Reading Room

This short untitled text teaches a dhāraṇī and a rite for its practice.

A Mantra for Incanting Medicines When Administering Them is a short work that pays homage to the Three Jewels and the Medicine Buddha, and provides a mantra to be used for incanting medicines.

A Mantra for Incanting Medicines When Administering Them is a short work that pays homage to the Three Jewels and the Medicine Buddha, and provides a mantra to be used for incanting medicines.

This text consists of a short mantra for incanting medicines that has been extracted from Destroyer of the Great Trichiliocosm (Toh 558).

A Portion of the Practice of the Sovereign Tantra Purifying Bad Rebirths focuses on the purification of karma through funerary rituals. It is notable for its frame story involving a god named Vimalamaṇiprabha who has fallen into hell. The Buddha reveals that Vimalamaṇiprabha can be saved if rituals are performed on his behalf. The text then teaches numerous maṇḍala rites, homa sacrifices, and other rituals. With their help, Vimalamaṇiprabha is finally restored to heaven. The tantra employs ritual techniques common to the Yogatantra class but is distinct in its emphasis on rituals to benefit others‍—such as the dead‍—rather than sādhana practices for self-cultivation.

A Ritual Manual for the Uṣṇīṣavijayā Dhāraṇī is a short work in which the Buddha Amitāyus teaches the uṣṇīṣavijayā dhāraṇī along with its benefits and a number of short rites for its recitation.

A String of Pearls is a commentary on the Hevajra Tantra, one of the most important texts of the Yoginī tantra class of esoteric Buddhist literature. Written by the famous master and scholar Ratnākaraśānti, who himself was a holder of a Hevajra transmission lineage, this commentary is highly regarded by scholars and practitioners both past and present. Written in the pañjikā style, Ratnākaraśānti analyzes the root text word by word lexically and grammatically, and provides an exhaustive exegetical analysis on both the text itself and the key tenets of Yoginī tantra broadly. Taking a Yogācāra perspective, Ratnākaraśānti demonstrates that the tantra is in perfect agreement with the Buddhist sūtra tradition.

Discerning that the time is right to train King Bimbisāra, the Buddha Śākyamuni goes to Magadha, along with his entourage. The king is hostile at first but when his attack on the Buddha is thwarted and a verse on impermanence is heard, he becomes respectful. In the discourse that ensues, the Buddha tells the king that it is good to be disillusioned with the world because saṃsāra is impermanence and suffering. He then elaborates with a teaching on impermanence followed by a teaching on suffering. When the king asks where, if saṃsāra is so full of suffering, well-being is to be found, the Buddha responds with a short exposition on nirvāṇa as the cessation of all suffering and the cause for supreme happiness. Moved by his words, the king decides that he will renounce worldly concerns and seek nirvāṇa. The Buddha praises the king and concludes the teaching with the potent refrain, “When one is attached, that is saṃsāra. When one is not attached, that is nirvāṇa.”

While giving teachings at Vārāṇasī, the Buddha Śākyamuni discerns that the time is right to train King Udayana of Vatsa. When he meets the king, who at the time is embarking on a military expedition, the king flies into a rage and tries to kill the Buddha with an arrow. However, the arrow circles in the sky, and a voice proclaims a verse on the dangers of anger and warfare. Hearing this verse, the king pays homage to the Buddha, who explains that an enemy far greater than worldly opponents is the affliction of perceiving a self, which binds one to saṃsāra. He uses a military analogy to explain how this great enemy can be controlled by the combined arsenal of the six perfections and slayed by the arrow of nonself. When the king asks what is meant by “nonself,” the Buddha replies in a series of verses that constitute a succinct teaching on all persons and all things being without a self.

