Title variants

• 'phags pa bskal pa bzang po pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryabhadrakalpika­nāmamahāyānasūtra

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)

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

Summary

In The Chapter on Mañjuśrī’s Magical Display the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī, answers questions from an audience of gods and monks 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

Title variants

• 'phags pa de bzhin gshegs pa thams cad kyi byin gyi rlabs sems can la gzigs shing sangs rgyas kyi zhing gi bkod pa kun tu ston pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryasarva­tathāgatādhiṣṭhānasattvāvalokena buddhakṣetravyūha­nirdeśa­nāmamahāyānasūtra
• The Sūtra, The Array of the Buddhafields
• sarvatathāgatādhiṣṭhāna­sattvāvalokena buddha­kṣetranirdeśanavyūha­mahāyānasūtra
• 'phags pa de bzhin gshegs pa thams cad kyi byin gyi rlabs sems can la gzigs shing sangs rgyas kyi zhing gi bkod pa kun tu ston pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo/
• āryasarvatathāgatādhiṣṭhāna­sattvāvalokena buddhakṣetra­nirdeśanavyūha­nāmamahāyānasūtra

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

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

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)

Title variants

• 'phags pa zung gi mdo'i chos kyi rnam grangs
• āryasaṃghāṭasūtradharmaparyāya

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

Title variants

• 'phags pa de bzhin gshegs pa rnams kyi sangs rgyas kyi zhing gi yon tan brjod pa'i chos kyi rnam grangs
• āryatathāgatānāṃ buddhakṣetraguṇokta­dharmaparyāya
• [Note: an independent translation of a text also found as chapter 37 of the Buddhāvataṃsaka (Toh 44), and Toh 268.]

Title variants

• 'phags pa dkyil 'khor brgyad ces bya ba'i chos kyi rnam grangs theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryamaṇḍalāṣṭakanāmamahāyānasūtra

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
• Āryasandhinirmocana­nāmamahāyānasūtra
• The Noble Sūtra of the Great Vehicle “Unraveling the Intent”
• Saṃdhi­nirmocana­sūtra
• dgongs pa nges par 'grel pa/
• 解深密經

Title variants

• 'phags pa lang kar gshegs pa'i theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryalaṅkāvatāramahāyānasūtra
• The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra 'The Descent into Laṅka'
• [Note: the longer, late version of the sūtra, translated from the Sanskrit]
• 入楞伽經

Title variants

• 'phags pa lang kar gshegs pa rin po che'i mdo las sangs rgyas thams cad kyi gsung gi snying po zhes bya ba'i le'u
• [Note: a 9th century translation into Tibetan of the earliest of three Chinese translations of the Laṅkāvatāra, made in the mid 5th century by Guṇabhadra from an early Sanskrit version lacking the first and last chapters of later versions.]
• 《入楞伽經》之一切佛語心品 · (大正藏：楞伽阿跋多羅寶經)

Title variants

• 'phags pa ga yA mgo'i ri zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryagayāśīrṣanāmamahāyānasūtra

Title variants

• 'phags pa rgyan stug po bkod pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryaghanavyūhanāmamahāyānasūtra
• 大乘密嚴經

Title variants

• 'phags pa snying rje chen po'i pad+ma dkar po zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryamahākaruṇā­puṇḍarīka­nāmamahāyānasūtra
• 大悲白蓮經 · (大正藏：大悲經)

Summary

The sūtra describes a previous life of Śākyamuni Buddha when he was a court priest to a king. He makes his prayer to become a buddha and causes the king, his princes, his own sons and pupils, and others, to also take the same vow. This is revealed to be the major event that is the origin of buddhas and bodhisattvas such as Amitābha, Akṣobhya, Avalokiteśvara, Mañjuśrī, and the thousand buddhas of our eon.

The “white lotus of compassion” in the title refers to Śākyamuni himself, emphasizing his superiority over all other buddhas, like a fragrant, healing white lotus among a bed of ordinary flowers. He chose to be reborn in an impure realm during the degenerate times. Because of this courageous vow of great compassion, Śākyamuni is considered one of the greatest buddhas.

