The Teaching on the Great Compassion of the Tathagata

This sutra, The Teaching on the Great Compassion of the Tathagata (Skt. Tathāgata-mahā-karuṇā-nirdeśa; Tib. དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་རྗེ་ཆེན་པོ་ངེས་པར་བསྟན་པ།, Wyl. de bzhin gshegs pa’i snying rje chen po nges par bstan pa), is an important early Great Vehicle sutra, setting out some key features of the bodhisattva path in a doctrinally dense text that has been explored in later commentaries as an important source of clarification on the qualities that bodhisattvas develop as they progress to awakening, and indirectly on the potential for Buddhahood underlying their progress. It also includes a discourse on dharanis. Not only is a dharani an incantation, spell, or mnemonic formula that distills essential points of the Dharma and is used by practitioners to attain mundane and supramundane goals, but it also has the sense of “retention,” referring to the special capacity of practitioners to memorize and recall detailed teachings.

Text

The Tibetan translation of this sutra can be found in the General Sutra section of the Tibetan Kangyur, Toh 147

• English translation: The Teaching on the Great Compassion of the Tathagata