Published Translations
For quick and easy access, this list gathers into a single page the texts completed and published so far, as well as showing which sections of the Kangyur they are found in.
| Publications: 322 | Total Pages: 23,525 |
All Published Translations
The Chapter on Going Forth
རབ་ཏུ་འབྱུང་བའི་གཞི། · rab tu ’byung ba’i gzhi
Pravrajyāvastu
Summary
“The Chapter on Going Forth” is the first of seventeen chapters in The Chapters on Monastic Discipline, a four-volume work that outlines the statutes and procedures that govern life in a Buddhist monastic community. This first chapter traces the development of the rite by which postulants were admitted into the monastic order, from the Buddha Śākyamuni’s informal invitation to “Come, monk,” to the more elaborate “Present Day Rite.” Along the way, the posts of preceptor and instructor are introduced, their responsibilities defined, and a dichotomy between elders and immature novices described. While the heart of the chapter is a transcript of the “Present Day Rite,” the text is interwoven with numerous narrative asides, depicting the spiritual ferment of the north Indian region of Magadha during the Buddha’s lifetime, the follies of untrained and unsupervised apprentices, and the need for a formal system of tutelage.
Title variants
- “The Chapter on Going Forth” from The Chapters on Monastic Discipline
- Vinayavastu Pravrajyāvastu
- ’dul ba gzhi las/ rab tu ’byung ba’i gzhi
- འདུལ་བ་གཞི་ལས། རབ་ཏུ་འབྱུང་བའི་གཞི།
- 《 律儀根本 》 之《出家根本》
Tibetan translation:
- Palgyi Lhünpo
- Sarvajñādeva
- Vidyākaraprabha
- Dharmākara
- Paltsek
The Chapter on Medicines
སྨན་གྱི་གཞི། · sman gyi gzhi
Bhaiṣajyavastu
Summary
The Bhaiṣajyavastu, “The Chapter on Medicines,” is a part of the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya, the corpus of monastic law of one of the most influential Buddhist schools in India. This chapter deals with monastic regulations about medicines. At the same time, it also includes various elements not restricted to such rules: stories of the Buddha and his disciples, a lengthy story of the Buddha’s journey for the purpose of quelling an epidemic and converting a nāga, a number of stories of the Buddha’s former lives narrated by the Buddha himself, and a series of verses recited by the Buddha and his disciples about their former lives. Thus, this chapter preserves not only interesting information about medical knowledge shared by ancient Indian Buddhist monastics but also an abundance of Buddhist narrative literature.
Title variants
- “The Chapter on Medicines” from The Chapters on Monastic Discipline
- Vinayavastuni Bhaiṣajyavastu
- ’dul ba gzhi las/ sman gyi gzhi
- འདུལ་བ་གཞི་ལས། སྨན་གྱི་གཞི།
- 藥事
- 《 律儀根本 》 之《藥本事》
Tibetan translation:
- Palgyi Lhünpo
- Sarvajñādeva
- Vidyākaraprabha
- Dharmākara
- Paltsek
The Perfection of Wisdom in Twenty-Five Thousand Lines
ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་སྟོང་ཕྲག་ཉི་ཤུ་ལྔ་པ། · shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa stong phrag nyi shu lnga pa
Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikāprajñāpāramitā
Summary
The Perfection of Wisdom in Twenty-Five Thousand Lines is among the most important scriptures underlying both the “vast” and the “profound” approaches to Buddhist thought and practice. Known as the “middle-length” version, being the second longest of the three long Perfection of Wisdom sūtras, it fills three volumes of the Kangyur. Like the two other long sūtras, it records the major teaching on the perfection of wisdom given by the Buddha Śākyamuni on Vulture Peak, detailing all aspects of the path to enlightenment while at the same time emphasizing how bodhisattvas must put them into practice without taking them—or any aspects of enlightenment itself—as having even the slightest true existence.
Title variants
- The Noble Perfection of Wisdom in Twenty-Five Thousand Lines
- Āryapañcaviṃśatisāhasrikāprajñāpāramitā
- འཕགས་པ་ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་སྟོང་ཕྲག་ཉི་ཤུ་ལྔ་པ།
- ’phags pa shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa stong phrag nyi shu lnga pa
- ཉི་ཁྲི།
- nyi khri
- yum bar ma
- sher phyin stong phrag nyi shu lnga pa/
- sher phyin nyi khri lnga stong/
- 《般若波羅密多二萬五千頌》
The Perfection of Wisdom in Eighteen Thousand Lines
ཤེར་ཕྱིན་ཁྲི་བརྒྱད་སྟོང་པ། · sher phyin khri brgyad stong pa
Aṣṭādaśasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitā
Summary
The Perfection of Wisdom in Eighteen Thousand Lines is one version of the Long Perfection of Wisdom sūtras that developed in South and South-Central Asia in tandem with the Eight Thousand version, probably during the first five hundred years of the Common Era. It contains many of the passages in the oldest extant Long Perfection of Wisdom text (the Gilgit manuscript in Sanskrit), and is similar in structure to the other versions of the Long Perfection of Wisdom sūtras (the One Hundred Thousand and Twenty-Five Thousand) in Tibetan in the Kangyur. While setting forth the sacred fundamental doctrines of Buddhist practice with veneration, it simultaneously exhorts the reader to reject them as an object of attachment, its recurring message being that all dharmas without exception lack any intrinsic nature.
The sūtra can be divided loosely into three parts: an introductory section that sets the scene, a long central section, and three concluding chapters that consist of two important summaries of the long central section. The first of these (chapter 84) is in verse and also circulates as a separate work called The Verse Summary of the Jewel Qualities (Toh 13). The second summary is in the form of the story of Sadāprarudita and his guru Dharmodgata (chapters 85 and 86), after which the text concludes with the Buddha entrusting the work to his close companion Ānanda.
Title variants
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Perfection of Wisdom in Eighteen Thousand Lines”
- Āryāṣṭādaśasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitānāmamahāyānasūtra
- འཕགས་པ་ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་ཁྲི་བརྒྱད་སྟོང་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa khri brgyad stong pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- 《般若波羅蜜多一萬八千頌》（大正藏：《大般若波羅蜜多經第三會》）
Tibetan translation:
- Jinamitra
- Surendrabodhi
- Yeshé Dé
The Transcendent Perfection of Wisdom in Ten Thousand Lines
ཤེས་ཕྱིན་ཁྲི་པ། · shes phyin khri pa
Daśasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitā
Summary
While dwelling at Vulture Peak near Rājagṛha, the Buddha sets in motion the sūtras that are the most extensive of all—the sūtras on the Prajñāpāramitā, or “Transcendent Perfection of Wisdom.” Committed to writing around the start of the first millennium, these sūtras were expanded and contracted in the centuries that followed, eventually amounting to twenty-three volumes in the Tibetan Kangyur. Among them, The Transcendent Perfection of Wisdom in Ten Thousand Lines is a compact and coherent restatement of the longer versions, uniquely extant in Tibetan translation, without specific commentaries, and rarely studied. While the structure generally follows that of the longer versions, chapters 1–2 conveniently summarize all three hundred and sixty-seven categories of phenomena, causal and fruitional attributes which the sūtra examines in the light of wisdom or discriminative awareness. Chapter 31 and the final chapter 33 conclude with an appraisal of irreversible bodhisattvas, the pitfalls of rejecting this teaching, and the blessings that accrue from committing it to writing.
Title variants
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Transcendent Perfection of Wisdom in Ten Thousand Lines”
- Āryadaśasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitānāmamahāyānasūtra
- འཕགས་པ་ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་ཁྲི་པ་ཤེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa khri pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- 《般若波羅密多萬頌》
Tibetan translation:
- Jinamitra
- Prajñāvarman
- Yeshé Dé
The Perfection of Wisdom “Kauśika”
ཤེར་ཕྱིན་ཀཽ་ཤི་ཀ · sher phyin kau shi ka
Kauśikaprajñāpāramitā
Summary
The Perfection of Wisdom “Kauśika” is a condensed prajñāpāramitā sūtra in which the Buddha summarizes the various meanings of the perfection of wisdom. In particular, the Buddha equates the characteristics of the perfection of wisdom with the characteristics of all phenomena, the five aggregates, the five elements, and the ten perfections. In this way, the sūtra places particular emphasis on the nonduality of conventional phenomena and emptiness.
Title variants
- The Noble Perfection of Wisdom “Kauśika”
- āryakauśikaprajñāpāramitā
- འཕགས་པ་ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་ཀཽ་ཤི་ཀ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ།
- ’phags pa shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa kau shi ka zhes bya ba
- 佛說帝釋般若波羅蜜多心經
The Heart of the Perfection of Wisdom, the Blessed Mother
བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་མ་ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པའི་སྙིང་པོ། · bcom ldan ’das ma shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa’i snying po
Bhagavatīprajñāpāramitāhṛdaya
Summary
In this famous scripture, known popularly as The Heart Sūtra, the Buddha Śākyamuni inspires his senior monk Śāriputra to request instructions from the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara on the way to practice the perfection of wisdom. Avalokiteśvara then describes how an aspiring practitioner of the perfection of wisdom must first understand how all phenomena lack an intrinsic nature, which amounts to the realization of emptiness. Next, Avalokiteśvara reveals a brief mantra that the practitioner can recite as a method for engendering this understanding experientially. Following Avalokiteśvara’s teaching, the Buddha offers his endorsement and confirms that this is the foremost way to practice the perfection of wisdom.
Title variants
- The Heart of the Illustrious Perfection of Wisdom
- The Heart Sūtra
- The Essence of the Perfection of Wisdom
- shes rab kyi snying po
- 《薄伽梵母般若波羅蜜多心經》（大正藏：《佛說聖佛母般若波羅蜜多經》）
Tibetan translation:
- Vimalamitra
- Rinchen Dé
- Gelo
- Namkha
The Sūryagarbha Perfection of Wisdom
ཤེར་ཕྱིན་ཉི་མའི་སྙིང་པོ། · sher phyin nyi ma’i snying po
Sūryagarbhaprajñāpāramitā
Summary
The Sūryagarbha Perfection of Wisdom is a condensed prajñāpāramitā sūtra in the form of a dialogue between the Buddha and the bodhisattva Sūryaprabhāsa, who asks the Buddha how bodhisattvas skilled in means should train themselves in the perfection of wisdom. In response, the Buddha explains that a bodhisattva should train in a meditative stability called the sun or the sun skilled in means, elaborating upon the qualities of this meditative stability using the analogy of the sun in terms of seven qualities. He then further describes the training of the bodhisattva in the perfection of wisdom as training concerning the true nature of all phenomena, which is characterized in familiar terms found in the long prajñāpāramitā sūtras. It is also described in terms of the various designations for ultimate truth. Finally, the Buddha enumerates the characteristics of the one who trains in the perfection of wisdom, ending with a verse of instruction.
Title variants
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Sūryagarbha Perfection of Wisdom”
- Āryaprajñāpāramitāsūryagarbhamahāyānasūtra
- འཕགས་པ་ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་ཉི་མའི་སྙིང་པོ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa nyi ma’i snying po theg pa chen po’i mdo
The Candragarbha Perfection of Wisdom
ཤེར་ཕྱིན་ཟླ་བའི་སྙིང་པོ། · sher phyin zla ba’i snying po
Candragarbhaprajñāpāramitā
Summary
The Candragarbha Perfection of Wisdom is a condensed prajñāpāramitā sūtra that takes the form of a dialogue between the Buddha and the bodhisattva Candragarbha. In response to Candragarbha’s question about how bodhisattvas should train themselves in the perfection of wisdom, the Buddha declares that the perfection of wisdom lies in the understanding that all phenomena are devoid of entities, using the analogy of the moon to clarify the meaning of this declaration. Candragarbha then asks the Buddha how many kinds of perfection of wisdom exist for bodhisattvas. The Buddha answers by describing two types of perfection of wisdom, “contaminated” and “uncontaminated,” and he elucidates the nature of the perfection of wisdom with reference to the ultimate nature of all phenomena. At the end of this discourse, the Buddha presents a mantra of the perfection of wisdom, followed by a summary verse.
Title variants
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Candragarbha Perfection of Wisdom”
- Āryacandragarbhaprajñāpāramitāmahāyānasūtra
- འཕགས་པ་ཟླ་བའི་སྙིང་པོ་ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa zla ba’i snying po shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa theg pa chen po’i mdo
The Samantabhadra Perfection of Wisdom
ཤེར་ཕྱིན་ཀུན་ཏུ་བཟང་པོ། · sher phyin kun tu bzang po
Samantabhadraprajñāpāramitā
Summary
In a retreat place in Magadha, the Buddha Śākyamuni and the bodhisattva Samantabhadra, surrounded by many bodhisattvas, perform miracles in a meditative absorption. The bodhisattva Samantabhadra asks the Buddha to distinguish between two levels of the perfection of wisdom. In response, the Buddha Śākyamuni gives definitions of these two levels. This sūtra is one of the short prajñāpāramitā sūtras, and it belongs especially to the category related to the five bodhisattvas: Sūryagarbha, Candragarbha, Samantabhadra, Vajrapāṇi, and Vajraketu. Despite its brevity, it echoes other sūtras that feature the figure of Samantabhadra and the distinguishing of two types of wisdom.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་ཀུན་ཏུ་བཟང་པོ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa kun tu bzang po theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Samantabhadra Perfection of Wisdom”
- Āryaprajñāpāramitāsamantabhadramahāyānasūtra
- shes rab kun bzang gi mdo
- ’phags pa shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa kun tu bzang po’i mdo
The Sūtra of the Sun
ཉི་མའི་མདོ། · nyi ma’i mdo
Sūryasūtra
Summary
The Sūtra of the Sun is a short discourse providing a Buddhist account of a solar eclipse. On one occasion while the Buddha is residing in Śrāvastī, the sun is seized by Rāhu, lord of the asuras, which causes an eclipse. The god of the sun asks the Buddha for refuge, after which the Buddha urges Rāhu to release the sun. When questioned by Vemacitra, another lord of the asuras, Rāhu explains that if he had not let the sun go, his head would have split into seven pieces. This sūtra enjoys some popularity today and appears in Tibetan collections of mantras and texts for protection.
The Sūtra of the Moon (1)
ཟླ་བའི་མདོ། · zla ba’i mdo
Candrasūtra
Summary
The Sūtra of the Moon (1) is a short discourse providing a Buddhist account of a lunar eclipse. On one occasion while the Buddha is residing in Śrāvastī, the moon is seized by Rāhu, lord of the asuras, which causes an eclipse. The god of the moon asks the Buddha for refuge, after which the Buddha urges Rāhu to release the moon. When questioned by Vemacitra, another lord of the asuras, Rāhu explains that if he had not let the moon go, his head would have split into seven pieces. This sūtra enjoys some popularity today and appears in Tibetan collections of mantras and texts for protection.
The Ten Bhūmis
ས་བཅུ་པ། · sa bcu pa
Daśabhūmika
Summary
After his attainment of buddhahood, the Buddha Śākyamuni is present in many locations simultaneously. The Ten Bhūmis takes place two weeks after his enlightenment, while he is sitting silently in meditation in the central palace in the highest paradise of the desire realm. Countless bodhisattvas have assembled there. Through the power of the Buddha, the bodhisattva Vajragarbha enters samādhi and is blessed by countless buddhas, also named Vajragarbha, to give a Dharma teaching to the bodhisattvas. In response to the questions of the bodhisattva Vimukticandra, Vajragarbha describes successively the ten bhūmis of a bodhisattva. Countless bodhisattvas arrive and report that this same event is occurring simultaneously in the highest paradises of all other worlds. The Buddha is pleased by Vajragarbha’s teaching.
Title variants
- The Ten Bhūmis Chapter from the Mahāvaipulya Sūtra “A Multitude of Buddhas”
- Buddhāvataṃsakanāmamahāvaipulyasūtrāt daśabhūmikaḥ paṭalaḥ
- ཤིན་ཏུ་རྒྱས་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ་སངས་རྒྱས་ཕལ་པོ་ཆེ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ལས་ས་བཅུ་པའི་ལེའུ།
- shin tu rgyas pa chen po’i mdo sangs rgyas phal po che zhes bya ba las sa bcu pa’i le’u
- āryabodhisattvadaśabhūmika
- ’phags pa byang chub sems dpa’i sa bcu
- 《華嚴經 》之《十地品》
Tibetan translation:
- Yeshé Dé
- Jinamitra
- Surendrabodhi
The Chapter on the Scale of Life
ཚེའི་ཚད་ཀྱི་ལེའུ། · tshe’i tshad kyi le’u
Summary
The bodhisattva King of Mind gives a teaching to an assembly of bodhisattvas on the relativity of time among different buddhafields. Eleven buddhafields are enumerated, with an eon in the first being equivalent to a day in the following buddhafield, where an eon is, in turn, the equivalent of a day in the next, and so forth.
Title variants
- “The Scale of Life,” Chapter 37 of the Extensive Sūtra “The Ornaments of the Buddhas”
- ཤིན་ཏུ་རྒྱས་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ་སངས་རྒྱས་ཕལ་པོ་ཆེ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ལས་ཚེའི་ཚད་ཀྱི་ལེའུ་སྟེ་སུམ་ཅུ་བདུན་པ།
- shin tu rgyas pa chen po’i mdo sangs rgyas phal po che zhes bya ba las tshe’i tshad kyi le’u ste sum cu bdun pa
- 《華嚴經 》之《壽量品》
- tshe tshad le’u
Tibetan translation:
- Jinamitra
- Surendrabodhi
- Yeshé Dé
The Dwellings of Bodhisattvas
བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་གནས། · byang chub sems dpa’i gnas
Summary
The Dwellings of Bodhisattvas is the thirty-eighth of the forty-five chapters in The Ornaments of the Buddhas. As the title indicates, the focus of this chapter is the locations of bodhisattvas. It enumerates twenty-three dwelling places, giving the names of the bodhisattvas who reside in the first nine while omitting the names of those who reside in the remaining fourteen.
Title variants
- shin tu rgyas pa chen po’i mdo sangs rgyas phal po che zhes bya ba las byang chub sems pa’i gnas kyi le’u ste sum cu brgyad pa
- ཤིན་ཏུ་རྒྱས་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ་སངས་རྒྱས་ཕལ་པོ་ཆེ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ལས་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་པའི་གནས་ཀྱི་ལེའུ་སྟེ་སུམ་ཅུ་བརྒྱད་པ།
- “The Dwellings of Bodhisattvas,” Chapter 38 of the Extensive Sūtra “The Ornaments of the Buddhas”
- 《華嚴經 》之《菩薩住處品》
The Stem Array
སྡོང་པོས་བརྒྱན་པ། · sdong pos brgyan pa
Gaṇḍavyūha
Summary
In this lengthy final chapter of the Avataṃsaka Sūtra, while the Buddha Śākyamuni is in meditation in Śrāvastī, Mañjuśrī leaves for South India, where he meets the young layman Sudhana and instructs him to go to a certain kalyāṇamitra or “good friend,” who then directs Sudhana to another such friend. In this way, Sudhana successively meets and receives teachings from fifty male and female, child and adult, human and divine, and monastic and lay kalyāṇamitras, including night goddesses surrounding the Buddha and the Buddha’s wife and mother. The final three in the succession of kalyāṇamitras are the three bodhisattvas Maitreya, Mañjuśrī, and Samantabhadra. Samantabhadra’s recitation of the Samantabhadracaryāpraṇidhāna (“The Prayer for Completely Good Conduct”) concludes the sūtra.
