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Degé Kangyur Catalog

TENGYUR

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Eulogy
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Tengyur Catalog

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The Kangyur
Toh 358

The Exemplary Tale of Śārdūlakarṇa

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The Kangyur
Toh 224

The Episode of Dṛḍhādhyāśaya

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Old Tantras

Seventeen works representing a small selection of the many “inner” class tantras of the Ngagyur Nyingma (“earlier translation”) tradition.
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Tantra

The scriptures of the Vajrayāna intended for experienced practitioners, often cryptic and hard to understand without commentary.
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Buddha Nature Sūtras

Discover sutras that delve into the concept of Buddha Nature, the inherent potential for enlightenment within all beings. These texts explore this profound teaching, offering insights into our true nature and path to awakening.

Toh 47
Chapter
207
Pages
The Kangyur
Discourses
Heap of Jewels
The Secrets of the Realized Ones
[No Sanskrit title]
Tathāgataguhya
|
[No Tibetan title]
དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་གསང་བ།

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.

By:
Theme:
Sūtras About Death
Buddha Nature Sūtras
The Buddha's Life
Sūtras about Karma
Texts on Other Buddhas
Read Text
Toh 100
Chapter
59
Pages
The Kangyur
Discourses
General Sūtra Section
The Ornament of the Light of Awareness That Enters the Domain of All Buddhas
[No Sanskrit title]
Sarva­buddha­viṣayāvatāra­jñānālokālaṃkāra
|
[No Tibetan title]
སངས་རྒྱས་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི་ཡུལ་ལ་འཇུག་པའི་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྣང་བའི་རྒྱན།

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.

By:
Theme:
Buddha Nature Sūtras
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Toh 113
Chapter
359
Pages
The Kangyur
Discourses
General Sūtra Section
The White Lotus of the Good Dharma
[No Sanskrit title]
Saddharma­puṇḍarīka
|
[No Tibetan title]
དམ་པའི་ཆོས་པད་མ་དཀར་པོ།

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.

By:
Theme:
Buddha Nature Sūtras
Read Text
Toh 142
Chapter
11
Pages
The Kangyur
Discourses
General Sūtra Section
The Dhāraṇī “Entering into Nonconceptuality”
[No Sanskrit title]
Avikalpapraveśadhāraṇī
|
[No Tibetan title]
རྣམ་པར་མི་རྟོག་པར་འཇུག་པའི་གཟུངས།

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.

By:
Theme:
Quick Reads
Buddha Nature Sūtras
Read Text
Toh 147
Chapter
202
Pages
The Kangyur
Discourses
General Sūtra Section
The Teaching on the Great Compassion of the Tathāgata
[No Sanskrit title]
Tathāgata­mahā­karuṇā­nirdeśa
|
[No Tibetan title]
དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་རྗེ་ཆེན་པོ་ངེས་པར་བསྟན་པ།

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.

By:
Theme:
Buddha Nature Sūtras
Read Text
Toh 152
Chapter
229
Pages
The Kangyur
Discourses
General Sūtra Section
The Questions of Sāgaramati
[No Sanskrit title]
Sāgaramati­paripṛcchā
|
[No Tibetan title]
བློ་གྲོས་རྒྱ་མཚོས་ཞུས་པ།

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.

By:
Theme:
Buddha Nature Sūtras
Read Text
Toh 185
Chapter
76
Pages
The Kangyur
Discourses
General Sūtra Section
Introduction to the Domain of the Inconceivable Qualities and Wisdom of the Tathāgatas
[No Sanskrit title]
Tathāgata­guṇa­jñānācintya­viṣayāvatāra­nirdeśa
|
[No Tibetan title]
དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་ཡོན་ཏན་དང་ཡེ་ཤེས་བསམ་གྱིས་མི་ཁྱབ་པའི་ཡུལ་ལ་འཇུག་པ་བསྟན་པ།

In the Introduction to the Domain of the Inconceivable Qualities and Wisdom of the Tathāgatas, the bodhisattva Sarva­nīvaraṇa­viṣkambhin expounds at length on how the awakened activity of the buddhas spontaneously unfolds in a limitless variety of ways to benefit beings, in all their diversity, throughout the universe. He also describes the inestimable benefits a bodhisattva derives from following a virtuous spiritual friend.

By:
Theme:
Buddha Nature Sūtras
Read Text
Toh 224
Chapter
20
Pages
The Kangyur
Discourses
General Sūtra Section
The Episode of Dṛḍhādhyāśaya
[No Sanskrit title]
Dṛḍhādhyāśaya­parivarta
|
[No Tibetan title]
ལྷག་པའི་བསམ་པ་བརྟན་པའི་ལེའུ།

The bodhisattva Dṛḍhādhyāśaya sets out for alms one morning in the city of Rājagṛha. Catching sight there of a merchant’s beautiful daughter, he is overcome with attraction. Unable to quell his feelings, he rushes out of town with an empty begging bowl‍—but finds himself being pursued by a replica of the merchant’s daughter emanated by the Buddha. Distressed, the bodhisattva inquires about the nature of these events to the Blessed One, who then gives a discourse on nonduality by focusing on the erroneous manner in which certain bhikṣus, bhikṣuṇīs, laymen, and laywomen take the path as a means of escape. At its conclusion, eight great śrāvakas each praise the discourse as engendering their own foremost quality in others.

By:
Theme:
Buddha Nature Sūtras
Read Text
Toh 232
Chapter
204
Pages
The Kangyur
Discourses
General Sūtra Section
The Great Cloud (1)
[No Sanskrit title]
Mahāmegha
|
[No Tibetan title]
སྤྲིན་ཆེན་པོ།

The Great Cloud features a long dialogue between the Buddha Śākyamuni and a bodhisattva named Great Cloud Essence, who are periodically joined by various additional interlocutors from the vast audience of human and divine beings who have assembled to hear the Buddha’s teaching. The topics of their conversation are diverse and wide-ranging, but a central theme is the vast conduct of bodhisattvas, which is illustrated through the enumeration of the various meditative states and liberative techniques that bodhisattvas must master in order to minister to all sentient beings. This is followed by a conversation with the brahmin Kauṇḍinya concerning the Buddha’s cousin Devadatta, who is revealed to be a bodhisattva displaying the highest level of skillful means. Kauṇḍinya then inquires about the possibility of obtaining a relic from the Buddha, and another member of the audience responds with an explanation of how truly rare it is for a buddha relic to appear within the world. Finally, the discourse ends with the Buddha delivering a series of detailed prophecies describing the principal interlocutor’s future attainment of buddhahood, and he further explains the benefits and powers that can be obtained through the practice of this sūtra itself.

By:
Theme:
Buddha Nature Sūtras
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More Popular Themes

Our Popular Themes are curated lists of texts to meet the needs of our readers and learners.

Texts About Stūpas
Ten and Five Royal Sūtras
Sūtras About Women
Texts on Other Buddhas
Sūtras about Karma
Sūtras About Death
Sūtras for Beginners
The Buddha's Life
Texts for Recitation
Quick Reads
Sūtras for Well-Being
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