]> 2026-10-16T05:25:30-04:00 Texts/Mahābherīsūtra 0 en ārya-mahābherīhāraka-parivarta-nāma-mahāyāna-sūtra ārya-mahābherīhāraka-parivarta-nāma-mahāyāna-sūtra false Sanskrit Text Mahābherīsūtra true Kangyur · Sūtra · mdo sde · Sūtranta 222 Classical Works 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. false 'phags pa rnga bo che chen po'i le'u zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo 大法鼓經 Dà fǎ gǔ jīng Mahābherīhārakaparivartasūtra འཕགས་པ་རྔ་བོ་ཆེ་ཆེན་པོའི་ལེའུ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ། The Sūtra of the Chapter on the Great Drum (84000) 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།;Mahābherīhārakaparivartasūtra;大法鼓經 Sanskrit Tibetan,Chinese,Japanese Sutra.jpg Vidyākaraprabha Dpal gyi lhun po Guṇabhadra One of the tathāgatagarbha sūtras. Yes Definitive Definitive 1 Third Turning The ''*Mahābherīhārakasūtra'' (Scripture on the Beater of the Great Kettledrum) is extant in two versions: # the ''Da fagu jing'' (大法鼓經; T. 270), translated by Guṇabhadra; and # the ''Rnga bo che chen po’i le’u'' (D 222/Q 888), translated by Vidyākaraprabha, Dpal gyi lhun po, and Dpal brtsegs (9th cent. ce).<br> Apart from Takasaki Jidikō (1974, 234–253), the main studies are by Suzuki Takayasu (1996a; 1997; 2000; 2002), who suggests that the ''*Mahābherīhārakasūtra'' is linked to the ''Aṅgulimālīyasūtra'' (see below), because of the reference to its preachers as ''*hitopadeṣṭṛ'' (Chn. ''anweishuozhe'' [安慰說者]; Tib. ''phan par ston pa'', “those who teach what is beneficial [for sentient beings]”). <br>      King Prasenajit goes to hear the Buddha preaching the dharma, accompanied by a great fanfare of beating drums and blasting conches. In response, the Buddha “beats the great kettledrum of the dharma” (hence the title) and “blasts the great conch of the dharma” (T. 270 [IX] 290c15, 291c14–15). Later, we learn that Prasenajit smears his war drum with a magical ointment, and when the drum is beaten, poisoned arrows fall from his soldiers’ wounds; similarly, the ''*Mahābherīhārakasūtra'' has the power to extract the arrows of the so-called three poisons (i.e. lust, hatred, and delusion), the elements which, according to Buddhist doctrine, cause the entire wheel of transmigration to revolve and bind beings to saṃsāra.<br>      The ''*Mahābherīhārakasūtra'' proposes that existence (''*bhava'') is at the root of all pleasure and pain (''*sukhaduḥkha''), so that nirvāṇa, which is freedom from the very conditions of existence, is the supreme bliss. This apparently simple teaching (which echoes the bliss of the four inversions) is not known to all tathāgatas, and bodhisattvas from other buddha worlds come to hear it taught by Śākyamuni. This teaching is thus a “secret dharma store of the tathāgatas,” a “concealed teaching” (T. 270 [IX] 291a13–14, 291a26–29). After the (apparent) ''parinirvāṇa'', this secret is to be entrusted to the bodhisattva Mahākāśyapa, whom the Buddha likens to King Prasenajit, beating his drums and sounding his conches, defeating enemies, and bringing peace.<br>      However, toward the end of the text, it is dramatically revealed that various phantoms created by Māra, the embodiment of evil, are hidden among the congregation. A series of powerful disciples and bodhisattvas – including Mahākāśyapa – prove incapable of rooting them out. This sets the scene for *Sarvasattvapriyadarśana, despite histrionic protest that he is a mere layman, to best even Mahākāśyapa by unmasking and capturing Māra’s minions. The Buddha reveals that *Sarvasattvapriyadarśana only gives the appearance of being a common person (''pṛthagjana''). In fact, his true level of spiritual development is more advanced; in the end-times, he will be reborn as a monk “bearing the same name as myself ” (i.e. as the Buddha, who is speaking; T. 270 [IX] 299a17–18), the main proponent of the true teachings (of the ''Mahābherīhārakasūtra''); and in the very remote future, *Sarvasattvapriyadarśana will become a buddha.