The Teaching on the Great Compassion of the Tathāgata
Introduction
Toh 147
Degé Kangyur, vol. 57 (mdo sde, pa), folios 142.a–242.b
- Śīlendrabodhi
- Yeshé Dé
Imprint
Translated by Anne Burchardi
under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha
First published 2020
Current version v 1.2.28 (2023)
Generated by 84000 Reading Room v2.26.1
84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha is a global non-profit initiative to translate all the Buddha’s words into modern languages, and to make them available to everyone.
This work is provided under the protection of a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND (Attribution - Non-commercial - No-derivatives) 3.0 copyright. It may be copied or printed for fair use, but only with full attribution, and not for commercial advantage or personal compensation. For full details, see the Creative Commons license.
Table of Contents
Summary
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.
Acknowledgements
This sūtra was translated by Anne Burchardi, with Dr. Ulrich Pagel acting as consultant. Tulku Dakpa Rinpoche, Jens Braarvig, and Tom Tillemans provided help and advice, and Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche provided inspiration. Anne Burchardi introduced the text, the translation and introduction were edited by the 84000 editorial team.
We gratefully acknowledge the generous sponsorship of May and George Gu, made in memory of Frank ST Gu. Their support has helped make the work on this translation possible.
Introduction
The Text
The Teaching on the Great Compassion of the Tathāgata1 is an important early Great Vehicle sūtra, setting out some key features of the bodhisattva path in a doctrinally dense text that has been explored in later commentaries as an important source of clarification on the qualities that bodhisattvas develop as they progress to awakening, on the dhāraṇīs, and indirectly on the potential for buddhahood (buddhagotra) underlying their progress. The text survives in an incomplete Sanskrit manuscript, two Chinese translations, and the Tibetan translation.
A partial Sanskrit manuscript of the sūtra, consisting of only twelve folios, is presently held at the China Ethnic Library in Beijing. This manuscript can be tentatively dated to the eighth ninth centuries and may have once been part of the Sanskrit manuscript collection of Zhalu (Tib. zhwa lu) monastery in central Tibet. At present only the first two folios of the manuscript have been edited and published.2 In the Chinese Tripiṭaka, it appears as Taishō 398, an independent sūtra translated by Dharmarakṣa in 291 ᴄᴇ, and also as a subsection of Taishō 397, the Chinese translation by Dharmakṣema (385–433) of the large Mahāvaipulyamahāsaṃnipātasūtra, of which it occupies volumes 1–4.3
The sūtra was translated into Tibetan, according to the colophon of the Tibetan translation, by the Indian preceptor Śīlendrabodhi along with the Tibetan translator Yeshé Dé. The text is also recorded in the Denkarma4 and Phangthangma5 inventories of Tibetan imperial translations, so we can establish that it was first translated from Sanskrit into Tibetan no later than the early ninth century, as the Denkarma is dated to 812 ᴄᴇ.
The present translation into English is based on the Tibetan translation found in the Degé Kangyur and takes into account the versions in other Kangyurs through consultation of the Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma). The Sanskrit witness was also consulted to clarify terms and passages that were obscure in the Tibetan translation.