Title variants

• 'phags pa snying rje pad+ma dkar po zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryakaruṇāpuṇḍarīka­nāmamahāyānasūtra
• 悲白蓮經
• （大正藏：悲華經）

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

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/

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

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

Title variants

• 'phags pa dkon mchog gi za ma tog ces bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryaratnakāraṇḍanāmamahāyānasūtra
• 寶篋經 · (大正藏：大方廣寶箧經)

Title variants

• 'phags pa rin po che'i mtha' zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryaratnakoṭināmamahāyānasūtra
• [Note: Toh 241, translated from Chinese, is equivalent (Saerji, ARIRIAB-14).]
• rin po che'i mtha'/
• ratnakoṭi

Title variants

• 'phags pa yongs su mya ngan las 'das pa chen po'i mdo
• [Note: this is the long, best known, 56 fascicle version of the sūtra, translated in the early period from a Chinese version, probably the early 5th century "northern text" translation by Dharmakṣema, of which the first 10 fascicles are likely to have existed in Sanskrit but the subsequent 30 fascicles may have some other, later origin.]
• 大般涅槃經

Title variants

• 'phags pa yongs su mya ngan las 'das pa chen po theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryamahāparinirvāṇamahāyānasūtra
• [Note: this is the shorter, lesser known 13 fascicle version of the sūtra, translated in the early period from a Sanskrit original, which may correspond to some extent to the earliest 5th century "six-fascicle" Chinese translation by Buddhabhadra and also attributed to Faxian. It is the equivalent of the first 10 fascicles of Toh 119.]

Title variants

• 'phags pa yongs su mya ngan las 'das pa chen po'i mdo
• āryamahāparinirvāṇasūtra
• 'phags pa mya ngan las 'das pa'i mdo chung ba/
• [Note: a very short, 16 śloka fragment of the sūtra, translated from the Sanskrit in the later translation period by Kamalagupta and Rin chen bzang po.]

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

Title variants

• sangs rgyas kyi mdzod kyi chos kyi yi ge

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

Title variants

• 'phags pa gser gyi mdo zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryasuvarṇasūtranāmamahāyānasūtra

Title variants

• 'phags pa gser gyi bye ma lta bu zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryasuvarṇavālukopama­nāmamahāyānasūtra

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

Title variants

• 'phags pa chos nyid rang gi ngo bo stong pa nyid las mi g.yo bar tha dad pa thams cad la snang ba'i mdo
• āryadharmatāsvabhāva­śūnyatācalapratisarvāloka­sūtra

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

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

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”

Title variants

• 'phags pa dpa' bar 'gro ba'i ting nge 'dzin ces bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryaśūraṅgamasamādhi­nāmamahāyānasūtra

Title variants

• 'phags pa da ltar gyi sangs rgyas mngon sum du bzhugs pa'i ting nge 'dzin ces bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryapratyutpannabuddha­saṃmukhāvasthitasamādhi­nāmamahāyānasūtra
• bzang skyong gis zhus pa'i ting 'dzin le'u/
• bhadrapāla(paripṛcchā)sūtra

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

Title variants

• 'phags pa khye'u bzhi'i ting nge 'dzin ces bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryacaturdārakasamādhi­nāmamahāyānasūtra
• 《四童子三昧經》

Title variants

• 'phags pa ting nge 'dzin mchog dam pa
• āryasamādhyagrottama

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)

Title variants

• 'phags pa rdo rje'i snying po'i gzungs zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryavajramaṇḍanāmadhāraṇī­mahāyānasūtra

Title variants

• 'phags pa sgo mtha' yas pa sgrub pa zhes bya ba'i gzungs
• āryānantamukhasādhakanāmadhāraṇī
• sgo mtha' yas pas bsgrub pa'i gzungs/
• The Incantation that Leads to Realization Via the Infinite Gate
• 'phags pa sgo mtha' yas pas bsgrub pa zhes bya ba'i gzungs/
• āryānantamukhasādhakanāmadhāraṇī
• sgo mtha' yas pas sgrub pa'i gzungs/
• 'phags pa sgo mtha' yas pas sgrub pa zhes bya ba'i gzungs/
• āryānantamukhasādhākanāmadhāraṇī

