General Sūtra Section
The principal collection of 266 sūtras, varied in length, subject, interlocutors and origins (Toh 94-359).
| Texts: 267 | Published: 162 | In Progress: 102 | Not Begun: 3 |
Texts in this Section
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 Sūtra Teaching the Array of the Buddhafields
སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་ཞིང་གི་བཀོད་པའི་མདོ། · sangs rgyas kyi zhing gi bkod pa'i mdo/
Buddhakṣetravyūhanirdeśasūtra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- The Sūtra, The Array of the Buddhafields
- Āryasarvatathāgatādhiṣṭhānasattvāvalokena buddhakṣetravyūhanirdeśanāmamahāyānasūtra
- Āryasarvatathāgatādhiṣṭhānasattvāvalokena buddhakṣetranirdeśanavyūhanāmamahāyānasūtra
- Sarvatathāgatādhiṣṭhānasattvāvalokena buddhakṣetranirdeśanavyūhamahāyānasūtra
- 'phags pa de bzhin gshegs pa thams cad kyi byin gyi rlabs sems can la gzigs shing sangs rgyas kyi zhing gi bkod pa kun tu ston pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo/
- 'phags pa de bzhin gshegs pa thams cad kyi byin gyi rlabs sems can la gzigs shing sangs rgyas kyi zhing gi bkod pa kun tu ston pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
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 Condensed Sūtra, a Dharma Discourse
ཟུང་གི་མདོའི་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་གྲངས། · zung gi mdo'i chos kyi rnam grangs/
saṃghāṭasūtradharmaparyāya
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- āryasaṃghāṭasūtradharmaparyāya
- 'phags pa zung gi mdo'i chos kyi rnam grangs
- 《雙經法門經》 （大正藏：《僧伽吒經》）
The Teaching by the Child Inconceivable Radiance
ཁྱེའུ་སྣང་བ་བསམ་གྱིས་མི་ཁྱབ་པས་བསྟན་པ། · khye’u snang ba bsam gyis mi khyab pas bstan pa
Acintyaprabhāsanirdeśa
Summary
This sūtra is a story in which the spiritual realization of the child Inconceivable Radiance is revealed through a dialogue with the Buddha Śākyamuni. The Buddha furthermore recounts events from the child’s past lives to illustrate how actions committed in one life will determine one’s future circumstances. The teaching concludes with the Buddha prophesying how the child Inconceivable Radiance will eventually fully awaken in the future.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་ཁྱེའུ་སྣང་བ་བསམ་གྱིས་མི་ཁྱབ་པས་བསྟན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་གྲངས།
- ’phags pa khye’u snang ba bsam gyis mi khyab pas bstan pa zhes bya ba’i chos kyi rnam grangs
- The Noble Account of Dharma “The Teaching by the Child Inconceivable Radiance”
- Āryācintyaprabhāsanirdeśanāmadharmaparyāya
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
The Dharma Discourse on the Eight Maṇḍalas
དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་བརྒྱད་པའི་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་གྲངས་ཀྱི་མདོ། · dkyil 'khor brgyad pa'i chos kyi rnam grangs kyi mdo/
maṇḍalāṣṭakasūtra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- 'phags pa dkyil 'khor brgyad ces bya ba'i chos kyi rnam grangs theg pa chen po'i mdo
- āryamaṇḍalāṣṭakanāmamahāyānasūtra
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
The Sūtra on the Descent into Laṅka
ལང་ཀར་གཤེགས་པའི་མདོ། · lang kar gshegs pa'i mdo/
laṅkāvatārasūtra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- 'phags pa lang kar gshegs pa'i theg pa chen po'i mdo
- āryalaṅkāvatāramahāyānasūtra
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra 'The Descent into Laṅka'
- [Note: the longer, late version of the sūtra, translated from the Sanskrit]
- 入楞伽經
The Quintessence of the Speech of All the Buddhas, a Chapter from the Descent into Laṅka Sutra
ལང་ཀར་གཤེགས་པའི་མདོ་ལས་སངས་རྒྱས་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི་གསུང་གི་སྙིང་པོའི་ལེའུ། · lang kar gshegs pa'i mdo las sangs rgyas thams cad kyi gsung gi snying po'i le'u/
[no Sanskrit title]
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- [Note: a 9th century translation into Tibetan of the earliest of three Chinese translations of the Laṅkāvatāra, made in the mid 5th century by Guṇabhadra from an early Sanskrit version lacking the first and last chapters of later versions.]
- 'phags pa lang kar gshegs pa rin po che'i mdo las sangs rgyas thams cad kyi gsung gi snying po zhes bya ba'i le'u
- 《入楞伽經》之《一切佛語心品 》(大正藏：《楞伽阿跋多羅寶經)
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 Sūtra of the Dense Array
རྒྱན་སྟུག་པོ་བཀོད་པའི་མདོ། · rgyan stug po bkod pa'i mdo/
ghanavyūhasūtra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- āryaghanavyūhanāmamahāyānasūtra
- 'phags pa rgyan stug po bkod pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
- 《大乘密嚴經》
The White Lotus of Great Compassion
སྙིང་རྗེ་ཆེན་པོ་པདྨ་དཀར་པོའི་མདོ། · snying rje chen po pad+ma dkar po'i mdo/
mahākaruṇāpuṇḍarīkasūtra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- āryamahākaruṇāpuṇḍarīkanāmamahāyānasūtra
- 'phags pa snying rje chen po'i pad+ma dkar po zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
- 《大悲白蓮經》 (大正藏：大悲經)
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
The Basket of the [Three] Jewels
དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་ཟ་མ་ཏོག་ཡི་མདོ། · dkon mchog gi za ma tog yi mdo/
ratnakāraṇḍasūtra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- āryaratnakāraṇḍanāmamahāyānasūtra
- 《寶篋經》 (大正藏：大方廣寶箧經)
- 'phags pa dkon mchog gi za ma tog ces bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
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 of the Great Parinirvāṇa
ཡོངས་སུ་མྱ་ངན་ལས་འདས་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ། · yongs su mya ngan las 'das pa chen po'i mdo/
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- [Note: this is the long, best known, 56 fascicle version of the sūtra, translated in the early period from a Chinese version, probably the early 5th century "northern text" translation by Dharmakṣema, of which the first 10 fascicles are likely to have existed in Sanskrit but the subsequent 30 fascicles may have some other, later origin.]
- 'phags pa yongs su mya ngan las 'das pa chen po'i mdo
- 《大般涅槃經》
Tibetan translation:
- t. wang phab zhwun (wang phan zhun)
- dge ba'i blo gros
- rgya mtsho'i sde
The Mahāyāna Sūtra of the Great Parinirvāṇa
ཡོངས་སུ་མྱ་ངན་ལས་འདས་པ་ཆེན་པོ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ། · yongs su mya ngan las 'das pa chen po theg pa chen po'i mdo/
Mahāparinirvāṇamahāyānasūtra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- [Note: this is the shorter, lesser known 13 fascicle version of the sūtra, translated in the early period from a Sanskrit original, which may correspond to some extent to the earliest 5th century "six-fascicle" Chinese translation by Buddhabhadra and also attributed to Faxian. It is the equivalent of the first 10 fascicles of Toh 119.]
- Āryamahāparinirvāṇamahāyānasūtra
- 'phags pa yongs su mya ngan las 'das pa chen po theg pa chen po'i mdo
- 《大涅槃大乘經》（大正藏：《佛說大般泥洹經》）
The Sūtra of the Great Parinirvāṇa
ཡོངས་སུ་མྱ་ངན་ལས་འདས་པའི་མདོ། · yongs su mya ngan las 'das pa'i mdo/
mahāparinirvāṇasūtra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- [Note: a very short, 16 śloka fragment of the sūtra, translated from the Sanskrit in the later translation period by Kamalagupta and Rin chen bzang po.]
- āryamahāparinirvāṇasūtra
- 'phags pa mya ngan las 'das pa'i mdo chung ba/
- 'phags pa yongs su mya ngan las 'das pa chen po'i mdo
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
Words of the Dharma, 'The Treasury of the Buddhas'
སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་མཛོད་ཀྱི་ཆོས་ཡིག · sangs rgyas kyi mdzod kyi chos yig
(possibly translated from Chinese)
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- sangs rgyas kyi mdzod kyi chos kyi yi ge
- 《佛藏法字經》（大正藏：《佛藏經》）
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》
Like Gold Dust
གསེར་གྱི་བྱེ་མ་ལྟ་བུ། · gser gyi bye ma lta bu
Suvarṇavālukopamā
Summary
This sūtra presents a short dialogue between Ānanda and the Buddha on the theme of limitlessness. In response to Ānanda’s persistent inquiries, the Buddha uses analogies to illustrate both the limitlessness of the miraculous abilities acquired by realized beings, and the limitless multiplicity of the world systems in which bodhisattvas and buddhas are to be found.
The Buddha then concludes his teaching with a further analogy—referenced in the sūtra’s title—to illustrate that although buddhas and bodhisattvas are innumerable, it is nevertheless extremely rare and precious to find a buddha within any given world system, or to find bodhisattvas who engage sincerely in bodhisattva conduct. To encounter such beings, he says, is as rare as finding a single grain of gold dust among all the sands of the ocean, or all the sands of the mighty river Gaṅgā.
Title variants
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “Like Gold Dust”
- Āryasuvarṇavālukopamānāmamahāyānasūtra
- འཕགས་པ་གསེར་གྱི་བྱེ་མ་ལྟ་བུ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa gser gyi bye ma lta bu zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
Tibetan translation:
- Surendrabodhi
- Prajñāvarman
- Bandé Yeshé Dé
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 Illuminating Appearance of All Things Distinctly Without Their Departing from their Essential Nature, Emptiness
ཆོས་ཉིད་རང་གི་ངོ་བོ་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་ལས་མི་གཡོ་བར་ཐ་དད་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་ལ་སྣང་བའི་མདོ། · chos nyid rang gi ngo bo stong pa nyid las mi g.yo bar tha dad pa thams cad la snang ba'i mdo/
Dharmatāsvabhāvaśūnyatācalapratisarvāloka
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- Āryadharmatāsvabhāvaśūnyatācalapratisarvālokasūtra
- 'phags pa chos nyid rang gi ngo bo stong pa nyid las mi g.yo bar tha dad pa thams cad la snang ba'i mdo
- chos nyid mi g.yo ba'i mdo
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 Sūtra on the Samādhi of Valiant Progress
དཔའ་བར་འགྲོ་བའི་ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་གྱི་མདོ། · dpa' bar 'gro ba'i ting nge 'dzin gyi mdo/
Śūraṅgamasamādhisūtra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- Āryaśūraṅgamasamādhināmamahāyānasūtra
- 'phags pa dpa' bar 'gro ba'i ting nge 'dzin ces bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
- 《勇行三昧經》 （大正藏：《佛說首楞嚴三昧經》）
The Sūtra on the Samādhi in which the Buddhas of the Present All Stand Before One
ད་ལྟར་གྱི་སངས་རྒྱས་མངོན་སུམ་དུ་བཞུགས་པའི་ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་གྱི་མདོ། · da ltar gyi sangs rgyas mngon sum du bzhugs pa'i ting nge 'dzin gyi mdo/
pratyutpannabuddhasaṃmukhāvasthitasamādhisūtra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- āryapratyutpannabuddhasaṃmukhāvasthitasamādhināmamahāyānasūtra
- bhadrapāla(paripṛcchā)sūtra
- bzang skyong gis zhus pa'i ting 'dzin le'u/
- 'phags pa da ltar gyi sangs rgyas mngon sum du bzhugs pa'i ting nge 'dzin ces bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
- 《現前佛面前安住三昧經》（大正藏：《般舟三昧經》）
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 Words of the Dharma on the Vajra Samādhi
རྡོ་རྗེ་ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་གྱི་ཆོས་ཀྱི་ཡི་གེ་ · rdo rje ting nge 'dzin gyi chos kyi yi ge
(possibly translated from Chinese)
The Four Boys’ Absorption
ཁྱེའུ་བཞིའི་ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན། · khye’u bzhi’i ting nge ’dzin
Caturdārakasamādhi
Summary
The Four Boys’ Absorption narrates the Buddha Śākyamuni’s passing away (or parinirvāṇa) in the Yamakaśāla Grove near Kuśinagara. Ānanda has a portentous dream that is confirmed by the Buddha to be an indication that he will soon die. Widespread panic spreads through the various realms of this world system, and as gods and other beings converge on the forest grove near Kuśinagara, tragic scenes of mourning ensue. Then, when the Buddha lies down, the narrative suddenly shifts to recount how four bodhisattvas from distant buddha fields in the four directions are reborn as four infants in prominent households in the major cities of the Gangetic Plain, announce their intention to see the Buddha Śākyamuni, and with expansive entourages proceed to the forest grove in the country of the Mallas where the Buddha’s parinirvāṇa will take place. Their appearance is marked by various miracles, whereupon the Buddha explains their arrival and consoles his grieving followers with teachings on the limitless numbers of buddhas. He confers responsibility on his attendant Ānanda and his son Rāhula, and then manifests a variety of spectacular miracles. Toward the end of the sūtra, while still appearing to lie upon the lion couch, the Buddha visits the various hells and some god realms, where he sets countless beings on the path to awakening. The text culminates in his final passing.
Title variants
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Four Boys’ Absorption”
- Āryacaturdārakasamādhināmamahāyānasūtra
- འཕགས་པ་ཁྱེའུ་བཞིའི་ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa khye’u bzhi’i ting nge ’dzin zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- 《四童子三昧經》
Tibetan translation:
- Jinamitra
- Prajñāvarman
- Bandé Yeshé Dé
The Supreme Samādhi
ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་མཆོག་དམ་པ། · ting nge 'dzin mchog dam pa/
Samādhyagrottama
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- Āryasamādhyagrottama
- 'phags pa ting nge 'dzin mchog dam pa
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 for Achieving the Boundless Gate
སྒོ་མཐའ་ཡས་པ་སྒྲུབ་པའི་གཟུངས། · sgo mtha' yas pa sgrub pa'i gzungs/
Anantamukhasādhakadhāraṇī
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- The Dhāraṇī that Leads to Realization Via the Infinite Gate
- Āryānantamukhasādhākanāmadhāraṇī
- Āryānantamukhasādhakanāmadhāraṇī
- 'phags pa sgo mtha' yas pas sgrub pa zhes bya ba'i gzungs/
- sgo mtha' yas pas sgrub pa'i gzungs/
- 'phags pa sgo mtha' yas pas bsgrub pa zhes bya ba'i gzungs/
- 'phags pa sgo mtha' yas pa sgrub pa zhes bya ba'i gzungs
- sgo mtha' yas pas bsgrub pa'i gzungs/
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
The Two Stanza Dhāraṇī
ཚིགས་སུ་བཅད་པ་གཉིས་པའི་གཟུངས། · tshigs su bcad pa gnyis pa'i gzungs/
Gāthādvayadhāraṇī
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- tshigs bcad gnyis pa'i gzungs/
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 Sūtra Teaching the Miracles in the Domain of Skillful Means that the Bodhisattvas Have at their Disposition
བྱང་སེམས་སྤྱོད་ཡུལ་ཐབས་ཀྱི་ཡུལ་ལ་རྣམ་འཕྲུལ་བསྟན་པའི་མདོ། · byang sems spyod yul thabs kyi yul la rnam 'phrul bstan pa'i mdo/
Bodhisattvagocaropāyaviṣayavikurvitanirdeśasūtra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- Āryabodhisattvagocaropāyaviṣayavikurvitanirdeśanāmamahāyānasūtra
- Satyakaparivarta
- 'phags pa bden pa po'i le'u zhes bya ba'i chos kyi rnam grangs
- bden pa po'i le'u
- 'phags pa byang chub sems dpa'i spyod yul thabs kyi yul la rnam par 'phrul pa bstan pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
- 《說菩薩行境變現方便境經》（大正藏：《大薩遮尼乾子所說經》）
The Teaching on the Great Compassion of the Tathāgata
དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་རྗེ་ཆེན་པོ་ངེས་པར་བསྟན་པ། · de bzhin gshegs pa’i snying rje chen po nges par bstan pa/
Tathāgatamahākaruṇānirdeśa
Summary
The Teaching on the Great Compassion of the Tathāgata opens with the Buddha presiding over a large congregation of disciples at Vulture Peak. Entering a special state of meditative absorption, he magically displays a pavilion in the sky, attracting a vast audience of divine and human Dharma followers. At the request of the bodhisattva Dhāraṇīśvararāja, the Buddha gives a discourse on the qualities of bodhisattvas, which are specified as bodhisattva ornaments, illuminations, compassion, and activities. He also teaches about the compassionate awakening of tathāgatas and the scope of a tathāgata’s activities. At the request of a bodhisattva named Siṃhaketu, Dhāraṇīśvararāja then gives a discourse on eight dhāraṇīs, following which the Buddha explains the sources and functions of a dhāraṇī known as the jewel lamp. As the text concludes, various deities and Dharma protectors praise the sūtra’s qualities and vow to preserve and protect it in the future, and the Buddha entrusts the sūtra and its propagation to Dhāraṇīśvararāja. The sūtra is a particularly rich source of detail on the qualities of bodhisattvas and buddhas.