Outline of the Sūtra
In essence, the sūtra can be seen as comprising an introductory setting of the scene (the first chapter), followed by three main divisions according to topic. The first and longest of these divisions focuses on the elements of the bodhisattva path, and is taught by the Buddha at the request of the bodhisattva Dhāraṇīśvararāja (from 2.22); the second focuses on the dhāraṇīs, and is taught by Dhāraṇīśvararāja at the request of the bodhisattva Siṃhaketu (starting at 2.526); while the third (from 2.607 to the end of the text) is the Buddha’s endorsement of Dhāraṇīśvararāja’s teaching, his narration of past events involving Dhāraṇīśvararāja in previous lifetimes, and his proclamation that it is Dhāraṇīśvararāja who should transmit the entire text.6
The sūtra opens on Vulture Peak, in Rājagṛha, where the Buddha is presiding over an assembly of monks and bodhisattvas. He enters a state of meditative absorption in which he manifests an extravagant pavilion in the atmosphere between the desire realm and the form realm. He proceeds to ascend to the pavilion, along with his retinue, by way of an enormous staircase, one of four thousand that have appeared. As he passes the six heavens of the sensuous realm, their inhabitants praise him and join the ever-increasing throng, until the vast congregation finally arrives in the lofty pavilion. From the pavilion, the Buddha sends invitations in the form of light rays to the bodhisattvas who reside in the buddhafields of the ten directions, announcing the teaching he is about to give. In an instant, those bodhisattvas reach the pavilion together with their entourages. By simply clearing his throat, the Buddha enjoins all the faithful beings remaining in the human and nonhuman realms to ascend the staircases and join the vast congregation. He then emits a light that leads a bodhisattva named Puṣpaśrīgarbhasarvadharmavaśavartin to enter a state of absorption in which a teaching throne magically appears. The bodhisattva requests a teaching from the Buddha, who ascends the throne and delivers an introduction to the forthcoming teaching. Nine different bodhisattvas each enter a different state of meditative absorption, and those absorptions together bless the assembly with their corresponding qualities. When a tenth bodhisattva called Mārapramardaka enters absorption, a host of māras enters the assembly. After a brief exchange with the Blessed One, they also settle down to listen to the discourse.
At this juncture, a bodhisattva named Dharmeśvararāja expresses his confidence that the Buddha will consent to give a discourse, and he proceeds to delineate the qualities of the attendant bodhisattvas that make them suitable recipients of such teachings. The bodhisattva articulates how wonderful it is when a buddha engages in benefiting beings, and he concludes by highlighting the contrast between the bodhisattva intention and the intentions represented by the Śrāvaka and Pratyekabuddha Vehicles. As a result of his exclamations, an immense number of beings generate the thought of awakening. The Buddha then sends forth a light that inspires a bodhisattva named Dhāraṇīśvararāja to request a discourse.
This introductory setting of the scene gives way to the first main topic division when, in response to Dhāraṇīśvararāja’s request, the Blessed One begins his teaching with a description of the four bodhisattva ornaments, in prose and verse. Then follows a description of the eight illuminations of bodhisattvas, first in prose and then in verse, and then descriptions of sixteen kinds of great bodhisattva compassion and thirty-two bodhisattva activities.
Dhāraṇīśvararāja asks the Buddha to expound on the aspects, signs, attributes, and foundation of the great compassion and activity of tathāgatas. In reply the Buddha lists sixteen types of compassion that epitomize the nature of awakening. To further illustrate the compassionate activity of tathāgatas, the Blessed One goes on to relate how Brahmā originally requested the turning of the wheel of the Dharma and how that turning was a manifestation of the tathāgata’s compassion. This is followed by a comparison of the compassion of śrāvakas, bodhisattvas, and buddhas. Next, the Blessed One tells the story of a tathāgata named Sandalwood Dwelling, which illustrates how a tathāgata’s compassion also manifests in the form of prophecies.
The Buddha goes on to describe thirty-two forms of tathāgata activity, which consist of the ten strengths, the four types of fearlessness, and the eighteen unique buddha qualities. Finally, he gives the analogy of the cleansing of a gem in three stages, corresponding to the three turnings of the wheel of Dharma, followed by a brief description of tathāgata activity.
There follows a passage vividly describing the impact of the discourse on the audience in the form of the display of various offerings, the generation of the thought of awakening, and so forth. A dialogue ensues between a being named Magical Display of Māra and a bodhisattva known as Sovereign of the Magical Display of All Phenomena, which results in the conversion of the former to the Great Vehicle.
At this point, the second of the sūtra’s three main topics begins when a bodhisattva known as Siṃhaketu asks Dhāraṇīśvararāja for information about bodhisattva dhāraṇīs, and Dhāraṇīśvararāja introduces eight dhāraṇīs one by one. This is followed by a general conclusion of the eight dhāraṇīs and a verse section detailing them individually and generally.
