The ''Śrīmālādevī Siṃhanāda Sūtra'' (, '' of Queen Śrīmālā'') is one of the main early Mahāyāna Buddhist texts belonging to the

Tathāgatagarbha sūtras The Tathāgatagarbha sūtras are a group of Mahayana sutras that present the concept of the "womb" or "embryo" (''garbha'') of the tathāgata, the buddha. Every sentient being has the possibility to attain Buddhahood because of the '' tathāga ...

that teaches the doctrines of

Buddha-nature In Buddhist philosophy and soteriology, Buddha-nature ( Chinese: , Japanese: , , Sanskrit: ) is the innate potential for all sentient beings to become a Buddha or the fact that all sentient beings already have a pure Buddha-essence within ...

and "One Vehicle" through the words of the Indian queen Śrīmālā. After its composition, this text became the primary scriptural advocate in India for the universal potentiality of

Buddhahood In Buddhism, Buddha (, which in classic Indo-Aryan languages, Indic languages means "awakened one") is a title for those who are Enlightenment in Buddhism, spiritually awake or enlightened, and have thus attained the Buddhist paths to liberat ...

History

Brian Edward Brown, a specialist in Buddha-nature doctrines, writes that the composition of the ''Śrīmālādevī Siṃhanāda Sūtra'' occurred during the Īkṣvāku Dynasty in the 3rd century CE as a product of the

Caitika Caitika () was an Early Buddhist schools, early Buddhist school, a sub-sect of the Mahāsāṃghika. They were also known as the Caityaka sect. The Caitikas proliferated throughout the mountains of South India, from which they derived thei ...

schools of the

Mahāsāṃghika The Mahāsāṃghika (Brahmi script, Brahmi: 𑀫𑀳𑀸𑀲𑀸𑀁𑀖𑀺𑀓, "of the Great Sangha (Buddhism), Sangha", ) was a major division (nikāya) of the early Buddhist schools in India. They were one of the two original communities th ...

s. Alex Wayman has outlined eleven points of complete agreement between the Mahāsāṃghikas and the ''Śrīmālā'', along with four major arguments for this association. Anthony Barber also associates the earlier development of the '' Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra'' with the Mahāsāṃghikas, and concludes that the Mahāsāṃghikas of the Āndhra region were responsible for the inception of the Buddha-nature doctrine. In the 6th century CE, Paramārtha wrote that the Mahāsāṃghikas revere the sūtras that teach the Buddha-nature doctrine.

Translations

The ''Śrīmālādevī Siṃhanāda Sūtra'' was translated to Chinese in 436 CE by

Guṇabhadra Gunabhadra (394–468) (, zh, p=Qiúnàbátuóluó, w=Ch'iu-na-pa-t'o-lo, s=求那跋陀罗, t=求那跋陀羅) was a monk and translator of Mahayana Buddhism from Magadha, Central India. His biography is contained in the work of a Chinese m ...

(394-468) and later by Bodhiruci (672-727). A complete Sanskrit original is no longer extant, but extensive quotations are found in the Sanskrit text of the ''

Ratnagotravibhāga The ''Ratnagotravibhāga'' (Sanskrit, abbreviated as RGV, meaning: ''Analysis of the Jeweled Lineage, Investigating the Jewel Disposition'') and its ''vyākhyā'' commentary (abbreviated RGVV to refer to the RGV verses along with the embedded comm ...

'' as well as some recently discovered fragments conserved in the

Schøyen Collection __NOTOC__ The Schøyen Collection is one of the largest private manuscript collections in the world, mostly located in Oslo and London. Formed in the 20th century by the father of current owner Martin Schøyen, it comprises manuscripts of global ...

. It was later translated into English by Alex and Hideko Wayman as ''The Lion's Roar of Queen Srimala''.

Content

The ''Śrīmālādevī Siṃhanāda Sūtra'' teaches the reality of an ultimate, immaculate consciousness within each living being, which is the Buddhic "

Dharmakāya The ''dharmakāya'' (, "truth body" or "reality body", zh, t=法身, p=fǎshēn, ) is one of the three bodies (''trikāya'') of a Buddha in Mahāyāna Buddhism. The ''dharmakāya'' constitutes the unmanifested, "inconceivable" (''acintya'') a ...

" (essence of Truth), which is yet temporarily sheathed in obscuring defilement. This Dharmakāya, when viewed as intrinsically free from spiritual ignorance, is said to constitute eternity, bliss, the self, and purity in their perfect state. The use of the word "self" in this sutra is in a way unique to this class of sutra. The great Queen Śrīmālā, who according to this text is empowered by the Buddha to teach the Dharma, affirms: The scripture, which was extremely influential by way of clarification of the Tathagātagarbha view of

Śūnyatā ''Śūnyatā'' ( ; ; ), translated most often as "emptiness", "Emptiness, vacuity", and sometimes "voidness", or "nothingness" is an Indian philosophical concept. In Buddhism, Jainism, Hinduism, and Indian philosophy, other Indian philosophi ...

, insists that the ultimately correct understanding of emptiness is that the Tathāgatagarbha is empty of all knowledge that is not liberation, whereas, in contrast, the qualities which characterise a Buddha are not empty of inconceivable virtues. An alternative title offered by the Buddha for this sutra expresses this idea of an ultimate meaning to the emptiness doctrine: "The True Revelation of the Buddha's Intention when Teaching Emptiness." The sūtra has, furthermore, significantly contributed to the Mahāyāna notion of the permanent, steadfast and eternal Tathagātagarbha, which is nothing less than the perfect Dharmakāya temporarily concealed by (ultimately unreal) mental contaminants:

Notes

Sources

* * * * * *

Bibliography

* Paul, Diana (1979). 'The Concept of Tathāgatagarbha in the Śrīmālādevī Sūtra (Sheng-Man Ching)'. Journal of the American Oriental Society 99 (2), 191–203 * Mark Dennis (trans.)
Prince Shōtoku's Commentary on the Śrīmālā-sūtra
Berkeley, Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research 2011. *King, Richard (1995). Is "Buddha-Nature" Buddhist? Doctrinal Tensions in the Śrīmālā Sūtra: An Early Tathāgatagarbha Text, Numen 42 (1), 1-20

External links

Digital Dictionary of Buddhism
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Appreciation of the Nirvana Sutra and Tathagatagarbha teachings

{{Authority control Mahayana sutras Yogacara Shentong