25 Sūtras

Here are listed the sūtra sources for buddha-nature teachings commonly referred to in traditional texts. For more on the details of these sources, see Karl Brunnhölzl's Translator's Introduction in When the Clouds Part.

The Play in Full

འཕགས་པ་རྒྱ་ཆེར་རོལ་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

Lalitavistarasūtra

Jinamitra

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. (Source: 84000 Reading Room)

Sūtra in the Heavily Adorned (Realm)

འཕགས་པ་རྒྱན་སྟུག་པོ་བཀོད་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

Ghanavyūhasūtra

Jinamitra

Only extant in Chinese and Tibetan translations, this sūtra, which is centered around Buddha Śākyamuni's visit to the pure land of the Buddha Vairocana, is an important source for the Yogācāra notions of the three natures, tathāgatagarbha and the ālayavijñāna. These latter two terms are often treated as synonyms in the text, especially in their pure form, while in its impure form the ālayavijñāna is designated as the source from which all ordinary phenomena emerge.

The Diamond Sūtra; The Perfection of Wisdom Sūtra called The Diamond Cutter

འཕགས་པ་ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་རྡོ་རྗེ་གཅོད་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

Vajracchedikāprajñāpāramitāsūtra

Śīlendrabodhi

One of the most revered and recited scriptures of the perfection of wisdom genre (prajñāpāramitāsūtras), perhaps second only to the Heart Sūtra, both of which became especially popular in the East Asian Buddhist traditions. It is a crucial source for Mahāyāna tenets of selflessness and the emptiness of phenomena, and its discourse is framed as an explanation of how to enter into the vehicle of the bodhisattvas by developing and sustaining their enlightened perspective.

Sūtra on Wisdom at Death

འདའ་ཀ་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

Atyayajñānasūtra

While the Buddha is residing in the Akaniṣṭha realm, the bodhisattva mahāsattva Ākāśagarbha asks him how to consider the mind of a bodhisattva who is about to die. The Buddha replies that when death comes a bodhisattva should develop the wisdom of the hour of death. He explains that a bodhisattva should cultivate a clear understanding of the non-existence of entities, great compassion, non-apprehension, non-attachment, 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. (Source: 84000 Reading Room)

Mahāyāna Sūtra which Decisively Reveals the Intention

འཕགས་པ་དགོངས་པ་ངེས་པར་འགྲེལ་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra

Bodhiruci

A crucial source text for the Yogācāra school and many of its central tenets, including the theories of consciousness-only, all-ground consciousness (Skt. ālayavijñāna; Tib. kun gzhi rnam par shes pa), and the three natures. It is also noteworthy for its discussion of the relationship between the two truths (Ch.3), the three turnings of the wheel of Dharma (Ch.7), and meditation (Ch.8). Furthermore, it is commonly included in the Tibetan lists of sūtras that teach buddha-nature and/or the definitive meaning.

Great Cloud Sūtra

འཕགས་པ་སྤྲིན་ཆེན་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

Mahāmeghasūtra

Surendrabodhi

One of the tathāgatagarbha sūtras, this text is based around a narrative in which the Buddha is questioned by the bodhisattva Mahāmeghagarbha. According to Radich (see scholarly notes below) the exposition of tathāgatagarbha doctrine in the Mahāmeghasūtra echoes that of the Mahāparinirvāṇamahāsūtra. It preaches the theme of secret teachings, the idea that tathāgatagarbha/buddha nature is to be “seen,” and the fact that sentient beings have tathāgatagarbha within them like a separate entity.

Higher Knowledge Sūtra

ཆོས་མངོན་པའི་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

Abhidharmamahāyānasūtra

This text is a lost Yogācāra sūtra. It is preserved only in a few quotes in other Yogācāra texts.

The Discourse for Aṅgulimāla

འཕགས་པ་སོར་མོའི་ཕྲེང་བ་ལ་ཕན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

Aṅgulimālīyasūtra

Śākyaprabha

The Mahāyāna version of this sūtra, like the earlier Pali sutta of the same name, recounts a sorted tale of jealousy and revenge that spirals out of control, in which a once promising disciple is set on the path to become a vicious murderer in search of a thousand victims in order to create a garland strung with their severed fingers. That is, of course, until he encounters the final victim needed to complete his task, the Buddha. (You can read the story here). The Mahāyāna version is routinely included among the lists of so-called tathāgatagarbha sūtras, the reason likely being the extensive discussion the protagonist has with Mañjuśrī on the proper view of emptiness. The position presented in the text has been taken by some to be an early precursor to the view of other-emptiness.

The Discourse on Neither Increase nor Decrease

Anūnatvāpūrṇatvanirdeśaparivarta

Bodhiruci

One of the sūtra sources cited in the Ratnagotravibhāga, especially in relation to the fourth and sixth of the seven vajra topics discussed therein—namely, the teachings on the element, which in this case is a synonym for buddha-nature, and the teachings on the qualities. Though much of it is quoted in the Ratnagotravibhāga, the full text is only extant in a single Chinese translation.

Scripture of the Garland of Buddhas

སངས་རྒྱས་ཕལ་པོ་ཆེ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཤིན་ཏུ་རྒྱས་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

Buddhāvataṃsakasūtra

Jinamitra

One of the longest works in the entire Buddhist canon, the Buddhāvataṃsakasūtra is widely considered to be a compilation of independent scriptures, which was expanded upon over the course of time. It was extremely influential in East Asia, where it was preserved in an eighty-scroll recension. The Tibetan translation of this work fills four volumes in the Derge Kangyur. Though only two sections—namely, the Gaṇḍavyūhasūtra and the Daśabhūmikasūtra—have survived in Sanskrit, both of which have also circulated as independent works.

Questions of Dhāraṇīśvararāja Sūtra

འཕགས་པ་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་རྗེ་ཆེན་པོ་ངེས་པར་བསྟན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

Dhāraṇīśvararājasūtra

Śīlendrabodhi

Also known as The Sūtra Teaching the Great Compassion of the Tathāgatas (Tathāgatamahākaruṇānirdeśasūtra), this lengthy sūtra is stated to be the primary source for the Ratnagotravibhāga since it touches upon all seven vajra topics discussed in the treatise.