Title variants
- “The Stem Array” Chapter from the Mahāvaipulya Sūtra “A Multitude of Buddhas”
- Buddhāvataṃsakanāmamahāvaipulyasūtrāt gaṇḍavyūhasūtraḥ paṭalaḥ
- ཤིན་ཏུ་རྒྱས་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ་སངས་རྒྱས་ཕལ་པོ་ཆེ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ལས་སྡོང་པོས་བརྒྱན་པའི་ལེའུ་སྟེ་བཞི་བཅུ་རྩ་ལྔ་པའོ།
- shin tu rgyas pa chen po’i mdo sangs rgyas phal po che zhes bya ba las sdong pos brgyan pa’i le’u ste bzhi bcu rtsa lnga pa’o
- ’phags pa sdong po bkod pa’i mdo
- 入法界品
- 《華嚴經 》之《入法界品》
Tibetan translation:
- Surendrabodhi
- Vairocanarakṣita
- Bandé Yeshé Dé
- Jinamitra
The Chapter Teaching the Purification of Boundless Gateways
སྒོ་མཐའ་ཡས་པ་རྣམ་པར་སྦྱོང་བ་བསྟན་པའི་ལེའུ། · sgo mtha’ yas pa rnam par sbyong ba bstan pa’i le’u
Anantamukhapariśodhananirdeśaparivarta
Summary
The Chapter Teaching the Purification of Boundless Gateways consists of an extended discourse presented by the Buddha to his bodhisattva disciple Anantavyūha. The instruction consists of a so-called dhāraṇī gateway, a teaching that involves a series of dhāraṇī spells, which are interspersed throughout. The teaching is generally concerned with well-known Mahāyāna Buddhist themes, ranging from the lack of inherent identity to the qualities of complete awakening, but these topics are here presented within a larger exegesis on the meaning of the dhāraṇī gateway.
Title variants
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Chapter Teaching the Purification of Boundless Gateways”
- Āryānantamukhapariśodhananirdeśaparivartanāmamahāyānasūtra
- ’phags pa sgo mtha’ yas pa rnam par sbyong ba bstan pa’i le’u zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- འཕགས་པ་སྒོ་མཐའ་ཡས་པ་རྣམ་པར་སྦྱོང་བ་བསྟན་པའི་ལེའུ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- Āryānantamukhaviśodhananirdeśanāmamahāyānasūtra
- Anantamukhaviśodhananirdeśa
- Anantamukhaviśodhananirdeśasūtra
- 《淨化無量門經》（大正藏：《大寳積經無邊莊嚴會》）
Tibetan translation:
- Kawa Paltsek (under the name Paltsek Rakṣita)
- Surendrabodhi
The Secrets of the Realized Ones
དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་གསང་བ། · de bzhin gshegs pa’i gsang ba
Tathāgataguhya
Summary
In this sūtra, the narrative largely revolves around the figures of Vajrapāṇi, the yakṣa lord and constant companion of the Buddha, and the Buddha himself. In the first half of the sūtra, Vajrapāṇi gives a series of teachings on the mysteries or secrets of the body, speech, and mind of bodhisattvas and the realized ones. In the second half of the sūtra, Vajrapāṇi describes several events in the Buddha’s life: his practice of severe asceticism, his approach to the seat of awakening, his defeat of Māra, his awakening, and his turning of the wheel of Dharma. Following this, the Buddha gives a prediction of Vajrapāṇi’s future awakening as a buddha and travels to Vajrapāṇi’s abode for a meal. Interspersed throughout the sūtra are sermons, dialogues, and marvelous tales exploring a large number of topics and featuring an extensive cast of characters, including several narratives about past lives of Vajrapāṇi, Brahmā Sahāṃpati, and the Buddha himself. The sūtra concludes with the performance of two long dhāraṇīs, one by Vajrapāṇi and one by the Buddha, for the protection and preservation of the Dharma.
Title variants
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Teaching of the Mysteries and Secrets of the Realized Ones”
- Āryatathāgatācintyaguhyanirdeśanāmamahāyānasūtra
- འཕགས་པ་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་གསང་བ་བསམ་གྱིས་མི་ཁྱབ་པ་བསྟན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa de bzhin gshegs pa’i gsang ba bsam gyis mi khyab pa bstan pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- 《如來不可思議秘密經》（大正藏：《大寶積經密迹金剛力士會第三》）
The Teaching of the Armor Array
གོ་ཆའི་བཀོད་པ་བསྟན་པ། · go cha’i bkod pa bstan pa
Varmavyūhanirdeśa
Summary
The Teaching of the Armor Array describes a dialog between the Buddha Śākyamuni and the bodhisattva Anantamati. The sūtra is primarily concerned with the great armor, a quality related to the perfection of insight. As such, it is no conventional sort of armor. Rather, donning it involves giving up all grasping at phenomena, and engaging diligently on the path, with insight into the nature of phenomena. The Buddha and Anantamati also discuss the nature of the Great Vehicle and the great path, all the while emphasizing their emptiness and lack of marks.
Title variants
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Teaching of the Armor Array”
- Āryavarmavyūhanirdeśanāmamahāyānasūtra
- འཕགས་པ་གོ་ཆའི་བཀོད་པ་བསྟན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa go cha’i bkod pa bstan pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- 《被甲莊嚴經》（大正藏：《大寶積經被甲莊嚴會第七》）
Tibetan translation:
- Gö Chödrup
The Teaching on the Indivisible Nature of the Realm of Phenomena
ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས་ཀྱི་རང་བཞིན་དབྱེར་མེད་པ་བསྟན་པ། · chos dbyings rang bzhin dbyer med bstan pa’i mdo
Dharmadhātuprakṛtyasambhedanirdeśa
Summary
While the Buddha is in the Jeta Grove, he asks Mañjuśrī to teach on the nature of reality. Mañjuśrī’s account upsets some of the monks present in the gathering, who subsequently leave. Nevertheless, by means of an emanation, Mañjuśrī skillfully teaches the distraught monks, who return to the Jeta Grove to express their gratitude. The monks explain that their obstacle has been a conceited sense of attainment, of which they are now free. At the request of the god Ratnavara, Mañjuśrī then teaches on nonduality and the nature of the bodhisattva. Next, the Buddha prophesies the future awakening of Ratnavara and other bodhisattvas present in the gathering. However, the prophecies cause Pāpīyān, king of the māras, to appear with his army. In a dramatic course of events, Mañjuśrī uses his transformative power on both Pāpīyān and the Buddha’s pious attendant, Śāradvatīputra, forcing both of them to appear in the form of the Buddha himself. He then makes Pāpīyān and Śāradvatīputra teach the profound Dharma with the perfect mastery of buddhahood. Numerous bodhisattvas appear from the four directions, pledging to practice and uphold the sūtra’s teaching. The Buddha grants his blessing for the continuous transmission of the sūtra among bodhisattvas in the future.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས་ཀྱི་རང་བཞིན་དབྱེར་མེད་པ་བསྟན་པཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa chos kyi dbyings kyi rang bzhin dbyer med pa bstan pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Teaching on the Indivisible Nature of the Realm of Phenomena”
- Āryadharmadhātuprakṛtyasambhedanirdeśanāmamahāyānasūtra
Tibetan translation:
- Jinamitra
- Surendrabodhi
- Yeshé Dé
The Exposition on the Universal Gateway
ཀུན་ནས་སྒོའི་ལེའུ། · kun nas sgo’i le’u
Samantamukhaparivarta
Summary
In The Exposition on the Universal Gateway, the bodhisattva Amalagarbha arrives in this world from a distant pure land to request teachings from the buddha Śākyamuni. The Buddha proceeds to explain to all assembled bodhisattvas, monks, and lay devotees the manner in which the five aggregates are equal to meditative absorption. He also explains how the various classes of beings and all other phenomena are absorption as well. In conclusion, he lists the names of various absorptions and the benefits one obtains upon attaining these states.
Title variants
- ’phags pa kun nas sgo’i le’u zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- འཕགས་པ་ཀུན་ནས་སྒོའི་ལེའུ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Exposition on the Universal Gateway”
- Āryasamantamukhaparivartanāmamahāyānasūtra
Tibetan translation:
- Jinamitra
- Surendrabodhi
- Yeshé Dé
The Teaching on the Effulgence of Light
འོད་ཟེར་ཀུན་དུ་བཀྱེ་བ་བསྟན་པ། · ’od zer kun du bkye ba bstan pa
Raśmisamantamuktanirdeśa
Summary
Initiated by the questions of the bodhisattva Candraprabhakumārabhūta, The Teaching on the Effulgence of Light consists of a series of teachings related to the lights emitted by awakened beings as manifestations of their spiritual achievements. Amid the display of his miraculous powers, the Buddha describes the specific qualities with which each of those lights is associated, and he repeatedly emphasizes the fact that such lights are a natural expression of the insight into the emptiness of all phenomena. The sūtra is also concerned with general themes such as the qualities required by followers of the Great Vehicle and the practice of generosity.
Title variants
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Teaching on the Effulgence of Light”
- Āryaraśmisamantamuktanirdeśanāmamahāyānasūtra
- འཕགས་པ་འོད་ཟེར་ཀུན་དུ་བཀྱེ་བ་བསྟན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa ’od zer kun du bkye ba bstan pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- 《光明徧放經》（大正藏：《大寶積經出現光明會第十一》）
The Teaching to Venerable Nanda on Entry into the Womb
ཚེ་དང་ལྡན་པ་དགའ་བོ་ལ་མངལ་དུ་འཇུག་པ་བསྟན་པ། · tshe dang ldan pa dga’ bo la mngal du ’jug pa bstan pa
Āyuṣmannandagarbhāvakrāntinirdeśa
Summary
In The Teaching to Venerable Nanda on Entry into the Womb, the Buddha gives a detailed account to his half-brother Nanda of the thirty-eight weeks of human gestation. The sūtra explains conception in terms of how the antarābhava (the being in the state between death in one life and birth in the next) enters the womb, and details the physical composition of the embryo, the suffering of the newborn being, and the miseries experienced over the course of a lifetime. Including as it does the most comprehensive ancient Indian account of gestation, it was an important source for embryology in Tibetan medicine.
Title variants
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Teaching to Venerable Nanda on Entry into the Womb”
- Āryāyuṣmannandagarbhāvakrāntinirdeśa
- འཕགས་པ་ཚེ་དང་ལྡན་པ་དགའ་བོ་ལ་མངལ་དུ་འཇུག་པ་བསྟན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa tshe dang ldan pa dga’ bo la mngal du ’jug pa bstan pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- 《為長老難陀說入胎經》（大正藏：《大寶積經佛為阿難說處胎會第十三》）
The Array of Virtues of Mañjuśrī’s Buddha Realm
འཇམ་དཔལ་གྱི་སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་ཞིང་གི་ཡོན་ཏན་བཀོད་པ། · ’jam dpal gyi sangs rgyas kyi zhing gi yon tan bkod pa
Mañjuśrībuddhakṣetraguṇavyūha
Summary
In this sūtra, the Buddha Śākyamuni explains the connection between the bodhisattvas’ aspirations and the virtues of their future buddha realms. He describes the various qualities that help bodhisattvas bring their aspirations to fulfillment. After bodhisattvas arrive from all directions to hear his teachings on the virtues of the buddha realms, the Buddha Śākyamuni recounts the story of how Mañjuśrī first engendered the mind set on awakening. Finally, the Buddha reveals the extraordinary nature of Mañjuśrī’s bodhisattva aspirations, and how they will contribute to the exceptional qualities of his future buddha realm.
Title variants
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Array of Virtues of Mañjuśrī’s Buddha Realm”
- Āryamañjuśrībuddhakṣetraguṇavyūhanāmamahāyānasūtra
- ’phags pa ’jam dpal gyi sangs rgyas kyi zhing gi yon tan bkod pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- འཕགས་པ་འཇམ་དཔལ་གྱི་སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་ཞིང་གི་ཡོན་ཏན་བཀོད་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- 《文殊佛剎功德莊嚴經》（大正藏：《大寶積經文殊師利授記會第十五》）
The Questions of Pūrṇa
གང་པོས་ཞུས་པ། · gang pos zhus pa
Pūrṇaparipṛcchā
Summary
In Veṇuvana, outside Rājagṛha, Pūrṇa Maitrāyaṇīputra asks the Buddha about the conduct of bodhisattvas practicing on the path to awakening. The Buddha replies by describing the attitudes that bodhisattvas must possess as well as their benefits. Then, at the request of Maudgalyāyana, the Buddha recounts several of his past lives in which he himself practiced bodhisattva conduct. At the end of the teaching, the Buddha instructs the assembly about how to deal with specific objections to his teachings that outsiders might raise after he himself has passed into nirvāṇa.
Title variants
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Questions of Pūrṇa”
- Āryapūrṇaparipṛcchānāmamahāyānasūtra
- ’phags pa gang pos zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- འཕགས་པ་གང་གང་པོས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- 《富樓那所問經》 (大正藏：大寶積經富樓那會第十七)
Tibetan translation:
The Questions of Rāṣṭrapāla (1)
ཡུལ་འཁོར་སྐྱོང་གིས་ཞུས་པ། · yul ’khor skyong gis zhus pa
Rāṣṭrapālaparipṛcchā
Summary
The newly ordained monk Rāṣṭrapāla questions the Buddha about the proper conduct of a bodhisattva. The Buddha proceeds to explain its features in detail, giving as examples his own conduct in his multiple past lives. He tells the story of his past life as prince Puṇyaraśmi, who abandoned pleasure, a kingdom, and riches to follow the bodhisattva path to enlightenment for the sake of sentient beings.
Title variants
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Questions of Rāṣṭrapāla (1)”
- Āryarāṣṭrapālaparipṛcchānāmamahāyānasūtra
- འཕགས་པ་ཡུལ་འཁོར་སྐྱོང་གིས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa yul ’khor skyong gis zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- 《護國所問經》（大正藏：《大寶積經護國菩薩會第十八》）
Tibetan translation:
- Jinamitra
- Dānaśīla
- Munivarman
- Bandé Yeshé Dé
The Great Lion’s Roar of Maitreya
བྱམས་པའི་སེང་གེའི་སྒྲ་ཆེན་པོ། · byams pa’i seng ge’i sgra chen po
Maitreyamahāsiṃhanāda
Summary
In this sūtra, Mahākāśyapa poses a series of questions to the Buddha about proper monastic conduct and practice, which the Buddha answers at length. Mahākāśyapa then requests the Buddha to remain in the world in order to safeguard the Dharma, but when the Buddha initially predicts that Mahākāśyapa himself will do so in the future, Mahākāśyapa insists that for the Dharma to remain for long, it must be entrusted to a bodhisattva rather than a śrāvaka. The Buddha then anoints Maitreya and entrusts him with the responsibility of protecting the Dharma in the future. There follows a teaching from the Buddha about those in the future who will falsely claim to be bodhisattvas and about the proper conduct and practice of bodhisattvas, as well as a description from Maitreya of his own practice of the bodhisattva path. When Mahākāśyapa asks the Buddha about those in the future who will be “sham bodhisattvas,” the Buddha offers a series of teachings on the mistaken and blameworthy practice of commercializing the worship of relics, stūpas, and images and seeking to make a living thereby, contrasting this with a monastic’s proper practice of ascetic conduct and meditative inquiry. In addition to the Buddha’s criticism, this sūtra is notable for its memorable analogies, past life narratives, and emphasis on the ascetic practice of the forest-dwelling monastic.
Title variants
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Great Lion’s Roar of Maitreya”
- Āryamaitreyamahāsiṃhanādanāmamahāyānasūtra
- འཕགས་པ་བྱམས་པའི་སེང་གེའི་སྒྲ་ཆེན་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa byams pa’i seng ge’i sgra chen po zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- 《彌勒大獅子吼經》(大正藏：大寶積經摩訶迦葉會第二十三)
Tibetan translation:
- Jinamitra
- Surendrabodhi
- Prajñāvarman
- Bandé Yeshé Dé
Determining the Vinaya: Upāli’s Questions
འདུལ་བ་རྣམ་པར་གཏན་ལ་དབབ་པ་ཉེ་བར་འཁོར་གྱིས་ཞུས་པ། · ’dul ba rnam par gtan la dbab pa nye bar ’khor gyis zhus pa
Vinayaviniścayopāliparipṛcchā
Summary
Determining the Vinaya: Upāli’s Questions is a sūtra focused on the relationship between and integration of the prātimokṣa vows of monastic discipline and the conduct of a bodhisattva who follows the Mahāyāna tradition. The sūtra’s two main interlocutors, Śāriputra and Upāli, query the Buddha about the relationship between these two levels of commitments, eliciting a teaching on the different orientations held by the followers of different Buddhist vehicles and how their different views affect the application of their vows. Determining the Vinaya is a particularly valuable sūtra for its inclusion of a unique form of the confessional “Three Sections” rite, making it one of the few extant canonical sources to describe it at length.
Title variants
- ’phags pa ’dul ba rnam par gtan la dbab pa nye bar ’khor gyis zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- Āryavinayaviniścayopāliparipṛcchānāmamahāyānasūtra
- འཕགས་པ་འདུལ་བ་རྣམ་པར་གཏན་ལ་དབབ་པ་ཉེ་བར་འཁོར་གྱིས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “Determining the Vinaya: Upāli’s Questions”
- Conquering All Beings
- sems can thams cad yang dag par 'joms pa
Inspiring Determination
ལྷག་བསམ་སྐུལ་བ། · lhag bsam skul ba
Adhyāśayasaṃcodana
Summary
Inspiring Determination is directed at reforming the conduct of sixty bodhisattvas who have lost their sense of purpose and confidence in their ability to practice the Dharma. The bodhisattva Maitreya leads them to seek counsel from the Buddha, who explains the causes these bodhisattvas created in former lives that resulted in their current circumstance. They make a commitment to change their ways, which pleases the Buddha, and this leads him to engage in a dialog with the bodhisattva Maitreya on how bodhisattvas, including those in the future age of final degeneration, the final half-millennium, should avoid faults and uphold conduct that accords with the Dharma.
Title variants
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “Inspiring Determination”
- Āryādhyāśayasaṃcodananāmamahāyānasūtra
- ’phags pa lhag pa’i bsam pa bskul ba zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- འཕགས་པ་ལྷག་པའི་བསམ་པ་བསྐུལ་བ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- 《增上意樂促進經》（大正藏：《大寶積經發勝志樂會第二十五》）
Tibetan translation:
- Jinamitra
- Surendrabodhi
- Bandé Yeshé Dé
The Sūtra of the Question of Subāhu
ལག་བཟངས་ཀྱིས་ཞུས་པའི་མདོ། · lag bzangs kyis zhus pa’i mdo
Subāhuparipṛcchāsūtra
Summary
In this scripture Śākyamuni Buddha describes how a bodhisattva should ideally train in the six perfections. In the Veṇuvana near Rājagṛha, the Buddha teaches this sūtra in response to a single question put to him by the bodhisattva Subāhu: what are the qualities a bodhisattva should have in order to progress to perfect awakening? The Buddha responds by first listing the six perfections of generosity, ethical discipline, patience, diligence, concentration, and insight, and then expounding in greater detail on each perfection in turn.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་ལག་བཟངས་ཀྱིས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa lag bzangs kyis zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Question of Subāhu”
- Āryasubāhuparipṛcchānāmamahāyānasūtra
Tibetan translation:
- Jinamitra
- Dānaśīla
- Yeshé Dé
Surata’s Questions
དེས་པས་ཞུས་པའི་མདོ། · des pas zhus pa’i mdo
Surataparipṛcchāsūtra
Summary
Surata’s Questions follows Surata, a seemingly poor vagabond endowed with a wealth of ethical virtue. The juxtaposition of Surata’s poverty with the abundance of his moral merits forms a central theme of the sūtra. After being tested by the god Śakra, Surata finds a precious gem that he decides to give to the poorest person in the city. The narrative’s irony ensues when Surata decides that King Prasenajit should receive the gem, since his ethical depravity vitiates his material wealth. The shock of Surata’s decision occasions a valuable lesson on true wealth lying in moral integrity, to which the Buddha himself attests upon his arrival midway through the sūtra. The sūtra concludes with King Prasenajit’s recognition of the error of his ways and the Buddha’s prophecy of Surata’s coming awakening.
