Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra

संधिनिर्मोचनसूत्र

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

'phags pa dgongs pa nges par 'grel pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo

解深密經

Jiě shēn mì jīng

Mahāyāna Sūtra which Decisively Reveals the Intention

D106 · T676,675,677,678,679

SOURCE TEXT

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.

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Often included as one of the tathāgatarbha sūtras and, or, the sūtras that teach the definitive meaning.

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Translations of This Text

Cornu, Philippe. Soûtra du dévoilement du sens profond. Paris: Fayard, 2005.
Forgues, Gregory, trans. Unraveling the Intent: Saṃdhinirmocana. v 1.0.0. 84000.co, 2020. https://read.84000.co/translation/toh106.html.
Keenan, John P., trans. The Scripture on the Explication of Underlying Meaning. Translated from the Chinese of Hsüan-tsang (Taisho Volume 16, Number 676). BDK English Tripiṭaka 25, no. 4. Berkeley, CA: Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, 2000. https://bdkamerica.org/product/the-scripture-on-the-explication-of-underlying-meaning/.
Lamotte, Étienne, trans. Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra - L'Explication des Mystères. Louvain: Presses universitaires de Louvain, 1935.
Powers, John, trans. Wisdom of Buddha: The Saṁdhinirmocana Mahāyāna Sūtra; Essential Questions and Direct Answers for Realizing Enlightenment. Tibetan Translation Series. Berkeley, CA: Dharma Publishing, 1995. http://lirs.ru/lib/sutra/Wisdom_of_Buddha,The_Samdhinirmocana_Sutra,Powers,1995.pdf.