Bodhisattva Dṛḍhādhyāśaya Chapter

འཕགས་པ་ལྷག་པའི་བསམ་པ་བརྟན་པའི་ལེའུ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

Dṛḍhādhyāśayaparivarta

Surendrabodhi

One of the sūtra sources for the Ratnagotravibhāga, especially for the first three of the seven vajra topics discussed therein—namely, the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha.

Questions of Gaganagañja Sūtra

འཕགས་པ་ནམ་མཁའ་མཛོད་ཀྱིས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

Gaganagañjaparipṛcchāsūtra

Vijayaśīla

Essentially a discourse on merit, particularly that of the buddhas who have accumulated it over countless eons, this sūtra is quoted briefly in the Ratnagotravibhāga in the context of the adventitious nature of the afflictions and the pure nature of the mind.

Adamantine Absorption Scripture

རྡོ་རྗེའི་ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་གྱི་ཆོས་ཀྱི་ཡི་གེ།

Jingang sanmei jing

This text, also known as the *Vajrasamādhisūtra, is a Korean apocryphon, meaning an indigenous scripture that claimed to be a translation of an Indic original. It was composed at the end of the seventh century and continues to have widespread appeal across Asia as a source for buddha-nature and original enlightenment teachings. It belongs to the genre of "samādhi sūtra" in that it offers contemplative techniques designed to lead to enlightenment. The scripture reveals influences of early Chan and the Chinese Yogācāra tradition of Paramārtha, containing an extensive discussion of "immaculate consciousness" (amalavijñāna), the ninth consciousness which unites saṃsāra and nirvāṇa in a "single taste." The great Korean scholiast Wǒnhyo (617–686, 體用) wrote the most famous commentary, in which he outlined six successive steps for realizing original enlightenment. It is translated in Buswell, The Formation of Ch'an Ideology in China and Korea, 1989.

Descent into Laṅka Sūtra

འཕགས་པ་ལང་ཀར་གཤེགས་པའི་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

Laṅkāvatārasūtra

Go Chodrub

An important Mahāyāna sūtra that was highly influential in East Asia as well as in Nepal, where a manuscript was discovered that remains the only extant Sanskrit recension of this text. It is notable for its inclusion of many doctrinal features that would come to be associated with the Yogācāra philosophy of Mind-Only (Cittamātra), such as the ālayavijñāna, or store-house consciousness, that acts as a repository for the seeds of karmic actions. It also includes several lengthy discussions of tathāgatagarbha and, though it is never actually referenced in the Uttaratantra, it is often listed among the so-called tathāgatagarbha sūtras. While its lack of mention in the Uttaratantra has been interpreted by scholars as evidence that the sūtra postdates the treatise, it should be noted that the ways in which the tathāgatagarbha is discussed in the sūtra is often at odds with its presentation in the Uttaratantra.

Great Drum Sūtra

འཕགས་པ་རྔ་བོ་ཆེ་ཆེན་པོའི་ལེའུ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

Mahābherīsūtra

Vidyākaraprabha

One of the so-called tathāgatagarbha sūtras that features teachings on buddha-nature. In this text buddha-nature is possessed by all sentient beings and is described as luminous and pure. It is also attributed characteristics, such as being permanent, eternal, everlasting, peaceful, and a self, that echo the four perfect qualities (guṇapāramitās) often ascribed to the dharmakāya when it is treated as a synonym for buddha-nature. It also connects tathāgatagarbha to the notion of a single vehicle and asserts the definitive nature of the buddha-nature teachings in general and within this sūtra in particular.

Great Nirvāṇa Mahāyāna Sūtra

འཕགས་པ་ཡོངས་སུ་མྱ་ངན་ལས་འདས་པ་ཆེན་པོ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra

Buddhabhadra

The Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra is one of the main scriptural sources for buddha-nature in China and Tibet. Set around the time of Buddha's passing or Mahāparinirvāṇa, the sūtra contains teachings on buddha-nature equating it with the dharmakāya—that is, the complete enlightenment of a buddha. It also asserts that all sentient beings possess this nature as the buddhadhātu, or buddha-element, which thus acts as a cause, seed, or potential for all beings to attain enlightenment. Furthermore, the sūtra includes some salient features related to this concept, such as the single vehicle and the notion that the dharmakāya is endowed with the four pāramitās of permanence, bliss, purity, and a self. It may be noted that there are three different texts with similar titles in the Chinese and Tibetan canons. Of the three Tibetan texts with Mahāparinirvāṇa in their title, a short one (Derge Kanjur, No. 121) called Āryamahāparinirvāṇasūtra contains prophecies of events in the centuries after the Buddha's Mahāparinirvāṇa but has nothing on buddha-nature. Thus, this is not the Mahāparinirvāṇāsūtra which is considered as a Tathāgatagarbhasūtra. The two which deal with buddha-nature are Mahāyānasūtras and contain detailed accounts of the final teachings of the Buddha. The first sūtra, the longer one covering two volumes of Derge Kanjur (mdo sde Nya and Ta) is a translation from Chinese while the second one is a translation from Sanskrit. They appear to be two different recensions of the same original sūtra as they have similar titles and overlapping content. However, the one translated from Chinese is much longer and also contains information on the events after the Buddha entered Mahāparinirvāṇa.

Questions of Ratnacūḍa Sūtra

འཕགས་པ་གཙུག་ན་རིན་པོ་ཆེས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་པ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

Ratnacūḍaparipṛcchāsūtra

Kamalaśīla

Part of the Ratnakūṭa collection of sūtras, the Ratnacūḍaparipṛcchāsūtra is quoted briefly in the Ratnagotravibhāga without mentioning it by name.

Sūtra of Quintessential Instructions on the Great Vehicle

འཕགས་པ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མན་ངག་ཅེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

Ratnadārikāsūtra

Jinamitra

An important sūtra source for the Uttaratantra in its discussion of the third of the seven topics (buddha) in which the qualities of awakening are listed.

White Lotus of the Excellent Doctrine Sūtra

དམ་པའི་ཆོས་པད་མ་དཀར་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra

Surendrabodhi

Commonly referred to as the Lotus Sūtra, this text is extremely popular in East Asia, where it is considered to be the "final" teaching of the Buddha. Especially in Japan, reverence for this text has put it at the center of numerous Buddhist movements, including many modern, so-called new religions. The esteemed status of this scripture is epitomized in the Nichiren school's sole practice of merely paying homage to its title with the prayer "Namu myōhō renge kyō".