Title variants
- 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 Sūtra of the Questions of Gaganagañja
ནམ་མཁའི་མཛོད་ཀྱིས་ཞུས་པའི་མདོ། · nam mkha'i mdzod kyis zhus pa'i mdo/
gaganagañjaparipṛcchāsūtra
Summary
The Sūtra of the Questions of Gaganagañja (Gaganagañjaparipṛcchāsūtra, Toh 148) is an important canonical work centering on the bodhisattva Gaganagañja’s inquiries to the Buddha, his display of seven miracles, and dialogue between various figures about core Mahāyāna principles. The sūtra covers topics such as the bodhisattva path, bodhicitta, concentration, buddha activity, wisdom (jñāna), as well as predictions about the future enlightenment of disciples. Throughout the discourse, the sky (gagana) is used as the central metaphor for emptiness (śūnyatā) and nonduality (advaya) to describe the nature of reality.
Title variants
- The Questions of Gaganagañja
- āryagaganagañjaparipṛcchānāmamahāyānasūtra
- Gaganagañjaparipṛcchā
- 《大集大虛空藏菩薩所問經》
- 'phags pa nam mkha' mdzod kyis zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
- nam mkha'i mdzod kyis zhus pa/
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 Nāga King Anavatapta
ཀླུའི་རྒྱལ་པོ་མ་དྲོས་པས་ཞུས་པ། · klu’i rgyal po ma dros pas zhus pa
Anavataptanāgarājaparipṛcchā
Summary
The Questions of the Nāga King Anavatapta is a discourse that provides guidance on core features of the bodhisattva path, including the perfections, mindfulness, and meditation, with a strong orientation toward emptiness as the inexpressible ultimate nature. As the Buddha is teaching at Vulture Peak Mountain near Rājagṛha, a nāga king named Anavatapta approaches, questions him on these topics, and receives instruction on them. He then invites the Buddha to his home at Anavatapta, the legendary lake from which the four rivers of Jambudvīpa flow. After flying there with an enormous entourage, the Buddha resumes his teachings. The assembly is joined by Mañjuśrī and thousands of other bodhisattvas, and there ensues a debate on the relative merits of the hearer path and the bodhisattva path. At the culmination of the sūtra, the Buddha prophesies Anavatapta’s future awakening, and the nāga king and his entire family take refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṅgha.
Title variants
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Questions of the Nāga King Anavatapta”
- Āryānavataptanāgarājaparipṛcchānāmamahāyānasūtra
- འཕགས་པ་ཀླུའི་རྒྱལ་པོ་མ་དྲོས་པས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa klu’i rgyal po ma dros pas zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- 《阿耨達龍王所問經》 (大正藏：佛說弘道廣顯三昧經)
Tibetan translation:
- Jinamitra
- Dānaśīla
- Yeshé Dé
- Gönlingma
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 Sūtra of the Questions of Brahmā
ཚངས་པས་ཞུས་པའི་མདོ། · tshangs pas zhus pa'i mdo/
Brahmaparipṛcchāsūtra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- Āryabrahmaparipṛcchānāmamahāyānasūtra
- 'phags pa tshangs pas zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
Tibetan translation:
- t. jinamitra
- ye shes sde
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 Sūtra of the Questions of Devaputra Suvikrāntacinta
ལྷའི་བུ་རབ་རྩལ་སེམས་ཀྱིས་ཞུས་པའི་མདོ། · lha'i bu rab rtsal sems kyis zhus pa'i mdo/
suvikrāntacintadevaputraparipṛcchāsūtra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- āryasuvikrāntacintadevaputraparipṛcchānāmamahāyānasūtra
- suvikrāntacintadevaputraparipṛcchāsūtra
- 《勇猛心天子所問經 》 (大正藏：佛說須真天子經)
- 'phags pa lha'i bu rab rtsal sems kyis zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
Tibetan translation:
- t. Prajñāvarman
- ye shes sde
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 Sūtra of the Questions of Vikurvāṇarāja
རྣམ་འཕྲུལ་རྒྱལ་པོས་ཞུས་པའི་མདོ། · rnam 'phrul rgyal pos zhus pa'i mdo/
vikurvāṇarājaparipṛcchāsūtra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- āryavikurvāṇarājaparipṛcchānāmamahāyānasūtra
- 'phags pa rnam par 'phrul pa'i rgyal pos zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
- 《自在王菩薩經》
Tibetan translation:
- t. Prajñāvarman
- ye shes sde
The Questions of Vimalaprabha
དྲི་མེད་འོད་ཀྱིས་ཞུས་པ། · dri med 'od kyis zhus pa/
vimalaprabhaparipṛcchā
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- 《無垢光所問經》
- dri ma med pa'i 'od kyis zhus pa
Instruction on the Mahāyāna
ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མན་ངག་ · theg pa chen po'i man ngag
Mahāyānopadeśasūtra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- Āryamahāyānopadeśanāmamahāyānasūtra
- Ratnadārikāparivarta
- Ratnadārikāparipṛcchā
- bu mo rin chen gyis zhus pa'i mdo
- 'phags pa theg pa chen po'i man ngag ces bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
- 《大乘口訣》 (大正藏：大方等大集經寶女品第三)
Tibetan translation:
- t. Jinamitra
- Dānaśīla
- ye shes sde
The Questions of Śrīmatī the Brahmin Woman
བྲམ་ཟེ་མོ་དཔལ་ལྡན་མས་ཞུས་པ། · bram ze mo dpal ldan mas zhus pa
Śrīmatībrāhmaṇīparipṛcchā
Summary
During an alms round in Vārāṇasī, the Buddha Śākyamuni encounters a brahmin woman by the name of Śrīmatī. Inspired by the Buddha’s majestic and graceful presence, Śrīmatī inquires about the teaching he gave at nearby Deer Park. In response, the Buddha reprises the teaching on how the twelve links of dependent origination lead to suffering and how their cessation leads to the end of suffering. Śrīmatī then asks about the nature of ignorance, the first of the twelve links. The Buddha offers a profound response and raises the distinction between ultimate truth and conventional teaching. At this, Śrīmatī makes the aspiration that she too may turn the many wheels of Dharma just as the Buddha has done. The Buddha then smiles and prophesies her eventual awakening. The sūtra concludes with the Buddha describing Śrīmatī’s virtuous deeds in past lives, in which she had venerated each of the six previous buddhas.
Title variants
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Questions of Śrīmatī the Brahmin Woman”
- Āryaśrīmatībrāhmaṇīparipṛcchānāmamahāyānasūtra
- འཕགས་པ་བྲམ་ཟེ་མོ་དཔལ་ལྡན་མས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa bram ze mo dpal ldan mas zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
Tibetan translation:
- Surendrabodhi
- Prajñāvarman
- Bandé Yeshé Dé
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 Teaching on the Inconceivable Properties of the Buddhas
སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་ཆོས་ཀྱི་བསམ་གྱིས་མི་ཁྱབ་པ་བསྟན་པ། · sangs rgyas kyi chos kyi bsam gyis mi khyab pa bstan pa/
Buddhadharmācintyanirdeśa
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- Āryabuddhadharmācintyanirdeśa
- [Note: according to the dkar chag, this text is "known to be an extract of the 29th chapter of the Avataṃsaka." This should read the 39th chapter, which has the same title and appears to be close but not identical.]
- 'phags pa sangs rgyas kyi chos kyi bsam gyis mi khyab pa bstan pa
The Sūtra of the Prophecy by Dīpaṃkara
མར་མེ་མཛད་ཀྱིས་ལུང་བསྟན་པའི་མདོ། · mar me mdzad kyis lung bstan pa'i mdo/
dīpaṃkaravyākaraṇasūtra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- āryadīpaṃkaravyākaraṇanāmamahāyānasūtra
- 'phags pa mar me mdzad kyis lung bstan pa zhe bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
The Prediction for Brahmaśrī
ཚངས་པའི་དཔལ་ལུང་བསྟན་པ། · tshangs pa’i dpal lung bstan pa
Brahmaśrīvyākaraṇa
Summary
The Prediction for Brahmaśrī features a brief encounter between the Buddha, out on his daily alms round, and a group of children playing on the outskirts of Śrāvastī. A boy named Brahmaśrī offers the Buddha the pavilion he has made of sand or dirt. The Blessed One accepts it and transforms it into one made of precious metals and jewels. Seeing this wonder, Brahmaśrī makes a vow to become a buddha himself in the future. This prompts the Buddha to smile and predict Brahmaśrī’s future awakening.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་ཚངས་པའི་དཔལ་ལུང་བསྟན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa tshangs pa’i dpal lung bstan pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Prediction for Brahmaśrī”
- Āryabrahmaśrīvyākaraṇanāmamahāyānasūtra
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 Sūtra of the Prophecy Concening the Girl Candrottarā
བུ་མོ་ཟླ་མཆོག་ལུང་བསྟན་པའི་མདོ། · bu mo zla mchog lung bstan pa'i mdo/
Candrottarādārikāvyākaraṇasūtra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- Āryacandrottarādārikāvyākaraṇanāmamahāyānasūtra
- 'phags pa bu mo zla mchog lung bstan pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
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 Sūtra on Concordance with the World
འཇིག་རྟེན་གྱི་རྗེས་སུ་མཐུན་པར་འཇུག་པའི་མདོ། · 'jig rten gyi rjes su mthun par 'jug pa'i mdo/
Lokānuvartanasūtra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- Āryalokānuvartananāmamahāyānasūtra
- 'phags pa 'jig rten gyi rjes su mthun par 'jug pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
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
The Sūtra on Offering Lamps
མར་མེ་འབུལ་བའི་མདོ། · mar me 'bul ba'i mdo/
pradīpadānīyasūtra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- 'phags pa mar me 'bul ba zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
- āryapradīpadānīyanāmamahāyānasūtra
The Sūtra on the Woman in the City who Hangs Up Washing
གྲོང་ཁྱེར་གྱིས་འཚོ་བའི་མདོ། · grong khyer gyis 'tsho ba'i mdo/
Nāgarāvalambikāsūtra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- Āryanāgarāvalambikānāmamahāyānasūtra
- 'phags pa grong khyer gyis 'tsho ba zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
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 Sūtra Proclaiming the Lion’s Roar
སེང་གེའི་སྒྲ་བསྒྲགས་པའི་མདོ། · seng ge'i sgra bsgrags pa'i mdo/
siṃhanādikasūtra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- āryasiṃhanādikananāmamahāyānasūtra
- 'phags pa seng ge'i sgra bsgrags pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
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
The Sūtra for the Benefit of Aṅgulimāla
སོར་མོའི་ཕྲེང་བ་ལ་ཕན་པའི་མདོ། · sor mo'i phreng ba la phan pa'i mdo/
Aṅgulimālīyasūtra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- Āryāṅgulimālīyanāmamahāyānasūtra
- 'phags pa sor mo'i phreng ba la phan pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
- 《央掘魔羅經》
The Sūtra of Advice for the King [1]
རྒྱལ་པོ་ལ་གདམས་པའི་མདོ། · rgyal po la gdams pa'i mdo/
Rājādeśasūtra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- Rājādeśanāmamahāyānasūtra
- rgyal po la gdams pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
The Sūtra on Advice for the King [2]
རྒྱལ་པོ་ལ་གདམས་པའི་མདོ། · rgyal po la gdams pa'i mdo/
Rājādeśasūtra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- Rājādeśanāmamahāyānasūtra
- rgyal po la gdams pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
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
The Sūtra on Putting an End to Karmic Obscurations
ལས་སྒྲིབ་རྒྱུན་གཅོད་ཀྱི་མདོ། · las sgrib rgyun gcod kyi mdo/
Karmāvaraṇapratipraśrabdhisūtra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- Āryakarmāvaraṇapratipraśrabdhināmamahāyānasūtra
- 'phags pa las kyi sgrib pa rgyun gcod pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
The Buddha’s Collected Teachings Repudiating Those Who Violate the Discipline
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
When Śāriputra voices amazement at how the Buddha uses words to point out the inexpressible ways in which nothing has true existence, the Buddha responds with an uncompromising teaching on how the lack of true existence and the absence of a self are indeed not simply philosophical views but the very cornerstone of the Dharma. To have understood, realized, and applied them fully is the main quality by which someone may be considered a member of the saṅgha and authorized to teach others and to receive offerings. Those who persist in perceiving anything—even elements of the path and its results—as having any kind of true existence are committing the most serious of all violations of discipline (śīla), and since they fail to follow the Buddha’s core teaching in this way they should not even be considered his followers. The Buddha’s dialogue 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 that will be caused by the misbehavior of such monks.
