the requirements lies in the hands of readers.
འཕགས་མ་སྒྲོལ་མ་ཀུ་རུ་ཀུལླེའི་རྟོག་པ། · ’phags ma sgrol ma ku ru kul+le’i rtog pa
Āryatārākurukullākalpa
Summary
The Practice Manual of Noble Tārā Kurukullā is the most comprehensive single work on the female Buddhist deity Kurukullā. It is also the only canonical scripture to focus on this deity. The text’s importance is therefore commensurate with the importance of the goddess herself, who is the chief Buddhist deity of magnetizing, in particular the magnetizing which takes the form of enthrallment.
The text is a treasury of ritual practices connected with enthrallment and similar magical acts—practices which range from formal sādhana to traditional homa ritual, and to magical methods involving herbs, minerals, etc. The text’s varied contents are presented as a multi-layered blend of the apotropaic and the soteriological, as well as the practical and the philosophical, where these complementary opposites combine together into a genuinely spiritual Buddhist work.
Title variants
- ཀུ་རུ་ཀུལླེའི་རྟོག་པ།
- ku ru kul+le’i rtog pa
- The Practice Manual of Kurukullā
- Kurukullākalpa
Praise to Tārā with Twenty-One Verses of Homage
སྒྲོལ་མ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ཉི་ཤུ་རྩ་གཅིག་གིས་བསྟོད་པ། · sgrol ma la phyag ’tshal nyi shu rtsa gcig gis bstod pa
Namastāraikaviṃśatistotra
Summary
Praise to Tārā with Twenty-One Verses of Homage is a liturgy that consists of twenty-seven verses of praise and reverence dedicated to the deity Tārā. The first twenty-one verses are at once a series of homages to the twenty-one forms of Tārā and a poetic description of her physical features, postures, and qualities. The remaining six verses describe how and when the praise should be recited and the benefits of its recitation.
Title variants
- sgrol ma la phyag ’tshal nyi shu rtsa gcig gis bstod pa phan yon dang bcas pa
- སྒྲོལ་མ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ཉི་ཤུ་རྩ་གཅིག་གིས་བསྟོད་པ་ཕན་ཡོན་དང་བཅས་པ།
- Praise to Tārā with Twenty-One Verses of Homage and Their Benefits
- Namastāraikaviṃśatistotraguṇahitasahita
- Chinese Title
- Tārānamaskāraikaviṃśatistotra
The Tantra of the Blue-Clad Blessed Vajrapāṇi
Warning: Readers are reminded that according to Vajrayāna Buddhist tradition there are restrictions and commitments concerning tantra. Practitioners who are not sure if they should read this translation are advised to consult the authorities of their lineage. The responsibility for reading this text or sharing it with others who may or may not fulfill the requirements lies in the hands of readers.
བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་ཕྱག་ན་རྡོ་རྗེ་གོས་སྔོན་པོ་ཅན་གྱི་རྒྱུད། · bcom ldan ’das phyag na rdo rje gos sngon po can gyi rgyud
Bhagavannīlāmbaradharavajrapāṇitantra
Summary
In the Kangyur and Tengyur collections there are more than forty titles centered on the form of Vajrapāṇi known as the “Blue-Clad One,” a measure of this figure’s great popularity in both India and Tibet. This text, The Tantra of the Blue-Clad Blessed Vajrapāṇi, is a scripture that belongs to the Conduct tantra (Caryātantra) class, the third of the four categories used by the Tibetans to organize their tantric canon. It introduces the practice of Blue-Clad Vajrapāṇi, while also providing the practitioner with a number of rituals directed at suppressing, subduing, or eliminating ritual targets.
Title variants
- བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་ཕྱག་ན་རྡོ་རྗེ་གོས་སྔོན་པོ་ཅན་གྱི་རྒྱུད་ཅེས་བྱ་བ།
- bcom ldan ’das phyag na rdo rje gos sngon po can gyi rgyud ces bya ba
- The Tantra of the Blue-Clad Blessed Vajrapāṇi
- Bhagavannīlāmbaradharavajrapāṇitantranāma
The Detailed Account of the Previous Aspirations of the Seven Thus-Gone Ones
དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ་བདུན་གྱི་སྔོན་གྱི་སྨོན་ལམ་གྱི་ཁྱད་པར་རྒྱས་པ། · de bzhin gshegs pa bdun gyi sngon gyi smon lam gyi khyad par rgyas pa
Saptatathāgatapūrvapraṇidhānaviśeṣavistāra
Summary
The Detailed Account of the Previous Aspirations of the Seven Thus-Gone Ones opens in Vaiśālī, where the Buddha Śākyamuni is seated with a saṅgha of eight thousand monks, thirty-six thousand bodhisattvas, and a large gathering of gods, spirit beings, and humans. As Śākyamuni concludes his teaching, the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī rises from his seat and requests that the Buddha give a Dharma teaching that will benefit all the human and nonhuman beings who are present in the assembly. Specifically, he asks Śākyamuni to teach them about the previous aspirations of seven buddhas, their buddhafields, and the benefits that those buddhas can bring to beings who live in the final five hundred years, when the holy Dharma is on the verge of disappearing. Śākyamuni agrees to this request and proceeds to give a detailed account of the previous aspirations of those seven buddhas to benefit beings who are veiled by karmic obscurations, tormented by illnesses, and plagued by mental anguish and suffering.
