Ratnadārikāsūtra

रत्नदारिकासूत्र

Ratnadārikāsūtra

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

'phags pa theg pa chen po'i man ngag ces bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo

大方等大集經

Dà fāng děng dà jí jīng

Sūtra of Quintessential Instructions on the Great Vehicle

D169   ·  T397

SOURCE TEXT

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.

Relevance to Buddha-nature

This sūtra is quoted in relation to the third vajrapada in the Uttaratantra and the presentation of the sixty-four qualities of awakening.

Access this text online

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The AIBS Buddhist Canons Research Database
Asian Classics Input Project
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SAT Daizōkyō Text Database

Recensions of This Text

Ratnadārikāsūtra. (Questions of Ratnadārikā Sūtra), i.e. the Mahāyānopadeśasūtra, (Sūtra of Quintessential Instructions on the Great Vehicle), Recension information:

Tibetan

འཕགས་པ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མན་ངག་ཅེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།, ('phags pa theg pa chen po'i man ngag ces bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo). BCRD Link: http://databases.aibs.columbia.edu/index.php?id=954f3d9c7f72b1876077777b214c5f30&enc=sanskrit_romanized_title_4_search&coll=kangyur Derge 169, mdo sde, ba 260a1-307a7 (vol. 59), translated by Jinamitra, Dānaśīla, and Ye shes sde. Also appears in Q 836, mdo sna tshogs, phu 273b6-323a6 (vol. 33, p.287); N 155, mdo sde, pa 418b6-498a4 (vol. 59); C 809, mdo mang, ba 305b7-370b1 (vol. 39); H 170, mdo sde, pa 412a6-490a3 (vol. 59); J 113, dmdo sde, ba 260a5-305a1 (vol. 54); U 169, mdo sde, ba 260a1-307a7 (vol. 59).

Chinese

大方等大集經 (Dà fāng děng dà jí jīng), T397 (3), 13: https://21dzk.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/SAT2012/T0397.html.

Description from When the Clouds Part

Neither the Tibetan nor the Chinese canons contain a Ratnadārikāparipṛcchāsūtra. As it turns out, this is actually just another name of the Mahāyānopadeśasūtra. At the end of the Mahāyānopadeśasūtra, the Buddha gives a list of synonyms for this sūtra, which include Ratnadārikāparipṛcchā. In the Mahāyānopadeśasūtra, the main interlocutor is indeed Ratnadārikā and the Buddha teaches her the sixty-four qualities of awakening (including their individual causes) in the exact order as they are presented in the third chapter of the Uttaratantra (which explicitly refers to the Ratnadārikāsūtra as the source of these qualities). However, these qualities are not specific to the tathāgatagarbha teachings and, with slight variations, appear in many other sūtras too.

      Like many other sūtras, this one also speaks of a single yāna. In general, it contains teachings on emptiness that are quite standard. Toward the end of the sūtra, Ratnadārikā explains "the mudrā of irreversibility of bodhisattvas" to Śāriputra in verses, beginning with:

Here, the mudrā of irreversibility
Is the realization of nonduality
Through having realized the dharmadhātu
And the dhātu of sentient beings to be equal as true reality.

      This is followed by many verses that emphasize the equality of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa, the equality of the skandhas and buddhahood, and so on, and identify irreversibility to be emptiness, such as:

Those are irreversible who realize
The conditioned dhātus
And the unconditioned dhātu
To be empty of reality.

And:

The mudrā of phenomena is emptiness
There is no maturation and no elimination.
Those who are sealed by the mudrā of emptiness
Are taught to be irreversible.

(pp. 42-43)

Philosophical positions of this text

Are there one or three vehicles on the path to buddhahood?

1 

Text Metadata

Other Titles	~ ārya-mahāyānopadeśa-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

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.

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་

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

BCRD - The Buddhist Canons Research Database a project of the American Institute of Buddhist Studies (AIBS) and the Columbia University Center for Buddhist Studies (CCBS) http://databases.aibs.columbia.edu/

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

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

dharmadhātu - The fundamental expanse from which all phenomena emerge. Skt. धर्मधातु Tib. ཆོས་དབྱིངས་ Ch. 法界

dhātu - A fundamental component or essential constituent. Skt. धातु Tib. ཁམས་ Ch. 界

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

Taishō - Taishō Shinshū Daizōkyō, Chinese Tripiṭaka

triyāna - Commonly seen in a Mahāyāna context, the three vehicles are the Śrāvakayāna, Pratyekabuddhayāna, and Bodhisattvayāna, which reference the three different types of Buddhist practitioners. However, these three vehicles can also reference the three types of Buddhist teachings of the Hīnayāna, Mahāyāna (or Pāramitāyāna), and the Vajrayāna. Skt. त्रियान Tib. ཐེག་པ་གསུམ་ Ch. 三乗