The Buddha, in the third main division of the sūtra, announces his approval of Dhāraṇīśvararāja’s discourse and goes on to tell him about a world in the past known as Stainless. It was there that a tathāgata known as Stainless Illumination gave a teaching on a dhāraṇī called jewel lamp to a bodhisattva named Glorious Light, upon the latter’s request. The Blessed One proclaims that Dhāraṇīśvararāja himself was the bodhisattva Glorious Light in a past life and further declares that Dhāraṇīśvararāja is supreme among bodhisattvas.
Next, the bodhisattva Prajñākūṭa asks the Buddha how one attains this dhāraṇī. In response the Buddha describes the sources and functions of insight in a series of verses. A bodhisattva named Pratibhānapratisaṃvid then asks how Prajñākūṭa received his name, and in response the Buddha describes a world called Virtuous Occurrence in which a tathāgata named Glorious Secret posed a great number of questions to an assembly of bodhisattvas. The questions were answered expertly by a bodhisattva known as Smṛtibuddhi, resulting in the prophecy that he would become known as Prajñākūṭa. The Buddha reprises the sources and functions of insight in a series of verses, and Dhāraṇīśvararāja praises this teaching on awakening. The Buddha again expresses his approval of Dhāraṇīśvararāja’s discourse and explains the merit of being engaged with the sūtra. The Buddha then asks who is prepared to uphold it in the future. Various figures commit themselves to preserving and protecting the Dharma by pronouncing sets of two verses each. Finally, the Buddha entrusts the sūtra to Dhāraṇīśvararāja.
The Sūtra’s Associations with Buddha Nature Literature
The sūtra is considered important in Indo-Tibetan commentarial traditions for its clarification of the sense and significance of several key features of the bodhisattva path, including the dhāraṇīs and the whole range of the qualities of bodhisattvas and buddhas.7 However, it is in connection with the potential for buddhahood (buddhagotra) and its place in the doctrine and theories of buddha nature that this sūtra is particularly well known in the scholastic tradition of Tibetan Buddhism.
One notable characteristic of the text of the sūtra is its highly structured presentation of topics, which are set out, despite the format of dialog and discourse, in a systematic fashion almost like that of the later Indian treatises. In particular, the teaching that the Buddha delivers to Dhāraṇīśvararāja follows a sequential order based on the evolution of awakening from the state of ordinary being, through the gradual development of the features of a bodhisattva’s realization on the path, to the qualities and activities of buddhahood.
It seems to be that sequentially structured nature of this text that singled it out as the explicit source text for the similar structure on which the Ratnagotravibhāga, the most important and influential Indian treatise on buddha nature, is based.8 The Ratnagotravibhāga explains how the influence of (1) the Buddha, (2) the Dharma, and (3) the Saṅgha act on (4) the buddha nature or “element” (Skt. dhātu, Tib. khams) ever present within all sentient beings to purify it of the adventitious stains that obscure it, revealing (5) the awakened state (bodhi) and (6) its buddha qualities (guṇa), which then manifest (7) the buddha activity (samudācāra) that continues the sequence anew. In explaining its own sequential structure in these terms, the treatise calls them the “seven vajra topics” (vajrapāda), and explicitly cites this sūtra9 as the scriptural source of these topics as a complete, interlinked set (while other scriptures are cited as sources for each individual topic).
