Vimalakirti Nirdesha Sutra

Vimalakirti Nirdesha Sutra (Skt. Vimalakīrti-nirdeśa-sūtra; Tib. དྲི་མེད་གྲགས་པས་བསྟན་པའི་མདོ་, Wyl. 'dri med grags pas bstan pa'i mdo) (Toh. 176) — a popular Mahayana sutra featuring the lay bodhisattva Vimalakirti.

Tibetan Text

The Sanskrit text was translated into Tibetan by the monk Chönyi Tsultrim (Wyl. chos-nyid tshul-khrims) at the beginning of the 9th century. It can be found in:

Dergé Kangyur vol. 60 (mdo sde, ma), folios 175.a–239.a.
འཕགས་པ་དྲི་མ་མེད་པར་གྲགས་པས་བསྟན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།, Derge Kangyur, Volume 60, folios 175b–239a, (pp.349-478)

Content of the Tibetan Translation

The Tibetan edition has 12 chapters:

Purification of the Buddhafield
Inconceivable Skill in Liberative Art
The Disciples’ and the Bodhisattvas’ Reluctance to Visit Vimalakirti
The Consolation of the Invalid
The Inconceivable Liberation
The Goddess
The Family of the Tathagatas
The Dharma-Door of Nonduality
The Feast Brought by the Emanated Incarnation
Lesson of the Destructible and the Indestructible
Vision of the Universe Abhirati and the Tathagata Akshobhya
Antecedents and Transmission of the Holy Dharma

Modern Translations

In English

Sara Boin, The Teaching of Vimalakirti (London: Pali Text Society, 1976, reprinted 1994). English version of Étienne Lamotte's French translation (see below)
Robert Thurman, The Holy Teaching of Vimalakirti: A Mahayana Scripture
- First published by Pennsylvania State University Press in 1976
- Abridged introduction and notes, and lightly edited under the supervision of Professor Thurman for 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, available here: The Teaching of Vimalakīrti (Vimalakīrtinirdeśasūtra)
Burton Watson, The Vimalakirti Sutra (Columbia University Press, 1996)

In French

Lamotte, Étienne, L’Enseignement de Vimalakīrti, Louvain, 1962. Translated from Tibetan.
Carré, Patrick, Soûtra de la Liberté inconcevable : Les enseignements de Vimalakirti (Fayard, 2000). Translated from Chinese.

External Links