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“The Chapter on Going Forth” is the first of seventeen chapters in The Chapters on Monastic Discipline, a four-volume work that outlines the statutes and procedures that govern life in a Buddhist monastic community. This first chapter traces the development of the rite by which postulants were admitted into the monastic order, from the Buddha Śākyamuni’s informal invitation to “Come, monk,” to the more elaborate “Present Day Rite.” Along the way, the posts of preceptor and instructor are introduced, their responsibilities defined, and a dichotomy between elders and immature novices described. While the heart of the chapter is a transcript of the “Present Day Rite,” the text is interwoven with numerous narrative asides, depicting the spiritual ferment of the north Indian region of Magadha during the Buddha’s lifetime, the follies of untrained and unsupervised apprentices, and the need for a formal system of tutelage.

The Chapter on the Restoration Rite is the second of The Chapters on Monastic Discipline’s seventeen chapters. In it, the Buddha describes a seated yoga, formal protocols, and a rite of restoration that can be observed on the upavasatha (or poṣadha) holiday. After explaining how monks should practice seated yoga, the Buddha consents first to the building of small clusters of meditation residences and later to gradually larger settlements that come to include multistoried meditation halls with scented shrine rooms and rooftop verandas. This chapter also explains how all monks at a monastery must gather fortnightly in the hall or in a place that has been specially demarcated for such purposes within the monastery site’s larger boundary. There, they observe the poṣadha or “restoration rite” by listening to The Prātimokṣa Sūtra recitation and making the appropriate amends for their offenses.

The present chapter together with The Chapter on Lifting Restrictions and The Chapter on the Rains present the “Three Rites” that are considered central to monastic common living: the Rite of Restoration, the Rite of Lifting Restrictions, and the Rite of Pledging to Settle for the Rains. The regular observance of the “Three Rites” at an officially demarcated monastic site is considered a crucial component in ensuring the integrity of the monastics living there and nearby.

The Chapter on Lifting Restrictions is the third of The Chapters on Monastic Discipline’s seventeen chapters. It recounts the origins, timing, and procedures for a rite‍—held at the end of the rains retreat as an adjunct to the Rite of Restoration (poṣadha)‍—known as the Rite of Lifting Restrictions (pravāraṇa). During this rite, monastics invite other monastics who have passed the rainy season with them to speak of any unconfessed offenses they have seen, heard, or suspected the inviting monastic of committing during the rains retreat. If a monk thus prompted recalls an offense, he must make amends before the members of the saṅgha can communally verify their purity. This rite helps to ensure harmony in the saṅgha by providing monks with a forum in which they may air and address concerns about their fellow monks’ conduct before they disperse, either to wander the countryside or go to another monastery. This semi-public affirmation of the saṅgha’s purity would also help preserve its reputation among the laypeople. At the conclusion of the rite, goods that have been offered to the saṅgha during the rains are distributed to those monastics who are entitled to a share, that is, those who stayed on site for the duration of the rains.

The Rite of Lifting Restrictions is the second of the “Three Rites,” along with the Rite of Restoration and the Rite of Pledging to Settle for the Rains, as set out in The Chapter on the Restoration Rite and The Chapter on the Rains respectively. The regular observance of the “Three Rites” at an officially demarcated monastic site is considered a crucial component in ensuring the integrity of the monastics living there and nearby.

The Chapter on the Rains is the fourth of The Chapters on Monastic Discipline’s seventeen chapters. It sets out the Rite of Pledging to Settle for the Rains, in which monastics pledge to remain at a single site for the duration of the varṣā or summer rains. It concludes with a lengthy presentation of cases in which a monastic incurs no offense for interrupting the rains by prematurely leaving a site.

This is the third of the “Three Rites,” along with the Rite of Restoration and the Rite of Lifting Restrictions, which are set out in The Chapter on the Restoration Rite and The Chapter on Lifting Restrictions respectively. The regular observance of the “Three Rites” at an officially demarcated monastic site is considered a crucial component in ensuring the integrity of the monastics living there and nearby.