Title variants
- The Noble Great Vehicle Discourse “The Detailed Account of the Previous Aspirations of the Seven Thus-Gone Ones”
- Āryasaptatathāgatapūrvapraṇidhānaviśeṣavistāranāma mahāyānasūtra
- ’phags pa de bzhin gshegs pa bdun gyi sngon gyi smon lam gyi khyad par rgyas pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- de bzhin gshegs pa bdun gyi sngon gyi smon lam gyi khyad par rgyas pa'i mdo/
- saptatathāgatapūrvapraṇidhānaviśeṣavistārasūtra
- 藥師琉璃光七佛本願功德經
- de bzhin gshegs pa dgra bcom pa yang dag par rdzogs pa’i sangs rgyas bdun gyi sngon gyi smon lam gyi khyad par rgyas pa
- The Detailed Account of the Previous Aspirations of the Seven Thus-Gone, Worthy, and Perfect Buddhas
- byang chub sems dpa’ lag na rdo rjes dam bcas pa
- The Bodhisattva Vajrapāṇi’s Vow
- las kyi sgrib pa thams cad rnam par sbyong re ba thams cad yongs su skong ba
- Purifying All Karmic Obscurations and Fulfilling All Hopes
- gnod sbyin gyi sde dpon chen po bcu gnyis kyis dam bcas pa
- The Vows of the Twelve Great Yakṣa Generals
- འཕགས་པ་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ་བདུན་གྱི་སྔོན་གྱི་སྨོན་ལམ་གྱི་ཁྱད་པར་རྒྱས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
The Detailed Account of the Previous Aspirations of the Blessed Bhaiṣajyaguruvaiḍūryaprabha
བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་སྨན་གྱི་བླ་བཻ་ཌུརྱའི་འོད་གྱི་སྨོན་ལམ་གྱི་ཁྱད་པར་རྒྱས་པ། · bcom ldan ’das sman gyi bla bai Dur+ya’i ’od gyi smon lam gyi khyad par rgyas pa
Bhagavānbhaiṣajyaguruvaiḍūryaprabhasya pūrvapraṇidhānaviśeṣavistāra
Summary
The Detailed Account of the Previous Aspirations of the Blessed Bhaiṣajyaguruvaiḍūryaprabha centers on the figure commonly known as the Medicine Buddha. The text opens in Vaiśālī, where the Buddha Śākyamuni is seated with a large retinue of human and divine beings. The bodhisattva Mañjuśrī asks Śākyamuni to teach the names and previous aspirations of the buddhas, along with the benefit that buddhas can bring during future times when the Dharma has nearly disappeared. The Buddha gives a teaching on the name and previous aspirations of the Buddha Bhaiṣajyaguruvaiḍūryaprabha, and then details the benefits that arise from hearing and retaining this buddha’s name.
Title variants
- ’phags pa bcom ldan ’das sman gyi bla bai Dur+ya’i ’od gyi smon lam gyi khyad par rgyas pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- Āryabhagavānbhaiṣajyaguruvaiḍūryaprabhasya pūrvapraṇidhānaviśeṣavistāranāmamahāyānasūtra
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Detailed Account of the Previous Aspirations of the Blessed Bhaiṣajyaguruvaiḍūryaprabha”
- འཕགས་པ་བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་སྨན་གྱི་བླ་བཻ་ཌུརྱའི་འོད་གྱི་སྨོན་ལམ་གྱི་ཁྱད་པར་རྒྱས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- 藥師琉璃光如來本願功德經
- sman mdo chung ba/
- The Shorter Medicine Buddha Sūtra
The Twelve Buddhas
སངས་རྒྱས་བཅུ་གཉིས་པ། · sangs rgyas bcu gnyis pa
Dvādaśabuddhaka
Summary
The Twelve Buddhas opens at Rājagṛha with a dialogue between the Buddha Śākyamuni and the bodhisattva Maitreya about the eastern buddhafield of a buddha whose abbreviated name is King of Jewels. This buddha prophesies that when he passes into complete nirvāṇa, the bodhisattva Incomparable will take his place as a buddha whose abbreviated name is Victory Banner King. Śākyamuni then provides the names of the remaining ten tathāgatas, locating them in the ten directions surrounding Victory Banner King’s buddhafield Full of Pearls. After listing the full set of names of these twelve buddhas and their directional relationship to Victory Banner King, the Buddha Śākyamuni provides an accompanying mantra-dhāraṇī and closes with a set of thirty-seven verses outlining the benefits of remembering the names of these buddhas.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་སངས་རྒྱས་བཅུ་གཉིས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa sangs rgyas bcu gnyis pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Twelve Buddhas”
- Āryadvādaśabuddhakanāmamahāyānasūtra
The Seven Buddhas
སངས་རྒྱས་བདུན་པ། · sangs rgyas bdun pa
Saptabuddhaka
Summary
The Seven Buddhas opens with the Buddha Śākyamuni residing in an alpine forest on Mount Kailāsa with a saṅgha of monks and bodhisattvas. The Buddha notices that a monk in the forest has been possessed by a spirit, which prompts the bodhisattva Ākāśagarbha to request that the Buddha teach a spell to cure diseases and exorcise demonic spirits. The Buddha then emanates as the set of “seven successive buddhas,” each of whom transmits a dhāraṇī to Ākāśagarbha. Each of the seven buddhas then provides ritual instructions for using the dhāraṇī.
Title variants
- ’phags pa sangs rgyas bdun pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- འཕགས་པ་སངས་རྒྱས་བདུན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Seven Buddhas”
- Āryasaptabuddhakanāmamahāyānasūtra
The Discourse of the Dhāraṇī of the Buddha’s Essence
སངས་རྒྱས་སྙིང་པོའི་གཟུངས་ཀྱི་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་གྲངས། · sangs rgyas snying po’i gzungs kyi chos kyi rnam grangs
Buddhahṛdayadhāraṇīdharmaparyāya
Summary
The Discourse of the Dhāraṇī of the Buddha’s Essence is a short work in which the Buddha Śākyamuni, addressing an immense gathering of bodhisattvas, teaches two dhāraṇīs to be recited as a complement to the practice of recollecting the Buddha, and then explains the beneficial results of reciting them. The significance of the teaching is marked by miraculous signs, and by the gods offering flowers and ornaments. The text also provides a set of correspondences between the eight ornaments offered by the gods and eight qualities that ornament bodhisattvas.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་སྙིང་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་གཟུངས་ཀྱི་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་གྲངས།
- ’phags pa sangs rgyas kyi snying po zhes bya ba’i gzungs kyi chos kyi rnam grangs
- The Noble Discourse of the Dhāraṇī of the Buddha’s Essence
- Āryabuddhahṛdayanāmadhāraṇīdharmaparyāya
The Dhāraṇī of the Buddha’s Essence
སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་སྙིང་པོའི་གཟུངས། · sangs rgyas kyi snying po’i gzungs
Buddhahṛdayadhāraṇī
Summary
The Dhāraṇī of the Buddha’s Essence is structured as a dialogue between the Buddha and a retinue of gods from the Śuddhāvāsa realm. The dialogue revolves around the Buddha’s parinirvāṇa and the role that the gods of Śuddhāvāsa can play in continuing to guide beings in his absence until the next tathāgata appears in the world. The Dhāraṇī of the Buddha’s Essence is then introduced as the specific instruction that the gods of Śuddhāvāsa should preserve and propagate after Śākyamuni has departed. The Buddha then provides a list of benefits that members of the saṅgha can accrue by reciting this dhāraṇī.
