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Degé Kangyur Catalog

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Featured Translations

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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Sūtras About Death

Explore sutras addressing death and the afterlife, providing guidance on understanding and accepting mortality. These texts offer profound insights into the nature of death, rebirth, and the Buddhist perspective on the end of life.

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 73
Chapter
23
Pages
The Kangyur
Discourses
Heap of Jewels
King Udayana of Vatsa’s Questions
[No Sanskrit title]
Udayanavatsa­rājapari­pṛcchā
|
[No Tibetan title]
བད་སའི་རྒྱལ་པོ་འཆར་བྱེད་ཀྱིས་ཞུས་པ།

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.

By:
Theme:
Sūtras About Death
Sūtras About Women
Sūtras about Karma
Sūtras for Well-Being
The Buddha's Life
Read Text
Toh 83
Chapter
48
Pages
The Kangyur
Discourses
Heap of Jewels
The Questions of Bhadrapāla the Merchant
[No Sanskrit title]
Bhadra­pāla­śreṣṭhi­paripṛcchā
|
[No Tibetan title]
ཚོང་དཔོན་བཟང་སྐྱོང་གིས་ཞུས་པ།

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.

By:
Theme:
Sūtras About Death
Quick Reads
Read Text
Toh 122
Chapter
2
Pages
The Kangyur
Discourses
General Sūtra Section
The Sūtra on Wisdom at the Hour of Death
[No Sanskrit title]
Atyaya­jñāna­sūtra
|
[No Tibetan title]
འདའ་ཀ་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཀྱི་མདོ།

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.

By:
Theme:
Quick Reads
Sūtras About Death
Ten and Five Royal Sūtras
Read Text
Toh 214
Chapter
7
Pages
The Kangyur
Discourses
General Sūtra Section
Advice to a King (1)
[No Sanskrit title]
Rājadeśa
|
[No Tibetan title]
རྒྱལ་པོ་ལ་གདམས་པ།

Discerning that the time is right to train King Bimbisāra, the Buddha Śākyamuni goes to Magadha, along with his entourage. The king is hostile at first but when his attack on the Buddha is thwarted and a verse on impermanence is heard, he becomes respectful. In the discourse that ensues, the Buddha tells the king that it is good to be disillusioned with the world because saṃsāra is impermanence and suffering. He then elaborates with a teaching on impermanence followed by a teaching on suffering. When the king asks where, if saṃsāra is so full of suffering, well-being is to be found, the Buddha responds with a short exposition on nirvāṇa as the cessation of all suffering and the cause for supreme happiness. Moved by his words, the king decides that he will renounce worldly concerns and seek nirvāṇa. The Buddha praises the king and concludes the teaching with the potent refrain, “When one is attached, that is saṃsāra. When one is not attached, that is nirvāṇa.”

By:
Theme:
Quick Reads
Sūtras for Beginners
Sūtras About Death
The Buddha's Life
Read Text
Toh 226
Chapter
5
Pages
The Kangyur
Discourses
General Sūtra Section
The Sūtra on Transmigration Through Existences
[No Sanskrit title]
Bhava­saṅkrānti­sūtra
|
[No Tibetan title]
སྲིད་པ་འཕོ་བའི་མདོ།

King Śreṇya Bimbisāra of Magadha approaches the Buddha and asks him how a past action can appear before the mind at the moment of death. The Buddha presents the analogy of a sleeping person who dreams of a beautiful woman and on waking foolishly longs to find her. He cites this as an example of how an action of the distant past, which has arisen from perception and subsequent afflictive emotions and then ceased, appears to the mind on the brink of death. The Buddha goes on to explain how one transitions from the final moment of one life to the first moment of the next, according to the ripening of those actions, without any phenomena actually being transferred from one life to another. The Buddha concludes with a set of seven verses that offer a succinct teaching on emptiness, focusing on the two truths and the fictitious nature of names.

By:
Theme:
Quick Reads
Sūtras About Death
Read Text
Toh 308
Chapter
20
Pages
The Kangyur
Discourses
General Sūtra Section
Questions Regarding Death and Transmigration
[No Sanskrit title]
Āyuṣpatti­yathākāra­paripṛcchā
|
[No Tibetan title]
ཚེ་འཕོ་བ་ཇི་ལྟར་འགྱུར་བ་ཞུས་པ།

Questions Regarding Death and Transmigration contains explanations of Buddhist views on the nature of life and death, and a number of philosophical arguments against non-Buddhist conceptions, notably some based broadly on the Vedas. The sūtra is set in the town of Kapilavastu at the time of the funeral of a young man of the Śākya clan. King Śuddhodana wonders about the validity of the ritual offerings being made for the deceased by the family and asks the Buddha seven questions about current beliefs on death and the afterlife. The Buddha answers each of the questions in turn. After two interlocutors interrupt to test the Buddha’s omniscience, the discourse continues to present the Buddhist account of death and rebirth using a set of eight analogies, each of which complements the others in a detailed explanation.

By:
Theme:
Quick Reads
Sūtras About Death
Read Text
Toh 310
Chapter
4
Pages
The Kangyur
Discourses
General Sūtra Section
The Sūtra on Impermanence (2)
[No Sanskrit title]
Anityatāsūtra
|
[No Tibetan title]
མི་རྟག་པ་ཉིད་ཀྱི་མདོ།

The Sūtra on Impermanence (Anityatāsūtra) is a short discourse on the impermanence of conditioned states. The Buddha explains that it does not matter what one’s social status is, whether one is born in a heaven, or even if one has realized awakening and is an arhat, a pratyekabuddha, or a buddha. All that lives will eventually die. He concludes with a series of verses on impermanence exhorting the audience to understand that happiness is to bring conditioned states to rest.

