Sutra of Great Liberation

Sutra of Great Liberation (Tib. ཐར་མདོ།; Wyl. thar mdo) is called in full All-Expansive Great Liberation, Purifying Negative Deeds through Cleansing Remorse, Perfectly Arranged for the Accomplishment of Buddhahood, it was translated into Tibetan from the Chinese. The original Sanskrit version, from which the Chinese was translated, is lost to the vicissitudes of time.

The sutra contains many pith instructions for spiritual practice, for example, how to purify negativities, how to realize emptiness, how to make aspiration, how to benefit and liberate sentient beings. Also, since it mentions names of numerous buddhas of the past, present and future, and numerous names of bodhisattvas, it brings great benefit to whoever reads or hears it. Whenever one leaves the world, one’s family would request monks or nuns to recite this sutra for him or her every day within the first 49 days.

Quotations from the Sutra

“Son of the lineage, reading aloud and holding this sutra, even if you were previously an evil person endowed with negativities, makes you now one endowed with virtue. Even if you previously had suffering, now you have resources… Even if you previously had contamination, now you are free from contamination… Even if you were previously in contradiction with the path of Dharma, now you enter the path of the aryas. Even though you have the body of an ordinary being, because of reading aloud and holding this sutra, your mind is like the wisdom of an arya. Even though you previously had afflictions, because of reading aloud and holding this sutra, you have the passing beyond sorrow that is similar to that of a buddha bhagavan.”

Translations

The Tibetan translation of this sutra can be found in the General Sutra section of the Tibetan Dergé Kangyur, Toh 264

• Sutra of Great Liberation, translated from tibetan by Ven. Gyalten Lekden (FPMT, 2023)
• The Translation by 84000 is in progress.

External Links

• Teachings on the Sutra of Great Liberation by Khenpo Sodargye
• Teachings on the Sutra of Great Liberation by Lama Zopa Rinpoche