Title variants
- ’phags pa sangs rgyas kyi snying po zhes bya ba’i gzungs
- Āryabuddhahṛdayanāmadhāraṇī
- འཕགས་པ་སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་སྙིང་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་གཟུངས།
- The Noble Dhāraṇī of the Buddha’s Essence
The Sūtra on Dependent Arising
རྟེན་ཅིང་འབྲེལ་བར་འབྱུང་བའི་མདོ། · rten cing ’brel bar ’byung ba’i mdo
Pratītyasamutpādasūtra
Summary
While the Buddha is residing in the Realm of the Thirty-Three Gods with a retinue of deities, great hearers, and bodhisattvas, Avalokiteśvara asks the Buddha how beings can gain merit from building a stūpa. The Buddha responds by stating the Buddhist creed on dependent arising:
The Buddha then explains that this dependent arising is the dharmakāya, and that whoever sees dependent arising sees the Buddha. He concludes the sūtra by saying that one should place these verses inside stūpas to attain the merit of Brahmā.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་རྟེན་ཅིང་འབྲེལ་བར་འབྱུང་བ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa rten cing ’brel bar ’byung ba zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra on Dependent Arising
- Āryapratītyasamutpādanāmamahāyānasūtra
The Dhāraṇī of the Tathāgata Jñānolka
ཡེ་ཤེས་ཏ་ལ་ལའི་གཟུངས། · ye shes ta la la’i gzungs
Jñānolkadhāraṇī
Summary
The Dhāraṇī of the Tathāgata Jñānolka opens with a description of a group of four tathāgatas and four bodhisattvas, who are seated in the celestial palace of the Sun and the Moon. The deities of the Sun and Moon return to their celestial palace from elsewhere and, seeing these tathāgatas and bodhisattvas, both wonder whether they might obtain a dhāraṇī that would allow them to dispel the darkness and shine a light upon all beings. The tathāgatas, perceiving the thoughts of the Sun and Moon, provide them with the first dhāraṇī in the text. The bodhisattva Samantabhadra then provides a second dhāraṇī and instructs the deities of the Sun and Moon to use it to free beings who are bound for rebirth in the lower realms—even those who have been born in the darkest depths of the Avīci hell.
Title variants
- ’phags pa ye shes ta la la zhes bya’i gzungs ’gro ba thams cad yongs su sbyong ba
- Āryajñānolkanāmadhāraṇīsarvagatipariśodhanī
- The Noble Dhāraṇī of the Tathāgata Jñānolka that Purifies All Rebirths
- འཕགས་པ་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཏ་ལ་ལ་ཞེས་བྱའི་གཟུངས་འགྲོ་བ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཡོངས་སུ་སྦྱོང་བ།
The King of the Array of All Dharma Qualities
ཆོས་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི་ཡོན་ཏན་བཀོད་པའི་རྒྱལ་པོ། · chos thams cad kyi yon tan bkod pa’i rgyal po
Sarvadharmaguṇavyūharāja
Summary
The events recounted in The King of the Array of All Dharma Qualities take place outside Rājagṛha, where the Buddha is residing in the Bamboo Grove together with a great assembly of monks, bodhisattvas, and other human and non-human beings. At the request of the bodhisattvas Vajrapāṇi and Avalokiteśvara, the Buddha teaches his audience on a selection of brief but disparate topics belonging to the general Mahāyāna tradition: how to search for a spiritual friend and live in solitude, the benefits of venerating Avalokiteśvara’s name, the obstacles that Māra may create for practitioners, and warnings on how easy it is to lose one’s determination to be free from saṃsāra. The sūtra also includes two dhāraṇīs that the Buddha and Vajrapāṇi teach in turn, along with details of their benefits and Vajrapāṇi’s ritual recitation instructions. Throughout the text, the Buddha repeatedly insists on the importance and benefits of venerating and propagating this teaching as well as those who teach it.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་ཆོས་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི་ཡོན་ཏན་བཀོད་པའི་རྒྱལ་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa chos thams cad kyi yon tan bkod pa’i rgyal po zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The King of the Array of All Dharma Qualities”
- Āryasarvadharmaguṇavyūharājanāmamahāyānasūtra
- Sarvadharmaguṇavyūharājasūtra
- chos kyi yon tan bkod pa’i rgyal po’i mdo/
The Root Manual of the Rites of Mañjuśrī
འཇམ་དཔལ་གྱི་རྩ་བའི་རྒྱུད། · ’jam dpal gyi rtsa ba’i rgyud
Mañjuśrīmūlakalpa
Summary
The Mañjuśrīmūlakalpa is the largest and most important single text devoted to Mañjuśrī, the bodhisattva of wisdom. A revealed scripture, it is, by its own classification, both a Mahāyāna sūtra and a Mantrayāna kalpa (manual of rites). Because of its ritual content, it was later classified as a Kriyā tantra and assigned, based on the hierarchy of its deities, to the Tathāgata subdivision of this class. The Sanskrit text as we know it today was probably compiled throughout the eighth century ᴄᴇ and several centuries thereafter. What makes this text special is that, unlike most other Kriyā tantras, it not only describes the ritual procedures, but also explains them in terms of general Buddhist philosophy, Mahāyāna ethics, and the esoteric principles of the early Mantrayāna (later called Vajrayāna), with an emphasis on their soteriological aims.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་འཇམ་དཔལ་གྱི་རྩ་བའི་རྒྱུད།
- ’phags pa ’jam dpal gyi rtsa ba’i rgyud
- The Noble Root Manual of the Rites of Mañjuśrī
- Āryamañjuśrīmūlakalpa
- ’jam dpal rtsa rgyud
- Mañjuśrīmūlatantra
- The Root Tantra of Mañjuśrī
- ’phags pa ’jam dpal gyi rtsa ba’i rgyud
- Āryamañjuśrīmūlatantra
- Āryamañjuśriyamūlakalpa
- 大方廣菩薩文殊師利根本儀軌經
The Tantra of Siddhaikavīra
Warning: Readers are reminded that according to Vajrayāna Buddhist tradition there are restrictions and commitments concerning tantra. Practitioners who are not sure if they should read this translation are advised to consult the authorities of their lineage. The responsibility for reading this text or sharing it with others who may or may not fulfill the requirements lies in the hands of readers.
དཔའ་བོ་གཅིག་པུ་གྲུབ་པའི་རྒྱུད། · dpa’ bo gcig pu grub pa’i rgyud
Siddhaikavīratantram
Summary
The Tantra of Siddhaikavīra is a tantra of ritual and magic. It is a relatively short text extant in numerous Sanskrit manuscripts and in Tibetan translation. Although its precise date is difficult to establish, it is arguably the first text to introduce into the Buddhist pantheon the deity Siddhaikavīra—a white, two-armed form of Mañjuśrī. The tantra is primarily structured around fifty-five mantras, which are collectively introduced by a statement promising all mundane and supramundane attainments, including the ten bodhisattva levels, to a devotee who employs the Siddhaikavīra and, presumably, other Mañjuśrī mantras. Such a devotee is said to become a wish-fulfilling gem, constantly engaged in benefitting beings. Most of the mantras have their own section that includes a description of the rituals for which the mantra is prescribed and a brief description of their effects. This being a tantra of the Kriyā class, the overwhelming majority of its mantras are meant for use in rites of prosperity and wellbeing.