Recensions of This Text

Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra. (Mahāyāna Sūtra which Decisively Reveals the Intention). Recension information:
Sanskrit	Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra, Sanskrit fragments: Buescher 2007: 102–104 (quotations in Sthiramati’s Triṃśikāvijñaptibhāṣyam, 33.25–34.4 drawn from Saṃdh. §V.5 and §V.7; see also Lévi 1925: 33–34) Matsuda 1995 (complete reconstruction from manuscript of Saṃdh. §IX.1–6) Matsuda 2013 (fragments of Saṃdh. §II.4 and §III.1, fragments of §VIII.39–40, complete reconstruction from manuscript of § VIII.41) Nagao 1964 : 43 (§VIII.20.2 as quoted in the Madhyāntavibhāgabhāṣya) Nagao 1982–1987: I.4, I.7. Tucci 1971: 1 (two verses from Saṃdh. §III.7 that are quoted in Kamalaśīla’s Bhāvanākrama: nimittabandhanāj jantur atho dauṣṭhulabandhanāt / vipaśyanāṃ bhāvayitvā śamathañ ca vimucyata iti) and ibid., p. 22 (a sentence drawn from §VII.15 also quoted in the Bhāvanākrama: ekāntasattvārthavimukhasya ekāntasaṃsārābhisaṃskāravimukhasya [nā] uttarā samyaksaṃbodhir uktā mayeti)
Tibetan	འཕགས་པ་དགོངས་པ་ངེས་པར་འགྲེལ་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།, ('phags pa dgongs pa nges par 'grel pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo). ISTB Link: https://www.istb.univie.ac.at/kanjur/rktsneu/verif/verif2.php?id=106 Tibetan witnesses: Bd3.7 vol. 3 (ta) pha 1b1–84a6; C747 mdo sde, ca 1b1–71a7 (vol. 29); Cz082-001 mdo, na 1b1–82a5; D106 mdo sde, ca 1b1–55b7 (vol. 49); Dd031-001 mdo, ca 1b1–69b2; Dk034-001 mdo, na 1b1–87b1; Do mdo sde, da 196a–246b; F156 mdo sde, ba (tsha) 1b1–72a7 (vol. 68); Go19,01 ka 1b–36a6 (vol. 19); Gt028-001 mdo, na 1b1–72b3; H109 mdo sde, ca 1b1–87b7 (vol. 51); He64.6 mdo, wa 62b5–125b8; J51 mdo sde, ca 1b1–59b8 (vol. 44); Kʙ116 mdo sde, ca 1b1–71a1 (vol. 57); Kǫ774 mdo sna tshogs, ngu 1b1–60b7 (vol. 29, p. 1); L82 mdo sde, na 1b1–80b1 (vol. 42); Lg11.8 mdo, da-L74 224b5–276a2; N94 mdo sde, ca 1–81a7 (vol. 51); Ng13.07 mdo pa dgongs 111b3–162a8; Np012-001 mdo, na 1b1–87a7; O23 mdo sde, cha; Pj043-001 mdo, ca 1b1–62b4; Pz045-001 mdo ca 1b1–61a5; R106 mdo sde, ca 1b1–55b7 (vol. 49); S106 mdo sde, na 1b1–80b1 (vol. 63); T107 mdo sde, na 1b1–70b1 (vol. 68); U106 mdo sde, ca 1b1–55b7 (vol. 49); V156 mdo sde, na 1b1–69b6 (vol. 65); X mdo sde, wa 66a–132a; Z137 mdo, na 1b1–93a6 (vol. 59); Dunhuang manuscripts: Stein Tib. n°194 (49 folios); Stein Tib. n°683 (1 folio), see Hakayama 1984–1987; Ablaikit collection IOM, RAS Tib.979/117; Viniścayasaṃgrahaṇī of the Yogācārabhūmi: Degé Tengyur D4038 mdo ’grel (sems tsam), zi 44a–97b; Golden Tengyur GT3542 mdo ’grel (sems tsam), ’i 59b–136a; Peking Tengyur Kǫ5539 mdo ’grel (sems tsam), ’i 47b–109a.
Chinese	深密解脫經 (Shēn mì jiě tuō jīng), T675, 16: https://21dzk.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/SAT2012/T0675.html, translated by Bodhiruci. 解深密經 (Jiě shēn mì jīng), T676, 16: https://21dzk.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/SAT2012/T0676.html, translated by Hsüan-tsang. 佛說解節經 (Fó shuō jiě jié jīng), T677, 16: https://21dzk.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/SAT2012/T0677.html, translated by Paramārtha. 相續解脫地波羅蜜了義經 (Xiāng xù jiě tuō dì bō luó mì liǎo yì jīng), T678, 16: https://21dzk.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/SAT2012/T0678.html, translated by Guṇabhadra. 相續解脫如來所作隨順處了義經 (Xiāng xù jiě tuō rú lái suǒ zuò suí shùn chǔ liǎo yì jīng), T679, 16: https://21dzk.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/SAT2012/T0679.html, translated by Guṇabhadra.

Text Metadata

Other Titles	~ ārya-saṃdhinirmocana-nāma-mahāyāna-sūtra ~ mdo dgongs pa nges 'grel
Text exists in	~ Tibetan ~ Chinese ~ Mongolian ~ Korean ~ Japanese
Canonical Genre	~ Kangyur · Sūtra · mdo sde · Sūtranta
Literary Genre	~ Sūtras - mdo
Commentaries on this text	Trisong Detsen (khri srong lde brtsan)’s *Samyagvākpramāṇoddhṛtasūtra (bka' yang dag pa'i tshad ma las mdo btus pa), D4352 mdo 'grel, co 173a–205b. Changchup Dzutrül (byang chub rdzu 'phrul)'s *Āryasaṃdhinirmocanasūtravyākhyāna (bstan bcos sna tshogs), D4358 mdo 'grel, co 1b–jo 183b.

