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Toh
1
Chapter
1
260
Pages
Kangyur
Discipline
Discipline
The Chapter on Going Forth
[No Sanskrit title]
Pravrajyāvastu
|
རབ་ཏུ་འབྱུང་བའི་གཞི།
|
rab tu ’byung ba’i gzhi
“The Chapter on Going Forth” is the first of seventeen chapters in The Chapters on Monastic Discipline, a four-volume work that outlines the statutes and procedures that govern life in a Buddhist monastic community.
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Themes:
Oct 31, 2018
Toh
1
Chapter
2
182
Pages
Kangyur
Discipline
Discipline
The Chapter on the Restoration Rite
[No Sanskrit title]
Poṣadhavastu
|
གསོ་སྦྱོང་གི་གཞི།
|
gso sbyong gi gzhi
The Chapter on Purification narrates the origins of the monastic “confession” ceremony. This ceremony, called Poṣadha in Sanskrit, is the very foundation of monastic life throughout Asia. To this day, monks and nuns gather twice a month for Poṣadha to reaffirm their vows and restore the bonds that knit together the monastic community
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Themes:
Oct 31, 2024
Toh
1
Chapter
3
33
Pages
Kangyur
Discipline
Discipline
The Chapter on Lifting Restrictions
[No Sanskrit title]
Pravāraṇāvastu
|
དགག་དབྱེའི་གཞི།
|
Describes the pravāraṇā ceremony in which certain restrictions adopted for the rains retreat are relaxed, marking the end of the rains retreat.
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Themes:
Oct 31, 2024
Toh
1
Chapter
4
29
Pages
Kangyur
Discipline
Discipline
The Chapter on the Rains
[No Sanskrit title]
Varṣāvastu
|
དབྱར་གྱི་གཞི།
|
Describes the timing and procedures for the annual rains retreat.
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Themes:
Oct 31, 2024
Toh
1
Chapter
6
798
Pages
Kangyur
Discipline
Discipline
The Chapter on Medicines
[No Sanskrit title]
Bhaiṣajya­vastu
|
སྨན་གྱི་གཞི།
|
The Bhaiṣajyavastu, “The Chapter on Medicines,” is a part of the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya, the corpus of monastic law of one of the most influential Buddhist schools in India. This chapter deals with monastic regulations about medicines.
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Themes:
Apr 20, 2021
Toh
8
Chapter
9420
Pages
Kangyur
Discourses
Perfection of Wisdom
The Perfection of Wisdom in One Hundred Thousand Lines
[No Sanskrit title]
Śata­sāhasrikā­prajñā­pāramitā
|
ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་སྟོང་ཕྲག་བརྒྱ་པ།
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The Perfection of Wisdom in One Hundred Thousand Lines is the longest of all the Prajñāpāramitā sūtras and fills no fewer than twelve volumes of the Degé Kangyur. Like the other two long sūtras, it is a detailed record of the teaching on the perfection of wisdom that the Buddha Śākyamuni gave on Vulture Peak in Rājagṛha, setting out all aspects of the path to enlightenment that bodhisattvas must know and put into practice, yet without taking them as having even the slightest true existence.
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Themes:
Toh
9
Chapter
2306
Pages
Kangyur
Discourses
Perfection of Wisdom
The Perfection of Wisdom in Twenty-Five Thousand Lines
[No Sanskrit title]
Pañca­viṃśati­sāhasrikā­prajñā­pāramitā
|
ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་སྟོང་ཕྲག་ཉི་ཤུ་ལྔ་པ།
|
The Perfection of Wisdom in Twenty-Five Thousand Lines is among the most important scriptures underlying both the “vast” and the “profound” approaches to Buddhist thought and practice. Known as the “middle-length” version, being the second longest of the three long Perfection of Wisdom sūtras, it fills three volumes of the Kangyur. Like the two other long sūtras, it records the major teaching on the perfection of wisdom given by the Buddha Śākyamuni on Vulture Peak, detailing all aspects of the path to enlightenment while at the same time emphasizing how bodhisattvas must put them into practice without taking them—or any aspects of enlightenment itself—as having even the slightest true existence.
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Themes:
Jun 1, 2023
Toh
10
Chapter
1614
Pages
Kangyur
Discourses
Perfection of Wisdom
The Perfection of Wisdom in Eighteen Thousand Lines
[No Sanskrit title]
Aṣṭā­daśa­sāhasrikā­prajñā­pāramitā
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ཤེར་ཕྱིན་ཁྲི་བརྒྱད་སྟོང་པ།
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The Perfection of Wisdom in Eighteen Thousand Lines is one version of the Long Perfection of Wisdom sūtras that developed in South and South-Central Asia in tandem with the Eight Thousand version, probably during the first five hundred years of the Common Era.
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Themes:
Mar 31, 2022
Toh
11
Chapter
790
Pages
Kangyur
Discourses
Perfection of Wisdom
The Transcendent Perfection of Wisdom in Ten Thousand Lines
[No Sanskrit title]
Daśa­sāhasrikā­prajñā­pāramitā
|
ཤེས་ཕྱིན་ཁྲི་པ།
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While dwelling at Vulture Peak near Rāja­gṛha, the Buddha sets in motion the sūtras that are the most extensive of all—the sūtras on the Prajñā­pāramitā, or “Transcendent Perfection of Wisdom.”
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Feb 16, 2018
Toh
19
Chapter
4
Pages
Kangyur
Discourses
Perfection of Wisdom
The Perfection of Wisdom “Kauśika”
[No Sanskrit title]
Kauśika­prajñā­pāramitā
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ཤེར་ཕྱིན་ཀཽ་ཤི་ཀ
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The Perfection of Wisdom “Kauśika” is a condensed prajñāpāramitā sūtra in which the Buddha summarizes the various meanings of the perfection of wisdom. In particular, the Buddha equates the characteristics of the perfection of wisdom with the characteristics of all phenomena, the five aggregates, the five elements, and the ten perfections. In this way, the sūtra places particular emphasis on the nonduality of conventional phenomena and emptiness.
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Themes:
May 1, 2023
Toh
21
Chapter
4
Pages
Kangyur
Discourses
Perfection of Wisdom
The Heart of the Perfection of Wisdom, the Blessed Mother
[No Sanskrit title]
Bhagavatī­prajñā­pāramitā­hṛdaya
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བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་མ་ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པའི་སྙིང་པོ།
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In this famous scripture, known popularly as The Heart Sūtra, the Buddha Śākyamuni inspires his senior monk Śāriputra to request instructions from the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara on the way to practice the perfection of wisdom. Avalokiteśvara then describes how an aspiring practitioner of the perfection of wisdom must first understand how all phenomena lack an intrinsic nature, which amounts to the realization of emptiness.