Title variants
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “Surata’s Questions”
- Āryasurataparipṛcchānāmamahāyānasūtra
- འཕགས་པ་དེས་པས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa des pas zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- 《善順所問經》（大正藏：《大寶積經善順菩薩會第二十七》）
Tibetan translation:
- Jinamitra
- Surendrabodhi
- Bandé Yeshé Dé
The Questions of the Householder Vīradatta
ཁྱིམ་བདག་དཔས་བྱིན་གྱིས་ཞུས་པ། · khyim bdag dpas byin gyis zhus pa
Vīradattagṛhapatiparipṛcchā
Summary
While the Buddha is residing in Anāthapiṇḍada’s pleasure garden in Śrāvastī with a great assembly of monks, elsewhere in Śrāvastī the eminent householder Vīradatta hosts a meeting with five hundred householders to discuss certain questions regarding the practice of the Great Vehicle. Hoping to resolve these questions, Vīradatta and the householders decide to approach the Buddha in Anāthapiṇḍada’s pleasure garden. There the Buddha explains how bodhisattvas should engender the spirit of great compassion while not being attached to the body or to enjoyments, and he then instructs the householders on how bodhisattvas should examine the impermanence and impurity of the body. This prose teaching is followed by a set of verses that reiterate how the body is impure and impermanent and that elucidate the process of karma and its effects. As a result of this teaching, Vīradatta and the five hundred householders attain the acceptance that phenomena are unborn. They then proclaim, in a well-known series of verses, the merits of aspiring for the awakening to buddhahood. The Buddha smiles, predicting that Vīradatta and the five hundred householders will attain spiritual awakening. The sūtra concludes with the Buddha telling Ānanda about the name of this Dharma discourse.
Title variants
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Questions of the Householder Vīradatta”
- Āryavīradattagṛhapatiparipṛcchānāmamahāyānasūtra
- ’phags pa khyim bdag dpas byin gyis zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- འཕགས་པ་ཁྱིམ་བདག་དཔས་བྱིན་གྱིས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- vīradattaparipṛcchāsūtra
- dpal sbyin gyis zhus pa’i mdo (zhol)
- dpa’ byin gyis zhus pa
- dpal byin gyis zhus pa’i mdo (snar thang)
- dpa’ sbyin gyis zhus pa (stog pho brang)
- dpas byin gyis zhus pa’i mdo
Tibetan translation:
- Jinamitra
- Dānaśīla
- Bandé Yeshé Dé
The Questions of Guṇaratnasaṅkusumita
ཡོན་ཏན་རིན་ཆེན་མེ་ཏོག་ཀུན་ཏུ་རྒྱས་པས་ཞུས་པ། · yon tan rin chen me tog kun tu rgyas pas zhus pa
Guṇaratnasaṅkusumitaparipṛcchā
Summary
In The Questions of Guṇaratnasaṅkusumita, the sūtra’s interlocutor, Guṇaratnasaṅkusumita, asks the Buddha Śākyamuni whether there might be other buddhas in other realms whose names carry the power to produce awakening. The Buddha responds that there are, in fact, buddhas whose names are so efficacious that simply by remembering them, the disciple will be awakened. The Buddha then names the buddhas of the ten directions, their worlds and eons, and the specific effects that knowing each of their names will have on disciples with faith.
Title variants
- ’phags pa yon tan rin chen me tog kun tu rgyas pas zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- འཕགས་པ་ཡོན་ཏན་རིན་ཆེན་མེ་ཏོག་ཀུན་ཏུ་རྒྱས་པས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- Āryaguṇaratnasaṅkusumitaparipṛcchānāmamahāyānasūtra
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Questions of Guṇaratnasaṅkusumita”
Tibetan translation:
- Jinamitra
- Prajñāvarman
- Yeshé Dé
Siṃha’s Questions
སེང་གེས་ཞུས་པ། · seng ges zhus pa
Siṃhaparipṛcchā
Summary
At the opening of this sūtra, King Ajātaśatru’s son Siṃha and his five hundred attendants approach the Buddha, who is on Vulture Peak. After paying homage and offering golden parasols, Siṃha asks the Buddha a series of questions about the conduct of bodhisattvas. The Buddha answers each of Siṃha’s questions with a series of verses describing the various karmic causes that result in the qualities and attributes of bodhisattvas. Afterward, when Siṃha and his attendants promise to train in this teaching, the Buddha smiles, causing the three-thousandfold world system to quake. When the bodhisattva Ajita asks the Buddha why he smiled, the Buddha explains that Siṃha and all of his companions will become buddhas and establish buddhafields similar to that of Amitābha.
Title variants
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “Siṃha’s Questions”
- Āryasiṃhaparipṛcchānāmamahāyānasūtra
- ’phags pa seng ges zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- འཕགས་པ་སེང་གེས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- 佛説太子刷護經
- གྱལ་བུ་སེང་གེས་ཞུས་པ།
- 大寶積經, 阿闍世王子會
- gyal bu seng ges zhus pa
Tibetan translation:
- Dānaśīla
- Munivarman
- Yeshé Dé
The Questions of Bhadrapāla the Merchant
ཚོང་དཔོན་བཟང་སྐྱོང་གིས་ཞུས་པ། · tshong dpon bzang skyong gis zhus pa
Bhadrapālaśreṣṭhiparipṛcchā
Summary
In The Questions of Bhadrapāla the Merchant, the Buddha’s principal interlocutor is a wealthy merchant who asks him to explain what consciousness is, and what happens to it when one dies and is reborn. In his characterization of consciousness, the Buddha relies heavily on the use of analogies drawn from nature. The sūtra also reflects common cultural beliefs of ancient India, such as spirit possession. In addition, it presents graphic and vividly contrasting descriptions of rebirth in the realms of the gods for those who have lived meritorious lives and in the realms of hell for those who lack merit.
Title variants
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Questions of Bhadrapāla the Merchant”
- Āryabhadrapālaśreṣṭhiparipṛcchānāmamahāyānasūtra
- འཕགས་པ་ཚོང་དཔོན་བཟང་སྐྱོང་གིས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa tshong dpon bzang skyong gis zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- rnam par shes pa 'pho ba'i mdo
Tibetan translation:
- Jinamitra
- Surendrabodhi
- Yeshé Dé
The Questions of the Girl Vimalaśraddhā
བུ་མོ་རྣམ་དག་དད་པས་ཞུས་པ། · bu mo rnam dag dad pas zhus pa
Dārikāvimalaśraddhāparipṛcchā
Summary
Vimalaśraddhā, the daughter of King Prasenajit, comes to see the Buddha in Jetavana, together with a retinue of five hundred women. She pays homage to the Buddha and asks him to explain the conduct of bodhisattvas. The Buddha responds by presenting twelve sets of eight qualities that bodhisattvas should cultivate. Vimalaśraddhā and her five hundred companions, having developed the mind set on awakening, join the ranks of the bodhisattvas, and the Buddha prophesies her future attainment of awakening.
Title variants
- 淨信童女會
- bu mo rnam dag dang bas zhus pa’i mdo
- dārikāvimalaśraddhāparipṛcchāsūtra
- ’phags pa bu mo rnam dag dad pas zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- Āryadārikāvimalaśraddhāparipṛcchānāmamahāyānasūtra
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Questions of the Girl Vimalaśraddhā”
- འཕགས་པ་བུ་མོ་རྣམ་དག་དད་པས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
Tibetan translation:
- Gö Chödrup
The Question of Maitreya (1)
བྱམས་པས་ཞུས་པ། · byams pas zhus pa
Maitreyaparipṛcchā
Summary
In The Question of Maitreya, the bodhisattva Maitreya asks the Buddha what qualities a bodhisattva needs to attain enlightenment quickly. The Buddha outlines several sets of qualities, foremost among them the altruistic intention of perfect bodhicitta. The Buddha then recounts to Ānanda how, in a former life, Maitreya revered a previous Buddha and, wishing to become just like him, at once realized that all phenomena are unproduced. Ānanda asks why Maitreya did not become a buddha sooner, and in answer the Buddha compares Maitreya’s bodhisattva career with his own, listing further sets of qualities that differentiate them and recounting examples of the hardships he himself faced in previous lives. Maitreya, on the other hand, has followed the easy bodhisattva vehicle using its skillful means, such as the seven branch practice and the training in the six perfections; the aspirations he thus made are set out in the famous “Prayer of Maitreya” for which this sūtra is perhaps best known. The Buddha declares that Maitreya will become enlightened when sentient beings have fewer negative emotions, in contrast to the ignorant and turbulent beings he himself vowed to help.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་བྱམས་པས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa byams pas zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Question of Maitreya”
- Āryamaitreyaparipṛcchānāmamahāyānasūtra
Tibetan translation:
- Jinamitra
- Surendrabodhi
- Yeshé Dé
The Question of Maitreya (2) on the Eight Qualities
བྱམས་པས་ཆོས་བརྒྱད་ཞུས་པ། · byams pas chos brgyad zhus pa
Maitreyaparipṛcchādharmāṣṭa
Summary
In The Question of Maitreya on the Eight Qualities, Maitreya asks the Buddha what qualities bodhisattvas need in order to be sure of completing the path to buddhahood. In response, the Buddha briefly lists eight qualities. Starting with the excellent intention to become enlightened, they include loving kindness, as well as realization of the perfection of wisdom, which the Buddha explains in terms of reflection on the twelve links of dependent origination.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་བྱམས་པས་ཆོས་བརྒྱད་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa byams pas chos brgyad zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Question of Maitreya on the Eight Qualities”
- Āryamaitreyaparipṛcchādharmāṣṭanāmamahāyānasūtra
Tibetan translation:
- Jinamitra
- Danaśila
- Yeshé Dé
The Seer Vyāsa’s Questions
དྲང་སྲོང་རྒྱས་པས་ཞུས་པ། · drang srong rgyas pas zhus pa
Ṛṣivyāsaparipṛcchā
Summary
In The Seer Vyāsa’s Questions, a great seer named Vyāsa, a non-Buddhist mendicant, approaches the Buddha with a large group of followers to inquire about the karmic results of giving. Some of the key points taught in this sūtra are such karmic results and the distinction between pure and impure giving. A final long passage describes the life in the god realms that is experienced as the fruit of particular acts of giving, and it explains the signs received by gods of their own impending death and subsequent human birth.
Title variants
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Seer Vyāsa’s Questions”
- Āryaṛṣivyāsaparipṛcchānāmamahāyānasūtra
- ’phags pa drang srong rgyas pas zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- འཕགས་པ་དྲང་སྲོང་རྒྱས་པས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
Tibetan translation:
- Jinamitra
- Dānaśīla
- Bandé Yeshé Dé
The Good Eon
བསྐལ་པ་བཟང་པོ། · bskal pa bzang po
Bhadrakalpika
Summary
While resting in a park outside the city of Vaiśālī, the Buddha is approached by the bodhisattva Prāmodyarāja, who requests meditation instruction. The Buddha proceeds to give a teaching on a meditative absorption called elucidating the way of all phenomena and subsequently delivers an elaborate discourse on the six perfections. Prāmodyarāja then learns that all the future buddhas of the Good Eon are now present in the Blessed One’s audience of bodhisattvas. Responding to Prāmodyarāja’s request to reveal the names under which these present bodhisattvas will be known as buddhas in the future, the Buddha first lists these names, and then goes on to describe the circumstances surrounding their birth, awakening, and teaching in the world. In the sūtra’s final section, we learn how each of these great bodhisattvas who are on the path to buddhahood first developed the mind of awakening.
Title variants
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Good Eon”
- Āryabhadrakalpikanāmamahāyānasūtra
- འཕགས་པ་བསྐལ་པ་བཟང་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa bskal pa bzang po zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- 《賢劫經》（大正藏：《賢劫經》）
Tibetan translation:
- Vidyākarasiṁha
- Palgyi Yang
- Paltsek
The Play in Full
རྒྱ་ཆེར་རོལ་པ། · rgya cher rol pa
Lalitavistara
Summary
The Play in Full tells the story of how the Buddha manifested in this world and attained awakening, as perceived from the perspective of the Great Vehicle. The sūtra, which is structured in twenty-seven chapters, first presents the events surrounding the Buddha’s birth, childhood, and adolescence in the royal palace of his father, king of the Śākya nation. It then recounts his escape from the palace and the years of hardship he faced in his quest for spiritual awakening. Finally the sūtra reveals his complete victory over the demon Māra, his attainment of awakening under the Bodhi tree, his first turning of the wheel of Dharma, and the formation of the very early saṅgha.
Title variants
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Play in Full”
- Āryalalitavistaranāmamahāyānasūtra
- ’phags pa rgya cher rol pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- འཕགས་པ་རྒྱ་ཆེར་རོལ་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- 《廣大遊戲經》 (方廣大莊嚴經)
Tibetan translation:
- Jinamitra
- Dānaśīla
- Munivarman
- Yeshé Dé
The Miraculous Play of Mañjuśrī
འཇམ་དཔལ་རྣམ་པར་རོལ་པ། · ’jam dpal rnam par rol pa
Mañjuśrīvikrīḍita
Summary
The Miraculous Play of Mañjuśrī presents a series of profound teachings within a rich narrative structure involving a beautiful courtesan’s daughter, Suvarṇottamaprabhāśrī. A banker’s son has purchased her favors, but while they are riding together toward a pleasure garden the girl’s attention is captivated instead by the radiantly attractive Mañjuśrī, who gives her instructions related to the meaning of the mind set on awakening. She then expresses her new understanding in a dialogue with Mañjuśrī, in the presence of King Ajātaśatru, his retinue, and the citizens of Rājagṛha. Meanwhile the banker’s son, with the help of Mañjuśrī and Śakra, experiences his own realization and receives teaching from the Buddha himself. The sūtra deals with well-known Mahāyāna themes, but places special emphasis on the emptiness and sameness of all phenomena.
Title variants
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Miraculous Play of Mañjuśrī”
- Āryamañjuśrīvikrīḍitanāmamahāyānasūtra
- འཕགས་པ་འཇམ་དཔལ་རྣམ་པར་རོལ་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa ’jam dpal rnam par rol pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
Tibetan translation:
- Surendrabodhi
- Yeshé Dé
The Chapter on Mañjuśrī’s Magical Display
འཇམ་དཔལ་རྣམ་པར་འཕྲུལ་པའི་ལེའུ། · ’jam dpal rnam par ’phrul pa’i le’u
Mañjuśrīvikurvāṇaparivarta
Summary
In The Chapter on Mañjuśrī’s Magical Display, the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī answers a series of questions posed by the god Great Light concerning the appropriate conduct for bodhisattvas and the potential pitfalls and obstacles presented to bodhisattvas by Māra. Midway through the sūtra, the demon Māra himself appears and, after being captured and converted by Mañjuśrī, he begins to teach the Buddha’s Dharma to the audience. After revealing that Māra was never truly bound by anything other than his own perception, Mañjuśrī resumes his teaching for the remainder of the sūtra.
Title variants
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Chapter on Mañjuśrī’s Magical Display”
- Āryamañjuśrīvikurvāṇaparivartanāmamahāyānasūtra
- ’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།
Tibetan translation:
- Jinamitra
- Śīlendrabodhi
- Yeshé Dé
The Precious Discourse on the Blessed One’s Extensive Wisdom That Leads to Infinite Certainty
བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་ཀྱི་ཡེ་ཤེས་རྒྱས་པའི་མདོ་སྡེ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་མཐའ་ཡས་པ་མཐར་ཕྱིན་པ། · bcom ldan ’das kyi ye shes rgyas pa’i mdo sde rin po che mtha’ yas pa mthar phyin pa
Niṣṭhāgatabhagavajjñānavaipulyasūtraratnānanta
Summary
The Buddha’s disciple, the monk Pūrṇa, oversees the construction of a temple dedicated to the Buddha in a distant southern city. When the master builder suggests that the building may be used by others in the Buddha’s absence, Pūrṇa argues that no one but an omniscient buddha may rightly take up residence there. Enumerating the kinds of knowledge that are unique to a buddha’s perfect awakening, Pūrṇa then delivers a lengthy exposition that also relates each of these qualities to the knowledge of the four truths. Following Pūrṇa’s teaching, the master builder invites the Buddha and his followers from afar to the inauguration of the newly built structure. They arrive, flying through the sky. After the inauguration, the Buddha pauses with his monks on the shores of the ocean, where he receives the worship of numerous nāga kings, teaches and inspires them, and predicts their awakening. At Maudgalyāyana’s request, the Buddha then recounts each of the specific events in his past lives that ultimately led to the unfolding of each of his particular kinds of knowledge.
This long sūtra thus serves as a detailed guide to the different aspects of the Buddha’s awakened wisdom, particularly those that, in many accounts of the qualities of buddhahood, are known as the ten powers or strengths.
Title variants
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Precious Discourse on the Blessed One’s Extensive Wisdom That Leads to Infinite Certainty”
- Āryaniṣṭhāgatabhagavajjñānavaipulyasūtraratnānantanāmamahāyānasūtra
- ’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
- 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།
- 《薄伽梵智慧顯現無盡經藏》
Tibetan translation:
- Prajñāvarman
- Yeshé Nyingpo
The Ornament of the Light of Awareness That Enters the Domain of All Buddhas
སངས་རྒྱས་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི་ཡུལ་ལ་འཇུག་པའི་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྣང་བའི་རྒྱན། · sangs rgyas thams cad kyi yul la ’jug pa’i ye shes snang ba’i rgyan
Sarvabuddhaviṣayāvatārajñānālokālaṃkāra
Summary
The main topic of this sūtra is an explanation of how the Buddha and all things share the very same empty nature. Through a set of similes, the sūtra shows how an illusion-like Buddha may dispense appropriate teachings to sentient beings in accordance with their propensities. His activities are effortless since his realization is free from concepts. Thus, the Tathāgata’s nonconceptual 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
Tibetan translation:
- Surendrabodhi
- Bandé Yeshé Dé
Upholding the Roots of Virtue
དགེ་བའི་རྩ་བ་ཡོངས་སུ་འཛིན་པ། · dge ba’i rtsa ba yongs su ’dzin pa
Kuśalamūlasaṃparigraha
Summary
This sūtra, one of the longest scriptures in the General Sūtra section of the Kangyur, outlines the path of the Great Vehicle as it is journeyed by bodhisattvas in pursuit of awakening. The teaching, which is delivered by the Buddha Śākyamuni to a host of bodhisattvas from faraway worlds as well as a selection of his closest hearer students, such as Śāradvatīputra and Ānanda, elucidates in particular the practice of engendering and strengthening the mind of awakening, as well as the practice of bodhisattva conduct for the sake of all other beings.
