]> 2026-10-16T02:35:22-04:00 Texts/Mahāmeghasūtra 0 en ārya-mahāmegha-nāma-mahāyāna-sūtra ārya-mahāmegha-nāma-mahāyāna-sūtra false Sanskrit Text RKTSK 232 true Kangyur · Sūtra · mdo sde · Sūtranta 232 Classical Works landscape (pecha) Mahāmeghasūtra. (T. Sprin chen po'i mdo; C. Dafangdeng wuxiang jing/Dayun jing; J. Daihōdō musōkyō/Daiungyō; K. Taebangdǔng musang kyǒng/Taeun kyǒng 大方等無想經/大雲經). In Sanskrit, the "Great Cloud Sūtra"; it is also known in China as the ''Dafangdeng wuxiang jing''. The ''Mahāmeghasūtra'' contains the teachings given by the Buddha to the bodhisattva "Great Cloud Secret Storehouse" (C. Dayunmizang) on the inconceivable means of attaining liberation, ''samādhi'', and the power of ''dhāraṇīs''. The Buddha also declares that tathāgatas remain forever present in the dharma and the saṃgha despite having entered ''parinirvāṇa'' and that they are always endowed with the four qualities of nirvāṇa mentioned in the ''Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra'', namely, permanence, bliss, purity, and selfhood (see ''guṇapāramitā''). The ''Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra''<i>'</i>s influence on the ''Mahāmeghasūtra'' can also be witnessed in the story of the goddess "Pure Light" (C. Jingguang). Having heard the ''Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra'' in her past life, the goddess is told by the Buddha that she will be reborn as a universal monarch (''cakravartin''). The sūtra is often cited for its prophecy of the advent of Nāgārjuna, as well as for its injunctions against meat-eating. It was also recited in order to induce rain. In China, commentators on the ''Mahāmeghasūtra'' identified the newly enthroned Empress Wu Zetian as the reincarnation of the goddess, seeking thereby to legitimize her rule. As Emperor Gaozong (r. 649–683) of the Tang dynasty suffered from increasingly ill health, his ambitious and pious wife Empress Wu took over the imperial administration. After her husband's death she exiled the legitimate heir Zhongzong (r. 683–684, 703–710) and usurped the throne. One of the many measures she took to gain the support of the people was the publication and circulation of the ''Mahāmeghasūtra''. Two translations by Zhu Fonian and Dharmakṣema were available at the time. Wu Zetian also ordered the establishment of monasteries called ''Dayunsi'' ("Great Cloud Monastery") in every prefecture of the empire. (Source: "Mahāmeghasūtra." In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 500. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.) 'phags pa sprin chen po zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo महामेघसूत्र Mahāmeghasūtra འཕགས་པ་སྤྲིན་ཆེན་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ། The Great Cloud Sūtra (84000) RKTSK 232;tathāgatagarbha;History of buddha-nature in India;The doctrine of buddha-nature in Indian Buddhism;Surendrabodhi;lha dbang byang chub; Yeshe De;ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་;ye shes sde;sna nam ye shes sde;zhang ban+de ye shes sde;སྣ་ནམ་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་;ཞང་བནྡེ་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་;Dharmakṣema;'phags pa sprin chen po zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo;འཕགས་པ་སྤྲིན་ཆེན་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།;Mahāmeghasūtra;महामेघसूत्र;འཕགས་པ་སྤྲིན་ཆེན་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ། Sanskrit Tibetan,Chinese Sutra.jpg Surendrabodhi Ye shes sde Dharmakṣema The ''Mahāmeghasūtra'' (Scripture on the Great Cloud) is extant in two versions:<br> :1. the ''Dafangdeng wuxiang jing'' (大方等無想 經; T. 387; *Mahāvaipulyāsaṃjñikasūtra in the Korean; but ''Dafangdeng dayun jing'' [大方等大雲 經] = ''*Mahāvaipulyamahāmeghasūtra'' in the Song, Yuan, Ming, and “Palace” editions), translated circa 421–433 ce by Dharmakṣema; and :2. the ''Sprin chen po'' (D 232/Q 898), translated by Jinamitra, Śīlendrabodhi, and Ye shes sde (9th cent. ce).