More on this item

Bodhiruci

Paramārtha

Guṇabhadra

Xuanzang

Henkel, Kokyo. "All Buddhas and All Living Beings are Just This One Mind: Teachings of the Buddhas and Zen Ancestors on Buddha Nature, Empty Awareness, and Nonduality." Unpublished manuscript. n.d., PDF file. https://kokyohenkel.weebly.com/uploads/1/2/7/4/127410773/one_mind_buddha_nature_-_kokyo.pdf.

Henkel, Kokyo. "All Buddhas and All Living Beings are Just This One Mind: Teachings of the Buddhas and Zen Ancestors on Buddha Nature, Empty Awareness, and Nonduality." Unpublished manuscript. n.d., PDF file. https://kokyohenkel.weebly.com/uploads/1/2/7/4/127410773/one_mind_buddha_nature_-_kokyo.pdf.;All Buddhas and All Living Beings Are Just This One Mind: Teachings of the Buddhas and Zen Ancestors on Buddha Nature, Empty Awareness, and Nonduality—Compiled by Kokyo Henkel;All Buddhas and All Living Beings are Just This One Mind: Teachings of the Buddhas and Zen Ancestors on Buddha Nature, Empty Awareness, and Nonduality Compiled by Kokyo Henkel;The doctrine of buddha-nature in Early Buddhism;Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra;Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra;Śrīmālādevīsūtra;Tathāgatagarbhasūtra;Laṅkāvatārasūtra;The doctrine of buddha-nature in Chinese Buddhism;The doctrine of buddha-nature in Japanese Buddhism;Shōbōgenzō;The doctrine of buddha-nature in Tibetan Buddhism;Kokyo Henkel;Kokyo Yakai (Luminous Owl, Midnight Liberation 光梟夜解);&nbsp

Video

Filippo Brambilla at the 2019 Tathāgatagarbha Symposium

Filippo Brambilla examines how a broad range of philosophical views translated to Tsoknyi Gyatso's (1880–1940) position on buddha-nature. On the basis of key passages from two of his major philosophical works, Brambilla argues that Tsoknyi Gyatso sought to harmonize the orthodox perspective of his own (Jonang) tradition on this subject with that of the Gelukpas.

Brambilla, Filippo. "Empty of True Existence, Yet Full of Qualities. Tshogs gnyis rgya mtsho (1880–1940) on Buddha Nature." Paper presented at the University of Vienna Symposium, Tathāgatagarbha Across Asia, Vienna, Austria, July 2019. Video, 41:47. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1cTYaIFa4g

Brambilla, Filippo. "Empty of True Existence, Yet Full of Qualities. Tshogs gnyis rgya mtsho (1880–1940) on Buddha Nature." Paper presented at the University of Vienna Symposium, Tathāgatagarbha Across Asia, Vienna, Austria, July 2019. Video, 41:47. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1cTYaIFa4g;Filippo Brambilla at the 2019 Tathāgatagarbha Symposium;Dol po pa;Buddha-nature as Emptiness;Jonang;zhentong;Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra;Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra;tridharmacakrapravartana;neyārtha;nītārtha;prasajyapratiṣedha;Geluk;guṇa;Ngag dbang tshogs gnyis rgya mtsho;Kun mkhyen jo nang pa chen po'i dgongs pa gzhan stong dbu ma'i tshul legs pa bshad mthar 'dzin gdung 'phrog;Kun mkhyen jo nang pa'i bzhes dgongs dbu tshad kyi gzhung spyi dang gung bsgrigs te spyod pa'i spyi don rab gsal snang ba;Filippo Brambilla;Empty of True Existence, Yet Full of Qualities. Tshogs gnyis rgya mtsho (1880–1940) on Buddha Nature

Interview

Interview with Venerable Dhammadipa

In this interview during a Salon Tibétain event on January 30, 2019 at the Tsadra Foundation in Boulder, Venerable Dhammadipa discusses a variety of topics but especially the Yogacāra tradition and its primary texts.