Title variants
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “Upholding the Roots of Virtue”
- Āryakuśalamūlasamparigrahanāmamahāyānasūtra
- ’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།
- Kuśalamūlasamparigrahasūtra
- 《總持善根經》 (佛說華手經)
- dge ba’i rtsa ba yongs su ’dzin pa
Tibetan translation:
- Leki Dé
- Prajñāvarman
- Jñānagarbha
- Yeshé Dé
The Teaching by the Child Inconceivable Radiance
ཁྱེའུ་སྣང་བ་བསམ་གྱིས་མི་ཁྱབ་པས་བསྟན་པ། · khye’u snang ba bsam gyis mi khyab pas bstan pa
Acintyaprabhāsanirdeśa
Summary
This sūtra is a story in which the spiritual realization of the child Inconceivable Radiance is revealed through a dialogue with the Buddha Śākyamuni. The Buddha furthermore recounts events from the child’s past lives to illustrate how actions committed in one life will determine one’s future circumstances. The teaching concludes with the Buddha prophesying how the child Inconceivable Radiance will eventually fully awaken in the future.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་ཁྱེའུ་སྣང་བ་བསམ་གྱིས་མི་ཁྱབ་པས་བསྟན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་གྲངས།
- ’phags pa khye’u snang ba bsam gyis mi khyab pas bstan pa zhes bya ba’i chos kyi rnam grangs
- The Noble Account of Dharma “The Teaching by the Child Inconceivable Radiance”
- Āryācintyaprabhāsanirdeśanāmadharmaparyāya
Expounding the Qualities of the Thus-Gone Ones’ Buddhafields
སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་ཞིང་གི་ཡོན་ཏན་བརྗོད་པའི་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་གྲངས། · sangs rgyas kyi zhing gi yon tan brjod pa’i chos kyi rnam grangs
Buddhakṣetraguṇoktadharmaparyāya
Summary
While the Buddha is staying in the kingdom of Magadha with an immense assembly of bodhisattvas, the bodhisattva Acintyaprabharāja gives a teaching on the relativity of time between different buddhafields. Eleven buddhafields are enumerated, with an eon in the first being equivalent to a day in the following buddhafield, where an eon is, in turn, the equivalent of a day in the next, and so forth.
Title variants
- The Noble Dharma Discourse: Expounding the Qualities of the Thus-Gone Ones’ Buddhafields
- Āryatathāgatānām buddhakṣetraguṇoktadharmaparyāya
- འཕགས་པ་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་ཞིང་གི་ཡོན་ཏན་བརྗོད་པའི་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་གྲངས།
- ’phags pa de bzhin gshegs pa rnams kyi sangs rgyas kyi zhing gi yon tan brjod pa’i chos kyi rnam grangs
- Anantabuddhakṣetraguṇodbhāvananāmamahāyānasūtra
- 《說如來佛剎功德經》（大正藏：《佛說較量一切佛剎功德經》）
Tibetan translation:
- Jinamitra
- Dānaśīla
- Yeshé Dé
Unraveling the Intent
དགོངས་པ་ངེས་འགྲེལ། · dgongs pa nges ’grel
Saṃdhinirmocana
Summary
In Unraveling the Intent, the Buddha gives a systematic overview of his three great cycles of teachings, which he refers to in this text as the “three Dharma wheels” (tridharmacakra). In the process of delineating the meaning of these doctrines, the Buddha unravels several difficult points regarding the ultimate and relative truths, the nature of reality, and the contemplative methods conducive to the attainment of complete and perfect awakening, and he also explains what his intent was when he imparted teachings belonging to each of the three Dharma wheels. In unambiguous terms, the third wheel is proclaimed to be of definitive meaning. Through a series of dialogues with hearers and bodhisattvas, the Buddha thus offers a complete and systematic teaching on the Great Vehicle, which he refers to here as the Single Vehicle.
Title variants
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “Unraveling the Intent”
- Āryasaṃdhinirmocananāmamahāyānasūtra
- འཕགས་པ་དགོངས་པ་ངེས་པར་འགྲེལ་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa dgongs pa nges par ’grel pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra
- 《解深密經》
- dgongs pa nges par ’grel pa
Gayāśīrṣa Hill
ག་ཡཱ་མགོའི་རི། · ga yA mgo’i ri
Gayāśīrṣa
Summary
Gayāśīrṣa Hill is a pithy Buddhist scripture that describes various aspects of the Mahāyāna Buddhist path. Set on Gayāśīrṣa, the hill near Bodhgayā from which its title is derived, the sūtra presents its teaching in the form of the Buddha’s inward examination, a conversation between the Buddha and the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī, and dialogues between Mañjuśrī and three interlocutors—two gods and a bodhisattva. It provides a sustained but concise treatment of the progress toward awakening, the stages of aspiration for complete awakening, method and wisdom as the two broad principles of the bodhisattva path, and various classifications of bodhisattva practices. Multiple translations, commentaries, and citations of passages from Gayāśīrṣa Hill attest to its wide influence in the Mahāyāna Buddhist communities of India, China, and Tibet.
Title variants
- ’phags pa ga yA mgo’i ri zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- འཕགས་པ་ག་ཡཱ་མགོའི་རི་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “Gayāśīrṣa Hill”
- Āryagayāśīrṣanāmamahāyānasūtra
Tibetan translation:
- Surendrabodhi
- Bandé Yeshé Dé
The White Lotus of Compassion
སྙིང་རྗེ་པད་མ་དཀར་པོ། · snying rje pad ma dkar po
Karuṇāpuṇḍarīka
Summary
The Buddha Śākyamuni recounts one of his most significant previous lives, when he was a court priest to a king and made a detailed prayer to become a buddha, also causing the king and his princes, his own sons and disciples, and others to make their own prayers to become buddhas too. This is revealed to be not only the major event that is the origin of buddhas and bodhisattvas such as Amitābha, Akṣobhya, Avalokiteśvara, Mañjuśrī, and the thousand buddhas of our eon, but also the source and reason for Śākyamuni’s unsurpassed activity as a buddha.
The “white lotus of compassion” in the title of this sūtra refers to Śākyamuni himself, emphasizing his superiority over all other buddhas, like a fragrant, healing white lotus among a bed of ordinary flowers. Śākyamuni chose to be reborn in an impure realm during a degenerate age, and therefore his compassion was greater than that of other buddhas.
Title variants
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The White Lotus of Compassion”
- Karuṇāpuṇḍarīkanāmamahāyānasūtra
- སྙིང་རྗེ་པད་མ་དཀར་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- snying rje pad ma dkar po zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- 《悲白蓮經》（大正藏：悲華經）
Tibetan translation:
- Jinamitra
- Surendrabodhi
- Prajñāvarman
- Bendé Yeshé Dé
The White Lotus of the Good Dharma
དམ་པའི་ཆོས་པད་མ་དཀར་པོ། · dam pa’i chos pad ma dkar po
Saddharmapuṇḍarīka
Summary
The White Lotus of the Good Dharma, popularly known as the Lotus Sūtra, is taught by Buddha Śākyamuni on Vulture Peak to an audience that includes bodhisattvas from countless realms, as well as bodhisattvas who emerge from under 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
- The Mahāyāna Sūtra “The White Lotus of the Good Dharma”
- Saddharmapuṇḍarīkanāmamahāyānasūtra
- 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
- 《妙法蓮華經》
Tibetan translation:
- Surendrabodhi
- Yeshé De
The King of the Array of All Dharma Qualities
ཆོས་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི་ཡོན་ཏན་བཀོད་པའི་རྒྱལ་པོ། · chos thams cad kyi yon tan bkod pa’i rgyal po
Sarvadharmaguṇavyūharāja
Summary
The events recounted in The King of the Array of All Dharma Qualities take place outside Rājagṛha, where the Buddha is residing in the Bamboo Grove together with a great assembly of monks, bodhisattvas, and other human and non-human beings. At the request of the bodhisattvas Vajrapāṇi and Avalokiteśvara, the Buddha teaches his audience on a selection of brief but disparate topics belonging to the general Mahāyāna tradition: how to search for a spiritual friend and live in solitude, the benefits of venerating Avalokiteśvara’s name, the obstacles that Māra may create for practitioners, and warnings on how easy it is to lose one’s determination to be free from saṃsāra. The sūtra also includes two dhāraṇīs that the Buddha and Vajrapāṇi teach in turn, along with details of their benefits and Vajrapāṇi’s ritual recitation instructions. Throughout the text, the Buddha repeatedly insists on the importance and benefits of venerating and propagating this teaching as well as those who teach it.
Title variants
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The King of the Array of All Dharma Qualities”
- Āryasarvadharmaguṇavyūharājanāmamahāyānasūtra
- 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
- Sarvadharmaguṇavyūharājasūtra
- chos kyi yon tan bkod pa’i rgyal po’i mdo
The Display of the Pure Land of Sukhāvatī
བདེ་བ་ཅན་གྱི་བཀོད་པ། · bde ba can gyi bkod pa
Sukhāvatīvyūha
Summary
In the Jeta Grove of Śrāvastī, the 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).
The Buddha Śākyamuni further explains how virtuous people who focus single-mindedly on the 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 the Buddha Śākyamuni that highlights the difficulty of enlightened activity in a degenerate age.
Title variants
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Display of the Pure Land of Sukhāvatī”
- Āryasukhāvatīvyūhanāmamahāyānasūtra
- ’phags pa bde ba can gyi bkod pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- འཕགས་པ་བདེ་བ་ཅན་གྱི་བཀོད་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- The “shorter” Sukhāvatīvyūha (cf. the “longer,” Toh 49)
Tibetan translation:
- Dānaśīla
- Yeshé Dé (ye shes sde)
The Basket’s Display
ཟ་མ་ཏོག་བཀོད་པ། · za ma tog bkod pa
Kāraṇḍavyūha
Summary
The Basket’s Display (Kāraṇḍavyūha) is the source of the most prevalent mantra of Tibetan Buddhism: oṁ maṇipadme hūṁ. It marks a significant stage in the growing importance of Avalokiteśvara within Indian Buddhism in the early centuries of the first millennium. In a series of narratives within narratives, the sūtra describes Avalokiteśvara’s activities in various realms and the realms contained within the pores of his skin. It culminates in a description of the extreme rarity of his mantra, which, on the Buddha’s instructions, Bodhisattva Sarvanīvaraṇaviṣkambhin obtains from someone in Vārāṇasī who has broken his monastic vows. This sūtra provided a basis and source of quotations for the teachings and practices of the eleventh-century Maṇi Kabum, which itself served as a foundation for the rich tradition of Tibetan Avalokiteśvara practice.
Title variants
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Basket’s Display”
- Āryakāraṇḍavyūhanāmamahāyānasūtra
- 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
- 《大乘莊嚴寶王經》
Tibetan translation:
- Jinamitra
- Dānaśīla
- Yeshé Dé
Infinite Jewels
རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་མཐའ། · rin po che’i mtha’
Ratnakoṭi
Summary
While residing at Vulture Peak Mountain with a large community of monks, the Buddha is visited by the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī. The sūtra unfolds as a series of exchanges between the Buddha, Mañjuśrī, and the monk Śāriputra, elucidating a profound vision of reality as undifferentiated, nondual, and all-pervasive.
Title variants
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “Infinite Jewels”
- Āryaratnakoṭināmamahāyānasūtra
- ’phags pa rin po che’i mtha’ zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- འཕགས་པ་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་མཐའ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ratnakoṭisūtra
- 《寶邊經》（大正藏：《入法界體性經》；《佛說寶積三昧文殊師利菩薩問法身經》）
- rin po che’i mtha’i mdo
Tibetan translation:
- Bandé Yeshé Dé
- Prajñāvarman
The Sūtra on Wisdom at the Hour of Death
འདའ་ཀ་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཀྱི་མདོ། · ’da’ ka ye shes kyi mdo
Atyayajñānasūtra
Summary
While the Buddha is residing in the Akaniṣṭha realm, the bodhisattva mahāsattva Ākāśagarbha asks him how a bodhisattva should view the mind at the point of dying. The Buddha replies that when death comes a bodhisattva should develop the wisdom at the hour of death. He explains that a bodhisattva should cultivate a clear understanding of the nonexistence of entities, great compassion, nonapprehension, nonattachment, 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
Tibetan translation:
- Unknown
The Jewel Mine
དཀོན་མཆོག་འབྱུང་གནས། · dkon mchog ’byung gnas
Ratnākara
Summary
In this sūtra the Buddha Śākyamuni recounts how the thus-gone Sarvārthasiddha purified the buddha realms in his domain. In his explanation, the Buddha Śākyamuni emphasizes the view of the Great Vehicle, which he explains as the fundamental basis for all bodhisattvas who aspire to attain liberation. The attendant topics taught by the Buddha are the six perfections of generosity, discipline, patience, diligence, concentration, and wisdom. The Buddha explains each of these six perfections in three distinct ways as he recounts the past lives of the buddha Sarvārthasiddha. First, he describes how Sarvārthasiddha learned the practices that purify buddha realms, namely the six perfections. Next, he explains how to seal these six virtuous practices with the correct view so that they become perfections. Finally, he recounts how Sarvārthasiddha, as a bodhisattva, received instructions for enhancing the potency of the perfections.
Title variants
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Jewel Mine”
- Āryaratnākaranāmamahāyānasūtra
- 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
- 《信力入印法門經》
Tibetan translation:
- Jinamitra
- Surendrabodhi
- Yeshé Dé
The Gold Sūtra
གསེར་གྱི་མདོ། · gser gyi mdo
Suvarṇasūtra
Summary
In this very brief sūtra, Venerable Ānanda asks the Buddha about the nature of the mind of awakening, the aspiration to attain the awakening of a buddha for the benefit of all beings. The Buddha explains that the mind of awakening is like gold because it is pure. He also teaches the analogy that just as a smith shapes gold into various forms, yet the nature of the gold itself does not change, so too the mind of awakening manifests in various unique ways, yet the nature of the mind of awakening itself does not change.
Title variants
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Gold Sūtra”
- Āryasuvarṇasūtranāmamahāyānasūtra
- ’phags pa gser gyi mdo zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- འཕགས་པ་གསེར་གྱི་མདོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- 《黃金經》
The King of Samādhis Sūtra
ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་གྱི་རྒྱལ་པོའི་མདོ། · ting nge ’dzin gyi rgyal po’i mdo
Samādhirājasūtra
Summary
This sūtra, much quoted in later Buddhist writings for its profound statements especially on the nature of emptiness, relates a long teaching given by the Buddha mainly in response to questions put by a young layman, Candraprabha. The samādhi that is the subject of the sūtra, in spite of its name, primarily consists of various aspects of conduct, motivation, and the understanding of emptiness; it is also a way of referring to the sūtra itself. The teaching given in the sūtra is the instruction to be dedicated to the possession and promulgation of the samādhi, and to the necessary conduct of a bodhisattva, which is exemplified by a number of accounts from the Buddha’s previous lives. Most of the teaching takes place on Vulture Peak Mountain, with an interlude recounting the Buddha’s invitation and visit to Candraprabha’s home in Rājagṛha, where he continues to teach Candraprabha before returning to Vulture Peak Mountain. In one subsequent chapter the Buddha responds to a request by Ānanda, and the text concludes with a commitment by Ānanda to maintain this teaching in the future.
Title variants
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The King of Samādhis, the Revealed Equality of the Nature of All Phenomena”
- Āryasarvadharmasvabhāvasamatāvipañcitasamādhirājanāmamahāyānasūtra
- 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
- 《三摩地王經》
Tibetan translation:
- Śrīlendrabodhi
- Lotsawa Bandé Dharmatāśīla
The Absorption of the Miraculous Ascertainment of Peace
རབ་ཏུ་ཞི་བ་རྣམ་པར་ངེས་པའི་ཆོ་འཕྲུལ་གྱི་ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན། · rab tu zhi ba rnam par nges pa’i cho ’phrul gyi ting nge ’dzin
Praśāntaviniścayaprātihāryasamādhi
Summary
In this sūtra the Buddha Śākyamuni teaches how bodhisattvas proceed to awakening, without ever regressing, by relying on an absorption known as the miraculous ascertainment of peace. He lists the very numerous features of this absorption, describes how to train in it, and explains how through this training bodhisattvas develop all the qualities of buddhahood. The “peace” of the absorption comes from the relinquishment of misconceptions and indeed of all concepts whatsoever, and the sūtra provides a profound and detailed survey of how all the abilities, attainments, and other qualities of the bodhisattva’s path arise as the bodhisattva’s understanding and realization of what is meant by the Thus-Gone One unfold.
Title variants
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Absorption of the Miraculous Ascertainment of Peace”
- Āryapraśāntaviniścayaprātihāryanāmasamādhimahāyānasūtra
- ’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།
- Āryapraśāntaviniścayaprātihāryanāmasamādhināmamahāyānasūtra
- 《寂照神變三摩地經》
Tibetan translation:
- Jinamitra
- Dānaśīla
- Yeshé Dé
The Illusory Absorption
སྒྱུ་མ་ལྟ་བུའི་ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན། · sgyu ma lta bu’i ting nge ’dzin
Māyopamasamādhi
Summary
In this sūtra Buddha Śākyamuni explains how to attain the absorption known as “the illusory absorption,” a meditative state so powerful that it enables awakening to be attained very quickly. He also teaches that this absorption has been mastered particularly well by two bodhisattvas, Avalokiteśvara and Mahāsthāmaprāpta, 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 Mahāsthāmaprāpta.
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
Tibetan translation:
- Surendrabodhi
- Bandé Yeshé Dé
The Absorption of the Thus-Gone One’s Wisdom Seal
དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཀྱི་ཕྱག་རྒྱའི་ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན། · de bzhin gshegs pa’i ye shes kyi phyag rgya’i ting nge ’dzin
Tathāgatajñānamudrāsamādhi
Summary
In The Absorption of the Thus-Gone One’s Wisdom Seal, a vast number of bodhisattvas request the Buddha Śākyamuni to teach them about his state of meditative absorption. In his responses to various interlocutors, including the bodhisattvas Mañjuśrī and Maitreya, the Buddha expounds on this profound state, exhorting them to accomplish it themselves. The sūtra also describes the qualities of bodhisattvas and their stages of development.
Title variants
- ’phags pa de bzhin gshegs pa’i ye shes kyi phyag rgya’i ting nge ’dzin ces bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- འཕགས་པ་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཀྱི་ཕྱག་རྒྱའི་ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་ཅེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- Āryatathāgatajñānamudrāsamādhināmamahāyānasūtra
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Absorption of the Thus-Gone One’s Wisdom Seal”
Tibetan translation:
- Jinamitra
- Munivarman
- Dānaśīla
- Yeshé Dé
The Absorption That Encapsulates All Merit
བསོད་ནམས་ཐམས་ཅད་བསྡུས་པའི་ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན། · bsod nams thams cad bsdus pa’i ting nge ’dzin
Sarvapuṇyasamuccayasamādhi
Summary
The Absorption That Encapsulates All Merit tells the story of Vimalatejā, a strongman renowned for his physical prowess, who visits the Buddha in order to compare abilities and prove that he is the mightier of the two. He receives an unexpected, humbling riposte in the form of a teaching by the Buddha on the inconceivable magnitude of the powers of awakened beings, going well beyond mere physical strength. The discussions that then unfold—largely between the Buddha, Vimalatejā, and the bodhisattva Nārāyaṇa—touch on topics including the importance of creating merit, the centrality of learning and insight, and the question of whether renunciation entails monasticism. Above all, however, Vimalatejā is led to see that the entirety of the Great Vehicle path hinges on the practice that forms the name of the sūtra, which is nothing other than the mind of awakening (bodhicitta).