Questions of Sāgaramati Sūtra

འཕགས་པ་བློ་གྲོས་རྒྱ་མཚོས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

Sāgaramatiparipṛcchāsūtra

Buddhaprabha

This sūtra details the story of the bodhisattva Sāgaramati and his questioning of the Buddha. A couple of the Buddha's responses to the bodhisattva are quoted at length in the Ratnagotravibhāga, which explain how bodhisattvas utilize the afflictions to anchor them to saṃsāra in order to benefit sentient beings. However, since the afflictions are merely adventitious, these bodhisattvas are not affected by them and they are, likewise, able to mature sentient beings who can also be cleansed of these adventitious afflictions to reveal the innate purity of the mind.

The Ornament of the Light of Awareness that Enters the Domain of All Buddhas

འཕགས་པ་སངས་རྒྱས་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི་ཡུལ་ལ་འཇུག་པའི་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྣང་བའི་རྒྱན་ཅེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

Sarvabuddhaviśayāvatārajñānālokālaṃkārasūtra

Surendrabodhi

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 non-conceptual awareness results in great compassion beyond any reference point. (Summary from 84000 Reading Room)

Lion's Roar of Śrīmālādevī Sūtra

འཕགས་པ་ལྷ་མོ་དཔལ་ཕྲེང་གི་སེང་གེའི་སྒྲ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

Śrīmālādevīsūtra

Jinamitra

One of the more prominent sūtra sources for the Ratnagotravibhāga, this text tells of the story of Śrīmālādevī taking up the Buddhist path at the behest of her royal parents based on a prophecy of the Buddha. It includes mention of important concepts related to the teachings on buddha-nature, such as the single vehicle and the four perfections, or transcendent characteristics, of the dharmakāya. It also mentions the notion that buddha-nature, which is equated with mind's luminous nature, is empty of adventitious stains but not empty of its limitless inseparable qualities. In his commentary on the Ratnagotravibhāga, Asaṅga quotes this sūtra more than any other source text. In particular, it is considered a source for the fifth of the seven vajra topics, enlightenment.

Tathāgata Essence Sūtra

འཕགས་པ་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

Tathāgatagarbhasūtra

Śākyaprabha

The Tathāgatagarbhasūtra (TGS) is a relatively short text that represents the starting point of a number of works in Indian Mahāyāna Buddhism centering around the idea that all living beings have the buddha-nature. The genesis of the term tathāgatagarbha (in Tibetan de bzhin gshegs pa'i snying po, in Chinese rulai zang 如來藏, the key term of this strand of Buddhism and the title of the sūtra), can be observed in the textual history of the TGS. (Zimmermann, A Buddha Within: The Tathāgatagarbhasūtra, p. 7)

Sūtra Showing the Realm of the Inconceivable Qualities and Wisdom of the Tathāgatas

འཕགས་པ་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་ཡོན་ཏན་དང་ཡེ་ཤེས་བསམ་གྱིས་མི་ཁྱབ་པའི་ཡུལ་ལ་འཇུག་པ་བསྟན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

Tathāgataguṇajñānācintyaviṣayāvatāranirdeśa

Jñānagarbha

One of the sūtra sources for the Ratnagotravibhāga, especially in terms of the last of the seven vajra topics discussed therein—namely, the activities.

Text

Lalitavistarasūtra

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. (Source: 84000 Reading Room)

Lalitavistarasūtra;Jinamitra;ཇིནམིཏྲ;slob dpon dzi na mi tra; Dānaśīla;Mālava;Munivarman;Yeshe De;ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་;ye shes sde;sna nam ye shes sde;zhang ban+de ye shes sde;སྣ་ནམ་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་;ཞང་བནྡེ་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་;Divākara;Rizhao (日照);'phags pa rgya cher rol pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo;འཕགས་པ་རྒྱ་ཆེར་རོལ་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།;The Play in Full;āryalalitavistaranāmamahāyānasūtra;方廣大莊嚴經;आर्यललितविस्तरनाममहायानसूत्र;འཕགས་པ་རྒྱ་ཆེར་རོལ་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

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Ghanavyūhasūtra

Only extant in Chinese and Tibetan translations, this sūtra, which is centered around Buddha Śākyamuni's visit to the pure land of the Buddha Vairocana, is an important source for the Yogācāra notions of the three natures, tathāgatagarbha and the ālayavijñāna. These latter two terms are often treated as synonyms in the text, especially in their pure form, while in its impure form the ālayavijñāna is designated as the source from which all ordinary phenomena emerge.

Ghanavyūhasūtra;Jinamitra;ཇིནམིཏྲ;slob dpon dzi na mi tra; Śīlendrabodhi;shi len+d+ra bo d+hi;tshul khrims dbang po byang chub;Yeshe De;ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་;ye shes sde;sna nam ye shes sde;zhang ban+de ye shes sde;སྣ་ནམ་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་;ཞང་བནྡེ་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་;Amoghavajra;Divākara;Rizhao (日照);'phags pa rgyan stug po bkod pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo;འཕགས་པ་རྒྱན་སྟུག་པོ་བཀོད་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།;Sūtra in the Heavily Adorned (Realm);Ghanavyūhasūtra;大乘密嚴經;घनव्यूहसूत्र

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Vajracchedikāprajñāpāramitāsūtra

One of the most revered and recited scriptures of the perfection of wisdom genre (prajñāpāramitāsūtras), perhaps second only to the Heart Sūtra, both of which became especially popular in the East Asian Buddhist traditions. It is a crucial source for Mahāyāna tenets of selflessness and the emptiness of phenomena, and its discourse is framed as an explanation of how to enter into the vehicle of the bodhisattvas by developing and sustaining their enlightened perspective.