The main theme of this short Mahāyāna sūtra is the correspondence between the ten pāramitās and the ten bodhisattva stages. The discourse begins when the bodhisattva Akṣayamati raises a query about the terms bodhicitta and bodhisattva. In response, the Buddha parses the terms and explains that although verbal designations such as bodhi, citta, and sattva are empty, bodhicitta‍—the mind of awakening‍— nevertheless does arise. He explains that it is generated in ten stages, corresponding to the ten bodhisattva stages, spurred by the practice of the ten pāramitās respectively. The pāramitās themselves are elaborated with a description of ten preliminary qualities that ensure the successful practice of each. The meaning of the term pāramitā, and the perfection of each in the realization of sameness, is then expounded, along with a description of the visionary premonitions which indicate the onset of each bodhisattva stage. It is then further explained that the ten developments of bodhicitta at the ten bodhisattva stages arise through ten samādhis, and that at each bodhisattva stage there also arises a particular dhāraṇī. This discourse with Akṣayamati is also found in slightly expanded but otherwise identical form as Chapter Six of The Sūtra of the Sublime Golden Light (2).

This short commentary, ascribed to Vasubandhu, explains The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra on the Four Factors (Ārya­catur­dharmaka­nāma­mahāyāna­sūtra, Toh 251), a discourse on a set of four factors of the path of a bodhisattva: the thought of awakening, the spiritual friend, the twin qualities of tolerance and lenience, and dwelling in the forest. The commentary proposes various reasons for the sūtra’s composition and explains why it refers to bodhisattvas as followers of the Great Vehicle. It also specifies the four factors, which obstructive elements these factors overcome, which beneficial elements they support, and why śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas are not called bodhisattvas.

This short philosophical discourse opens with the Buddha described as unmoving from the true nature of things. Although at this time he has no thought of teaching the Dharma, different members of the audience nevertheless believe that they have heard a teaching. On the basis of their differing perceptions, five distinct philosophical views concerning the true nature of things come to be held by different members of the audience. When Mañjuśrī, who is also in the audience, becomes aware that they are harboring these different understandings, he asks the Buddha why such different views have arisen, whether they are equally valid, and whether such differences will be a matter of dispute in the future. The Buddha replies that different understandings arise because of the different inclinations and aptitudes of people; that of the five views only the fifth is fully in accord with the experiential domain of all buddhas; and he predicts that in the future such differences in understanding will be argued about for a very long time. Mañjuśrī then asks one final question: if these differing views all have a single basis, what is that basis? The Buddha’s answer is that although all experience is based on the aggregates, the constituents, and the sense fields, even these things must not be reified if one is to reach unsurpassed, complete, and perfect awakening.

In this Mahāyāna sūtra, a group of the Buddha’s most eminent śrāvaka disciples are collecting alms in the city of Rājagṛha when they arrive at the palace of King Ajātaśatru. There, the king’s daughter Aśokadattā, who is seated on an ornate throne, neither rises from her seat to greet them nor pays them any form of respect. Outraged by her rudeness, the king chastises her. The girl is unrepentant, and in a series of elegant verses she explains to her father the superiority of the bodhisattva path, which renders such obeisance to śrāvakas inappropriate. The eminent śrāvaka disciples then engage the girl in debate, but each in turn is silenced by the eloquence and confidence of her replies, by which she deconstructs their questions based on her knowledge of the emptiness of all phenomena. Having thus impressed them, she descends from her throne and serves them humbly with food and drink. They then all go together to Vulture Peak, where the Buddha prophesies her future full awakening.

In Auspicious Night, the deity Candana appears before a monk in Rājagṛha and asks if he knows of the Buddha’s teaching called Auspicious Night. Since the monk has never heard of it, the deity encourages the monk to ask the Buddha himself, who is staying nearby. At the monk’s request, the Buddha teaches him how to continuously remain in a contemplative state by following these guidelines: do not follow after the past, do not be anxious about the future, and do not be led astray or become distracted by presently arisen states. The Buddha then teaches several mantras and incantations for the welfare of all sentient beings and explains the apotropaic and salvific benefits of the instructions.

In Auspicious Night, the deity Candana appears before a monk in Rājagṛha and asks if he knows of the Buddha’s teaching called Auspicious Night. Since the monk has never heard of it, the deity encourages the monk to ask the Buddha himself, who is staying nearby. At the monk’s request, the Buddha teaches him how to continuously remain in a contemplative state by following these guidelines: do not follow after the past, do not be anxious about the future, and do not be led astray or become distracted by presently arisen states. The Buddha then teaches several mantras and incantations for the welfare of all sentient beings and explains the apotropaic and salvific benefits of the instructions.