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་བསོད་ནམས་ཐམས་ཅད་བསྡུས་པའི་ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་ཅེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa bsod nams thams cad bsdus pa’i ting nge ’dzin ces bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Absorption That Encapsulates All Merit”
- Āryasarvapuṇyasamuccayasamādhināmamahāyānasūtra
- 集一切福德三昧經
Tibetan translation:
- Prajñāvarma
- Śīlendrabodhi
- Bandé Yeshé Dé
The Ratnaketu Dhāraṇī
རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ཏོག་གི་གཟུངས། · rin po che tog gi gzungs
Ratnaketudhāraṇī
Summary
The Ratnaketu Dhāraṇī is one of the core texts of the Mahāsannipāta collection of Mahāyāna sūtras that dates back to the formative period of Mahāyāna Buddhism, from the first to the third century ᴄᴇ. Its rich and varied narratives, probably redacted from at least two independent works, recount significant events from the lives, past and present, of the Buddha Śākyamuni and some of his main followers and opponents, both human and nonhuman. At the center of these narratives is the climactic episode from the Buddha’s life when Māra, the personification of spiritual death, sets out to destroy the Buddha and his Dharma. The mythic confrontation between these paragons of light and darkness, and the Buddha’s eventual victory, are related in vivid detail. The main narratives are interwoven with Dharma instructions and interspersed with miraculous events. The text also exemplifies two distinctive sūtra genres, “prophecies” (vyākaraṇa) and “incantations” (dhāraṇī), as it includes, respectively, prophecies of the future attainment of buddhahood by some of the Buddha’s followers and the potent phrases that embody the Buddha’s teachings and are meant to ensure their survival and the thriving of its practitioners.
Title variants
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Ratnaketu Dhāraṇī” from the Great Collection
- Āryamahāsannipātaratnaketudhāraṇīnāmamahāyānasūtra
- ’phags pa ’dus pa chen po rin po che tog gi gzungs shes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- 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)
Tibetan translation:
- Śilendrabodhi
- Yeshé Dé
The Dhāraṇī of the Vajra Quintessence
རྡོ་རྗེ་སྙིང་པོའི་གཟུངས། · rdo rje snying po’i gzungs
Vajramaṇḍadhāraṇī
Summary
In The Dhāraṇī of the Vajra Quintessence, the bodhisattva of wisdom Mañjuśrī asks the Buddha to propound a teaching on the highest wisdom that questions foundational Buddhist concepts and categories from an ultimate standpoint without denying their conventional efficacy. The Buddha begins by teaching, in a paradoxical tone that defines the entire discourse, that although there is neither awakening nor buddha qualities, bodhisattvas nonetheless aspire for buddhahood. This is followed by a lengthy series of similar paradoxes that examine basic Buddhist distinctions between the worlds of buddhas and sentient beings while pointing to the common ground underlying them. One key doctrinal point is that the qualities of ordinary people are neither distinct from, nor to be conflated with, the qualities of buddhas. When asked why this is so, the Buddha explains that the dhāraṇī of the vajra quintessence is nonconceptual and immanent in all things, from emotional defilements up to the realization of buddhahood. Since all phenomena are equally empty of intrinsic essence, they are already intrinsically pure and beyond bondage or liberation.
Title variants
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Dhāraṇī of the Vajra Quintessence”
- Āryavajramaṇḍanāmadhāraṇīmahāyānasūtra
- ’phags pa rdo rje snying po’i gzungs zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- འཕགས་པ་རྡོ་རྗེ་སྙིང་པོའི་གཟུངས་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- Vajramaṇḍanāmadhāraṇīsūtra
- rdo rje’i snying po’i gzungs kyi mdo
- 《金剛心髓陀羅尼經》 (大正藏：《金剛場陀羅尼經》)
Tibetan translation:
- Śīlendrabodhi
- Bandé Yeshé Dé
The Dhāraṇī of the Six Gates
སྒོ་དྲུག་པའི་གཟུངས། · sgo drug pa’i gzungs
Ṣaṇmukhīdhāraṇī
Summary
While the Buddha is abiding in the space above the Śuddhāvāsa realm with a retinue of bodhisattvas, he urges them to uphold The Dhāraṇī of the Six Gates and presents these gates as six aspirations that vanquish the causes of saṃsāric experience. He then presents the dhāraṇī itself to his listeners and instructs them to recite it three times each day and three times each night. Finally, he indicates the benefits that come from this practice, and the assembly praises the Buddha’s words. This is followed by a short dedication marking the conclusion of the text.
Title variants
- The Noble Dhāraṇī of the Six Gates
- Āryaṣaṇmukhīnāmadhāraṇī
- ’phags pa sgo drug pa zhes bya ba’i gzungs
- འཕགས་པ་སྒོ་དྲུག་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་གཟུངས།
- 《六門陀羅尼》（大正藏：《六門陀羅尼經》）
The Dhāraṇī “Entering into Nonconceptuality”
རྣམ་པར་མི་རྟོག་པར་འཇུག་པའི་གཟུངས། · rnam par mi rtog par ’jug pa’i gzungs
Avikalpapraveśadhāraṇī
Summary
The Dhāraṇī “Entering into Nonconceptuality” is a short Mahāyāna sūtra that came to be particularly influential in Yogācāra circles. The central theme of the sūtra is the attainment of the nonconceptual realm, reached through the practice of relinquishing all conceptual signs by not directing the mind toward them. The sūtra presents the progressive stages through which bodhisattvas can abandon increasingly subtle conceptual signs and eliminate the erroneous ideas that lead to the objectification of phenomena.
Title variants
- ’phags pa rnam par mi rtog par ’jug pa zhes bya ba’i gzungs
- Āryāvikalpapraveśanāmadhāraṇī
- The Noble Dhāraṇī “Entering into Nonconceptuality”
- rnam par mi rtog par ’jug pa’i gzungs
- འཕགས་པ་རྣམ་པར་མི་རྟོག་པར་འཇུག་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་གཟུངས།
- Avikalpapraveśadhāraṇī
Cultivating Trust in the Great Vehicle
ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་ལ་དད་པ་རབ་ཏུ་སྒོམ་པ། · theg pa chen po la dad pa rab tu sgom pa
Mahāyānaprasādaprabhāvana
Summary
In Cultivating Trust in the Great Vehicle, the Buddha Śākyamuni gives a discourse on the nature of trust (dad pa, prasāda) according to the Great Vehicle. The teaching is requested by a bodhisattva known as Great Skillful Trust, who requests the Buddha to answer four questions concerning the nature of trust in the Great Vehicle: (1) What are the characteristics of trust? (2) How is trust developed? (3) What are the different types of trust? (4) What are the benefits of having trust? Over the course of the sūtra, the Buddha answers all four questions, each in a separate chapter.
Title variants
- ’phags pa theg pa chen po la dad pa rab tu sgom pa ces bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- Āryamahāyānaprasādaprabhāvananāmamahāyānasūtra
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “Cultivating Trust in the Great Vehicle”
- འཕགས་པ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་ལ་དད་པ་རབ་ཏུ་སྒོམ་པ་ཅེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
Tibetan translation:
- Yeshé Dé
- Jinamitra
- Dānaśīla
The Dhāraṇī of the Jewel Torch
དཀོན་མཆོག་ཏ་ལ་ལའི་གཟུངས། · dkon mchog ta la la’i gzungs
Ratnolkādhāraṇī
Summary
The Dhāraṇī of the Jewel Torch starts with a profound conversation between the Buddha and the bodhisattvas Samantabhadra and Mañjuśrī on the nature of the dharmadhātu, buddhahood, and emptiness. The bodhisattva Dharmamati then enters the meditative absorption called the infinite application of the bodhisattva’s jewel torch and, at the behest of the millions of buddhas who have blessed him, emerges from it to teach how bodhisattvas arise from the presence of a tathāgata and progress to the state of omniscience. Following Dharmamati’s detailed exposition of the “ten categories” or progressive stages of a bodhisattva, the Buddha briefly teaches the mantra of the dhāraṇī and then, for most of the remainder of the text, encourages bodhisattvas in a long versified passage in which he recounts teachings by a bodhisattva called Bhadraśrī on the qualities of bodhisattvas and buddhas. Some verses from this passage on the virtues of faith have been widely quoted in both India and Tibet.
Title variants
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Dhāraṇī of the Jewel Torch”
- Āryaratnolkānāmadhāraṇīmahāyānasūtra
- 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
- Ratnolkadhāraṇīsūtra
- dkon mchog sgron ma’i mdo
- 《寶燈明陀羅尼》（大正藏：《大方廣總持寶光明經》）
- dkon mchog sgron me’i mdo
Tibetan translation:
- Surendrabodhi
- Yeshé Dé
The Teaching on the Great Compassion of the Tathāgata
དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་རྗེ་ཆེན་པོ་ངེས་པར་བསྟན་པ། · de bzhin gshegs pa’i snying rje chen po nges par bstan pa/
Tathāgatamahākaruṇānirdeśa
Summary
The Teaching on the Great Compassion of the Tathāgata opens with the Buddha presiding over a large congregation of disciples at Vulture Peak. Entering a special state of meditative absorption, he magically displays a pavilion in the sky, attracting a vast audience of divine and human Dharma followers. At the request of the bodhisattva Dhāraṇīśvararāja, the Buddha gives a discourse on the qualities of bodhisattvas, which are specified as bodhisattva ornaments, illuminations, compassion, and activities. He also teaches about the compassionate awakening of tathāgatas and the scope of a tathāgata’s activities. At the request of a bodhisattva named Siṃhaketu, Dhāraṇīśvararāja then gives a discourse on eight dhāraṇīs, following which the Buddha explains the sources and functions of a dhāraṇī known as the jewel lamp. As the text concludes, various deities and Dharma protectors praise the sūtra’s qualities and vow to preserve and protect it in the future, and the Buddha entrusts the sūtra and its propagation to Dhāraṇīśvararāja. The sūtra is a particularly rich source of detail on the qualities of bodhisattvas and buddhas.
Title variants
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Teaching on the Great Compassion of the Tathāgata”
- Āryatathāgatamahākaruṇānirdeśanāmamahāyānasūtra
- ’phags pa de bzhin gshegs pa’i snying rje chen po nges par bstan pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- འཕགས་པ་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་རྗེ་ཆེན་པོ་ངེས་པར་བསྟན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- The Questions of Dhāraṇīśvararāja
- The Sūtra of Dhāraṇīśvararāja
- Dhāraṇīśvararājasūtra
- Dhāraṇīśvararājaparipṛcchā
- dbang phyug rgyal pos zhus pa
- 《如來大悲經 》（大正藏：大哀經）
- gzungs kyi rgyal po’i mdo
- gzungs kyi dbang phyug rgyal po’i mdo
- དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་རྗེ་ཆེན་པོ་ངེས་པར་བསྟན་པ།
Tibetan translation:
- Śīlendrabodhi
- Yeshé Dé
The Question of Maitreya (3)
བྱམས་པས་ཞུས་པ། · byams pas zhus pa
Maitreyaparipṛcchā
Summary
The bodhisattva Maitreya approaches the Buddha on Vulture Peak Mountain and asks him to explain the karmic results of teaching the Dharma. The Buddha responds by comparing the merit gained by a person who makes an unfathomably enormous material offering to the buddhas, to the merit gained by another person who teaches a single verse of Dharma, declaring that the merit of the latter is far superior.
Title variants
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Question of Maitreya”
- Āryamaitreyaparipṛcchānāmamahāyānasūtra
- འཕགས་པ་བྱམས་པས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa byams pas zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- Maitriparipṛcchāsūtra
- Āryamaitriparipṛcchanāmamahāyānasūtra
- 《彌勒所問經 （3）》（大正藏：《彌勒菩薩所問本願經》）
The Inquiry of Avalokiteśvara on the Seven Qualities
སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས་དབང་ཕྱུག་གིས་ཞུས་པ་ཆོས་བདུན་པ། · spyan ras gzigs dbang phyug gis zhus pa chos bdun pa
Avalokiteśvaraparipṛcchāsaptadharmaka
Summary
This brief 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
Tibetan translation:
- Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna
- Gewai Lodrö
The Questions of Pratibhānamati
སྤོབས་པའི་བློ་གྲོས་ཀྱིས་ཞུས་པ། · spobs pa’i blo gros kyis zhus pa
Pratibhānamatiparipṛcchā
Summary
The subject matter of this sūtra is indicated by the alternative title suggested by the Buddha himself in its conclusion: The Teaching That Clarifies Karma. In the opening section, the merchant Pratibhānamati, concerned about the state of society and what will become of the saṅgha in times to come, requests the Buddha Śākyamuni for a teaching that offers moral guidance to future beings. With the Buddha’s encouragement, he asks what actions lead to rebirth in ten different human and non-human states. The Buddha answers with descriptions of the actions associated with each of these states and the effects they will bring. Pratibhānamati then invites the Buddha to his home in Śrāvastī. Two beggars arrive there, and on account of their opposing aspirations and conduct in the presence of the Buddha and retinue, one soon becomes a king while the other is killed in an accident. The sūtra concludes as the Buddha, invited to the newly anointed king’s land, explains the karmic reasons for his unexpected fortune.
Title variants
- ’phags pa spobs pa’i blo gros kyis zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- Āryapratibhānamatiparipṛcchānāmamahāyānasūtra
- འཕགས་པ་སྤོབས་པའི་བློ་གྲོས་ཀྱིས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
Tibetan translation:
- Prajñāvarman
- Yeshé Dé
The Questions of Sāgaramati
བློ་གྲོས་རྒྱ་མཚོས་ཞུས་པ། · blo gros rgya mtshos zhus pa
Sāgaramatiparipṛcchā
Summary
Heralded by a miraculous flood, the celestial bodhisattva Sāgaramati arrives in Rājagṛha to engage in a Dharma discussion with Buddha Śākyamuni. He discusses an absorption called “The Pristine and Immaculate Seal” and many other subjects relevant to bodhisattvas who are in the process of developing the mind of awakening and practicing the bodhisattva path. The sūtra strongly advises that bodhisattvas not shy away from the afflictive emotions of beings—no matter how unpleasant they may be—and that insight into these emotions is critical for a bodhisattva’s compassionate activity. The sūtra deals with the preeminence of wisdom and non-grasping on the path. In the end, as a teaching on how to deal with māras, the sūtra illuminates the many pitfalls possible on the path of the Great Vehicle.
Title variants
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Questions of Sāgaramati”
- Āryasāgaramatiparipṛcchānāmamahāyānasūtra
- ’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།
- sāgaramatiparipṛcchāsūtra
- blo gros rgya mtshos zhus pa’i mdo
- 《海意菩薩所問淨印法門經》
Tibetan translation:
- Jinamitra
- Dānaśīla
- Buddhaprabha
- ye shes sde
The Questions of the Nāga King Sāgara (1)
ཀླུའི་རྒྱལ་པོ་རྒྱ་མཚོས་ཞུས་པ། · klu’i rgyal po rgya mtshos zhus pa
Sāgaranāgarājaparipṛcchā
Summary
The Questions of the Nāga King Sāgara begins with a miracle that portends the coming of the Nāga King Sāgara to Vulture Peak Mountain in Rājagṛha. The nāga king engages in a lengthy dialogue with the Buddha on various topics pertaining to the distinction between relative and ultimate reality, all of which emphasize the primacy of insight into emptiness. The Buddha thereafter journeys to King Sāgara’s palace in the ocean and reveals details of the king’s past lives in order to introduce the inexhaustible casket dhāraṇī. In the nāga king’s palace in the ocean, he gives teachings on various topics and acts as peacemaker, addressing the ongoing conflicts between the gods and asuras and between the nāgas and garuḍas. Upon returning to Vulture Peak, the Buddha engages in dialogue with King Ajātaśatru and provides Nāga King Sāgara’s prophecy.
Title variants
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Questions of the Nāga King Sāgara”
- Āryasāgaranāgarājaparipṛcchānāmamahāyānasūtra
- 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
- 海龍王所問經（1）(大正藏：佛說海龍王經)
Tibetan translation:
- Jinamitra
- Prajñāvarman
- Yeshé Dé
The Questions of the Nāga King Sāgara (2)
ཀླུའི་རྒྱལ་པོ་རྒྱ་མཚོས་ཞུས་པ། · klu’i rgyal po rgya mtshos zhus pa
Sāgaranāgarājaparipṛcchā
Summary
The Questions of the Nāga King Sāgara presents a discourse given by the Buddha Śākyamuni on the importance of considering the effects caused by actions. At the start of his teaching, the Buddha remarks how the variety of forms that exist, and in fact all phenomena, come about as the result of virtuous and nonvirtuous actions. By understanding this law of cause and effect and by taking great care to engage in virtue, one will avoid rebirth in the lower realms and enter the path to perfect awakening. In the rest of his discourse he explains in great detail the advantages of engaging in each of the ten virtues and the problems associated with not engaging in them.
Title variants
- ’phags pa klu’i rgyal po rgya mtshos zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- འཕགས་པ་ཀླུའི་རྒྱལ་པོ་རྒྱ་མཚོས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Questions of the Nāga King Sāgara”
- Āryasāgaranāgarājaparipṛcchānāmamahāyānasūtra
Tibetan translation:
- Jinamitra
- Danasila
- Munivarman
- Yeshé Dé
The Questions of the Nāga King Sāgara (3)
ཀླུའི་རྒྱལ་པོ་རྒྱ་མཚོས་ཞུས་པ། · klu’i rgyal po rgya mtshos zhus pa
Sāgaranāgarājaparipṛcchā
Summary
In this very short sūtra, the Buddha explains to a nāga king and an assembly of monks that reciting the four aphorisms of the Dharma is equivalent to recitation of all of the 84,000 articles of the Dharma. He urges them to make diligent efforts to engage in understanding the four aphorisms (also called the four seals), which are the defining philosophical tenets of the Buddhist doctrine: (1) all compounded phenomena are impermanent; (2) all contaminated phenomena are suffering; (3) all phenomena are without self; (4) nirvāṇa is peace.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་ཀླུའི་རྒྱལ་པོ་རྒྱ་མཚོས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa klu’i rgyal po rgya mtshos zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Questions of the Nāga King Sāgara”
- Āryasāgaranāgarājaparipṛcchānāmamahāyanasūtra
Tibetan translation:
- Surendrabodhi
- Yeshé Dé
The Questions of the Kinnara King Druma
མི་འམ་ཅིའི་རྒྱལ་པོ་སྡོང་པོས་ཞུས་པ། · mi ’am ci’i rgyal po sdong pos zhus pa
Drumakinnararājaparipṛcchā
Summary
The Questions of the Kinnara King Druma, initiated by the questions of the bodhisattva Divyamauli, consists of a series of teachings by the kinnara 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
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Questions of the Kinnara King Druma”
- Āryadrumakinnararājaparipṛcchānāmamahāyānasūtra
- འཕགས་པ་མི་འམ་ཅིའི་རྒྱལ་པོ་སྡོང་པོས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa mi ’am ci’i rgyal po sdong pos zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- 《大樹緊那羅王所問經》
Tibetan translation:
- dpal gyi lhun po
- dpal brtsegs
The Questions of Brahmadatta
ཚངས་པས་བྱིན་གྱིས་ཞུས་པ། · tshangs pas byin gyis zhus pa
Brahmadattaparipṛcchā
Summary
The Questions of Brahmadatta begins with the bodhisattva Amoghadarśin departing from the Jeta Grove of Śrāvastī, where the Buddha is residing. Together with more than five hundred bodhisattvas, he travels to the region of Pañcāla, where King Brahmadatta requests Amoghadarśin to impart teachings to him and his citizens. The bodhisattva discusses the attributes and correct practices of a king who is a protector of the Dharma. The king requests that the bodhisattva remain in his kingdom to observe the summer vows in retreat. Sixty wicked monks already residing there treat Amoghadarśin poorly, and after three months he leaves Pañcāla and returns to the Jeta Grove.