Title variants

• 'phags pa sgo drug pa zhes bya ba'i gzungs
• āryaṣaṇmukhanāmadhāraṇī
• The Incantation, the Six Gates
• 'phags pa sgo drug pa zhes bya ba'i gzungs/
• āryaṣaṇmukhanāmadhāraṇī
• 'phags pa sgo drug pa zhes bya ba'i gzungs/
• āryaṣaṇmukhanāmadhāraṇī

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

Title variants

• tshigs bcad gnyis pa'i gzungs/

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།

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 then, 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

Title variants

• 'phags pa byang chub sems dpa'i spyod yul thabs kyi yul la rnam par 'phrul pa bstan pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryabodhisattva­gocaropāyaviṣayavikurvita­nirdeśanāmamahāyānasūtra
• satyakaparivarta

Summary

This is one of the ten main sūtras connected with the notion of Buddha Nature (Tathāgatagarbha). It is frequently cited in the Treatise on the Sublime Continuum (Uttaratantra-Śāstra) and other commentarial texts that explain the topic.

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
• 如來大悲經
• （大正藏：大哀經）

Title variants

• 'phags pa nam mkha' mdzod kyis zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryagaganagañja­paripṛcchā­nāmamahāyānasūtra
• nam mkha'i mdzod kyis zhus pa/
• The Questions of Gaganagañja
• Gaganagañjaparipṛcchā
• 大集大虛空藏菩薩所問經

Title variants

• 'phags pa byams pas zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryamaitrīparipṛccha­nāmamahāyānasūtra

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

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།

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

Title variants

• 'phags pa klu'i rgyal po rgya mtshos zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryasāgaranāgarāja­paripṛcchā­nāmamahāyānasūtra
• klu'i rgyal po rgya mtshos zhus pa/
• The Questions of the Nāga King Sāgara (1)
• Sāgaranāgarājaparipṛcchā
• 《海龍王所問經》(一)
• (大正藏：佛說海龍王經)

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

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

Title variants

• 'phags pa klu'i rgyal po ma dros pas zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryānavataptanāgarāja­paripṛcchā­nāmamahāyānasūtra
• 阿耨達龍王所問經 · (大正藏：佛說弘道廣顯三昧經)

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

Title variants

• 'phags pa tshangs pas zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryabrahma­paripṛcchā­nāmamahāyānasūtra

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”

Title variants

• 'phags pa tshangs pa khyad par sems kyis zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryabrahmaviśeṣacinti­paripṛcchā­nāmamahāyānasūtra
• tshangs pa khyad par sems kyis zhus pa/
• The Questions of Brahmaviśeṣacintin
• brahmaviśeṣacintiparipṛcchā
• 梵勝心所問經
• (大正藏：勝思惟梵天所問經)

Title variants

• 'phags pa lha'i bu rab rtsal sems kyis zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryasuvikrāntacinta­devaputraparipṛcchā­nāmamahāyānasūtra
• suvikrāntacinta­devaputra­paripṛcchāsūtra
• 《勇猛心天子所問經 》 (大正藏：佛說須真天子經)

Title variants

• 'phags pa dpal dbyig gis zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryaśrīvasu­paripṛcchā­nāmamahāyānasūtra
• dpal dbyig gis zhus pa/
• The Questions of Śrīvasu
• śrīvasuparipṛcchā

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

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

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

Title variants

• 'phags pa yul 'khor skyong gis zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryarāṣṭrapāla­paripṛcchā­nāmamahāyānasūtra

Title variants

• 'phags pa rnam par 'phrul pa'i rgyal pos zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryavikurvāṇarāja­paripṛcchā­nāmamahāyānasūtra
• 自在王菩萨经