Interview with Venerable Dhammadipa;Interview with Venerable Dhammadipa;Yogācāra;Dasheng qixin lun;The doctrine of buddha-nature in Theravadin Buddhism;Meditation;anātman;Original Enlightenment;tathāgatagarbha;Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra;Ven. Dhammadipa Thero

Video

On the Awakening of Faith in the Mahāyāna by Venerable Dhammadipa

Venerable Dhammadipa discusses the significance of the text Awakening of Faith in the Mahāyāna, a text which he has translated into Czech.

Thero, Ven. Dhammadipa. "On the Awakening of Faith in the Mahāyāna." Interview by Marcus Perman. Salon Tibétain, Tsadra Foundation, Boulder, CO, Jan 30, 2019. Video, 15:45. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T31Tk_Pj_nI.

Thero, Ven. Dhammadipa. "On the Awakening of Faith in the Mahāyāna." Interview by Marcus Perman. Salon Tibétain, Tsadra Foundation, Boulder, CO, Jan 30, 2019. Video, 15:45. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T31Tk_Pj_nI.;On the Awakening of Faith in the Mahāyāna by Venerable Dhammadipa;Consciousness;Original Enlightenment;tathatā;tathāgatagarbha;Dasheng qixin lun;Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra;Ven. Dhammadipa Thero;On the Awakening of Faith in the Mahāyāna

Article

Original Purity and the Focus of Early Yogācāra

In understanding the ongoing process of the development of any doctrinal system, isolated insights into particular texts or particular doctrinal themes are not sufficient. No number of monographs on ālayavijñāna or trisvabhāva suffices, for, although such studies do clarify particular themes, no understanding is gained of the overall purpose for which these themes were developed. What is desired is an overall insight into what the system is trying to achieve. In the case of the Yogācāra system, the question of its basic intent and overall purpose is not easily determined. There are, it would appear, two reasons for this situation. The first is that the complex of questions regarding the dating, authorship, and compilation of the various textual data have not yet received definite answers in many instances, and yet each of these questions bears directly upon the understanding of the lines of doctrinal development. A second reason is that the doctrinal focuses of some of the basic Yogācāra texts appear to differ.
The intent of this paper is to treat this latter concern. It will attempt to describe the basic doctrinal focus of four early Yogācāra texts, suggest the intent of their authors, and draw a hypothesis concerning the lines of development of early Yogācāra as seen in these texts. The texts selected are the Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra, the Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra, the Mahāyānābhidharmasūtra, and the Madyāntavibhāgaśāstra. All four texts were composed before the time of the classical formulation of Yogācāra by Asaṅga and Vasubandhu. Although it is not possible to determine with any degree of certitude the temporal relationship among these texts, insight into their doctrinal emphases would help to identify the overall problematic that led the early, pre-Asaṅgan Yogācārins to develop their thinking. (Source Accessed Jan 28, 2020)

Keenan, John P. "Original Purity and the Focus of Early Yogācāra." Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 5, no. 1 (1982): 7–18. https://journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/jiabs/article/view/8560/2467.

Keenan, John P. "Original Purity and the Focus of Early Yogācāra." Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 5, no. 1 (1982): 7–18. https://journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/jiabs/article/view/8560/2467.;Original Purity and the Focus of Early Yogācāra;Original Purity and the Focus of Early Yogācāra;ālayavijñāna;Yogācāra;Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra;Mahāyānābhidharmasūtra;John P. Keenan;&nbsp