Title variants
- The Great Vehicle Discourse “The Buddha’s Collected Teachings Repudiating Those Who Violate the Discipline”
- 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
- Building the Foundation
- The Buddha’s Collected Teachings
- Exegesis of the Discourses
- Repudiating Those Who Violate the Discipline
- Exegesis of the Dharma
- 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 （大正藏：《佛藏經》）
Tibetan translation:
- Dharmaśrīprabha
- Palgyi Lhünpo
The Sūtra of Advice to the King
རྒྱལ་པོ་ལ་གདམས་པའི་མདོ། · rgyal po la gdams pa'i mdo/
rājāvavādakasūtra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- āryarājāvavādakanāmamahāyānasūtra
- 'phags pa rgyal po la gdams pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
The Sūtra of the Chapter on [Tib:] the Great Drum [Skt:] the Bearer of the Great Drum
རྔ་བོ་ཆེ་ཆེན་པོའི་ལེའུའི་མདོ། · rnga bo che chen po'i le'u'i mdo/
mahābherīhārakaparivartasūtra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- āryamahābherīhārakaparivartanāmamahāyānasūtra
- 'phags pa rnga bo che chen po'i le'u zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
- 《大鼓品經》(大正藏：大法鼓經)
The Sūtra of the Chapter on the Thirty-Three
སུམ་ཅུ་རྩ་གསུམ་པའི་ལེའུའི་མདོ། · sum cu rtsa gsum pa'i le'u'i mdo/
trayastriṃśatparivartasūtra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- āryatrāyastriṃśatparivartanāmamahāyānasūtra
- 'phags pa sum cu rtsa gsum pa'i le'u zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
- 《三十三天品經》
The Sūtra of the Chapter about Sthīrādhyāśa / Dṛdhādhyāśaya
ལྷག་བསམ་བརྟན་པའི་ལེའུའི་མདོ། · lhag bsam brtan pa'i le'u'i mdo/
Sthīrādhyāśayaparivartasūtra / dṛdhādhyāśayaparivartasūtra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- Āryasthīrādhyāśayaparivartanāmamahāyānasūtra / āryadṛdhādhyāśayaparivartanāmamahāyānasūtra
- Āryasthīrādhyāśayaparivartanāmamahāyānasūtra / āryadṛdhādhyāśayaparivartanāmamahāyānasūtra
- 'phags pa lhag pa'i bsam pa brtan pa'i le'u zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
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
The Sūtra Gathering All Fragments
རྣམ་པར་འཐག་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་བསྡུས་པའི་མདོ། · rnam par 'thag pa thams cad bsdus pa'i mdo/
Sarvavaidalyasaṃgrahasūtra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- Āryasarvavaidalyasaṃgrahanāmamahāyānasūtra
- 'phags pa rnam par 'thag pa thams cad bsdus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
The Sūtra on the the Buddha’s Deliberations
སངས་རྒྱས་བགྲོ་བའི་མདོ། · sangs rgyas bgro ba'i mdo/
buddhasaṅgītisūtra
Summary
In this sutra, the Buddha decides to enter a strict three-month retreat to remedy a suddenly worsening degeneration in the world, which has caused sentient beings to lose interest in hearing and practicing the Dharma. They have even lost all reverence and respect for the Buddha himself. While the Buddha is in retreat, he uses his clairvoyant powers to convene with countless other buddhas whose realms are facing similar troubles. Together, they decide to recite in unison the profound Dharma of the Great Vehicle, and after the three months have passed the situation in the world has been restored through their recital. Once again, beings have faith and interest in the Dharma. The teaching that was delivered together by all the many buddhas is finally entrusted by the Buddha to his disciples for future generations to study and draw inspiration from. One interesting historical fact about this sutra is that the earliest existing Chinese Buddhist manuscript is a copy of this text, dated to the end of the 3rd century and discovered in the early 20th century in excavations at Turfan.
Title variants
- āryabuddhasaṅgītināmamahāyānasūtra
- 'phags pa sangs rgyas bgro ba zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
- 《佛要集經》 (大正藏：諸佛要集經)
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 Sūtra on the Splendid Commitments of the Tathāgatas
དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་དཔལ་གྱི་དམ་ཚིག་གི་མདོ། · de bzhin gshegs pa'i dpal gyi dam tshig gi mdo/
tathāgataśrīsamayasūtra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- mahāsaṃnipātād mahāyānasūtrāt tathāgataśrīsamayanāmamahāyānasūtra
- 'dus pa chen po theg pa chen po'i mdo sde las de bzhin gshegs pa'i dpal gyi dam tshig ces bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
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 Chapter from the Great Cloud Sūtra on the Great Playful Festival of the Oceanic Gathering of the Bodhisattvas of the Ten Directions
སྤྲིན་ཆེན་པོ་མདོ་ལས་ཕྱོགས་བཅུའི་བྱང་སེམས་རྒྱ་མཚོ་འདུས་པའི་དགའ་སྟོན་ཆེན་པོ་ལ་རྩེ་བའི་ལེའུ། · sprin chen po mdo las phyogs bcu'i byang sems rgya mtsho 'dus pa'i dga' ston chen po la rtse ba'i le'u/
mahāmeghasūtrād daśadigbodhisattvasamudrasaṃnipātamahotsavavikrīdita
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- āryamahāmeghasūtrād daśadigbodhisattvasamudrasaṃnipātamahotsavavikrīḍitanāmaparivarta
- 'phags pa sprin chen po mdo las phyogs bcu'i byang chub sems dpa' rgya mtsho 'dus pa'i dga' ston chen po la rtse ba zhes bya ba'i le'u
- 大雲經
- （大正藏：大方等無想經）
The Essence of All the Nāgas, The Great Cloud Chapter on the Array of Winds
སྤྲིན་ཆེན་པོ་རླུང་གི་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་གྱི་ལེའུ་ཀླུ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི་སྙིང་པོའི་མདོ། · sprin chen po rlung gi dkyil 'khor gyi le'u klu thams cad kyi snying po'i mdo/
mahāmeghavāyumaṇḍalaparivartasarvanāgahṛdayasūtra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Essence of All the Nāgas, The Great Cloud Chapter on the Array of Winds”
- āryamahāmeghavāyumaṇḍalaparivartasarvanāgahṛdayanāmamahāyānasūtra
- 'phags pa sprin chen po rlung gi dkyil 'khor gyi le'u klu thams cad kyi snying po zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
- [Note: the Sanskrit titles of Toh 658 and 1064 have °vātu° instead of °vāyu°]
- [Note: the Sanskrit title of Toh 234 has °vātu° instead of °vāyu°]
- The Mahāyāna Sūtra, Essence of All the Nāgas
- mahāmeghavātamaṇḍalasarvanāgahṛdaya
- āryamahāmeghavātamaṇḍalasarvanāgahṛdayanāmamahāyānasūtra
- āryamahāmeghavātamaṇḍalasarvanāgahṛdayanāmamahāyānasūtra
- mahāmeghavātamaṇḍalasarvanāgahṛdayasūtra
- āryamahāmeghavāyumaṇḍalaparivartasarvanāgahṛdayanāmamahāyānasūtra
- klu thams cad kyi snying po theg pa chen po mdo/
- 'phags pa sprin chen po rlung gi dkyil 'khor gyi le'u klu thams cad kyi snying po zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo/
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 Tenth Chapter from Amongst the Ten Thousand Chapters of the Sūtra on the Heroic Way
དཔའ་བར་འགྲོ་བའི་མདོ་ལེའུ་སྟོང་ཕྲག་བཅུ་པ་ལས་ལེའུ་བཅུ་པ། · dpa' bar 'gro ba'i mdo le'u stong phrag bcu pa las le'u bcu pa/
(no Sanskrit title, translated from part of Chinese Śūraṃgamasūtra)
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- The Tenth Chapter from Amongst the Ten Thousand Chapters of the Sūtra on the Heroic Way of Practice of all the Bodhisattvas which is the Cause for Attaining the Goal of Realizing the Secrets of the Tathāgatas, the Great Diadem of the Blessed Ones
- (A full Tibetan translation from Chinese of the Śūraṃgamasūtra was made in the 18th century and added to the Narthang Kangyur as mdo sde, ki.)
- bcom ldan 'das kyi gtsug gtor chen po de bzhin gshegs pa'i gsang ba sgrub pa'i don mngon par thob pa'i rgyu byang chub sems dpa' thams cad kyi spyod pa dpa' bar 'gro ba'i mdo le'u stong phrag bcu pa las le'u bcu pa
A Minor Chapter on Demons
བདུད་ཀྱི་ལེའུ་ཉི་ཚེ་ཕྱུང་བ། · bdud kyi le'u nyi tshe phyung ba/
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- A Minor Chapter on Demons, Extracted from 'The Great Diadem,' Book Nine
- (no Sanskrit title, translated from part of Chinese Śūraṃgamasūtra)
- gtsug gtor chen po bam po dgu pa las bdud kyi le'u nyi tshe phyung ba
The Dharma Council
ཆོས་ཡང་དག་པར་སྡུད་པ། · chos yang dag par sdud pa
Dharmasaṅgīti
Summary
The Dharma Council is a Great Vehicle sūtra in which the path of a bodhisattva is taught initially by the Buddha, but principally by a host of bodhisattvas and śrāvakas. Among them, the bodhisattva Nirārambha takes center stage, delivering long discourses and engaging in dialogues and debates on the key points of Great Vehicle Buddhism. Following Nirārambha’s example, a number of the Buddha’s disciples express their own understanding of the path, and they win praise and confirmation from the Buddha for their eloquent expositions of the Dharma. As a Great Vehicle sūtra, The Dharma Council is grounded in the themes of emptiness, nonconceptuality, and skillful compassionate conduct; from these doctrinal touchstones spring a profound and wide-ranging presentation of the Dharma.
Title variants
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Dharma Council”
- Āryadharmasaṅgītināmamahāyānasūtra
- འཕགས་པ་ཆོས་ཡང་དག་པར་སྡུད་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa chos yang dag par sdud pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- 《法集經》 （大正藏：佛說法集經）
Tibetan translation:
- Mañjuśrīgarbha
- Vijayaśīla
- Śīlendrabodhi
- Bandé Yeshé Dé
The Sūtra of the Ten Wheels of Kṣitigarbha
སའི་སྙིང་པོ་འཁོར་ལོ་བཅུ་པའི་མདོ། · sa'i snying po 'khor lo bcu pa'i mdo/
Daśacakrakṣitigarbhasūtra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- From the Great Collection, the Mahāyāna Sūtra 'The Ten Wheels of Kṣitigarbha'
- 'dus pa chen po las sa'i snying po 'khor lo bcu pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
Tibetan translation:
- t. hwa shang zab mo
- rnam par mi rtog pa
The Sūtra of the Wheel of No Reversions
ཕྱིར་མི་ལྡོག་པའི་འཁོར་ལོའི་མདོ། · phyir mi ldog pa'i 'khor lo'i mdo/
Avaivartacakrasūtra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- Āryāvaivartacakranāmamahāyānasūtra
- 'phags pa phyir mi ldog pa'i 'khor lo zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
- 《不退轉輪經 》 （大正藏：佛說廣博嚴淨不退轉輪經）
Tibetan translation:
- t. danasila
- munivarma
- ye shes sde
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
The Sūtra of the Wheel of Dedication
ཡོངས་སུ་བསྔོ་བའི་འཁོར་ལོའི་མདོ། · yongs su bsngo ba'i 'khor lo'i mdo/
Pariṇatacakrasūtra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- 'phags pa yongs su bsngo ba'i 'khor lo zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
- Pariṇatacakranāmamahāyānasūtra
- pariṇāmacakrasūtra
- [Note: the content is almost the same as Toh 809, see Saerji ARIRIAB-14.]
Tibetan translation:
- t. siladharma
- rnam par mi rtog pa
The Sūtra of the King of the True Dharma
དམ་པའི་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་པོའི་མདོ། · dam pa'i chos kyi rgyal po'i mdo/
saddharmarājasūtra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- saddharmarājamahāyānasūtra
- dam pa'i chos kyi rgyal po 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
The Sections of Dharma
ཆོས་ཀྱི་ཕུང་པོ། · chos kyi phung po
Dharmaskandha
Summary
In this sūtra some of Buddha Śākyamuni’s senior disciples request a teaching on the nature of “the sections of Dharma.” The Buddha responds by first delivering a teaching on the absence of birth with regard to phenomena, as an antidote to the poison of desire. On that basis, the Buddha then presents a longer explanation of the repulsiveness of the human body, and of the female body in particular.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་ཕུང་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa chos kyi phung po zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Sections of Dharma”
- Āryadharmaskandhanāmamahāyānasūtra
Tibetan translation:
- Prajñāvarman
- Yeshé Dé
Victory of the Ultimate Dharma
དོན་དམ་པའི་ཆོས་ཀྱིས་རྣམ་པར་རྒྱལ་བ། · don dam pa’i chos kyis rnam par rgyal ba
Paramārthadharmavijaya
Summary
Victory of the Ultimate Dharma presents the Buddha’s answers to questions posed by a non-Buddhist seer named Ulka concerning the origin of life, the end of the universe, and the nature of the soul. These questions are posed following a miraculous display by the Buddha, in which countless living beings are emitted from the Buddha in the form of rays of light. Although this miraculous display awes the bodhisattvas and gods who are present, Ulka is not swayed by these powers, arguing that non-Buddhist gods such as Nārāyaṇa and Maheśvara are also able to perform such feats. In answering his questions, the Buddha articulates core teachings of Buddhism such as impermanence, karma, and emptiness.
Title variants
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “Victory of the Ultimate Dharma”
- Āryaparamārthadharmavijayanāmamahāyānasūtra
- འཕགས་པ་དོན་དམ་པའི་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་པར་རྒྱལ་བ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa don dam pa’i chos kyi rnam par rgyal ba zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- Paramārthadharmavijayasūtra
- don dam pa’i chos kyi rnam par rgyal ba’i mdo
- 《第一義法勝經》
Tibetan translation:
- Jinamitra
- Dānaśīla
- Bandé Yeshé Dé
Distinguishing Phenomena and What Is Meaningful
ཆོས་དང་དོན་རྣམ་པར་འབྱེད་པ། · chos dang don rnam par ’byed pa
Dharmārthavibhaṅga
Summary
There are two main themes in Distinguishing Phenomena and What Is Meaningful. One is in the narrative structure: The Buddha Śākyamuni tells how, countless eons ago, in a world called Flower Origin, a buddha named Arisen from Flowers gave instructions to a royal family, and prophesied the awakening of the prince Ratnākara. Arisen from Flowers, the Buddha Śākyamuni then relates, has since become the buddha Amitābha, and the prince Ratnākara the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara. The other theme is doctrinal, and lies in the content of the teaching given by Arisen from Flowers: it explains the four mistakes made by ordinary beings in the way they perceive the five aggregates, and how bodhisattvas teach them how to clear away these misconceptions, so that they may be free of the sufferings that result.
Title variants
- ’phags pa chos dang don rnam par ’byed pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- Āryadharmārthavibhaṅganāmamahāyānasūtra
- འཕགས་པ་ཆོས་དང་དོན་རྣམ་པར་འབྱེད་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “Distinguishing Phenomena and What Is Meaningful”
- don dang chos rnam par ’byed pa
- Dharmārthavibhaṅga
Tibetan translation:
- Jinamitra
- Danaśila
- Yeshé Dé
The Accomplishment of the Sets of Four Qualities: The Bodhisattvas’ Prātimokṣa
བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་སོ་སོར་ཐར་པ་ཆོས་བཞི་སྒྲུབ་པ། · byang chub sems dpa’i so sor thar pa chos bzhi sgrub pa
Bodhisattvaprātimokṣacatuṣkanirhāra
Summary
In The Accomplishment of the Sets of Four Qualities: The Bodhisattvas’ Prātimokṣa, Venerable Śāriputra requests the Buddha Śākyamuni to explain the conduct of bodhisattvas. The Buddha responds by describing how bodhisattvas train in many practices and in the cultivation of many qualities, here presented in sets of four, related to generosity and diligence in particular, and more broadly to their attitude, conduct, learning, insight, and teaching. In this way bodhisattvas swiftly progress along the path to buddhahood.
