Ornament of the Great Vehicle Sūtras

Ornament of the Great Vehicle Sūtras

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Descriptionངོ་སྤྲོད།

The Buddhist masterpiece Ornament of the Great Vehicle Sūtras, often referred to by its Sanskrit title, Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra, is part of a collection known as the Five Maitreya Teachings, a set of philosophical works that have become classics of the Indian Buddhist tradition. Maitreya, the Buddha’s regent, is held to have entrusted these profound and vast instructions to the master Asaṅga in the heavenly realm of Tuṣita.

The Ornament provides a comprehensive description of the bodhisattva’s view, meditation, and enlightened activities. Bodhisattvas are beings who, out of vast love for all sentient beings, have dedicated themselves to the task of becoming fully awakened buddhas, capable of helping all beings in innumerable and vast ways to become enlightened themselves. To fully awaken requires practicing great generosity, patience, energy, discipline, concentration, and wisdom, and Maitreya’s text explains what these enlightened qualities are and how to develop them.

This volume includes commentaries by Khenpo Shenga and Ju Mipham, whose discussions illuminate the subtleties of the root text and provide valuable insight into how to practice the way of the bodhisattva. Drawing on the Indian masters Vasubandhu and, in particular, Sthiramati, Mipham explains the Ornament with eloquence and brilliant clarity. This commentary is among his most treasured works. (Source: Shambhala Publications)

Citation

Dharmachakra Translation Committee, trans. Ornament of the Great Vehicle Sūtras: Maitreya’s Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra with Commentaries by Khenpo Shenga (mkhan po gzhan dga') and Ju Mipham ('ju mi pham). Boston: Snow Lion Publications, 2014.

Publisher Link

http://www.shambhala.com/ornament-of-the-great-vehicle-sutras.html

Texts Translated

1. Maitreya, Asaṅga. Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkārakārikā (theg pa chen po mdo sde'i rgyan zhes bya ba'i tshig le'ur byas pa). D 4020, sems tsam, phi 1b1-39a4. In bstan 'gyur (sde dge), Vol. 123: 1-79. Delhi: delhi karmapae choedhey, gyalwae sungrab partun khang, 1982-1985. (AIBS Columbia Database) – Thesaurus Literaturae Buddhicae Link
2. Mi pham rgya mtsho. Theg pa chen po mdo sde'i rgyan gyi dgongs don rnam par bshad pa theg mchog bdud rtsi'i dga' ston. In Sde-dge dgon-chen Prints of the Writings of ’Jam-mgon ’Ju Mi-pham-rgyam tsho. Edited by Dilgo Khyentse. Vol. 2. Kathmandu: Shechen Monastery, n.d.?
   1. See also the Rigpe Dorje Institute Series: Mdo sde rgyan gyi rnam bshad bdud rtsi'i dga' ston - stod cha and Mdo sde rgyan gyi rnam bshad bdud rtsi'i dga' ston - smad cha. Kathmandu: Rigpe Dorje Publications, 2009.
3. Gzhan phan chos kyi snang ba. Theg pa chen po mdo sde'i rgyan ces bya ba'i mchan 'grel. In Gzhung chen bcu gsum, Vol. 3: 395-646. Delhi: Konchhog Lhadrepa, 1983, 1993.

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Translation of

 

Theg pa chen po mdo sde'i rgyan gyi dgongs don rnam par bshad pa theg mchog bdud rtsi'i dga' stonཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་མདོ་སྡེའི་རྒྱན་གྱི་དགོངས་དོན་རྣམ་པར་བཤད་པ་ཐེག་མཆོག་བདུད་རྩིའི་དགའ་སྟོན།

Mipam's (1846-1912) commentary on the Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra, one of the Five Dharma Treatises of Maitreya (byams chos sde lnga) said to have been presented to Asaṅga by the bodhisattva Maitreya in the Tuṣita heaven.

Text

 

Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāraཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་མདོ་སྡེའི་རྒྱན་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་ཚིག་ལེའུར་བྱས་པ།

In Sanskrit, the “Ornament for the Mahāyāna Sūtras”; one of the Five Dharma Treatises of Maitreya (byams chos sde lnga) said to have been presented to Asaṅga by the bodhisattva Maitreya in the Tuṣita heaven. Written in verse, the text offers a systematic presentation of the practices of the bodhisattva from the standpoint of the Yogācāra school and is one of the most important of the Indian Mahāyāna śāstras. Its twenty-one chapters deal with (1) the proof that the Mahāyāna sūtras are the word of the Buddha; (2) taking refuge in the three jewels (ratnatraya); (3) the lineage (gotra) of enlightenment necessary to undertake the bodhisattva path; (4) the generation of the aspiration to enlightenment (bodhicittotpāda); (5) the practice of the bodhisattva; (6) the nature of reality, described from the Yogācāra perspective; (7) the attainment of power by the bodhisattva; (8) the methods of bringing oneself and others to maturation; (9) enlightenment and the three bodies of a buddha (trikāya); (10) faith in the Mahāyāna; (11) seeking complete knowledge of the dharma; (12) teaching the dharma; (13) practicing in accordance with the dharma; (14) the precepts and instructions received by the bodhisattva; (15) the skillful methods of the bodhisattva; (16) the six perfections (pāramitā) and the four means of conversion (saṃgrahavastu), through which bodhisattvas attract and retain disciples; (17) the worship of the Buddha; (18) the constituents of enlightenment (bodhipākṣikadharma); (19) the qualities of the bodhisattva; and (20-21) the consummation of the bodhisattva path and the attainment of buddhahood. (Source: The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, p. 514)

