འཕགས་པ་སྤྲན་ཆན་པ intro.2

intro.2

This text is a short dhāraṇī-sūtra that may be regarded as an addendum to the longer sūtra called The Great Cloud (Toh 232)¹ and seems to have been intended for ritual and recitation purposes. The longer discourse is a Mahāyāna scripture that emphasizes bodhisattva conduct and the teaching that the Buddha does not pass into parinirvāṇa. Among the many benefits listed for those who uphold The Great Cloud, timely rainfall is mentioned, and thus the sūtra came to be associated with rainmaking among Indian Buddhists. This short text, which circulated independently of the longer sūtra called The Great Cloud, is presented as the “sixty-fourth chapter” of that longer sūtra, which in all its extant versions contains only thirty-eight chapters.