Vajracchedikāprajñāpāramitāsūtra;Śīlendrabodhi;shi len+d+ra bo d+hi;tshul khrims dbang po byang chub; Yeshe De;ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་;ye shes sde;sna nam ye shes sde;zhang ban+de ye shes sde;སྣ་ནམ་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་;ཞང་བནྡེ་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་;Kumārajīva;Bodhiruci;Paramārtha;Dharmagupta;Jiduo;Yijing;Zhang Wenming;Xuanzang;Chen Hui (or Chen Yi);'phags pa shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa rdo rje gcod pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo;འཕགས་པ་ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་རྡོ་རྗེ་གཅོད་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།;The Diamond Sūtra;The Perfection of Wisdom Sūtra called The Diamond Cutter;Vajracchedikāprajñāpāramitāsūtra;大般若波羅蜜多經;वज्रच्छेदिकाप्रज्ञापारमितासूत्र;འཕགས་པ་ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་རྡོ་རྗེ་གཅོད་པ།

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Atyayajñānasūtra

While the Buddha is residing in the Akaniṣṭha realm, the bodhisattva mahāsattva Ākāśagarbha asks him how to consider the mind of a bodhisattva who is about to die. The Buddha replies that when death comes a bodhisattva should develop the wisdom of the hour of death. He explains that a bodhisattva should cultivate a clear understanding of the non-existence of entities, great compassion, non-apprehension, non-attachment, 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. (Source: 84000 Reading Room)

Atyayajñānasūtra;'da' ka ye shes kyi mdo;འདའ་ཀ་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།;Sūtra on Wisdom at Death;Atyayajñānasūtra;अत्ययज्ञानसूत्र;འཕགས་པ་འདའ་ཀ་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

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Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra

A crucial source text for the Yogācāra school and many of its central tenets, including the theories of consciousness-only, all-ground consciousness (Skt. ālayavijñāna; Tib. kun gzhi rnam par shes pa), and the three natures. It is also noteworthy for its discussion of the relationship between the two truths (Ch.3), the three turnings of the wheel of Dharma (Ch.7), and meditation (Ch.8). Furthermore, it is commonly included in the Tibetan lists of sūtras that teach buddha-nature and/or the definitive meaning.

Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra;Bodhiruci; Paramārtha;Guṇabhadra;Xuanzang;Chen Hui (or Chen Yi);'phags pa dgongs pa nges par 'grel pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo;འཕགས་པ་དགོངས་པ་ངེས་པར་འགྲེལ་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།;Mahāyāna Sūtra which Decisively Reveals the Intention;Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra;解深密經;संधिनिर्मोचनसूत्र;འཕགས་པ་དགོངས་པ་ངེས་པར་འགྲེལ་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

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Mahāmeghasūtra

One of the tathāgatagarbha sūtras, this text is based around a narrative in which the Buddha is questioned by the bodhisattva Mahāmeghagarbha. According to Radich (see scholarly notes below) the exposition of tathāgatagarbha doctrine in the Mahāmeghasūtra echoes that of the Mahāparinirvāṇamahāsūtra. It preaches the theme of secret teachings, the idea that tathāgatagarbha/buddha nature is to be “seen,” and the fact that sentient beings have tathāgatagarbha within them like a separate entity.

Mahāmeghasūtra;tathāgatagarbha;History of buddha-nature in India;The doctrine of buddha-nature in Indian Buddhism;Surendrabodhi;lha dbang byang chub; Yeshe De;ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་;ye shes sde;sna nam ye shes sde;zhang ban+de ye shes sde;སྣ་ནམ་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་;ཞང་བནྡེ་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་;Dharmakṣema;'phags pa sprin chen po zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo;འཕགས་པ་སྤྲིན་ཆེན་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།;Great Cloud Sūtra;Mahāmeghasūtra;महामेघसूत्र;འཕགས་པ་སྤྲིན་ཆེན་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

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Abhidharmamahāyānasūtra

This text is a lost Yogācāra sūtra. It is preserved only in a few quotes in other Yogācāra texts.

Abhidharmamahāyānasūtra;chos mngon pa'i theg pa chen po'i mdo;ཆོས་མངོན་པའི་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།;Higher Knowledge Sūtra;Abhidharmamahāyānasūtra;अभिधर्ममहायानसूत्र;ཆོས་མངོན་པ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ་འདི་ནི།

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Aṅgulimālīyasūtra

One of the tathāgatagarbha sūtras, this is the the Mahāyāna version of an earlier Pali sutta of the same name.

Aṅgulimālīyasūtra;Śākyaprabha;ཤཱཀྱ་འོད་;shAkya 'Od; Dharmatāśīla;d+harma tA shI la;chos nyid tshul khrims;Tong Ācārya;tong A tsar+ya;Guṇabhadra;'phags pa sor mo'i phreng ba la phan pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo;འཕགས་པ་སོར་མོའི་ཕྲེང་བ་ལ་ཕན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།;The Discourse for Aṅgulimāla;Aṅgulimālīyasūtra;央掘魔羅經;अङ्गुलिमालीयसूत्र

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Anūnatvāpūrṇatvanirdeśa

One of the tathāgatagarbha sūtras that describes the dharmakāya as the natural state of all beings, enlightened and non-enlightened alike.

Anūnatvāpūrṇatvanirdeśa;Bodhiruci;The Discourse on Neither Increase nor Decrease;Anūnatvāpūrṇatvanirdeśaparivarta;不增不減經;अनूनत्वापूर्णत्वनिर्देशपरिवर्त;འགྲིབ་པ་མེད་ཅིང་འཕེལ་བ་མེད་པ་ཉིད་བསྟན་པ།

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Buddhāvataṃsakasūtra

One of the longest works in the entire Buddhist canon, the Buddhāvataṃsakasūtra is widely considered to be a compilation of independent scriptures, which was expanded upon over the course of time. It was extremely influential in East Asia, where it was preserved in an eighty-scroll recension. The Tibetan translation of this work fills four volumes in the Derge Kangyur. Though only two sections—namely, the Gaṇḍavyūhasūtra and the Daśabhūmikasūtra—have survived in Sanskrit, both of which have also circulated as independent works.

Buddhāvataṃsakasūtra;Jinamitra;ཇིནམིཏྲ;slob dpon dzi na mi tra; Surendrabodhi;lha dbang byang chub;Yeshe De;ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་;ye shes sde;sna nam ye shes sde;zhang ban+de ye shes sde;སྣ་ནམ་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་;ཞང་བནྡེ་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་;Vairotsana;བཻ་རོ་ཙ་ན་;bai ro tsa na;lo chen bai ro tsa na;pa gor bai ro tsa na;ལོ་ཆེན་བཻ་རོ་ཙ་ན་;པ་གོར་བཻ་རོ་ཙ་ན་;Buddhabhadra;Śikṣānanda;sangs rgyas phal po che zhes bya ba shin tu rgyas pa chen po'i mdo;སངས་རྒྱས་ཕལ་པོ་ཆེ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཤིན་ཏུ་རྒྱས་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།;Scripture of the Garland of Buddhas;Buddhāvataṃsakasūtra;大方廣佛華嚴經;बुद्धावतंसकसूत्र

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Dhāraṇīśvararājasūtra

Also known as The Sūtra Teaching the Great Compassion of the Tathāgatas (Tathāgatamahākaruṇānirdeśasūtra), this lengthy sūtra is stated to be the primary source for the Ratnagotravibhāga since it touches upon all seven vajra topics discussed in the treatise.

