Sutras

28 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.

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.

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.

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.

Brahmā's Net Sūtra

ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱ་མོ་སངས་རྒྱས་རྣམ་པར་སྣང་མཛད་ཀྱིས་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་སེམས་ཀྱི་གནས་བཤད་པ་ལེའུ་བཅུ་པ།

Fanwang jing

Fanwang jing. (J. Bonmōkyō; K Pǔmmang kyǒng). In Chinese, "Brahmā's Net Sūtra," the scripture is often cited by its reconstructed, but unattested, Sanskrit title, the *Brahmajālasūtra. This scripture is reputed to have been translated by KumārajIva in 406, but it is most likely an indigenous Chinese scripture (see apocrypha) composed during the middle of the fifth century. The Fanwang jing, in its current recension in two rolls, purports to be the tenth chapter of a much longer, 120-roll scripture tided the Bodhisattvaśīlasūtra, which is otherwise unknown. The first roll provides a description of the buddha Vairocana and the ten different stages of the bodhisattva path. Because subsequent Chinese indigenous scriptures that were closely related to the Fanwang jing, such as the Pusa yinluo penye jing, provided more systematic presentations of these soteriological models, this first roll was not widely studied and was typically omitted in commentaries on the scripture. Far more important to the tradition is the second roll, which is primarily concerned with the "bodhisattva precepts" (bodhisattvaśīla); this roll has often circulated independently as Pusajie jing (*Bodhisattvaśīlasūtra) "The Book of the Bodhisattva Precepts"). This roll provides a list of ten major and forty-eight minor Mahāyāna precepts that come to be known as the "Fanwang Precepts," which became a popular alternative to the 250 monastic precepts of the Dharmaguptaka vinaya (also known as the Sifen Lü). Unlike the majority of rules found in other non-Mahāyāna vinaya codes, the bodhisattva precepts are directed not only at ordained monks and nuns, but also may be taken by laymen and laywomen. The Fanwang jing correlates the precepts with Confucian virtues such as filial piety and obedience, as well as with one's buddha-nature (foxing). Numerous commentaries on this text were composed, and those written by Fazang, Mingkuang (fl. 800 CE), and the Korean monk T'aehyǒn (d.u.) were most influential. As the primary scriptural source in East Asia for the bodhisattva precepts, the Fanwang jing was tremendously influential in subsequent developments in Buddhist morality and institutions throughout the region. In Japan, for example, the Tendaishū monk Saichō (767-822) disparaged the prātimokṣa precepts of the traditional vinaya as being the precepts of hInayāna adherents, and rejected them in favor of having all monastics take instead the Mahāyāna precepts of the Fanwang jing. In Korea, all monastics and laypeople accept the bodhisattva precepts deriving from the Fanwang jing, but for monks and nuns these are still seen as complementary to their main monastic vows. (Source: "Fanwang jing." In The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, 295. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)

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)

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.

From 84000 Translating the Words of the Buddha:
The Sūtra of the Questions of Gaganagañja (Gaganagañjaparipṛcchāsūtra, Toh 148) is an important canonical work centering on the bodhisattva Gaganagañja’s inquiries to the Buddha, his display of seven miracles, and dialogue between various figures about core Mahāyāna principles. The sūtra covers topics such as the bodhisattva path, bodhicitta, concentration, buddha activity, wisdom (jñāna), as well as predictions about the future enlightenment of disciples. Throughout the discourse, the sky (gagana) is used as the central metaphor for emptiness (śūnyatā) and nonduality (advaya) to describe the nature of reality. (Source: 84000)

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 Excellent Abridged Wheel of Time Tantra