Title variants
- དཔའ་བོ་གཅིག་པུ་གྲུབ་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་རྒྱུད་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ་ཆེན་པོ།
- dpa’ bo gcig pu grub pa zhes bya ba’i rgyud kyi rgyal po chen po
- The Great Sovereign Tantra of Siddhaikavīra
- Siddhaikavīramahātantrarājaḥ
Destroyer of the Great Trichiliocosm
སྟོང་ཆེན་མོ་རབ་ཏུ་འཇོམས་པ། · stong chen mo rab tu ’joms pa
Mahāsāhasrapramardanī
Summary
Destroyer of the Great Trichiliocosm is one of five texts that together constitute the Pañcarakṣā scriptural collection, popular for centuries as an important facet of Mahāyāna-Vajrayāna Buddhism’s traditional approach to personal and communal misfortunes of all kinds. Destroyer of the Great Trichiliocosm primarily addresses illnesses caused by spirit entities thought to devour the vitality of humans and animals. The text describes them as belonging to four different subspecies, presided over by the four great kings, guardians of the world, who hold sovereignty over the spirit beings in the four cardinal directions. The text also includes ritual prescriptions for the monastic community to purify its consumption of alms tainted by the “five impure foods.” This refers generally to alms that contain meat, the consumption of which is expressly prohibited for successful implementation of the Pañcarakṣā’s dhāraṇī incantations.
Title variants
- སྟོང་ཆེན་མོ་རབ་ཏུ་འཇོམས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་མདོ།
- stong chen mo rab tu ’joms pa zhes bya ba’i mdo
- The Sūtra “Destroyer of the Great Trichiliocosm”
- Mahāsāhasrapramardanīnāmasūtra
Great Upholder of the Secret Mantra
གསང་སྔགས་ཆེན་པོ་རྗེས་སུ་འཛིན་པ། · gsang sngags chen po rjes su ’dzin pa
Mahāmantrānudhāriṇī
Summary
Great Upholder of the Secret Mantra is one of five texts that together constitute the Pañcarakṣā scriptural collection, popular for centuries as an important facet of Mahāyāna-Vajrayāna Buddhism’s traditional approach to personal and communal misfortunes of all kinds. It addresses a range of human ailments, as well as misfortunes such as robbery, natural disaster, and criminal punishment, thought to be brought on especially through the animosity of non-human spirit entities. The sūtra stipulates the invocation of these spirit entities, which it separates into hierarchically ordered groups and thus renders subordinate to the command of the Buddha and members of his saṅgha. The Buddha stipulates that just “upholding” or intoning their names and the mantra formula for each will quell the violent interventions of non-human entities and even hasten them to provide for the pragmatic needs of the saṅgha and its surrounding communities.
Title variants
- གསང་སྔགས་ཆེན་པོ་རྗེས་སུ་འཛིན་པའི་མདོ།
- gsang sngags chen po rjes su ’dzin pa’i mdo
- The Sūtra “Great Upholder of the Secret Mantra”
- Mahāmantrānudhāriṇīsūtra
The Mahāsūtra “On Entering the City of Vaiśālī”
ཡངས་པའི་གྲོང་ཁྱེར་དུ་འཇུག་པའི་མདོ་ཆེན་པོ། · yangs pa’i grong khyer du ’jug pa’i mdo chen po
Vaiśālīpraveśamahāsūtra
Summary
Invited to visit the city of Vaiśālī, which has been ravaged by a terrible epidemic, the Buddha instructs Ānanda to stand at the city’s gate and recite a proclamation, a long mantra, and some verses that powerfully evoke spiritual well-being. Ānanda does so, and the epidemic comes to an end. One of the mahāsūtras related to the literature of the Vinaya, this text, like other accounts of the incident, has traditionally been recited during times of personal or collective illness, bereavement, and other difficulties.
Title variants
- ’phags pa yangs pa’i grong khyer du ’jug pa’i mdo chen po
- འཕགས་པ་ཡངས་པའི་གྲོང་ཁྱེར་དུ་འཇུག་པའི་མདོ་ཆེན་པོ།
- The Noble Mahāsūtra “On Entering the City of Vaiśālī”
- Āryavaiśālīpraveśamahāsūtra
The Dhāraṇī “Essence of Immeasurable Longevity and Wisdom”
ཚེ་དང་ཡེ་ཤེས་དཔག་ཏུ་མེད་པའི་སྙིང་པོའི་གཟུངས། · tshe dang ye shes dpag tu med pa’i snying po’i gzungs
Aparimitāyurjñānahṛdayadhāraṇī
Summary
The Dhāraṇī “Essence of Immeasurable Longevity and Wisdom” opens at a pool by the Ganges, where the Buddha Śākyamuni is seated with five hundred monks and a great saṅgha of bodhisattvas. The Buddha begins with a short set of verses on the Buddha Aparimitāyus, who dwells in the realm of Sukhāvatī, telling the gathering that anyone who recites Aparimitāyus’ name will be reborn in that buddha’s realm. He then provides a unique description of Sukhāvatī, followed by instructions for two practices, related to the text’s dhāraṇī, that can grant rebirth in Sukhāvatī in the next life.
Title variants
- ’phags pa tshe dang ye shes dpag tu med pa’i snying po zhes bya ba’i gzungs
- Āryāparimitāyurjñānahṛdayanāmadhāraṇī
- The Noble Dhāraṇī “Essence of Immeasurable Longevity and Wisdom”
- འཕགས་པ་ཚེ་དང་ཡེ་ཤེས་དཔག་ཏུ་མེད་པའི་སྙིང་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་གཟུངས།
- 阿彌陀鼓音聲王陀羅尼經
- ’chi med rnga sgra’i rgyal po’i mdo
- ’chi med rnga sgra’i rgyal po’i gzungs
- rnga sgra’i rgyal po’i mdo
- The Sūtra [or Dhāraṇī] of [Amṛta-]Dundubhisvara-rāja
- འཆི་མེད་རྔ་སྒྲའི་རྒྱལ་པོའི་མདོ།
- འཆི་མེད་རྔ་སྒྲའི་རྒྱལ་པོའི་གཟུངས།
- རྔ་སྒྲའི་རྒྱལ་པོའི་མདོ།
The Dhāraṇī Praising the Qualities of the Immeasurable One
ཡོན་ཏན་བསྔགས་པ་དཔག་ཏུ་མེད་པའི་གཟུངས། · yon tan bsngags pa dpag tu med pa’i gzungs
Aparimitaguṇānuśāṁsadhāraṇī
Summary
The Dhāraṇī that Praises the Qualities of the Immeasurable One contains a short dhāraṇī mantra praising the tathāgata Amitābha and brief instructions on the benefits that result from its recitation.