Dhāraṇīśvararājasūtra;Śīlendrabodhi;shi len+d+ra bo d+hi;tshul khrims dbang po byang chub; Yeshe De;ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་;ye shes sde;sna nam ye shes sde;zhang ban+de ye shes sde;སྣ་ནམ་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་;ཞང་བནྡེ་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་;Dharmarakṣa;'phags pa de bzhin gshegs pa'i snying rje chen po nges par bstan pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo;འཕགས་པ་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་རྗེ་ཆེན་པོ་ངེས་པར་བསྟན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།;Questions of Dhāraṇīśvararāja Sūtra;Dhāraṇīśvararājasūtra;大哀經;धारणीश्वरराजसूत्र

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Dṛḍhādhyāśayaparivarta

One of the sūtra sources for the Ratnagotravibhāga, especially for the first three of the seven vajra topics discussed therein—namely, the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha.

Dṛḍhādhyāśayaparivarta;Surendrabodhi;lha dbang byang chub; Prajñāvarman;shes rab go cha;Yeshe De;ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་;ye shes sde;sna nam ye shes sde;zhang ban+de ye shes sde;སྣ་ནམ་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་;ཞང་བནྡེ་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་;'phags pa lhag pa'i bsam pa brtan pa'i le'u zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo;འཕགས་པ་ལྷག་པའི་བསམ་པ་བརྟན་པའི་ལེའུ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།;Bodhisattva Dṛḍhādhyāśaya Chapter;Dṛḍhādhyāśayaparivarta;दृढाध्याशयपरिवर्त;འཕགས་པ་ལྷག་པའི་བསམ་པ་བརྟན་པའི་ལེའུ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

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Gaganagañjaparipṛcchāsūtra

Essentially a discourse on merit, particularly that of the buddhas who have accumulated it over countless eons, this sūtra is quoted briefly in the Ratnagotravibhāga in the context of the adventitious nature of the afflictions and the pure nature of the mind.

Gaganagañjaparipṛcchāsūtra;Vijayaśīla; Śīlendrabodhi;shi len+d+ra bo d+hi;tshul khrims dbang po byang chub;Yeshe De;ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་;ye shes sde;sna nam ye shes sde;zhang ban+de ye shes sde;སྣ་ནམ་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་;ཞང་བནྡེ་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་;'phags pa nam mkha mdzod kyis zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo;འཕགས་པ་ནམ་མཁའ་མཛོད་ཀྱིས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།;Questions of Gaganagañja Sūtra;Gaganagañjaparipṛcchāsūtra;大集大虛空藏菩薩所問經;गगनगञ्जपरिपृच्छासूत्र

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Vajrasamādhisūtra

The *Vajrasamādhisūtra is a foundational scripture for Chan and buddha-nature theory.

Vajrasamādhisūtra;The doctrine of buddha-nature in Chinese Buddhism;rdo rje'i ting nge 'dzin gyi chos kyi yi ge;རྡོ་རྗེའི་ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་གྱི་ཆོས་ཀྱི་ཡི་གེ།;Adamantine Absorption Scripture;Vajrasamādhisūtra;金剛三昧經

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Laṅkāvatārasūtra

An important Mahāyāna sūtra that was highly influential in East Asia as well as in Nepal, where a manuscript was discovered that remains the only extant Sanskrit recension of this text. It is notable for its inclusion of many doctrinal features that would come to be associated with the Yogācāra philosophy of Mind-Only (Cittamātra), such as the ālayavijñāna, or store-house consciousness, that acts as a repository for the seeds of karmic actions. It also includes several lengthy discussions of tathāgatagarbha and, though it is never actually referenced in the Uttaratantra, it is often listed among the so-called tathāgatagarbha sūtras. While its lack of mention in the Uttaratantra has been interpreted by scholars as evidence that the sūtra postdates the treatise, it should be noted that the ways in which the tathāgatagarbha is discussed in the sūtra is often at odds with its presentation in the Uttaratantra.

Laṅkāvatārasūtra;Go Chodrub;འགོས་ཆོས་གྲུབ;'gos chos grub; Guṇabhadra;Bodhiruci;Śikṣānanda;'phags pa lang kar gshegs pa'i theg pa chen po'i mdo;འཕགས་པ་ལང་ཀར་གཤེགས་པའི་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།;Descent into Laṅka Sūtra;Laṅkāvatārasūtra;入楞伽經;लङ्कावतारसूत्र;འཕགས་པ་ལང་ཀར་གཤེགས་པའི་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

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Mahābherīsūtra

One of the so-called tathāgatagarbha sūtras that features teachings on buddha-nature. In this text buddha-nature is possessed by all sentient beings and is described as luminous and pure. It is also attributed characteristics, such as being permanent, eternal, everlasting, peaceful, and a self, that echo the four perfect qualities (guṇapāramitās) often ascribed to the dharmakāya when it is treated as a synonym for buddha-nature. It also connects tathāgatagarbha to the notion of a single vehicle and asserts the definitive nature of the buddha-nature teachings in general and within this sūtra in particular.