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Themes:
May 10, 2022
Toh
26
Chapter
3
Pages
Kangyur
Discourses
Perfection of Wisdom
The Sūryagarbha Perfection of Wisdom
[No Sanskrit title]
Sūryagarbha­prajñā­pāramitā
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ཤེར་ཕྱིན་ཉི་མའི་སྙིང་པོ།
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The Sūryagarbha Perfection of Wisdom is a condensed prajñāpāramitā sūtra in the form of a dialogue between the Buddha and the bodhisattva Sūryaprabhāsa, who asks the Buddha how bodhisattvas skilled in means should train themselves in the perfection of wisdom. In response, the Buddha explains that a bodhisattva should train in a meditative stability called the sun or the sun skilled in means, elaborating upon the qualities of this meditative stability using the analogy of the sun in terms of seven qualities.
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Themes:
Aug 29, 2023
Toh
27
Chapter
3
Pages
Kangyur
Discourses
Perfection of Wisdom
The Candragarbha Perfection of Wisdom
[No Sanskrit title]
Candragarbha­prajñāpāramitā
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ཤེར་ཕྱིན་ཟླ་བའི་སྙིང་པོ།
|
The Candragarbha Perfection of Wisdom is a condensed prajñāpāramitā sūtra that takes the form of a dialogue between the Buddha and the bodhisattva Candragarbha. In response to Candragarbha’s question about how bodhisattvas should train themselves in the perfection of wisdom, the Buddha declares that the perfection of wisdom lies in the understanding that all phenomena are devoid of entities, using the analogy of the moon to clarify the meaning of this declaration.
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Themes:
May 30, 2023
Toh
28
Chapter
2
Pages
Kangyur
Discourses
Perfection of Wisdom
The Samantabhadra Perfection of Wisdom
[No Sanskrit title]
Samantabhadra­prajñā­pāramitā
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ཤེར་ཕྱིན་ཀུན་ཏུ་བཟང་པོ།
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In a retreat place in Magadha, the Buddha Śākyamuni and the bodhisattva Samantabhadra, surrounded by many bodhisattvas, perform miracles in a meditative absorption. The bodhisattva Samantabhadra asks the Buddha to distinguish between two levels of the perfection of wisdom. In response, the Buddha gives definitions of these two levels. This sūtra is one of the short prajñāpāramitā sūtras, and it belongs especially to the category related to the five bodhisattvas: Sūryagarbha, Candragarbha, Samantabhadra, Vajrapāṇi, and Vajraketu. Despite its brevity, it echoes other sūtras that feature the figure of Samantabhadra and the distinguishing of two types of wisdom.
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Themes:
Aug 29, 2023
Toh
37
Chapter
11
Pages
Kangyur
Discourses
Thirteen late-translated sūtras
The Benefits of the Five Precepts
[No Sanskrit title]
Pañcaśikṣānu­śaṃsa
|
བསླབ་པ་ལྔའི་ཕན་ཡོན།
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In the first of the two parts of The Benefits of the Five Precepts, a man and woman who have been married since they were very young and have never been unfaithful to each other ask the Buddha how they can remain together in future lives. The Buddha replies that this is possible for couples such as them who are equal in faith, ethical discipline, generosity, and wisdom, and who practice the Dharma together. In the second, longer part of the sūtra, the Buddha gives a teaching on the five precepts, by which one renounces the five negative deeds—killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, speaking falsehoods, and consuming intoxicants. The sufferings in various hells that are the consequence of those five negative deeds are described, as are the benefits experienced by those who renounce them.
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Themes:
Nov 9, 2023
Toh
41
Chapter
2
Pages
Kangyur
Discourses
Thirteen late-translated sūtras
The Sūtra of the Sun
[No Sanskrit title]
Sūryasūtra
|
ཉི་མའི་མདོ།
|
The Sūtra of the Sun is a short discourse providing a Buddhist account of a solar eclipse. On one occasion while the Buddha is residing in Śrāvastī, the sun is seized by Rāhu, lord of the asuras, which causes an eclipse. The god of the sun asks the Buddha for refuge, after which the Buddha urges Rāhu to release the sun. When questioned by Vemacitra, another lord of the asuras, Rāhu explains that if he had not let the sun go, his head would have split into seven pieces. This sūtra enjoys some popularity today and appears in Tibetan collections of mantras and texts for protection.
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Themes:
Oct 7, 2023
Toh
42
Chapter
2
Pages
Kangyur
Discourses
Thirteen late-translated sūtras
The Sūtra of the Moon (1)
[No Sanskrit title]
Candrasūtra
|
ཟླ་བའི་མདོ།
|
The Sūtra of the Moon (1) is a short discourse providing a Buddhist account of a lunar eclipse. On one occasion while the Buddha is residing in Śrāvastī, the moon is seized by Rāhu, lord of the asuras, which causes an eclipse. The god of the moon asks the Buddha for refuge, after which the Buddha urges Rāhu to release the moon. When questioned by Vemacitra, another lord of the asuras, Rāhu explains that if he had not let the moon go, his head would have split into seven pieces. This sūtra enjoys some popularity today and appears in Tibetan collections of mantras and texts for protection.
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Themes:
Sep 26, 2023
Toh
44
Chapter
31
235
Pages
Kangyur
Discourses
Ornaments of the Buddhas
The Ten Bhūmis
[No Sanskrit title]
Daśabhūmika
|
ས་བཅུ་པ།
|
After his attainment of buddhahood, the Buddha Śākyamuni is present in many locations simultaneously. The Ten Bhūmis takes place two weeks after his enlightenment, while he is sitting silently in meditation in the central palace in the highest paradise of the desire realm. Countless bodhisattvas have assembled there. Through the power of the Buddha, the bodhisattva Vajra­garbha enters samādhi and is blessed by countless buddhas, also named Vajra­garbha, to give a Dharma teaching to the bodhisattvas. In response to the questions of the bodhisattva Vimukti­candra, Vajra­garbha describes successively the ten bhūmis of a bodhisattva. Countless bodhisattvas arrive and report that this same event is occurring simultaneously in the highest paradises of all other worlds. The Buddha is pleased by Vajra­garbha’s teaching.