Title variants
- ’phags pa yon tan bsngags pa dpag tu med pa zhes bya ba’i gzungs
- འཕགས་པ་ཡོན་ཏན་བསྔགས་པ་དཔག་ཏུ་མེད་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་གཟུངས།
- Āryāparimitaguṇānuśāṁsanāmadhāraṇī
- Noble Dhāraṇī Praising the Qualities of the Immeasurable One
The Dhāraṇī “The Mother of Avalokiteśvara”
སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས་ཡུམ་གི་གཟུངས། · spyan ras gzigs yum gyi gzungs
Avalokiteśvaramātādhāraṇī
Summary
In this short sūtra, the bodhisattva Samantabhadra asks the Buddha to reveal The Mother of Avalokiteśvara, a powerful dhāraṇī that helps practitioners progress on the path to awakening. The Buddha grants his request and relates how he had himself received the dhāraṇī. Samantabhadra then speaks the dhāraṇī, after which the Buddha states its benefits.
Title variants
- ’phags pa spyan ras gzigs dbang phyug gi yum zhes bya ba’i gzungs
- Āryāvalokiteśvaramātānāmadhāraṇī
- འཕགས་པ་སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས་དབང་ཕྱུག་གི་ཡུམ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་གཟུངས།
- The Noble Dhāraṇī “The Mother of Avalokiteśvara”
The Dhāraṇī of Tārā
སྒྲོལ་མའི་གཟུངས། · sgrol ma’i gzungs
Tārādhāraṇī
Summary
The Dhāraṇī of Tārā is a short dhāraṇī that invokes the goddess Tārā, seeking her intervention in the face of obstacles and negative forces.
Title variants
- འཕགས་མ་སྒྲོལ་མའི་གཟུངས།
- ’phags ma sgrol ma’i gzungs
- The Noble Dhāraṇī of Tārā
- Āryatārādhāraṇī
The Dhāraṇī “Tārā’s Own Promise”
སྒྲོལ་མ་རང་གིས་དམ་བཅས་པའི་གཟུངས། · sgrol ma rang gis dam bcas pa’i gzungs
Tārāsvapratijñādhāraṇī
Summary
The Dhāraṇī “Tārā’s Own Promise” is a short dhāraṇī invoking the goddess Tārā.
Title variants
- འཕགས་མ་སྒྲོལ་མ་རང་གིས་དམ་བཅས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་གཟུངས།
- ’phags ma sgrol ma rang gis dam bcas pa zhes bya ba’i gzungs
- The Noble Dhāraṇī “Tārā’s Own Promise”
- Āryatārāsvapratijñānāmadhāraṇī
Tārā Who Protects from the Eight Dangers
སྒྲོལ་མ་འཇིགས་པ་བརྒྱད་ལས་སྐྱོབ་པ། · sgrol ma ’jigs pa brgyad las skyob pa
*Tārāṣṭaghoratāraṇī
Summary
In this sūtra, the goddess Tārā warns the gods of the desire realm about the miseries of saṃsāra and offers a pithy Dharma teaching to free them from harm. Tārā begins by vividly portraying the various kinds of suffering endured by beings in each of the six realms of saṃsāra and then points out the futility of reciting mantras without maintaining pure conduct. She goes on to encourage the listeners to engage in virtue, which puts an end to saṃsāra, and she bestows on them an incantation (dhāraṇī) that will help them to achieve this goal, a praise of her qualities, and a request for her divine protection that they should recite. Finally, she enjoins the audience to read and practice the teaching and share it with others.
Title variants
- ’phags ma sgrol ma ’jigs pa brgyad las skyob pa’i mdo
- The Noble Sūtra “Tārā Who Protects from the Eight Dangers”
- *Āryatārāṣṭaghoratāraṇīsūtra
- འཕགས་མ་སྒྲོལ་མ་འཇིགས་པ་བརྒྱད་ལས་སྐྱོབ་པའི་མདོ།
The Dhāraṇī of Parṇaśavarī
རི་ཁྲོད་ལོ་མ་གྱོན་མའི་གཟུངས། · ri khrod lo ma gyon ma’i gzungs
Parṇaśavarīdhāraṇī
Summary
The Dhāraṇī of Parṇaśavarī is a short incantation dedicated to the piśācī Parṇaśavarī, who is renowned in Buddhist lore for her power to cure disease, avert epidemics, pacify strife, and otherwise protect those who recite her dhāraṇī from any obstacles they may face.
Title variants
- འཕགས་མ་རི་ཁྲོད་ལོ་མ་གྱོན་མ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་གཟུངས།
- ’phags ma ri khrod lo ma gyon ma zhes bya ba’i gzungs
- The Noble Dhāraṇī of Parṇaśavarī
- Āryaparṇaśavarīnāmadhāraṇī
- ri khrod lo ma gyon ma’i gzungs/
- parṇaśabarīdhāraṇī
- ’phags ma ri khrod lo ma gyon pa’i gzungs/
- āryaparṇaśabaridhāraṇī
The Prophecy of Śrī Mahādevī
ལྷ་མོ་ཆེན་མོ་དཔལ་ལུང་བསྟན་པ། · lha mo chen mo dpal lung bstan pa
Śrīmahādevīvyākaraṇa
Summary
This sūtra recounts an event that took place in the buddha realm of Sukhāvatī. The discourse commences with Buddha Śākyamuni relating to Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara the benefits of reciting the various names of Śrī Mahādevī. The Buddha describes how Śrī Mahādevī acquired virtue and other spiritual accomplishments through the practice of venerating numerous tathāgatas and gives an account of the prophecy in which her future enlightenment was foretold by all the buddhas she venerated. The Buddha then lists the one hundred and eight blessed names of Śrī Mahādevī to be recited by the faithful. The sūtra ends with Buddha Śākyamuni giving a dhāraṇī and a brief explanation on the benefits of reciting the names of Śrī Mahādevī, namely the eradication of all negative circumstances and the accumulation of merit and happiness.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་ལྷ་མོ་ཆེན་མོ་དཔལ་ལུང་བསྟན་པ།
- ’phags pa lha mo chen mo dpal lung bstan pa
- The Noble Prophecy of Śrī Mahādevī
- Āryaśrīmahādevīvyākaraṇa
The Bhūtaḍāmara Tantra
འབྱུང་པོ་འདུལ་བའི་རྒྱུད། · ’byung po ’dul ba’i rgyud
Bhūtaḍāmaratantram
Summary
The Bhūtaḍāmara Tantra is a Buddhist esoteric manual on magic and exorcism. The instructions on ritual practices that constitute its main subject matter are intended to give the practitioner mastery over worldly divinities and spirits. Since the ultimate controller of such beings is Vajrapāṇi in his form of Bhūtaḍāmara, the “Tamer of Spirits,” it is Vajrapāṇi himself who delivers this tantra in response to a request from Śiva. Notwithstanding this esoteric origin, this tantra was compiled anonymously around the seventh or eighth century ᴄᴇ, introducing for the first time the cult of its titular deity. Apart from a few short ritual manuals (sādhana), this tantra remains the only major work dedicated solely to Bhūtaḍāmara.