<br> Although the text has apparently otherwise been lost in its original form, a Sanskrit passage has been preserved as an interpolation into the ''Suvarṇabhāsottama'' (Suzuki, 1996), itself extant in Sanskrit.<br>      No full translation of the ''Mahāmeghasūtra'' exists in a Western language, but a detailed English summary is given by A. Forte (1976, app. A). Western scholarship has mainly focused on a peculiar prophecy contained in the text (see below), which was used by the Chinese Empress Wu Zetian (武則天; r. 690–705 ce) to legitimate the rule of her Zhou (周) dynasty (Chavannes, 1902, 235–236; Demiéville, 1924, 218–230; Tucci, 1930, 217; Forte, 1976). Apart from Takasaki Jikidō (1974, 276–301), the most important studies are by Suzuki Takayasu (1996b; 1998a; 1998b; 1998c; 1999a; 2001; 2003a; 2003b).<br>      The title reflects a conceit of the dharma as rain from the cloud of a Tathāgatagarbha ''sūtra'', in the drought of the end-times (comp. also the ''Mahāparinirvāṇamahāsūtra'' and ''Mahābherīhārakasūtra''). In both versions, the structure of the ''Mahāmeghasūtra'' is odd: of the 37 chapters, only chapters 1, 2, 36, and 37 are fully elaborated. Chapters 3 to 35, by contrast, seem merely to be skeletal outlines of topics. The following summary focuses on chapters 1, 2, 36, and 37.<br>      In keeping with Mahāyāna convention, the frame narrative describes a vast congregation assembled to listen to the Buddha’s sermon, and various wonders performed by the Buddha, or occurring spontaneously, to mark the occasion. The bodhisattva *Mahāmeghagarbha (大雲密藏) asks the Buddha a hundred questions. The Buddha responds by teaching on themes already encountered above – the docetic ''parinirvāṇa'', the four inversions, the fact that sentient beings are in truth not distinct from ''dharmadhātu'' (the realm/element of the dharma; comp. the ''Anūnatvāpūrṇatvanirdeśaparivarta'' teaching of ''ekadhātu'' [the one realm/element]), the inferior merits of ''śrāvakas'' and pratyekabuddhas, and ''tathāgatagarbha''/buddha nature. Chapter 2 is largely taken up with four hundred samādhis, which secure for the practitioner a long list of benefits.<br>      Chapter 36 picks out a couple of ''samādhis'' for special discussion. In answer to the Brahman Shande (善德; later identified with the Indian emperor Aśoka), the Buddha explains that the Buddha’scousin and “rival” Devadatta was not as evil as he appeared. Rather, he was a ''mahāpuruṣa'' (great being), acting as part of the Buddha’s salvific plan. A person called *Sarvasattvapriyadarśana (一切眾生樂見) then begins speaking in the Buddha’s stead. Shande declares the doctrines of the ''Mahāmeghasūtra'' to be beyond him; instead, he says, he would like to venerate a relic of the Buddha. *Sarvasattvapriyadarśana proclaims a series of verses declaring that there is in fact no such thing as a Buddha relic (echoing similar ideas in the ''Suvarṇabhāsottama''). A goddess (*devī) called *Vimalaprabhā (淨光) asks