འཕགས་པ་འདལ་བ་རྣམ་པར་གཏན་ལ་དབབ་པ་ཉ་བར་འཁར་གྱས་ཞས་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད intro.3

intro.3

The sūtra opens in the north Indian city of Śrāvastī, where the Buddha resides among a vast assembly of monks and bodhisattvas in Prince Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍada’s Park. Addressing the bodhisattvas in the assembly, the Buddha asks who will uphold the Dharma and bring beings to maturity in future times. A number of the bodhisattvas present in the assembly voice their desire to uphold various aspects of the Dharma or to help beings through specific powers. At Śāriputra’s prompting, the Buddha next describes the special means that bodhisattvas utilize to bring beings to spiritual maturity, and how the three poisons—desire, anger, and delusion—are to be understood in the context of bodhisattva conduct. It is at this point that the Buddha teaches a special method for confessing misdeeds: the “Three Sections” rite, which will be discussed below. He offers this rite of confession as a potent means for bodhisattvas to purify their faults and attain samādhi.