Mahābherīsūtra;Vidyākaraprabha;bid+yA ka ra pra b+hA; Palgyi Lhunpo;dpal gyi lhun po;Guṇabhadra;'phags pa rnga bo che chen po'i le'u zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo;འཕགས་པ་རྔ་བོ་ཆེ་ཆེན་པོའི་ལེའུ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།;Great Drum Sūtra;Mahābherīsūtra;大法鼓經;महाभेरीसूत्र

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Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra

The Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra is one of the main scriptural sources for buddha-nature in China and Tibet. Set around the time of Buddha's passing or Mahāparinirvāṇa, the sūtra contains teachings on buddha-nature equating it with the dharmakāya—that is, the complete enlightenment of a buddha. It also asserts that all sentient beings possess this nature as the buddhadhātu, or buddha-element, which thus acts as a cause, seed, or potential for all beings to attain enlightenment. Furthermore, the sūtra includes some salient features related to this concept, such as the single vehicle and the notion that the dharmakāya is endowed with the four pāramitās of permanence, bliss, purity, and a self. It may be noted that there are three different texts with similar titles in the Chinese and Tibetan canons. Of the three Tibetan texts with Mahāparinirvāṇa in their title, a short one (Derge Kanjur, No. 121) called Āryamahāparinirvāṇasūtra contains prophecies of events in the centuries after the Buddha's Mahāparinirvāṇa but has nothing on buddha-nature. Thus, this is not the Mahāparinirvāṇāsūtra which is considered as a Tathāgatagarbhasūtra. The two which deal with buddha-nature are Mahāyānasūtras and contain detailed accounts of the final teachings of the Buddha. The first sūtra, the longer one covering two volumes of Derge Kanjur (mdo sde Nya and Ta) is a translation from Chinese while the second one is a translation from Sanskrit. They appear to be two different recensions of the same original sūtra as they have similar titles and overlapping content. However, the one translated from Chinese is much longer and also contains information on the events after the Buddha entered Mahāparinirvāṇa.

Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra;Buddhabhadra; Devacandra;Gewai Lodrö;དགེ་བའི་བློ་གྲོས;dge ba'i blo gros;Dharmakṣema;Wangpabzhun;ཝང་ཕབ་ཞུན;Wang phab zhun;Gyatso De;རྒྱ་མཚོའི་སྡེ;rgya mtsho'i sde;Jinamitra;ཇིནམིཏྲ;slob dpon dzi na mi tra;Jñānagarbha;rgya gar gyi mkhan po dznyA na garbha;Kamalagupta;Rinchen Zangpo;རིན་ཆེན་བཟང་པོ་;rin chen bzang po;lo tsA ba rin chen bzang po;ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་རིན་ཆེན་བཟང་པོ་;Faxian;Fa-Hien;Fa-hsien;Xie Lingyun;Huiyan;Hui-yen;Huiguan;Hui-kuan;'phags pa yongs su mya ngan las 'das pa chen po theg pa chen po'i mdo;'phags pa yongs su mya ngan las 'das pa chen po'i mdo chen po;'phags pa yongs su mya ngan las 'das pa chen po'i mdo;འཕགས་པ་ཡོངས་སུ་མྱ་ངན་ལས་འདས་པ་ཆེན་པོ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།;Great Nirvāṇa Mahāyāna Sūtra;Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra;大般泥洹經;महापरिनिर्वाणसूत्र;འཕགས་པ་ཡོངས་སུ་མྱ་ངན་ལས་འདས་པ་ཆེན་པོ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

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Ratnacūḍaparipṛcchāsūtra

Part of the Ratnakūṭa collection of sūtras, the Ratnacūḍaparipṛcchāsūtra is quoted briefly in the Ratnagotravibhāga without mentioning it by name.

Ratnacūḍaparipṛcchāsūtra;Kamalaśīla;པདྨའི་ངང་ཚུལ་;pad+ma'i ngang tshul; Dharmatāśīla;d+harma tA shI la;chos nyid tshul khrims;Bodhiruci;'phags pa gtsug na rin po ches zhus pa zhes bya pa theg pa chen po'i mdo;འཕགས་པ་གཙུག་ན་རིན་པོ་ཆེས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་པ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།;Questions of Ratnacūḍa Sūtra;Ratnacūḍaparipṛcchāsūtra;寶髻菩薩會;रत्नचूडपरिपृच्छासूत्र;འཕགས་པ་གཙུག་ན་རིན་པོ་ཆེས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་པ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

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Ratnadārikāsūtra

An important sūtra source for the Uttaratantra in its discussion of the third of the seven topics (buddha) in which the qualities of awakening are listed.

Ratnadārikāsūtra;Jinamitra;ཇིནམིཏྲ;slob dpon dzi na mi tra; Dānaśīla;Mālava;Yeshe De;ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་;ye shes sde;sna nam ye shes sde;zhang ban+de ye shes sde;སྣ་ནམ་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་;ཞང་བནྡེ་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་;'phags pa theg pa chen po'i man ngag ces bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo;འཕགས་པ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མན་ངག་ཅེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།;Sūtra of Quintessential Instructions on the Great Vehicle;Ratnadārikāsūtra;大方等大集經;रत्नदारिकासूत्र;འཕགས་པ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མན་ངག་ཅེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

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Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra

Commonly referred to as the Lotus Sūtra, this text is extremely popular in East Asia, where it is considered to be the "final" teaching of the Buddha. Especially in Japan, reverence for this text has put it at the center of numerous Buddhist movements, including many modern, so-called new religions. The esteemed status of this scripture is epitomized in the Nichiren school's sole practice of merely paying homage to its title with the prayer "Namu myōhō renge kyō".

Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra;Surendrabodhi;lha dbang byang chub; Yeshe De;ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་;ye shes sde;sna nam ye shes sde;zhang ban+de ye shes sde;སྣ་ནམ་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་;ཞང་བནྡེ་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་;Kumārajīva;Dharmarakṣa;Dharmakṣema;Jñānagupta;Dharmagupta;Jiduo;dam pa'i chos pad ma dkar po zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo;དམ་པའི་ཆོས་པད་མ་དཀར་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།;White Lotus of the Excellent Doctrine Sūtra;Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra;妙法蓮華經;सद्धर्मपुण्डरीकसूत्र;དམ་པའི་ཆོས་པད་མ་དཀར་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

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Sāgaramatiparipṛcchāsūtra

This sūtra details the story of the bodhisattva Sāgaramati and his questioning of the Buddha. A couple of the Buddha's responses to the bodhisattva are quoted at length in the Ratnagotravibhāga, which explain how bodhisattvas utilize the afflictions to anchor them to saṃsāra in order to benefit sentient beings. However, since the afflictions are merely adventitious, these bodhisattvas are not affected by them and they are, likewise, able to mature sentient beings who can also be cleansed of these adventitious afflictions to reveal the innate purity of the mind.