In Auspicious Night, the deity Candana appears before a monk in Rājagṛha and asks if he knows of the Buddha’s teaching called Auspicious Night. Since the monk has never heard of it, the deity encourages the monk to ask the Buddha himself, who is staying nearby. At the monk’s request, the Buddha teaches him how to continuously remain in a contemplative state by following these guidelines: do not follow after the past, do not be anxious about the future, and do not be led astray or become distracted by presently arisen states. The Buddha then teaches several mantras and incantations for the welfare of all sentient beings and explains the apotropaic and salvific benefits of the instructions.

Bouquet of Flowers is a Great Vehicle sūtra in which the Buddha describes a vast array of wondrous, far-off world systems each inhabited by buddhas who teach the Dharma there. Hearing those buddhas’ names, the Buddha teaches, brings a wide range of benefits, all of which are ultimately directed toward attaining unexcelled, perfect and complete awakening. In this sūtra, the Buddha’s main interlocutor is Śāriputra, but he also interacts with Ajita and Mahākāśyapa.

In the middle of the night, while the Buddha Śākyamuni is immersed in meditation, Brahmā, lord of the Sahā world, appears before him and asks him how bodhisattvas can quickly achieve full awakening. In response, the Buddha gives a teaching on mindfulness of the body. The following morning, when Brahmā has departed, the Buddha relays his teaching to the monks.

Calling Witness with a Hundred Prostrations is widely known as the first sūtra to arrive in Tibet, long before Tibet became a Buddhist nation, during the reign of the Tibetan king Lha Thothori Nyentsen. Written to be recited for personal practice, it opens with one hundred and eight prostrations and praises to the many buddhas of the ten directions and three times, to the twelve categories of scripture contained in the Tripiṭaka, to the bodhisattvas of the ten directions, and to the arhat disciples of the Buddha. After making offerings to them, confessing and purifying nonvirtue, and making the aspiration to perform virtuous actions in every life, the text includes recitations of the vows of refuge in the Three Jewels, and of generating the thought of enlightenment. The text concludes with a passage rejoicing in the virtues of the holy ones, a request for the buddhas to bestow a prophecy to achieve enlightenment, and the aspiration to pass from this life in a state of pure Dharma.

In Cultivating Trust in the Great Vehicle, the Buddha Śākyamuni gives a discourse on the nature of trust (dad pa, prasāda) according to the Great Vehicle. The teaching is requested by a bodhisattva known as Great Skillful Trust, who requests the Buddha to answer four questions concerning the nature of trust in the Great Vehicle: (1) What are the characteristics of trust? (2) How is trust developed? (3) What are the different types of trust? (4) What are the benefits of having trust? Over the course of the sūtra, the Buddha answers all four questions, each in a separate chapter.

In this sūtra, the Buddha Śākyamuni tells a group of monks how they should respond when asked about the karmic benefits accrued by patrons who create representations of the Buddha. He explains five kinds of benefits that such virtuous deeds bring.

Destroyer of the Great Trichiliocosm is one of five texts that together constitute the Pañcarakṣā scriptural collection, popular for centuries as an important facet of Mahāyāna-Vajrayāna Buddhism’s traditional approach to personal and communal misfortunes of all kinds. Destroyer of the Great Trichiliocosm primarily addresses illnesses caused by spirit entities thought to devour the vitality of humans and animals. The text describes them as belonging to four different subspecies, presided over by the four great kings, guardians of the world, who hold sovereignty over the spirit beings in the four cardinal directions. The text also includes ritual prescriptions for the monastic community to purify its consumption of alms tainted by the “five impure foods.” This refers generally to alms that contain meat, the consumption of which is expressly prohibited for successful implementation of the Pañcarakṣā’s dhāraṇī incantations.

Determining the Vinaya: Upāli’s Questions is a sūtra focused on the relationship between and integration of the prātimokṣa vows of monastic discipline and the conduct of a bodhisattva who follows the Mahāyāna tradition. The sūtra’s two main interlocutors, Śāriputra and Upāli, query the Buddha about the relationship between these two levels of commitments, eliciting a teaching on the different orientations held by the followers of different Buddhist vehicles and how their different views affect the application of their vows. Determining the Vinaya is a particularly valuable sūtra for its inclusion of a unique form of the confessional “Three Sections” rite, making it one of the few extant canonical sources to describe it at length.