King Brahmadatta later goes to see the Buddha, who explains to the king how the wicked monks behaved and the negative consequences of such actions. The Buddha then goes on to explain what a monk and others who wish to attain awakening should strive for, namely, to rid themselves of pride, anger, and jealousy. Upon hearing these instructions, King Brahmadatta expels the sixty wicked monks from his kingdom. Many beings then generate the mind of awakening, and King Brahmadatta is irreversibly set on the path of complete awakening. The Buddha smiles and radiates multicolored lights throughout the whole world. Finally, the king apologizes to Amoghadarśin and the bodhisattva forgives him.
Title variants
- ’phags pa tshangs pas byin gyis zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- འཕགས་པ་ཚངས་པས་བྱིན་གྱིས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- Āryabrahmadattaparipṛcchānāmamahāyānasūtra
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Questions of Brahmadatta”
Tibetan translation:
- Surendrabodhi
- Prajñāvarman
- Yeshé Dé
The Questions of Brahmaviśeṣacintin
ཚངས་པ་ཁྱད་པར་སེམས་ཀྱིས་ཞུས་པ། · tshangs pa khyad par sems kyis zhus pa
Brahmaviśeṣacintiparipṛcchā
Summary
In this sūtra, the Buddha Śākyamuni and a number of the bodhisattvas, elders, and gods in his assembly engage in a lively exchange clarifying many key points of the Dharma from the perspective of the Mahāyāna, including the four truths, the origin of saṃsāra, and the identity of the buddhas, while praising the qualities of the paragons of the Mahāyāna, the bodhisattvas.
Title variants
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Questions of Brahmaviśeṣacintin”
- Āryabrahmaviśeṣacintiparipṛcchānāmamahāyānasūtra
- ’phags pa tshangs pa khyad par sems kyis zhus pa zhes bya theg pa chen po’i mdo
- འཕགས་པ་ཚངས་པ་ཁྱད་པར་སེམས་ཀྱིས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- 《梵勝心所問經 》 (大正藏：勝思惟梵天所問經)
Tibetan translation:
- Śākyaprabha
- Dharmapāla
- Jinamitra
- Dharmatāśīla
- Devendrarakṣita
- Kumārarakṣita
The Questions of Śrīvasu
དཔལ་དབྱིག་གྱིས་ཞུས་པ། · dpal dbyig gyis zhus pa
Śrīvasuparipṛcchā
Summary
The Buddha is approached by the young merchant Śrīvasu, who requests instruction on how to live his life as a novice bodhisattva. The Buddha is pleased and offers some pithy advice regarding the bodhisattva path that encapsulates the main altruistic aims and practices of the Great Vehicle. He states that foremost among the bodhisattva’s daily practices are taking refuge in the Three Jewels, practicing the six perfections, and dedicating all resulting merit to the attainment of awakening for oneself and others.
Title variants
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Questions of Śrīvasu”
- Śrīvasuparipṛcchānāmamahāyānasūtra
- ’phags pa dpal dbyig gyis zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- འཕགས་པ་དཔལ་དབྱིག་གྱིས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- 《吉祥世所問經》
Tibetan translation:
- Surendrabodhi
- Prajñāvarman
- Bandé Yeshé Dé
The Questions of Ratnajālin
རིན་ཆེན་དྲ་བ་ཅན་གྱིས་ཞུས་པ། · rin chen dra ba can gyis zhus pa
Ratnajāliparipṛcchā
Summary
Prompted by a dream, the young Licchavi boy Ratnajālin invites the Buddha to the city of Vaiśālī. When the Buddha arrives Ratnajālin asks whether there are other buddhas whose names, when heard, bring benefit to bodhisattvas. The Buddha replies that there are, and he proceeds to describe the power of the names of buddhas in the four cardinal directions as well as above and below. Once Ratnajālin has understood the teaching on the power of the names of these thus-gone ones, the Buddha provides encouragement for the future propagation of this discourse.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་རིན་ཆེན་དྲ་བ་ཅན་གྱིས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa rin chen dra ba can gyis zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Questions of Ratnajālin”
- Āryaratnajāliparipṛcchānāmamahāyānasūtra
Tibetan translation:
- t. t. Jñānagarbha
- ye shes snying po
- r. dpal brtsegs
The Questions of Ratnacandra
རིན་ཆེན་ཟླ་བས་ཞུས་པ། · rin chen zla bas zhus pa
Ratnacandraparipṛcchā
Summary
The Questions of Ratnacandra is a sūtra in which Ratnacandra, a prince from the country of Magadha, requests the Buddha Śākyamuni to reveal the names of the ten buddhas who dwell in the ten directions. Prince Ratnacandra has been told that hearing the names of these ten buddhas ensures that one will attain awakening at some point in the future. The Buddha confirms this and discloses their names, as well as details of their respective buddha realms, such as the names of these realms and their many unique qualities.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་རིན་ཆེན་ཟླ་བས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa rin chen zla bas zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- Āryaratnacandraparipṛcchānāmamahāyānasūtra
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Questions of Ratnacandra”
- rin chen zla bas zhus pa’i mdo
- Ratnacandraparipṛcchā
Tibetan translation:
- t. Viśuddhasiṃha
- dge ba dpal
- r. Vidyākarasiṃha
- Devacandra
The Question of Kṣemaṅkara
བདེ་བྱེད་ཀྱིས་ཞུས་པ། · bde byed kyis zhus pa
Kṣemaṅkaraparipṛcchā
Summary
The Question of Kṣemaṅkara contains a teaching given by Buddha Śākyamuni to the Śākya youth Kṣemaṅkara, in response to a question he poses about the qualities of bodhisattvas and how to develop such qualities. The Buddha teaches him about bodhisattvas’ qualities, first in prose and later reiterated in verse, and then equates the teaching of this sūtra with the perfection of insight, stating that even if one practices the first five perfections for many eons, one will not make much progress without knowing what is taught in this sūtra.
Title variants
- ’phags pa bde byed kyis zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- འཕགས་པ་བདེ་བྱེད་ཀྱིས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- Āryakṣemaṅkaraparipṛcchānāmamahāyānasūtra
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Question of Kṣemaṅkara”
- bde byed kyis zhus pa’i mdo/
- Kṣemaṅkaraparipṛcchāsutra
Tibetan translation:
- Prajñāvarman
- ye shes sde
The Questions of Rāṣṭrapāla (2)
ཡུལ་འཁོར་སྐྱོང་གིས་ཞུས་པ། · yul ’khor skyong gis zhus pa
Rāṣṭrapālaparipṛcchā
Summary
The Questions of Rāṣṭrapāla (2), so called to distinguish it from a longer work with the same title (Toh 62), is a short Great Vehicle sūtra in which the Buddha describes the monks who will bring about the decline of the Dharma.
Title variants
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Questions of Rāṣṭrapāla (2)”
- Āryarāṣṭrapālaparipṛcchānāmamahāyānasūtra
- འཕགས་པ་ཡུལ་འཁོར་སྐྱོང་གིས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa yul ’khor skyong gis zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
Tibetan translation:
- t. jinamitra
- ye shes sde
The Questions of an Old Lady
བགྲེས་མོས་ཞུས་པ། · bgres mos zhus pa
Mahallikāparipṛcchā
Summary
This sūtra contains teachings given by the Buddha to a 120-year-old woman in the city of Vaiśalī. Upon meeting the Buddha, she asks him questions concerning the four stages of life, the aggregates, the elements, and the faculties. In response, the Buddha gives her a profound teaching on emptiness, using beautifully crafted examples to illustrate his point.
After hearing these teachings her doubts are dispelled and she is freed from clinging to the perception of a self. Ānanda asks the Buddha why he has given such profound teachings to this woman. The Buddha reveals that the woman has been his mother five hundred times in previous lifetimes and that he had generated the root of virtue for her to become enlightened. Because of her own strong aspirations, after dying, she would be born in the buddhafield 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
Tibetan translation:
- Jinamitra
- Dānaśīla
- Yeshé Dé
The Question of Mañjuśrī
འཇམ་དཔལ་གྱིས་དྲིས་པ། · ’jam dpal gyis dris pa
Mañjuśrīparipṛcchā
Summary
The bodhisattva Mañjuśrī approaches the Buddha and asks about the extent of the merit represented by the Buddha’s “Dharma conch,” which here seems to mean the Buddha’s voice. The Buddha proceeds to illustrate the vastness of this merit by means of a cosmic multiplication—sequentially compounding the merit of all beings in a certain realm if they each possessed the merit of a cakravartin, a brahmā god, a bodhisattva, and so forth, each having more merit than the previous one. The expansion continues through a list of the eighty designs marking the body of a buddha and the thirty-two signs of a great being, which, multiplied inconceivably, are said to be equal in merit to the Dharma conch. The Buddha then explains how the voice, body, and light of the Buddha are made known throughout countless realms and take on numberless manifestations to tame beings.
Title variants
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Question of Mañjuśrī”
- Āryamañjuśrīparipṛcchānāmamahāyānasūtra
- འཕགས་པ་འཇམ་དཔལ་གྱིས་དྲིས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa ’jam dpal gyis dris pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- Dharmaśaṅkhasūtra
- 《文殊師利所問經》（大正藏：《佛說妙吉祥菩薩所問大乘法螺經》、《大乘百福相經》）
- ’phags pa ’jam dpal gyis zhus pa’i mdo
Questions on Selflessness
བདག་མེད་པ་དྲིས་པ། · bdag med pa dris pa
Nairātmyaparipṛcchā
Summary
Questions on Selflessness consists of a dialogue between a group of followers of the Mahāyāna tradition and a group of tīrthikas, who pose several questions on the doctrine of selflessness. In the exchange that follows, the Mahāyāna proponents elucidate this and other key Buddhist doctrines, such as the distinction between relative and ultimate reality, the origin of suffering, the emptiness and illusoriness of all phenomena, and the path to awakening.
Title variants
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “Questions on Selflessness”
- Āryanairātmyaparipṛcchānāmamahāyānasūtra
- འཕགས་པ་བདག་མེད་པ་དྲིས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa bdag med pa dris pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- 《問無我經》（大正藏：《尼乾子問無我義經》）
Tibetan translation:
- t. kamalagupta
- rin chen bzang po
The Inquiry of Lokadhara
འཇིག་རྟེན་འཛིན་གྱིས་ཡོངས་སུ་དྲིས་པ། · ’jig rten ’dzin gyis yongs su dris pa
Lokadharaparipṛcchā
Summary
In The Inquiry of Lokadhara, the bodhisattva Lokadhara asks the Buddha to explain the proper way for bodhisattvas to discern the characteristics of phenomena and employ that knowledge to attain awakening. In reply, the Buddha teaches at length how to understand the lack of inherent existence of phenomena. As part of the teaching, the Buddha explains in detail the nonexistence of the aggregates, the elements, the sense sources, dependently originated phenomena, the four applications of mindfulness, the five powers, the eightfold path of the noble ones, and mundane and transcendent phenomena, as well as conditioned and unconditioned phenomena.
Title variants
- The Noble Sūtra “The Inquiry of Lokadhara”
- Āryalokadharaparipṛcchānāmasūtra
- འཕགས་པ་འཇིག་རྟེན་འཛིན་གྱིས་ཡོངས་སུ་དྲིས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa ’jig rten ’dzin gyis yongs su dris pa zhes bya ba’i mdo
- 《持世所問經》 (大正藏：持世經)
The Teaching of Akṣayamati
བློ་གྲོས་མི་ཟད་པས་བསྟན་པ། · blo gros mi zad pas bstan pa
Akṣayamatinirdeśa
Summary
The bodhisatva? Akṣayamati arrives in our world from the buddha field of the buddha Samantabhadra. In response to Śāriputra’s questions, Akṣayamati gives a discourse on the subject of imperishability. In all, Akṣayamati explains that there are eighty different aspects of the Dharma that are imperishable. When he has given this explanation, the Buddha praises it and declares it worthy of being spread by the countless bodhisatvas gathered there to listen.
Title variants
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Teaching of Akṣayamati”
- Āryākṣayamatinirdeśanāmamahāyānasūtra
- 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
- 《無盡意所說經》 (大正藏：大方等大集經第十二無盡意菩薩品)
Tibetan translation:
- Dharmatāśila
The Teaching of Vimalakīrti
དྲི་མེད་གྲགས་པས་བསྟན་པ། · dri med grags pas bstan pa
Vimalakīrtinirdeśa
Summary
While the Buddha is teaching outside the city of Vaiśālī, a notable householder in the city—the great bodhisattva Vimalakīrti—apparently falls sick. The Buddha asks his disciple and bodhisattva disciples to call on Vimalakīrti, but each of them relates previous encounters that have rendered them reluctant to face his penetrating scrutiny of their attitudes and activities. Only Mañjuśrī has the courage to pay him a visit, and in the conversations that ensue between Vimalakīrti, Mañjuśrī, and several other interlocutors, Vimalakīrti sets out an uncompromising and profound view of the Buddha’s teaching and the bodhisattva path, illustrated by various miraculous displays. Its masterful narrative structure, dramatic and sometimes humorous dialogue, and highly evolved presentation of teachings have made this sūtra one of the favorites of Mahāyāna literature.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་དྲི་མ་མེད་པར་གྲགས་པས་བསྟན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa dri ma med par grags pas bstan pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Teaching of Vimalakīrti”
- Āryavimalakīrtinirdeśanāmamahāyānasūtra
Tibetan translation:
- Chönyi Tsultrim
Mañjuśrī’s Teaching
འཇམ་དཔལ་གྱིས་བསྟན་པ། · ’jam dpal gyis bstan pa
Mañjuśrīnirdeśa
Summary
The bodhisattva Mañjuśrī approaches the Buddha, who is teaching the Dharma in Śrāvastī, and offers him the shade of a jeweled parasol. The god Susīma, who is in the audience, asks Mañjuśrī whether he is satisfied with his offering, to which Mañjuśrī replies that those who seek enlightenment should never be content with making offerings to the Buddha. Susīma then asks what purpose one should keep in mind when making offerings to the Buddha. In response, Mañjuśrī lists a set of four purposes.
Title variants
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “Mañjuśrī’s Teaching”
- Āryamañjuśrīnirdeśanāmamahāyānasūtra
- ’phags pa ’jam dpal gyis bstan pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- འཕགས་པ་འཇམ་དཔལ་གྱིས་བསྟན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- 《文殊師利所說經》（大正藏：《大乘四法經》）
Tibetan translation:
- Surendrabodhi
- Bandé Yeshé Dé
The Teaching on the Aids to Enlightenment
བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་ཕྱོགས་བསྟན་པ། · byang chub kyi phyogs bstan pa
Bodhipakṣanirdeśa
Summary
In response to a series of queries from Mañjuśrī, Buddha Śākyamuni first exposes the error that prevents sentient beings in general from transcending saṃsāra, and then focuses more particularly on errors that result from understanding the four truths of the noble ones based on conceptual notions of phenomena. He then goes on to explain how someone wishing to attain liberation should skillfully view the following five sets of qualities: (1) the four truths, (2) the four applications of mindfulness, (3) the eightfold path, (4) the five faculties, and (5) the seven branches of enlightenment.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་ཕྱོགས་བསྟན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa byang chub kyi phyogs bstan pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- Āryabodhipakṣanirdeśanāmamahāyānasūtra
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Teaching on the Aids to Enlightenment”
- 佛說大乘善見變化文殊師利問法經
Tibetan translation:
- t. jinamitra
- jnanasidhi
- ye shes sde
Teaching the Relative and Ultimate Truths
ཀུན་རྫོབ་དང་དོན་དམ་པའི་བདེན་པ་བསྟན་པ། · kun rdzob dang don dam pa’i bden pa bstan pa
Saṃvṛtiparamārthasatyanirdeśa
Summary
In Teaching the Relative and Ultimate Truths, the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī is summoned by Buddha Śākyamuni from a faraway buddha realm to teach in a way that demolishes all dualistic experience. As Mañjuśrī begins to teach, the main message of the sūtra unfolds as an explanation of the two truths. The general theme of Mañjuśrī’s discourse is centered on the particular circumstances in Ratnaketu’s buddha realm, but the message is equally applicable to the experiences of beings here in this world.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་ཀུན་རྫོབ་དང་དོན་དམ་པའི་བདེན་པ་བསྟན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa kun rdzob dang don dam pa’i bden pa bstan pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “Teaching the Relative and Ultimate Truths”
- Āryasaṃvṛtiparamārthasatyanirdeśanāmamahāyānasūtra
Tibetan translation:
- Śākyaprabha
- Jinamitra
- Dharmatāśīla
Teaching How All Phenomena Are without Origin
ཆོས་ཐམས་ཅད་འབྱུང་བ་མེད་པར་བསྟན་པ། · chos thams cad ’byung ba med par bstan pa
Sarvadharmāpravṛttinirdeśa
Summary
While the Buddha is residing on Vulture Peak Mountain, the bodhisattva Siṃhavikrāntagāmin asks him a series of questions about emptiness and the nondual view in which the dichotomy between subject and object has been left behind. The Buddha responds with a discourse in verse identifying the nature of phenomena as the single principle of emptiness. Later, he teaches the bodhisattva about the dangers of judging the behavior of other bodhisattvas, and the dangers of making any imputations about phenomena at all—explaining that both stem from ill-founded preconceptions that are transcended with spiritual awakening. In an ensuing discussion with Mañjuśrī, the Buddha further connects many standard Buddhist concepts and categories to the nondual view that all phenomena are unborn and without intrinsic nature. Lastly, a god is instructed in the knowledge that overcomes the duality of various opposites, and Mañjuśrī concludes the sūtra by revealing the circumstances of his time as a beginning bodhisattva.
Title variants
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “Teaching How All Phenomena Are without Origin”
- Āryasarvadharmāpravṛttinirdeśanāmamahāyānasūtra
- འཕགས་པ་ཆོས་ཐམས་ཅད་འབྱུང་བ་མེད་པར་བསྟན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa chos thams cad ’byung ba med par bstan pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- 《一切法無生經》（大正藏：《佛說諸法本無經》）
Tibetan translation:
- Bandé Rinchen Tso
Teaching the Five Perfections
ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་ལྔ་བསྟན་པ། · pha rol tu phyin pa lnga bstan pa
Pañcapāramitānirdeśa
Summary
Teaching the Five Perfections is a compilation of five short sūtras that each present the practice of one of the five perfections in which bodhisattvas train on the path of the Great Vehicle: generosity, discipline, patience, diligence, and concentration. These five perfections embody the skillful methods of the bodhisattva path, and, as these sūtras show, they should always be combined with an understanding of the state of omniscience, the sixth perfection of insight that is supposed to permeate the practice of the first five perfections. The teachings are delivered by the Buddha as well as two of his close disciples, Śāradvatīputra and Pūrṇa Maitrāyaṇīputra, who both teach the five perfections inspired by the Buddha’s blessing.
