Gaganagañjaparipṛcchāsūtra

गगनगञ्जपरिपृच्छासूत्र

Gaganagañjaparipṛcchāsūtra

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

'phags pa nam mkha mdzod kyis zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo

大集大虛空藏菩薩所問經

Dà jí dà xū kōng cáng pú sà suǒ wèn jīng

Questions of Gaganagañja Sūtra

D148   ·  T404

SOURCE TEXT

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)

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Recensions of This Text

Gaganagañjaparipṛcchāsūtra. (Questions of Gaganagañja Sūtra). Recension information:

Tibetan

འཕགས་པ་ནམ་མཁའ་མཛོད་ཀྱིས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།, ('phags pa nam mkha mdzod kyis zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo). rKTs (Resources for Kanjur and Tanjur Studies) Link: https://www.istb.univie.ac.at/kanjur/rktsneu/verif/verif2.php?id=148. Derge 148, mdo sde, pa 243a1-330a7 (vol. 57), translated by Vijayaśīla, Śīlendrabodhi and Ye shes sde. Also appears in Q 815, mdo sna tshogs, nu 204b4-293a3 (vol. 33, p.1); N 134, mdo sde, da 321a5-470b7 (vol. 57); C 788, mdo mang, pa 212b4-312a7 (vol. 37); H 149, mdo sde, da 319a5-460b7 (vol. 57); J 92, mdo sde, pa 190b6-277b5 (vol. 52); U 148, mdo sde, pa 243a1-330a7 (vol. 57).

Chinese

大集大虛空藏菩薩所問經 (Dà jí dà xū kōng cáng pú sà suǒ wèn jīng), T404, 13 (See also T397(8)): https://21dzk.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/SAT2012/T0404.html, translated by Amoghavajra.

Description from When the Clouds Part

A passage from this sūtra is quoted by RGVV in the context of the tathāgata heart’s being like space, while the skandhas and so on that arise in it resemble the elements. This passage says twice that the afflictions are adventitious and the nature of the mind is fundamentally pure (this is repeated once elsewhere). However, this statement is found in many sūtras.

Apart from that, this sūtra is not related to the notion of buddha nature. (pp. 46-47)

Text Metadata

Other Titles	~ ārya-gaganagañja-paripṛcchā-nāma-mahāyāna-sūtra
Text exists in	~ Tibetan ~ Chinese
Canonical Genre	~ Kangyur · Sūtra · mdo sde · Sūtranta
Literary Genre	~ Sūtras - mdo

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

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

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

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

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

According to the Tibetan tradition this is Asaṅga's commentary to the Uttaratantra.

Mahāyānottaratantraśāstravyākhyā - This is the title of Asaṅga's commentary to the Gyü Lama that is given by Tibetan sources instead of the Ratnagotravibhāgavyākhyā. Skt. महायानोत्तरतन्त्रशास्त्रव्याख्या Tib. ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་རྣམ་པར་བཤད་པ།

RGVV - Ratnagotravibhāgavyākhyā

Taishō - Taishō Shinshū Daizōkyō, Chinese Tripiṭaka