Aṅgulimālīya Sūtra Explained

The Aṅgulimālīya Sūtra (Taishō 120^[1]) is a Mahāyāna Buddhist scripture belonging to the Tathāgatagarbha class of sūtra,^[2] which teach that the Buddha is eternal, that the non-Self and emptiness teachings only apply to the worldly sphere and not to Nirvāṇa, and that the Tathāgatagarbha is real and immanent within all beings and all phenomena. The sutra consists mostly of stanzas in verse.^[3]

The Mahāyāna Aṅgulimālīya Sūtra should not be confused with the Pāli Canon's Angulimala Sutta, which is a completely different work included in the Majjhima Nikaya.

Origins and history

According to Stephen Hodge, internal textual evidence in the Aṅgulimālīya Sūtra, Mahābherihāraka Parivarta Sūtra, and the Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, indicates that these texts were first circulated in southern India, and they then gradually propagated up to the northwest, with Kashmir being the other major center. The Aṅgulimālīya Sūtra gives a more detailed account by mentioning the points of distribution as including southern India, the Vindhya Range, Bharukaccha, and Kashmir.^[4] Hodge summarizes his findings as follows:

In the 6th century CE, Paramārtha wrote that the Mahāsāṃghikas revere the sūtras which teach the Tathāgatagarbha.

Central teachings

The Aṅgulimālīya Sūtra consists largely of teachings by Aṅgulimālīya on the correct understanding of Buddhist doctrine. According to Michael Radich,

The sutra is most insistent that the Tathāgatagarbha and the self (Ātman) are real and that to deny their existence is to lapse into a state of dangerous spiritual imbalance. Thus, to seek out the Tathāgatagarbha — which is equated with the true Self — is deemed of great value. The Buddha teaches the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī that practicing the spiritual life is meaningful only because there is a 'self principle' (the Tathāgatagarbha or 'atma-dhatu' - 'essence of Self') with which the quest can be rewarded. He states:

The sutra is remarkable for the vigor and passion with which Aṅgulimālīya teaches the Dharma and for its doctrine that at the heart of all beings is one unified principle: the buddha-dhatu (Buddha-nature) or Tathāgatagarbha. The doctrines of this sutra are also strikingly congruent with those of the much longer Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra.

According to the Aṅgulimālīya Sūtra (2nd c. CE^[5]), tathāgatagarbha has the following fundamental natures:

• Neither arising nor ceasing - tathāgatagarbha permanently exists in the world, never arises, and therefore is never destroyed or perished.
• Independence - tathāgatagarbha possesses the intrinsic nature of independently existing without relying on other dharmas. Therefore, all worldly phenomena of aggregates, sense-fields, and elements have the nature of arising and ceasing but tathagatagarbha possesses the intrinsic nature of independence. In addition to tathagatagarbha itself, the intrinsic natures of tathagatagarbha also originally exist without increasing and decreasing and do not change owing to the variance of any conditions.
• Non-perceptiveness - tathāgatagarbha is not the perceptive mind; it does not have the perceptual functions of seeing, hearing, feeling, and knowing regarding the six external sense-objects which the perceptive mind has and therefore does not have the nature to discriminate goodness or badness either.
• Invariability - the tathāgatagarbha and its fundamental natures have the quality of permanence, eternity, imperishability, or diamond (vajra) nature. These are sustained everlastingly and do not change according to the variance of time and space. The Aṅgulimālīya states: "Permanence is the Buddha-nature," "Eternity is the Buddha-nature," "Invariability is the Buddha-nature," "Non-badness is the Buddha-nature," "Non-damage is the Buddha-nature," "No sickness is the Buddha-nature," "Non-aging is the Buddha-nature,"
• Storability - tathāgatagarbha stores a sentient being's seeds of all phenomena, including the seeds of good, bad, and neutral karmas.

See also

• Anunatva-Apurnatva-Nirdesa
• Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen
• Eternal Buddha
• Parinirvana
• Purity in Buddhism
• Śrīmālādevī Sūtra
• Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra
• Mahaparinirvana Sutra

External links

• Sūtra of Aṅgulimālika, translated into English by Rulu from Guṇabhadra's Chinese version

Notes and References

1. Guṇabhadra, trans., 《央掘魔羅經》 'Yangjuemoluo Jing (Aṅgulimālīyasūtra),' in Taishō shinshū Daizōkyō 《大正新脩大藏經》, in Takakusu Junjiro, ed., (Tokyo: Taishō Shinshū Daizōkyō Kankōkai, 1988), Vol. 2, No. 120, Accessed 2019-03-13, http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/T02n0120.
2. Buswell, Robert E.; Lopez, Donald S. (2014). The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, Princeton University Press, p. 46
3. Web site: Sutra of Angulimalika, 央掘魔羅經卷1 .
4. Web site: Hodge . Stephen . On the Eschatology of the Mahaparinirvana Sutra and Related Matters . lecture delivered at the University of London, SOAS . 2006 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110719164835/http://www.shabkar.org/download/pdf/On_the_Eschatology_of_the_Mahaparinirvana_Sutra_and_Related_Matters.pdf . July 19, 2011 .
5. Web site: Hodge . Stephen . 2006 . On the Eschatology of the Mahaparinirvana Sutra and Related Matters . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110719164835/http://www.shabkar.org/download/pdf/On_the_Eschatology_of_the_Mahaparinirvana_Sutra_and_Related_Matters.pdf . July 19, 2011 . lecture delivered at the University of London, SOAS.