The Questions of Purna

The Noble Great Vehicle Sutra “The Questions of Purna” (Skt. Āryapūrṇaparipṛcchānāmamahāyānasūtra (Pūrṇaparipṛcchā); Tib. འཕགས་པ་གང་གང་པོས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ། (གང་པོས་ཞུས་པ།), Wyl. ’phags pa gang pos zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo) — a sutra where the monk Purna asks the Buddha questions related to the conduct of a bodhisattva. The Buddha replies by describing the attitudes that bodhisattvas must possess as well as their benefits. Then, at the request of Maudgalyayana, the Buddha recounts several of his past lives in which he himself practised bodhisattva conduct. At the end of the teaching, the Buddha instructs the assembly about how to deal with specific objections to his teachings that outsiders might raise after he himself has passed into nirvaṇa.

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This sutra (Toh 61) is the seventeenth sutra among the forty-nine sutras (Toh 45 to Toh 93) in the Heap of Jewels collection in the Tibetan Kangyur .

• English Translation: The Questions of Pūrṇa