Title variants
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “Teaching the Five Perfections”
- Āryapañcapāramitānirdeśanāmamahāyānasūtra
- འཕགས་པ་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་ལྔ་བསྟན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa pha rol tu phyin pa lnga bstan pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- Pañcapāramitānirdeśasūtra
- 《五波羅蜜多經》（大正藏：《大般若波羅蜜多經第十一分至第十五分》）
- phar phyin lnga bstan pa’i mdo
Tibetan translation:
- Jinamitra
- Bandé Yeshé Dé
The Perfection of Generosity
སྦྱིན་པའི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ། · sbyin pa’i pha rol tu phyin pa
Dānapāramitā
Summary
In this sūtra a bodhisattva asks the Buddha how bodhisattvas should exert themselves after having given rise to the mind set on awakening. The Buddha replies by describing the ten virtuous actions and the motivation that bodhisattvas should engender when they engage in those practices. Next, after explaining how they should exert themselves in the ten perfections, the Buddha presents a detailed explanation of the perfection of generosity, focusing on the compassionate motivation that bodhisattvas cultivate while practicing it. A particular feature of this sūtra is how it details the significance of making different kinds of offering, in terms of the spiritual attainments, qualities of awakening, and other benefits that will result.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་སྦྱིན་པའི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa sbyin pa’i pha rol tu phyin pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Perfection of Generosity”
- Āryadānapāramitānāmamahāyānasūtra
- ’phags pa sbyin pa’i pha rol tu phyin pa bstan pa
- sangs rgyas kyi chos thams cad kyi rgyan dang / spud pa dang / lhab lhub bkod pa
Tibetan translation:
- Prajñāvarman
- Yeshé Dé
Teaching the Benefits of Generosity
སྦྱིན་པའི་ཕན་ཡོན་བསྟན་པ། · sbyin pa’i phan yon bstan pa
Dānānuśaṃsānirdeśa
Summary
This short discourse was taught to an audience of monks in Śrāvastī, in the Jetavana. The Buddha details thirty-seven ways in which the wise give gifts, how those gifts are properly given, and the positive results that ripen from giving such gifts. The Buddha makes clear that the result that ripens is similar to the gift that was given or the manner in which the gift was given.
Title variants
- The Noble “Teaching the Benefits of Generosity”
- Āryadānānuśaṃsānirdeśa
- འཕགས་པ་སྦྱིན་པའི་ཕན་ཡོན་བསྟན་པ།
- ’phags pa sbyin pa’i phan yon bstan pa
- 《布施利益經》（大正藏：《佛說布施經》）
Tibetan translation:
- Surendrabodhi
- Yeshé Dé
Teaching the Practice of a Bodhisattva
བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་སྤྱོད་པ་བསྟན་པ། · byang chub sems dpa’i spyod pa bstan pa
Bodhisattvacaryānirdeśa
Summary
This sūtra takes place in the city of Vaiśālī, where the Buddha Śākyamuni and his retinue of monks have gone to gather alms. When the Buddha enters Vaiśālī a number of miracles occur in the city, and these draw the attention of a three-year-old boy named Ratnadatta. As the child encounters the Buddha, a dialogue ensues with the monks Maudgalyāyana and Śāriputra and the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī, in which the boy delivers a teaching on the practice of bodhisattvas and a critique of those who fail to take up such practices.
Title variants
- bodhisattvacaryānirdeśasūtra
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “Teaching the Practice of a Bodhisattva”
- ’phags pa byang chub sems dpa’i spyod pa bstan pa shes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- Āryabodhisattvacaryānirdeśanāmamahāyānasūtra
- འཕགས་པ་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་སྤྱོད་པ་བསྟན་པ་ཤེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
Tibetan translation:
- Jinamitra
- Prajñāvarman
- Yeshé Dé
Introduction to the Domain of the Inconceivable Qualities and Wisdom of the Tathāgatas
དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་ཡོན་ཏན་དང་ཡེ་ཤེས་བསམ་གྱིས་མི་ཁྱབ་པའི་ཡུལ་ལ་འཇུག་པ་བསྟན་པ། · de bzhin gshegs pa’i yon tan dang ye shes bsam gyis mi khyab pa’i yul la ’jug pa bstan pa
Tathāgataguṇajñānācintyaviṣayāvatāranirdeśa
Summary
In the Introduction to the Domain of the Inconceivable Qualities and Wisdom of the Tathāgatas, the bodhisattva Sarvanīvaraṇaviṣkambhin expounds at length on how the awakened activity of the buddhas spontaneously unfolds in a limitless variety of ways to benefit beings, in all their diversity, throughout the universe. He also describes the inestimable benefits a bodhisattva derives from following a virtuous spiritual friend.
Title variants
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “Introduction to the Domain of the Inconceivable Qualities and Wisdom of the Tathāgatas”
- Āryatathāgataguṇajñānācintyaviṣayāvatāranirdeśanāmamahāyānasūtra
- ’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
- 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།
- 《大方廣入如來智德不思議經》
Tibetan translation:
- Jñānagarbha
- Yeshé Dé
The Teaching on the Extraordinary Transformation That Is the Miracle of Attaining the Buddha’s Powers
སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་སྟོབས་སྐྱེད་པའི་ཆོ་འཕྲུལ་རྣམ་པར་འཕྲུལ་པ་བསྟན་པ། · sangs rgyas kyi stobs skyed pa’i cho ’phrul rnam par ’phrul pa bstan pa
Buddhabalādhānaprātihāryavikurvāṇanirdeśa
Summary
In this sūtra, the Buddha displays supernatural powers three times. First, he magically transports his entire audience and retinue to Vārāṇasī. Secondly, having incited Avalokiteśvara and Vajrapāṇi to use their own miraculous powers to gather there all the beings who must be led to awakening, he makes the whole world appear as a pure realm like Sukhāvatī. He explains that a tathāgata’s various powers are like a doctor’s skills, and teaches, with Mañjuśrī’s help in a series of dialogues with other protagonists, on how the tathāgatas manifest to beings, displaying his supernatural powers a third time by making many other buddhas appear all around him. The meaning of the Tathāgata’s miracles are gradually disclosed to the audience, as well as some other essential points including the merit to be gained by honoring the teachings.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་སྟོབས་སྐྱེད་པའི་ཆོ་འཕྲུལ་རྣམ་པར་འཕྲུལ་པ་བསྟན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa sangs rgyas kyi stobs skyed pa’i cho ’phrul rnam par ’phrul pa bstan pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Sūtra of the Great Vehicle “The Teaching on the Extraordinary Transformation That Is the Miracle of Attaining the Buddha’s Powers”
- Āryabuddhabalādhānaprātihāryavikurvāṇanirdeśanāmamahāyānasūtra
Tibetan translation:
- Unknown
The Prophecy Concerning Strīvivarta
བུད་མེད་འགྱུར་བ་ལུང་བསྟན་པ། · bud med ’gyur ba lung bstan pa
Strīvivartavyākaraṇa
Summary
In this sūtra, Subhūti, one of the Buddha’s close disciples, enters into a discussion with several individuals in the course of his alms rounds. His primary interlocutor is a laywoman who reveals herself to be a bodhisattva great being named Strīvivarta; her teachings are profound and challenging, consistently pointing in the direction of ultimate truth. The sūtra culminates in the Buddha prophesying Strīvivarta’s future awakening.
Title variants
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Prophecy Concerning Strīvivarta”
- Āryastrīvivartavyākaraṇanāmamahāyānasūtra
- འཕགས་པ་བུད་མེད་འགྱུར་བ་ལུང་བསྟན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa bud med ’gyur ba lung bstan pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- 《轉女身受記經》（大正藏：《樂瓔珞莊嚴方便品經》）
Tibetan translation:
- Bandé Yeshé Dé
- Śīlendrabodhi
- Prajñāvarman
The Prophecy of Kṣemavatī
བདེ་ལྡན་མ་ལུང་བསྟན་པ། · bde ldan ma lung bstan pa
Kṣemavatīvyākaraṇa
Summary
On their morning alms round, the Buddha and Maitreya meet Queen Kṣemavatī who is bedecked in all her royal jewelry. When the Buddha asks her about the source of such fine jewelry, referring to it metaphorically as fruit, Queen Kṣemavatī explains that her worldly position is the fruit of the tree of her previous good deeds. The remainder of the sūtra describes how one’s good actions can eventually lead to buddhahood, and it concludes with a prophecy of the queen’s future awakening.
Title variants
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Prophecy of Kṣemavatī”
- Āryakṣemavatīvyākaraṇanāmamahāyānasūtra
- ’phags pa bde ldan ma lung bstan pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- འཕགས་པ་བདེ་ལྡན་མ་ལུང་བསྟན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- 差摩婆帝授記經
The Prophecy of Śrī Mahādevī
ལྷ་མོ་ཆེན་མོ་དཔལ་ལུང་བསྟན་པ། · lha mo chen mo dpal lung bstan pa
Śrīmahādevīvyākaraṇa
Summary
This sūtra recounts an event that took place in the buddha realm of Sukhāvatī. The discourse commences with the Buddha Śākyamuni relating to the 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 the 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
- The Noble Prophecy of Śrī Mahādevī
- Āryaśrīmahādevīvyākaraṇa
- འཕགས་པ་ལྷ་མོ་ཆེན་མོ་དཔལ་ལུང་བསྟན་པ།
- ’phags pa lha mo chen mo dpal lung bstan pa
Tibetan translation:
- Unknown
The Sūtra of the Inquiry of Jayamati
རྒྱལ་བའི་བློ་གྲོས་ཀྱིས་ཞུས་པའི་མདོ། · rgyal ba’i blo gros kyis zhus pa’i mdo
Jayamatiparipṛcchāsūtra
Summary
The sūtra is introduced with the Buddha residing in Anāthapiṇḍada’s grove in Jeta Wood in Śrāvastī together with a great assembly of monks and a great multitude of bodhisatvas. The Buddha then addresses the bodhisatva Jayamati, instructs him on nineteen moral prescriptions, and indicates the corresponding effects of practicing these prescriptions when they are cultivated.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་རྒྱལ་བའི་བློ་གྲོས་ཀྱིས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེ་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa rgyal ba’i blo gros kyis zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Inquiry of Jayamati”
- Āryajayamatiparipṛcchānāmamahāyānasūtra
Tibetan translation:
- Unknown
The Avalokinī Sūtra
སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས་ཀྱི་མདོ། · spyan ras gzigs kyi mdo
Avalokinīsūtra
Summary
The Avalokinī Sūtra takes place in the city of Rājagṛha, where the Buddha teaches on the benefits that result from honoring the stūpas of awakened beings. The major part of this teaching consists in the Buddha detailing the many positive rewards obtained by those who worship the buddhas’ stūpas with offerings, such as flowers, incense, and lamps.
Title variants
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra: Avalokinī
- Āryāvalokinīnāmamahāyānasūtra
- ’phags pa spyan ras gzigs zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- འཕགས་པ་སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- 《觀見經》
Tibetan translation:
- Jinamitra
- Dānaśīla
- Yeshé Dé
The Dwelling Place of Mañjuśrī
འཇམ་དཔལ་གནས་པ། · ’jam dpal gnas pa
Mañjuśrīvihāra
Summary
The Dwelling Place of Mañjuśrī first presents a dialogue between Mañjuśrī and Śāriputra regarding the activity of “dwelling” (vihāra) during meditation, the nature of dharmas, and the “true nature” (tathatā). This opens into a conversation between Mañjuśrī and a large gathering of monks whereby Mañjuśrī corrects the monks’ misinterpretations. Mañjuśrī then instructs Śāriputra on the enduring and indestructible nature of the realm of sentient beings and the realm of reality. Finally, the power of Mañjuśrī’s teaching is explained and reiterated by the Buddha.
Title variants
- ’phags pa ’jam dpal gnas pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- འཕགས་པ་འཇམ་དཔལ་གནས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Dwelling Place of Mañjuśrī”
- Āryamañjuśrīvihāranāmamahāyānasūtra
Tibetan translation:
- Surendrabodhi
- Yeshé Dé
The Nectar of Speech
བདུད་རྩི་བརྗོད་པ། · bdud rtsi brjod pa
Amṛtavyāharaṇa
Summary
In this sūtra, in answer to a question put by Maitreya, the Buddha Śākyamuni teaches five qualities that bodhisattvas should have in order to live a long life free of obstacles and attain awakening quickly: (1) giving the Dharma; (2) giving freedom from fear; (3) practicing great loving kindness, great compassion, great joy, and great equanimity; (4) repairing dilapidated stūpas; and (5) causing all beings to aspire to the mind of awakening. Maitreya praises the benefits of this teaching and vows to teach it himself in future degenerate times. Both Maitreya and the Buddha emphasize the positive effects on beings and the environment that upholding, preserving, and teaching The Nectar of Speech will bring about.
Title variants
- ’phags pa bdud rtsi brjod pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- འཕགས་པ་བདུད་རྩི་བརྗོད་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Nectar of Speech”
- Āryāmṛtavyāharaṇanāmamahāyānasūtra
- Ambrosial Speech
- Amṛtavyāharaṇa
Maitreya’s Setting Out
བྱམས་པ་འཇུག་པ། · byams pa ’jug pa
Maitreyaprasthāna
Summary
In Maitreya’s Setting Out, the Buddha Śākyamuni first narrates events from a past life of the bodhisattva Maitreya in which he was born as a king and for the first time gave rise to the mind set on awakening. Later, the Buddha recounts another past life of Maitreya—this time as a monk—and explains why he is known today as the bodhisattva Maitreya. These two narratives are interspersed with a series of Dharma teachings emphasizing the unborn nature of phenomena and the need to develop the view that transcends all reference points.
Title variants
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “Maitreya’s Setting Out”
- Āryamaitreyaprasthānanāmamahāyānasūtra
- ’phags pa byams pa ’jug pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- འཕགས་པ་བྱམས་པ་འཇུག་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- maitreyaprasthānasūtra
- 《彌勒發趣經》
Tibetan translation:
- Yeshé Dé
- Prajñāvarman
- Jinamitra
- Surendrabodhi
The Sūtra on Maitreya’s Birth in the Heaven of Joy
བྱམས་པ་དགའ་ལྡན་གནམ་དུ་སྐྱེ་བ་བླངས་པའི་མདོ། · byams pa dga’ ldan gnam du skye ba blangs pa’i mdo
Summary
This discourse takes place during the early evening in Śrāvastī and features the Buddha and his retinue. Among them are Maitreya (then known as Ajita) and Upāli, who asks about Ajita’s future awakening as Maitreya. The Buddha answers that he will be reborn in the Heaven of Joy. He proceeds to describe its wondrous qualities and the causes of being reborn there. At the conclusion of the discourse, all those present in the retinue rejoice and make aspirations to be reborn in the Heaven of Joy.
Title variants
- The Noble Sūtra “The Bodhisattva Maitreya’s Birth in the Heaven of Joy”
- ’phags pa byang chub sems dpa’ byams pa dga’ ldan gnam du skye ba blangs pa’i mdo
- འཕགས་པ་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་བྱམས་པ་དགའ་ལྡན་གནམ་དུ་སྐྱེ་བ་བླངས་པའི་མདོ།
- 《彌勒菩薩兜率天受生經》 （大藏經：《佛說觀彌勒菩薩上生兜率天經》）
Tibetan translation:
- Pabtong
- Sherab Sengé
The Seal of Engagement in Awakening the Power of Faith
དད་པའི་སྟོབས་བསྐྱེད་པ་ལ་འཇུག་པའི་ཕྱག་རྒྱ། · dad pa’i stobs bskyed pa la ’jug pa’i phyag rgya
Śraddhābalādhānāvatāramudrā
Summary
The Seal of Engagement in Awakening the Power of Faith is made up of two lengthy orations—one by the Buddha, and one by the bodhisattva Samantabhadra—delivered in response to questions by the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī. The Buddha’s teaching consists of numerous sets of five principles related to bodhisattva practice, each item of which is subsequently defined. These come together to teach Mañjuśrī how bodhisattvas can be inspired and thereby prepare themselves for the first bodhisattva level. In the latter part of the sūtra Samantabhadra teaches on the topic of buddha activity with a rich account of the expansive ways in which buddhas act to benefit beings.
Title variants
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Seal of Engagement in Awakening the Power of Faith”
- Āryaśraddhābalādhānāvatāramudrānāmamahāyānasūtra
- ’phags pa dad pa’i stobs bskyed pa la ’jug pa’i phyag rgya zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- འཕགས་པ་དད་པའི་སྟོབས་བསྐྱེད་པ་ལ་འཇུག་པའི་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- 《信力入印法門經》
Tibetan translation:
- Surendrabodhi
- Yeshé Dé
Evaluating Whether Progress is Certain or Uncertain
ངེས་པ་དང་མ་ངེས་པར་འགྲོ་བའི་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ལ་འཇུག་པ། · nges pa dang ma nges par ’gro ba’i phyag rgya la ’jug pa
Niyatāniyatagatimudrāvatāra
Summary
In this sūtra, Mañjuśrī asks the Buddha about the factors that make it either certain or not certain that a bodhisattva will attain unsurpassable, perfect awakening. In response, the Buddha describes five ways in which bodhisattvas may or may not make progress on the path. As an analogy for different ways of making progress, he compares five different ways of traveling a very great distance: using a cattle cart, using an elephant chariot, using the moon and sun, using the magical power of the śrāvakas, and using the magical power of the Tathāgata.
Title variants
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “Evaluating Whether Progress is Certain or Uncertain”
- Niyatāniyatagatimudrāvatāranāmamahāyānasūtra
- འཕགས་པ་ངེས་པ་དང་མ་ངེས་པར་འགྲོ་བའི་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ལ་འཇུག་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa nges pa dang ma nges par ’gro ba’i phyag rgya la ’jug pa zhes bya ba’i theg pa chen po’i mdo
- Evaluating Whether the Bodhisattvas’ Progress Is Certain or Uncertain
- Āryaniyatāniyatagatimudrāvatāranāmamahāyānasūtra
- byang chub sems dpa’ rnams kyi nges pa dang ma nges par ’gro ba’i phyag rgya la ’jug pa
Tibetan translation:
- Prajñāvarma
- Surendrabodhi
- Yeshé Dé
The Seal of Dharma
ཆོས་ཀྱི་ཕྱག་རྒྱ། · chos kyi phyag rgya
Dharmamudrā
Summary
In this short sūtra, the Buddha addresses the nature of monastic ordination according to the perspective of the Great Vehicle and how going forth from the life of a householder can be said to have the qualities of being noble and supramundane. Following the Buddha’s teaching, the two prominent monks Śāriputra and Subhūti engage in a brief discussion on this same topic.
Title variants
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Seal of Dharma”
- Āryadharmamudrānāmamahāyānasūtra
- འཕགས་པ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa chos kyi phyag rgya zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- 《聖法印契經》
Tibetan translation:
- Bandé Lui Wangpo
- Lhai Dawa
Pure Sustenance of Food
ཟས་ཀྱི་འཚོ་བ་རྣམ་པར་དག་པ། · zas kyi ’tsho ba rnam par dag pa
Summary
While the Buddha is staying at the Bamboo Grove with a diverse retinue, the monk Maudgalyāyana asks him about some unusual beings he saw during an alms round. The Buddha informs Maudgalyāyana that these beings are starving spirits. The Buddha gives a discourse explaining how these starving spirits were once humans yet committed misdeeds related to food that led them to their current dismal state. The misdeeds connected with food described by the Buddha present a picture of food-related prohibitions for the monastic saṅgha, such as failing to eat only a single meal a day, improperly partaking of meals, carrying away leftovers, and other forms of abusing food offerings. Food-related ethics are also given for lay people, mainly concerning how to prepare food for the saṅgha in a hygienic manner.