Discussions of Thus-Gone Ones begins in the Jeta’s Grove as the Buddha Śākyamuni emerges from a three-month-long meditative absorption. It is revealed that while he was absorbed in this meditative state, he was actually having conversations with many other buddhas across many worlds, discussing the essential nature of all phenomena. The bulk of the text, then, consists of the Buddha Śākyamuni relaying these conversations and responding to the questions of various audience members. From these exchanges we learn that all things, ranging from ordinary flowers up to the awakening of the buddhas themselves, share a nonconceptual, ineffable basis.

As the Buddha approaches Kapilavastu, he is met by the Śākya youth Shining Countenance setting out from the city in his chariot. Shining Countenance requests the Buddha to teach him a rite of protection from harm, and the Buddha describes ten buddhas, each dwelling in a distant world system in one of the ten directions. When departing from the city in one of the directions, he explains, keeping the respective buddha in mind will ensure freedom from fear and harm while traveling and success in the journey’s purpose. After receiving this teaching, Shining Countenance and the others in the assembly are able to see those ten buddhas and their realms directly before them, and the Buddha prophesies their eventual awakening. The Buddha further explains that to read, teach, write down, and keep this sūtra will bring protection to all; it is consequently often chanted at the beginning of undertakings, especially travel, to overcome obstacles and bring success.

The sūtra Distinctly Ascertaining the Meanings begins with an introductory section, offering the context of the teachings. An explanation of twenty-seven topics is then presented by the Buddha, starting with the five aggregates and ending with the eighty minor marks of a great person. The Buddha then concludes by exhorting the bhikṣus to meditate in solitude and avoid negligence.

There are two main themes in Distinguishing Phenomena and What Is Meaningful. One is in the narrative structure: The Buddha Śākyamuni tells how, countless eons ago, in a world called Flower Origin, a buddha named Arisen from Flowers gave instructions to a royal family, and prophesied the awakening of the prince Ratnākara. Arisen from Flowers, the Buddha Śākyamuni then relates, has since become the buddha Amitābha, and the prince Ratnākara the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara. The other theme is doctrinal, and lies in the content of the teaching given by Arisen from Flowers: it explains the four mistakes made by ordinary beings in the way they perceive the five aggregates, and how bodhisattvas teach them how to clear away these misconceptions, so that they may be free of the sufferings that result.

Praising the Lady Who Rules Disease, or, as it is alternatively titled, Eight Verses Praising Śrīdevī Mahākālī, is a short praise to the Dharma protector Śrīdevī Mahākālī. The text is included in the Compendium of Dhāraṇīs section of the Degé Kangyur as well as in the Tantra section of the Degé Tengyur.

Praising the Lady Who Rules Disease, or, as it is alternatively titled, Eight Verses Praising Śrīdevī Mahākālī, is a short praise to the Dharma protector Śrīdevī Mahākālī. The text is included in the Compendium of Dhāraṇīs section of the Degé Kangyur as well as in the Tantra section of the Degé Tengyur.

Eliminating Ajātaśatru’s Remorse narrates how the teachings of the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī help King Ajātaśatru overcome the severe negative action of having killed his father, King Bimbisāra. Through instruction, pointed questioning, and a display of miracles, Mañjuśrī and his retinue of bodhisattvas show King Ajātaśatru that the remorse he feels for his crime is in fact unreal, just as all phenomena are unreal. The sūtra thus demonstrates Mañjuśrī’s superiority in wisdom and the profound purification that comes from realizing emptiness.

The tantra Emergence from Sampuṭa is an all-inclusive compendium of Buddhist theory and practice as taught in the two higher divisions of the Yoga class of tantras, the “higher” (uttara) and the “highest” (niruttara), or, following the popular Tibetan classification, the Father and the Mother tantras. Dating probably to the end of the tenth century, the bulk of the tantra consists of a variety of earlier material, stretching back in time and in the doxographical hierarchy to the Guhyasamāja, a text traditionally regarded as the first tantra in the Father group. Drawing from about sixteen well-known and important works, including the most seminal of the Father and Mother tantras, it serves as a digest of this entire group, treating virtually every aspect of advanced tantric theory and practice. It has thus always occupied a prominent position among canonical works of its class, remaining to this day a rich source of quotations for Tibetan exegetes.

