འཕགས་པ་བླ་གྲས་མ་ཟད་པས་བསྟན་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད intro.7

intro.7

To date, no complete Sanskrit version of this sūtra has come to light, although a few quotations are preserved in Indian scriptures, predominantly in Śāntideva’s (ca. eighth century) Śikṣāsamuccaya.³ The Tibetan translation was completed (based on earlier drafts) some time during the late eighth or early ninth century ce as we find it included in the Denkarma catalog dated to ca. 812 ce.⁴ According to the colophon to the Tibetan translation, it was edited and finalized by the translator Dharmatāśīla, who participated in numerous translation projects in Tibet during the early translation period.⁵ The Chinese canon also contains two translations of this sūtra. The first (Taishō 403) was produced by Dharmarakṣa already in 308 ce and the second (Taishō 397–12) was completed approximately one century later in 427 ce by the translators Zhiyan and Baoyun. In my introduction to the published critical edition of the Tibetan text the interested reader will find a detailed discussion of the textual history of the sūtra in Tibet.⁶ As with the earlier published translation of The Teaching of Akṣayamati, this newly revised English translation is likewise based on my critical edition of the Tibetan translation.