འཕགས་པ་མ་སྐྱས་དགྲའ་འགྱད་པ་བསལ་བ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད intro.5

intro.5

Eliminating Ajātaśatru’s Remorse is significant in several ways. Most importantly, from a Buddhist perspective, it provides an impressive account of how to eliminate the force of former negative actions, delivered through profound teachings that point out the nature of reality from the perspective of the Great Vehicle. From a historical point of view, the fact that its composition can be determined (through its first translation into Chinese) to date no later than the late second century ce makes this scripture a significant piece of evidence that many of the main features of the literature of the Great Vehicle had already fully developed by the second century ce and that by that time it was no longer in its infancy.¹ Considering its importance, it is therefore surprising that until recently this text had received little attention by modern scholars and translators.²