Book

The Buddhist Unconscious

This is the story of fifth century CE India, when the Yogacarin Buddhists tested the awareness of unawareness, and became aware of human unawareness to an extraordinary degree. They not only explicitly differentiated this dimension of mental processes from conscious cognitive processes, but also offered reasoned arguments on behalf of this dimension of mind. This is the concept of the 'Buddhist unconscious', which arose just as philosophical discourse in other circles was fiercely debating the limits of conscious awareness, and these ideas in turn had developed as a systematisation of teachings from the Buddha himself. For us in the twenty-first century, these teachings connect in fascinating ways to the Western conceptions of the 'cognitive unconscious' which have been elaborated in the work of Jung and Freud.
This important study reveals how the Buddhist unconscious illuminates and draws out aspects of current western thinking on the unconscious mind. One of the most intriguing connections is the idea that there is in fact no substantial 'self' underlying all mental activity; 'the thoughts themselves are the thinker'. William S. Waldron considers the implications of this radical notion, which, despite only recently gaining plausibility, was in fact first posited 2,500 years ago. (Source: Routledge)

Waldron, William S. The Buddhist Unconscious: The Ālaya-Vijñāna in the Context of Indian Buddhist Thought. Routledge Critical Studies in Buddhism. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003. http://abhidharma.ru/A/Raznoe/0061.pdf.

Waldron, William S. The Buddhist Unconscious: The Ālaya-Vijñāna in the Context of Indian Buddhist Thought. Routledge Critical Studies in Buddhism. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003. http://abhidharma.ru/A/Raznoe/0061.pdf.;The Buddhist Unconscious;Yogācāra;ālayavijñāna;kleśa;bīja;pratītyasamutpāda;āgantukamala;Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra;William S. Waldron;The Buddhist Unconscious: The Ālaya-vijñāna in the Context of Indian Buddhist Thought

Book

The Philosophy of Buddhism

The translation of Erich Frauwallner's Die Philosophie des Buddhismus, first published in 1956, opens up a classic introduction to Buddhist thought to a broader English language readership. The book covers the period of early canonical literature with examples of its philosophically relevant ideas, followed by the principal philosophical concepts of systematic Sravakayana Buddhism. In the main part of the book, Frauwallner presents the first survey of the development of the philosophical systems of Mahayana Buddhism. He was well aware of the limitations in presenting only the Buddhist philosophy of the "classical", i.e., the systematic period, and does not seem to have been ready to add the philosophically creative new postsystematic tradition of Buddhist epistemology and logic, a major subject of his subsequent years of research.

Frauwallner's way of translating was straightforward: to remain as close as possible to the original text while presenting it in a clear and readable way in order to convey an accurate impression of its meaning. For technical terms in the source materials he maintained a single translation even when various meanings were suggested. For clarity regarding such variations of meaning he relied on the context and his explanation.

The same approach was taken by the translator of the present book. Although his translation attempts to be faithful to the 1994 edition of Die Philosophie des Buddhismus, he inserted helpful additional headlines into the text and considerably enlarged the index. All other additions by the translator are given within square brackets. Besides this, he created an Appendix, which contains one of Frauwallner's more important articles "Amalavijnana and Alayavijnana" (1951) to complement the long Yogacara section of the book, a bibliography of selective publications after 1969. The URLs for many of the source materials were also conveniently provided. (Source: Motilal Banarsidass)

Frauwallner, Erich. The Philosophy of Buddhism (Die Philosophie des Buddhismus). Translated by Gelong Lodrö Sangpo with the assistance of Jigme Sheldrön, under the supervision of Ernst Steinkellner. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2010. Originally published 1956 by Akademie-Verlag as Die Philosophie des Buddhismus (Berlin).

Frauwallner, Erich. The Philosophy of Buddhism (Die Philosophie des Buddhismus). Translated by Gelong Lodrö Sangpo with the assistance of Jigme Sheldrön, under the supervision of Ernst Steinkellner. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2010. Originally published 1956 by Akademie-Verlag as Die Philosophie des Buddhismus (Berlin).;The Philosophy of Buddhism;*Amalavijñāna;ālayavijñāna;Yogācāra;Bhāvaviveka;Asaṅga;pratītyasamutpāda;anātman;Madhyamaka;Nāgārjuna;svabhāva;śūnyatā;Candrakīrti;Sāramati;Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra;Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra;byams chos sde lnga;Vasubandhu;Sthiramati;Xuanzang;Erich Frauwallner; Lodrö Sangpo;The Philosophy of Buddhism (Die Philosophie des Buddhismus);Frauwallner, E.

