The_thirty-five_Buddhas_of_confession,_Wellcome_V0046094

The Thirty-Five Confession Buddhas () are known from the ''Sutra of the Three Heaps'' (Sanskrit: ''Triskandhadharmasutra''; Tib. ''phung po gsum pa'i mdo''), popular in

Tibetan Buddhism Tibetan Buddhism (also referred to as Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Lamaism, Lamaistic Buddhism, Himalayan Buddhism, and Northern Buddhism) is the form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet and Bhutan, where it is the dominant religion. It is also in majo ...

. This

Mahāyāna ''Mahāyāna'' (; "Great Vehicle") is a term for a broad group of Buddhism, Buddhist traditions, Buddhist texts#Mahāyāna texts, texts, Buddhist philosophy, philosophies, and practices. Mahāyāna Buddhism developed in India (c. 1st century BC ...

sutra actually describes the practice of purification by confession and making prostrations to these Buddhas, and is part of the larger ''Stack of Jewels Sutra'' (Sanskrit: ''Ratnakutasutra''; Tibetan: ). In Tibet there were two distinct traditions of the Thirty-five Confession Buddhas which arose from the two main Indian schools of

Mahāyāna Buddhism ''Mahāyāna'' (; "Great Vehicle") is a term for a broad group of Buddhist traditions, texts, philosophies, and practices. Mahāyāna Buddhism developed in India (c. 1st century BCE onwards) and is considered one of the three main existing bra ...

: one from the

Madhyamaka Mādhyamaka ("middle way" or "centrism"; ; Tibetan: དབུ་མ་པ ; ''dbu ma pa''), otherwise known as Śūnyavāda ("the emptiness doctrine") and Niḥsvabhāvavāda ("the no ''svabhāva'' doctrine"), refers to a tradition of Buddhist ...

school founded by

Nāgārjuna Nāgārjuna . 150 – c. 250 CE (disputed)was an Indian Mahāyāna Buddhist thinker, scholar-saint and philosopher. He is widely considered one of the most important Buddhist philosophers.Garfield, Jay L. (1995), ''The Fundamental Wisdom of ...

, and the other from the

Yogācāra Yogachara ( sa, योगाचार, IAST: '; literally "yoga practice"; "one whose practice is yoga") is an influential tradition of Buddhist philosophy and psychology emphasizing the study of cognition, perception, and consciousness through t ...

school founded by Asaṅga and

Vasubandhu Vasubandhu (; Tibetan: དབྱིག་གཉེན་ ; floruit, fl. 4th to 5th century CE) was an influential bhikkhu, Buddhist monk and scholar from ''Puruṣapura'' in ancient India, modern day Peshawar, Pakistan. He was a philosopher who ...

. Both of these schools developed their own rituals for conferring the Bodhisattva vows, each incorporating a visualization of the Thirty-five Buddhas along with the recitation of the confession from the Triskhandhadharma Sutra.

List of Names

The names of the 35 Buddhas of confession differ depending on the sutra. A common classification in

is as follows:

Iconography

The Thirty-Five Confession Buddhas are a common subject depicted in Himalayan Buddhist paintings and sculpture. There are at least three different iconographic systems for depicting the Thirty-Five Buddhas, based on the different descriptions found in ritual texts and commentaries by different authors including Nagarjuna, Sakya Paṇḍita, Jonang Tāranātha and

Je Tsongkhapa Tsongkhapa ('','' meaning: "the man from Tsongkha" or "the Man from Onion Valley", c. 1357–1419) was an influential Tibetan Buddhist monk, philosopher and tantric yogi, whose activities led to the formation of the Gelug school of Tibetan Budd ...

. The three main iconographic traditions are: # The system attributed to Nagarjuna where the 35 Buddhas are depicted with different objects in their hands, # The system of Sakya Paṇḍita where the 35 Buddhas are depicted with hand gestures only (no hand objects), and # The system based on Je Tsongkhapa's personal vision of the 35 Buddhas where only some of the Buddhas have objects in their hands.

Notes

References

External links

The Dharma of Dancing
{{Buddhas in Buddhist Literature Buddhas Mahayana sutras

List of Names

Iconography

See also

Notes

References

External links