འཕགས་པ་གང་གའ་མཆག་གས་ཞས་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད intro.3

intro.3

The sūtra is thus noteworthy not only for its teachings, but also for the fact that it features a woman as one of its main characters, and a laywoman at that—a laywoman who has the intellectual aptitude and fortitude to engage in a challenging philosophical discussion with the Buddha.¹ Peter Skilling, who has also published a translation of this sūtra into English, compares it with the scene in The Teaching of Vimalakīrti wherein the goddess who lives in Vimalakīrti’s house engages Śāriputra in a sophisticated dialogue that is in some ways comparable to the one in this sūtra.² At one point in that sūtra, however, the goddess magically transforms Śāriputra into a goddess to demonstrate her point that all things are like magical illusions. There is no such marvelous demonstration in this sūtra, unless we count the episode at the end wherein the gods produce divine flowers and sandalwood powders with which to worship the Buddha. However, that action does not seem intended to emphasize the idea that all things are like magical illusions. Additionally, the dialogue in the present sūtra is between the Buddha and a human woman, and the gender roles are the reverse of those found in The Teaching of Vimalakīrti, with the Buddha Śākyamuni in the teacher role and the laywoman Gaṅgottarā as the student.