Despite this attribution, the seven vajra topics are not specifically presented as such in The Teaching on the Great Compassion of the Tathāgata. Rather, the Ratnagotravibhāgavyākhyā discerns them as implicit in this sūtra as follows. First, (1-3) the Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha are evoked in the setting of the scene that introduces the sūtra, in particular in all of 1.3 and the first sentence of 1.5. Next, (4) the buddha nature “element” is covered by the long teaching on the sixty ways in which it is purified, from 2.22 down to 2.200. The Buddha’s teaching on (5) the awakened state is to be found in his teaching on the sixteen kinds of compassion of tathāgatas, from 2.203 down to 2.256. Finally, his explanations of both (6) buddha qualities and (7) buddha activity are set out in parallel, since each of the thirty-two qualities he explains is the basis of a different aspect of activity; they are taught from 2.257 down to 2.507. Despite the treatise borrowing this thematic structure from the sūtra, it is important to note that the ways in which the actual content for each topic is presented in the treatise and the sūtra are very different. This is a complex subject that has received some scholarly attention but merits further research.10
The sūtra is therefore closely associated with the Ratnagotravibhāga, but that does not mean that it contains any direct discussion of buddha nature itself; indeed it does not contain even the standard terms for buddha nature at all.11 Nevertheless, the sūtra is listed as one of ten sūtras on buddha nature by Tibetan authors such as Dölpopa Sherap Gyaltsen (dol po pa shes rab rgyal mtshan, 1292–1361)12 and Jamgön Kongtrül Lodrö Thayé (’jam mgon kong sprul blo gros mtha’ yas, 1813–99),13 and the Tibetan commentarial tradition offers reasons for linking it to the buddha nature tradition. One is the fact that the sūtra contains the analogy of the threefold purification of a beryl stone, which serves as a metaphor for the successive teachings of the three turnings of the wheel of Dharma as delineated in Tibetan Buddhist hermeneutics.14 Another is the fact that the text explicitly identifies itself as belonging to the “irreversible turning,” a term that the Tibetan commentarial tradition associates with the third turning. Both considerations are suggestive of the sūtra’s close connection with the hermeneutical framework of the third turning of the wheel of Dharma, a rubric comprising, among other things, classic texts on buddha nature. According to the Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra,15 this category contains sūtras of definitive meaning.16 To what extent The Teaching on the Great Compassion of the Tathāgata is directly quoted in the Tibetan commentarial tradition is a subject for future research. However, among the large number of Tibetan commentaries written on the Ratnagotravibhāga,17 recent research shows that Marpa Lotsawa (mar pa lo tsā ba, 1012–97)18 and Gö Lotsawa (’gos lo tsā ba, 1392–1481)19 both quote the sūtra at length in their commentaries on this text.
This sūtra has received little attention in modern scholarship, the notable exception being its treatment in Ulrich Pagel’s in-depth research on historical and doctrinal interrelationships among a group of early Great Vehicle sūtras dedicated to the bodhisattva ideal, in which he has compared the text with the Bodhisattvapiṭaka (Toh 56), the Akṣayamatinirdeśa (Toh 175),20 and the Jñānālokālaṃkāra (Toh 100).21 In his study of the sources for the dhāraṇīs listed in the Mahāvyutpatti (entry no. 748), Pagel was able to confirm that the set of eight dhāraṇīs in this sūtra appear as the first eight of the twelve dhāraṇīs mentioned in the Mahāvyutpatti, and concluded that their presentation in this sūtra is one of the earliest and most detailed discussions of dhāraṇī practice in the Great Vehicle sūtras as a whole.22
Text Body
The Teaching on the Great Compassion of the Tathāgata
Colophon
This text was translated and edited by the Indian preceptor Śīlendrabodhi and the principal editor-translator, Bandé Yeshé Dé. It was reviewed and finalized in accordance with the new language reforms.
Bibliography
Primary Sources
’phags pa de bzhin gshegs pa’i snying rje chen po nges par bstan pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo (Āryatathāgatamahākaruṇānirdeśanāmamahāyānasūtra). Degé Kangyur vol. 57 (mdo sde, pa), folios 142.a–242.b.
’phags pa de bzhin gshegs pa’i snying rje chen po nges par bstan pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo. bka’ ’gyur (dpe bsdur ma) [Comparative Edition of the Kangyur], krung go’i bod rig pa zhib ’jug ste gnas kyi bka’ bstan dpe sdur khang (The Tibetan Tripitaka Collation Bureau of the China Tibetology Research Center). 108 volumes. Beijing: krung go’i bod rig pa dpe skrun khang (China Tibetology Publishing House), 2006–2009, vol. 57, pp. 377–611.