དཔལ་དུས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོའི་བསྡུས་པའི་རྒྱུད།

Kālacakratantra

The Kālacakratantra is an early eleventh-century esoteric treatise belonging to the class of unexcelled yoga-tantras (anuttara-yoga-tantra). To the best of our knowledge, it was the last anuttara-yoga-tantra to appear in India.
According to the Kālacakra tradition, the extant version of the Kālacakratantra is an abridged version of the larger original tantra, called the Paramādibuddha, that was taught by the Buddha Śākyamuni to Sucandra, the king of Śambhala and an emanation of Vajrapāṇi, in the Dhānyakaṭaka stūpa, a notable center of Mahāyāna in the vicinity of the present-day village of Amarāvatī in Andhra Pradesh. Upon receiving instruction on the Paramādibuddhatantra and returning to Śambhala, King Sucandra wrote it down and propagated it throughout his kingdom. His six successors continued to maintain the inherited tradition, and the eighth king of Śambhala, Mañjuśrī Yaśas, composed the abridged version of the Parāmadibuddhatantra, which is handed down to us as the Sovereign Abridged Kālacakratantra (Laghukālacakratantrarāja). It is traditionally taught that it is composed of 1,030 verses written in the sradgharā meter. However, various Sanskrit manuscripts and editions of the Laghukālacakratantra contain a somewhat larger number of verses, ranging from 1,037 to 1,047 verses. The term an “abridged tantra” (laghu-tantra) has a specific meaning in Indian Buddhist tantric tradition. Its traditional interpretation is given in Naḍapādas (Nāropā) Sekoddeśaṭīkā, which states that in every yoga, yoginī, and other types of tantras, the concise, general explanations (uddeśa) and specific explanations (nirdeśa) make up a tantric discourse (tantra-saṃgīti), and that discourse, which is an exposition (uddeśana) there, is an entire abridged tantra.
The tradition tells us that Mañjuśrī Yaśas's successor Puṇḍarīka, who was an emanation of Avalokiteśvara, composed a large commentary on the Kālacakratantra, called the Stainless Light (Vimalaprabhā), which became the most authoritative commentary on the Kālacakratantra and served as the basis for all subsequent commentarial literature of that literary corpus. The place of the Vimalaprabhā in the Kālacakra literary corpus is of great importance, for in many instances, without the Vimalaprabhā, it would be practically impossible to understand not only the broader implications of the Kālacakratantra' cryptic verses and often grammatically corrupt sentences but their basic meanings. It has been said that the Kālacakratantra is explicit with regard to the tantric teachings that are often only implied in the other anuttara-yoga-tantras, but this explicitness is actually far more characteristic of the Vimalaprabhā than of the Kālacakratantra itself. (Source: Wallace, Vesna A. The Inner Kālacakratantra: A Buddhist Tantric View of the Individual. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001: pp. 2-3.)

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)

Concise Presentation of Initiation

དབང་མདོར་བསྟན་པ།

Sekoddeśa

Somanātha

This is the first tantric text in the Kangyur canon related to the Kālacakra cycle. It is a summary of the third chapter of the longer Kālacakra tantra dealing with the ritual of initiation or empowerment. The Kālacakra teachings presents a unique set of seven initiations to conduct the ordinary/childlike initiate (བྱིས་པ་འཇུག་པའི་དབང་བདུན་) and then the four main initiations of the vase, secret, wisdom and word, which are also divided into two sets of the conventional and superior types. The Kālacakra cycle is considered to be very explicit in revealing the luminous nature of the mind through these initiatory rituals and tantric methods employing bodily energy and fluids.

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

Bodhiruci

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

Amoghavajra

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.

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

Bodhiruci

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.

Text

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།

Text

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།

Text

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

Text

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།

Text

Fanwang jing

---

Fanwang jing. (J. Bonmōkyō; K Pǔmmang kyǒng). In Chinese, "Brahmā's Net Sūtra," the scripture is often cited