Entry into the Gloomy Forest tells the story of the eminent brahmin Pradarśa, who is converted to Buddhism upon receiving teachings from the Buddha and goes on to establish a Buddhist community in the Gloomy Forest. The text describes the exceptional circumstances of Pradarśa’s birth, his going forth as a monk, and the miraculous founding of the monastic community in the Gloomy Forest. This is followed by the Buddha’s account of the deeds and aspirations undertaken by Pradarśa in his previous lives that have resulted in the auspicious circumstances of his present life.

Equal to the Sky belongs to a series of texts known as the rali tantras, which are primarily associated with the Cakrasaṃvara system but incorporate themes that are also prominent in the Hevajra and Kālacakra systems. The tantra presents a discourse in which the Buddha addresses three types of ḍākinī, explains their true natures, and correlates them with the practitioner’s physical and subtle body. A primary concern of this text is to explain advanced yogic practices performed during the completion stage (Skt. utpanna­krama/­niṣpanna­krama; Tib. rdzogs rim) in the Yoginī Tantras, but it also treats a wide range of topics including astrology, sacred geography, and tantric hermeneutics. The result is a text which, while very dense and quite difficult to engage with, rewards the reader by bringing together an astonishingly vast range of topics concerning both the theory and practice of Buddhist tantra.

In this sūtra, Mañjuśrī asks the Buddha about the factors that make it either certain or not certain that a bodhisattva will attain unsurpassable, perfect awakening. In response, the Buddha describes five ways in which bodhisattvas may or may not make progress on the path. As an analogy for different ways of making progress, he compares five different ways of traveling a very great distance: using a cattle cart, using an elephant chariot, using the moon and sun, using the magical power of the śrāvakas, and using the magical power of the Tathāgata.

While the Buddha is staying in the kingdom of Magadha with an immense assembly of bodhisattvas, the bodhisattva Acintya­prabha­rāja gives a teaching on the relativity of time between different buddhafields. Eleven buddhafields are enumerated, with an eon in the first being equivalent to a day in the following buddhafield, where an eon is, in turn, the equivalent of a day in the next, and so forth.

The five dhāraṇīs presented here, which are to be recited in Sanskrit, are used to worship the buddhas and bodhisattvas, a common practice found throughout Mahāyāna Buddhism. The sequence of worship includes paying homage, offering praise, blessing the offerings, presenting clouds of limitless offerings, and worshiping the buddhas’ feet with the crown of one’s head.

The five dhāraṇīs presented here, which are to be recited in Sanskrit, are used to worship the buddhas and bodhisattvas, a common practice found throughout Mahāyāna Buddhism. The sequence of worship includes paying homage, offering praise, blessing the offerings, presenting clouds of limitless offerings, and worshiping the buddhas’ feet with the crown of one’s head.

Gayāśīrṣa Hill is a pithy Buddhist scripture that describes various aspects of the Mahāyāna Buddhist path. Set on Gayāśīrṣa, the hill near Bodhgayā from which its title is derived, the sūtra presents its teaching in the form of the Buddha’s inward examination, a conversation between the Buddha and the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī, and dialogues between Mañjuśrī and three interlocutors‍—two gods and a bodhisattva. It provides a sustained but concise treatment of the progress toward awakening, the stages of aspiration for complete awakening, method and wisdom as the two broad principles of the bodhisattva path, and various classifications of bodhisattva practices. Multiple translations, commentaries, and citations of passages from Gayāśīrṣa Hill attest to its wide influence in the Mahāyāna Buddhist communities of India, China, and Tibet.