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Themes:
Sep 17, 2021
Toh
44
Chapter
37
3
Pages
Kangyur
Discourses
Ornaments of the Buddhas
The Chapter on the Scale of Life
[No Sanskrit title]
|
ཚེའི་ཚད་ཀྱི་ལེའུ།
|
The bodhisattva King of Mind gives a teaching to an assembly of bodhisattvas on the relativity of time among different buddhafields. Eleven buddhafields are enumerated, with an eon in the first being equivalent to a day in the following buddhafield, where an eon is, in turn, the equivalent of a day in the next, and so forth.
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Themes:
Apr 8, 2022
Toh
44
Chapter
38
4
Pages
Kangyur
Discourses
Ornaments of the Buddhas
The Dwellings of Bodhisattvas
[No Sanskrit title]
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བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་གནས།
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The Dwellings of Bodhisattvas is the thirty-eighth of the forty-five chapters in The Ornaments of the Buddhas. As the title indicates, the focus of this chapter is the locations of bodhisattvas. It enumerates twenty-three dwelling places, giving the names of the bodhisattvas who reside in the first nine while omitting the names of those who reside in the remaining fourteen.
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Themes:
Jun 8, 2023
Toh
44
Chapter
45
968
Pages
Kangyur
Discourses
Ornaments of the Buddhas
The Stem Array
[No Sanskrit title]
Gaṇḍa­vyūha
|
སྡོང་པོས་བརྒྱན་པ།
|
In this lengthy final chapter of the Avataṃsaka Sūtra, while the Buddha Śākyamuni is in meditation in Śrāvastī, Mañjuśrī leaves for South India, where he meets the young layman Sudhana and instructs him to go to a certain kalyāṇamitra or “good friend,” who then directs Sudhana to another such friend. In this way, Sudhana successively meets and receives teachings from fifty male and female, child and adult, human and divine, and monastic and lay kalyāṇamitras, including night goddesses surrounding the Buddha and the Buddha’s wife and mother. The final three in the succession of kalyāṇamitras are the three bodhisattvas Maitreya, Mañjuśrī, and Samanta­bhadra. Samanta­bhadra’s recitation of the Samanta­bhadra­caryā­praṇidhāna (“The Prayer for Completely Good Conduct”) concludes the sūtra.
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Oct 26, 2021
Toh
46
Chapter
109
Pages
Kangyur
Discourses
Heap of Jewels
The Chapter Teaching the Purification of Boundless Gateways
[No Sanskrit title]
Ananta­mukhapariśo­dhana­nirdeśaparivarta
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སྒོ་མཐའ་ཡས་པ་རྣམ་པར་སྦྱོང་བ་བསྟན་པའི་ལེའུ།
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The Chapter Teaching the Purification of Boundless Gateways consists of an extended discourse presented by the Buddha to his bodhisattva disciple Anantavyūha. The instruction consists of a so-called dhāraṇī gateway, a teaching that involves a series of dhāraṇī spells, which are interspersed throughout. The teaching is generally concerned with well-known Mahāyāna Buddhist themes, ranging from the lack of inherent identity to the qualities of complete awakening, but these topics are here presented within a larger exegesis on the meaning of the dhāraṇī gateway.
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Themes:
Oct 2, 2020
Toh
47
Chapter
207
Pages
Kangyur
Discourses
Heap of Jewels
The Secrets of the Realized Ones
[No Sanskrit title]
Tathāgataguhya
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དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་གསང་བ།
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In this sūtra, the narrative largely revolves around the figures of Vajrapāṇi, the yakṣa lord and constant companion of the Buddha, and the Buddha himself. In the first half of the sūtra, Vajrapāṇi gives a series of teachings on the mysteries or secrets of the body, speech, and mind of bodhisattvas and the realized ones. In the second half of the sūtra, Vajrapāṇi describes several events in the Buddha’s life: his practice of severe asceticism, his approach to the seat of awakening, his defeat of Māra, his awakening, and his turning of the wheel of Dharma. Following this, the Buddha gives a prediction of Vajrapāṇi’s future awakening as a buddha and travels to Vajrapāṇi’s abode for a meal. Interspersed throughout the sūtra are sermons, dialogues, and marvelous tales exploring a large number of topics and featuring an extensive cast of characters, including several narratives about past lives of Vajrapāṇi, Brahmā Sahāṃpati, and the Buddha himself. The sūtra concludes with the performance of two long dhāraṇīs, one by Vajrapāṇi and one by the Buddha, for the protection and preservation of the Dharma.
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Nov 22, 2023
Toh
48
Chapter
68
Pages
Kangyur
Discourses
Heap of Jewels
The Teaching on Dreams
[No Sanskrit title]
Svapnanirdeśa
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རྨི་ལམ་བསྟན་པ།
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The Teaching on Dreams records the Buddha’s description of one hundred and eight signs that may appear to bodhisattvas in their dreams. These signs indicate not only that those individuals are bodhisattvas, but also the range of bhūmis on which those bodhisattvas potentially reside, what obstacles they face, and what means they can use to overcome them. Many descriptions of the individual signs also include variations on the main sign that further specify the bodhisattvas’ status. This sūtra offers a rare, detailed discourse on dream signs and their relation to the bodhisattva path, making it a uniquely important source on bodhisattva practice in Mahāyāna literature.
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Themes:
Mar 30, 2024
Toh
51
Chapter
140
Pages
Kangyur
Discourses
Heap of Jewels
The Teaching of the Armor Array
[No Sanskrit title]
Varma­vyūha­nirdeśa
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གོ་ཆའི་བཀོད་པ་བསྟན་པ།
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The Teaching of the Armor Array describes a dialog between the Buddha Śākyamuni and the bodhisattva Anantamati. The sūtra is primarily concerned with the great armor, a quality related to the perfection of insight. As such, it is no conventional sort of armor. Rather, donning it involves giving up all grasping at phenomena, and engaging diligently on the path, with insight into the nature of phenomena. The Buddha and Anantamati also discuss the nature of the Great Vehicle and the great path, all the while emphasizing their emptiness and lack of marks.