the Buddha how Shande and *Sarvasattvapriyadarśana can have such insight. The Buddha explains that in a past life, they had a similar exchange, in the presence of a buddha who also preached the ''Mahāmeghasūtra''. He also explains that in a future life, Shande will be Aśoka. The devī *Vimalaprabhā, moreover, was the queen in the past narrative, and will reign in the future over a kingdom of her own as a kind of “one-quarter cakravartin.” The Buddha also gives another prophecy of an end-times scenario in which the ''Mahāmeghasūtra'' will circulate. The chapter closes with another iteration of the docetic ''parinirvāṇa''.<br>      Chapter 37 returns to the end-times prophecy. During the end-times, another person who also goes by the name of *Sarvasattvapriyadarśana (一切眾生樂見) will be the guardian of the true dharma. The chapter expounds at length the virtues of one specific ''samādhi'' – that is, the ability of bodhisattvas to manifest themselves in many different apparent bodies to save sentient beings. This exposition is interwoven with a reprise of the eternity of the ''dharmakāya'' and the docetic ''parinirvāṇa''. *Vimalaprabhā again comes to the fore, and bests *Mahāmeghagarbha in her grasp of doctrine. The Buddha then prophesies an illustrious future for her. *Mahāmeghagarbha foolishly assumes that this future must involve changing into a male, as traditional Buddhist doctrine all but universally asserts, but the Buddha scolds *Mahāmeghagarbha for making this assumption; in fact, he reveals, *Vimalaprabhā deliberately assumes the body of a woman through countless aeons for the sake of sentient beings (although the female body that she assumes is apparently not real but merely a body of skillful means [''*upāyakāya''; 方便之身]). A further very detailed prophecy expands on the promise of the previous chapter that the devī will become a powerful queen – this being the prophecy so useful to Wu Zetian. This queen will be a powerful sponsor of the cult of Buddha relics in stūpas (seemingly contradicting the earlier denigration and docetic denial of relics). Many lifetimes later, the ''devī'' will preside over her own buddha world. This theme of spiritually powerful women prophesied to buddhahood echoes the ''Śrīmālādevīsiṃhanādasūtra''.<br>      The exposition of ''tathāgatagarbha'' doctrine in the ''Mahāmeghasūtra'' echoes that of the ''Mahāparinirvāṇamahāsūtra'' (especially the hypothesized second layer, mentioned above). It preaches the theme of secret teachings, the idea that ''tathāgatagarbha''/buddha nature is to be “seen,” and the fact that sentient beings have ''tathāgatagarbha'' within them like a separate entity. The ''Mahāmeghasūtra'' is also concerned with docetism, and, indeed, one of its ''samādhis'' converts the notion of conformity to the [expectations of the] world (''lokānuvartanā'') into a practice of meditation on the production of the docetic appearance of all the typical acts of a buddha (dwelling in Tuṣita heaven, conception and birth attended by a set of stock miracles, etc.). The ''Mahāmeghasūtra'' also preaches a docetic ''parinirvāṇa''; and it discusses the danger that people will accuse its proponents of peddling fake teachings (''buddhavacana''). Both texts teach the four inversions, the ban on meat eating, and the ''dharmakāya/vajrakāya''. Suzuki Takayasu (1998b; 2001) has proposed that Shimoda Masahiro’s second layer in the ''Mahāparinirvāṇamahāsūtra'' bears the mark of recomposition under the influence of the ''Mahāmeghasūtra''.