Book

The Scripture on the Explication of Underlying Meaning

Taishō 676

Volume 16

The basic sūtra of the Faxiang School, The Scripture on the Explication of Underlying Meaning expounds the thought of the Yogācāra or Mind-Only School (Vijñānavāda), stating that all phenomena are manifestations of the mind. It belongs to the middle period of Indian Mahāyāna Buddhism and is considered to have been composed at the start of the fourth century A.D. It is divided into eight chapters, and gives a detailed exposition of the philosophy of the Yogācāra School. Judging from the fact that the greater part of this sūtra is quoted in the Yogācārabhūmi (Taishō 53), and that numerous citations from it are to be found in such works as the Mahāyānasaṃgraha (Taishō 57) and Jō-yui-shiki-ron (Taishō 54), it is clear that it exerted considerable influence in later times.

Source

Skt. Saṃdhinirmocana-sūtra. Translated into the Chinese by Xuan Cang as Jie shenmi jing (解深密經). 5 fascicles.
(Source: BDK America)

Keenan, John P., trans. The Scripture on the Explication of Underlying Meaning. Translated from the Chinese of Hsüan-tsang (Taisho Volume 16, Number 676). BDK English Tripiṭaka 25, no. 4. Berkeley, CA: Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, 2000. https://bdkamerica.org/product/the-scripture-on-the-explication-of-underlying-meaning/.

Keenan, John P., trans. The Scripture on the Explication of Underlying Meaning. Translated from the Chinese of Hsüan-tsang (Taisho Volume 16, Number 676). BDK English Tripiṭaka 25, no. 4. Berkeley, CA: Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, 2000. https://bdkamerica.org/product/the-scripture-on-the-explication-of-underlying-meaning/.;The Scripture on the Explication of Underlying Meaning;Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra;John P. Keenan; Xuanzang;Chen Hui (or Chen Yi);The Scripture on the Explication of Underlying Meaning

PhD Diss

Waldron, W.: The Ālayavijñāna in the Context of Indian Buddhist Thought: The Yogācāra Conception of an Unconscious

Abstract

The thesis focuses on the relations between mind and karma and the continuity of life in saṃsāra based upon a concept of mind, the ālayavijñāna, as presented in the texts of Asaṅga and Vasubandhu of the Yogācāra school of Indian Buddhism, A.D. 4-5th centuries. It has been the topic of many sectarian disputes as well as the springboard for several far-reaching doctrinal developments, so it is desirable to examine it within its early Indian Buddhist context.
      The first section presents the multivalent viññāṇa of the Pali Canon and related concepts. It demonstrates that the major characteristics later predicated of the ālayavijñāna were present in an unsystematized but implicit form in the viññāṇa of the early discourses.
      The next section describes the systematic psychological analysis developed by the Abhidharma and its consequent problematics. It argues that the incongruity of Abhidharmic analysis with the older unsystematized doctrines led to major theoretical problems concerning the key concepts of kleśa and karma, to which the Sautrāntika school offered the concept of seeds (bija).
      The third section, based primarily upon the texts translated herein, depicts the origination and gradual development of the ālayavijñāna within the Yogācāra school from a somatic "life principle", to an explicitly unconscious mind, to its final bifurcation into an unconscious afflicted mind (kliṣṭa-manas) and a passive respository of karmic seeds, the latent loci of kleśa and karma, respectively.
      The last section compares the ālayavijñāna systematically with Freud's and Jung's concepts of the unconscious, concluding that their respective philosophical milieus led both traditions to conceptions of unconscious mental processes as necessary compensations for strictly intentional epistemological models.
      In the appendix the major texts presenting the ālayavijñāna, Chaps. V and VIII.37 of the Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra, part of the Viniścaya-saṃgrahaṇī of the Yogācārabhūmi, and Ch. 1 of the Mahāyāna-saṃgraha, are translated and extensively annotated in order to contextualize the minutiae of this concept of mind with its canonical precursors and its Abhidharmic contemporaries. (Source: ProQuest)

Waldron, William S. "The Ālayavijñāna in the Context of Indian Buddhist Thought: The Yogācāra Conception of an Unconscious." PhD diss., University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1990.