The Bhaiṣajyavastu, “The Chapter on Medicines,” is a part of the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya, the corpus of monastic law of one of the most influential Buddhist schools in India. This chapter deals with monastic regulations about medicines. At the same time, it also includes various elements not restricted to such rules: stories of the Buddha and his disciples, a lengthy story of the Buddha’s journey for the purpose of quelling an epidemic and converting a nāga, a number of stories of the Buddha’s former lives narrated by the Buddha himself, and a series of verses recited by the Buddha and his disciples about their former lives. Thus, this chapter preserves not only interesting information about medical knowledge shared by ancient Indian Buddhist monastics but also an abundance of Buddhist narrative literature.

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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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.

The Perfection of Wisdom in Eighteen Thousand Lines is one version of the Long Perfection of Wisdom sūtras that developed in South and South-Central Asia in tandem with the Eight Thousand version, probably during the first five hundred years of the Common Era. It contains many of the passages in the oldest extant Long Perfection of Wisdom text (the Gilgit manuscript in Sanskrit), and is similar in structure to the other versions of the Long Perfection of Wisdom sūtras (the One Hundred Thousand and Twenty-Five Thousand) in Tibetan in the Kangyur. While setting forth the sacred fundamental doctrines of Buddhist practice with veneration, it simultaneously exhorts the reader to reject them as an object of attachment, its recurring message being that all dharmas without exception lack any intrinsic nature.

The sūtra can be divided loosely into three parts: an introductory section that sets the scene, a long central section, and three concluding chapters that consist of two important summaries of the long central section. The first of these (chapter 84) is in verse and also circulates as a separate work called The Verse Summary of the Jewel Qualities (Toh 13). The second summary is in the form of the story of Sadāprarudita and his guru Dharmodgata (chapters 85 and 86), after which the text concludes with the Buddha entrusting the work to his close companion Ānanda.

While dwelling at Vulture Peak near Rāja­gṛha, the Buddha sets in motion the sūtras that are the most extensive of all‍—the sūtras on the Prajñā­pāramitā, or “Transcendent Perfection of Wisdom.” Committed to writing around the start of the first millennium, these sūtras were expanded and contracted in the centuries that followed, eventually amounting to twenty-three volumes in the Tibetan Kangyur. Among them, The Transcendent Perfection of Wisdom in Ten Thousand Lines is a compact and coherent restatement of the longer versions, uniquely extant in Tibetan translation, without specific commentaries, and rarely studied. While the structure generally follows that of the longer versions, chapters 1–2 conveniently summarize all three hundred and sixty-seven categories of phenomena, causal and fruitional attributes which the sūtra examines in the light of wisdom or discriminative awareness. Chapter 31 and the final chapter 33 conclude with an appraisal of irreversible bodhisattvas, the pitfalls of rejecting this teaching, and the blessings that accrue from committing it to writing.

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.

In this famous scripture, known popularly as The Heart Sūtra, the Buddha Śākyamuni inspires his senior monk Śāriputra to request instructions from the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara on the way to practice the perfection of wisdom. Avalokiteśvara then describes how an aspiring practitioner of the perfection of wisdom must first understand how all phenomena lack an intrinsic nature, which amounts to the realization of emptiness. Next, Avalokiteśvara reveals a brief mantra that the practitioner can recite as a method for engendering this understanding experientially. Following Avalokiteśvara’s teaching, the Buddha offers his endorsement and confirms that this is the foremost way to practice the perfection of wisdom.