by its reconstructed, but unattested, Sanskrit title, the *Brahmajālasūtra. This scripture is reputed to have been translated by KumārajIva in 406, but it is most likely an indigenous Chinese scripture (see apocrypha) composed during the middle of the fifth century. The Fanwang jing, in its current recension in two rolls, purports to be the tenth chapter of a much longer, 120-roll scripture tided the Bodhisattvaśīlasūtra, which is otherwise unknown. The first roll provides a description of the buddha Vairocana and the ten different stages of the bodhisattva path. Because subsequent Chinese indigenous scriptures that were closely related to the Fanwang jing, such as the Pusa yinluo penye jing, provided more systematic presentations of these soteriological models, this first roll was not widely studied and was typically omitted in commentaries on the scripture. Far more important to the tradition is the second roll, which is primarily concerned with the "bodhisattva precepts" (bodhisattvaśīla); this roll has often circulated independently as Pusajie jing (*Bodhisattvaśīlasūtra) "The Book of the Bodhisattva Precepts"). This roll provides a list of ten major and forty-eight minor Mahāyāna precepts that come to be known as the "Fanwang Precepts," which became a popular alternative to the 250 monastic precepts of the Dharmaguptaka vinaya (also known as the Sifen Lü). Unlike the majority of rules found in other non-Mahāyāna vinaya codes, the bodhisattva precepts are directed not only at ordained monks and nuns, but also may be taken by laymen and laywomen. The Fanwang jing correlates the precepts with Confucian virtues such as filial piety and obedience, as well as with one's buddha-nature (foxing). Numerous commentaries on this text were composed, and those written by Fazang, Mingkuang (fl. 800 CE), and the Korean monk T'aehyǒn (d.u.) were most influential. As the primary scriptural source in East Asia for the bodhisattva precepts, the Fanwang jing was tremendously influential in subsequent developments in Buddhist morality and institutions throughout the region. In Japan, for example, the Tendaishū monk Saichō (767-822) disparaged the prātimokṣa precepts of the traditional vinaya as being the precepts of hInayāna adherents, and rejected them in favor of having all monastics take instead the Mahāyāna precepts of the Fanwang jing. In Korea, all monastics and laypeople accept the bodhisattva precepts deriving from the Fanwang jing, but for monks and nuns these are still seen as complementary to

their main monastic vows. (Source: "Fanwang jing." In The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, 295. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)

Fanwang jing;chos kyi rgya mo sangs rgyas rnam par snang mdzad kyis byang chub sems dpa'i sems kyi gnas bshad pa le'u bcu pa;ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱ་མོ་སངས་རྒྱས་རྣམ་པར་སྣང་མཛད་ཀྱིས་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་སེམས་ཀྱི་གནས་བཤད་པ་ལེའུ་བཅུ་པ།;Brahmā's Net Sūtra;Brahmajālasūtra;梵網經;ब्रह्मजालसुत्र

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)

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།

Text

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།

Text

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

Text

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།

Text

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

Text

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

Text

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།

Text

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.

From 84000 Translating the Words of the Buddha:

The Sūtra of the Questions of Gaganagañja (Gaganagañjaparipṛcchāsūtra, Toh 148) is an important canonical work centering on the bodhisattva Gaganagañja’s inquiries to the Buddha, his display of seven miracles, and dialogue between various figures about core Mahāyāna principles. The sūtra covers topics such as the bodhisattva path, bodhicitta, concentration, buddha activity, wisdom (jñāna), as well as predictions about the future enlightenment of disciples. Throughout the discourse, the sky (gagana) is used as the central metaphor for emptiness (śūnyatā) and nonduality (advaya) to describe the nature of reality. (Source: 84000)

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

Text

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

Text

Kālacakratantra

---

The Kālacakratantra is an early eleventh-century esoteric treatise belonging to the class of unexcelled yoga-tantras (anuttara-yoga-tantra). To the best of our knowledge, it was the last anuttara-yoga-tantra to appear in India.
According to the Kālacakra tradition, the extant version of the Kālacakratantra is an abridged version of the larger original tantra, called the Paramādibuddha, that was taught by the Buddha Śākyamuni to Sucandra, the king of Śambhala and an emanation of Vajrapāṇi, in the Dhānyakaṭaka stūpa, a notable center of Mahāyāna in the vicinity of the present-day village of Amarāvatī in Andhra Pradesh. Upon receiving instruction on the Paramādibuddhatantra and returning to Śambhala, King Sucandra wrote it down and propagated it throughout his kingdom. His six successors continued to maintain the inherited tradition, and the eighth king of Śambhala, Mañjuśrī Yaśas, composed the abridged version of the Parāmadibuddhatantra, which is handed down to us as the Sovereign Abridged Kālacakratantra (Laghukālacakratantrarāja). It is traditionally taught that it is composed of 1,030 verses written in the sradgharā meter. However, various Sanskrit manuscripts and editions of the Laghukālacakratantra contain a somewhat larger number of verses, ranging from 1,037 to 1,047 verses. The term an “abridged tantra” (laghu-tantra) has a specific meaning in Indian Buddhist tantric tradition. Its traditional interpretation is given in Naḍapādas (Nāropā) Sekoddeśaṭīkā, which states that in every yoga, yoginī, and other types of tantras, the concise, general explanations (uddeśa) and specific explanations (nirdeśa) make up a tantric discourse (tantra-saṃgīti), and that discourse, which is an exposition (uddeśana) there, is an entire abridged tantra.
The tradition tells us that Mañjuśrī Yaśas's successor Puṇḍarīka, who was an emanation of Avalokiteśvara, composed a large commentary on the Kālacakratantra, called the Stainless Light (Vimalaprabhā), which became the most authoritative commentary on the Kālacakratantra and served as the basis for all subsequent commentarial literature of that literary corpus. The place of the Vimalaprabhā in the Kālacakra literary corpus is of great importance, for in many instances, without the Vimalaprabhā, it would be practically impossible to understand not only the broader implications of the Kālacakratantra' cryptic verses and often grammatically corrupt sentences but their basic meanings. It has been said that the Kālacakratantra is explicit with regard to the tantric teachings that are often only implied in the other anuttara-yoga-tantras, but this explicitness is actually far more characteristic of the Vimalaprabhā than of the Kālacakratantra itself. (Source: Wallace, Vesna A. The Inner Kālacakratantra: A Buddhist Tantric View of the Individual. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001: pp. 2-3.)