[Bodhisattvapiṭaka] ’phags pa byang chub sems dpa’i sde snod ces bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo (Āryabodhisattvapiṭakanāmamahāyānasūtra). Toh 56, Degé Kangyur vol. 40 (dkon brtsegs, kha), folios 255.b–294.a; vol. 41 (dkon brtsegs, ga), folios 1.b–205.b. English translation in Norwegian Institute of Palaeography and Historical Philology 2023.
[Ratnagotravibhāga] theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma’i bstan bcos (Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra). Toh 4024, Degé Tengyur vol. 123 (sems tsam, phi), folios 54.b–73.a.
[Ratnagotravibhāgavyākhyā] theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma’i bstan bcos rnam par bshad pa (Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra). Toh 4025, Degé Tengyur vol. 123 (sems tsam, phi), folios 74.b–129.a.
rigs sngags kyi rgyal mo rma bya chen mo las gsungs pa’i smon lam dang bden tshig. Toh 814, Degé Kangyur vol. 96 (rgyud ’bum, wa), folios 254.a–254.b.
Secondary Canonical Sources
[Akṣayamatinirdeśa] ’phags pa blo gros mi zad pas bstan pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo (Āryākṣayamatinirdeśanāmamahāyānasūtra). Toh 175, Degé Kangyur vol. 60 (mdo sde, ma), folios 79.a–174.b. English translation in Braarvig, Jens, and David Welsh (2020). [Full citation listed in secondary sources]
Candrakīrti. dbu ma la ’jug pa (Madhyamakāvatāra). Toh 3861, Degé Tengyur vol. 102 (dbu ma, ’a), folios 201.b–219.a. Translation in La Vallée Poussin (1907–12).
Dharmottara. rigs pa’i thigs pa’i rgya cher ’grel pa (Nyāyabinduṭīka). Toh 4231, Degé Tengyur vol. 189 (mdo ’grel, we), folios 36.b–92.a.
[Denkarma] pho brang stod thang ldan dkar gyi chos kyi ’gyur ro cog gi dkar chag. Toh 4364, Degé Tengyur vol. 206 (sna tshogs, jo), folios 294.b–310.a.
[Jñānālokālaṃkāra] ’phags pa sangs rgyas thams cad kyi yul la ’jug pa’i ye shes snang ba’i rgyan zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo (Āryasarvabuddhaviṣayāvatārajñānālokālaṃkāranāmamahāyānasūtra). Toh 100, Degé Kangyur vol. 47 (mdo sde, ga), folios 276.a–305.a. English translation in Dharmachakra Translation Committee (2015). [Full citation listed in secondary sources]
Mahāvyutpatti (bye brag tu rtogs par byed pa chen po). Toh 4346, Degé Tengyur vol. 204 (sna tshogs, co), folios 1.b–131.a.
Nāgārjuna. mdo kun las btus pa (Sūtrasamuccaya). Toh 3934, Degé Tengyur vol. 110 (dbu ma, ki), folios 148.b–215.a.
[Ratnamegha] ’phags pa dkon mchog sprin ces bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo (Āryaratnameghanāmamahāyānasūtra). Toh 231, Degé Kangyur vol. 64 (mdo sde, wa), folios 1.b–112.b. English translation in Dharmachakra Translation Committee (2019). [Full citation listed in secondary sources]
[Ṡaḍaṅgayogapañjikā]. Avadhūtipa. dpal dus kyi ’khor lo’i man ngag sbyor ba yan lag drug gi rgyud kyi dka’ ’grel zhes bya ba (Śrīkālacakropadeśayogaṣaḍaṅgatantrapañjikānāma). Toh 1373, Degé Tengyur vol. 13 (rgyud, pa), folios 252.a–279.b.
[Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra] ’phags pa dgongs pa nges par ’grel pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo (Āryasaṃdhinirmocananāmamahāyānasūtra). Toh 106, Degé Kangyur vol. 49 (mdo sde, tsha), folios 1.b–55.b. English translation in Buddhavacana Translation Group (2020). [Full citation listed in secondary sources]
[Tathāgataguṇajñānācintyaviṣayāvatāranirdeśa] ’phags pa de bzhin gshegs pa’i yon tan dang ye shes bsam gyis mi khyab pa’i yul la ’jug pa bstan pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo (Āryatathāgataguṇajñānācintyaviṣayāvatāranirdeśanāmamahāyānasūtra). Toh 185, Degé Kangyur vol. 61 (mdo sde, tsa), folios 106.a–143.b. English translation in Liljenberg, Karen (2020). [Full citation listed in secondary sources]
Other Secondary Sources
Braarvig, Jens (1993). Akṣayamatinirdeśasūtra. 2 vols. Oslo: Solom Verlag, 1993.
———(1985). “Dhāraṇī and Pratibhāna: Memory and Eloquence of the Bodhisattvas.” Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 8, no. 1 (1985): 17–30.
Braarvig, Jens, and David Welsh, trans. The Teaching of Akṣayamati (Akṣayamatinirdeśa, Toh 175). 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2020.
Brunnhölzl, Karl. When the Clouds Part: The “Uttaratantra” and Its Meditative Tradition as a Bridge between Sūtra and Tantra. Boston: Snow Lion, 2014.
Buddhavacana Translation Group, trans. Unraveling the Intent (Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra, Toh 106). 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha.
Burchardi, Anne. “A Provisional list of Tibetan Commentaries on the Ratnagotravibhāga.” Tibet Journal 31, no. 4 (Winter 2006): 3–46.
Dharmachakra Translation Committee (2013), trans. The Play in Full (Lalitavistara, Toh 95). 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2013.
————(2015), trans. The Ornament of the Light of Awareness that Enters the Domain of All Buddhas (Jñānālokālaṃkāra, Toh 100). 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2015.
———(2019) trans. The Jewel Cloud (Ratnamegha, Toh 231). 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2019.
Herrmann-Pfandt, Adelheid. Die lHan kar ma: ein früher Katalog der ins Tibetische übersetzten buddhistischen Texte. Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2008.
Higgins, David, and Martina Draszczyk. Mahāmudrā and the Middle Way: Post-classical Kagyü Discourses on Mind, Emptiness and Buddha-Nature. Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde vol. 90.1–2. Vienna: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien der Universität Wien, 2016.
Hookham, S. K. The Buddha Within: Tathāgatagarbha Dharma According to the Shentong Interpretation of the Ratnagotravibhāga. Albany: SUNY Press, 1991.
Johnston, Edward H., ed. The Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānanottaratantraśāstra. Patna: Bihar Research Society, 1950.
La Vallée Poussin, Louis de, ed. Madhyamakāvatāra par Candrakīrti: Traduction Tibétaine. Bibliotheca Buddhica 9. Osnabruück: Biblio Verlag, 1907–12.
Liljenberg, Karen, trans. Introduction to the Inconceivable Qualities and Wisdom of the Tathāgatas (Tathāgataguṇajñānācintyaviṣayāvatāranirdeśa, Toh 185). 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2020.
Marpa Chökyi Lodrö (mar pa chos kyi blo gros). rgyud bla ma’i tshig don rnam par ’grel ba. In dpal mnga’ bdag sgra sgyur mar pa’ lo tsA ba chos kyi blo gros kyi gsung ’bum, vol. 1, 414–522. Dehradun: Drikung Kagyu Institute, 2009.
Mathes, Klaus-Dieter, ed. ’Gos Lo tsā ba gZhon nu dpal’s Commentary on the Ratnagotravibhāgavyākhyā (Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma´i bstan bcos kyi ´grel bshad de kho na nyid rab tu gsal ba’i me long). Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2003.
———. A Direct Path to the Buddha Within: Gö Lotsāwa’s Mahāmudra Interpretation of the Ratnagotravibhāga. Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2008.