The Sūryagarbha Perfection of Wisdom is a condensed prajñāpāramitā sūtra in the form of a dialogue between the Buddha and the bodhisattva Sūryaprabhāsa, who asks the Buddha how bodhisattvas skilled in means should train themselves in the perfection of wisdom. In response, the Buddha explains that a bodhisattva should train in a meditative stability called the sun or the sun skilled in means, elaborating upon the qualities of this meditative stability using the analogy of the sun in terms of seven qualities. He then further describes the training of the bodhisattva in the perfection of wisdom as training concerning the true nature of all phenomena, which is characterized in familiar terms found in the long prajñāpāramitā sūtras. It is also described in terms of the various designations for ultimate truth. Finally, the Buddha enumerates the characteristics of the one who trains in the perfection of wisdom, ending with a verse of instruction.

The Candragarbha Perfection of Wisdom is a condensed prajñāpāramitā sūtra that takes the form of a dialogue between the Buddha and the bodhisattva Candragarbha. In response to Candragarbha’s question about how bodhisattvas should train themselves in the perfection of wisdom, the Buddha declares that the perfection of wisdom lies in the understanding that all phenomena are devoid of entities, using the analogy of the moon to clarify the meaning of this declaration. Candragarbha then asks the Buddha how many kinds of perfection of wisdom exist for bodhisattvas. The Buddha answers by describing two types of perfection of wisdom, “contaminated” and “uncontaminated,” and he elucidates the nature of the perfection of wisdom with reference to the ultimate nature of all phenomena. At the end of this discourse, the Buddha presents a mantra of the perfection of wisdom, followed by a summary verse.

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.

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.

The Sūtra of the Sun is a short discourse providing a Buddhist account of a solar eclipse. On one occasion while the Buddha is residing in Śrāvastī, the sun is seized by Rāhu, lord of the asuras, which causes an eclipse. The god of the sun asks the Buddha for refuge, after which the Buddha urges Rāhu to release the sun. When questioned by Vemacitra, another lord of the asuras, Rāhu explains that if he had not let the sun go, his head would have split into seven pieces. This sūtra enjoys some popularity today and appears in Tibetan collections of mantras and texts for protection.

The Sūtra of the Moon (1) 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

While the Buddha is in Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍada’s Park, 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 Jeta’s 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.

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.

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.

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.

In the context of one of the most famous stories in all of Buddhist literature‍—the story of the Buddha’s half-brother Nanda‍—The Teaching to the Venerable Nanda on Dwelling in the Womb offers the Buddha’s detailed account of the thirty-eight weeks of human gestation. The Buddha gives this teaching to Nanda after taking him to visit other realms, as the final method to break Nanda of his infatuation with his beautiful wife and settle him in the monastic life and its result. 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 it details the physical composition of the embryo, the suffering of the newborn being, and the miseries experienced over the course of a lifetime. After the concluding verses, there is also an account of Nanda’s past lives. Including as it does the most comprehensive ancient Indian account of gestation, this sūtra was an important source for embryology in Tibetan medicine.

In The Teaching to the 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.

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.

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.

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.

Vidyutprāpta’s Questions is a Mahāyāna sūtra in which the bodhisattva Vidyutprāpta (“Lightning Attainment”) asks the Buddha how someone can help other beings attain enlightenment while remaining aware of the emptiness of all phenomena. The Buddha responds by explaining five “treasures” that enable a bodhisattva to teach the Dharma without being attached to the world. The first four include understanding sentient beings of various temperaments and the attitude necessary to teach them. The fifth, the treasure of the Dharma, is knowledge of the true nature of dharmas and skill in explaining this to ordinary beings.

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. The Buddha also teaches Bhadra forty-three sets of four qualities that together constitute the bodhisattva path.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

While the Buddha is residing in Prince Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍada’s Park, 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 Park. 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.

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.