Kālacakratantra;dpal dus kyi 'khor lo'i bsdus pa'i rgyud;དཔལ་དུས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོའི་བསྡུས་པའི་རྒྱུད།;The Excellent Abridged Wheel of Time Tantra;Śrīlaghukālacakratantra;དཔལ་དུས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོའི་བསྡུས་པའི་རྒྱུད།

Text

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;Facheng; Bodhiruci;Guṇabhadra;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།

Text

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

Text

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།

Text

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།

Text

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།

Text

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།

Text

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།

Text

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།

Text

Sekoddeśa

---

This is the first tantric text in the Kangyur canon related to the Kālacakra cycle. It is a summary of the third chapter of the longer Kālacakra tantra dealing with the ritual of initiation or empowerment. The Kālacakra teachings presents a unique set of seven initiations to conduct the ordinary/childlike initiate (བྱིས་པ་འཇུག་པའི་དབང་བདུན་) and then the four main initiations of the vase, secret, wisdom and word, which are also divided into two sets of the conventional and superior types. The Kālacakra cycle is considered to be very explicit in revealing the luminous nature of the mind through these initiatory rituals and tantric methods employing bodily energy and fluids.

Sekoddeśa; dbang mdor bstan pa;དབང་མདོར་བསྟན་པ།;Concise Presentation of Initiation;sekoddeśa;सेकोद्देश;དབང་མདོར་བསྟན་པ།

Text

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;Bodhiruci; 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་;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།

Text

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;Amoghavajra; Buddhabhadra;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་;'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

Text

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།

Text

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;Bodhiruci; 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;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།

sūtra - Sūtras mainly refer to the discourses delivered by the Buddha and his disciples, and the Sūtra corpus is one of the three main sets of teachings which form the Buddhist canon. Skt. सूत्र Tib. མདོ། Ch. 佛经

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt. बोधिसत्त्व Tib. བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ། Ch. 菩薩

Yogācāra - Along with Madhyamaka, it was one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Asaṅga and Vasubandhu around the fourth century CE, many of its central tenets have roots in the Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra and the so-called third turning of the dharma wheel (see tridharmacakrapravartana). Skt. योगाचार Tib. རྣལ་འབྱོར་སྤྱོད་པ་ Ch. 瑜伽行派

ālayavijñāna - A neutral base consciousness that is posited as the storehouse for the seeds of past karmic actions in which they remain in a latent state until the circumstances arise for them to ripen as karmic consequences. Skt. आलयविज्ञान Tib. ཀུན་གཞིའི་རྣམ་ཤེས་ Ch. 藏識,阿賴耶識