Waldron, William S. "The Ālayavijñāna in the Context of Indian Buddhist Thought: The Yogācāra Conception of an Unconscious." PhD diss., University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1990.;The Ālayavijñāna in the Context of Indian Buddhist Thought: The Yogācāra Conception of an Unconscious;ālayavijñāna;Yogācāra;Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra;pratītyasamutpāda;kleśa;bīja;William S. Waldron;The Ālayavijñāna in the Context of Indian Buddhist Thought: The Yogācāra Conception of an Unconscious

Book

Wisdom of Buddha: The Saṁdhinirmocana Mahāyāna Sūtra

Wisdom of Buddha: The Samdhinirmochana Sutra was translated from the Tibetan by John Powers as a PhD thesis in Buddhist Studies.

The Samdhinirmochana Sutra demonstrates how our common modes of viewing reality and our habitual ways of living are fundamentally mistaken. It details how the full force of our mental and physical faculties can be harnessed for the task of clearing up the ignorance that clouds the continuum of every being who is not a Buddha, describing in detail the views, stages, and practices necessary for this transformation.

This Sutra presents the Buddha's dialogues with ten great Bodhisattvas on such topics as ultimate reality, base-consciousness, the threefold character of phenomena, the teachings of definitive meaning, the ten stages of the Bodhisattva Path and the six perfection, and the union of wisdom and compassion at the Buddha level. Read, studied, outlined, and meditated upon, this Sutra can reveal the architecture of enlightenment and open awareness to the profound and expansive vision that informs the third turning teachings. Correctly understood, it can guide the reader on a path that leads to mental balance, insight into the view of sunyata, and deep commitment to work selflessly for the benefit of others. To encourage students to investigate the text more closely, this publication contains the complete typeset Tibetan text on facing pages, extensive notes, glossary, and index. (Source: Dharma Publishing)

Powers, John, trans. Wisdom of Buddha: The Saṁdhinirmocana Mahāyāna Sūtra; Essential Questions and Direct Answers for Realizing Enlightenment. Tibetan Translation Series. Berkeley, CA: Dharma Publishing, 1995. http://lirs.ru/lib/sutra/Wisdom_of_Buddha,The_Samdhinirmocana_Sutra,Powers,1995.pdf.

Powers, John, trans. Wisdom of Buddha: The Saṁdhinirmocana Mahāyāna Sūtra;Essential Questions and Direct Answers for Realizing Enlightenment. Tibetan Translation Series. Berkeley, CA: Dharma Publishing, 1995. http://lirs.ru/lib/sutra/Wisdom_of_Buddha,The_Samdhinirmocana_Sutra,Powers,1995.pdf.;Wisdom of Buddha: The Saṁdhinirmocana Mahāyāna Sūtra;Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra;John Powers; Wisdom of Buddha: The Saṁdhinirmocana Mahāyāna Sūtra;Essential Questions and Direct Answers for Realizing Enlightenment

Translations & Scholarship

Book

The Scripture on the Explication of Underlying Meaning

Taishō 676

Volume 16

The basic sūtra of the Faxiang School, The Scripture on the Explication of Underlying Meaning expounds the thought of the Yogācāra or Mind-Only School (Vijñānavāda), stating that all phenomena are manifestations of the mind. It belongs to the middle period of Indian Mahāyāna Buddhism and is considered to have been composed at the start of the fourth century A.D. It is divided into eight chapters, and gives a detailed exposition of the philosophy of the Yogācāra School. Judging from the fact that the greater part of this sūtra is quoted in the Yogācārabhūmi (Taishō 53), and that numerous citations from it are to be found in such works as the Mahāyānasaṃgraha (Taishō 57) and Jō-yui-shiki-ron (Taishō 54), it is clear that it exerted considerable influence in later times.