The Inquiry of the Girl Sumati features an eight-year-old girl named Sumati, “Keen Intellect,” who asks the Buddha Śākyamuni a series of questions about what is necessary to gain a variety of positive outcomes, like a beautiful body and an auspicious, peaceful death. The Buddha replies by expounding a series of sets of four dharmas that a bodhisattva can cultivate to produce these outcomes. Sumati then promises to put them all into practice exactly as he has taught them. Her confidence prompts Maudgalyāyana and Mañjuśrī to question her motives and understanding. She responds with several acts of truth that confirm her aspiration to achieve awakening as a buddha and result in several wonders, including a great earthquake. Sumati’s dialogue with Mañjuśrī explores the nature of reality and the reality of gender, among other topics, and leads Sumati to transform herself into a man and confirm the conditions of her future awakening as a buddha. The Buddha then himself confirms not only her future awakening but also that of several monks in the audience.

In The Questions of Gaṅgottarā, a laywoman named Gaṅgottarā leaves her home in the city of Śrāvastī and visits the Buddha Śākyamuni in Prince Jeta’s Grove, 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. After their dialogue, the Buddha smiles. When Ānanda asks him why, he explains that a thousand tathāgatas of the past have already taught this discourse at this same location to a thousand different laywomen, all named Gaṅgottarā; and that through it they have all achieved nirvāṇa. The sūtra concludes with a brief explanation of the reasons why the present laywoman named Gaṅgottarā received this teaching and how it should be remembered in the future.

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 prophesies her future full awakening.

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.

During an assembly in Śrāvastī, the Buddha requests the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī to give a teaching on the scope of a buddha, which refers to the perceptual range of the awakened state. Mañjuśrī obliges by stating that in the awakened state ordinary perception and cognition are transcended, so the scope of buddha is beyond conception. A discourse ensues in which the Buddha and Mañjuśrī converse about the “sameness of all phenomena,” and how the scope of a buddha, or the true nature of all phenomena, may be found in the afflictions themselves. The disciple Subhūti then engages Mañjuśrī on the subject of how a bodhisattva can both cultivate this awakening and still remain involved in the world. The god Śrībhadra then joins the discussion and invites Mañjuśrī to visit the Heaven of Joy. Instead of going, Mañjuśrī magically manifests the Heaven of Joy there and then. All are amazed and the Buddha praises his power to create miraculous manifestations.

In the second half of the sūtra, Māra, who is present in that assembly in disguise, asks for further proof of Mañjuśrī’s powers to create manifestations. Overawed by Mañjuśrī’s further miraculous displays, Māra reveals a formula that offers protection from the disturbances caused by his kind. Mañjuśrī then agrees to go to the Heaven of Joy. There, he teaches the gods about the bodhisattva path, and gives a full account of all thirty-seven factors that lead to awakening. When Śrībhadra asks Mañjuśrī about a distant world called Light of All Good Qualities, Mañjuśrī miraculously illuminates this distant buddhafield and its buddha, Samantabhadra, to the great delight of all the bodhisattvas in both worlds.

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.

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.

Vimalaśraddhā, the daughter of King Prasenajit, comes to see the Buddha in Jetavana, Anātha­piṇḍada’s Park, 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 flies with his monks to the shores of Lake Anavatapta, 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

In Śrāvastī, in Jeta’s Grove, 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This short philosophical discourse opens with the Buddha described as unmoving from the true nature of 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 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. Mañjuśrī then asks one final question: if these differing views all have a single basis, what is that basis? The Buddha’s answer is that although all experience is based on the aggregates, the constituents, and the sense fields, even these things must not be reified if one is to reach unsurpassed, complete, and perfect awakening.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The Two Stanza Dhāraṇī consists of two initial verses that enumerate eight obscurations and their antidote‍—the Mahāyāna teachings‍—followed by a dhāraṇī and three verses that list the ten beneficial results of reciting the text.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

In the middle of the night, while the Buddha Śākyamuni is immersed in meditation, Brahmā, lord of the Sahā world, appears before him and asks him how bodhisattvas can quickly achieve full awakening. In response, the Buddha gives a teaching on mindfulness of the body. The following morning, when Brahmā has departed, the Buddha relays his teaching to the monks.