Text

 

Theg pa chen po mdo sde'i rgyan ces bya ba'i mchan 'grelཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་མདོ་སྡེའི་རྒྱན་ཅེས་བྱ་བའི་མཆན་འགྲེལ།

An interlinear commentary on the Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra by the famed Khenpo Zhenga. It is one of a series of such works on the thirteen major treatises of Indian Mahāyāna Buddhism that became the basis for the curriculum at several major Tibetan monastic universities, such as those at Dzogchen and Dzongsar monasteries.

Text

• Translators' Introductionvii
• Ornament of the Great Vehicle Sūtras1
• Title and Translator’s Homage4
  • 1. How the Scripture Was Composed5
  • 2. Establishing the Teachings of the Great Vehicle21
  • 3. Going for Refuge41
  • 4. Potential59
  • 5. Developing the Enlightened Mind77
  • 6. Practice109
  • 7. Reality125
  • 8. Power145
  • 9. Full Maturation157
  • 10. Enlightenment181
  • Summary of Chapters 1 through 10261
  • 11. Inspiration265
  • 12. Investigation of the Dharma285
  • 13. Teaching397
  • 14. Practice429
  • 15. Practical Instructions and Advice453
  • Summary of Chapters 11 through 15489
  • 16. Skillful Means491
  • 17. Transcendences and Means of Attraction497
  • 18. Worship, Reliance, and the Immeasurables571
  • 19. The Factors That Accord with Enlightenment639
  • 20. The Qualities777
  • 21. Activity and Perfection863
  • Colophons927
• Appendix: A Visual Representation of Mipham's Topical Outline931
• Notes963
• English-Tibetan Glossary969
• Tibetan-English-Sanskrit Glossary977
• Bibliography987
• Index991

Sūtra - Sūtras mainly refer to the discourses delivered by the Buddha and his disciples, and the Sūtra corpus is one of the three main sets of teachings which form the Buddhist canon. Skt सूत्र  Tib མདོ།  Ch 佛经  

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Sūtra - Sūtras mainly refer to the discourses delivered by the Buddha and his disciples, and the Sūtra corpus is one of the three main sets of teachings which form the Buddhist canon. Skt सूत्र  Tib མདོ།  Ch 佛经  

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Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

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Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'bodhisattva'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

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Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

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Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

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Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

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Mahāyāna - Mahāyāna, or the Great Vehicle, refers to the system of Buddhist thought and practice which developed around the beginning of Common Era, focusing on the pursuit of the state of full enlightenment of the Buddha through the realization of the wisdom of emptiness and the cultivation of compassion. Skt महायान  Tib ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ།  Ch 大乘  

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Yogācāra - Along with Madhyamaka, it was one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Asaṅga and Vasubandhu around the fourth century CE, many of its central tenets have roots in the Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra and the so-called third turning of the dharma wheel (see tridharmacakrapravartana). Skt योगाचार  Tib རྣལ་འབྱོར་སྤྱོད་པ་  Ch 瑜伽行派  

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Sūtra - Sūtras mainly refer to the discourses delivered by the Buddha and his disciples, and the Sūtra corpus is one of the three main sets of teachings which form the Buddhist canon. Skt सूत्र  Tib མདོ།  Ch 佛经  

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Sūtra - Sūtras mainly refer to the discourses delivered by the Buddha and his disciples, and the Sūtra corpus is one of the three main sets of teachings which form the Buddhist canon. Skt सूत्र  Tib མདོ།  Ch 佛经  

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Gotra - Disposition, lineage, or class; an individual's gotra determines the type of enlightenment one is destined to attain. Skt गोत्र  Tib རིགས་  Ch 鍾姓,種性  

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Trikāya - The three enlightened forms of a buddha one attains when one becomes fully enlightened. They include the truth body (dharmakāya), enjoyment body (saṃbhogakāya), and the emanation body (nirmāṇakāya). The three bodies comprise the many qualities and powers associated with buddhahood and thus are the result sought through Mahāyāna Buddhist practice. Skt त्रिकाय  Tib སྐུ་གསུམ།  Ch 三身  

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Pāramitā - The six or ten types of practices which lead an individual to Buddhahood. The practice of perfections is particularly important in Mahāyāna Buddhism in which the entire path of the Bodhisattva to reach full enlightenment is included in the six or ten perfections. The six perfections are that of giving, of discipline, patience, zeal, meditation, and wisdom. The perfection of skill-in-means, aspirations, power, and pristine wisdom are added to them to make ten perfections. Skt पारमिता  Tib ཕར་ཕྱིན། and ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ།  Ch 波羅蜜  

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Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

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Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

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Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

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Dzogchen - Dzogchen is an advanced system of meditation techniques to reveal the innate state of perfection primarily, but not exclusively, espoused by the Nyingma Buddhist tradition and the Tibetan Bön tradition. Skt महासन्धि  Tib རྫོགས་ཆེན།  

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