འཕགས་པ་ཕ་རལ་ཏ་ཕྱན་པ་ལྔ་བསྟན་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད intro.3

intro.3

Teaching the Five Perfections unfolds as a conversation between the Buddha and two of his close students, Śāradvatīputra, who is praised in the canonical literature as the foremost of the Buddha’s disciples in terms of wisdom, and Pūrṇa Maitrāyaṇīputra, who is lauded as the foremost preacher of the Dharma. As for these two outstanding disciples, we are told that they deliver their teachings on the perfections in a conversation inspired and guided by the Buddha’s blessing. As is often the case in sūtra literature, this is one of the ways in which bona fide “words of the Buddha” (buddhavacana) can be expressed. A wide range of topics is addressed throughout the text, including the practice of nonconceptuality, the defining characteristics of bodhisattvas, the importance of dedicating merit toward omniscience, the distinction between bodhisattvas and hearers, and, of course, the distinctive practices of the five perfections themselves.