Title variants
- འབྱུང་པོ་འདུལ་བ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་རྒྱུད་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ་ཆེན་པོ།
- ’byung po ’dul ba zhes bya ba’i rgyud kyi rgyal po chen po
- The Great Sovereign Bhūtaḍāmara Tantra
- Bhūtaḍāmaramahātantrarājaḥ
- bhūtaḍāmaramahātantrarājanāma
The Aspiration Prayer from “Destroyer of the Great Trichiliocosm”
སྟོང་ཆེན་མོ་རབ་ཏུ་འཇོམས་པའི་སྨོན་ལམ། · stong chen mo rab tu ’joms pa’i smon lam
Summary
This short text contains a set of verses spoken by the Buddha as he put an end to the epidemic of Vaiśālī, extracted from one of the two main accounts of that episode. The verses call for well-being, especially by invoking the qualities of the Three Jewels and a range of realized beings and eminent gods. The text comprises two passages from the parent work, and of these the first and longest corresponds closely to a well-known Pali text, the Ratana-sutta, widely recited for protection and blessings.
Title variants
- སྟོང་ཆེན་མོ་རབ་ཏུ་འཇོམས་པ་ལས་གསུངས་པའི་སྨོན་ལམ།
- stong chen mo rab tu ’joms pa las gsungs pa’i smon lam
- The Aspiration Prayer from the Words Spoken in “Destroyer of the Great Trichiliocosm”
The Threefold Invocation Ritual
སྤྱན་འདྲེན་རྒྱུད་གསུམ་པ། · spyan ’dren rgyud gsum pa/
Summary
The Threefold Invocation Ritual invokes all the deities of the threefold world that have “entered the path of compassion” and are “held by the hook of the vidyāmantra” to gather, pay heed to the person reciting this text (or the person for whom it is recited), and bear witness to the proclamation of that person’s commitment to the Buddhist teachings. A profound aspiration to practice ten aspects of a bodhisattva’s activity is then followed by a dedication and a prayer for the teachings.
The Threefold Ritual
རྒྱུད་གསུམ་པ། · rgyud gsum pa/
Summary
The Threefold Ritual contains a short liturgy for invoking the pantheon of worldly deities, inviting these beings to seize the rare opportunity to listen to the Dharma, and proclaiming the aspiration that all the worldly beings that have gathered to hear the Dharma receive their share of the merit one has generated.
The Dhāraṇī of the Jewel Torch
དཀོན་མཆོག་ཏ་ལ་ལའི་གཟུངས། · dkon mchog ta la la’i gzungs
Ratnolkādhāraṇī
Summary
The Dhāraṇī of the Jewel Torch starts with a profound conversation between the Buddha and the bodhisattvas Samantabhadra and Mañjuśrī on the nature of the dharmadhātu, buddhahood, and emptiness. The bodhisattva Dharmamati then enters the meditative absorption called the infinite application of the bodhisattva’s jewel torch and, at the behest of the millions of buddhas who have blessed him, emerges from it to teach how bodhisattvas arise from the presence of a tathāgata and progress to the state of omniscience. Following Dharmamati’s detailed exposition of the “ten categories” or progressive stages of a bodhisattva, the Buddha briefly teaches the mantra of the dhāraṇī and then, for most of the remainder of the text, encourages bodhisattvas in a long versified passage in which he recounts teachings by a bodhisattva called Bhadraśrī on the qualities of bodhisattvas and buddhas. Some verses from this passage on the virtues of faith have been widely quoted in both India and Tibet.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་དཀོན་མཆོག་ཏ་ལ་ལའི་གཟུངས་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa dkon mchog ta la la’i gzungs zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- Āryaratnolkānāmadhāraṇīmahāyānasūtra
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Dhāraṇī of the Jewel Torch”
- Ratnolkadhāraṇīsūtra
- dkon mchog sgron me’i mdo
- dkon mchog sgron ma’i mdo
- 寶燈陀羅尼經
The Dhāraṇī of the Tathāgata Jñānolka
ཡེ་ཤེས་ཏ་ལ་ལའི་གཟུངས། · ye shes ta la la’i gzungs
Jñānolkadhāraṇī
Summary
The Dhāraṇī of the Tathāgata Jñānolka opens with a description of a group of four tathāgatas and four bodhisattvas, who are seated in the celestial palace of the Sun and the Moon. The deities of the Sun and Moon return to their celestial palace from elsewhere and, seeing these tathāgatas and bodhisattvas, both wonder whether they might obtain a dhāraṇī that would allow them to dispel the darkness and shine a light upon all beings. The tathāgatas, perceiving the thoughts of the Sun and Moon, provide them with the first dhāraṇī in the text. The bodhisattva Samantabhadra then provides a second dhāraṇī and instructs the deities of the Sun and Moon to use it to free beings who are bound for rebirth in the lower realms—even those who have been born in the darkest depths of the Avīci hell.
Title variants
- ’phags pa ye shes ta la la zhes bya’i gzungs ’gro ba thams cad yongs su sbyong ba
- Āryajñānolkanāmadhāraṇīsarvagatipariśodhanī
- The Noble Dhāraṇī of the Tathāgata Jñānolka that Purifies All Rebirths
- འཕགས་པ་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཏ་ལ་ལ་ཞེས་བྱའི་གཟུངས་འགྲོ་བ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཡོངས་སུ་སྦྱོང་བ།
The Dhāraṇī “Essence of Immeasurable Longevity and Wisdom”
ཚེ་དང་ཡེ་ཤེས་དཔག་ཏུ་མེད་པའི་སྙིང་པོའི་གཟུངས། · tshe dang ye shes dpag tu med pa’i snying po’i gzungs
Aparimitāyurjñānahṛdayadhāraṇī
Summary
The Dhāraṇī “Essence of Immeasurable Longevity and Wisdom” opens at a pool by the Ganges, where the Buddha Śākyamuni is seated with five hundred monks and a great saṅgha of bodhisattvas. The Buddha begins with a short set of verses on the Buddha Aparimitāyus, who dwells in the realm of Sukhāvatī, telling the gathering that anyone who recites Aparimitāyus’ name will be reborn in that buddha’s realm. He then provides a unique description of Sukhāvatī, followed by instructions for two practices, related to the text’s dhāraṇī, that can grant rebirth in Sukhāvatī in the next life.