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Themes:
May 14, 2021
Toh
52
Chapter
48
Pages
Kangyur
Discourses
Heap of Jewels
The Teaching on the Indivisible Nature of the Realm of Phenomena
[No Sanskrit title]
Dharmadhātu­prakṛtyasambheda­nirdeśa
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ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས་ཀྱི་རང་བཞིན་དབྱེར་མེད་པ་བསྟན་པ།
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chos dbyings rang bzhin dbyer med bstan pa’i mdo
While the Buddha is in the Jeta Grove, he asks Mañjuśrī to teach on the nature of reality. Mañjuśrī’s account upsets some of the monks present in the gathering, who subsequently leave. Nevertheless, by means of an emanation, Mañjuśrī skillfully teaches the distraught monks, who return to the Jeta Grove to express their gratitude. The monks explain that their obstacle has been a conceited sense of attainment, of which they are now free. At the request of the god Ratnavara, Mañjuśrī then teaches on nonduality and the nature of the bodhisattva. Next, the Buddha prophesies the future awakening of Ratnavara and other bodhisattvas present in the gathering. However, the prophecies cause Pāpīyān, king of the māras, to appear with his army. In a dramatic course of events, Mañjuśrī uses his transformative power on both Pāpīyān and the Buddha’s pious attendant, Śāradvatīputra, forcing both of them to appear in the form of the Buddha himself. He then makes Pāpīyān and Śāradvatīputra teach the profound Dharma with the perfect mastery of buddhahood. Numerous bodhisattvas appear from the four directions, pledging to practice and uphold the sūtra’s teaching. The Buddha grants his blessing for the continuous transmission of the sūtra among bodhisattvas in the future.
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Themes:
Jul 10, 2018
Toh
54
Chapter
22
Pages
Kangyur
Discourses
Heap of Jewels
The Exposition on the Universal Gateway
[No Sanskrit title]
Samanta­mukha­parivarta
|
ཀུན་ནས་སྒོའི་ལེའུ།
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In The Exposition on the Universal Gateway, the bodhisattva Amalagarbha arrives in this world from a distant pure land to request teachings from the buddha Śākyamuni. The Buddha proceeds to explain to all assembled bodhisattvas, monks, and lay devotees the manner in which the five aggregates are equal to meditative absorption. He also explains how the various classes of beings and all other phenomena are absorption as well. In conclusion, he lists the names of various absorptions and the benefits one obtains upon attaining these states.
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Themes:
Sep 1, 2020
Toh
55
Chapter
121
Pages
Kangyur
Discourses
Heap of Jewels
The Teaching on the Effulgence of Light
[No Sanskrit title]
Raśmisamanta­mukta­nirdeśa
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འོད་ཟེར་ཀུན་དུ་བཀྱེ་བ་བསྟན་པ།
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Initiated by the questions of the bodhisattva Candraprabhakumārabhūta, The Teaching on the Effulgence of Light consists of a series of teachings related to the lights emitted by awakened beings as manifestations of their spiritual achievements. Amid the display of his miraculous powers, the Buddha describes the specific qualities with which each of those lights is associated, and he repeatedly emphasizes the fact that such lights are a natural expression of the insight into the emptiness of all phenomena. The sūtra is also concerned with general themes such as the qualities required by followers of the Great Vehicle and the practice of generosity.
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Themes:
Jun 24, 2022
Toh
56
Chapter
489
Pages
Kangyur
Discourses
Heap of Jewels
The Collected Teachings on the Bodhisatva
[No Sanskrit title]
Bodhisatva­piṭaka
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བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་སྡེ་སྣོད།
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In The Collected Teachings on the Bodhisatva, the Buddha describes in detail the views and practices that are to be followed by the bodhisatva, the ideal Mahāyāna practitioner. Through his interactions with human and nonhuman interlocutors, and through stories of various past buddhas, we are led step by step through the topics of renunciation, the mind of awakening, the four immeasurables, and the six perfections. Among the many accounts of past buddhas included in the sūtra, we find the story of the prophecy made by the Buddha Dīpaṅkara to the brahmin Megha about his future attainment of awakening as the Buddha Śākyamuni.
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Themes:
Nov 30, 2023
Toh
58
Chapter
23
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The Teaching to the Venerable Nanda on Entry into the Womb
[No Sanskrit title]
Āyuṣmannanda­garbhāvakrānti­nirdeśa
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ཚེ་དང་ལྡན་པ་དགའ་བོ་ལ་མངལ་དུ་འཇུག་པ་བསྟན་པ།
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In The Teaching to Venerable Nanda on Entry into the Womb, the Buddha gives a detailed account to his half-brother Nanda of the thirty-eight weeks of human gestation. The sūtra explains conception in terms of how the antarābhava (the being in the state between death in one life and birth in the next) enters the womb, and details the physical composition of the embryo, the suffering of the newborn being, and the miseries experienced over the course of a lifetime. Including as it does the most comprehensive ancient Indian account of gestation, it was an important source for embryology in Tibetan medicine.
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Sep 15, 2021
Toh
59
Chapter
98
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The Array of Virtues of Mañjuśrī’s Buddha Realm
[No Sanskrit title]
Mañjuśrī­buddha­kṣetra­guṇa­vyūha
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འཇམ་དཔལ་གྱི་སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་ཞིང་གི་ཡོན་ཏན་བཀོད་པ།
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In this sūtra, the Buddha Śākyamuni explains the connection between the bodhisattvas’ aspirations and the virtues of their future buddha realms. He describes the various qualities that help bodhisattvas bring their aspirations to fulfillment. After bodhisattvas arrive from all directions to hear his teachings on the virtues of the buddha realms, the Buddha Śākyamuni recounts the story of how Mañjuśrī first engendered the mind set on awakening. Finally, the Buddha reveals the extraordinary nature of Mañjuśrī’s bodhisattva aspirations, and how they will contribute to the exceptional qualities of his future buddha realm.
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Jun 22, 2021
Toh
61
Chapter
118
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The Questions of Pūrṇa
[No Sanskrit title]
Pūrṇaparipṛcchā
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གང་པོས་ཞུས་པ།
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In Veṇuvana, outside Rājagṛha, Pūrṇa Maitrāyaṇīputra asks the Buddha about the conduct of bodhisattvas practicing on the path to awakening. The Buddha replies by describing the attitudes that bodhisattvas must possess as well as their benefits. Then, at the request of Maudgalyāyana, the Buddha recounts several of his past lives in which he himself practiced bodhisattva conduct. At the end of the teaching, the Buddha instructs the assembly about how to deal with specific objections to his teachings that outsiders might raise after he himself has passed into nirvāṇa.
