འཕགས་པ་བསམ་གྱས་མ་ཁྱབ་པའ་རྒྱལ་པའ་མད་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད intro.3

intro.3

The Sūtra of King of the Inconceivable is nearly identical to “The Chapter on the Scale of Life,” the thirty-seventh chapter of the Ornaments of the Buddhas (Toh 44, Skt. Buddhāvataṃsaka), ¹ and Expounding the Qualities of the Thus-Gone Ones’ Buddhafields (Toh 104).² Of the three texts, The Sūtra of King of the Inconceivable is more elaborate than “The Chapter on the Scale of Life” in that it includes an opening narrative (Skt. nidāna) and a conclusion. However, whereas “The Chapter on the Scale of Life” and Expounding the Qualities of the Thus-Gone Ones’ Buddhafields explicitly reference the names of the buddhafields and their buddhas, The Sūtra of King of the Inconceivable gives only the names of the buddhas in most instances. Though there is no extant Sanskrit version of The Sūtra of King of the Inconceivable, there is a Sanskrit witness of Expounding the Qualities of the Thus-Gone Ones’ Buddhafields (Toh 104) titled Ananta­buddha­kṣetra­guṇodbhāvana, which aligns closely with Toh 268 in terms of vocabulary and structure.³