Title variants

• dri ma med pa'i 'od kyis zhus pa
• 無垢光所問經

Title variants

• 'phags pa theg pa chen po'i man ngag ces bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryamahāyānopadeśa­nāmamahāyānasūtra

Title variants

• 'phags pa bram ze mo dpal ldan mas zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryaśrīmatībrāhmaṇī­paripṛcchā­nāmamahāyānasūtra

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

Title variants

• 'phags pa 'jam dpal gyis dris pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryamañjuśrī­paripṛcchā­nāmamahāyānasūtra

Title variants

• 'phags pa bdag med pa dris pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryanairātma­paripṛcchā­nāmamahāyānasūtra
• bdag med pa dris pa/
• The Questions of Nairātma
• Nairātmaparipṛcchā

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།

Summary

The bodhisatva1 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)

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

Title variants

• 'phags pa 'jam dpal gyis bstan pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryamañjuśrīnirdeśa­nāmamahāyānasūtra

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

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

Title variants

• 'phags pa chos thams cad 'byung ba med par bstan pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryasarva­dharmāpravṛttinirdeśa­nāmamahāyānasūtra
• chos thams cad 'byung ba med par bstan pa/
• The Teaching on How All Phenomena are Without Any Origin
• sarvadharmāpravṛttinirdeśa

Title variants

• 'phags pa pha rol tu phyin pa lnga bstan pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryapañca­pāramitānirdeśa­nāmamahāyānasūtra
• 佛說五波羅蜜多經 (大般若波羅密多經第十一分至第十五分)

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

Title variants

• 'phags pa sbyin pa'i phan yon bstan pa
• āryadānānuśaṃsānirdeśa

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།

Summary

In the Introduction to 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 mentor.

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 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

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

Title variants

• 'phags pa sangs rgyas kyi chos kyi bsam gyis mi khyab pa bstan pa
• āryabuddhadharmācintyanirdeśa
• [Note: according to the dkar chag, this text is "known to be an extract of the 29th chapter of the Avataṃsaka." This should read the 39th chapter, which has the same title and appears to be close but not identical.]

Title variants

• 'phags pa mar me mdzad kyis lung bstan pa zhe bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryadīpaṃkaravyākaraṇa­nāmamahāyānasūtra

Title variants

• 'phags pa tshangs pa'i dpal lung bstan pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryabrahmaśrīvyākaraṇa­nāmamahāyānasūtra

Title variants

• 'phags pa bud med 'gyur ba lung bstan pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryastrīvivartavyākaraṇa­nāmamahāyānasūtra

Title variants

• 'phags pa bu mo zla mchog lung bstan pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryacandrottarā­dārikāvyākaraṇa­nāmamahāyānasūtra

Title variants

• 'phags pa bde ldan ma lung bstan pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryakṣemavatīvyākaraṇa­nāmamahāyānasūtra

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

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

Title variants

• 'phags pa spyan ras gzigs zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryāvalokinīnāmamahāyānasūtra
• Avalokinīsūtra

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

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

Title variants

• 'phags pa byams pa 'jug pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryamaitreyaprasthāna­nāmamahāyānasūtra
• byams pa 'jug pa/
• Maitreya’s Setting Forth
• Maitreyaprasthāna

Title variants

• kwan ji li’u phu sa zhang shyan te’u shis thyan kyin
• 'phags pa byang chub sems dpa' byams pa dga' ldan gnam du skye ba blangs pa'i mdo
• 佛說觀彌勒菩薩上生兜率天經
• kwan ji li’u phu sa zhang shyan te’u shis thyan kyin

Title variants

• 'phags pa 'jig rten gyi rjes su mthun par 'jug pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryalokānuvartana­nāmamahāyānasūtra

Title variants

• 'phags pa dad pa'i stobs bskyed pa la 'jug pa'i phyag rgya zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryaśraddhā­balādhānāvatāramudrā­nāmamahāyānasūtra
• 信力入印法門經

Title variants

• 'phags pa nges pa dang ma nges par 'gro ba'i phyag rgya la 'jug pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryaniyatāniyatagati­mudrāvatāra­nāmamahāyānasūtra