ālayavijñāna - A neutral base consciousness that is posited as the storehouse for the seeds of past karmic actions in which they remain in a latent state until the circumstances arise for them to ripen as karmic consequences. Skt. आलयविज्ञान Tib. ཀུན་གཞིའི་རྣམ་ཤེས་ Ch. 藏識,阿賴耶識

kun gzhi - Although it is commonly used as an abbreviation of ālayavijñāna (kun gzhi'i rnam shes), in later Tibetan traditions, particularly that of the Kagyu and the Nyingma, it came to denote an ultimate or pure basis of mind, as opposed to the ordinary, deluded consciousness represented by the ālayavijñāna. Alternatively, in the Jonang tradition, this pure version is referred to as ālaya-wisdom (kun gzhi'i ye shes). Skt. आलय Tib. ཀུན་གཞི་

trisvabhāva - According to the Yogācāra school, all phenomena can be divided into three natures or characteristics: the imaginary nature (parikalpitasvabhāva), the dependent nature (paratantrasvabhāva), and the perfect or absolute nature (pariniṣpannasvabhāva). Skt. त्रिस्वभाव Tib. རང་བཞིན་གསུམ་

tridharmacakrapravartana - Three successive stages of the Buddhist teachings. Though they are traditionally attributed to the historical Buddha, modern scholarship tends to view them as developmental stages that occurred over the course of an extended period of time, with interludes of several centuries, in which we see major doctrinal shifts often based on seemingly newly emergent scriptural sources. Skt. त्रिधर्मचक्रप्रवर्तन Tib. ཆོས་འཁོར་རིམ་པ་གསུམ་

nītārtha - Refers to a teaching that is literally true. Skt. नीतार्थ Tib. ངེས་དོན་

tathāgatagarbha - Buddha-nature, literally the "womb/essence of those who have gone (to suchness)." Skt. तथागतगर्भ Tib. དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོ་ Ch. 如来藏

vinaya - Vinaya refers to the corpus of Buddhist teachings on moral discipline and precepts and is one of the three canonical sets of teachings alongside Sūtra and Abhidharma. It also refers to the monastic tradition which has been passed down since the Buddha's time until our time. Skt. विनय Tib. འདུལ་བ། Ch. 毘奈耶

bodhi - Enlightenment or awakening. In Tibetan it is translated as "purified" (byang) and "perfected" (chub), which corresponds to Siddhartha Gautama's achievement of purifying all obscurations and perfecting or attaining all qualities associated with a buddha. Skt. बोधि Tib. བྱང་ཆུབ་ Ch. 菩提,悟,覺

A lost Yogācāra sūtra, which is preserved only in a few quotes in other Yogācāra texts.

A lost Yogācāra sūtra, which is preserved only in a few quotes in other Yogācāra texts.

A lost Yogācāra sūtra, which is preserved only in a few quotes in other Yogācāra texts.

A lost Yogācāra sūtra, which is preserved only in a few quotes in other Yogācāra texts.

A lost Yogācāra sūtra, which is preserved only in a few quotes in other Yogācāra texts.

One of the tathāgatagarbha sūtras.

One of the tathāgatagarbha sūtras.

One of the tathāgatagarbha sūtras.

One of the tathāgatagarbha sūtras.

One of the tathāgatagarbha sūtras.

One of the tathāgatagarbha sūtras.

dharmakāya - "Truth body" or "true being" — One of the three bodies of a buddha. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, it often refers to a kind of fundamental principle or the true nature of reality itself. Skt. धर्मकाय Tib. ཆོས་སྐུ་ Ch. 法身

One of the sūtra sources for the Ratnagotravibhāga, which is only extant in its Chinese translation.

One of the sūtra sources for the Ratnagotravibhāga, which is only extant in its Chinese translation.

One of the sūtra sources for the Ratnagotravibhāga, which is only extant in its Chinese translation.

One of the sūtra sources for the Ratnagotravibhāga, which is only extant in its Chinese translation.

These are the root verses of the Uttaratantra attributed to Maitreya by the Tibetan tradition.

vajrapada - Literally, vajra-footing, or base. In the context of the Ratnagotravibhāga, this is the name given to the seven subjects that are addressed in the treatise. These seven are the buddha, dharma, saṅgha, the element (dhātu), enlightenment (bodhi), enlightened qualities (guṇa), and enlightened activities (karman). Skt. वज्रपद Tib. རྡོ་རྗེའི་གནས་

kleśa - Often referred to as poisons, these are a class of disturbing or disruptive emotional states that when aroused negatively affect or taint the mind. Skt. क्लेश Tib. ཉོན་མོངས་ Ch. 煩惱

bodhicitta - The altruistic thought to seek enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. It is said to have two aspects: compassion aimed at sentient beings and their problems and the wisdom of enlightenment as the solution. Skt. बोधिचित्त Tib. བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས། Ch. 菩提心

