The Teaching of the Armour Array

The Teaching of the Armour Array (Skt. Varmavyūhanirdeśa; Tib. གོ་ཆའི་བཀོད་པ་བསྟན་་པ་, Wyl. go cha’i bkod pa bstan pa) is the seventh sutra among the forty-nine titles included in the Heap of Jewels (Skt. Ratnakuṭa) collection in the Dergé Kangyur.

As is customary in sutra literature, the Buddha delivers his teaching at the request of someone who poses a particular question. In this sutra, the questioner is a bodhisattva named Anantamati, who asks the Buddha numerous questions about the Mahayana path, most notably about a type of metaphorical armour called the great armour, a quality related to the perfection of insight. As such, it is no conventional sort of armour. Rather, donning it involves giving up all grasping at phenomena, and engaging diligently on the path, with insight into the nature of phenomena. The sutra also discusses the Mahayana and what it terms the great path.

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The Tibetan translation of this sutra can be found in the Heap of Jewels section of the Tibetan Dergé Kangyur, Toh 51

• English translation: The Teaching of the Armor Array