Vimalakīrti Sūtra

by Anonymous

Also known as: Vimalakīrti-nirdeśa Sūtra, Vimalakirti Nirdesa Sutra, Vimalakirti Sutra

Vimalakīrti Sūtra cover
Culture:Indian, Buddhist
Oral:1-200 CE
Written:200-500 CE
Length:140 pages, (~4.5 hours)
Vimalakīrti Sūtra cover
A Mahāyāna scripture in which the lay bodhisattva Vimalakīrti instructs monks and bodhisattvas through paradox, silence, and displays of inconceivable liberation, emphasizing nonduality, emptiness, and skillful means.

Description

The Vimalakīrti Sūtra presents the teachings of the lay sage Vimalakīrti, whose feigned illness becomes a pretext for visiting monks and bodhisattvas to receive profound instruction. Through witty repartee and visionary displays—rooms expanding to hold countless lion thrones, offerings arriving from distant buddha-fields, and a goddess confounding gender assumptions—the text dramatizes śūnyatā and the nondual nature of phenomena. Its centerpiece is the chapter on entering nonduality, culminating in Vimalakīrti’s eloquent silence, presented as the supreme expression of wisdom. Revered across East Asia, the scripture shaped Chan/Zen rhetoric, lay bodhisattva ideals, and artistic depictions of the eloquent householder.

Historiography

The Sanskrit archetype is lost; the work survives chiefly in multiple Chinese translations and a Tibetan version. The early Chinese translation tradition attests to its popularity, with the 5th-century Kumārajīva version becoming normative in East Asia. Commentaries proliferated in Chinese, Korean, and Japanese traditions, influencing Chan/Zen exegesis and rhetoric. Artistic cycles depicting Vimalakīrti and Mañjuśrī debating appear in Dunhuang and temple murals.

Date Notes

Mahayana scripture likely composed in Sanskrit (now lost). Earliest Chinese translations date to the late 2nd century CE; the influential Kumārajīva recension is early 5th century CE.

Major Characters

  • Vimalakīrti
  • Śākyamuni Buddha
  • Mañjuśrī
  • Śāriputra
  • Maitreya

Myths

  • Vimalakīrti’s Inconceivable Liberation
  • The Goddess and Śāriputra’s Flower Shower
  • The Feast within the Small Room
  • The Thunderous Silence of Non-Duality

Facts

  • The scripture centers on a lay bodhisattva who matches or surpasses eminent monks in wisdom.
  • Its dramatic pedagogy includes expanding space to seat innumerable visitors on lion thrones.
  • A goddess uses role reversal to demonstrate the emptiness of gender distinctions.
  • The chapter on nonduality culminates in Vimalakīrti’s wordless teaching.
  • The text extols the purity of buddha-fields as reflections of practitioners’ minds.
  • A famed episode features obtaining fragrant food from a distant buddha-field to feed the assembly.
  • The work profoundly shaped East Asian lay bodhisattva ideals and Chan/Zen rhetoric.
  • Sanskrit exemplars are lost; Chinese and Tibetan translations transmit the text.
  • Kumārajīva’s Chinese translation became the standard in East Asia.
  • Akṣobhya’s realm Abhirati is invoked as a model of a purified buddha-field.