Sāgaramatiparipṛcchāsūtra;Buddhaprabha; Dharmarakṣa;Jinamitra;ཇིནམིཏྲ;slob dpon dzi na mi tra;Dānaśīla;Mālava;Yeshe De;ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་;ye shes sde;sna nam ye shes sde;zhang ban+de ye shes sde;སྣ་ནམ་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་;ཞང་བནྡེ་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་;Weijing;'phags pa blo gros rgya mtshos zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo;འཕགས་པ་བློ་གྲོས་རྒྱ་མཚོས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།;Questions of Sāgaramati Sūtra;Sāgaramatiparipṛcchāsūtra;海意菩薩所問淨印法門經;सागरमतिपरिपृच्छासूत्र;འཕགས་པ་བློ་གྲོས་རྒྱ་མཚོས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

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Sarvabuddhaviśayāvatārajñānālokālaṃkārasūtra

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 non-conceptual awareness results in great compassion beyond any reference point. (Summary from 84000 Reading Room)

Sarvabuddhaviśayāvatārajñānālokālaṃkārasūtra;Surendrabodhi;lha dbang byang chub; Yeshe De;ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་;ye shes sde;sna nam ye shes sde;zhang ban+de ye shes sde;སྣ་ནམ་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་;ཞང་བནྡེ་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་;'phags pa sangs rgyas thams cad kyi yul la 'jug pa'i ye shes snang ba'i rgyan ces bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo;འཕགས་པ་སངས་རྒྱས་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི་ཡུལ་ལ་འཇུག་པའི་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྣང་བའི་རྒྱན་ཅེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།;The Ornament of the Light of Awareness that Enters the Domain of All Buddhas;Sarvabuddhaviśayāvatārajñānālokālaṃkārasūtra;大乘入諸佛境界智光明莊嚴經;सर्वबुद्धविशयावतारज्ञानालोकालंकारसूत्र;འཕགས་པ་སངས་རྒྱས་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི་ཡུལ་ལ་འཇུག་པའི་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྣང་བའི་རྒྱན་ཅེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

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Śrīmālādevīsūtra

One of the more prominent sūtra sources for the Ratnagotravibhāga, this text tells of the story of Śrīmālādevī taking up the Buddhist path at the behest of her royal parents based on a prophecy of the Buddha. It includes mention of important concepts related to the teachings on buddha-nature, such as the single vehicle and the four perfections, or transcendent characteristics, of the dharmakāya. It also mentions the notion that buddha-nature, which is equated with mind's luminous nature, is empty of adventitious stains but not empty of its limitless inseparable qualities. In his commentary on the Ratnagotravibhāga, Asaṅga quotes this sūtra more than any other source text. In particular, it is considered a source for the fifth of the seven vajra topics, enlightenment.

Śrīmālādevīsūtra;Jinamitra;ཇིནམིཏྲ;slob dpon dzi na mi tra; Surendrabodhi;lha dbang byang chub;Yeshe De;ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་;ye shes sde;sna nam ye shes sde;zhang ban+de ye shes sde;སྣ་ནམ་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་;ཞང་བནྡེ་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་;Bodhiruci;Guṇabhadra;'phags pa lha mo dpal phreng gi seng ge'i sgra zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo;འཕགས་པ་ལྷ་མོ་དཔལ་ཕྲེང་གི་སེང་གེའི་སྒྲ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།;Lion's Roar of Śrīmālādevī Sūtra;Śrīmālādevīsūtra;勝鬘夫人會;श्रीमालादेवीसूत्र;འཕགས་པ་ལྷ་མོ་དཔལ་ཕྲེང་གི་སེང་གེའི་སྒྲ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

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Tathāgatagarbhasūtra

The Tathāgatagarbhasūtra (TGS) is a relatively short text that represents the starting point of a number of works in Indian Mahāyāna Buddhism centering around the idea that all living beings have the buddha-nature. The genesis of the term tathāgatagarbha (in Tibetan de bzhin gshegs pa'i snying po, in Chinese rulai zang 如來藏, the key term of this strand of Buddhism and the title of the sūtra), can be observed in the textual history of the TGS. (Zimmermann, A Buddha Within: The Tathāgatagarbhasūtra, p. 7)

Tathāgatagarbhasūtra;Śākyaprabha;ཤཱཀྱ་འོད་;shAkya 'Od; Yeshe De;ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་;ye shes sde;sna nam ye shes sde;zhang ban+de ye shes sde;སྣ་ནམ་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་;ཞང་བནྡེ་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་;Buddhabhadra;Amoghavajra;'phags pa de bzhin gshegs pa'i snying po zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo;འཕགས་པ་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།;Tathāgata Essence Sūtra;Tathāgatagarbhasūtra;大方廣如來藏經;तथागतगर्भसूत्र

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Tathāgataguṇajñānācintyaviṣayāvatāranirdeśa

One of the sūtra sources for the Ratnagotravibhāga, especially in terms of the last of the seven vajra topics discussed therein—namely, the activities.

Tathāgataguṇajñānācintyaviṣayāvatāranirdeśa;Jñānagarbha;rgya gar gyi mkhan po dznyA na garbha; Yeshe De;ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་;ye shes sde;sna nam ye shes sde;zhang ban+de ye shes sde;སྣ་ནམ་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་;ཞང་བནྡེ་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་;Śikṣānanda;'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;འཕགས་པ་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་ཡོན་ཏན་དང་ཡེ་ཤེས་བསམ་གྱིས་མི་ཁྱབ་པའི་ཡུལ་ལ་འཇུག་པ་བསྟན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།;Sūtra Showing the Realm of the Inconceivable Qualities and Wisdom of the Tathāgatas;Tathāgataguṇajñānācintyaviṣayāvatāranirdeśa;大方廣入如來智德不思議境界經;तथागतगुणज्ञानाचिन्त्यविषयावतारनिर्देश;འཕགས་པ་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་ཡོན་ཏན་དང་ཡེ་ཤེས་བསམ་གྱིས་མི་ཁྱབ་པའི་ཡུལ་ལ་འཇུག་པ་བསྟན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

Sutras

25 Sūtras

The Play in Full འཕགས་པ་རྒྱ་ཆེར་རོལ་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ། Lalitavistarasūtra

Sūtra in the Heavily Adorned (Realm) འཕགས་པ་རྒྱན་སྟུག་པོ་བཀོད་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ། Ghanavyūhasūtra