Title variants
- The Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Accomplishment of the Sets of Four Qualities: The Bodhisattvas’ Prātimokṣa”
- Bodhisattvaprātimokṣacatuṣkanirhāranāmamahāyānasūtra
- བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་སོ་སོར་ཐར་པ་ཆོས་བཞི་སྒྲུབ་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- byang chub sems dpa’i so sor thar pa chos bzhi sgrub pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- 《圓滿四種品質：菩薩的波羅提木叉（別解脫律儀）》
Tibetan translation:
- Dīpaṅkaraśrījñāna
- Śākya Lodrö
- Gewé Lodrö
The Sūtra Teaching the Four Factors
ཆོས་བཞི་བསྟན་པའི་མདོ། · chos bzhi bstan pa’i mdo
Caturdharmanirdeśasūtra
Summary
While Buddha Śākyamuni is residing in the Sudharmā assembly hall in the Heaven of the Thirty-Three, he explains to the great bodhisattva Maitreya four factors that make it possible to overcome the effects of any negative deeds one has committed. These four are: the action of repentance, which involves feeling remorse; antidotal action, which is to practice virtue as a remedy to non-virtue; the power of restraint, which involves vowing not to repeat a negative act; and the power of support, which means taking refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha, and never forsaking the mind of awakening. The Buddha concludes by recommending that bodhisattvas regularly recite this sūtra and reflect on its meaning as an antidote to any further wrongdoing.
Title variants
- ’phags pa chos bzhi bstan pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- Āryacaturdharmanirdeśanāmamahāyānasūtra
- འཕགས་པ་ཆོས་བཞི་བསྟན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “Teaching the Four Factors”
Tibetan translation:
- Surendrabodhi
- Yeshé Dé
The Four Factors
ཆོས་བཞི་པ། · chos bzhi pa
Caturdharmaka
Summary
In this short sūtra the Buddha explains that throughout one’s life there are four beliefs one should not hold: (1) that there is pleasure to be found among women, (2) or at the royal court; (3) that happiness can be ensured by depending on health and attractiveness, (4) or on wealth and material possessions.
Title variants
- The Sūtra on the Four Factors
- Caturdharmakasūtra
- ཆོས་བཞི་པའི་མདོ།
- chos bzhi pa’i mdo
The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra on the Four Factors
འཕགས་པ་ཆོས་བཞི་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ། · ’phags pa chos bzhi pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
Āryacaturdharmakanāmamahāyānasūtra
Summary
While residing in the Jeta Grove in Śrāvastī, the Buddha explains to an assembly of monks and bodhisattvas four factors of the path that bodhisattvas must not abandon even at the cost of their lives: (1) the thought of awakening, (2) the spiritual friend, (3) tolerance and lenience (which are here counted as one), and (4) dwelling in the wilderness. The sūtra concludes with two verses in which the Buddha restates the four factors and asserts that those who do not relinquish them will attain complete awakening.
The Fourfold Accomplishment
བཞི་པ་སྒྲུབ་པ། · bzhi pa sgrub pa
Catuṣkanirhāra
Summary
The Fourfold Accomplishment revolves around a dialogue between the god Śrībhadra and the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī that takes place in the Jeta Grove at Śrāvastī. At Śrībhadra’s request, Mañjuśrī recalls a teaching that he previously gave to Brahmā Śikhin on the practices of a bodhisattva. The teaching takes the form of a sequence of topics, each of which has four components.
Title variants
- ’phags pa bzhi pa sgrub pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- Āryacatuṣkanirhāranāmamahāyānasūtra
- bzhi pa sgrub pa’i mdo
- Catuṣkanirhārasūtra
- འཕགས་པ་བཞི་པ་སྒྲུབ་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
The Sūtra on the Threefold Teaching
ཆོས་གསུམ་པའི་མདོ། · chos gsum pa'i mdo/
Tridharmakasūtra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- Tridharmakanāmasūtra
- chos gsum pa zhes bya ba'i mdo
The Sūtra of Dharmaketu
ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་མཚན་གྱི་མདོ། · chos kyi rgyal mtshan gyi mdo/
Dharmaketusūtra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- Āryadharmaketumahāyānasūtra
- 'phags pa chos kyi rgyal mtshan gyi mdo theg pa chen pa'o
The Ocean of the Dharma
ཆོས་རྒྱ་མཚོ། · chos rgya mtsho/
Dharmasamudrasūtra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- Dharmasamudranāmamahāyānasūtra
- theg pa chen po'i mdo chos rgya mtsho zhes bya ba
The Seal of the Dharma
ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱ་མོ། · chos kyi rgya mo/
(no Sanskrit title, translated from the Chinese)
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- The Seal of the Dharma: the Ten Chapters of the Explanation by Buddha Vairocana of the State of Mind of Bodhisattvas
- chos kyi rgya mo/ sangs rgyas rnam par snang mdzad kyis byang chub sems dpa'i sems kyi gnas bshad pa le'u bcu
The Quintessence of the Sun
ཉི་མའི་སྙིང་པོ། · nyi ma’i snying po
Sūryagarbha
Summary
The Quintessence of the Sun is a long and heterogeneous sūtra in eleven chapters. At the Veṇuvana in the Kalandakanivāpa on the outskirts of Rājagṛha, the Buddha Śākyamuni first explains to a great assembly the severe consequences of stealing what has been offered to monks and the importance of protecting those who abide by the Dharma. The next section tells of bodhisattvas sent from buddha realms in the four directions to bring various dhāraṇīs as a way of protecting and benefitting this world. While explaining those dhāraṇīs, the Buddha Śākyamuni presents various meditations on repulsiveness and instructions on the empty nature of phenomena. On the basis of another long narrative involving Māra and groups of nāgas, detailed teachings on astrology are also introduced, as are a number of additional dhāraṇīs and a list of sacred locations blessed by the presence of holy beings.
Title variants
- The Noble Very Extensive Sūtra “The Quintessence of the Sun”
- Āryasūryagarbhanāmamahāvaipulyasūtra
- ’phags pa shin tu rgyas pa chen po’i sde nyi ma’i snying po zhes bya ba’i mdo
- འཕགས་པ་ཤིན་ཏུ་རྒྱས་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་སྡེ་ཉི་མའི་སྙིང་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་མདོ།
- The Very Extensive Sūtra ’The Quintessence of the Sun’
- 《大方廣日藏經》(大正藏：大乘大方等日藏經)
Tibetan translation:
- Bandé Zangkyong
- Bandé Kawa Paltsek
The Sūtra on the Tathāgata Essence
དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོའི་མདོ། · de bzhin gshegs pa'i snying po'i mdo/
tathāgatagarbhasūtra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- 'phags pa de bzhin gshegs pa'i snying po zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
- āryatathāgatagarbhanāmamahāyānasūtra
The Basket Without Words, The Illuminator’s Matrix
ཡི་གེ་མེད་པའི་ཟ་མ་ཏོག་རྣམ་པར་སྣང་མཛད་ཀྱི་སྙིང་པོ། · yi ge med pa’i za ma tog rnam par snang mdzad kyi snying po
Anakṣarakaraṇḍakavairocanagarbha
Summary
The Basket Without Words, The Illuminator’s Matrix unfolds in Rājagṛha on Vulture Peak, where the Buddha is dwelling with a great assembly. The bodhisattva Viśeṣacintin requests the Buddha to give a teaching on two words and asks him to explain one factor that bodhisattvas should abandon, one quality that encompasses all the foundations of the training when safeguarded by bodhisattvas, and one phenomenon to which thus-gone ones truly and perfectly awaken. The Buddha responds by listing the afflictions that bodhisattvas abandon. Next, he advises bodhisattvas not to do to others what they themselves do not desire. Then, he teaches that there is no phenomenon to which thus-gone ones truly and perfectly awaken, and that thus-gone ones comprehend that all phenomena are free from going and coming, causes and conditions, death and birth, acceptance and rejection, and decrease and increase. At the conclusion of the sūtra, members of the assembly promise to propagate this teaching, and the Buddha explains the benefits of doing so.
Title variants
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Basket Without Words, The Illuminator’s Matrix”
- Āryānakṣarakaraṇḍakavairocanagarbhanāmamahāyānasūtra
- ’phags pa yi ge med pa’i za ma tog rnam par snang mdzad kyi snying po zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- འཕགས་པ་ཡི་གེ་མེད་པའི་ཟ་མ་ཏོག་རྣམ་པར་སྣང་མཛད་ཀྱི་སྙིང་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
Tibetan translation:
- Jinamitra
- Dānaśīla
- Munivarman
- Bandé Yeshé Dé
The Ākāśagarbha Sūtra
ནམ་མཁའི་སྙིང་པོའི་མདོ། · nam mkha’i snying po’i mdo
Ākāśagarbhasūtra
Summary
While the Buddha is dwelling on Khalatika Mountain with his retinue, an amazing display of light appears, brought about by the bodhisattva Ākāśagarbha’s liberating activities. As he joins the gathering, Ākāśagarbha manifests another extraordinary display, and the Buddha, praising his inconceivable accomplishments and activities, explains how to invoke his blessings. He sets out the fundamental transgressions of rulers, ministers, śrāvakas, and beginner bodhisattvas, and, after explaining in detail how to conduct the rituals of purification, encourages those who have committed such transgressions to turn to Ākāśagarbha. When people pray to Ākāśagarbha, Ākāśagarbha adapts his manifestations to suit their needs, appearing to them while they are awake, in their dreams, or at the time of their death. In this way, Ākāśagarbha gradually leads them all along the path, helping them to purify their negative deeds, relieve their sufferings, fulfill their wishes, and eventually attain perfect enlightenment.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་ནམ་མཁའི་སྙིང་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa nam mkha’i snying po zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Mahāyāna Ākāśagarbha Sūtra
- Āryākāśagarbhanāmamahāyānasūtra
Tibetan translation:
- Śākyaprabha
- Ratnarakṣita
The Sūtra on Skill in Means
ཐབས་མཁས་པའི་མདོ། · thabs mkhas pa'i mdo/
Upāyakauśalyasūtra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- Upāyakauśalya
- Āryopāyakauśalyanāmamahāyānasūtra
- 'phags pa thabs mkhas pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
The Five Thousand Four Hundred and Fifty-Three Names of the Buddha
སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་མཚན་ལྔ་སྟོང་བཞི་བརྒྱ་ལྔ་བཅུ་རྩ་གསུམ་པ། · sangs rgyas kyi mtshan lnga stong bzhi brgya lnga bcu rtsa gsum pa/
buddhanāmasahasrapañcaśatacaturtripañcadaśa
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- 《五千四百五十三佛名》（大正藏：《五千五百佛名神呪除障滅罪經》）
The Acceptance That Tames Beings with the Sky-Colored Method of Perfect Conduct
ཡང་དག་པར་སྤྱོད་པའི་ཚུལ་ནམ་མཁའི་མདོག་གིས་འདུལ་བའི་བཟོད་པ། · yang dag par spyod pa’i tshul nam mkha’i mdog gis ’dul ba’i bzod pa
Samyagācāravṛttagaganavarṇavinayakṣānti
Summary
In The Acceptance That Tames Beings with the Sky-Colored Method of Perfect Conduct, the Buddha Śākyamuni and several bodhisattvas deliver a series of teachings focusing on the relationship between the understanding of emptiness and the conduct of a bodhisattva, especially the perfection of acceptance or patience. The text describes the implications of the view that all inner and outer formations—that is, all phenomena made up of the five aggregates—are empty. It also provides detailed descriptions of the ascetic practices of non-Buddhists and insists on the importance for bodhisattvas of being reborn in buddha realms inundated with the five impurities for the sake of the beings living there, and of practicing in such realms to fulfill the highest goals of the bodhisattva path.
Title variants
- ’phags pa yang dag par spyod pa’i tshul nam mkha’i mdog gis ’dul ba’i bzod pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Acceptance That Tames Beings with the Sky-Colored Method of Perfect Conduct”
- Āryasamyagācāravṛttagaganavarṇavinayakṣāntināmamahāyānasūtra
- འཕགས་པ་ཡང་དག་པར་སྤྱོད་པའི་ཚུལ་ནམ་མཁའི་མདོག་གིས་འདུལ་བའི་བཟོད་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- 《正行理趣虛空色調伏忍辱經》
The Sūtra on Liberation
ཐར་མདོ། · thar mdo/
Mokṣasūtra (translated from the Chinese)
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- 'phags pa thar pa chen po phyogs su rgyas pa 'gyod tshangs kyis sdig sbyangs te sangs rgyas su grub par rnam par bkod pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
The Minor Chapters on the Rituals of Homage and the Clearing away of Remorse in the Noble Sūtra of the Great Realization
རྟོགས་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ་ལས་ཕྱག་འཚལ་བའི་ཆོ་ག་དང་། འགྱོད་ཚངས་ཀྱི་ལེའུ་ཉི་ཚེ། · rtogs pa chen po'i mdo las phyag 'tshal ba'i cho ga dang / 'gyod tshangs kyi le'u nyi tshe/
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- (no Sanskrit title, translated from the Chinese)
- 'phags pa rtogs pa chen po yongs su rgyas pa'i mdo las/ phyag 'tshal ba'i cho ga dang / mtshan nas brjod pa'i yon tan gyi gling gzhi dang / dus gsum gyi de bzhin gshegs pa rnams kyi mtshan dang / mdo sde bcu gnyis dang / byang chub sems dpa' rnams kyi mtshan nas brjod cing phyag 'tshal ba dang / bshags pa'i le'u rnams 'byung ba nyi tshe bcos shing bsgyur ba
- The Minor Chapters on the Rituals of Homage and the Clearing away of Remorse from the Sūtra of the Great Realization
- Mahāsamayavaipulya (Mahādigama)
Bouquet of Flowers
མེ་ཏོག་གི་ཚོགས། · me tog gi tshogs
Kusumasañcaya
Summary
Bouquet of Flowers is a Great Vehicle sūtra in which the Buddha describes a vast array of wondrous, far-off world systems each inhabited by buddhas who teach the Dharma there. Hearing those buddhas’ names, the Buddha teaches, brings a wide range of benefits, all of which are ultimately directed toward attaining unexcelled, perfect and complete awakening. In this sūtra, the Buddha’s main interlocutor is Śāriputra, but he also interacts with Ajita and Mahākāśyapa.
Title variants
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “Bouquet of Flowers”
- འཕགས་པ་མེ་ཏོག་གི་ཚོགས་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa me tog gi tshogs zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- Kusumasaṃcaya
- Āryakusumasañcayanāmamahāyānasūtra
- 《華聚經》（大正藏：《佛說稱揚諸佛功德經》）
Tibetan translation:
- Jñānasiddhi
- Dharmatāśīla
Calling Witness with a Hundred Prostrations
དཔང་སྐོང་ཕྱག་བརྒྱ་པ། · dpang skong phyag brgya pa
Summary
Calling Witness with a Hundred Prostrations is widely known as the first sūtra to arrive in Tibet, long before Tibet became a Buddhist nation, during the reign of the Tibetan king Lha Thothori Nyentsen. Written to be recited for personal practice, it opens with one hundred and eight prostrations and praises to the many buddhas of the ten directions and three times, to the twelve categories of scripture contained in the Tripiṭaka, to the bodhisattvas of the ten directions, and to the arhat disciples of the Buddha. After making offerings to them, confessing and purifying nonvirtue, and making the aspiration to perform virtuous actions in every life, the text includes recitations of the vows of refuge in the Three Jewels, and of generating the thought of enlightenment. The text concludes with a passage rejoicing in the virtues of the holy ones, a request for the buddhas to bestow a prophecy to achieve enlightenment, and the aspiration to pass from this life in a state of pure Dharma.