By:
Theme:
Quick Reads
Sūtras About Death
Sūtras for Beginners
Read Text
Toh 311
Chapter
2
Pages
The Kangyur
Discourses
General Sūtra Section
Teaching the Eleven Thoughts
[No Sanskrit title]
Saṃjñānaikadaśa­nirdeśa
|
[No Tibetan title]
འདུ་ཤེས་བཅུ་གཅིག་བསྟན་པ།

Teaching the Eleven Thoughts takes place just before the Buddha attains parinirvāṇa, when he bequeaths his final testament to the assembled monks in the form of a brief discourse on eleven thoughts toward which the mind should be directed at the moment of death. He exhorts his listeners to develop nonattachment, love, freedom from resentment, a sense of moral responsibility, a proper perspective on virtue and vice, courage in the face of the next life, a perception of impermanence and the lack of self, and the knowledge that nirvāṇa is peace.

By:
Theme:
Quick Reads
Sūtras About Death
Read Text
Toh 345
Chapter
4
Pages
The Kangyur
Discourses
General Sūtra Section
The Exemplary Tale About a Sow
[No Sanskrit title]
Sūkarikāvadāna
|
[No Tibetan title]
ཕག་མོའི་རྟོགས་པ་བརྗོད་པ།

In The Exemplary Tale About a Sow, the Buddha recounts the earlier events surrounding a god in Trāyastriṃśa heaven who foresaw that he would be reborn as a pig in Rājagṛha. At the encouragement of Śakra, this god, in the final moments of agony before his death, took refuge in the Three Jewels and thereby attained rebirth in the even higher Tuṣita heaven. The story thus illustrates the liberative power of taking refuge in the Three Jewels, as befittingly expressed in the concluding verses of this short avadāna.

By:
Theme:
Quick Reads
Sūtras About Death
Sūtras about Karma
Read Text
Toh 503
Chapter
51
Pages
The Kangyur
Tantra
Action tantras
The Detailed Account of the Previous Aspirations of the Seven Thus-Gone Ones
[No Sanskrit title]
Saptatathāgatapūrvapraṇidhānaviśeṣavistāra
|
[No Tibetan title]
དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ་བདུན་གྱི་སྔོན་གྱི་སྨོན་ལམ་གྱི་ཁྱད་པར་རྒྱས་པ།

The Detailed Account of the Previous Aspirations of the Seven Thus-Gone Ones opens in Vaiśālī, where the Buddha Śākyamuni is seated with a saṅgha of eight thousand monks, thirty-six thousand bodhisattvas, and a large gathering of gods, spirit beings, and humans. As Śākyamuni concludes his teaching, the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī rises from his seat and requests that the Buddha give a Dharma teaching that will benefit all the human and nonhuman beings who are present in the assembly. Specifically, he asks Śākyamuni to teach them about the previous aspirations of seven buddhas, their buddhafields, and the benefits that those buddhas can bring to beings who live in the final five hundred years, when the holy Dharma is on the verge of disappearing. Śākyamuni agrees to this request and proceeds to give a detailed account of the previous aspirations of those seven buddhas to benefit beings who are veiled by karmic obscurations, tormented by illnesses, and plagued by mental anguish and suffering.

By:
Theme:
Sūtras About Death
Read Text
Toh 504
Chapter
20
Pages
The Kangyur
Tantra
Action tantras
The Detailed Account of the Previous Aspirations of the Blessed Bhaiṣajya­guru­vaiḍūrya­prabha
[No Sanskrit title]
Bhagavān­bhaiṣajya­guru­vaiḍūrya­prabhasya pūrva­praṇidhāna­viśeṣa­vistāra
|
[No Tibetan title]
བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་སྨན་གྱི་བླ་བཻ་ཌུརྱའི་འོད་གྱི་སྨོན་ལམ་གྱི་ཁྱད་པར་རྒྱས་པ།

The Detailed Account of the Previous Aspirations of the Blessed Bhaiṣajya­guru­vaiḍūrya­prabha centers on the figure commonly known as the Medicine Buddha. The text opens in Vaiśālī, where the Buddha Śākyamuni is seated with a large retinue of human and divine beings. The bodhisattva Mañjuśrī asks Śākyamuni to teach the names and previous aspirations of the buddhas, along with the benefit that buddhas can bring during future times when the Dharma has nearly disappeared. The Buddha gives a teaching on the name and previous aspirations of the Buddha Bhaiṣajya­guru­vaiḍūrya­prabha, and then details the benefits that arise from hearing and retaining this buddha’s name.

By:
Theme:
Sūtras for Well-Being
Texts for Recitation
Sūtras About Death
Texts on Other Buddhas
Read Text
Toh 891
Chapter
2
Pages
The Kangyur
Dhāraṇī
Compendium of Dhāraṇīs
The Dhāraṇī of Āvaraṇaviṣkambhin
[No Sanskrit title]
Āvaraṇaviṣkambhi­dhāraṇī
|
[No Tibetan title]
སྒྲིབ་པ་རྣམ་པར་སེལ་བའི་གཟུངས།

The Dhāraṇī of Āvaraṇaviṣkambhin presents two short dhāraṇīs that purify evil deeds, ease the dying process, and bring about birth in the heavenly realms.

By:
Theme:
Quick Reads
Sūtras for Well-Being
Sūtras About Death
Texts for Recitation
Read Text

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
Buddha Nature Sūtras
Sūtras for Beginners
The Buddha's Life
Texts for Recitation
Quick Reads
Sūtras for Well-Being
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