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 three turnings of the wheel of Dharma. Furthermore, it is commonly included in the Tibetan lists of sūtras that teach buddha-nature and/or the definitive meaning.

Relevance to Buddha-nature

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

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

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

Recensions of This Text

Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra. (Mahāyāna Sūtra which Decisively Reveals the Intention). Recension information:
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). BCRD Link: http://databases.aibs.columbia.edu/index.php?id=8779d3c06b8c24039521ebc9e4bd3d1a&enc=tibetan_wylie_title&coll=kangyur Derge 106, mdo sde, ca 1b1-55b7 (vol. 49), translated by Kamalaśīla and Dharmatāśīla. Also appears in Q 774, mdo sna tshogs, ngu 1a1-60b7 (vol. 29, p.1); N 94, mdo sde, ca 1b1-81a7 (vol. 51); C 747, mdo mang, ca 1b1-71a7 (vol. 29); H 109, mdo sde, ca 1b1-87b7 (vol. 51); J 51, mdo sde, ca 1b1-59b8 (vol. 44); U 106, mdo sde, ca 1b1-55b7 (vol. 49).
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
Notes on languages	No longer extant in Sanskrit
Canonical Genre	~ Kangyur · Sūtra · mdo sde · Sūtranta
Literary Genre	~ Sūtras - mdo

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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;Tshogs gnyis rgya mtsho;Dol po pa;Buddha-nature as Emptiness;Jonang;zhentong;Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra;Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra;tridharmacakrapravartana;neyārtha;nītārtha;prasajyapratiṣedha;Geluk;guṇa;Filippo Brambilla;Empty of True Existence, Yet Full of Qualities. Tshogs gnyis rgya mtsho (1880–1940) on Buddha Nature

Article

Original Purity and the Focus of Early Yogācāra

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.

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;

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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

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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 1994 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 1994 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)

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

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

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

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

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