Nakamura, Hajime. “On the Jnāna-āloka-alaṃkāra-sūtra.” Journal of Nichiren and Buddhist Studies 100 (1953): 185–204.
Norwegian Institute of Palaeography and Historical Philology, trans. The Collected Teachings on the Bodhisatva (Toh 56). 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2023.
Obermiller, Eugène. “The Sublime Science of the Great Vehicle to Salvation: Being a Manual of Buddhist Monism.” Acta Orientalia 9 (1931): 81–306.
Padmakara Translation Group, trans. The Perfection of Wisdom in Twenty-Five Thousand Lines (Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikāprajñāpāramitā, Toh 9). 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2023.
Pagel, Ulrich (1994). “The Bodhisattvapiṭaka and Akṣayamatinirdeśa: Continuity and Change in Buddhist Sūtras.” In The Buddhist Forum III: Papers in honour and appreciation of Professor David Seyfort Ruegg’s contribution to Indological, Buddhist and Tibetan Studies, edited by Ulrich Pagel and Tadeusz Skorupski, 333–73. London: School of Oriental and African Studies, 1994.
———(1995). The Bodhisattvapiṭaka: Its Dharmas, Practices and Their Position in Mahāyāna Literature. Tring: The Institute of Buddhist Studies, 1995.
———(2007a). “The Dhāraṇīs of Mahāvyutpatti #748: Origin and Formation.” Buddhist Studies Review 24, no. 2 (2007): 151–91.
———(2007b). Mapping the Path: Vajrapadas in Mahāyāna Literature. Studia Philologica Buddhica 21. Tokyo: The International Institute for Buddhist Studies, 2007.
Pagel, Ulrich, and Braarvig, Jens. “Fragments of the Bodhisattvapiṭaka.” In Buddhist manuscripts, Volume III, edited by Jens Braarvig, 11–89. Manuscripts in the Schøyen Collection. Oslo: Hermes Publishing, 2006.
Pāsādika, Bhikkhu, ed. Nāgārjuna’s Sūtrasamuccaya: A Critical Edition of the Mdo kun las btus pa. Fontes Tibetici Havnienses 2. Copenhagen: Akademisk Forlag, 1989.
Phangthangma (dkar chag ’phang thang ma). Beijing: mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 2003.
Powers, John. Wisdom of the Buddha: The Saṁdhinimocana Mahāyāna Sūtra. Berkeley: Dharma Publishing, 1995.
Ruegg, David Seyfort. Buddha-nature, Mind and the Problem of Gradualism in a Comparative Perspective: On the Transmission and Reception of Buddhism in India and Tibet. Jordan Lectures in Comparative Religion 13. London: School of Oriental and African Studies, 1989.
Stearns, Cyrus. The Buddha from Dolpo: A Study of the Life and Thought of the Tibetan Master Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen. Albany: SUNY Press, 1999.
Study Group on Buddhist Literature. Jñānālokālaṃkāra: Transliterated Sanskrit Text Collated with Tibetan and Chinese Translations. Tokyo: Taisho University Press, 2004.
Takasaki, Jikido (1974). Nyoraizō shiso nō keisei: Indo Daijō Bukkyō shisō kenkyū. [English title: Formation of the Tathāgatagarbha Theory: A Study of the Historical Background of the Tathāgatagarbha Theory of Mahāyāna Buddhism Based upon the Scriptures Preceding the Ratnagotravibhāga]. Tokyo: Shunjūsha, 1974.
———(1966). A Study of the Ratnagotravibhāga (Uttaratantra): Being a Treatise on the Tathāgatagarbha Theory of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Serie Orientale Roma 33. Roma: Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, 1966.
Ui, Hakuju. Hōshōron Kenkyū. Daijī Bukkyō Kenkyū 6. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1959.
Ye Shaoyong. “A Preliminary Report on a Sanskrit Manuscript of the Tathāgatamahākaruṇānirdeśa or Dhāraṇīśvararāja.” Journal of Indian and Buddhist Studies 69:3 (2021): 76-81.