17 Facts About Vimalakirti Sutra

1.

The word nirdesa in the title means "instruction, advice", and Vimalakirti Sutra is the name of the main protagonist of the text, and means "Taintless Fame".

FactSnippet No. 632,210
2.

Vimalakirti Sutra teaches, among other subjects, the meaning of nondualism, the doctrine of the true body of the Buddha, the characteristically Mahayana claim that the appearances of the world are mere illusions, and the superiority of the Mahayana over other paths.

FactSnippet No. 632,211
3.

Translator Burton Watson argues that the Vimalakirti Sutra Nirdesa was likely composed in approximately 100 CE.

FactSnippet No. 632,212
4.

Vimalakirti Sutra enters dens of iniquity, such as gambling parlours, brothels, and the haunts of philosophers of other schools, but even in so doing, he is merely appearing to conform with the ways of this world in order to bring sentient beings to realisation of the truth.

FactSnippet No. 632,213
5.

Vimalakirti Sutra teaches one such group of visitors about the distinction between the apparently impermanent material body, which is prone to such sickness, and the true body of the Buddha.

FactSnippet No. 632,214
6.

Vimalakirti Sutra is typically portrayed in these recounted exchanges as having triumphed by a kind of paradoxical and contrary rhetoric, which on the surface makes no sense.

FactSnippet No. 632,215
7.

Vimalakirti Sutra explains his illness in spiritual terms, equating it with the fundamental existential malaise of all sentient beings.

FactSnippet No. 632,216
8.

Vimalakirti Sutra expounds a series of analogies designed to explain the point that the bodhisattva regards sentient beings as, in various senses, illusory or even logically impossible.

FactSnippet No. 632,217
9.

Vimalakirti Sutra's explains that he cannot shake off the flowers because he is "attached" .

FactSnippet No. 632,218
10.

Vimalakirti Sutra conducts a dialogue with a series of bodhisattvas from Manjusri's entourage on the topic of non-duality .

FactSnippet No. 632,219
11.

Vimalakirti Sutra uses his powers to conjure up a magically emanated bodhisattva, whom he sends to a remote Buddha-world to fetch a wonderfully fragrant type of food that is eaten there.

FactSnippet No. 632,220
12.

Vimalakirti Sutra takes the occasion to deliver a discourse on the necessity of suffering as a means of teaching for the beings in Sakyamuni's Saha world.

FactSnippet No. 632,221
13.

The Buddha reveals to Sariputra that Vimalakirti Sutra is in fact a bodhisattva from the Buddha-world Abhirati, which is created and overseen by the Buddha Aksobhya.

FactSnippet No. 632,222
14.

Vimalakirti Sutra remains silent while discussing the subject of emptiness with an assembly of bodhisattvas.

FactSnippet No. 632,223
15.

Vimalakirti Sutra was the object of energetic commentarial activity in East Asia.

FactSnippet No. 632,224
16.

Yet another significant commentary is the Yuimagyo gisho ?????, or Commentary on the Vimalakirti Sutra, ascribed to Prince Shotoku ????, an early work of Japanese Buddhism, which is said to be based on the commentary of the Liang Dynasty Chinese monk Zhizang ?? .

FactSnippet No. 632,225
17.

Vimalakirti Sutra is thought to have been influential in East Asian Buddhism for its perceived humor, and the perception that it provides scriptural warrant for various compromises between austerity and engagement with secular life.

FactSnippet No. 632,226