<br>      The heart of the teaching of the ''*Mahābherīhārakasūtra'' is twofold. First, the Buddha is truly eternal and does not really enter parinirvāṇa. Second, all sentient beings have ''tathāgatagarbha''/buddha nature – clearly and explicitly identified with the self (''wo'' [我]; ''ātman''). The fact that sentient beings at first do not perceive this pure essence within themselves, but can nonetheless realize it with practice, is explained by the metaphor of gold tainted by impurities and then refined. The ''*Mahābherīhārakasūtra'' also uses other metaphors, later commonplace, like the moon obscured by clouds, or the eye obscured by cataracts, and speaks explicitly of the covering of the ''tathāgatagarbha''/buddha nature/''ātman'' by adventitious defilements (''*āgantukakleśa'').<br>      The ''*Mahābherīhārakasūtra'' shares a number of themes with other texts in the ''Mahāparinirvāṇamahāsūtra'' group: the eternity of the Tathāgata; the docetic ''parinirvāṇa'' secret teachings; the identification of the Tathāgata with ''ātman''; deprecation of śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas; the identification of Mahākāśyapa as the true heritor of the dharma; and end-times prophecies. It speaks of “the great rain of the dharma” (e.g. T. 270, [IX] 299c9; comp. also the ''Mahāmeghasūtra''). The ''*Mahābherīhārakasūtra'' also includes a version of the parable, better known from the Lotus Sūtra, of the phantom city conjured up by a guide to encourage travelers to continue a long and arduous journey, used as a figure for the Buddha’s teaching of intermediate “vehicles” (''yāna'') as way stations on the path to the Mahāyāna as the “one” (true) vehicle.<br><br> (Source: Radich, Michael. "Tathāgatagarbha Scriptures." In Vol. 1, ''Brill's Encyclopedia of Buddhism: Literature and Languages'', edited by Jonathan A. Silk, Oskar von Hinüber, and Vincent Eltschinger, 267-68. Leiden: Brill, 2015.)) false Mahābherīsūtra Sanskrit Original Work 270 Sutra འཕགས་པ་རྔོ་བོ་ཆེ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ་ནི། སངས་རྒྱས་བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་ཀྱིས་རྒྱལ་པོའི་ཁབ་རྒྱལ་བུ་རྒྱལ་བྱེད་ཀྱི་ཚལ་དུ་གསུངས་པ་སྟེ། འཁོར་གཙོ་བོ་འོད་སྲུང་དང་དགའ་བོ་ལ་སོགས་པ་དགེ་སློང་དང་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་ཚོགས་ལ། རྒྱལ་པོ་གསལ་བྱེད་ཀྱིས་དམག་གི་རྔ་བོ་ཆེ་བརྡུང་བ་ལ་དཔེར་བྱས་ནས། ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྔ་བོ་ཆེ་བརྡུང་བ་སྟེ། དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོ་རྟག་པ་བརྟན་པ་ཐེར་ཟུག་ཞི་བའི་རང་བཞིམ་ཡིན་པའི་སྐོར་བསྟན་པས། མདོ་འདི་གཤེགས་སྙིང་བསྟན་པའི་མདོ་གྲལ་དུ་བཞག་ཅིང་། སྔ་འགྱུར་གྱི་སྐབས་སུ་བསྒྱུར་ཏེ་དཔལ་བརྩེགས་ཀྱིས་ཞུས་དག་བྱས་པའོ།། Sūtras - mdo 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. ārya-mahābherīhāraka-parivarta-nāma-mahāyāna-sūtra;'phags pa rnga bo che chen po'i le'u zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo;大法鼓經;Dà fǎ gǔ jīng;Mahābherīhārakaparivartasūtra;འཕགས་པ་རྔ་བོ་ཆེ་ཆེན་པོའི་ལེའུ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།;Mahābherīsūtra;Texts/Mahābherīsūtra Vidyākaraprabha; Dpal gyi lhun po; Guṇabhadra Mahābherīsūtra;'phags pa rnga bo che chen po'i le'u zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo;大法鼓經;Mahābherīhārakaparivartasūtra;འཕགས་པ་རྔ་བོ་ཆེ་ཆེན་པོའི་ལེའུ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ། Kangyur 2018-07-13T15:34:23Z 2458313.1488773 2020-09-04T19:43:48Z 2459097.3220833 false '"`UNIQ--noglossary-00000000-QINU`"' One of the tathāgatagarbha sūtras. 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Jones at the 2019 Tathāgatagarbha Symposium 0 en Christopher V. Jones at the 2019 Tathāgatagarbha Symposium Articles/Tathāgatagarbha Scriptures 0 en Tathāgatagarbha Scriptures Media/Christopher V. Jones at the 2019 Tathāgatagarbha Symposium 0 en Christopher V. Jones at the 2019 Tathāgatagarbha Symposium Mahābherīsūtra 0 en Mahābherīsūtra BuNayTopicTags 102 en BuNayTopicTags RelatedWritings 102 en RelatedWritings REDI 102 en REDI