<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, 266-67. Leiden: Brill, 2015.) false Sanskrit Original Work 387 Sutra འཕགས་པ་སྤྲིན་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ་འདི་ནི། བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་ཀྱིས་བྱ་རྒོད་ཕུང་པོའི་རི་ལ་འཁོར་དགེ་སློང་། དགེ་སློང་མ། བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་དང་འགྲོ་བའི་རིགས་མང་པོར་གསུངས་པ་སྟེ། ཞུ་བ་པོ་གཙོ་བོ་ནི་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་སྤྲིན་ཆེན་པོའི་སྙིང་པོ་དང་། གཞན་ཡང་ལྷོ་མོ་དྲི་མ་མེད་པ་སོགས་ཡོད་པ་ཡིན། མདོ་འདིར་ཆོས་ཀྱི་སྒོ་དང་ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་གྱི་སྒོ་མི་འདྲ་བ་མང་དུ་བཀོད་ཡོད་ཀྱང་། ཕལ་ཆེ་བར་མཚན་ཙམ་སྨོས་པ་ལས་བརྗོད་དོན་བཀོད་མེད། མདོ་འདིར་ཆོས་རྒྱལ་མྱ་ངན་མེད་པའི་ལུང་བསྟན་དང་། ལྷས་སྦྱིན་སོགས་ཀྱང་ཐབས་ལས་མཁས་པའི་ཚུལ་ཙམ་ལས་དོན་ལ་ཉེས་པ་ཅན་མ་ཡིན་པར་གསུངས་ཡོད་པ་དང་། དེ་བཞིན་ལྷ་མོ་དྲི་མ་མེད་པ་རང་དབང་དུ་ཐབས་ཀྱི་ལུས་འཛིན་པའི་སྐོར་དང་། དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ་རྟག་པ། བརྟན་པ། ཐེར་ཟུག་དང་ ཞི་བའི་རང་བཞིན་ཡིན་པར་གསུངས་ཡོད་པ་ཡིན། འཕགས་པ་སྤྲིན་ཆེན་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ། Sūtras - mdo Mahāmeghasūtra. (T. Sprin chen po'i mdo; C. Dafangdeng wuxiang jing/Dayun jing; J. Daihōdō musōkyō/Daiungyō; K. Taebangdǔng musang kyǒng/Taeun kyǒng 大方等無想經/大雲經). In Sanskrit, the "Great Cloud Sūtra"; it is also known in China as the ''Dafangdeng wuxiang jing''. The ''Mahāmeghasūtra'' contains the teachings given by the Buddha to the bodhisattva "Great Cloud Secret Storehouse" (C. Dayunmizang) on the inconceivable means of attaining liberation, ''samādhi'', and the power of ''dhāraṇīs''. The Buddha also declares that tathāgatas remain forever present in the dharma and the saṃgha despite having entered ''parinirvāṇa'' and that they are always endowed with the four qualities of nirvāṇa mentioned in the ''Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra'', namely, permanence, bliss, purity, and selfhood (see ''guṇapāramitā''). The ''Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra''<i>'</i>s influence on the ''Mahāmeghasūtra'' can also be witnessed in the story of the goddess "Pure Light" (C. Jingguang). Having heard the ''Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra'' in her past life, the goddess is told by the Buddha that she will be reborn as a universal monarch (''cakravartin''). The sūtra is often cited for its prophecy of the advent of Nāgārjuna, as well as for its injunctions against meat-eating. It was also recited in order to induce rain. In China, commentators on the ''Mahāmeghasūtra'' identified the newly enthroned Empress Wu Zetian as the reincarnation of the goddess, seeking thereby to legitimize her rule. As Emperor Gaozong (r. 649–683) of the Tang dynasty suffered from increasingly ill health, his ambitious and pious wife Empress Wu took over the imperial administration. After her husband's death she exiled the legitimate heir Zhongzong (r. 683–684, 703–710) and usurped the throne. One of the many measures she took to gain the support of the people was the publication and circulation of the ''Mahāmeghasūtra''. Two translations by Zhu Fonian and Dharmakṣema were available at the time. Wu Zetian also ordered the establishment of monasteries called ''Dayunsi'' ("Great Cloud Monastery") in every prefecture of the empire. (Source: "Mahāmeghasūtra." In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 500. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.) ārya-mahāmegha-nāma-mahāyāna-sūtra;'phags pa sprin chen po zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo;महामेघसूत्र;Mahāmeghasūtra;འཕགས་པ་སྤྲིན་ཆེན་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།;RKTSK 232;Texts/Mahāmeghasūtra Surendrabodhi; Ye shes sde; Dharmakṣema RKTSK 232;Mahāmeghasūtra;'phags pa sprin chen po zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo;महामेघसूत्र;འཕགས་པ་སྤྲིན་ཆེན་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ། Kangyur 2020-05-05T18:33:21Z 2458975.2731597 2020-05-05T18:47:29Z 2458975.2829745 false '"`UNIQ--noglossary-00000000-QINU`"' Texts/Mahāmeghasūtra 'phags pa sprin chen po zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo महामेघसूत्र Mahāmeghasūtra འཕགས་པ་སྤྲིན་ཆེན་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ། ārya-mahāmegha-nāma-mahāyāna-sūtra 0 0 plainlist 2 [[:Tathāgatagarbha]] [[Category:People]] '"`UNIQ--noglossary-00000000-QINU`"'# QUERYaf47ac1b9a67b376c112ba2baca2c3d2 0 0 plainlist 2 [[:History of buddha-nature in India]] [[Category:People]] '"`UNIQ--noglossary-00000000-QINU`"'# QUERY45999550b0325c06d2ec9c671292614e 0 0 plainlist 2 [[:The doctrine of buddha-nature in Indian Buddhism]] [[Category:People]] '"`UNIQ--noglossary-00000000-QINU`"'# QUERYbb625f302c61646b27ad6b0ab98d16a1 0 0 plainlist 1 [[:People/Surendrabodhi]] '"`UNIQ--noglossary-00000000-QINU`"'# QUERYb60587ffc06d265992fa6b40eaab7ef5 0 0 plainlist 1 [[:People/Surendrabodhi]] '"`UNIQ--noglossary-00000000-QINU`"'# QUERYcd2ccaaad87705156b6d845097818df5 0 0 plainlist 1 [[:People/Ye shes sde]] '"`UNIQ--noglossary-00000000-QINU`"'# QUERY90a2e8095835be79c3a463451be9b72f 0 0 plainlist 1 [[:People/Ye shes sde]] '"`UNIQ--noglossary-00000000-QINU`"'# QUERY82dabdfe31c56a2a7443d7113af8d566 0 0 plainlist 1 [[:People/Dharmakṣema]] '"`UNIQ--noglossary-00000000-QINU`"'# QUERY8539c2298630808898ce605a427f0763 0 0 plainlist 1 [[:People/Dharmakṣema]] '"`UNIQ--noglossary-00000000-QINU`"'# QUERY20c3731630bb6ed5715b190dc3cae4c9 0 0 plainlist 1 [[:Tathāgatagarbha]] '"`UNIQ--noglossary-00000000-QINU`"'# QUERYac06135e89af8aaf1c396caa3250b935 0 1 plainlist 2 [[BuNayTopicTags::Texts/Mahāmeghasūtra]] '"`UNIQ--noglossary-00000000-QINU`"'# QUERY3716032687e7564cc3223a45660ee146 0 200 1 template 2 [[BuNayTopicTags::Texts/Mahāmeghasūtra]] '"`UNIQ--noglossary-00000000-QINU`"'# QUERY0f67e517972fb9a47587f6cb0e2a3b81 0 200 1 template 2 [[BuNayTopicTags::~"Mahāmeghasūtra"]] '"`UNIQ--noglossary-00000000-QINU`"'# QUERY8aad3d46c977d8901455e5d671e164fc 0 0 plainlist 1 [[:Surendrabodhi]] '"`UNIQ--noglossary-00000000-QINU`"'# QUERYc61106759c7cfb2966480e46e7edc808 0 0 plainlist 1 [[:Ye shes sde]] '"`UNIQ--noglossary-00000000-QINU`"'# QUERYa5f121314af485eb32ec00854ce3ae67 0 0 plainlist 1 [[:Dharmakṣema]] '"`UNIQ--noglossary-00000000-QINU`"'# QUERYdce844e3821738edb96b4a8885e6e2a8 0 0 plainlist 1 [[:Tathāgatagarbha; History of buddha-nature in India; The doctrine of buddha-nature in Indian Buddhism]] '"`UNIQ--noglossary-00000000-QINU`"'# QUERY2be2faed30e04f0ff4f6808b084343de 0 0 plainlist 1 [[::]] '"`UNIQ--noglossary-00000000-QINU`"'# QUERY6ee7d0bb3ac4ed35537bcb89914b30ac Media/Christopher Jones: Defining a "Buddha-Nature Discourse": The Case of the Mahāmeghasūtra (Sprin chen po'i mdo) 0 en Christopher Jones: Defining a "Buddha-Nature Discourse": The Case of the Mahāmeghasūtra (Sprin chen po'i mdo) Mahāmeghasūtra 0 en Mahāmeghasūtra BuNayTopicTags 102 en BuNayTopicTags REDI 102 en REDI