Title variants

• 'phags pa chos kyi phyag rgya zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryadharmamudrānāmamahāyānasūtra

Title variants

• 'phags pa mar me 'bul ba zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryapradīpadānīya­nāmamahāyānasūtra

Title variants

• 'phags pa grong khyer gyis 'tsho ba zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryanāgarāvalambikā­nāmamahāyānasūtra

Title variants

• zas kyi 'tsho ba rnam par dag pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo

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”

Title variants

• 'phags pa sgra chen po zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryamahāraṇanāmamahāyānasūtra

Title variants

• 'phags pa seng ge'i sgra bsgrags pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryasiṃhanādikana­nāmamahāyānasūtra

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

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”

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

Title variants

• 'phags pa sor mo'i phreng ba la phan pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryāṅgulimālīyanāmamahāyānasūtra
• 'phags pa sor mo'i phreng ba la phan pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• 央掘魔羅經

Title variants

• rgyal po la gdams pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• rājādeśanāmamahāyānasūtra

Title variants

• rgyal po la gdams pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• rājādeśanāmamahāyānasūtra

Title variants

• 'phags pa ma skyes dgra'i 'gyod pa bsal ba zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryājātaśatru­kaukṛttyavinodana­nāmamahāyānasūtra
• 阿闍世懺悔經
• (大正藏：文殊支利普照三昧經)

Title variants

• 'phags pa dpal sbas zhes bya ba'i mdo
• āryaśrīguptanāmasūtra
• The Sūtra of Śrīgupta
• Śrīguptasūtra

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

Title variants

• 'phags pa las kyi sgrib pa rgyun gcod pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryakarmāvaraṇa­pratipraśrabdhi­nāmamahāyānasūtra

Title variants

• sangs rgyas kyi sde snod tshul khrims 'chal pa tshar gcod pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• buddhapiṭaka­duḥśīlanigraha­nāmamahāyānasūtra
• 佛藏斷除敗壞戒律經

Title variants

• 'phags pa rgyal po la gdams pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryarājāvavādakanāmamahāyānasūtra

Title variants

• 'phags pa rnga bo che chen po'i le'u zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryamahābherīhāraka­parivarta­nāmamahāyānasūtra

Title variants

• 'phags pa sum cu rtsa gsum pa'i le'u zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryatrāyastriṃśat­parivarta­nāmamahāyānasūtra
• 三十三天品經

Title variants

• 'phags pa lhag pa'i bsam pa brtan pa'i le'u zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryasthīrādhyāśaya­parivarta­nāmamahāyānasūtra / āryadṛdhādhyāśayaparivartanāmamahāyānasūtra
• āryasthīrādhyāśaya­parivarta­nāmamahāyānasūtra / āryadṛdhādhyāśaya­parivarta­nāmamahāyānasūtra

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

Title variants

• 'phags pa srid pa 'pho ba zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryabhavasaṃkrānti­nāmamahāyānasūtra

Title variants

• 'phags pa rnam par 'thag pa thams cad bsdus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryasarvavaidalyasaṃgraha­nāmamahāyānasūtra

Title variants

• 'phags pa sangs rgyas bgro ba zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryabuddhasaṅgīti­nāmamahāyānasūtra
• 《佛要集經》 (大正藏：諸佛要集經)

Title variants

• de bzhin gshegs pa bgro ba zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• tathāgatasaṃgītināmamahāyānasūtra
• 如來議論經

Title variants

• 'dus pa chen po theg pa chen po'i mdo sde las de bzhin gshegs pa'i dpal gyi dam tshig ces bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• mahāsaṃnipātād mahāyānasūtrāt tathāgataśrīsamaya­nāmamahāyānasūtra

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）

Title variants

• 'phags pa sprin chen po zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryamahāmeghanāmamahāyānasūtra
• 大雲經
• （大正藏：大方等無想經）

