Toh 39Sūtra of the Taming of the Nāga King Nandopananda

Commentary on the Sutra of the Taming of the Nāga King Nandopananda

Background

The Sutra of the Taming of the Nāga King Nandopananda (Nandopanandanāgarājadamanasūtra) is one of the important texts in the Northern Transmission Mahayana, preserved in the Northern Transmission canon (Kangyur) of Tibet. This sutra belongs to the Mahayana tradition of skillful means, emphasizing the powerful force of the Buddha-Dharma and of bodhisattvas in teaching even the beings most difficult to tame.

The setting of the sutra recounts a time when Shakyamuni Buddha, or a Buddha in another world, taught a nāga king named Nandopananda - a leader of the waters in the form of a vast dragon. Nāgas in the Northern Transmission Buddhist tradition are not only supernatural beings, but also represent natural forces and sentient beings still bound by greed, anger, and delusion, who need to be tamed through the Dharma.

Main Content

This sutra focuses on the event in which the Buddha or a bodhisattva, most likely Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara, who has the ability to transform flexibly, descends to meet the Nāga King Nandopananda. This being is described as possessing a fierce, arrogant, or harmful nature toward sentient beings. Instead of using force or punishment, the Buddha or bodhisattva uses the power of the Dharma - specifically, supernatural powers (abhijñā), wisdom of victorious realization, and compassion - to “tame” (daman) this nāga.

Taming is not conquest or repression, but a profound process of instruction and transformation. The Buddha shows the Nāga King the impermanence and suffering of its very existence within samsara, while at the same time opening the path of practice and liberation. The Nāga King, whose mind is opened and who gains faith in the Three Jewels (Buddha, Dharma, Sangha), finally takes refuge and resolves to practice the bodhisattva path.

The sutra emphasizes that no sentient being is too distant or too difficult to heal to be liberated. Even nāgas - beings whose consciousness differs greatly from that of humans - have the capacity to receive the Dharma and generate the bodhisattva mind.