Sanghata Sutra

Sanghata Sutra (Skt. Ārya Sanghātasūtradharmaparyāya) is one of a special set of Buddhist Mahayana sutras called dharma-paryāyas, or ‘transformative teachings,’ that function to transform those who hear or recite them in particular ways. Within the sutra, the Buddha provides numerous descriptions of the ways in which the sutra works on those who recite it to clear away their seeds of suffering, and to assure their future happiness all the way up to enlightenment. It describes in detail the incredible merit and benefit of hearing even just one of its verses. The sutra also includes some forceful teachings on death and impermanence, including a teaching on the physical and mental processes that occur at the time of death.

Quotations from the Sutra

Those who recall the Buddha as supreme,

these skillful ones indeed are happy.

Those who have faith in the Mahayana too

will not go to bad migrations.

As for the virtues of those who have read

one mere stanza of four lines,

though conquerors as many as grains of sand

in eighty-four of the Ganges rivers should describe uninterruptedly

all the merit of those who have read

this sutra, the Sangháta,

still that merit would not run out.

Whoever hears this Sangháta dharma-paryáya will have their five uninterrupted karmas purified, and they will never turn away from unsurpassed, perfect and complete enlightenment.

Those bodhisattvas, great beings (who hear this Sanghata sutra) will also produce as much a mass of merit as the masses of merit of as many tathágatas, arhats, perfect and complete buddhas as grains of sand in the Ganges river.

Translations

• Sanghata Sutra, translated from tibetan by Ven. Damchö Diana Finnegan

External Links

• Sanghatasutra.net, a website dedicated to the sutra
• Benefits of Reciting the Arya Sanghata Sutra by Lama Zopa Rinpoche
• Recitation of the Sutra in English (mp3) by its translator Ven. Damchö Diana Finnegan