Buddha Mahayana Sutra Nirvana

The Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra ("Mahayana Great Complete-Nirvana Scripture" - commonly known as the Nirvana Sutra, for short) is one of the most profound, inspiring and arguably most important of all the Buddha's Mahayana sutras (along with the great Lotus Sutra). The Mahaparinirvana Sutra claims to preserve the final, ultimate and true Mahayana teachings delivered by the Buddha on his last day and night of life upon earth. The sutra can be said to eclipse all others in its authority on the question of the Buddha-dhatu and Tathagatagarbha. It claims to be definitive: the quintessence of Mahayana Dharma. And yet despite being greatly revered and strongly influential in the East, it is little known, and even less well studied, in the West. This website is devoted to an appreciation of this unique scripture - both for those who wish to study the background of the text from a scholarly point of view, but more particularly and more importantly for those who wish to practise the teachings of the Mahaparinirvana Sutra from a basis of faith and meditative experience. The Mahaparinirvana Sutra is a key sutra for an understanding of the Buddha's teachings on the Buddha-dhatu ("Buddha Nature", "Buddha Element", "Buddha Principle") and the synonymous Tathagatagarbha (indwelling Buddha Essence of each being).

The present website offers the complete Kosho Yamamoto English translation of the "Southern" edition of the Dharmakshema Nirvana Sutra, in a version revised and edited by Dr. Tony Page, as well as Dr. Page's German translation (the first ever carried out) of the Tibetan version of the Mahaparinirvana Sutra, based on the (as yet unpublished) splendid English translation by Buddhist scholar, Stephen Hodge.

The webmaster of this site - Dr. Tony Page - is the man who, following in the pioneering footsteps of the great Kosho Yamamoto, single-handedly brought the Mahaparinirvana Sutra in its English version for widespread dissemination to the West. Dr. Page is also the founder of a new "Nirvana Sutra Buddhism" approach to Mahayana Buddhism (one which bases itself faithfully and accurately on the actual words and teachings of the Buddha in this and other Tathagatagarbha sutras - rather than clinging to often outmoded, ill-informed, incomplete, pre-conveived and prejudiced notions of what Buddhism must and must not "be"). Dr. Page is today the United Kingdom's foremost Mahaparinirvana Sutra doctrinal researcher, advocate and proponent, Buddha Nirvana.

Dr. Tony Page is further the author of Buddhism and Animals; Buddha and God; and Buddha-Self: The 'Secret' Teachings of the Buddha in the Mahaparinirvana Sutra, and is the authorised editor, reviser and publisher of Kosho Yamamoto's English translation of the Mahaparinirvana Sutra.

The present website is still in the process of being developed, as more information is gradually added to the various sections. Vitally, the site is principally aimed at more "mystically" orientated Buddhists and spiritual seekers, who may feel that many of the forms of Buddhism which they encounter today tend to be too negative and nihilistic in their attitudes, emphases, and anti-metaphysical (non-)vision. Spiritual questers of a more mystical stamp may intuitively feel (in line with the Buddha's teaching) that there truly does exist an indwelling yet transcendental Buddhic Principle (Buddha-dhatu) or infinite "That-ness" (tathata), a peaceful, blissful, pure, unchanging Essence (svabhava) or eternal Self (atman) - the infinite Buddha - concealed within the deeps of each person's mind. This is the realm of ineffable Nirvana. This Nirvana is truly Real and exists Now, but lies beyond the grasp of worldly thinking, beyond mere logic, beyond "dependent origination" (although Nirvana is present within dependent origination without being constricted or limited by it), beyond "momentariness" and secular rationalism. Entry (the Buddha's own word) into it, however, will be facilitated by faith in the Buddha-dhatu (Buddha Principle) and meditation upon its inherent peace and bliss. This is not some random "theosophist" or crypto-Hindu interpretation foisted onto the Tathagatagarbha sutras by the present webmaster (as is falsely claimed by some who have not deeply studied the Mahaparinirvana Sutra, let alone devoted half a lifetime of research into this great spiritual literature) nor is it inspired by Mrs. Rhys-Davids' books (none of which has actually been read by the present writer!): the reality of the eternal Buddha (whose realisable, immortal Principle inheres in all beings) is rather the repeated and insistent declaration of the Buddha himself in the great Mahaparinirvana Sutra and other related Tathagatagarbha sutras (sutras which state that the Tathagatagarbha revelation is ultimate in nature, not provisional in its declarations). Many Buddhists, sadly, are not familiar with these often neglected and inaccessible (because not generally translated) teachings and unwisely seek to reject, twist or debunk them - or else cling to the comfort blanket of "safe", pre-packaged, Buddha-dhatu-denigrating "commentaries" (often contradictory of what the Buddha actually and repeatedly states in the sutra) - and seeming not to dare to look at the text itself in great detail and do the unimaginable: look at what the Buddha says (rather than some later commentator), think independently and experience for themselves! Wilful ignorance, intellectual pusillanimity and mental pre-programming and conditioning are, however, sad spectacles to witness and are particularly out of place in the field of Buddhist study and practice (not that this writer is free of his own karmic conditioning, of course!) . Yet open-hearted and open-minded mystical seeking and meditation may well disclose a spiritual home for the seeker in this noble Mahaparinirvana Sutra - a number of whose central tenets are set forth below (based on the words and the teachings of the Buddha in this pinnacle of Mahayana sutras, a position which it arguably shares with the great Lotus Sutra alone).