འཕགས་པ་ཆས་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱ་རང་བཞན་མཉམ་པ་ཉད་རྣམ་པར་སྤྲས་པ་ཏང་ང་འཛན་གྱ་རྒྱལ་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད intro.7

intro.7

As is the case for most sūtras, it is impossible to be sure when this work first appeared in writing; indeed, the sūtra is very likely a compilation of earlier shorter works. None of the complete extant Sanskrit manuscripts can be dated to earlier than the sixth century. There is, however, a reference to it in the Sūtrasamuccaya, a work attributed to Nāgārjuna (second or third century) although the attribution is not universally accepted. There is even a claim that the King of Samādhis Sūtra was translated into Chinese in 148 ce, but this, too, is disputed. The mention of a Samādhirāja in Asaṅga’s fourth century Mahā­yāna­saṃgraha may be a reference to the sūtra.