Source

Skt. Saṃdhinirmocana-sūtra. Translated into the Chinese by Xuan Cang as Jie shenmi jing (解深密經). 5 fascicles.
(Source: BDK America)

Keenan, John P., trans. The Scripture on the Explication of Underlying Meaning. Translated from the Chinese of Hsüan-tsang (Taisho Volume 16, Number 676). BDK English Tripiṭaka 25, no. 4. Berkeley, CA: Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, 2000. https://bdkamerica.org/product/the-scripture-on-the-explication-of-underlying-meaning/.

Keenan, John P., trans. The Scripture on the Explication of Underlying Meaning. Translated from the Chinese of Hsüan-tsang (Taisho Volume 16, Number 676). BDK English Tripiṭaka 25, no. 4. Berkeley, CA: Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, 2000. https://bdkamerica.org/product/the-scripture-on-the-explication-of-underlying-meaning/.;The Scripture on the Explication of Underlying Meaning;Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra;John P. Keenan; Xuanzang;Chen Hui (or Chen Yi);The Scripture on the Explication of Underlying Meaning

Book

Wisdom of Buddha: The Saṁdhinirmocana Mahāyāna Sūtra

Wisdom of Buddha: The Samdhinirmochana Sutra was translated from the Tibetan by John Powers as a PhD thesis in Buddhist Studies.

The Samdhinirmochana Sutra demonstrates how our common modes of viewing reality and our habitual ways of living are fundamentally mistaken. It details how the full force of our mental and physical faculties can be harnessed for the task of clearing up the ignorance that clouds the continuum of every being who is not a Buddha, describing in detail the views, stages, and practices necessary for this transformation.

This Sutra presents the Buddha's dialogues with ten great Bodhisattvas on such topics as ultimate reality, base-consciousness, the threefold character of phenomena, the teachings of definitive meaning, the ten stages of the Bodhisattva Path and the six perfection, and the union of wisdom and compassion at the Buddha level. Read, studied, outlined, and meditated upon, this Sutra can reveal the architecture of enlightenment and open awareness to the profound and expansive vision that informs the third turning teachings. Correctly understood, it can guide the reader on a path that leads to mental balance, insight into the view of sunyata, and deep commitment to work selflessly for the benefit of others. To encourage students to investigate the text more closely, this publication contains the complete typeset Tibetan text on facing pages, extensive notes, glossary, and index. (Source: Dharma Publishing)

Powers, John, trans. Wisdom of Buddha: The Saṁdhinirmocana Mahāyāna Sūtra; Essential Questions and Direct Answers for Realizing Enlightenment. Tibetan Translation Series. Berkeley, CA: Dharma Publishing, 1995. http://lirs.ru/lib/sutra/Wisdom_of_Buddha,The_Samdhinirmocana_Sutra,Powers,1995.pdf.

Powers, John, trans. Wisdom of Buddha: The Saṁdhinirmocana Mahāyāna Sūtra;Essential Questions and Direct Answers for Realizing Enlightenment. Tibetan Translation Series. Berkeley, CA: Dharma Publishing, 1995. http://lirs.ru/lib/sutra/Wisdom_of_Buddha,The_Samdhinirmocana_Sutra,Powers,1995.pdf.;Wisdom of Buddha: The Saṁdhinirmocana Mahāyāna Sūtra;Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra;John Powers; Wisdom of Buddha: The Saṁdhinirmocana Mahāyāna Sūtra;Essential Questions and Direct Answers for Realizing Enlightenment

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Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra

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