Title variants

• 'phags pa sprin chen po mdo las phyogs bcu'i byang chub sems dpa' rgya mtsho 'dus pa'i dga' ston chen po la rtse ba zhes bya ba'i le'u
• āryamahāmeghasūtrād daśadigbodhisattva­samudrasaṃnipāta­mahotsavavikrīḍita­nāmaparivarta
• 大雲經
• （大正藏：大方等無想經）

Title variants

• 'phags pa sprin chen po rlung gi dkyil 'khor gyi le'u klu thams cad kyi snying po zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryamahāmeghavāyumaṇḍala­parivartasarva­nāgahṛdaya­nāmamahāyānasūtra
• [Note: the Sanskrit titles of Toh 658 and 1064 have °vātu° instead of °vāyu°]
• klu thams cad kyi snying po theg pa chen po mdo/
• The Mahāyāna Sūtra, Essence of All the Nāgas
• mahāmeghavātamaṇḍala­sarvanāgahṛdaya
• 'phags pa sprin chen po rlung gi dkyil 'khor gyi le'u klu thams cad kyi snying po zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo/
• āryamahāmeghavātamaṇḍala­sarvanāgahṛdayanāma­mahāyānasūtra
• āryamahāmeghavāyumaṇḍalaparivartasarvanāgahṛdayanāmamahāyānasūtra
• [Note: the Sanskrit title of Toh 234 has °vātu° instead of °vāyu°]
• The Sūtra of the Essence of All the Nāgas, The Great Cloud Chapter on the Maṇḍala of Wind
• mahāmeghavāta­maṇḍalasarva­nāgahṛdayasūtra
• 'phags pa sprin chen po rlung gi dkyil 'khor gyi le'u klu thams cad kyi snying po zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo/
• āryamahāmeghavāta­maṇḍala­sarvanāgahṛdaya­nāmamahāyānasūtra
• āryamahāmeghavāyumaṇḍalaparivartasarvanāgahṛdayanāmamahāyānasūtra
• [Note: the Sanskrit title of Toh 234 has °vātu° instead of °vāyu°]

Title variants

• 'phags pa sprin chen po
• āryamahāmegha
• 'phags pa sprin chen po/
• āryamahāmegha
• 'phags pa sprin chen po/
• āryamahāmegha

Title variants

• bcom ldan 'das kyi gtsug gtor chen po de bzhin gshegs pa'i gsang ba sgrub pa'i don mngon par thob pa'i rgyu byang chub sems dpa' thams cad kyi spyod pa dpa' bar 'gro ba'i mdo le'u stong phrag bcu pa las le'u bcu pa
• The Tenth Chapter from Amongst the Ten Thousand Chapters of the Sūtra on the Heroic Way of Practice of all the Bodhisattvas which is the Cause for Attaining the Goal of Realizing the Secrets of the Tathāgatas, the Great Diadem of the Blessed Ones

Title variants

• (no Sanskrit title, translated from part of Chinese Śūraṃgamasūtra)
• gtsug gtor chen po bam po dgu pa las bdud kyi le'u nyi tshe phyung ba
• A Minor Chapter on Demons, Extracted from 'The Great Diadem,' Book Nine

Title variants

• 'phags pa chos yang dag par sdud pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryadharmasaṅgīti­nāmamahāyānasūtra
• 法集經
• （大正藏：佛說法集經）

Title variants

• 'dus pa chen po las sa'i snying po 'khor lo bcu pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• From the Great Collection, the Mahāyāna Sūtra 'The Ten Wheels of Kṣitigarbha'

Title variants

• 'phags pa phyir mi ldog pa'i 'khor lo zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryāvaivartacakra­nāmamahāyānasūtra
• 不退轉輪經
• （大正藏：佛說廣博嚴淨不退轉輪經）

Title variants

• 'phags pa ting nge 'dzin gyi 'khor lo zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• samādhicakranāmamahāyānasūtra
• [Note: translated from Chinese, the equivalent of Toh 118 translated from Sanskrit (Saerji, ARIRIAB-14).]