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Themes:
Apr 24, 2020
Toh
62
Chapter
61
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The Questions of Rāṣṭrapāla (1)
[No Sanskrit title]
Rāṣṭrapāla­paripṛcchā
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ཡུལ་འཁོར་སྐྱོང་གིས་ཞུས་པ།
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The newly ordained monk Rāṣṭrapāla questions the Buddha about the proper conduct of a bodhisattva. The Buddha proceeds to explain its features in detail, giving as examples his own conduct in his multiple past lives. He tells the story of his past life as prince Puṇyaraśmi, who abandoned pleasure, a kingdom, and riches to follow the bodhisattva path to enlightenment for the sake of sentient beings.
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Jul 14, 2021
Toh
65
Chapter
38
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The Prophecy for Bhadra the Illusionist
[No Sanskrit title]
Bhadra­māyākāravyākaraṇa
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སྒྱུ་མ་མཁན་བཟང་པོ་ལུང་བསྟན་པ།
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While the Buddha Śākyamuni is residing at Vulture Peak Mountain, in the nearby city of Rājagṛha the accomplished illusionist Bhadra hatches a scheme to humiliate the Buddha and disprove his omniscience in order to win over the people of Magadha. The failure of Bhadra’s plan, in which he conjures the illusion of a resplendent courtyard that, to his dismay, cannot be undone, culminates in a series of surreal and magnificent visions that convince Bhadra of the superiority of the Buddha’s powers. This sūtra presents a colorful and often humorous narrative and contains teachings on illusion, emptiness, and the distinction between the illusionist’s mundane abilities and the Buddha’s miraculous display.
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Apr 2, 2024
Toh
67
Chapter
94
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The Great Lion’s Roar of Maitreya
[No Sanskrit title]
Maitreya­mahā­siṃhanāda
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བྱམས་པའི་སེང་གེའི་སྒྲ་ཆེན་པོ།
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In this sūtra, Mahākāśyapa poses a series of questions to the Buddha about proper monastic conduct and practice, which the Buddha answers at length. Mahākāśyapa then requests the Buddha to remain in the world in order to safeguard the Dharma, but when the Buddha initially predicts that Mahākāśyapa himself will do so in the future, Mahākāśyapa insists that for the Dharma to remain for long, it must be entrusted to a bodhisattva rather than a śrāvaka. The Buddha then anoints Maitreya and entrusts him with the responsibility of protecting the Dharma in the future. There follows a teaching from the Buddha about those in the future who will falsely claim to be bodhisattvas and about the proper conduct and practice of bodhisattvas, as well as a description from Maitreya of his own practice of the bodhisattva path. When Mahākāśyapa asks the Buddha about those in the future who will be “sham bodhisattvas,” the Buddha offers a series of teachings on the mistaken and blameworthy practice of commercializing the worship of relics, stūpas, and images and seeking to make a living thereby, contrasting this with a monastic’s proper practice of ascetic conduct and meditative inquiry. In addition to the Buddha’s criticism, this sūtra is notable for its memorable analogies, past life narratives, and emphasis on the ascetic practice of the forest-dwelling monastic.
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Jan 26, 2023
Toh
68
Chapter
33
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Determining the Vinaya: Upāli’s Questions
[No Sanskrit title]
Vinaya­viniścayopāli­paripṛcchā
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འདུལ་བ་རྣམ་པར་གཏན་ལ་དབབ་པ་ཉེ་བར་འཁོར་གྱིས་ཞུས་པ།
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Determining the Vinaya: Upāli’s Questions is a sūtra focused on the relationship between and integration of the prātimokṣa vows of monastic discipline and the conduct of a bodhisattva who follows the Mahāyāna tradition. The sūtra’s two main interlocutors, Śāriputra and Upāli, query the Buddha about the relationship between these two levels of commitments, eliciting a teaching on the different orientations held by the followers of different Buddhist vehicles and how their different views affect the application of their vows. Determining the Vinaya is a particularly valuable sūtra for its inclusion of a unique form of the confessional “Three Sections” rite, making it one of the few extant canonical sources to describe it at length.
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Jun 3, 2021
Toh
69
Chapter
45
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Inspiring Determination
[No Sanskrit title]
Adhyāśayasaṃcodana
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ལྷག་བསམ་སྐུལ་བ།
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Inspiring Determination is directed at reforming the conduct of sixty bodhisattvas who have lost their sense of purpose and confidence in their ability to practice the Dharma. The bodhisattva Maitreya leads them to seek counsel from the Buddha, who explains the causes these bodhisattvas created in former lives that resulted in their current circumstance. They make a commitment to change their ways, which pleases the Buddha, and this leads him to engage in a dialog with the bodhisattva Maitreya on how bodhisattvas, including those in the future age of final degeneration, the final half-millennium, should avoid faults and uphold conduct that accords with the Dharma.
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Themes:
Apr 1, 2021
Toh
70
Chapter
54
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The Sūtra of the Question of Subāhu
[No Sanskrit title]
Subāhu­pari­pṛcchā­sūtra
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ལག་བཟངས་ཀྱིས་ཞུས་པའི་མདོ།
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In this scripture Śākyamuni Buddha describes how a bodhisattva should ideally train in the six perfections. In the Veṇuvana near Rājagṛha, the Buddha teaches this sūtra in response to a single question put to him by the bodhisattva Subāhu: what are the qualities a bodhisattva should have in order to progress to perfect awakening? The Buddha responds by first listing the six perfections of generosity, ethical discipline, patience, diligence, concentration, and insight, and then expounding in greater detail on each perfection in turn.
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Themes:
Jun 22, 2020
Toh
71
Chapter
26
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Surata’s Questions
[No Sanskrit title]
Surataparipṛcchāsūtra
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དེས་པས་ཞུས་པའི་མདོ།
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Surata’s Questions follows Surata, a seemingly poor vagabond endowed with a wealth of ethical virtue. The juxtaposition of Surata’s poverty with the abundance of his moral merits forms a central theme of the sūtra. After being tested by the god Śakra, Surata finds a precious gem that he decides to give to the poorest person in the city. The narrative’s irony ensues when Surata decides that King Prasenajit should receive the gem, since his ethical depravity vitiates his material wealth. The shock of Surata’s decision occasions a valuable lesson on true wealth lying in moral integrity, to which the Buddha himself attests upon his arrival midway through the sūtra. The sūtra concludes with King Prasenajit’s recognition of the error of his ways and the Buddha’s prophecy of Surata’s coming awakening.
