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Description
འདུས་པ་ཆེན་པོ་ལས་སའི་སྙིང་པོའི་འཁོར་ལོ་བཅུ་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།, ('dus pa chen po las sa'i snying po'i 'khor lo bcu pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo), Derge Kangyur D239, mdo sde, vol. 65, fols. 100a–241b.
"The Daśacakrakṣitigarbhasūtra — the Sūtra of the Ten Wheels of Kṣitigarbha — is a substantial Mahāyāna sūtra found in the mdo sde section of the Tibetan Kangyur." It takes its name from the "ten wheels" (daśacakra), a set of qualities or modes of activity associated with the bodhisattva Kṣitigarbha (Tib. sa'i snying po, "Essence of the Earth"), one of the eight great bodhisattvas, who is particularly associated with the protection and guidance of beings in difficult times and degenerate ages. The sūtra exists in Tibetan translation in the Derge Kangyur and was also translated into Chinese on at least two occasions, most notably by Xuanzang in 651 CE (Taishō T411).
The text is notable for its sustained and emphatic focus on ethical conduct, particularly monastic discipline, and for its sharp critique of practitioners — monks above all — who maintain only an outward appearance of religious life while inwardly pursuing food, clothing, gain, and fame. Such hypocritical practitioners (tshul 'chos pa) are described in vivid terms as deceiving the world and the Buddhas of all directions. Alongside this polemical strand, the sūtra expounds the positive benefits of the ten wholesome paths of action (dge ba'i lam bcu), presenting the bodhisattva who genuinely abandons killing, stealing, and other non-virtuous actions as one who thereby gives the gift of fearlessness to all sentient beings. The Daśacakrakṣitigarbhasūtra was known to Indian scholars and is cited by Śāntideva in his Śikṣāsamuccaya (8th century), confirming its circulation in Sanskrit in India prior to its Tibetan translation.
