This sūtra is quoted by Asaṅga twenty-eight times in his ''Mahāyānottaratantraśāstravyākhyā'', making it the most frequently referenced work in the entire commentary. Though it is primarily considered a source for the fifth ''vajrapada'', enlightenment, it is notable for its discussion of several key concepts related to tathāgatagarbha theory. These include teachings on a single vehicle and it's description of the four perfections (''pāramitā'') of the dharmakāya, i.e. that it is permanent, blissful, pure, and a self. As well as the notion that buddha-nature is empty of adventitious stains but not empty of its limitless inseparable qualities, which would become the cornerstone of the Shentong position.
Kangyur · Sūtra · dkon brtsegs · Ratnakūṭa
One of the more prominent sūtra sources for the ''Ratnagotravibhāga'', this text tells of the story of Śrīmālādevī taking up the Buddhist path at the behest of her royal parents based on a prophecy of the Buddha. It includes mention of important concepts related to the teachings on buddha-nature, such as the single vehicle and the four perfections, or transcendent characteristics, of the dharmakāya. It also mentions the notion that buddha-nature, which is equated with mind's luminous nature, is empty of adventitious stains but not empty of its limitless inseparable qualities. In his commentary on the ''Ratnagotravibhāga'', Asaṅga quotes this sūtra more than any other source text. In particular, it is considered a source for the fifth of the seven vajra topics, ''enlightenment''.
'phags pa lha mo dpal phreng gi seng ge'i sgra zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
འཕགས་པ་ལྷ་མོ་དཔལ་ཕྲེང་གི་སེང་གེའི་སྒྲ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
Śrīmālādevīsūtra;Bodhiruci; Jinamitra;ཇིནམིཏྲ;slob dpon dzi na mi tra;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་;Guṇabhadra;'phags pa lha mo dpal phreng gi seng ge'i sgra zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo;འཕགས་པ་ལྷ་མོ་དཔལ་ཕྲེང་གི་སེང་གེའི་སྒྲ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།;Śrīmāladevīsiṃhanādasūtra;勝鬘夫人會;श्रीमालदेवीसिंहनादसूत्र;འཕགས་པ་ལྷ་མོ་དཔལ་ཕྲེང་གི་སེང་གེའི་སྒྲ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
One of the more prominent sūtra sources for the Uttaratantra, this text tells of the story of Śrīmālādevī taking up the Buddhist path at the behest of her royal parents based on a prophecy of the Buddha.
The ''Śrīmālādevīsiṃhanādasūtra'' (Scripture on the Lion’s Roar of Queen Śrīmālā) survives in two Chinese versions: the ''Shengman shizihou yisheng dafangbian fangguang jing'' (勝鬘師子吼一乘大 方便方廣經; T. 353), translated by Guṇabhadra (求那跋陀羅; 394–468 ce), the ''Shengman furen hui'' (勝鬘夫人會) in the ''Ratnakūṭa'' (大寶積經; T. 310[48]), translated by Bodhiruci (菩提流志; ?–727 ce), and in a Tibetan version, the ''Lha mo dpal phreng gi seng ge’i sgra'' (D 92/Q 760[48]), translated by Jinamitra, Surendrabodhi, and Ye shes sde (9th cent.). The ''Śrīmālādevīsiṃhanādasūtra'' is cited in Sanskrit in the ''Ratnagotravibhāga'' (see Ogawa, 2001), and the Schøyen collection includes Sanskrit manuscript fragments of the text dating to the 5th century ce (Matsuda, 2000; Sander, 2000, 293). Tsukinowa Kenryū (1940) published an edition of both Chinese versions and the Tibetan translation (with Japanese translation, not containing the Sanskrit materials, which were unknown in his day). English translations are found in A. and H. Wayman (1974), G.C.C. Chang (1983, 363–383), and D. Paul (2004). Key studies are those by Kagawa Takao (1957), Watanabe Shōkō (1968), Tsurumi Ryōdō (1974), Takasaki Jikidō (1974, 97–126), and Matsumoto Shirō (1983). Takasaki Jikidō places the ''Śrīmālādevīsiṃhanādasūtra'' after the ''Tathāgatagarbhasūtra'' and the ''Anūnatvāpūrṇatvanirdeśaparivarta.'' In the frame narrative of the ''Śrīmālādevīsiṃhanādasūtra'', young Queen Śrīmālā receives a miraculous