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Oct 13, 2021
Toh
72
Chapter
22
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The Questions of the Householder Vīradatta
[No Sanskrit title]
Vīradatta­gṛhapati­paripṛcchā
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ཁྱིམ་བདག་དཔས་བྱིན་གྱིས་ཞུས་པ།
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While the Buddha is residing in Anāthapiṇḍada’s pleasure garden in Śrāvastī with a great assembly of monks, elsewhere in Śrāvastī the eminent householder Vīradatta hosts a meeting with five hundred householders to discuss certain questions regarding the practice of the Great Vehicle. Hoping to resolve these questions, Vīradatta and the householders decide to approach the Buddha in Anāthapiṇḍada’s pleasure garden. There the Buddha explains how bodhisattvas should engender the spirit of great compassion while not being attached to the body or to enjoyments, and he then instructs the householders on how bodhisattvas should examine the impermanence and impurity of the body. This prose teaching is followed by a set of verses that reiterate how the body is impure and impermanent and that elucidate the process of karma and its effects. As a result of this teaching, Vīradatta and the five hundred householders attain the acceptance that phenomena are unborn. They then proclaim, in a well-known series of verses, the merits of aspiring for the awakening to buddhahood. The Buddha smiles, predicting that Vīradatta and the five hundred householders will attain spiritual awakening. The sūtra concludes with the Buddha telling Ānanda about the name of this Dharma discourse.
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Jun 9, 2022
Toh
73
Chapter
23
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King Udayana of Vatsa’s Questions
[No Sanskrit title]
Udayanavatsa­rājapari­pṛcchā
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བད་སའི་རྒྱལ་པོ་འཆར་བྱེད་ཀྱིས་ཞུས་པ།
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Manipulated into a murderous rage by the jealous Queen Anupamā, King Udayana launches a barrage of arrows at Queen Śyāmāvatī. King Udayana is terrified when Queen Śyāmāvatī pays homage to the Buddha, cultivates loving kindness, and the arrows are repelled. Awestruck by such a spectacle and inspired by Queen Śyāmāvatī’s words of praise for the Buddha, King Udayana approaches the Buddha and requests a teaching on the inadequacies of women. The Buddha tells King Udayana that he must first understand his own faults and proceeds to deliver a discourse on the four faults of men, such as attachment to sense pleasures and failure to take care of elderly parents. The teaching is delivered with a plethora of analogies and striking imagery to turn the mind away from sensual desires. The work concludes with King Udayana giving up his weapons and going for refuge in the Three Jewels, filled with love for all beings.
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Mar 12, 2024
Toh
74
Chapter
13
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The Inquiry of the Girl Sumati
[No Sanskrit title]
Sumatidārikā­pari­pṛcchā­sūtra
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བུ་མོ་བློ་གྲོས་བཟང་མོས་ཞུས་པ།
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By:
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Themes:
Oct 24, 2023
Toh
75
Chapter
8
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The Questions of Gaṅgottarā
[No Sanskrit title]
Gaṅgottara­pari­pṛcchā
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གང་གཱའི་མཆོག་གིས་ཞུས་པ།
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In The Questions of Gaṅgottarā, a laywoman named Gaṅgottarā leaves her home in the city of Śrāvastī and visits the Buddha Śākyamuni in Anāthapiṇḍada’s Park. The Buddha asks her from where she has come, sparking a dialogue on the true nature of things. Among other things, they discuss the fact that, from the perspective of ultimate truth, all things, including Gaṅgottarā herself, are like magical creations, and thus no one comes or goes or pursues nirvāṇa.
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Mar 12, 2024
Toh
76
Chapter
31
Pages
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Aśokadattā’s Prophecy
[No Sanskrit title]
Aśoka­dattāvyākaraṇa
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མྱ་ངན་མེད་ཀྱིས་བྱིན་པ་ལུང་བསྟན་པ།
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In this Mahāyāna sūtra, a group of the Buddha’s most eminent śrāvaka disciples are collecting alms in the city of Rājagṛha when they arrive at the palace of King Ajātaśatru. There, the king’s daughter Aśokadattā, who is seated on an ornate throne, neither rises from her seat to greet them nor pays them any form of respect. Outraged by her rudeness, the king chastises her. The girl is unrepentant, and in a series of elegant verses she explains to her father the superiority of the bodhisattva path, which renders such obeisance to śrāvakas inappropriate. The eminent śrāvaka disciples then engage the girl in debate, but each in turn is silenced by the eloquence and confidence of her replies, by which she deconstructs their questions based on her knowledge of the emptiness of all phenomena. Having thus impressed them, she descends from her throne and serves them humbly with food and drink. They then all go together to Vulture Peak, where the Buddha prophecies her future full awakening.
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Aug 27, 2024
Toh
78
Chapter
11
Pages
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The Questions of Guṇaratnasaṅkusumita
[No Sanskrit title]
Guṇa­ratna­saṅkusumita­paripṛcchā
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ཡོན་ཏན་རིན་ཆེན་མེ་ཏོག་ཀུན་ཏུ་རྒྱས་པས་ཞུས་པ།
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In The Questions of Guṇaratnasaṅkusumita, the sūtra’s interlocutor, Guṇaratnasaṅkusumita, asks the Buddha Śākyamuni whether there might be other buddhas in other realms whose names carry the power to produce awakening. The Buddha responds that there are, in fact, buddhas whose names are so efficacious that simply by remembering them, the disciple will be awakened. The Buddha then names the buddhas of the ten directions, their worlds and eons, and the specific effects that knowing each of their names will have on disciples with faith.
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Oct 13, 2020
Toh
79
Chapter
37
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The Teaching on the Inconceivable Scope of a Buddha
[No Sanskrit title]
Acintya­buddha­viṣaya­nirdeśa
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སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་ཡུལ་བསམ་གྱིས་མི་ཁྱབ་པ་བསྟན་པ།
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Themes:
Oct 16, 2024
Toh
81
Chapter
6
Pages
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Siṃha’s Questions
[No Sanskrit title]
Siṃha­pari­pṛcchā
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སེང་གེས་ཞུས་པ།
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At the opening of this sūtra, King Ajātaśatru’s son Siṃha and his five hundred attendants approach the Buddha, who is on Vulture Peak. After paying homage and offering golden parasols, Siṃha asks the Buddha a series of questions about the conduct of bodhisattvas. The Buddha answers each of Siṃha’s questions with a series of verses describing the various karmic causes that result in the qualities and attributes of bodhisattvas. Afterward, when Siṃha and his attendants promise to train in this teaching, the Buddha smiles, causing the three-thousandfold world system to quake. When the bodhisattva Ajita asks the Buddha why he smiled, the Buddha explains that Siṃha and all of his companions will become buddhas and establish buddhafields similar to that of Amitābha.
