Toh 356From the Sūtra of the Questions of Candragarbha: Showing How the Buddha’s Teaching Abides and Perishes
Pāli / Sanskrit:[no Sanskrit title]
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An Exposition of the Candragarbha Sūtra: The Abiding and Decline of the Dharma
Background
The Candragarbha Sūtra, the Sūtra of the Questions of Candragarbha, is an important scripture in the Northern Tibetan Mahāyāna tradition, recorded in the Kangyur, the collection of the Buddha’s teachings translated into Tibetan. The title of this sūtra clearly indicates its subject: revealing the way in which the Buddha’s Dharma endures and declines over time.
Candragarbha, in Tibetan Da-wa Nying-po, meaning “Essence of the Moon,” is a bodhisattva of profound wisdom, portrayed as one who asks questions according to his accumulated understanding. This sūtra reflects the traditional Mahāyāna method of teaching: the Buddha responds to the questions of disciples in order to disclose deep truths. Candragarbha’s appearance symbolizes illuminating wisdom, like bright moonlight, which clarifies the obscure questions concerning the decline of the Dharma.
Main Contents
The focus of the sūtra is the teaching on the abiding and decline of the true Dharma (Saddharma-pratishthāna and Saddharma-viplava). This is not a decline in the intrinsic quality of the Dharma, but a change in humanity’s ability to access and practice it in the world.
According to the Northern Tibetan Mahāyāna tradition, the Buddha’s Dharma passes through different stages: while the Buddha was present in the world, the disciples who received the Dharma directly possessed its power to the fullest extent. After the Buddha entered nirvana, this power gradually weakened, not because the Dharma itself changed, but because our minds, the minds of practitioners, became more obscured and distorted.
The sūtra teaches that the abiding of the Dharma depends on three factors: (1) the presence of scriptures and instructions; (2) the correct understanding and genuine practice of practitioners; and (3) the upholding and protection of the Dharma from one generation to the next. When one of these factors declines, the Dharma may seem to decline, yet its nature remains complete.
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