The Sūtra of Great Cool Grove, one of five texts that constitute the Pañcarakṣā scriptural collection, has been among the most popular texts used for pragmatic purposes throughout the Mahāyāna Buddhist world. This sūtra promises protection for the Buddha’s “four communities”‍—monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen‍—against a range of illnesses and obstacles originating from the hosts of spirit entities who reside in remote wilderness retreats. The text centers specifically on threats of illness posed by the capricious spirit world of “nonhumans,” known collectively as grahas or bhūtas, who feed off the vitality, flesh, and blood of members of the Buddhist spiritual community engaging in spiritual practice at those remote hermitages. The sūtra is proclaimed by the Four Great Kings, each of whom reigns over a host of bhūtas, with the goal of quelling the hostile forces who assail those diligently practicing the Buddha’s teachings. Also included are ritual prescriptions for properly performing the sūtra and descriptions of the many benefits that ensue.

Great Upholder of the Secret Mantra is one of five texts that together constitute the Pañcarakṣā scriptural collection, popular for centuries as an important facet of Mahāyāna-Vajrayāna Buddhism’s traditional approach to personal and communal misfortunes of all kinds. It addresses a range of human ailments, as well as misfortunes such as robbery, natural disaster, and criminal punishment, thought to be brought on especially through the animosity of non-human spirit entities. The sūtra stipulates the invocation of these spirit entities, which it separates into hierarchically ordered groups and thus renders subordinate to the command of the Buddha and members of his saṅgha. The Buddha stipulates that just “upholding” or intoning their names and the mantra formula for each will quell the violent interventions of non-human entities and even hasten them to provide for the pragmatic needs of the saṅgha and its surrounding communities.

In Praise of the Glorious Goddess Sarasvatī presents a series of lyrical verses in praise of the deity Sarasvatī, the patron goddess of spoken and written eloquence. With evocative imagery and inspiring language, the praise pays tribute to Sarasvatī’s unimpeded speech, memory, and knowledge, and to her physical majesty and compassionate nature. The praise includes petitions requesting Sarasvatī to grant the devotee a level of eloquence and learning equal to that of the goddess herself. In the tradition of the Great Vehicle, the praise aligns the attainments of eloquent speech, strong memory, and great learning with the intention to use them for the benefit of other beings.

In Praise of the Glorious Goddess Sarasvatī presents a series of lyrical verses in praise of the deity Sarasvatī, the patron goddess of spoken and written eloquence. With evocative imagery and inspiring language, the praise pays tribute to Sarasvatī’s unimpeded speech, memory, and knowledge, and to her physical majesty and compassionate nature. The praise includes petitions requesting Sarasvatī to grant the devotee a level of eloquence and learning equal to that of the goddess herself. In the tradition of the Great Vehicle, the praise aligns the attainments of eloquent speech, strong memory, and great learning with the intention to use them for the benefit of other beings.

In Praise of the Goddess Revatī includes a short praise to the goddess Revatī along with a dhāraṇī extracted from The Great Tantra of Supreme Knowledge (Toh 746). The praise itself is just a few lines long and addresses Revatī’s characteristics‍—her body is said to be made of gems and precious substances‍—and her familial lineage.

While residing at Vulture Peak Mountain with a large community of monks, the Buddha is visited by the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī. The sūtra unfolds as a series of exchanges between the Buddha, Mañjuśrī, and the monk Śāriputra, elucidating a profound vision of reality as undifferentiated, nondual, and all-pervasive.

Inspiring Determination is directed at reforming the conduct of sixty bodhisattvas who have lost their sense of purpose and confidence in their ability to practice the Dharma. The bodhisattva Maitreya leads them to seek counsel from the Buddha, who explains the causes these bodhisattvas created in former lives that resulted in their current circumstance. They make a commitment to change their ways, which pleases the Buddha, and this leads him to engage in a dialog with the bodhisattva Maitreya on how bodhisattvas, including those in the future age of final degeneration, the final half-millennium, should avoid faults and uphold conduct that accords with the Dharma.

In the Introduction to the Domain of the Inconceivable Qualities and Wisdom of the Tathāgatas, the bodhisattva Sarva­nīvaraṇa­viṣkambhin expounds at length on how the awakened activity of the buddhas spontaneously unfolds in a limitless variety of ways to benefit beings, in all their diversity, throughout the universe. He also describes the inestimable benefits a bodhisattva derives from following a virtuous spiritual friend.

