Tag: 84000

Summary s.­1 While the Buddha is residing in the Realm of the Thirty-Three Gods with a retinue of deities, great hearers, and bodhisattvas, Avalokiteśvara asks the Buddha how beings can gain merit from building a stūpa. The Buddha responds by stating the Buddhist creed on dependent arising: All phenomena that arise from causes, The Tathāgata…

The sūtra is introduced with the Buddha residing in Anāthapiṇḍada’s grove in Jeta Wood in Śrāvastī together with a great assembly of monks and a great multitude of bodhisatvas. The Buddha then addresses the bodhisatva Jayamati, instructs him on nineteen moral prescriptions, and indicates the corresponding effects of practicing these prescriptions when they are cultivated.…

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…

In this very short sūtra, the Buddha explains to a nāga king and an assembly of monks that reciting the four aphorisms of the Dharma is equivalent to recitation of all of the 84,000 articles of the Dharma. He urges them to make diligent efforts to engage in understanding the four aphorisms (also called the…

This brief sūtra is introduced with the Buddha residing on Vulture Peak Mountain in Rājagṛha, together with a great monastic assembly of 1,250 monks and a multitude of bodhisattva mahāsattvas. The Buddha is approached and asked by the bodhisattva mahāsattva Avalokiteśvara about the qualities that should be cultivated by a bodhisattva who has just generated…

The bodhisattva Maitreya approaches the Buddha on Vulture Peak Mountain and asks him to explain the karmic results of teaching the Dharma. The Buddha responds by comparing the merit gained by a person who makes an unfathomably enormous material offering to the buddhas, to the merit gained by another person who teaches a single verse…

While the Buddha is residing in the Akaniṣṭha realm, the bodhisattva mahāsattva Ākāśagarbha asks him how a bodhisattva should view the mind at the point of dying. The Buddha replies that when death comes a bodhisattva should develop the wisdom at the hour of death. He explains that a bodhisattva should cultivate a clear understanding…

The Sūtra of the Moon (1) is a short discourse providing a Buddhist account of a lunar eclipse. On one occasion while the Buddha is residing in Śrāvastī, the moon is seized by Rāhu, lord of the asuras, which causes an eclipse. The god of the moon asks the Buddha for refuge, after which the…

The Sūtra of the Sun is a short discourse providing a Buddhist account of a solar eclipse. On one occasion while the Buddha is residing in Śrāvastī, the sun is seized by Rāhu, lord of the asuras, which causes an eclipse. The god of the sun asks the Buddha for refuge, after which the Buddha…

In a retreat place in Magadha, the Buddha Śākyamuni and the bodhisattva Samantabhadra, surrounded by many bodhisattvas, perform miracles in a meditative absorption. The bodhisattva Samantabhadra asks the Buddha to distinguish between two levels of the perfection of wisdom. In response, the Buddha gives definitions of these two levels. This sūtra is one of the…