Title variants
- The Mahāyāna Sūtra “Pure Sustenance of Food”
- ཟས་ཀྱི་འཚོ་བ་རྣམ་པར་དག་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- zas kyi ’tsho ba rnam par dag pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
The Strength of the Elephant
གླང་པོའི་རྩལ། · glang po’i rtsal
Hastikakṣya
Summary
This sūtra contains a Dharma discourse on the profound insight into the emptiness of all phenomena, also known as transcendent insight. Following a short teaching in verse by Śāriputra, the Buddha delivers the primary discourse at the behest of Ānanda and Mañjuśrī amid a vast assembly of monks, bodhisattvas, and lay devotees. He specifically addresses hearers and so-called “outcast bodhisattvas” who have not realized transcendent insight and who thus remain attached to phenomenal appearances. Responding to a series of questions posed by Mañjuśrī and Śāriputra, the Buddha explains that all phenomena are as empty as space, with nothing to be either affirmed or rejected. Yet that very emptiness is what makes everything possible, including the bodhisattvas’ altruistic activities.
Title variants
- glang po’i rtsal zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- གླང་པོའི་རྩལ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- Hastikakṣyanāmamahāyānasūtra
- The Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Strength of the Elephant”
The Great Rumble
སྒྲ་ཆེན་པོ། · sgra chen po
Mahāraṇa
Summary
The Buddha’s disciple Ānanda is on an alms round in Śrāvastī when he notices an immaculate palace. He wonders whether it would be more meritorious to offer such a palace to the monastic community or to enshrine a relic of the Buddha within a small stūpa. He poses this question to the Buddha who describes how the merit of the latter far exceeds any other offerings one could make. The reason the Buddha cites for this is the immense qualities that the buddhas possess.
Title variants
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Great Rumble”
- Āryamahāraṇanāmamahāyānasūtra
- འཕགས་པ་སྒྲ་ཆེན་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa sgra chen po zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
Tibetan translation:
- Viśuddhasiṃha
- Gewa Pal
- Vidyākarasiṃha
- Devacandra
The Rice Seedling
སཱ་ལུའི་ལྗང་པ། · sA lu’i ljang pa
Śālistamba
Summary
In this sūtra, at the request of venerable Śāriputra, the bodhisattva mahāsattva Maitreya elucidates a very brief teaching on dependent arising that the Buddha had given earlier that day while gazing at a rice seedling. The text discusses outer and inner causation and its conditions, describes in detail the twelvefold cycle by which inner dependent arising gives rise to successive lives, and explains how understanding the very nature of that process can lead to freedom from it.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་སཱ་ལུའི་ལྗང་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa sA lu’i ljang pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Rice Seedling”
- Āryaśālistambanāmamahāyānasūtra
Tibetan translation:
Teaching the Fundamental Exposition and Detailed Analysis of Dependent Arising
རྟེན་ཅིང་འབྲེལ་བར་འབྱུང་བ་དང་པོ་དང་རྣམ་པར་དབྱེ་བ་བསྟན་པ། · rten cing ’brel bar ’byung ba dang po dang rnam par dbye ba bstan pa
Pratītyasamutpādādivibhaṅganirdeśa
Summary
In the Jeta Grove outside Śrāvastī, monks have gathered to listen to the Buddha as he presents the foundational doctrine of dependent arising. The Buddha first gives the definition of dependent arising and then teaches the twelve factors that form the causal chain of existence in saṃsāra as well as the defining characteristics of these twelve factors.
Title variants
- rten cing ’brel bar ’byung ba dang po dang rnam par dbye ba bstan pa zhes bya ba’i mdo
- རྟེན་ཅིང་འབྲེལ་བར་འབྱུང་བ་དང་པོ་དང་རྣམ་པར་དབྱེ་བ་བསྟན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་མདོ།
- Pratītyasamutpādādivibhaṅganirdeśanāmasūtra
- The Sūtra “Teaching the Fundamental Exposition and Detailed Analysis of Dependent Arising”
The Sūtra on Dependent Arising
རྟེན་ཅིང་འབྲེལ་བར་འབྱུང་བའི་མདོ། · rten cing ’brel bar ’byung ba’i mdo
Pratītyasamutpādasūtra
Summary
While the Buddha is residing in the Realm of the Thirty-Three Gods with a retinue of deities, great hearers, and bodhisattvas, Avalokiteśvara asks the Buddha how beings can gain merit from building a stūpa. The Buddha responds by stating the Buddhist creed on dependent arising:
The Buddha then explains that this dependent arising is the dharmakāya, and that whoever sees dependent arising sees the Buddha. He concludes the sūtra by saying that one should place these verses inside stūpas to attain the merit of Brahmā.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་རྟེན་ཅིང་འབྲེལ་བར་འབྱུང་བ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa rten cing ’brel bar ’byung ba zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra on Dependent Arising
- Āryapratītyasamutpādanāmamahāyānasūtra
Tibetan translation:
- Surendrabodhi
- Bandé Yeshé Dé
Eliminating Ajātaśatru’s Remorse
མ་སྐྱེས་དགྲའི་འགྱོད་པ་བསལ་བ། · ma skyes dgra’i ’gyod pa bsal ba
Ajātaśatrukaukṛtyavinodana
Summary
Eliminating Ajātaśatru’s Remorse narrates how the teachings of the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī help King Ajātaśatru overcome the severe negative action of having killed his father, King Bimbisāra. Through instruction, pointed questioning, and a display of miracles, Mañjuśrī and his retinue of bodhisattvas show King Ajātaśatru that the remorse he feels for his crime is in fact unreal, just as all phenomena are unreal. The sūtra thus demonstrates Mañjuśrī’s superiority in wisdom and the profound purification that comes from realizing emptiness.
Title variants
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “Eliminating Ajātaśatru’s Remorse”
- Āryājātaśatrukaukṛtyavinodananāmamahāyānasūtra
- འཕགས་པ་མ་སྐྱེས་དགྲའི་འགྱོད་པ་བསལ་བ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa ma skyes dgra’i ’gyod pa bsal ba zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- 《阿闍世懺悔經》 (大正藏：文殊支利普照三昧經)
Tibetan translation:
- Ācārya Mañjuśrīgarbha
- Ratnarakṣita
The Śrīgupta Sūtra
དཔལ་སྦས་ཀྱི་མདོ། · dpal sbas kyi mdo
Śrīguptasūtra
Summary
The Śrīgupta Sūtra tells the story of a plot against the life of Śākyamuni Buddha. At his guru’s instigation, a wealthy young Jain named Śrīgupta invites the Buddha to the midday meal at his house in Rājagṛha, where he has secretly prepared a fire trap and a poisoned meal. The Buddha is aware of these plans, but instead of simply avoiding the trap he accepts the invitation and uses the occasion to demonstrate his invulnerability to such harms, due to his realization and the power of his past deeds. He tells three stories from his previous lives as a pheasant chick, a hare, and the peacock king Suvarṇāvabhāsa—lives in which he similarly overcame fire and poison. After Śrīgupta’s attempts fail, Śākyamuni recounts yet another of his former lives in which Śrīgupta, this time as a brahmin teacher, similarly attempted to trap him in a pit of fire. Ashamed of his actions, Śrīgupta apologizes for his mistakes, takes refuge, and receives the vows of a lay devotee in the Buddha’s community.
Title variants
- The Noble Śrīgupta Sūtra
- Āryaśrīguptanāmasūtra
- འཕགས་པ་དཔལ་སྦས་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa dpal sbas zhes bya ba’i mdo
- 《吉祥護經》（大正藏：《佛說德護長者經》）
Tibetan translation:
- Jinamitra
- Dānaśīla
- Yeshé De
Purification of Karmic Obscurations
ལས་ཀྱི་སྒྲིབ་པ་རྣམ་པར་དག་པ། · las kyi sgrib pa rnam par dag pa
Karmāvaraṇaviśuddhi
Summary
The Buddha is residing at Āmrapālī’s Grove in Vaiśālī when Mañjuśrī brings before him the monk Stainless Light, who had been seduced by a prostitute and feels strong remorse for having violated his vows. After the monk confesses his wrongdoing, the Buddha explains the lack of inherent nature of all phenomena and the luminous nature of mind, and the monk Stainless Light gives rise to the mind of enlightenment. At Mañjuśrī’s request, the Buddha then explains how bodhisattvas purify obscurations by generating an altruistic mind and realizing the empty nature of all phenomena. He asks Mañjuśrī about his own attainment of patient forbearance in seeing all phenomena as nonarising, 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, nonexistent 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 nonarising. 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 nonarising 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
Tibetan translation:
- Jinamitra
- Prajñāvarman
- Yeshé Dé
Repudiating Those Who Violate the Discipline, the Buddha’s Collected Teachings
སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་སྡེ་སྣོད་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་འཆལ་པ་ཚར་གཅོད་པ། · sangs rgyas kyi sde snod tshul khrims ’chal pa tshar gcod pa
Buddhapiṭakaduḥśīlanigraha
Summary
In the Deer Park in Vārāṇasī, Śāriputra, with growing admiration, has become aware of the paradox that the Buddha, despite the inexpressible nature of the the profound truth he had awakened to, skillfully teaches about it using words and ideas that his followers can understand. The Buddha reinforces Śāriputra’s sense of this paradox by describing the Dharma in terms of its emptiness of everything one might think that it could comprise. He places great emphasis on realizing the view of the empty nature of things without apprehending or dwelling on any phenomenon, and uses this perspective to delineate what is meant by the application of mindfulness, what distinguishes a true spiritual friend from a false one, and in particular what constitutes a violation of discipline. Those who do not accept and understand that profound view are committing the greatest violation of discipline, which underlies all others. The Buddha even excludes such people from being considered as his followers or as having his lineage. His dialog with Śāriputra continues on the consequences of monks’ violating their discipline more broadly, and he gives several prophecies about the future decline of the Dharma caused by the misbehavior of monks, and how the lineage (Skt. gotra; Tib. rigs) that leads those who possess it to their awakening may be lost.
Title variants
- The Great Vehicle Discourse “Repudiating Those Who Violate the Discipline, the Buddha’s Collected Teachings”
- Buddhapiṭakaduḥśīlanigrahanāmamahāyānasūtra
- སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་སྡེ་སྣོད་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་འཆལ་པ་ཚར་གཅོད་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- sangs rgyas kyi sde snod tshul khrims ’chal pa tshar gcod pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- Exegesis of the Discourses
- The Buddha’s Collected Teachings
- Exegesis of the Dharma
- Building the Foundation
- Repudiating Those Who Violate the Discipline
- tshul khrims ’chal ba tshar bcod pa
- gzhi brtsams pa
- sangs rgyas kyi sde snod
- chos la rab tu rnam par ’byed pa
- mdo sde rab tu rnam par ’byed pa
- 佛藏斷除敗壞戒律經
Tibetan translation:
- Dharmaśrīprabha
- Palgyi Lhünpo
Taking Refuge in the Three Jewels
གསུམ་ལ་སྐྱབས་སུ་འགྲོ་བ། · gsum la skyabs su ’gro ba
Triśaraṇagamana
Summary
In Taking Refuge in the Three Jewels, the venerable Śāriputra wonders how much merit accrues to someone who takes refuge in the Three Jewels: the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṅgha. He therefore seeks out the Buddha Śākyamuni and requests a teaching on this topic. The Buddha proceeds to describe how even vast offerings, performed in miraculous ways, would not constitute a fraction of the merit gained by someone who takes refuge in the Three Jewels.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་གསུམ་ལ་སྐྱབས་སུ་འགྲོ་བ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa gsum la skyabs su ’gro ba zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “Taking Refuge in the Three Jewels”
- Āryatriśaraṇagamananāmamahāyānasūtra
Tibetan translation:
- Sarvajñādeva
- Paltsek
The Sūtra on Transmigration Through Existences
སྲིད་པ་འཕོ་བའི་མདོ། · srid pa ’pho ba’i mdo
Bhavasaṅkrāntisūtra
Summary
King Śreṇya Bimbisāra of Magadha approaches the Buddha and asks him how a past action can appear before the mind at the moment of death. The Buddha presents the analogy of a sleeping person who dreams of a beautiful woman and on waking foolishly longs to find her. He cites this as an example of how an action of the distant past, which has arisen from perception and subsequent afflictive emotions and then ceased, appears to the mind on the brink of death. The Buddha goes on to explain how one transitions from the final moment of one life to the first moment of the next, according to the ripening of those actions, without any phenomena actually being transferred from one life to another. The Buddha concludes with a set of seven verses that offer a succinct teaching on emptiness, focusing on the two truths and the fictitious nature of names.
Title variants
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “Transmigration Through Existences”
- Āryabhavasaṅkrāntināmamahāyānasūtra
- ’phags pa srid pa ’pho ba zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- འཕགས་པ་སྲིད་པ་འཕོ་བ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- 《流轉諸有經》（大正藏：《佛說大乘流轉諸有經》）
Tibetan translation:
- Jinamitra
- Dānaśīla
- Yeshé Dé
Discussions of Thus-Gone Ones
དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ་བགྲོ་བ། · de bzhin gshegs pa bgro ba
Tathāgatasaṅgīti
Summary
Discussions of Thus-Gone Ones begins in the Jeta Grove as the Buddha Śākyamuni emerges from a three-month-long meditative absorption. It is revealed that while he was absorbed in this meditative state, he was actually having conversations with many other buddhas across many worlds, discussing the essential nature of all phenomena. The bulk of the text, then, consists of the Buddha Śākyamuni relaying these conversations and responding to the questions of various audience members. From these exchanges we learn that all things, ranging from ordinary flowers up to the awakening of the buddhas themselves, share a nonconceptual, ineffable basis.
Title variants
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “Discussions of Thus-Gone Ones”
- Āryatathāgatasaṅgītināmamahāyānasūtra
- འཕགས་པ་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ་བགྲོ་བ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa de bzhin gshegs pa bgro ba zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- 《如來議論經》
Tibetan translation:
- Jñānagarbha
- Palgyi Yang
- Paltsek
The Jewel Cloud
དཀོན་མཆོག་སྤྲིན། · dkon mchog sprin
Ratnamegha
Summary
On Gayāśīrṣa Hill, Buddha Śākyamuni is visited by a great gathering of bodhisattvas who have traveled miraculously there from a distant world, to venerate him as one who has vowed to liberate beings in a world much more afflicted than their own. The visiting bodhisattvas are led by Sarvanīvaraṇaviṣkambhin, who asks the Buddha a series of searching questions. In response, the Buddha gives a detailed and systematic account of the practices, qualities, and nature of bodhisattvas, the stages of their path, their realization, and their activities. Many of the topics are structured into sets of ten aspects, expounded with reasoned explanations and illustrated with parables and analogies. This sūtra is said to have been one of the very first scriptures translated into Tibetan. Its doctrinal richness, profundity, and clarity are justly celebrated, and some of its key statements on meditation, the realization of emptiness, and the fundamental nature of the mind have been widely quoted in the Indian treatises and Tibetan commentarial literature.
Title variants
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Jewel Cloud”
- Āryaratnameghanāmamahāyānasūtra
- ’phags pa dkon mchog sprin ces bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- འཕགས་པ་དཀོན་མཆོག་སྤྲིན་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- 《寶雲經》 （大正藏：佛說除蓋障菩薩所問經）
Tibetan translation:
- Rinchen Tso
- Chönyi Tsultrim
The Great Cloud (1)
སྤྲིན་ཆེན་པོ། · sprin chen po
Mahāmegha
Summary
The Great Cloud features a long dialogue between the Buddha Śākyamuni and a bodhisattva named Great Cloud Essence, who are periodically joined by various additional interlocutors from the vast audience of human and divine beings who have assembled to hear the Buddha’s teaching. The topics of their conversation are diverse and wide-ranging, but a central theme is the vast conduct of bodhisattvas, which is illustrated through the enumeration of the various meditative states and liberative techniques that bodhisattvas must master in order to minister to all sentient beings. This is followed by a conversation with the brahmin Kauṇḍinya concerning the Buddha’s cousin Devadatta, who is revealed to be a bodhisattva displaying the highest level of skillful means. Kauṇḍinya then inquires about the possibility of obtaining a relic from the Buddha, and another member of the audience responds with an explanation of how truly rare it is for a buddha relic to appear within the world. Finally, the discourse ends with the Buddha delivering a series of detailed prophecies describing the principal interlocutor’s future attainment of buddhahood, and he further explains the benefits and powers that can be obtained through the practice of this sūtra itself.
Title variants
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Great Cloud”
- Āryamahāmeghanāmamahāyānasūtra
- འཕགས་པ་སྤྲིན་ཆེན་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa sprin chen po zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- 大雲經
- （大正藏：大方等無想經）
Tibetan translation:
- Surendrabodhi
- Bandé Yeshé Dé
The Great Cloud (2)
སྤྲིན་ཆེན་པོ། · sprin chen po
Mahāmegha
Summary
This brief discourse is identified more precisely in its colophon as a supplementary chapter from The Great Cloud on “the array of winds that bring down rainfall.” It describes a visit from the Buddha Śākyamuni to the realm of the nāgas. The assembly of nāgas pays homage to the Buddha with a grand panoply of magically emanated offerings, and their king asks him to explain how the nāgas can eliminate their own suffering and aid sentient beings by causing timely rain to fall. The Buddha, in response, extols the benefits of loving-kindness and then teaches them a dhāraṇī that when accompanied by the recitation of a host of buddha names will dispel the nāgas’ suffering and cause crops to grow. At the nāga king’s request, the Buddha then teaches another long dhāraṇī that will cause rain to fall during times of drought. The discourse concludes with instructions for constructing an altar and holding a ritual rainmaking service.
Title variants
- ’phags pa sprin chen po theg pa chen po’i mdo las char dbab pa rlung gi dkyil ’khor gyi le’u zhes bya ba drug cu rtsa bzhi pa cho ga dang bcas pa
- འཕགས་པ་སྤྲིན་ཆེན་པོ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ་ལས་ཆར་དབབ་པ་རླུང་གི་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་གྱི་ལེའུ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་དྲུག་ཅུ་རྩ་བཞི་པ་ཆོ་ག་དང་བཅས་པ།
- From the Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Great Cloud,” the Sixty-Fourth Chapter “The Array of Winds That Send Down Rainfall” Together with Its Ritual Manual [colophon title]
- Āryamahāmegha
Tibetan translation:
- Śīlendrabodhi
- Jinamitra
- Bandé Yeshé Dé
The Wheel of Meditative Concentration
ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་གྱི་འཁོར་ལོ། · ting nge ’dzin gyi ’khor lo
Samādhicakra
Summary
While dwelling on Vulture Peak in Rājagṛha, the Buddha is absorbed in the meditative concentration called wheel of meditative concentration. In response to a series of questions posed by the Buddha, Mañjuśrī explains the nature of ultimate reality. Pleased with his replies, the Buddha praises Mañjuśrī for being skilled in expressing the meaning of the profound Dharma.
Title variants
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Wheel of Meditative Concentration”
- Āryasamādhicakranāmamahāyānasūtra
- འཕགས་པ་ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་གྱི་འཁོར་ལོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa ting nge ’dzin gyi ’khor lo zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
Proper Dharma Conduct
ཆོས་ཀྱི་ཚུལ། · chos kyi tshul
Dharmanaya
Summary
Proper Dharma Conduct takes place in the Jeta Grove at Śrāvastī. Knowing that many bodhisattvas are wondering about proper Dharma conduct, the Buddha Śākyamuni gives a teaching on this topic to a great number of bodhisattvas. The teaching follows a format in which the Buddha first makes a short cryptic statement that seems to go against the conventions of proper behavior for bodhisattvas. The bodhisattvas then inquire as to the meaning of this statement, and the Buddha proceeds to explain how to interpret the initial statement in order to decipher the underlying meaning. Because of his teaching, many gods and bodhisattvas are able to make great progress on the path.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་ཚུལ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa chos kyi tshul zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “Proper Dharma Conduct”
- Āryadharmanayanāmamahāyānasūtra
Tibetan translation:
- Prajñāvarman
- Yeshé Dé