Title variants
- དཔང་སྐོང་ཕྱག་བརྒྱ་པ།
- dpang skong phyag brgya pa
Tibetan translation:
- Thönmi Sambhoṭa
The Sūtra of King of the Inconceivable
བསམ་གྱིས་མི་ཁྱབ་པའི་རྒྱལ་པོའི་མདོ། · bsam gyis mi khyab pa'i rgyal po'i mdo
Acintyarājasūtra
Summary
While the Buddha is staying in the kingdom of Magadha with an assembly of countless bodhisattvas, the bodhisattva King of the Inconceivable 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 Mahāyāna Sūtra "The Sūtra of King of the Inconceivable"
- འཕགས་པ་བསམ་གྱིས་མི་ཁྱབ་པའི་རྒྱལ་པོའི་མདོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa bsam gyis mi khyab pa’i rgyal po’i mdo zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- Āryācintyarājasūtranāmamahāyānasūtra
- 《不可思議王經》
Dispelling the Darkness of the Ten Directions
ཕྱོགས་བཅུའི་མུན་པ་རྣམ་པར་སེལ་བ། · phyogs bcu’i mun pa rnam par sel ba
Daśadigandhakāravidhvaṃsana
Summary
As the Buddha approaches Kapilavastu, he is met by the Śākya youth Shining Countenance setting out from the city in his chariot. Shining Countenance requests the Buddha to teach him a rite of protection from harm, and the Buddha describes ten buddhas, each dwelling in a distant world system in one of the ten directions. When departing from the city in one of the directions, he explains, keeping the respective buddha in mind will ensure freedom from fear and harm while traveling and success in the journey’s purpose. After receiving this teaching, Shining Countenance and the others in the assembly are able to see those ten buddhas and their realms directly before them, and the Buddha prophesies their eventual awakening. The Buddha further explains that to read, teach, write down, and keep this sūtra will bring protection to all; it is consequently often chanted at the beginning of undertakings, especially travel, to overcome obstacles and bring success.
Title variants
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “Dispelling the Darkness of the Ten Directions”
- Āryadaśadigandhakāravidhvaṃsananāmamahāyānasūtra
- འཕགས་པ་ཕྱོགས་བཅུའི་མུན་པ་རྣམ་པར་སེལ་བ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa phyogs bcu’i mun pa rnam par sel ba zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- 佛説滅十方冥經
Tibetan translation:
- Viśuddhasiṃha
- Bandé Tsang Devendrarakṣita
- Bandé Lui Gyaltsen
The Seven Buddhas
སངས་རྒྱས་བདུན་པ། · sangs rgyas bdun pa
Saptabuddhaka
Summary
The Seven Buddhas opens with the Buddha Śākyamuni residing in an alpine forest on Mount Kailāsa with a saṅgha of monks and bodhisattvas. The Buddha notices that a monk in the forest has been possessed by a spirit, which prompts the bodhisattva Ākāśagarbha to request that the Buddha teach a spell to cure diseases and exorcise demonic spirits. The Buddha then emanates as the set of “seven successive buddhas,” each of whom transmits a dhāraṇī to Ākāśagarbha. Each of the seven buddhas then provides ritual instructions for using the dhāraṇī.
Title variants
- ’phags pa sangs rgyas bdun pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- འཕགས་པ་སངས་རྒྱས་བདུན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Seven Buddhas”
- Āryasaptabuddhakanāmamahāyānasūtra
The Eight Buddhas
སངས་རྒྱས་བརྒྱད་པ། · sangs rgyas brgyad pa
Aṣṭabuddhaka
Summary
While the Buddha is dwelling together with a great saṅgha of monks in Śrāvastī, at the garden of Anāthapiṇḍada in the Jeta Grove, the whole universe suddenly begins to shake. The sounds of innumerable cymbals are heard without their being played, and flowers fall, covering the entire Jeta Grove. The world becomes filled with golden light and golden lotuses appear, each lotus supporting a lion throne upon which appears the shining form of a buddha. Venerable Śāriputra arises from his seat, pays homage, and asks the Buddha about the causes and conditions for these thus-gone ones to appear. The Buddha then proceeds to describe in detail these buddhas, as well as their various realms and how beings can take birth in them.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་སངས་རྒྱས་བརྒྱད་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa sangs rgyas brgyad pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Eight Buddhas”
- Āryāṣṭabuddhakanāmamahāyānasūtra
The Sūtra of the Ten Buddhas
སངས་རྒྱས་བཅུ་པའི་མདོ། · sangs rgyas bcu pa'i mdo/
daśabuddhakasūtra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- sangs rgyas bcu pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
- daśabuddhakanāmamahāyānasūtra
The Twelve Buddhas
སངས་རྒྱས་བཅུ་གཉིས་པ། · sangs rgyas bcu gnyis pa
Dvādaśabuddhaka
Summary
The Twelve Buddhas opens at Rājagṛha with a dialogue between the Buddha Śākyamuni and the bodhisattva Maitreya about the eastern buddhafield of a buddha whose abbreviated name is King of Jewels. This buddha prophesies that when he passes into complete nirvāṇa, the bodhisattva Incomparable will take his place as a buddha whose abbreviated name is Victory Banner King. Śākyamuni then provides the names of the remaining ten tathāgatas, locating them in the ten directions surrounding Victory Banner King’s buddhafield Full of Pearls. After listing the full set of names of these twelve buddhas and their directional relationship to Victory Banner King, the Buddha Śākyamuni provides an accompanying mantra-dhāraṇī and closes with a set of thirty-seven verses outlining the benefits of remembering the names of these buddhas.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་སངས་རྒྱས་བཅུ་གཉིས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa sangs rgyas bcu gnyis pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Twelve Buddhas”
- Āryadvādaśabuddhakanāmamahāyānasūtra
Tibetan translation:
- Jinamitra
- Dānaśīla
- Bandé Yeshé Dé
The Sūtra of the Crown Ornament of the Buddhas
སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་དབུ་རྒྱན་གྱི་མདོ། · sangs rgyas kyi dbu rgyan gyi mdo/
buddhamakuṭasūtra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- āryabuddhamakuṭanāmamahāyānasūtra
- 'phags pa sangs rgyas kyi dbu rgyan zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo chos kyi rnam grangs chen po
The Sūtra on Buddhahood
སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་སའི་མདོ། · sangs rgyas kyi sa'i mdo/
buddhabhūmisūtra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- 'phags pa sangs rgyas kyi sa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
- āryabuddhabhūmināmamahāyānasūtra
Not Forsaking the Buddha
སངས་རྒྱས་མི་སྤང་བ། · sangs rgyas mi spang ba
Buddhākṣepaṇa
Summary
This discourse takes place while the Buddha Śākyamuni is on Vulture Peak Mountain with a large community of monks, along with numerous bodhisattvas. Ten of the bodhisattvas present in the retinue have become discouraged after failing to attain dhāraṇī despite exerting themselves for seven years. The bodhisattva Undaunted therefore requests the Buddha to bestow upon them an instruction that will enable them to generate wisdom. In response, the Buddha reveals the cause of their inability to attain dhāraṇī—a specific negative act they performed in the past—and he goes on to explain the importance of respecting Dharma teachers and reveal how these ten bodhisattvas can purify their karmic obscurations.
Title variants
- ’phags pa sangs rgyas mi spang ba zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- འཕགས་པ་སངས་རྒྱས་མི་སྤང་བ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- Āryabuddhākṣepaṇanāmamahāyānasūtra
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “Not Forsaking the Buddha”
Tibetan translation:
- Jinamitra
- Prajñāvarman
- Yeshé Dé
The Sūtra of the Eight Maṇḍalas
དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་བརྒྱད་པའི་མདོ། · dkyil 'khor brgyad pa'i mdo/
aṣṭamaṇḍalakasūtra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- 'phags pa dkyil 'khor brgyad pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
- āryāṣṭamaṇḍalakanāmamahāyānasūtra
The Eight Auspicious Ones
བཀྲ་ཤིས་བརྒྱད་པ། · bkra shis brgyad pa
Maṅgalāṣṭaka
Summary
While the Buddha is dwelling in Vaiśālī at Āmrapālī’s grove, a Licchavi youth named Superior Skill requests him to reveal those buddhas presently dwelling in fulfillment of their former aspirations, such that venerating them and remembering their names can dispel fear and harm. The Buddha responds by listing the names of eight buddhas and the names of their buddha realms. He instructs Superior Skill to remember these buddhas’ names and to contemplate them regularly to develop their good qualities himself and ensure success before beginning any activity. After Superior Skill departs, Śakra, lord of the gods, declares that he has taken up this practice as well. The Buddha exhorts Śakra to proclaim this discourse before engaging in battles with the asuras to ensure his victory, and then enumerates the good qualities of those who proclaim this discourse.
Title variants
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Eight Auspicious Ones”
- Āryamaṅgalāṣṭakanāmamahāyānasūtra
- འཕགས་པ་བཀྲ་ཤིས་བརྒྱད་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa bkra shis brgyad pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- 《八吉祥經》 （大正藏：《佛說八部佛名經》）
Tibetan translation:
- Surendrabodhi
- Bandé Yeshé Dé
Being Mindful of the Buddha
སངས་རྒྱས་རྗེས་སུ་དྲན་པ། · sangs rgyas rjes su dran pa/
buddhānusmṛti
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- āryabuddhānusmṛti
- 'phags pa sangs rgyas rjes su dran pa
Being Mindful of the Dharma
ཆོས་རྗེས་སུ་དྲན་པ། · chos rjes su dran pa/
dharmānusmṛti
Being Mindful of the Community
དགེ་འདུན་རྗེས་སུ་དྲན་པ། · dge 'dun rjes su dran pa/
saṅghānusmṛti
The Sūtra on the Threefold Training
བསླབ་པ་གསུམ་གྱི་མདོ། · bslab pa gsum gyi mdo
Śikṣātrayasūtra
Summary
In The Sūtra on the Threefold Training, Buddha Śākyamuni briefly introduces the three elements or stages of the path, widely known as “the three trainings,” one by one in a specific order: discipline, meditative concentration, and wisdom. He teaches that training progressively in them constitutes the gradual path to awakening.
Title variants
- བསླབ་པ་གསུམ་གྱི་མདོ།
- bslab pa gsum gyi mdo
The Sūtra on the Three Bodies
སྐུ་གསུམ་པའི་མདོ། · sku gsum pa’i mdo
Trikāyasūtra
Summary
As the title suggests, this sūtra describes the three bodies of the Buddha. While the Buddha is dwelling on Vulture Peak in Rājgṛha, the Bodhisattva Kṣitigarbha asks whether the Tathāgata has a body, to which the Buddha replies that the Tathāgata has three bodies: a dharmakāya, a saṃbhogakāya, and a nirmāṇakāya. The Buddha goes on to describe what constitutes these three bodies and their associated meaning. The Buddha explains that the dharmakāya is like space, the saṃbhogakāya is like clouds, and the nirmāṇakāya is like rain. At the end of the Buddha’s elucidation, Kṣitigarbha expresses jubilation, and the Buddha declares that whoever upholds this Dharma teaching will obtain immeasurable merit.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་སྐུ་གསུམ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa sku gsum zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Three Bodies”
- Āryatrikāyanāmamahāyānasūtra
Tibetan translation:
- Unknown
The Sūtra of the Three Heaps
ཕུང་པོ་གསུམ་པའི་མདོ། · phung po gsum pa'i mdo/
triskandhakasūtra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- āryatriskandhakanāmamahāyānasūtra
- 'phags pa phung po gsum pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
The Dedication “Fulfilling All Aspirations”
བསམ་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཡོངས་སུ་རྫོགས་པའི་ཡོངས་སུ་བསྔོ་བ། · bsam pa thams cad yongs su rdzogs pa’i yongs su bsngo ba
Summary
This text is a prayer of dedication, and is meant to be recited. Its structure partly reflects the liturgy of “seven branches” or “seven limbs,” a set of practices that serves as the basic structure of many Mahāyāna Buddhist prayers and rituals. In this instance, however, the text consists of two sections: the first is a detailed prayer of confession, and the second a prayer of rejoicing, requesting that the wheel of the Dharma be turned, beseeching the buddhas not to pass into nirvāṇa, and extensively dedicating the merit.
Title variants
- ’phags pa bsam pa thams cad yongs su rdzogs par byed pa zhes bya ba’i yongs su bsngo ba
- The Noble Dedication “Fulfilling All Aspirations”
- འཕགས་པ་བསམ་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཡོངས་སུ་རྫོགས་པར་བྱེད་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་ཡོངས་སུ་བསྔོ་བ།
The Dedication “Protecting All Beings”
འགྲོ་བ་ཡོངས་སུ་སྐྱོབ་པར་བྱེད་པའི་ཡོངས་སུ་བསྔོ་བ། · ’gro ba yongs su skyob par byed pa’i yongs su bsngo ba
Summary
This text is a prayer of dedication that strongly resonates with the later Tibetan literature of mind training (blo sbyong). In addition to the classic element of dedication of merit to all beings, a substantial part of the text comprises a passage that enumerates the many faults, shortcomings, and afflictions that burden sentient beings, as well as the many possible attainments that they consequently may not have realized, and culminates in the wish that everything negative that would otherwise ripen for sentient beings may ripen instead for the reciter, so that all sentient beings may thus be liberated and purified.
Title variants
- ’phags pa ’gro ba thams cad yongs su skyob par byed pa zhes bya ba’i yongs su bsngo ba
- འཕགས་པ་འགྲོ་བ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཡོངས་སུ་སྐྱོབ་པར་བྱེད་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་ཡོངས་སུ་བསྔོ་བ།
- The Noble Dedication “Protecting All Beings”
The Application of Mindfulness of the Sacred Dharma
དམ་པའི་ཆོས་དྲན་པ་ཉེ་བར་གཞག་པ། · dam pa’i chos dran pa nye bar gzhag pa
Saddharmasmṛtyupasthāna
Summary
While on the way to Rājagṛha to collect alms, a group of newly ordained monks are approached by some non-Buddhists, who suggest that their doctrine is identical to that of the Buddha, since everyone agrees that misdeeds of body, speech, and mind are to be given up. The monks do not know how to reply, and when they later return to the brahmin town of Nālati, where the Buddha is residing, Śāradvatīputra therefore encourages them to seek clarification from the Blessed One himself. In response to the monks’ request, the Buddha delivers a comprehensive discourse on the effects of virtuous and unvirtuous actions, explaining these matters from the perspective of an adept practitioner of his teachings, who sees and understands all this through a process of personal discovery. As the teaching progresses, the Buddha presents an epic tour of the realm of desire—from the Hell of Ultimate Torment to the Heaven Free from Strife—all the while introducing the specific human actions and attitudes that cause the experience of such worlds and outlining the ways to remedy and transcend them. In the final section of the sūtra, which is presented as an individual scripture on its own, the focus is on mindfulness of the body and the ripening of karmic actions that is experienced among humans in particular.