Title variants

• 'phags pa yongs su bsngo ba'i 'khor lo zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• pariṇatacakranāmamahāyānasūtra
• pariṇāmacakrasūtra
• [Note: the content is almost the same as Toh 809, see Saerji ARIRIAB-14.]

Title variants

• dam pa'i chos kyi rgyal po theg pa chen po'i mdo
• saddharmarājamahāyānasūtra

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

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

Title variants

• 'phags pa don dam pa'i chos kyi rnam par rgyal ba zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryaparamārtha­dharmavijaya­nāmamahāyānasūtra

Summary

There are two main themes in Distinguishing Phenomena and What Is Meaningful. One is in the narrative structure: 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, 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

Title variants

• byang chub sems dpa'i so sor thar pa chos bzhi sgrub pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• bodhisattvapratimokṣa­catuṣkanirhāra­nāmamahāyānasūtra

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”

Title variants

• caturdharmakasūtra

Title variants

• 'phags pa chos bzhi pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryacaturdharmaka­nāmamahāyānasūtra

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 the Brahmā god 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།

Title variants

• chos gsum pa zhes bya ba'i mdo
• tridharmakanāmasūtra

Title variants

• 'phags pa chos kyi rgyal mtshan gyi mdo theg pa chen pa'o
• āryadharmaketumahāyānasūtra

Title variants

• theg pa chen po'i mdo chos rgya mtsho zhes bya ba
• dharmasamudranāmamahāyānasūtra

Title variants

• chos kyi rgya mo/ sangs rgyas rnam par snang mdzad kyis byang chub sems dpa'i sems kyi gnas bshad pa le'u bcu
• The Seal of the Dharma: the Ten Chapters of the Explanation by Buddha Vairocana of the State of Mind of Bodhisattvas

Title variants

• 'phags pa shin tu rgyas pa chen po'i sde nyi ma'i snying po zhes bya ba'i mdo
• The Very Extensive Sūtra 'The Quintessence of the Sun'
• āryasūryagarbhamahāvaipulyasūtra
• 大方廣日藏經
• (大正藏：大乘大方等日藏經)

Title variants

• 'phags pa de bzhin gshegs pa'i snying po zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryatathāgatagarbha­nāmamahāyānasūtra

Title variants

• 'phags pa yi ge med pa'i za ma tog rnam par snang mdzad kyi snying po zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryanakṣarakaraṇḍavairocana­garbha­nāmamahāyānasūtra

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

Title variants

• 'phags pa thabs mkhas pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryopāyakauśalyanāmamahāyānasūtra
• upāyakauśalya

Title variants

• 'phags pa yang dag par spyod pa'i tshul nam mkha'i mdog gis 'dul ba'i bzod pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryasamyagācāravṛtta­gaganavarṇavinayakṣānti­nāmamahāyānasūtra

Title variants

• 'phags pa thar pa chen po phyogs su rgyas pa 'gyod tshangs kyis sdig sbyangs te sangs rgyas su grub par rnam par bkod pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo

Title variants

• (no Sanskrit title, translated from the Chinese)
• 'phags pa rtogs pa chen po yongs su rgyas pa'i mdo las/ phyag 'tshal ba'i cho ga dang / mtshan nas brjod pa'i yon tan gyi gling gzhi dang / dus gsum gyi de bzhin gshegs pa rnams kyi mtshan dang / mdo sde bcu gnyis dang / byang chub sems dpa' rnams kyi mtshan nas brjod cing phyag 'tshal ba dang / bshags pa'i le'u rnams 'byung ba nyi tshe bcos shing bsgyur ba
• The Minor Chapters on the Rituals of Homage and the Clearing away of Remorse from the Sūtra of the Great Realization
• Mahāsamayavaipulya (Mahādigama)

Title variants

• 'phags pa me tog gi tshogs zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryakusumasañcaya­nāmamahāyānasūtra

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

Title variants

• 'phags pa bsam gyis mi khyab pa'i rgyal po'i mdo zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryācintyarājasūtra­nāmamahāyānasūtra
• [Note: an independent translation of a text also found as chapter 37 of the Buddhāvataṃsaka (Toh 44), and Toh 104.]

