འཕགས་པ་སྲད་པ་འཕ་བ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད intro.3

intro.3

It is notable that this sūtra can be divided into two distinct parts—the prose and the verse sections—which are thematically quite different. The second has little relation to the title of the sūtra and seems to be more a deep reading of the preceding prose than the kind of verse summary commonly found in other Mahāyāna sūtras. This divide is one key to navigating the sūtra’s complex history, which is explained below. In essence, this early Mahāyāna sūtra holds an important place in the tradition as one of the earliest statements on the two truths² and was used by both the Madhyamaka and early Yogācāra schools as a scriptural authority on the ultimate truth.