This text is included among the class of tathāgatagarbha sūtras and features several important concepts related to buddha-nature, such as the singe vehicle and a universal element possessed by sentient beings that is equated with the ultimately pure nature of the mind. It also includes some proto-Zhentong explanations of emptiness as an absence of the extraneous, rather than an inherent quality of nothing-ness.
The Mahāyāna version of this sūtra, like the earlier Pali sutta of the same name, recounts a sorted tale of jealousy and revenge that spirals out of control, in which a once promising disciple is set on the path to become a vicious murderer in search of a thousand victims in order to create a garland strung with their severed fingers. That is, of course, until he encounters the final victim needed to complete his task, the Buddha. (You can read the story [https://buddhanature.tsadra.org/index.php/Books/The_Jewel_Ornament_of_Liberation_(Konchog_Gyaltsen)/The_Story_of_Angulimala here]). The Mahāyāna version is routinely included among the lists of so-called tathāgatagarbha sūtras, the reason likely being the extensive discussion the protagonist has with Mañjuśrī on the proper view of emptiness. The position presented in the text has been taken by some to be an early precursor to the view of other-emptiness.
'phags pa sor mo'i phreng ba la phan pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo
འཕགས་པ་སོར་མོའི་ཕྲེང་བ་ལ་ཕན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
The Sūtra for the Benefit of Aṅgulimāla (84000)
Aṅgulimālīyasūtra;Śākyaprabha;ཤཱཀྱ་འོད་;shAkya 'Od; Dharmatāśīla;d+harma tA shI la;chos nyid tshul khrims;Tong Ācārya;tong A tsar+ya;Guṇabhadra;Dharmarakṣa;Faju;Bo Faju;Fa-chü;'phags pa sor mo'i phreng ba la phan pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo;འཕགས་པ་སོར་མོའི་ཕྲེང་བ་ལ་ཕན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།;Aṅgulimālīyasūtra;央掘魔羅經;अङ्गुलिमालीयसूत्र
The ''Aṅgulimālīyasūtra'' (Scripture on Aṅgulimālīya) is extant in two versions: # the ''Yangjuemoluo jing'' (央掘魔羅經; T. 120), translated by Guṇabhadra; and # the ''Sor mo’i phreng ba la phan pa'' (D 213/Q 879), translated by Śākyaprabha, Dharmatāśīla, and Tong Ācārya (9th cent.). The main studies on this text are by Takasaki Jikidō (1974, 191–233), Ogawa Ichijō (1999; 2001, 7–15), Kanō Kazuo (2006), Suzuki Takayasu (1999a; 1999b; 2000), and L. Schmithausen (2003). Suzuki Takayasu notes that the ''Aṅgulimālīyasūtra'', like the ''*Mahābherīhārakasūtra'', refers to its preachers as ''*hitopadeṣṭṛ'' (teachers for the benefit [of others]). Like the ''Mahāparinirvāṇamahāsūtra'', the ''Aṅgulimālīyasūtra'' reworks a scenario from mainstream canonical scripture – this time, the conversion of the bandit and murderer Aṅgulimāl(īy)a (see Theragāthā vv. 866–891; Majjhimanikāya, 86). The ''Aṅgulimālīyasūtra'' thus betrays a concern with the power of the dharma to save even hopeless sinners, also seen in the ''Mahāparinirvāṇamahāsūtra'' (the portions found in the Dharmakṣema translation) on the salvation of Ajātaśatru (famed for killing his father, Bimbisāra, in order to usurp his throne), the ''Mahāmeghasūtra’s'' docetic reinterpretation of Devadatta, and ''icchantika'' doctrine. Aṅgulimālīya is originally a Brahman youth named *Sarvalokapriyadarśana, connecting him to the central protagonist of the ''Mahāparinirvāṇamahāsūtra'' group. He is accused by the wife of his teacher of sexually molesting her, and the teacher convinces Aṅgulimālīya to expiate his guilt by killing a thousand people and making a trophy garland of their severed fingers (the source of his grisly soubriquet – Aṅgulimālīya [“Finger Garland”]). Having killed 999 people, Aṅgulimālīya prepares to kill his mother. The Buddha intervenes, and Aṅgulimālīya wants to kill him, too. Instead, the Buddha manages to convert him. Various deities and advanced disciples express their admiration at the conversion, and Aṅgulimālīya defeats each in battles of Buddhist wit (often versified) and mastery of the dharma. Aṅgulimālīya takes precepts and is ordained by the Buddha. When Prasenajit comes to arrest Aṅgulimālīya, the Buddha declares that he has already become a tathāgata in a distant Buddha world, and that the teacher, the teacher’s wife, Aṅgulimālīya’s mother, and Aṅgulimālīya’s murders were all merely expedient phantoms to teach sentient beings. The ''Aṅgulimālīyasūtra'' is elaborately concerned with the Buddha’s body (or, more accurately, the various special bodies that buddhas have or appear to have). The Buddha dwells “at the limit of the unproduced” (''zhu wusheng ji'' [住無生際]; T. 120 [II] 533b6) in this ordinary world of ours (the Sahāloka), without really entering ''parinirvāṇa'', and simultaneously also dwells in other buddha worlds. This is possible because he “is born in an unborn body” (or “arises in an unproduced body”; ''sheng busheng shen'' [生不生身]; 533b15–16). All the tathāgatas in all quarters of the cosmos are in fact doppelgängers of Śākyamuni. The Buddha also has other types of extraordinary body (or his body is described using other extraordinary epithets): he is “born in a reality-limit body” (''sheng shiji shen'' [生實際身]; 533b7–9), and he dwells in a “limitless body” (or “countless bodies”; ''shenwubian'' [身無邊]; c1). This body is the ''dharmakāya'' – unconditioned; free of old age, sickness, death, and defilements; permanent and quiescent; and so on. The Buddha has attained this body, paradoxically, by giving up his (physical) body in countless incarnations. This lengthy exposition is linked in part to the prophecy complex common to the ''Mahāparinirvāṇamahāsūtra'' group. The ''Aṅgulimālīyasūtra'' emphasizes the hardship to be endured by promulgators of ''tathāgatagarbha'' doctrine during the end-times; bodhisattvas have to be prepared to give up their bodies and their lives. Presumably, they too are promised the reward of the ''dharmakāya'' in exchange for such sacrifice. The ''Aṅgulimālīyasūtra'' emphasizes strenuous practice and incorporates long discussion to ward off interpretations of ''tathāgatagarbha'' doctrine leading to moral lassitude or even antinomianism. The text also contains an amusing story relating to naked ''tīrthaka'' ascetics, clearly satirizing Digambara Jaina practice. This story is juxtaposed with the ban on meat eating and with the use of “pure” (presumably strained) water for cooking, to avoid harming tiny bugs. This may suggest that these practices were instituted to “keep up with the Jainas” (Nattier, 1991, 21). The ''Aṅgulimālīyasūtra'' shares with the ''Mahāparinirvāṇamahāsūtra'' group ''tathāgatagarbha''/buddha nature preached as explicitly connected with ''*ātman'' (''*ātmadhātu'' [''wojie'' (我界)]) and concealed by defilements, the eternity of the Tathāgata, the secret teachings, the promotion of faith (''xin'' [信]) toward the teaching of ''tathāgatagarbha'', and concern with the worst sinners, including the ''icchantika''. (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, 268-69. Leiden: Brill, 2015.)
མདོ་འདི་ནི་ གནས་བརྟན་པའི་སྡེ་སྣོད་དུ་བཞུགས་པའི་སོར་མོའི་ཕྲེང་བའི་མདོ་དང་མཚན་མཚུངས་ཀྱང་། འདིར་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་བརྗོད་དོན་བསྟན་ཅིང་བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོ་བསྟན་པའི་མདོའི་གྲལ་དུ་བཞག་པ་དང་། སོར་མོའི་ཕྲེང་བས་སློབ་དཔོན་གྱི་བཀའ་ཁུར་ཏེ་མི་དགུ་རྒྱ་གོ་དགུ་བསད་པའི་ལོ་རྒྱས་ལས་བརྩམས་ཏེ། སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་ཆོས་ལ་འཇུག་པ་དང་། འཇམ་དཔལ་དང་སོར་མོའི་ཕྲེང་བའི་བར་དུ་དོན་དམ་པའི་གནས་ལུགས་ཀྱི་དྲི་ལན་བྱས་པ་དང་། བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོ་ལ་དྲི་མས་སྟོང་པའི་རྣམ་བཞག་སོགས་བཀོད་ཡོད་པ་ཡིན།
One of the tathāgatagarbha sūtras, this is the the Mahāyāna version of an earlier Pali sutta of the same name.
ārya-aṅgulimālīya-nāma-mahāyāna-sūtra;'phags pa sor mo'i phreng ba la phan pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo;央掘魔羅經;yang jue mo luo jing;앙굴마라경;ang gul ma ra gyeong;अङ्गुलिमालीयसूत्र;Aṅgulimālīyasūtra;འཕགས་པ་སོར་མོའི་ཕྲེང་བ་ལ་ཕན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།;Texts/Aṅgulimālīyasūtra
Śākyaprabha; Dharmatāśīla; Tong Ācārya; Guṇabhadra; Dharmarakṣa; Faju
Aṅgulimālīyasūtra;'phags pa sor mo'i phreng ba la phan pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo;央掘魔羅經;अङ्गुलिमालीयसूत्र;འཕགས་པ་སོར་མོའི་ཕྲེང་བ་ལ་ཕན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
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Media/Christopher V. Jones at the 2019 Tathāgatagarbha Symposium
Christopher V. Jones at the 2019 Tathāgatagarbha Symposium
Media/Donald S. Lopez, Jr. - Keynote of the 2019 Tathāgatagarbha Symposium
Donald S. Lopez, Jr. - Keynote of the 2019 Tathāgatagarbha Symposium
Media/David Higgins at the 2019 Tathāgatagarbha Symposium
David Higgins at the 2019 Tathāgatagarbha Symposium