The Teaching on the Extraordinary Transformation that is the Miracle of Attaining the Buddha’s Powers

In this sutra, The Teaching on the Extraordinary Transformation that is the Miracle of Attaining the Buddha’s Powers (Skt. Buddhabalādhānaprātihāryavikurvāṇanirdeśa; Tib. སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་སྟོབས་སྐྱེད་པའི་ཆོ་འཕྲུལ་རྣམ་པར་འཕྲུལ་པ་བསྟན་པ།, Wyl. sangs rgyas kyi stobs skyed pa’i cho ‘phrul rnam par ‘phrul pa bstan pa) the Buddha displays supernatural powers three times. First, he magically transports his entire audience and retinue to Varanasi. Secondly, having incited Avalokiteshvara and Vajrapani to use their own miraculous powers to gather there all the beings who must be led to awakening, he makes the whole world appear as a pure realm like Sukhavati. He explains that a tathagata’s various powers are like a doctor’s skills, and teaches, with Manjushri’s help in a series of dialogues with other protagonists, on how the tathagatas manifest to beings, displaying his supernatural powers a third time by making many other buddhas appear all around him. The meaning of the Tathagata’s miracles are gradually disclosed to the audience, as well as some other essential points including the merit to be gained by honouring the teachings.

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The Tibetan translation of this sutra can be found in the General Sutra section of the Tibetan Kangyur, Toh 186

• English translation: The Teaching on the Extraordinary Transformation that is the Miracle of Attaining the Buddha’s Powers