Some Basic Principles of the "Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra"

a) That the essential Buddha (transcending his physical, historical form) is ETERNAL, UNCHANGING, EVERLASTING, beginningless, endless, steadfast and indestructible (yet capable of projecting manifestations of himself in numerous bodies, modes and times); that he is deathless, totally Aware, omnipresent across time and space, as well as being disassociated from time and space;

b) That there exists an immortal, immanent and transcendent, radiantly shining Buddha-Principle (Buddha-dhatu) or Buddha-Matrix (Tathagata-garbha) in all sentient beings, which links beings to Buddhahood and functions as the cause of spiritual Awakening (bodhi), but which only perfect Buddhas can clearly see; this Tathagatagarbha is also called the Self (atman - non-egoic, unconditioned, indestructible ultimate Selfhood of the eternal Buddha), which exists in all beings (and in all phenomena) - thus all persons and creatures possess one-and-the-same immutable core to their being: the essence of a Buddha, which inheres in and embraces all things - conditioned and unconditioned - and yet is beyond them all, unconstrained by all process and change;

c) That the Buddha-dhatu or Tathagatagarbha is the very essence (svabhava) or Dharmakaya (ultimate level of being) of the Buddha and of all persons and creatures, in contradistinction to the five transient skandhas (impermanent mental / physical elements of the "worldly ego"); the Buddha himself is the visible manifestation of the Buddha-dhatu and is no less than the inconceivable, virtue-filled Soul or Self (sometimes termed the "True Self" - satya-atman), whose potency inheres in our own body-and-mind complex, and into which Self we should "enter". Such "entry" is made possible when we have eradicated the kleshas (negative mental, moral and behavioural tendencies) from our being. The chief kleshas are passionate desire, anger, delusion and pride. A major delusion is to see Self where there is in fact non-Self (compulsive mutation, transitoriness and change) - and to see non-Self where there is in reality the Self (i.e. the eternal, unconditioned Buddha);

d) That Nirvana is the state/sphere (vishaya) of the Eternal (nitya), Bliss (sukha), the Self (atman), and the Pure (subha), and that these Nirvanic attributes constitute the heart of the Buddha;

e) That the root of all good qualities is Friendliness or Loving-kindness (maitri), in association with Compassion, Empathetic Joy, and Impartiality towards all beings; these qualities are also inherent in the nature of the Buddha. The universal application of Kindliness (maitri) implicitly excludes all possibility of hatred for any being on the basis of his/her race, religion, sex or sexuality - indeed, all hatred is to be rejected as a klesha (moral contaminant). Instead, all beings should be "regarded as one's only child" (i.e. with the caring eye of a loving parent);

f) That followers of the Mahayana (Bodhisattva) Path should be vegetarian, and compassionate towards animals and must never use evil as a means to an end; such compassion and kindness as enjoined by this sutra, even explicitly towards ants, also (implicitly) make it utterly impossible and inconceivable for the Bodhisattva to perpetrate such misguided and degrading practices as hunting or vivisection (experimentation on living animals);

g) That the Buddha's teachings in the Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra (particularly those centring on the Tathagatagarbha) are NOT provisional, lower-level or purely metaphorical doctrines (they emphatically do NOT need to be inverted and "interpreted" into the exact opposite of what they actually state); they are NOT mere tactical fictions; instead, they are definitive doctrines which point directly to Ultimate Truth (paramartha-satya) - to the Buddha, who is NOT a vacuous Emptiness or merely a "dependently originated" process, but is Reality itself, the changeless Great Self (mahatman), who is solely empty of all impermanence, unhappiness, ignorance and afflictions, and endowed with limitless virtues and bliss;

h) That the noble Mahaparinirvana Sutra itself is "unique", "the ultimate of all Mahayana discourses", the "most excellent King of sutras [scriptures]", revealing "the very ultimate meaning of all sutras", and that even hearing its words or name can bring about happiness and pleasure and can lay the causal foundations for the attainment of Awakening.

i) That the noble Mahaparinirvana Sutra possesses the power to bring about "benefit, happiness and kindness for all beings" - with the one possible exception of those termed icchantikas, the most spiritually deluded of persons, who disparage the sutra and reject its teachings on the Tathagatagarbha;

j) That Nirvana is supreme peace and utmost purity, and that the Buddha, the embodiment of Nirvana, "abides eternally, without change."

The English text of the sutra mainly cited for reference throughout this study is the specially commissioned English translation by Stephen Hodge of the Tibetan version of the scripture, as well as that same scholar's occasional forays into the Faxian and the Dharmakshema "Northern" versions of the scripture. The website also contains the Dharmakshema "Southern" version of the sutra, The Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra, as translated into English by Kosho Yamamoto and edited and revised by Dr. Tony Page (Nirvana Publications, London, 1999-2000).

If you would like a general overview of the teachings of the Mahaparinirvana Sutra (before tackling the complete text of the scripture itself), I suggest that you might like to read first this present page (if you have not already done so!), then the "Basic Teachings" page, and finally the "Selected Extracts" pages (which contain key, vital quotations in very new, reliable translations by Stephen Hodge).

To access these pages, click on those pages as listed in the Navigation Strip on the left-hand side of this page.

Happy reading and meditation!