śūnyatā - The state of being empty of an innate nature due to a lack of independently existing characteristics. Skt. शून्यता Tib. སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་ Ch. 空,空門

advaya - Literally, "without duality," it refers to that which is indivisible, in that it is not divided into two. Skt. अद्वय Tib. གཉིས་མེད་ Ch. 不二

advaya - Literally, "without duality," it refers to that which is indivisible, in that it is not divided into two. Skt. अद्वय Tib. གཉིས་མེད་ Ch. 不二

tantra - Tantra, when juxtaposed with Sūtra, generally refers to the scriptures and texts which discuss esoteric topics. While the term is used to refer to texts on other topics, it is mostly used to refer to the genre of scriptures and texts on themes and topics associated with Vajrayāna Buddhism. Skt. तन्त्र Tib. རྒྱུད། Ch. 密宗

Kālacakra - Can refer to either the Kālacakra Tantra and its derivative texts or to the systematic tantric tradition based on these texts, as well as the deity Kālacakra upon which the associated practices are centered. Skt. कालचक्र Tib. དུས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོ། Ch. 時輪

In Sanskrit, "Stainless Light," the most important commentary on the Kālacakra Tantra',' attributed to Puṇḍarīka.

In Sanskrit, "Stainless Light," the most important commentary on the Kālacakra Tantra',' attributed to Puṇḍarīka.

Descent into Laṅka Sūtra, a very influential text in East Asia and Nepal.

Cittamātra - Though it is sometimes used synonymously with Yogācāra, it is in fact one of the more prominent philosophical theories associated with this school. It asserts that the objects in the external world with which we interact are actually mentally created representations appearing as those objects. The character of these perceptions is predetermined by our own karmic conditioning that is stored in the ālayavijñāna. Skt. चित्तमात्र Tib. སེམས་ཙམ་

Cittamātra - Though it is sometimes used synonymously with Yogācāra, it is in fact one of the more prominent philosophical theories associated with this school. It asserts that the objects in the external world with which we interact are actually mentally created representations appearing as those objects. The character of these perceptions is predetermined by our own karmic conditioning that is stored in the ālayavijñāna. Skt. चित्तमात्र Tib. སེམས་ཙམ་

Uttaratantra - The Ultimate Continuum, or Gyü Lama, is often used as a short title in the Tibetan tradition for the key source text of buddha-nature teachings called the Ratnagotravibhāga of Maitreya/Asaṅga, also known as the Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra. Skt. उत्तरतन्त्र Tib. རྒྱུད་བླ་མ་ Ch. 寶性論

These are the root verses of the Uttaratantra attributed to Maitreya by the Tibetan tradition.

Descent into Laṅka Sūtra, a very influential text in East Asia and Nepal.

Descent into Laṅka Sūtra, a very influential text in East Asia and Nepal.

Descent into Laṅka Sūtra, a very influential text in East Asia and Nepal.

Descent into Laṅka Sūtra, a very influential text in East Asia and Nepal.

Descent into Laṅka Sūtra, a very influential text in East Asia and Nepal.

One of the tathāgatagarbha sūtras.

ātman - Though it can simply be used as the expression "I" or "me", in Indian thought the notion of self refers to a permanent, unchanging entity, such as that which passes from life to life in the case of people, or the innate essence (svabhāva) of phenomena. Skt. आत्मन् Tib. བདག་ Ch. 我,灵魂

guṇapāramitā - In the Śrīmālādevī Siṃhanāda Sūtra it is explained that the dharmakāya of a buddha possesses the four perfect qualities of purity, bliss, permanence, and self. Skt. गुणपारमिता Tib. ཡོན་ཏན་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་ Ch. 功德波羅蜜

ekayāna - The notion that ultimately there is only one vehicle, or means, of achieving enlightenment. Skt. एकयान Tib. ཐེག་པ་གཅིག་པ་ Ch. 一乘

One of the tathāgatagarbha sūtras.

One of the tathāgatagarbha sūtras.

One of the tathāgatagarbha sūtras.

One of the tathāgatagarbha sūtras.

One of the tathāgatagarbha sūtras.