Title variants

• 'phags pa phyogs bcu'i mun pa rnam par sel ba zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryadaśadigandha­kāravidhvaṃsana­nāmamahāyānasūtra

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

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

Title variants

• sangs rgyas bcu pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• daśabuddhakanāmamahāyānasūtra

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

Title variants

• 'phags pa sangs rgyas kyi dbu rgyan zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo chos kyi rnam grangs chen po
• āryabuddhamakuṭanāmamahāyānasūtra

Title variants

• 'phags pa sangs rgyas kyi sa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryabuddhabhūmināmamahāyānasūtra

Title variants

• 'phags pa sangs rgyas mi spang pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryabuddhākṣepana­nāmamahāyānasūtra

Title variants

• 'phags pa dkyil 'khor brgyad pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryāṣṭamaṇḍalakanāmamahāyānasūtra

Title variants

• 'phags pa bkra shis brgyad pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryamaṃgalāṣṭakanāmamahāyānasūtra

Title variants

• 'phags pa sangs rgyas rjes su dran pa
• āryabuddhānusmṛti

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

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

Title variants

• 'phags pa phung po gsum pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
• āryatriskandhakanāmamahāyānasūtra

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།

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”

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 what to answer, 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།

Title variants

• mdo chen sgyu ma'i dra ba zhes bya ba
• māyājālanāmamahāsūtra

Title variants

• mdo chen po gzugs can snying pos bsu ba zhes bya ba
• bimbisārapratyudgamana­nāmamahāsūtra
• Bimbisārapratyudgamanamahāsūtra

Title variants

• mdo chen po stong pa nyid ces bya ba
• śūnyatānāmamahāsutra

Title variants

• mdo chen po stong pa nyid chen po zhes bya ba
• mahāśūnyatānāmamahāsūtra

Title variants

• mdo chen po rgyal mtshan mchog ces bya ba
• dhvajāgranāmamahāsūtra

Title variants

• mdo chen po rgyal mtshan dam pa zhes bya ba
• dhvajāgranāmamahāsūtraṃ

Title variants

• mdo chen po lnga gsum pa zhes bya ba
• pañcatrayanāmamahāsūtra

Title variants

• 'phags pa rdo 'phangs pa'i mdo
• āryaśilākṣiptasūtra

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.

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

Title variants

• dge slong la rab tu gces pa'i mdo zhes bya ba
• bhikṣupriyasūtranāma

Title variants

• tshul khrims yang dag par ldan pa'i mdo

Title variants

• (no Sanskrit title, translated from the Chinese)

Title variants

• rnam par grol ba'i lam las sbyangs pa'i yon tan bstan pa zhes bya ba
• vimuktimārgadhutaguṇanirdeśanāma
• [Note: this is a translation of chapter 3 of the Pāli Vimuttimagga, and is therefore an extract of a treatise; it is not known why it was included in the Kangyur.]

Title variants

• tshe'i mtha'/
• The Limits of Life's Duration
• Āyuṣparyanta

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

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

Title variants

• 'phags pa 'du shes bcu gcig bstan pa'i mdo
• āryasaṃjñānaikadaśanirdeśasūtra
• [Note: almost identical to the text ‘du shes bcu bstan pa’i mdo / Daśasaṃjñānanirdeśa, found in the Narthang (N 788), Lhasa (H 314) and sTog Palace (277) Kangyurs and which, despite its title, lists eleven attitudes.]

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

Title variants

• 'phags pa mtshan mo bzang po zhes bya ba'i mdo
• āryabhadrakarātrīnāmasūtra
• 'phags pa mtshan mo bzang po zhes bya ba'i mdo/
• āryabhadrarātrīnāmasūtra
• 'phags pa mtshan mo bzang po zhes bya ba'i mdo/
• āryabhadrakarātrīnāmasūtra

Title variants

• mun gyi nags tshal gyi sgo zhes bya ba'i mdo
• tamovanamukhanāmasūtra