Manipulated into a murderous rage by the jealous Queen Anupamā, King Udayana launches a barrage of arrows at Queen Śyāmāvatī. King Udayana is terrified when Queen Śyāmāvatī pays homage to the Buddha, cultivates loving kindness, and the arrows are repelled. Awestruck by such a spectacle and inspired by Queen Śyāmāvatī’s words of praise for the Buddha, King Udayana approaches the Buddha and requests a teaching on the inadequacies of women. The Buddha tells King Udayana that he must first understand his own faults and proceeds to deliver a discourse on the four faults of men, such as attachment to sense pleasures and failure to take care of elderly parents. The teaching is delivered with a plethora of analogies and striking imagery to turn the mind away from sensual desires. The work concludes with King Udayana giving up his weapons and going for refuge in the Three Jewels, filled with love for all beings.

The Buddha then concludes his teaching with a further analogy‍—referenced in the sūtra’s title‍—to illustrate that although buddhas and bodhisattvas are innumerable, it is nevertheless extremely rare and precious to find a buddha within any given world system, or to find bodhisattvas who engage sincerely in bodhisattva conduct. To encounter such beings, he says, is as rare as finding a single grain of gold dust among all the sands of the ocean, or all the sands of the mighty river Gaṅgā.

In Maitreya’s Setting Out, the Buddha Śākyamuni first narrates events from a past life of the bodhisattva Maitreya in which he was born as a king and for the first time gave rise to the mind set on awakening. Later, the Buddha recounts another past life of Maitreya‍—this time as a monk‍—and explains why he is known today as the bodhisattva Maitreya. These two narratives are interspersed with a series of Dharma teachings emphasizing the unborn nature of phenomena and the need to develop the view that transcends all reference points.

Mañjuśrī’s Promise begins without preamble with a Sanskrit praise text in the form of a dhāraṇī that resembles other traditional encomiums that exult in the purity, grace, and triumph of bodhisattvas. The scripture then enumerates the benefits accrued by a single recitation of this dhāraṇī, which include the purification of evil deeds accumulated over eons, and the many rewards for its extensive recitation, namely erudition, exceptional powers of memorization, and finally the sight of the body of Mañjuśrī himself.

Mañjuśrī’s Sworn Oath provides instruction in an incantatory practice focused on Mañjuśrī, in the form of a vidyā that Mañjuśrī himself pronounces. The vidyā unfolds in a series of forceful imperatives suggestive of battle, conquest, and celebration, and after enunciating it, Mañjuśrī explains that its recitation will lead to virtuosity in the memorization of scriptural verses. The benefits of recitation are then enumerated in more detail, relative to the number of times it is recited and whether the recitation is accompanied by ritual performance. As indicated by the title, Mañjuśrī then swears an oath to assure the vidyā’s efficacy, pledging to take on the karmic burden of the five misdeeds with immediate retribution should its promised benefits fail to ensue.

Mañjuśrī’s Sworn Oath provides instruction in an incantatory practice focused on Mañjuśrī, in the form of a vidyā that Mañjuśrī himself pronounces. The vidyā unfolds in a series of forceful imperatives suggestive of battle, conquest, and celebration, and after enunciating it, Mañjuśrī explains that its recitation will lead to virtuosity in the memorization of scriptural verses. The benefits of recitation are then enumerated in more detail, relative to the number of times it is recited and whether the recitation is accompanied by ritual performance. As indicated by the title, Mañjuśrī then swears an oath to assure the vidyā’s efficacy, pledging to take on the karmic burden of the five misdeeds with immediate retribution should its promised benefits fail to ensue.

The bodhisattva Mañjuśrī approaches the Buddha, who is teaching the Dharma in Śrāvastī, and offers him the shade of a jeweled parasol. The god Susīma, who is in the audience, asks Mañjuśrī whether he is satisfied with his offering, to which Mañjuśrī replies that those who seek enlightenment should never be content with making offerings to the Buddha. Susīma then asks what purpose one should keep in mind when making offerings to the Buddha. In response, Mañjuśrī lists a set of four purposes.

In this short discourse, also found in a similar form in the Pali canon, the Buddha gives a teaching to Ānanda in which he confirms the suggestion that all negative experiences arise from being foolish, not from being learned, and goes on to summarize for Ānanda what distinguishes a learned person from a foolish one. The learned person, he says, is learned in the constituents, in the sense fields, in dependent origination, and in knowing what is possible and impossible. He then elaborates briefly on each.