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Feb 28, 2022
Toh
83
Chapter
48
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The Questions of Bhadrapāla the Merchant
[No Sanskrit title]
Bhadra­pāla­śreṣṭhi­paripṛcchā
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ཚོང་དཔོན་བཟང་སྐྱོང་གིས་ཞུས་པ།
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In The Questions of Bhadrapāla the Merchant, the Buddha’s principal interlocutor is a wealthy merchant who asks him to explain what consciousness is, and what happens to it when one dies and is reborn. In his characterization of consciousness, the Buddha relies heavily on the use of analogies drawn from nature. The sūtra also reflects common cultural beliefs of ancient India, such as spirit possession. In addition, it presents graphic and vividly contrasting descriptions of rebirth in the realms of the gods for those who have lived meritorious lives and in the realms of hell for those who lack merit.
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Feb 25, 2017
Toh
84
Chapter
20
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The Questions of the Girl Vimalaśraddhā
[No Sanskrit title]
Dārikāvimalaśraddhāparipṛcchā
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བུ་མོ་རྣམ་དག་དད་པས་ཞུས་པ།
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Vimalaśraddhā, the daughter of King Prasenajit, comes to see the Buddha in Jetavana, together with a retinue of five hundred women. She pays homage to the Buddha and asks him to explain the conduct of bodhisattvas. The Buddha responds by presenting twelve sets of eight qualities that bodhisattvas should cultivate. Vimalaśraddhā and her five hundred companions, having developed the mind set on awakening, join the ranks of the bodhisattvas, and the Buddha prophesies her future attainment of awakening.
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Apr 6, 2021
Toh
85
Chapter
25
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The Question of Maitreya (1)
[No Sanskrit title]
Maitreya­paripṛcchā
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བྱམས་པས་ཞུས་པ།
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In The Question of Maitreya, the bodhisattva Maitreya asks the Buddha what qualities a bodhisattva needs to attain enlightenment quickly. The Buddha outlines several sets of qualities, foremost among them the altruistic intention of perfect bodhicitta. The Buddha then recounts to Ānanda how, in a former life, Maitreya revered a previous Buddha and, wishing to become just like him, at once realized that all phenomena are unproduced. Ānanda asks why Maitreya did not become a buddha sooner, and in answer the Buddha compares Maitreya’s bodhisattva career with his own, listing further sets of qualities that differentiate them and recounting examples of the hardships he himself faced in previous lives. Maitreya, on the other hand, has followed the easy bodhisattva vehicle using its skillful means, such as the seven branch practice and the training in the six perfections; the aspirations he thus made are set out in the famous “Prayer of Maitreya” for which this sūtra is perhaps best known. The Buddha declares that Maitreya will become enlightened when sentient beings have fewer negative emotions, in contrast to the ignorant and turbulent beings he himself vowed to help.
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Sep 16, 2016
Toh
86
Chapter
6
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The Question of Maitreya (2) on the Eight Qualities
[No Sanskrit title]
Maitreya­paripṛcchā­dharmāṣṭa
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བྱམས་པས་ཆོས་བརྒྱད་ཞུས་པ།
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In The Question of Maitreya on the Eight Qualities, Maitreya asks the Buddha what qualities bodhisattvas need in order to be sure of completing the path to buddhahood. In response, the Buddha briefly lists eight qualities. Starting with the excellent intention to become enlightened, they include loving kindness, as well as realization of the perfection of wisdom, which the Buddha explains in terms of reflection on the twelve links of dependent origination.
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Themes:
May 30, 2016
Toh
93
Chapter
43
Pages
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The Seer Vyāsa’s Questions
[No Sanskrit title]
Ṛṣivyāsa­paripṛcchā
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དྲང་སྲོང་རྒྱས་པས་ཞུས་པ།
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In The Seer Vyāsa’s Questions, a great seer named Vyāsa, a non-Buddhist mendicant, approaches the Buddha with a large group of followers to inquire about the karmic results of giving. Some of the key points taught in this sūtra are such karmic results and the distinction between pure and impure giving. A final long passage describes the life in the god realms that is experienced as the fruit of particular acts of giving, and it explains the signs received by gods of their own impending death and subsequent human birth.
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Dec 10, 2022
Toh
94
Chapter
678
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General Sūtra Section
The Good Eon
[No Sanskrit title]
Bhadra­kalpika
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བསྐལ་པ་བཟང་པོ།
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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.
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Feb 11, 2022
Toh
95
Chapter
431
Pages
Kangyur
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General Sūtra Section
The Play in Full
[No Sanskrit title]
Lalita­vistara
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རྒྱ་ཆེར་རོལ་པ།
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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.
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Themes:
May 22, 2013
Toh
96
Chapter
50
Pages
Kangyur
Discourses
General Sūtra Section
The Miraculous Play of Mañjuśrī
[No Sanskrit title]
Mañjuśrī­vikrīḍita
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འཇམ་དཔལ་རྣམ་པར་རོལ་པ།
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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.
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Jan 24, 2020
Toh
97
Chapter
32
Pages
Kangyur
Discourses
General Sūtra Section
The Chapter on Mañjuśrī’s Magical Display
[No Sanskrit title]
Mañjuśrī­vikurvāṇa­parivarta
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འཇམ་དཔལ་རྣམ་པར་འཕྲུལ་པའི་ལེའུ།
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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.
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Feb 4, 2021
Toh
99
Chapter
549
Pages
Kangyur
Discourses
General Sūtra Section
The Precious Discourse on the Blessed One’s Extensive Wisdom That Leads to Infinite Certainty
[No Sanskrit title]
Niṣṭhā­gata­bhagavajjñāna­vaipulya­sūtra­ratnānanta
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བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་ཀྱི་ཡེ་ཤེས་རྒྱས་པའི་མདོ་སྡེ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་མཐའ་ཡས་པ་མཐར་ཕྱིན་པ།
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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.
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Apr 25, 2019
Toh
100
Chapter
59
Pages
Kangyur
Discourses
General Sūtra Section
The Ornament of the Light of Awareness That Enters the Domain of All Buddhas
[No Sanskrit title]
Sarva­buddha­viṣayāvatāra­jñānālokālaṃkāra
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སངས་རྒྱས་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི་ཡུལ་ལ་འཇུག་པའི་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྣང་བའི་རྒྱན།
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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.