Title variants
- The Noble Application of Mindfulness of the Sacred Dharma
- Āryasaddharmasmṛtyupasthāna
- ’phags pa dam pa’i chos dran pa nye bar gzhag pa
- འཕགས་པ་དམ་པའི་ཆོས་དྲན་པ་ཉེ་བར་གཞག་པ།
- dam chos dran pa nyer bzhag
- 《正法念處經》
Tibetan translation:
- Tsultrim Gyaltsen
- Shang Buchikpa
- Sherap Ö
The Great Sūtra of Illusion's Net
མདོ་ཆེན་སྒྱུ་མའི་དྲ་བ། · mdo chen sgyu ma'i dra ba/
Māyājālasūtra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- Māyājālanāmamahāsūtra
- mdo chen sgyu ma'i dra ba zhes bya ba
The Great Sūtra of Bimbisāra’s Going Out to Meet [the Buddha]
མདོ་ཆེན་པོ་གཟུགས་ཅན་སྙིང་པོས་བསུ་བ། · mdo chen po gzugs can snying pos bsu ba/
bimbisārapratyudgamananāmamahāsūtra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- mdo chen po gzugs can snying pos bsu ba zhes bya ba
- bimbisārapratyudgamananāmamahāsūtra
- Bimbisārapratyudgamanamahāsūtra
The Great Sūtra on Emptiness
མདོ་ཆེན་པོ་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད། · mdo chen po stong pa nyid/
śūnyatāmahāsutra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- mdo chen po stong pa nyid ces bya ba
- śūnyatānāmamahāsutra
The Great Sūtra on Great Emptiness
མདོ་ཆེན་པོ་སྟོང་ཉིད་ཆེན་པོ། · mdo chen po stong nyid chen po/
mahāśūnyatāmahāsūtra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- mdo chen po stong pa nyid chen po zhes bya ba
- mahāśūnyatānāmamahāsūtra
The Great Sūtra on the Best Banner (1)
མདོ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་མཆོག་ · mdo chen po rgyal mtshan mchog
dhvajāgramahāsūtra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- dhvajāgranāmamahāsūtra
- mdo chen po rgyal mtshan mchog ces bya ba
The Great Sūtra on the Best Banner (2)
མདོ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་དམ་པ། · mdo chen po rgyal mtshan dam pa/
Dhvajāgramahāsūtra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- Dhvajāgranāmamahāsūtraṃ
- mdo chen po rgyal mtshan dam pa zhes bya ba
The Great Sūtra on the Five and Three [Views]
མདོ་ཆེན་པོ་ལྔ་གསུམ་པ། · mdo chen po lnga gsum pa/
pañcatrayasūtra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- pañcatrayanāmamahāsūtra
- mdo chen po lnga gsum pa zhes bya ba
The Sūtra of Throwing Stones
རྡོ་འཕངས་པའི་མདོ། · rdo 'phangs pa'i mdo/
śilākṣiptasūtra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- āryaśilākṣiptasūtra
- 'phags pa rdo 'phangs pa'i mdo
The Sūtra on Examples of Youth
གཞོན་ནུའི་དཔེའི་མདོ། · gzhon nu'i dpe'i mdo/
kumāradṛṣṭāntasūtra
Multitude of Constituents
ཁམས་མང་པོ་པ། · khams mang po pa
Bahudhātuka
Summary
In this short discourse, also found in a similar form in the Pali canon, the Buddha gives a teaching to Ānanda in which he confirms the suggestion that all negative experiences arise from being foolish, not from being learned, and goes on to summarize for Ānanda what distinguishes a learned person from a foolish one. The learned person, he says, is learned in the constituents, in the sense fields, in dependent origination, and in knowing what is possible and impossible. He then elaborates briefly on each.
Title variants
- The Sūtra “Multitude of Constituents”
- ཁམས་མང་པོ་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་མདོ།
- khams mang po pa zhes bya ba’i mdo
- Bahudhātukasūtra
- Dhātubahutākasūtra
- ཁམས་མང་པོ་པའི་མདོ།
- khams mang po pa’i mdo
The Gaṇḍī Sūtra
གཎ་ཌཱིའི་མདོ། · gaN DI’i mdo
Gaṇḍīsūtra
Summary
While the Buddha is dwelling in the Bamboo Grove monastery near Rājagṛha, together with a thousand monks and a host of bodhisattvas, King Prasenajit arises from his seat, bows at the Buddha’s feet, and asks him how to uphold the Dharma in his kingdom during times of conflict. In reply the Buddha instructs the king about the gaṇḍī, a wooden ritual instrument, and tells him how the sound of this instrument, used for Dharma practice in a temple or monastery, quells conflict and strife for all who hear it. He describes how to make, consecrate, and sound the gaṇḍī. He explains that the gaṇḍī symbolizes the Perfection of Insight and describes in detail the many benefits it confers.
Sūtra on Times for the Gong
གཎྜཱིའི་དུས་ཀྱི་མདོ། · gaN+DI'i dus kyi mdo/
Gaṇḍīsamayasūtra
The Sūtra on Reliance upon a Virtuous Spiritual Friend
དགེ་བའི་བཤེས་གཉེན་བསྟེན་པའི་མདོ། · dge ba’i bshes gnyen bsten pa’i mdo
Kalyāṇamitrasevanasūtra
Summary
Just prior to his passing away, the Buddha Śākyamuni reminds his disciples of the importance of living with a qualified spiritual teacher. Ānanda, the Blessed One’s attendant, attempts to confirm his teacher’s statement, saying that a virtuous spiritual friend is indeed half of one’s spiritual life. Correcting his disciple’s understanding, the Buddha explains that a qualified guide is the whole of, rather than half of, the holy life, and that by relying upon a spiritual friend beings will be released from birth and attain liberation from all types of suffering.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་དགེ་བའི་བཤེས་གཉེན་བསྟེན་པའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa dge ba’i bshes gnyen bsten pa’i mdo
- The Noble Sūtra on Reliance upon a Virtuous Spiritual Friend
- Āryakalyāṇamitrasevanasūtra
Tibetan translation:
- Paṇḍita Dharmākara
- Lotsāwa Zangkyong (bzang skyong)
The Sūtra on Going Forth
མངོན་པར་འབྱུང་བའི་མདོ། · mngon par 'byung ba'i mdo/
abhiniṣkramaṇasūtra
What Mendicants Hold Most Dear
དགེ་སློང་ལ་རབ་ཏུ་གཅེས་པ་། · dge slong la rab tu gces pa
Bhikṣuprareju
Summary
What Mendicants Hold Most Dear contains the Buddha’s answer to a question by Upāli, the Buddha’s foremost disciple in knowledge and mastery of the Vinaya. Upāli asks the Buddha to teach about the nature, types, and obligations of mendicants and about the meaning of this term. For the benefit of the assembled mendicants and mendicants in general, the Buddha explains that their nature is restraint, their obligations consist of disciplined conduct, and their types are the genuine mendicants who abide by disciplined conduct and those who are not genuine and thus do not so abide. When one of the Buddha’s answers given in similes seems obscure, he offers further clarification upon Upāli’s request. The Buddha explains the advantages of maintaining disciplined conduct, thus urging the mendicants to treasure it, and he warns against disregarding it while wearing the mendicant’s robes.
Title variants
- The Sūtra on What Mendicants Hold Most Dear
- Bhikṣuprarejusūtra
- དགེ་སློང་ལ་རབ་ཏུ་གཅེས་པའི་མདོ།
- dge slong la rab tu gces pa’i mdo
- bhikṣupriyasūtranāma
- Bhikṣupriya
The Sūtra on Having Moral Discipline
ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་ཡང་དག་པར་ལྡན་པའི་མདོ། · tshul khrims yang dag par ldan pa’i mdo
Śīlasaṃyuktasūtra
Summary
At Prince Jeta’s Grove in Śrāvastī, the Buddha teaches his saṅgha about the benefits of having moral discipline and the importance of guarding it. It is difficult, he says, to obtain a human life and encounter the teachings of a buddha, let alone to then take monastic vows and maintain moral discipline. But unlike just losing that one human life, which comes and then inevitably is gone, the consequences of failing in moral discipline are grave and experienced over billions of lifetimes. The Buddha continues in verse, praising moral discipline and its necessity as a foundation for engaging in the Dharma and attaining nirvāṇa. He concludes his discourse with a reflection on the folly of pursuing fleeting worldly enjoyments.
Title variants
- tshul khrims yang dag ldan pa’i mdo/
- 《戒正具經》
The Sūtra Examining the Virtuous and Non-Virtuous Effects of the Collection of Five Downfalls
ལྟུང་བ་སྡེ་ལྔའི་དགེ་བ་དང་མི་དགེ་བའི་འབྲས་བུ་བརྟག་པའི་མདོ། · ltung ba sde lnga'i dge ba dang mi dge ba'i 'bras bu brtag pa'i mdo/
pañcāpattinikāyaśubhāśubhaphalaparīkṣāsūtra
The Sūtra “Declaring What Is Supreme”
མཆོག་ཏུ་གདགས་པའི་མདོ། · mchog tu gdags pa’i mdo
Agraprajñaptisūtra
Summary
In The Sūtra “Declaring What Is Supreme”, the Buddha, while spending the rainy season at the Bamboo Grove in Rājagṛha, teaches his saṅgha of śrāvakas that the Buddha is supreme among all beings, the Dharma of being free of attachment is supreme among all dharmas, and the Saṅgha is supreme among all communities and groups. Those who have faith in these three will be reborn as supreme among gods or humans.
Teaching on the Practice of the Austerities, from "The Path of Liberation"
རྣམ་གྲོལ་ལམ་ལས་སྦྱངས་པའི་ཡོན་ཏན་བསྟན་པ། · rnam grol lam las sbyangs pa'i yon tan bstan pa/
vimuktimārgadhutaguṇanirdeśa
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- [Note: this is a translation of chapter 3 of the *Vimuktimārga (preserved only in Chinese but related to the Pāli Visuddhimagga), and is therefore an extract of a treatise; it is not known why it was included in the Kangyur. According to Chomden Rigpai Raltri, it was translated from Khotanese.]
- vimuktimārgadhutaguṇanirdeśanāma
- rnam par grol ba'i lam las sbyangs pa'i yon tan bstan pa zhes bya ba
The Limits of Life
ཚེའི་མཐའ། · tshe’i mtha’
Āyuḥparyanta
Summary
The Sūtra on the Limits of Life presents a detailed and systematic account of the lifespans of different beings that inhabit the universe, progressing from the lower to the higher realms of existence as outlined in early Buddhist cosmology. The Buddha describes the lifespans of beings in terms of the relationship or proportion between the lifespans of the devas of the form realm and the lifespans in the eight major hot hells, the latter being significantly longer than the former.
Title variants
- The Sūtra on the Limits of Life
- Āyuḥparyantasūtra
- ཚེའི་མཐའི་མདོ།
- tshe’i mtha’i mdo
- 《壽命終經》（大正藏：《佛說較量壽命經》）
Tibetan translation:
- Viśuddhasiṃha
- Gewé Pal
- Bandé Paltsek
- Vidyākarasiṃha
Questions Regarding Death and Transmigration
ཚེ་འཕོ་བ་ཇི་ལྟར་འགྱུར་བ་ཞུས་པ། · tshe ’pho ba ji ltar ’gyur ba zhus pa
Āyuṣpattiyathākāraparipṛcchā
Summary
Questions Regarding Death and Transmigration contains explanations of Buddhist views on the nature of life and death, and a number of philosophical arguments against non-Buddhist conceptions, notably some based broadly on the Vedas. The sūtra is set in the town of Kapilavastu at the time of the funeral of a young man of the Śākya clan. King Śuddhodana wonders about the validity of the ritual offerings being made for the deceased by the family and asks the Buddha seven questions about current beliefs on death and the afterlife. The Buddha answers each of the questions in turn. After two interlocutors interrupt to test the Buddha’s omniscience, the discourse continues to present the Buddhist account of death and rebirth using a set of eight analogies, each of which complements the others in a detailed explanation.
Title variants
- ཚེ་འཕོ་བ་ཇི་ལྟར་འགྱུར་བ་ཞུས་པའི་མདོ།
- tshe ’pho ba ji ltar ’gyur ba zhus pa’i mdo
- The Sūtra of Questions Regarding Death and Transmigration
- Āyuṣpattiyathākāraparipṛcchāsūtra
- འཆི་འཕོ་བ་ཇི་ལྟར་འགྱུར་བ་བསྟན་པ།
- འཆི་འཕོ་བ་ཇི་ལྟར་འགྱུར་བ་ལུང་བསྟན་པ།
- ’chi ’pho ba ji ltar ’gyur ba’i bstan pa
- ’chi ’pho ba ji ltar ’gyur ba’i lung bstan pa
The Sūtra on Impermanence (1)
མི་རྟག་པ་ཉིད་ཀྱི་མདོ། · mi rtag pa nyid kyi mdo
Anityatāsūtra
Summary
In this brief sūtra, the Buddha reminds his followers of one of the principal characteristics of saṃsāric existence: the reality of impermanence. The four things cherished most in this world, the Buddha says—namely, good health, youth, prosperity, and life—are all impermanent. He closes his teaching with a verse, asking how beings, afflicted as they are by impermanence, can take delight in anything desirable, and indirectly urging his disciples to practice the path of liberation.
Tibetan translation:
- Surendrabodhi
- Zhang Yeshé Dé
The Sūtra on Impermanence (2)
མི་རྟག་པ་ཉིད་ཀྱི་མདོ། · mi rtag pa nyid kyi mdo
Anityatāsūtra
Summary
The Sūtra on Impermanence (Anityatāsūtra) is a short discourse on the impermanence of conditioned states. The Buddha explains that it does not matter what one’s social status is, whether one is born in a heaven, or even if one has realized awakening and is an arhat, a pratyekabuddha, or a buddha. All that lives will eventually die. He concludes with a series of verses on impermanence exhorting the audience to understand that happiness is to bring conditioned states to rest.
Teaching the Eleven Thoughts
འདུ་ཤེས་བཅུ་གཅིག་བསྟན་པ། · ’du shes bcu gcig bstan pa
Saṃjñānaikadaśanirdeśa
Summary
Teaching the Eleven Thoughts takes place just before the Buddha attains parinirvāṇa, when he bequeaths his final testament to the assembled monks in the form of a brief discourse on eleven thoughts toward which the mind should be directed at the moment of death. He exhorts his listeners to develop nonattachment, love, freedom from resentment, a sense of moral responsibility, a proper perspective on virtue and vice, courage in the face of the next life, a perception of impermanence and the lack of self, and the knowledge that nirvāṇa is peace.
Title variants
- The Noble Sūtra “Teaching the Eleven Thoughts”
- Āryasaṃjñānaikadaśanirdeśasūtra
- ’phags pa ’du shes bcu gcig bstan pa’i mdo
- འཕགས་པ་འདུ་ཤེས་བཅུ་གཅིག་བསྟན་པའི་མདོ།
The Mahāsūtra “On Entering the City of Vaiśālī”
ཡངས་པའི་གྲོང་ཁྱེར་དུ་འཇུག་པའི་མདོ་ཆེན་པོ། · yangs pa’i grong khyer du ’jug pa’i mdo chen po
Vaiśālīpraveśamahāsūtra
Summary
Invited to visit the city of Vaiśālī, which has been ravaged by a terrible epidemic, the Buddha instructs Ānanda to stand at the city’s gate and recite a proclamation, a long mantra, and some verses that powerfully evoke spiritual well-being. Ānanda does so, and the epidemic comes to an end. One of the mahāsūtras related to the literature of the Vinaya, this text, like other accounts of the incident, has traditionally been recited during times of personal or collective illness, bereavement, and other difficulties.
Title variants
- ’phags pa yangs pa’i grong khyer du ’jug pa’i mdo chen po
- འཕགས་པ་ཡངས་པའི་གྲོང་ཁྱེར་དུ་འཇུག་པའི་མདོ་ཆེན་པོ།
- The Noble Mahāsūtra “On Entering the City of Vaiśālī”
- Āryavaiśālīpraveśamahāsūtra
Tibetan translation:
- Surendrabodhi
- Yeshé Dé
Auspicious Night
མཚན་མོ་བཟང་པོ། · mtshan mo bzang po
Bhadrakarātrī
Summary
In Auspicious Night, the deity Candana appears before a monk in Rājagṛha and asks if he knows of the Buddha’s teaching called Auspicious Night. Since the monk has never heard of it, the deity encourages the monk to ask the Buddha himself, who is staying nearby. At the monk’s request, the Buddha teaches him how to continuously remain in a contemplative state by following these guidelines: do not follow after the past, do not be anxious about the future, and do not be led astray or become distracted by presently arisen states. The Buddha then teaches several mantras and incantations for the welfare of all sentient beings and explains the apotropaic and salvific benefits of the instructions.