visitation from the Buddha, who prophesies that she will attain unexcelled perfect awakening (''anuttarasaṃyaksaṃbodhi'') and preside over her own Buddha land (a perfect heavenlike world created by the power of a Buddha to provide a perfect environment for sentient beings to attain liberation). Śrīmālā makes ten vows to practice various perfections. On the basis of those vows she performs an act of truth, in which the very truth of her words causes physical manifestations in the visible world, and this causes several miracles (flowers from the sky, heavenly sounds, etc.). Śrīmālā expresses three times the aspiration to teach the dharma in numerous lifetimes. The Buddha bestows on her the eloquence to teach, and she preaches the ''Śrīmālādevīsiṃhanādasūtra''. The Buddha approves and levitates back to Śrāvastī (present-day Saheth-Maheth). Śrīmālā returns to Ayodhyā and converts the entire populace. The doctrinal burden of the ''Śrīmālādevīsiṃhanādasūtra'' centers on several main themes. Accepting and safeguarding the true doctrine (''saddharma''; typically the doctrine of the ''Śrīmālādevīsiṃhanādasūtra'' itself, but also that of the Mahāyāna) are of unsurpassed benefit and identical to the six perfections, and all alike aim to promote acceptance of the doctrine of this text by sentient beings. One should renounce even the “body” (life and limb) for the sake of promoting the text, and as a result attain the ''dharmakāya'' of the Buddha (comp. the ''Aṅgulimālīyasūtra'' below). The achievements of the arhat and the pratyekabuddha of the “Hīnayāna” are paltry in comparison to those of the Mahāyāna, and the text subsumes those other vehicles into the Mahāyāna (it advocates ''ekayāna'', “one vehicle”). Among other things, Mahāyāna is distinguished by the type of nirvāṇa particular to it, which is a docetic illusion for the benefit of sentient beings as ''upāya'' (a skillful expedient used by the Buddha to edify sentient beings) and an “inconceivable metamorphosis” (''*acintyapariṇāmikī'' [''cyuti'']; T. 353 [XII] 219c20–220a2). Like the ''Anūnatvāpūrṇatvanirdeśaparivarta'', the ''Śrīmālādevīsiṃhanādasūtra'' contains an idiosyncratic, technical, shastric doctrinal exposition. The two types of nirvāṇa and death differ because of a subtle level of defilement. Arhats and pratyekabuddhas overcome only ''*paryutthānakleśa'' (active defilements; see Tsukinowa, 1940, 85 n1) but not the deeper ''āvāsakleśas'' (defilements as habitation; ''zhudifannao'' [住地煩惱]), which produce all active defilements. The most fundamental type of defilement is ''avidyāvāsabhūmi'' (ignorance as the [fundamental] ground of habitation), which exists from time immemorial and is dissociated from thought ''(*cittaviprayukta)''. Only the tathāgatas can destroy this defilement. Because of this, arhats, pratyekabuddhas, and “bodhisattvas who have attained mastery” engender three kinds of “body made of mind” and do not entirely escape saṃsāra; thus, true liberation is possible only for full-fledged tathāgatas and more generally, for adherents of the Mahāyāna. The ''tathāgatagarbha'' doctrine is the domain of the tathāgatas alone; for common people, it is an object of faith. It is the equivalent of the ''dharmakāya'', but whereas ''tathāgatagarbha'' is enclosed in the defilements, ''dharmakāya'' is free of them. The ''dharmakāya'' is originally pure (''prakṛtipariśuddha''), unconditioned (''asaṃskṛta''), unborn (''ajāta''), unarisen (''anutpanna''), eternal (''nitya''), changeless (''dhruva''), and permanent (''śāśvata''), and it is characterized by eternity, bliss, (true) self, and purity (''nitya, sukha, ātman,'' and ''śuddha''). The mind is also intrinsically pure ''(*prakṛtipariśuddhacitta, *prakṛtiprabhāsvaracitta)'' but obscured by adventitious defilements (''āgantukakleśa''). (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, 263. Leiden: Brill, 2015.))