This discourse takes place while the Buddha Śākyamuni is on Vulture Peak Mountain with a large community of monks, along with numerous bodhisattvas. Ten of the bodhisattvas present in the retinue have become discouraged after failing to attain dhāraṇī despite exerting themselves for seven years. The bodhisattva Undaunted therefore requests the Buddha to bestow upon them an instruction that will enable them to generate wisdom. In response, the Buddha reveals the cause of their inability to attain dhāraṇī‍—a specific negative act they performed in the past‍—and he goes on to explain the importance of respecting Dharma teachers and reveal how these ten bodhisattvas can purify their karmic obscurations.

One Hundred and Eight Names of Mañjuśrī belongs to a class of texts praising a select deity through a series of one hundred and eight names, each conveying a distinctive feature of the deity’s appearance, realization, or activity as supreme teacher. The present text includes a brief mantra and concludes with a brief description of the benefits of retaining, reciting, and recollecting the names throughout one’s life, especially at the time of death.

One Hundred and Eight Names of Youthful Mañjuśrī Accompanied by His Dhāraṇī-Mantra is a text notably combining two genres of Buddhist literature: the dhāraṇī and the stotra or praise text. As a praise text, it may be further categorized within the subgenre of praises of one hundred and eight names. The text opens with homage and praise to the buddhas of the ten directions and two brief praises to Mañjuśrī. Then Mañjuśrī himself articulates a Sanskrit dhāraṇī, which precipitates miracles and prompts the assembled gods to praise him by way of reciting a litany of his hundred and eight names. Upon its conclusion, Mañjuśrī expresses his pleasure, whereupon the Tathāgata expounds the dhāraṇī’s benefits, blesses the gods who spoke the hundred and eight names in praise, and lastly explains in considerable detail the practice of the praise’s recitation and the benefits thereof.

One Hundred and Eight Names of Youthful Mañjuśrī Accompanied by His Dhāraṇī-Mantra is a text notably combining two genres of Buddhist literature: the dhāraṇī and the stotra or praise text. As a praise text, it may be further categorized within the subgenre of praises of one hundred and eight names. The text opens with homage and praise to the buddhas of the ten directions and two brief praises to Mañjuśrī. Then Mañjuśrī himself articulates a Sanskrit dhāraṇī, which precipitates miracles and prompts the assembled gods to praise him by way of reciting a litany of his hundred and eight names. Upon its conclusion, Mañjuśrī expresses his pleasure, whereupon the Tathāgata expounds the dhāraṇī’s benefits, blesses the gods who spoke the hundred and eight names in praise, and lastly explains in considerable detail the practice of the praise’s recitation and the benefits thereof.

Praise to Tārā with Twenty-One Verses of Homage is a liturgy that consists of twenty-seven verses of praise and reverence dedicated to the deity Tārā. The first twenty-one verses are at once a series of homages to the twenty-one forms of Tārā and a poetic description of her physical features, postures, and qualities. The remaining six verses describe how and when the praise should be recited and the benefits of its recitation.

While the Buddha is dwelling in the Vaijayanta Palace, in the abode of the sun and the moon, with a retinue numbering in the quintillions, he directs the bodhisattva Victorious Heap to travel to a distant world system to venerate a buddha called Elevated by Dharma. When the buddha Elevated by Dharma asks Victorious Heap where he has come from, the bodhisattva makes no reply, shocking the assembly in this distant world system. The buddha Elevated by Dharma smiles, producing a great miraculous display of light, and then goes on to explain that the bodhisattva Victorious Heap remained silent because he understood that phenomena are inexpressible‍—thus in his silence he taught without teaching. Elevated by Dharma further states that since phenomena cannot be expressed, the empty sounds that beings express actually represent the nature of phenomena, and he instructs the bodhisattvas to search for meaning within their own mind and awakening within their own five aggregates. After covering the entire trichiliocosm with his tongue, Elevated by Dharma then “speaks with the lion’s roar,” proclaiming himself to be one and the same as the Buddha Śākyamuni, who teaches simultaneously in the Sahā world.