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Feb 17, 2015
Toh
101
Chapter
451
Pages
Kangyur
Discourses
General Sūtra Section
Upholding the Roots of Virtue
[No Sanskrit title]
Kuśala­mūla­saṃparigraha
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དགེ་བའི་རྩ་བ་ཡོངས་སུ་འཛིན་པ།
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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.
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May 23, 2020
Toh
103
Chapter
22
Pages
Kangyur
Discourses
General Sūtra Section
The Teaching by the Child Inconceivable Radiance
[No Sanskrit title]
Acintya­prabhāsa­nirdeśa
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ཁྱེའུ་སྣང་བ་བསམ་གྱིས་མི་ཁྱབ་པས་བསྟན་པ།
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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.
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Jun 17, 2020
Toh
104
Chapter
3
Pages
Kangyur
Discourses
General Sūtra Section
Expounding the Qualities of the Thus-Gone Ones’ Buddhafields
[No Sanskrit title]
Buddha­kṣetraguṇokta­dharma­paryāya
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སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་ཞིང་གི་ཡོན་ཏན་བརྗོད་པའི་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་གྲངས།
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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.
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Apr 29, 2022
Toh
106
Chapter
109
Pages
Kangyur
Discourses
General Sūtra Section
Unraveling the Intent
[No Sanskrit title]
Saṃdhi­nirmocana
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དགོངས་པ་ངེས་འགྲེལ།
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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.
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Dec 15, 2020
Toh
109
Chapter
15
Pages
Kangyur
Discourses
General Sūtra Section
Gayāśīrṣa Hill
[No Sanskrit title]
Gayāśīrṣa
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ག་ཡཱ་མགོའི་རི།
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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.
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Apr 14, 2023
Toh
112
Chapter
335
Pages
Kangyur
Discourses
General Sūtra Section
The White Lotus of Compassion
[No Sanskrit title]
Karuṇā­puṇḍarīka
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སྙིང་རྗེ་པད་མ་དཀར་པོ།
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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.
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Jul 7, 2023
Toh
113
Chapter
359
Pages
Kangyur
Discourses
General Sūtra Section
The White Lotus of the Good Dharma
[No Sanskrit title]
Saddharma­puṇḍarīka
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དམ་པའི་ཆོས་པད་མ་དཀར་པོ།
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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.
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Oct 17, 2018
Toh
114
Chapter
30
Pages
Kangyur
Discourses
General Sūtra Section
The King of the Array of All Dharma Qualities
[No Sanskrit title]
Sarva­dharma­guṇa­vyūha­rāja
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ཆོས་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི་ཡོན་ཏན་བཀོད་པའི་རྒྱལ་པོ།
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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.
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Dec 31, 2018
Toh
115
Chapter
10
Pages
Kangyur
Discourses
General Sūtra Section
The Display of the Pure Land of Sukhāvatī
[No Sanskrit title]
Sukhāvatī­vyūha
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བདེ་བ་ཅན་གྱི་བཀོད་པ།
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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).
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Dec 17, 2011
Toh
116
Chapter
96
Pages
Kangyur
Discourses
General Sūtra Section
The Basket’s Display
[No Sanskrit title]
Kāraṇḍa­vyūha
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ཟ་མ་ཏོག་བཀོད་པ།
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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.
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May 22, 2013
Toh
118
Chapter
16
Pages
Kangyur
Discourses
General Sūtra Section
Infinite Jewels
[No Sanskrit title]
Ratnakoṭi
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རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་མཐའ།
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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.
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Mar 1, 2022
Toh
122
Chapter
2
Pages
Kangyur
Discourses
General Sūtra Section
The Sūtra on Wisdom at the Hour of Death
[No Sanskrit title]
Atyaya­jñāna­sūtra
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འདའ་ཀ་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཀྱི་མདོ།
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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.
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Dec 1, 2016
Toh
124
Chapter
160
Pages
Kangyur
Discourses
General Sūtra Section
The Jewel Mine
[No Sanskrit title]
Ratnākara
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དཀོན་མཆོག་འབྱུང་གནས།
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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.
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Oct 22, 2020
Toh
125
Chapter
1
Pages
Kangyur
Discourses
General Sūtra Section
The Gold Sūtra
[No Sanskrit title]
Suvarṇasūtra
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གསེར་གྱི་མདོ།
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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.
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Aug 4, 2021
Toh
126
Chapter
7
Pages
Kangyur
Discourses
General Sūtra Section
Like Gold Dust
[No Sanskrit title]
Suvarṇa­vālukopamā
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གསེར་གྱི་བྱེ་མ་ལྟ་བུ།
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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.
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Feb 12, 2024
Toh
127
Chapter
339
Pages
Kangyur
Discourses
General Sūtra Section
The King of Samādhis Sūtra
[No Sanskrit title]
Samādhi­rāja­sūtra
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ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་གྱི་རྒྱལ་པོའི་མདོ།
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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.
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Mar 1, 2018
Toh
128
Chapter
8
Pages
Kangyur
Discourses
General Sūtra Section
Appearing Differently to All While Not Departing from Emptiness, the Essence of the True Nature of Things
[No Sanskrit title]
Dharmatā­svabhāva­śūnyatācala­pratisarvāloka
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ཆོས་ཉིད་རང་གི་ངོ་བོ་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་ལས་མི་གཡོ་བར་ཐ་དད་པར་ཐམས་ཅད་ལ་སྣང་བ།
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This short philosophical discourse opens with the Buddha described as unmoving from the true nature of all things. Although at this time he has no thought of teaching the Dharma, different members of the audience nevertheless believe that they have heard a teaching. On the basis of their differing perceptions, five distinct philosophical views concerning the true nature of all things come to be held by different members of the audience. When Mañjuśrī, who is also in the audience, becomes aware that they are harboring these different understandings, he asks the Buddha why such different views have arisen, whether they are equally valid, and whether such differences will be a matter of dispute in the future. The Buddha replies that different understandings arise because of the different inclinations and aptitudes of people; that of the five views only the fifth is fully in accord with the experiential domain of all buddhas; and he predicts that in the future such differences in understanding will be argued about for a very long time.
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Jun 12, 2024
Toh
129
Chapter
73
Pages
Kangyur
Discourses
General Sūtra Section
The Absorption of the Miraculous Ascertainment of Peace
[No Sanskrit title]
Praśāntaviniścayaprātihāryasamādhi
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རབ་ཏུ་ཞི་བ་རྣམ་པར་ངེས་པའི་ཆོ་འཕྲུལ་གྱི་ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན།
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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.
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