Toh 53The Ten Dharmas
Pāli / Sanskrit:Daśadharmakasūtra
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The Sutra of the Ten Dharmas — A Traditional Interpretation from the Northern Mahayana Canon
Context
The Sutra of the Ten Dharmas (Daśadharmakasūtra) is one of the precious scriptures of the Northern Buddhist Canon, recorded in the Kangyur—the collection of canonical teachings spoken directly by Shakyamuni Buddha. This sutra reflects a mature period in the development of the Mahayana Dharma, when bodhisattvas had drawn near to buddhahood and required specific guidance concerning the most exalted principles.
The setting of the sutra is a sacred assembly in which Shakyamuni Buddha and innumerable bodhisattvas from other worlds gather to hear the Dharma. This is not a teaching intended for a general audience, but guidance for genuine practitioners who already possess a firm foundation in buddha-nature, wisdom, and compassion. The presence of great bodhisattvas such as Manjushri, Samantabhadra, and Avalokiteshvara symbolizes the union of wisdom and compassionate action.
Principal Content
The title “Ten Dharmas” refers to ten fundamental principles or qualities that great bodhisattvas must cultivate in order to complete the path to awakening. These dharmas are not externally imposed precepts, but the intrinsic principles of awakening realized by the Buddha and the bodhisattvas themselves.
In the tradition of the Northern Mahayana Canon, these dharmas are commonly associated with the ten bodhisattva grounds (bodhisattva-bhūmi), the ten powers (daśabala) of a Buddha, or ten kinds of supernormal knowledge. Each dharma is comprehensive in nature: it is at once a transcendent teaching, a concrete practice, and a direct realization.
The specific contents of this sutra have not yet been fully translated into modern Vietnamese, but according to the general context of the Kangyur, the Ten Dharmas commonly concern: transcendence of the notion of a person, steadfastness in generating bodhicitta, the ability to understand the emptiness of the nature of phenomena, the destruction of subtle afflictions, and the perfection of the pāramitās.
Significance for Practice
For those who today practice according to the tradition of the Northern Mahayana Canon,
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