Title variants
- Āryabhadrakarātrīnāmasūtra
- ’phags pa mtshan mo bzang po zhes bya ba’i mdo
- འཕགས་པ་མཚན་མོ་བཟང་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་མདོ།
- bhadrakarātrīsūtra
- mtshan mo bzang po’i mdo/
- 《善夜經》（大正藏：《善夜經》）
Entry into the Gloomy Forest
མུན་གྱི་ནགས་ཚལ་གྱི་སྒོ། · mun gyi nags tshal gyi sgo
Tamovanamukha
Summary
Entry into the Gloomy Forest tells the story of the eminent brahmin Pradarśa, who is converted to Buddhism upon receiving teachings from the Buddha and goes on to establish a Buddhist community in the Gloomy Forest. The text describes the exceptional circumstances of Pradarśa’s birth, his going forth as a monk, and the miraculous founding of the monastic community in the Gloomy Forest. This is followed by the Buddha’s account of the deeds and aspirations undertaken by Pradarśa in his previous lives that have resulted in the auspicious circumstances of his present life.
Title variants
- The Sūtra “Entry into the Gloomy Forest”
- Tamovanamukhanāmasūtra
- mun gyi nags tshal gyi sgo zhes bya ba’i mdo
- མུན་གྱི་ནགས་ཚལ་གྱི་སྒོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་མདོ།
- 《闇苑門經》
The Father and Mother Sūtra
ཕ་མའི་མདོ། · pha ma’i mdo
Pitṛmātṛsūtra
Summary
This short discourse was taught to an audience of monks in the Jeta Grove in Śrāvastī. In it, the Buddha explains, by means of similes, the importance of venerating and attending to one’s father and mother. The Buddha concludes by stating that those who venerate their father and mother are wise, for in this life they will not be disparaged, and in the next life they will be reborn in the higher realms.
The Sūtra on the Four Truths
བདེན་པ་བཞིའི་མདོ། · bden pa bzhi'i mdo/
catuḥsatyasūtra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- 'phags pa bden pa bzhi'i mdo
- āryacatuḥsatyasūtra
Distinctly Ascertaining the Meanings
དོན་རྣམ་པར་ངེས་པ། · don rnam par nges pa
Arthaviniścaya
Summary
The sūtra Distinctly Ascertaining the Meanings begins with an introductory section, offering the context of the teachings. An explanation of twenty-seven topics is then presented by the Buddha, starting with the five aggregates and ending with the eighty minor marks of a great person. The Buddha then concludes by exhorting the bhikṣus to meditate in solitude and avoid negligence.
Title variants
- The Dharma Instruction “Distinctly Ascertaining the Meanings”
- Arthaviniścayanāmadharmaparyāya
- དོན་རྣམ་པར་ངེས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་གྲངས།
- don rnam par nges pa zhes bya ba’i chos kyi rnam grangs
- 《義決定經》（大正藏：《佛說法乘義決定經》）
Tibetan translation:
- Jinamitra
- Prajñāvarman
- Yeshé Dé
The Dharma Discourse on the Vast Meaning
དོན་རྒྱས་པའི་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་གྲངས། · don rgyas pa'i chos kyi rnam grangs/
Arthavistaradharmaparyāya
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- Āryārthavistaranāmadharmaparyāya
- 'phags pa don rgyas pa zhes bya ba'i chos kyi rnam grangs
The Marvelous Dharma Discourse
རྨད་དུ་བྱུང་བའི་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་གྲངས། · rmad du byung ba'i chos kyi rnam grangs/
Adbhutadharmaparyāya
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- Āryādbhutadharmaparyāyanāma
- 'phags pa rmad du byung ba zhes bya ba'i chos kyi rnam grangs
Describing the Benefits of Producing Representations of the Thus-Gone One
དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་གཟུགས་བརྙན་བཞག་པའི་ཕན་ཡོན་ཡང་དག་པར་བརྗོད་པ། · de bzhin gshegs pa’i gzugs brnyan bzhag pa’i phan yon yang dag par brjod pa
Tathāgatapratibimbapratiṣṭhānuśaṃsasaṃvarṇana
Summary
In this sūtra, the Buddha Śākyamuni tells a group of monks how they should respond when asked about the karmic benefits accrued by patrons who create representations of the Buddha. He explains five kinds of benefits that such virtuous deeds bring.
Title variants
- The Noble Dharma Discourse “Describing the Benefits of Producing Representations of the Thus-Gone One”
- Āryatathāgatapratibimbapratiṣṭhānuśaṃsasaṃvarṇananāmadharmaparyāya
- ’phags pa de bzhin gshegs pa’i gzugs brnyan bzhag pa’i phan yon yang dag par brjod pa zhes bya ba’i chos kyi rnam grangs
- འཕགས་པ་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་གཟུགས་བརྙན་བཞག་པའི་ཕན་ཡོན་ཡང་དག་པར་བརྗོད་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་གྲངས།
- 《留如來影像利益正說法門經》
Verses on Circumambulating Reliquaries
མཆོད་རྟེན་བསྐོར་བའི་ཚིགས་བཅད། · mchod rten bskor ba'i tshigs bcad/
Caityapradakṣiṇagāthā
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- Mchod rten bskor ba'i tshigs su bcad pa
Verses on Prasenajit
གསལ་རྒྱལ་གྱི་ཚིགས་བཅད། · gsal rgyal gyi tshigs bcad/
Prasenajidgāthā
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- gsal rgyal gyi tshigs su bcad pa
The Single Stanza
ཚིགས་སུ་བཅད་པ་གཅིག་པ། · tshigs su bcad pa gcig pa/
Ekagāthā
The Four Stanzas
ཚིགས་སུ་བཅད་པ་བཞི་པ། · tshigs su bcad pa bzhi pa/
Caturgāthā
The Verses of Nāga King Drum
ཀླུའི་རྒྱལ་པོ་རྔ་སྒྲའི་ཚིགས་སུ་བཅད་པ། · klu’i rgyal po rnga sgra’i tshigs su bcad pa
Nāgarājabherīgāthā
Summary
The Verses of Nāga King Drum contains the Buddha’s narration of a tale from one of his past lives as the nāga king Drum. While traveling with his younger brother Tambour, they come under verbal attack by another nāga named Drumbeat. Tambour’s anger at their mistreatment and desire for retaliation prompts Drum to counsel Tambour on the virtues of patience and nonviolence in the face of aggression and abusiveness. Through a series of didactic aphorisms, he advises his brother to meet disrespect and persecution with serenity, patience, compassion, and insight, in order to accomplish what is best for oneself and others. The Buddha now recounts King Drum’s wise counsel as a helpful instruction for his own followers.
Tibetan translation:
- unknown
Chapters of Utterances on Specific Topics
ཆེད་དུ་བརྗོད་པའི་ཚོམས། · ched du brjod pa'i tshoms/
Udānavarga
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- （大正藏：法集要頌經）
- 優陀那品
Tibetan translation:
- Vidyākaraprabha
- lo tsa ba ban+de rin chen mchog
Revision:
- zhu chen gyi lo tsA ba ban+de dpal brtsegs
Sūtra of the True Person
སྐྱེས་བུ་དམ་པའི་མདོ། · skyes bu dam pa'i mdo/
Satpuruṣasūtra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- Āryasatpuruṣasūtra
- 'phags pa skyes bu dam pa'i mdo
The Sūtra of Nanda’s Going Forth
དགའ་བོ་རབ་ཏུ་བྱུང་བའི་མདོ། · dga’ bo rab tu byung ba’i mdo
Nandapravrajyāsūtra
Summary
In this sūtra, the Buddha Śākyamuni, accompanied by Ānanda, visits the house of Nanda during his stay in Banyan Grove near Kapilavastu. A discourse ensues in which the Buddha explains to Nanda the importance and benefits of going forth as a monk. Nanda expresses hesitation about going forth, so the Buddha explains by means of analogies how fortunate Nanda is to have obtained an auspicious human birth, to have met the Buddha, and to have the opportunity to become a monk. Nanda is deeply impressed by the Buddha’s teaching and decides to renounce worldly life and go forth.
Tibetan translation:
- Tsang Devendrarakṣita
- Dharmākara
The Devatā Sūtra
ལྷའི་མདོ། · lha’i mdo
Devatāsūtra
Summary
A radiant divine being appears before the Buddha shortly before dawn and asks a series of questions, in the form of riddles, about how best to live a good life. The Buddha’s responses constitute a concise and direct teaching on some of the core orientations and values of Buddhism, touching on the three poisons, the virtues of body, speech, and mind, and providing wisdom for daily life.
The Shorter Devatā Sūtra
ལྷའི་མདོ་ཉུང་ངུ། · lha’i mdo nyung ngu
Alpadevatāsūtra
Summary
While staying in Śrāvastī, the Buddha is approached by an unnamed “divine being,” who inquires as to what behavior merits rebirth in the higher realms. In response, the Buddha explains, in a series of concise and powerful verses, that abandoning each of the ten nonvirtues—killing, taking what is not given, sexual misconduct, telling lies, slander, harsh words, idle talk, covetousness, ill will, and wrong views—and embracing their opposites, the ten virtues, will lead to rebirth in the higher realms.
Tibetan translation:
- Bandé Yeshé Dé
The Sūtra of the Moon (2)
ཟླ་བའི་མདོ། · zla ba’i mdo
Candrasūtra
Summary
The Sūtra of the Moon (2) is a short text that presents a Buddhist description of a lunar eclipse. On one occasion, while the Buddha is residing in Campā, the moon is covered 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. Seeing this, Bali, another lord of the asuras, asks Rāhu why he did so. Rāhu explains that if he had not released the moon, his head would have split into seven pieces. Thereafter, Bali utters a verse praising the emergence of buddhas. Besides being included in the Kangyur, in the Chinese Āgamas, and the Pali Nikāyas, The Sūtra of the Moon (2) was included in collections of texts recited for protection.
The Penthouse Sūtra
ཁང་བརྩེགས་མདོ། · khang brtsegs mdo/
kūṭāgārasūtra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- khang bu brtsegs pa'i mdo
The Sūtra of Vasiṣṭha
གནས་འཇོག་གི་མདོ། · gnas ’jog gi mdo
Summary
While residing in Nyagrodha Park in Kapilavastu, the Buddha meets an emaciated, long-haired brahmin named Vasiṣṭha. When the Buddha asks Vasiṣṭha why he looks this way, Vasiṣṭha explains that it is because he is observing a month-long fast. The Buddha then asks him if he maintains the eightfold observance of the noble ones, prompting an exchange between the two about what the eightfold observance entails and how much merit is to be gained by maintaining it. After outlining the eightfold observance, the Buddha tells Vasiṣṭha that there is far more merit to be had in maintaining it, even just once, than there is to be gained by making offerings. At the end of the sūtra, Vasiṣṭha takes refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṅgha, and he pledges to maintain the eightfold observance and practice generosity in tandem.
Title variants
- The Noble “Sūtra of Vasiṣṭha”
- ’phags pa gnas ’jog gi mdo zhes bya ba
- འཕགས་པ་གནས་འཇོག་གི་མདོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ།
Tibetan translation:
- Sarvajñādeva
- Bandé Paltsek
The Sūtra of Nandika
དགའ་བ་ཅན་གྱི་མདོ། · dga' ba can gyi mdo/
Nandikasūtra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- Āryanandikasūtra
- 'phags pa dga' ba can gyi mdo
The Sūtra on the Ringing Staff
འཁར་གསིལ་གྱི་མདོ། · ’khar gsil gyi mdo
Summary
In this short sūtra, the Buddha first instructs the monks to carry the ringing staff and then provides a brief introduction to its significance. In response to Venerable Mahākāśyapa’s queries, the Buddha gives a more detailed explanation of the attributes of the staff and the benefits that can be derived from holding it. In the course of his exposition, he also elucidates the rich symbolism of its parts, such as the four prongs and the twelve rings. Finally, the Buddha explains that while the ringing staff is carried by all buddhas of the past, present, and future, the number of prongs on the staff might vary.
Title variants
- ’phags pa ’khar gsil gyi mdo
- འཕགས་པ་འཁར་གསིལ་གྱི་མདོ།
- The Noble Sūtra on the Ringing Staff
The Rite for the Protocols Associated with Carrying the Ringing Staff
འཁར་གསིལ་འཆང་བའི་ཀུན་སྤྱོད་པའི་ཆོ་ག · ’khar gsil ’chang ba’i kun spyod pa’i cho ga
Summary
The Rite for the Protocols Associated with Carrying the Ringing Staff is a short text that deals with the practical matters relating to the use of the mendicant’s staff known in Sanskrit as a khakkhara, or “rattling staff.” It begins with a simple ritual during which a Buddhist monk ceremoniously takes up the ringing staff in front of his monastic teacher. The text then provides a list of twenty-five rules governing the proper use of the staff. The rules stipulate how a Buddhist monk should or should not handle it in his daily life, especially when he goes on alms rounds and when he travels.
The Sūtra of the Wheel of Dharma
ཆོས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོའི་མདོ། · chos kyi ’khor lo’i mdo
Dharmacakrasūtra
Summary
The Sūtra of the Wheel of Dharma contains the Buddha’s teaching to his five former spiritual companions on the four truths that he had discovered as part of his awakening: (1) suffering, (2) the origin of suffering, (3) the cessation of suffering, and (4) the path leading to the cessation of suffering. According to all the Buddhist traditions, this is the first teaching the Buddha gave to explain his awakened insight to others.
Title variants
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོའི་མདོ།
- chos kyi ’khor lo’i mdo
The Exposition of Karma
ལས་རྣམ་པ་འབྱེད་པ། · las rnam pa ’byed pa
Karmavibhaṅga
Summary
In The Exposition of Karma, the Buddha presents to the brahmin youth Śuka Taudeyaputra a discourse on the workings of karma. This is enlivened by many examples drawn from the rich heritage of Buddhist narrative literature, providing a detailed analysis of how deeds lead to specific consequences in the future. For the Buddhist, this treatise answers many questions pertaining to moral causation, examining specific life situations and their underlying karmic causes and emphasizing the key role that intention plays in the Buddhist ethic of responsibility.
Transformation of Karma
ལས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་པར་འགྱུར་བ། · las kyi rnam par ’gyur ba
Karmavibhaṅga
Summary
In Transformation of Karma the Buddha is staying in Prince Jeta’s Grove in Śrāvastī, where he is visited by the brahmin youth Śuka, who asks the Blessed One to explain the reason why living beings appear so diversely. The Buddha answers Śuka’s question with a discourse on various categories of actions as well as rebirth and the actions leading to it. The discourse presents fifty-one categories of actions, followed by explanations of the negative consequences of transgressing the five precepts observed by all Buddhists, the advantages gained through caitya worship, and the meritorious results of specific acts of generosity.