Title variants
- ’phags pa tshe dang ye shes dpag tu med pa’i snying po zhes bya ba’i gzungs
- Āryāparimitāyurjñānahṛdayanāmadhāraṇī
- The Noble Dhāraṇī “Essence of Immeasurable Longevity and Wisdom”
- འཕགས་པ་ཚེ་དང་ཡེ་ཤེས་དཔག་ཏུ་མེད་པའི་སྙིང་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་གཟུངས།
- 阿彌陀鼓音聲王陀羅尼經
- ’chi med rnga sgra’i rgyal po’i mdo
- ’chi med rnga sgra’i rgyal po’i gzungs
- rnga sgra’i rgyal po’i mdo
- The Sūtra [or Dhāraṇī] of [Amṛta-]Dundubhisvara-rāja
- འཆི་མེད་རྔ་སྒྲའི་རྒྱལ་པོའི་མདོ།
- འཆི་མེད་རྔ་སྒྲའི་རྒྱལ་པོའི་གཟུངས།
- རྔ་སྒྲའི་རྒྱལ་པོའི་མདོ།
The Dhāraṇī Praising the Qualities of the Immeasurable One
ཡོན་ཏན་བསྔགས་པ་དཔག་ཏུ་མེད་པའི་གཟུངས། · yon tan bsngags pa dpag tu med pa’i gzungs
Aparimitaguṇānuśāṁsadhāraṇī
Summary
The Dhāraṇī that Praises the Qualities of the Immeasurable One contains a short dhāraṇī mantra praising the tathāgata Amitābha and brief instructions on the benefits that result from its recitation.
Title variants
- ’phags pa yon tan bsngags pa dpag tu med pa zhes bya ba’i gzungs
- འཕགས་པ་ཡོན་ཏན་བསྔགས་པ་དཔག་ཏུ་མེད་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་གཟུངས།
- Āryāparimitaguṇānuśāṁsanāmadhāraṇī
- Noble Dhāraṇī Praising the Qualities of the Immeasurable One
The Seven Buddhas
སངས་རྒྱས་བདུན་པ། · sangs rgyas bdun pa
Saptabuddhaka
Summary
The Seven Buddhas opens with the Buddha Śākyamuni residing in an alpine forest on Mount Kailāsa with a saṅgha of monks and bodhisattvas. The Buddha notices that a monk in the forest has been possessed by a spirit, which prompts the bodhisattva Ākāśagarbha to request that the Buddha teach a spell to cure diseases and exorcise demonic spirits. The Buddha then emanates as the set of “seven successive buddhas,” each of whom transmits a dhāraṇī to Ākāśagarbha. Each of the seven buddhas then provides ritual instructions for using the dhāraṇī.
Title variants
- ’phags pa sangs rgyas bdun pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- འཕགས་པ་སངས་རྒྱས་བདུན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Seven Buddhas”
- Āryasaptabuddhakanāmamahāyānasūtra
The Twelve Buddhas
སངས་རྒྱས་བཅུ་གཉིས་པ། · sangs rgyas bcu gnyis pa
Dvādaśabuddhaka
Summary
The Twelve Buddhas opens at Rājagṛha with a dialogue between the Buddha Śākyamuni and the bodhisattva Maitreya about the eastern buddhafield of a buddha whose abbreviated name is King of Jewels. This buddha prophesies that when he passes into complete nirvāṇa, the bodhisattva Incomparable will take his place as a buddha whose abbreviated name is Victory Banner King. Śākyamuni then provides the names of the remaining ten tathāgatas, locating them in the ten directions surrounding Victory Banner King’s buddhafield Full of Pearls. After listing the full set of names of these twelve buddhas and their directional relationship to Victory Banner King, the Buddha Śākyamuni provides an accompanying mantra-dhāraṇī and closes with a set of thirty-seven verses outlining the benefits of remembering the names of these buddhas.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་སངས་རྒྱས་བཅུ་གཉིས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa sangs rgyas bcu gnyis pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Twelve Buddhas”
- Āryadvādaśabuddhakanāmamahāyānasūtra
The Discourse of the Dhāraṇī of the Buddha’s Essence
སངས་རྒྱས་སྙིང་པོའི་གཟུངས་ཀྱི་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་གྲངས། · sangs rgyas snying po’i gzungs kyi chos kyi rnam grangs
Buddhahṛdayadhāraṇīdharmaparyāya
Summary
The Discourse of the Dhāraṇī of the Buddha’s Essence is a short work in which the Buddha Śākyamuni, addressing an immense gathering of bodhisattvas, teaches two dhāraṇīs to be recited as a complement to the practice of recollecting the Buddha, and then explains the beneficial results of reciting them. The significance of the teaching is marked by miraculous signs, and by the gods offering flowers and ornaments. The text also provides a set of correspondences between the eight ornaments offered by the gods and eight qualities that ornament bodhisattvas.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་སྙིང་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་གཟུངས་ཀྱི་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་གྲངས།
- ’phags pa sangs rgyas kyi snying po zhes bya ba’i gzungs kyi chos kyi rnam grangs
- The Noble Discourse of the Dhāraṇī of the Buddha’s Essence
- Āryabuddhahṛdayanāmadhāraṇīdharmaparyāya
The Dhāraṇī of the Buddha’s Essence
སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་སྙིང་པོའི་གཟུངས། · sangs rgyas kyi snying po’i gzungs
Buddhahṛdayadhāraṇī
Summary
The Dhāraṇī of the Buddha’s Essence is structured as a dialogue between the Buddha and a retinue of gods from the Śuddhāvāsa realm. The dialogue revolves around the Buddha’s parinirvāṇa and the role that the gods of Śuddhāvāsa can play in continuing to guide beings in his absence until the next tathāgata appears in the world. The Dhāraṇī of the Buddha’s Essence is then introduced as the specific instruction that the gods of Śuddhāvāsa should preserve and propagate after Śākyamuni has departed. The Buddha then provides a list of benefits that members of the saṅgha can accrue by reciting this dhāraṇī.