Sūtra on Wisdom at Death འདའ་ཀ་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ། Atyayajñānasūtra

Mahāyāna Sūtra which Decisively Reveals the Intention འཕགས་པ་དགོངས་པ་ངེས་པར་འགྲེལ་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ། Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra

Great Cloud Sūtra འཕགས་པ་སྤྲིན་ཆེན་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ། Mahāmeghasūtra

Higher Knowledge Sūtra ཆོས་མངོན་པའི་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ། Abhidharmamahāyānasūtra

The Discourse for Aṅgulimāla འཕགས་པ་སོར་མོའི་ཕྲེང་བ་ལ་ཕན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ། Aṅgulimālīyasūtra

The Discourse on Neither Increase nor Decrease Anūnatvāpūrṇatvanirdeśaparivarta

Scripture of the Garland of Buddhas སངས་རྒྱས་ཕལ་པོ་ཆེ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཤིན་ཏུ་རྒྱས་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ། Buddhāvataṃsakasūtra

Bodhisattva Dṛḍhādhyāśaya Chapter འཕགས་པ་ལྷག་པའི་བསམ་པ་བརྟན་པའི་ལེའུ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ། Dṛḍhādhyāśayaparivarta

Questions of Gaganagañja Sūtra འཕགས་པ་ནམ་མཁའ་མཛོད་ཀྱིས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ། Gaganagañjaparipṛcchāsūtra

Adamantine Absorption Scripture རྡོ་རྗེའི་ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་གྱི་ཆོས་ཀྱི་ཡི་གེ། Jingang sanmei jing

Descent into Laṅka Sūtra འཕགས་པ་ལང་ཀར་གཤེགས་པའི་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ། Laṅkāvatārasūtra

Great Drum Sūtra འཕགས་པ་རྔ་བོ་ཆེ་ཆེན་པོའི་ལེའུ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ། Mahābherīsūtra

Great Nirvāṇa Mahāyāna Sūtra འཕགས་པ་ཡོངས་སུ་མྱ་ངན་ལས་འདས་པ་ཆེན་པོ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ། Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra

Questions of Ratnacūḍa Sūtra འཕགས་པ་གཙུག་ན་རིན་པོ་ཆེས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་པ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ། Ratnacūḍaparipṛcchāsūtra

Sūtra of Quintessential Instructions on the Great Vehicle འཕགས་པ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མན་ངག་ཅེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ། Ratnadārikāsūtra

White Lotus of the Excellent Doctrine Sūtra དམ་པའི་ཆོས་པད་མ་དཀར་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ། Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra

Questions of Sāgaramati Sūtra འཕགས་པ་བློ་གྲོས་རྒྱ་མཚོས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ། Sāgaramatiparipṛcchāsūtra

Lion's Roar of Śrīmālādevī Sūtra འཕགས་པ་ལྷ་མོ་དཔལ་ཕྲེང་གི་སེང་གེའི་སྒྲ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ། Śrīmālādevīsūtra

Tathāgata Essence Sūtra འཕགས་པ་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ། Tathāgatagarbhasūtra

The Play in Full

འཕགས་པ་རྒྱ་ཆེར་རོལ་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

Lalitavistarasūtra

Sūtra in the Heavily Adorned (Realm)

འཕགས་པ་རྒྱན་སྟུག་པོ་བཀོད་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

Ghanavyūhasūtra

Sūtra on Wisdom at Death

འདའ་ཀ་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

Atyayajñānasūtra

Mahāyāna Sūtra which Decisively Reveals the Intention

འཕགས་པ་དགོངས་པ་ངེས་པར་འགྲེལ་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra

Great Cloud Sūtra

འཕགས་པ་སྤྲིན་ཆེན་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

Mahāmeghasūtra

Higher Knowledge Sūtra

ཆོས་མངོན་པའི་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

Abhidharmamahāyānasūtra

The Discourse for Aṅgulimāla

འཕགས་པ་སོར་མོའི་ཕྲེང་བ་ལ་ཕན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

Aṅgulimālīyasūtra

The Discourse on Neither Increase nor Decrease

Anūnatvāpūrṇatvanirdeśaparivarta

Scripture of the Garland of Buddhas

སངས་རྒྱས་ཕལ་པོ་ཆེ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཤིན་ཏུ་རྒྱས་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

Buddhāvataṃsakasūtra

Bodhisattva Dṛḍhādhyāśaya Chapter

འཕགས་པ་ལྷག་པའི་བསམ་པ་བརྟན་པའི་ལེའུ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

Dṛḍhādhyāśayaparivarta

Questions of Gaganagañja Sūtra

འཕགས་པ་ནམ་མཁའ་མཛོད་ཀྱིས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

Gaganagañjaparipṛcchāsūtra

Adamantine Absorption Scripture

རྡོ་རྗེའི་ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་གྱི་ཆོས་ཀྱི་ཡི་གེ།

Jingang sanmei jing

Descent into Laṅka Sūtra

འཕགས་པ་ལང་ཀར་གཤེགས་པའི་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

Laṅkāvatārasūtra

Great Drum Sūtra

འཕགས་པ་རྔ་བོ་ཆེ་ཆེན་པོའི་ལེའུ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

Mahābherīsūtra

Great Nirvāṇa Mahāyāna Sūtra

འཕགས་པ་ཡོངས་སུ་མྱ་ངན་ལས་འདས་པ་ཆེན་པོ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra

Questions of Ratnacūḍa Sūtra

འཕགས་པ་གཙུག་ན་རིན་པོ་ཆེས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་པ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

Ratnacūḍaparipṛcchāsūtra

Sūtra of Quintessential Instructions on the Great Vehicle

འཕགས་པ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མན་ངག་ཅེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

Ratnadārikāsūtra

White Lotus of the Excellent Doctrine Sūtra

དམ་པའི་ཆོས་པད་མ་དཀར་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra

Questions of Sāgaramati Sūtra

འཕགས་པ་བློ་གྲོས་རྒྱ་མཚོས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

Sāgaramatiparipṛcchāsūtra

Lion's Roar of Śrīmālādevī Sūtra

འཕགས་པ་ལྷ་མོ་དཔལ་ཕྲེང་གི་སེང་གེའི་སྒྲ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

Śrīmālādevīsūtra

Tathāgata Essence Sūtra

འཕགས་པ་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

Tathāgatagarbhasūtra