Toh 150
The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Inquiry of Avalokiteśvara on the Seven Qualities”
འཕགས་པ་སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས་དབང་ཕྱུག་གིས་ཞུས་པ་ཆོས་བདུན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
Āryāvalokiteśvaraparipṛcchāsaptadharmakanāmamahāyānasūtra
’phags pa spyan ras gzigs dbang phyug gis zhus pa chos bdun pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
Translator: Translated by the University of Calgary Buddhist Studies Team under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha
Read time: 4 min
Version: v1.26.14
The KangyurDiscoursesGeneral Sūtra Section
Summary
This brief sūtra is introduced with the Buddha residing on Vulture Peak Mountain in Rājagṛha, together with a great monastic assembly of 1,250 monks and a multitude of bodhisattva mahāsattvas. The Buddha is approached and asked by the bodhisattva mahāsattva Avalokiteśvara about the qualities that should be cultivated by a bodhisattva who has just generated the altruistic mind set on attaining awakening. The Buddha briefly expounds seven qualities that should be practiced by such a bodhisattva, emphasizing mental purity and cognitive detachment from conceptuality.