The Questions of the Nāga King Sāgara takes place in the unusual setting of the nāga king Sāgara’s court deep in the ocean. Here the Buddha gives a discourse on the importance of avoiding the ten nonvirtuous deeds. Read more »

The Chapter Teaching the Purification of Boundless Gateways is the second scripture among the forty-nine sūtras included in the Heap of Jewels (Ratnakūṭa) collection in the Degé Kangyur. The sūtra takes the form of a conversation between the Buddha and the bodhisattva Anantavyūha. Read more »

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. Read more »

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, expresses concern about the state of society and what will become of the saṅgha in times to come. Read more »

The Absorption of the Miraculous Ascertainment of Peace 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. Read more »

The Exposition on the Universal Gateway takes place at Vulture Peak Mountain where a celestial bodhisattva named Amalagarbha arrives with a large retinue to request teachings from the Buddha Śākyamuni. Read more »

For Tibetan Buddhists, the Praise to Tārā with Twenty-One Verses of Homage is undoubtedly the most popular prayer to the deity Tārā, and is recited on a daily basis by many monks, nuns, and lay practitioners alike. Read more »

For a period of about a thousand years after the beginning of the common era, The Teaching of Akṣayamati had a significant influence on Buddhist thought. The eighty so-called “imperishabilities” (akṣaya) described in the sūtra—qualities to be possessed by the bodhisatvas—were considered to contain the whole way of religious development of the Mahāyāna. Read more »

The Dwelling Place of Mañjuśrī follows a dialogue between Mañjuśrī and Śāriputra regarding the activity of “dwelling” during meditation, the nature of dharmas, and the “true nature.”
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The Questions of Sāgaramati begins in a courtyard in the city of Rājagṛha, where the Buddha Śākyamuni, a celestial bodhisattva named Sāgaramati, and many other gods and bodhisattvas converse on a wide variety of subjects relevant to the Great Vehicle. Read more »

This evocative and inspiring short text in verse is one of several works in the Kangyur related to the Buddha’s restoring the city of Vaiśālī to health after a major epidemic. A substantial portion of it is very similar to a passage in the Sanskrit Mahāvastu, and to a well-known Pali text, the Ratana-sutta. Read more »