"This sūtra became an important scriptural source for the discussion of buddha-nature in China and is famous for associating the term buddhadhātu with tathāgatagarbha.

buddhadhātu - A synonym for tathāgatagarbha widely used throughout the East Asian Buddhist traditions, as found in its translations as the Chinese term fó xìng and Japanese term busshō. Skt. बुद्धधातु Tib. སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་ཁམས་ Ch. 佛性

bīja - A seed, commonly used figuratively in the sense of something which has the potential to develop or grow, and likewise as the basic cause for this development or growth. Skt. बीज Tib. ས་བོན་ Ch. 無漏種

An important sūtra source for the Ratnagotravibhāga, particularly for its discussion of the nine examples that illustrate how all sentient beings possess buddha-nature.

"This sūtra became an important scriptural source for the discussion of buddha-nature in China and is famous for associating the term buddhadhātu with tathāgatagarbha.

"This sūtra became an important scriptural source for the discussion of buddha-nature in China and is famous for associating the term buddhadhātu with tathāgatagarbha.

"This sūtra became an important scriptural source for the discussion of buddha-nature in China and is famous for associating the term buddhadhātu with tathāgatagarbha.

"This sūtra became an important scriptural source for the discussion of buddha-nature in China and is famous for associating the term buddhadhātu with tathāgatagarbha.

"This sūtra became an important scriptural source for the discussion of buddha-nature in China and is famous for associating the term buddhadhātu with tathāgatagarbha.

"This sūtra became an important scriptural source for the discussion of buddha-nature in China and is famous for associating the term buddhadhātu with tathāgatagarbha.

"This sūtra became an important scriptural source for the discussion of buddha-nature in China and is famous for associating the term buddhadhātu with tathāgatagarbha.

sūtra - Sūtras mainly refer to the discourses delivered by the Buddha and his disciples, and the Sūtra corpus is one of the three main sets of teachings which form the Buddhist canon. Skt. सूत्र Tib. མདོ། Ch. 佛经

One of the sūtra sources referenced several times in the Uttaratantra.

One of the sūtra sources referenced several times in the Uttaratantra.

One of the sūtra sources referenced several times in the Uttaratantra.

One of the sūtra sources referenced several times in the Uttaratantra.

One of the sūtra sources referenced several times in the Uttaratantra.

One of the sūtra sources referenced several times in the Uttaratantra.

One of the more prominent sūtra sources for the Uttaratantra, 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.

āgantukamala - Mental stains that are not inherent to the nature of the mind but are temporarily present as the residue of past actions or habitual tendencies. It is sometimes iterated as adventitious defilements (Skt. āgantukakleśa, Tib. glo bur gyi nyon mongs), which references the fickle and temporary nature of disturbing emotions that lack an ultimately established basis for existence. Skt. आगन्तुकमल Tib. གློ་བུར་གྱི་དྲི་མ་

One of the more prominent sūtra sources for the Uttaratantra, 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.

One of the more prominent sūtra sources for the Uttaratantra, 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.

One of the more prominent sūtra sources for the Uttaratantra, 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.

One of the more prominent sūtra sources for the Uttaratantra, 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.

One of the more prominent sūtra sources for the Uttaratantra, 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.

TGS - Tathāgatagarbhasūtra

tathāgatagarbha - Buddha-nature, literally the "womb/essence of those who have gone (to suchness)." Skt. तथागतगर्भ Tib. དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོ་ Ch. 如来藏

An important sūtra source for the Ratnagotravibhāga, particularly for its discussion of the nine examples that illustrate how all sentient beings possess buddha-nature.

An important sūtra source for the Ratnagotravibhāga, particularly for its discussion of the nine examples that illustrate how all sentient beings possess buddha-nature.

An important sūtra source for the Ratnagotravibhāga, particularly for its discussion of the nine examples that illustrate how all sentient beings possess buddha-nature.

An important sūtra source for the Ratnagotravibhāga, particularly for its discussion of the nine examples that illustrate how all sentient beings possess buddha-nature.

An important sūtra source for the Ratnagotravibhāga, particularly for its discussion of the nine examples that illustrate how all sentient beings possess buddha-nature.

anātman - The nonexistence of the self as a permanent, unchanging entity. Skt. अनात्मन् Tib. བདག་མེད་པ་ Ch. 无我