Toh 146The Sūtra Teaching the Miracles in the Domain of Skillful Means that the Bodhisattvas Have at their Disposition

The Sutra Teaching the Miracles in the Domain of the Bodhisattvas’ Skillful Means

Background

This sutra belongs to the Mahāyāna Northern Transmission canon and is recorded in the Kangyur (the Sutra collection) as Toh 146. Its original Sanskrit title is Bodhisattvagocaropāyaviṣayavikurvitanirdeśasūtra, deeply reflecting a distinctive feature of the Mahāyāna: its focus on the bodhisattva path and on the extraordinary capacities that bodhisattvas develop through the practice of the Dharma.

In the Mahāyāna context, “skillful means” (upāya) is a central concept: the flexible methods that buddhas and bodhisattvas use to teach sentient beings according to their differing capacities. This sutra not only sets forth those means, but also teaches the wondrous miracles (vikurvita, lit. “transformations”) that bodhisattvas can actualize within the domain (gocara, “range of activity”) of skillful means.

Main Content

The sutra teaches that bodhisattvas, through advanced and profound practice, become adept in the use of skillful means, a domain of activity not limited by the linear or sluggish structures of the ordinary mind. They are able to transform appearances of truth, manifest in countless forms, and expound the Dharma in innumerable ways, all for the purpose of bringing sentient beings to the shore of liberation.

These miracles are not purposeless supernatural powers, but the natural result of entering into the absence of inherent nature (śūnyatā) of all phenomena. When a bodhisattva fully understands that all dharmas have no fixed essence, no “inherent nature,” they can freely transform, appear, and disappear, while at the same time maintaining boundless compassion directed toward myriad sentient beings.

The sutra also emphasizes that these capacities are not the exclusive privilege of buddhas, but are potential attainments within the bodhisattva’s practice. Every bodhisattva, at whatever level, can develop these capacities through the power of samādhi (samādhi), wisdom (prajñapti), and unwavering compassion (karunā).