Title variants
- ’phags pa sangs rgyas kyi snying po zhes bya ba’i gzungs
- Āryabuddhahṛdayanāmadhāraṇī
- འཕགས་པ་སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་སྙིང་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་གཟུངས།
- The Noble Dhāraṇī of the Buddha’s Essence
The Dhāraṇī “The Mother of Avalokiteśvara”
སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས་ཡུམ་གི་གཟུངས། · spyan ras gzigs yum gyi gzungs
Avalokiteśvaramātādhāraṇī
Summary
In this short sūtra, the bodhisattva Samantabhadra asks the Buddha to reveal The Mother of Avalokiteśvara, a powerful dhāraṇī that helps practitioners progress on the path to awakening. The Buddha grants his request and relates how he had himself received the dhāraṇī. Samantabhadra then speaks the dhāraṇī, after which the Buddha states its benefits.
Title variants
- ’phags pa spyan ras gzigs dbang phyug gi yum zhes bya ba’i gzungs
- Āryāvalokiteśvaramātānāmadhāraṇī
- འཕགས་པ་སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས་དབང་ཕྱུག་གི་ཡུམ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་གཟུངས།
- The Noble Dhāraṇī “The Mother of Avalokiteśvara”
The Sūtra on Dependent Arising
རྟེན་ཅིང་འབྲེལ་བར་འབྱུང་བའི་མདོ། · rten cing ’brel bar ’byung ba’i mdo
Pratītyasamutpādasūtra
Summary
While the Buddha is residing in the Realm of the Thirty-Three Gods with a retinue of deities, great hearers, and bodhisattvas, Avalokiteśvara asks the Buddha how beings can gain merit from building a stūpa. The Buddha responds by stating the Buddhist creed on dependent arising:
The Buddha then explains that this dependent arising is the dharmakāya, and that whoever sees dependent arising sees the Buddha. He concludes the sūtra by saying that one should place these verses inside stūpas to attain the merit of Brahmā.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་རྟེན་ཅིང་འབྲེལ་བར་འབྱུང་བ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa rten cing ’brel bar ’byung ba zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra on Dependent Arising
- Āryapratītyasamutpādanāmamahāyānasūtra
The Dhāraṇī of Parṇaśavarī
རི་ཁྲོད་ལོ་མ་གྱོན་མའི་གཟུངས། · ri khrod lo ma gyon ma’i gzungs
Parṇaśavarīdhāraṇī
Summary
The Dhāraṇī of Parṇaśavarī is a short incantation dedicated to the piśācī Parṇaśavarī, who is renowned in Buddhist lore for her power to cure disease, avert epidemics, pacify strife, and otherwise protect those who recite her dhāraṇī from any obstacles they may face.
Title variants
- འཕགས་མ་རི་ཁྲོད་ལོ་མ་གྱོན་མ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་གཟུངས།
- ’phags ma ri khrod lo ma gyon ma zhes bya ba’i gzungs
- The Noble Dhāraṇī of Parṇaśavarī
- Āryaparṇaśavarīnāmadhāraṇī
- ri khrod lo ma gyon ma’i gzungs/
- parṇaśabarīdhāraṇī
- ’phags ma ri khrod lo ma gyon pa’i gzungs/
- āryaparṇaśabaridhāraṇī
The Dhāraṇī of Tārā
སྒྲོལ་མའི་གཟུངས། · sgrol ma’i gzungs
Tārādhāraṇī
Summary
The Dhāraṇī of Tārā is a short dhāraṇī that invokes the goddess Tārā, seeking her intervention in the face of obstacles and negative forces.
Title variants
- འཕགས་མ་སྒྲོལ་མའི་གཟུངས།
- ’phags ma sgrol ma’i gzungs
- The Noble Dhāraṇī of Tārā
- Āryatārādhāraṇī
The Dhāraṇī “Tārā’s Own Promise”
སྒྲོལ་མ་རང་གིས་དམ་བཅས་པའི་གཟུངས། · sgrol ma rang gis dam bcas pa’i gzungs
Tārāsvapratijñādhāraṇī
Summary
The Dhāraṇī “Tārā’s Own Promise” is a short dhāraṇī invoking the goddess Tārā.
Title variants
- འཕགས་མ་སྒྲོལ་མ་རང་གིས་དམ་བཅས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་གཟུངས།
- ’phags ma sgrol ma rang gis dam bcas pa zhes bya ba’i gzungs
- The Noble Dhāraṇī “Tārā’s Own Promise”
- Āryatārāsvapratijñānāmadhāraṇī
The Mahāsūtra “On Entering the City of Vaiśālī”
ཡངས་པའི་གྲོང་ཁྱེར་དུ་འཇུག་པའི་མདོ་ཆེན་པོ། · yangs pa’i grong khyer du ’jug pa’i mdo chen po
Vaiśālīpraveśamahāsūtra
Summary
Invited to visit the city of Vaiśālī, which has been ravaged by a terrible epidemic, the Buddha instructs Ānanda to stand at the city’s gate and recite a proclamation, a long mantra, and some verses that powerfully evoke spiritual well-being. Ānanda does so, and the epidemic comes to an end. One of the mahāsūtras related to the literature of the Vinaya, this text, like other accounts of the incident, has traditionally been recited during times of personal or collective illness, bereavement, and other difficulties.
Title variants
- ’phags pa yangs pa’i grong khyer du ’jug pa’i mdo chen po
- འཕགས་པ་ཡངས་པའི་གྲོང་ཁྱེར་དུ་འཇུག་པའི་མདོ་ཆེན་པོ།
- The Noble Mahāsūtra “On Entering the City of Vaiśālī”
- Āryavaiśālīpraveśamahāsūtra
The Aspiration Prayer from “Destroyer of the Great Trichiliocosm”
སྟོང་ཆེན་མོ་རབ་ཏུ་འཇོམས་པའི་སྨོན་ལམ། · stong chen mo rab tu ’joms pa’i smon lam
Summary
This short text contains a set of verses spoken by the Buddha as he put an end to the epidemic of Vaiśālī, extracted from one of the two main accounts of that episode. The verses call for well-being, especially by invoking the qualities of the Three Jewels and a range of realized beings and eminent gods. The text comprises two passages from the parent work, and of these the first and longest corresponds closely to a well-known Pali text, the Ratana-sutta, widely recited for protection and blessings.
Title variants
- སྟོང་ཆེན་མོ་རབ་ཏུ་འཇོམས་པ་ལས་གསུངས་པའི་སྨོན་ལམ།
- stong chen mo rab tu ’joms pa las gsungs pa’i smon lam
- The Aspiration Prayer from the Words Spoken in “Destroyer of the Great Trichiliocosm”