འཕགས་པ་ལྷ་མོ་དཔལ་ཕྲེང་གི་སེང་གེའི་སྒྲ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ་འདི་ནི། དཀོན་མཆོག་བརྩེགས་པའི་ཁོངས་གཏོགས་ཏེ། བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་ཀྱིས་མཉན་ཡོད་དུ་བཞུགས་སྐབས་ཀོ་ས་ལའི་རྒྱལ་པོ་གསལ་རྒྱལ་དང་བཙུན་མོ་ཕྲེང་ལྡན་མའི་སྲས་མོ་ དཔལ་ཕྲེང་གྲོང་ཁྱེར་འཐབ་མེད་དུ་ཡོད་པ་ལ་ཞལ་གཟིགས་ཏེ། དཔལ་ཕྲེང་མ་འོངས་པར་སངས་རྒྱས་པ་དང་དམ་པའི་ཆོས་སྲུང་བའི་ལུང་བསྟན་བསྩལ་བ་དང་། དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོ་འདི་ནི་འོད་གསལ་བ་སྟོང་པའི་རང་བཞིན་ཏེ། གློ་བུར་གྱི་དྲི་མས་སྟོང་ཀྱང་སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་ཆོས་རྣམས་དང་མ་འབྲལ་བར་ཡོད་པ་དང་། ཕྱིན་ཅི་ལོག་བཞི་ནི་འདུས་བྱས་ལ་རྟག་བདེ་བ་གཙང་བདག་ཏུ་འཛིན་དུ་མི་རུང་བས་ཕྱིན་ཅི་ལོག་ཡིན་ཀྱང་། དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་ཆོས་ཀྱི་སྐུ་རྟག་པ་བདེ་གཙང་བདག་ཏུ་བཟུང་བ་ཕྱིན་ཅི་ལོག་མིན་པ་དང་། ཆོས་སྐུ་རྟག་བརྟན་ཞི་བ་ཐེར་ཟུག་པའི་རང་བཞིན་ཡིན་པར་བསྟན་ཡོད་པ་ཡིན། མདོ་འདི་རྒྱ་ནག་སྐད་དང་བོད་སྐད་དུ་འགྱུར་ཡོད་ཅིང་། ལེགས་སྦྱར་སྐད་ཐོག་ཡིག་རྙིང་ཆ་ཤས་ཙམ་ལས་ཡོངས་རྫོགས་མཇལ་རྒྱུ་མེད།
ārya-śrīmālādevī-siṃhanāda-nāma-mahāyāna-sūtra;'phags pa lha mo dpal phreng gi seng ge'i sgra zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo;勝鬘夫人會;Shengman furen hui;승만부인회;Seung man bu in hoe;श्रीमालदेवीसिंहनादसूत्र;Śrīmāladevīsiṃhanādasūtra;འཕགས་པ་ལྷ་མོ་དཔལ་ཕྲེང་གི་སེང་གེའི་སྒྲ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།;Śrīmālādevīsūtra;Texts/Śrīmālādevīsūtra
Bodhiruci; Jinamitra; Surendrabodhi; Ye shes sde; Guṇabhadra
Śrīmālādevīsūtra;'phags pa lha mo dpal phreng gi seng ge'i sgra zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo;勝鬘夫人會;श्रीमालदेवीसिंहनादसूत्र;Śrīmāladevīsiṃhanādasūtra;འཕགས་པ་ལྷ་མོ་དཔལ་ཕྲེང་གི་སེང་གེའི་སྒྲ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
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