Title variants
- las kyi rnam par ’gyur ba zhes bya ba’i chos kyi gzhung/ bam po gcig go
- The Dharma Scripture “Transformation of Karma” in one fascicle
- Karmavibhaṅganāmadharmagrantha
- las rnam par ’gyur ba chos kyi gzhung /
- Karmavibhaṅgadharmagrantha
- ལས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་པར་འགྱུར་བ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་ཆོས་ཀྱི་གཞུང་། བམ་པོ་གཅིག་གོ།
The Hundred Deeds
ལས་བརྒྱ་པ། · las brgya pa
Karmaśataka
Summary
The sūtra The Hundred Deeds, whose title could also be translated as The Hundred Karmas, is a collection of stories known as avadāna—a narrative genre widely represented in the Sanskrit Buddhist literature and its derivatives—comprising more than 120 individual texts. It includes narratives of Buddha Śākyamuni’s notable deeds and foundational teachings, the stories of other well-known Buddhist figures, and a variety of other tales featuring people from all walks of ancient Indian life and beings from all six realms of existence. The texts sometimes include stretches of verse. In the majority of the stories the Buddha’s purpose in recounting the past lives of one or more individuals is to make definitive statements about the karmic ripening of actions across multiple lifetimes, and the sūtra is perhaps the best known of the many works in the Kangyur on this theme.
Title variants
- las brgya tham pa
- ལས་བརྒྱ་ཐམ་པ།
- 《百業經》
The Sūtra of the Wise and Foolish
མཛངས་བླུན་གྱི་མདོ། · mdzangs blun gyi mdo/
(damamūka)
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- mdzangs blun zhes bya ba'i mdo
The Questions of Dīrghanakha the Wandering Mendicant
ཀུན་ཏུ་རྒྱུ་བ་སེན་རིངས་ཀྱིས་ཞུས་པ། · kun tu rgyu ba sen rings kyis zhus pa
Dīrghanakhaparivrājakaparipṛcchā
Summary
As the Buddha teaches the Dharma to the fourfold saṅgha on Vulture Peak Mountain, the brahmin and wandering mendicant Dīrghanakha approaches and questions the Buddha about his doctrine concerning the incontrovertible relationship between karma and its effects in the world. He then poses a series of ten questions regarding the karmic causes of certain attributes of the Buddha, from his vajra body to the raised uṣṇīṣa on his crown. The Buddha responds to each question with the cause for each attribute, roughly summing up the eight poṣadha vows and the ways he observed them in the past. Dīrghanakha drops his staff and bows to the Buddha, pledging to take refuge in the Three Jewels and maintain the eight poṣadha vows.
Title variants
- The Sūtra “The Questions of Dīrghanakha the Wandering Mendicant”
- Dīrghanakhaparivrājakaparipṛcchānāmasūtra
- kun tu rgyu ba sen rings kyis zhus pa zhes bya ba’i mdo
- ཀུན་ཏུ་རྒྱུ་བ་སེན་རིངས་ཀྱིས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་མདོ།
- Dīrghanakhaparipṛcchāsūtra
- Dīrghanakhaparivrājakaparipṛcchāsūtra
- kun tu rgyu ba sen rings kyis zhus pa’i mdo/
- 《梵誌長爪所問經》（大正藏：《長爪梵誌請問經》）
The Hundred Accounts of Noble Deeds, Beginning with That of Pūrṇa
གང་པོ་ལ་སོགས་པའི་རྟོགས་པ་བརྗོད་པ་བརྒྱ་པ། · gang po la sogs pa'i rtogs pa brjod pa brgya pa/
Pūrṇapramukhāvadānaśataka
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- 《富樓那等一百譬喻經》
The Sūtra of Jñānaka
ཤེས་ལྡན་གྱི་མདོ། · shes ldan gyi mdo
Jñānakasūtra
Summary
In the Heaven of the Thirty-Three, a god has reached the end of his life. He foresees his rebirth as a pig and calls out to the Buddha to save him. The Buddha prompts him to seek refuge in the Three Jewels and, as a result, the god finds himself reborn into a wealthy family in Vaiśālī. In this life as a child named Jñānaka, he encounters the Buddha once more and invites him and his monks for a midday meal. The Buddha prophesies to Ānanda that the meritorious offering made by Jñānaka will eventually lead the child to awaken as the buddha known as King of Foremost Knowing.
Title variants
- The Noble Sūtra of Jñānaka: An Account of the Noble Deeds of the Buddha
- Āryajñānakasūtrabuddhāvadāna
- ’phags pa sangs rgyas kyi rtogs pa brjod pa shes ldan gyi mdo
- འཕགས་པ་སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་རྟོགས་པ་བརྗོད་པ་ཤེས་ལྡན་གྱི་མདོ།
Tibetan translation:
- Vidyākarasiṃha
- Sarvajñādeva
- Paltsek
The Magnificent Account About a Sow
ཕག་མོའི་རྟོགས་པ་བརྗོད་པ། · phag mo’i rtogs pa brjod pa
Sūkarikāvadāna
Summary
In The Magnificent Account About a Sow, the Buddha recounts the earlier events surrounding a god in Trāyastriṃśa heaven who foresaw that he would be reborn as a pig in Rājagṛha. At the encouragement of Śakra, this god, in the final moments of agony before his death, took refuge in the Three Jewels and thereby attained rebirth in the even higher Tuṣita heaven. The story thus illustrates the liberative power of taking refuge in the Three Jewels, as befittingly expressed in the concluding verses of this short avadāna.
Title variants
- The Sūtra “The Magnificent Account About a Sow”
- Sūkarikāvadānanāmasūtra
- phag mo’i rtogs pa brjod pa zhes bya ba’i mdo
- ཕག་མོའི་རྟོགས་པ་བརྗོད་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་མདོ།
- 《牝豚本生經》（大正藏：《佛說嗟韈曩法天子受三歸依獲免惡道經》）
Tibetan translation:
- Jinamitra
- Yeshé Dé
The Account of the Noble Deeds of Sumāgadhā
མ་ག་དྷཱ་བཟང་མོའི་རྟོགས་པ་བརྗོད་པ། · ma ga d+hA bzang mo'i rtogs pa brjod pa/
Sumāgadhāvadāna
The Account of the Noble Deeds of Puṇyabala
བསོད་ནམས་ཀྱི་སྟོབས་ཀྱི་རྟོགས་པ་བརྗོད་པ། · bsod nams kyi stobs kyi rtogs pa brjod pa
Puṇyabalāvadāna
Summary
In Śrāvastī, at Prince Jeta’s Grove, several elder monks in the Buddha’s assembly cannot agree on which human quality is most valuable and beneficial: beauty, diligence, artistry, or insight. They ask the Buddha, who replies that merit, which gives rise to all the qualities they have noted, is of most benefit to beings. To illustrate this point, he tells the story of a past life in which he was born as Puṇyabala, with four older brothers who were each named after their most prized quality: Rūpabala, Vīryavanta, Śilpavanta, and Prajñāvanta. In an ensuing contest to determine which quality produces the best outcomes in real life, Puṇyabala wins, and through his merit is granted dominion over much of the world. The Buddha then goes on to tell the story of his even earlier lifetime as Dyūtajaya, during which he developed the intention to attain buddhahood through the accumulation of merit.
Title variants
- 《福力譬喻經》（大正藏：《佛說福力太子因緣經》）
Tibetan translation:
- Jinamitra
- Devacandra
The Account of the Noble Deeds of Candraprabha
ཟླ་འོད་ཀྱི་རྟོགས་པ་བརྗོད་པ། · zla 'od kyi rtogs pa brjod pa/
candraprabhāvadāna
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- The Story of Candraprabha
- Candraprabhāvadāna
The Account of the Noble Deeds of Śrīsena
དཔལ་གྱི་སྡེའི་རྟོགས་པ་བརྗོད་པ། · dpal gyi sde’i rtogs pa brjod pa
Śrīsenāvadāna
Summary
In this discourse, the Buddha Śākyamuni describes his past life as King Śrīsena of Ariṣṭa, a bodhisattva renowned for his unstinting generosity and spiritual resolve. In that life, a sage orders his disciple to ask King Śrīsena for his beautiful wife, Jayaprabhā. Out of compassion, King Śrīsena gives his wife to the disciple. Śakra, lord of the gods, then claims that King Śrīsena is also able to give away his own body. The other gods have doubts about this, so to prove his point, Śakra disguises himself as an old brahmin whose lower body has been eaten by a tiger, and then asks King Śrīsena to gift him his own lower body. With altruistic motivation, King Śrīsena agrees to the request and orders carpenters to saw him in half. He offers the bottom half to the brahmin, whose body is magically made whole again. King Śrīsena claims he has felt no regrets and by the power of his words, his own body is restored. During this ordeal, Śakra has kept the king alive and carefully monitored his reactions. Observing nothing but pure altruism, Śakra then confirms that the king is a true bodhisattva who is capable of the highest acts of generosity. With this past life story, the Buddha illustrates the kinds of personal sacrifice a bodhisattva will make to attain awakening, even when these go against the protestations of those closest to him.
Title variants
- 《吉祥軍譬喻經》
Tibetan translation:
- Dharmaśrībhadra
- Sherab Lekpa
- Rinchen Zangpo
The History of Kanakavarṇa
གསེར་མདོག་གི་སྔོན་གྱི་སྦྱོར་བ། · gser mdog gi sngon gyi sbyor ba/
Kanakavarṇapūrvayoga
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- The Previous Life of Kanakavarṇa
- Kanakavarṇapūrvayoganāma
- gser mdog gi sngon gyi sbyor ba zhes bya ba
The Sūtra of Prince Arthasiddhi
རྒྱལ་བུ་དོན་གྲུབ་ཀྱི་མདོ། · rgyal bu don grub kyi mdo/
jinaputrārthasiddhisūtra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- 'phags pa rgyal bu don grub kyi mdo
The Sūtra of Brahmā’s Net
ཚངས་པའི་དྲ་བའི་མདོ། · tshangs pa'i dra ba'i mdo/
brahmajālasūtra
The Sūtra of Repaying the Kindness of the Buddha Who Has Great Skill in Means
ཐབས་མཁས་པ་ཆེན་པོ་སངས་རྒྱས་དྲིན་ལན་བསབ་པའི་མདོ། · thabs mkhas pa chen po sangs rgyas drin lan bsab pa'i mdo/
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- 大方便佛報恩經 (Da fangbian fo bao’en jing)
Teaching the Causes and Results of Good and Ill
ལེགས་ཉེས་ཀྱི་རྒྱུ་དང་འབྲས་བུ་བསྟན་པ། · legs nyes kyi rgyu dang ’bras bu bstan pa
Summary
Teaching the Causes and Results of Good and Ill describes karmic cause and effect. The discussion begins with Ānanda, who asks the Buddha why beings—particularly human beings—undergo such a wide range of experiences. The Buddha replies that one’s past actions, whether good or ill, bring about a variety of positive and negative experiences. To this effect, he offers numerous vivid examples in which results in this current lifetime parallel actions from a past life. Emphasis is placed on the object of one’s actions, such as the Saṅgha or the Three Jewels. The discourse concludes with the Buddha describing the benefits associated with the sūtra and listing its alternative titles, while the surrounding audience reaps a host of miraculous benefits.
Title variants
- The Sūtra “Teaching the Causes and Results of Good and Ill”
- ལེགས་ཉེས་ཀྱི་རྒྱུ་དང་འབྲས་བུ་བསྟན་པའི་མདོ།
- legs nyes kyi rgyu dang ’bras bu bstan pa’i mdo
- ’phags pa legs nyes kyi rgyu dang ’bras bu bstan pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- 善惡因果經
Tibetan translation:
- Chödrup
Teaching the Ripening of Virtuous and Nonvirtuous Actions
དགེ་བ་དང་མི་དགེ་བའི་ལས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་པར་སྨིན་པ་བསྟན་པ། · dge ba dang mi dge ba’i las kyi rnam par smin pa bstan pa
Summary
Teaching the Ripening of Virtuous and Nonvirtuous Actions begins with Nanda asking the Buddha why beings living in this world experience different ranges of conditions. This leads the Buddha to explain how all experiences are brought about by the ripening of a variety of virtuous and nonvirtuous actions. The results of nonvirtuous actions are detailed first, prompting Nanda to ask about people, such as benefactors, who, conversely, are committed to performing virtuous actions. The Buddha’s discourse then details the workings of karma by making use of a plethora of examples before concluding with a description of virtuous actions and the benefits they bring.
Title variants
- The Sūtra “Teaching the Ripening of Virtuous and Nonvirtuous Actions”
- དགེ་བ་དང་མི་དགེ་བའི་ལས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་པར་སྨིན་པ་བསྟན་པའི་མདོ།
- dge ba dang mi dge ba’i las kyi rnam par smin pa bstan pa’i mdo
- 善惡因果經
From the Sūtra of the Questions of Candragarbha: Showing How the Buddha’s Teaching Abides and Perishes
ཟླ་བའི་སྙིང་པོས་ཞུས་པའི་མདོ་ལས་སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་བསྟན་པ་གནས་པ་དང་འཇིག་པའི་ཚུལ་བསྟན་པ། · zla ba'i snying pos zhus pa'i mdo las sangs rgyas kyi bstan pa gnas pa dang 'jig pa'i tshul bstan pa/
[no Sanskrit title]
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- 'phags pa zla ba'i snying pos zhus pa'i mdo las sangs rgyas kyi bstan pa gnas pa dang 'jig pa'i tshul bstan pa
The Prophecy on Mount Gośṛṅga
གླང་རུ་ལུང་བསྟན་པ། · glang ru lung bstan pa
Gośṛṅgavyākaraṇa
Summary
In this scripture the Buddha Śākyamuni travels miraculously from Rājagṛha with a large retinue of bodhisattvas, hearers, gods, and other beings to the Central Asian region of Khotan, which in this discourse has not yet been established as a kingdom but is covered by a great lake. Once there, the Buddha foretells how this will be the site of a future land called Virtue, which will contain a blessed stūpa called Gomasalaganda. The Buddha proceeds to explain to his retinue the excellent qualities of this land, foretelling many future events, and instructing his disciples how to guard and protect the land for the sake of beings at that time. At the end of his teaching, the Buddha asks the hearer Śāriputra and the divine king Vaiśravaṇa to drain the lake, thus diverting the water and rendering the land ready for future habitation.
Title variants
- ’phags pa glang ru lung bstan pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- འཕགས་པ་གླང་རུ་ལུང་བསྟན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- Āryagośṛṅgavyākaraṇanāmamahāyānasūtra
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Prophecy on Mount Gośṛṅga”
The Account of the Noble Deeds of Śārdūlakarṇa
སྟག་རྣའི་རྟོགས་པ་བརྗོད་པ། · stag rna'i rtogs pa brjod pa/
Śārdūlakarṇāvadāna
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- The Story of Śārdūlakarṇa
- 《虎耳譬喻經》 (大正藏：摩登伽經)
The Sūtra of the Twelve Eyes
མིག་བཅུ་གཉིས་པའི་མདོ། · mig bcu gnyis pa'i mdo/
dvādaśalocanasūtra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- dvidaśalocananāmasūtra
- mig bcu gnyis pa zhes bya ba'i mdo
The Sūtra of the Forty-Two Sections
དུམ་བུ་ཞེ་གཉིས་པའི་མདོ། · dum bu zhe gnyis pa'i mdo/
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- [Note: this sūtra, translated from Chinese, was added to later printings of the Degé Kangyur and appears not to be found in any other Kangyurs. The Degé gives no Sanskrit title but supplies a transliterated Chinese title "h+pho bsho za shI i la Tad kying."]
- phags pa dum bu zhe gnyis pa zhes bya ba'i mdo