འཕགས་པ་རན་ཆན་དྲ་བ་ཅན་གྱས་ཞས་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད intro.4

intro.4

The Questions of Ratnajālin is primarily concerned with the benefits that arise from knowing the names of various buddhas in different realms. Like many sūtras, this scripture begins with an interlocutor raising a question to the Buddha. In this case, it is the young boy Ratnajālin who asks whether or not there are buddhas whose very names carry such transformative power as to elevate the knower to buddhahood in addition to arousing virtually all other important spiritual qualities. The Buddha replies that there are, in fact, several buddhas whose names hold such power and he proceeds to describe and name these buddhas and their realms as well as declare the specific effects that knowledge of their names enacts. The notion that a devotee can become destined for awakening merely by hearing the names of buddhas who live in other realms is shared by a number of Great Vehicle sūtras. In the Degé Kangyur, however, since a number of organizing principles were at play when the editors structured the canon, the texts concerned with the liberating effects of the names of various buddhas ended up not being grouped together based on their shared subject matter but instead became dispersed throughout the different sūtra collections due to other editorial concerns. Therefore, we find The Questions of Ratnajālin grouped together with the twenty-six sūtras that all share a similar title element (The Questions of . . .).⁴