The Precious Discourse on the Blessed One’s Extensive Wisdom That Leads to Infinite Certainty

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In this sutra, The Precious Discourse on the Blessed One’s Extensive Wisdom That Leads to Infinite Certainty (Skt. Niṣṭhā-gata-bhagavajjñāna-vaipulya-sūtra-ratnānanta; Tib. བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་ཀྱི་ཡེ་ཤེས་རྒྱས་པའི་མདོ་སྡེ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་མཐའ་ཡས་པ་མཐར་ཕྱིན་པ།, Wyl. bcom ldan ‘das kyi ye shes rgyas pa’i mdo sde rin po che mtha’ yas pa mthar phyin pa) the Buddha’s disciple, the monk Purna, oversees the construction of a temple dedicated to the Buddha in a distant southern city. When the master builder suggests that the building may be used by others in the Buddha’s absence, Purna argues that no one but an omniscient buddha may rightly take up residence there. Enumerating the kinds of knowledge that are unique to a buddha’s perfect awakening, Purna then delivers a lengthy exposition that also relates each of these qualities to the knowledge of the four truths. Following Purna’s teaching, the master builder invites the Buddha and his followers from afar to the inauguration of the newly built structure. Upon arrival, the Buddha then recounts each of the specific events in his past lives that ultimately led to the unfolding of each of his particular kinds of knowledge. This long sutra thus serves as a detailed guide to the different aspects of the Buddha’s awakened wisdom, particularly those that, in many accounts of the qualities of Buddhahood, are known as the ten powers or strengths.

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The Tibetan translation of this sutra can be found in the General Sutra section of the Tibetan Kangyur, Toh 99.