Toh 92The Lion's Roar of Śrīmālādevī
Pāli / Sanskrit:Śrīmālādevīsiṃhanādasūtra
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The Sūtra of the Lion's Roar of Princess Śrīmālā
Background
The Sūtra of the Lion's Roar of Princess Śrīmālā (Śrīmālādevīsiṃhanādasūtra) is an important scripture of the Mahāyāna Buddhadharma, recorded in the Northern Transmission. This sūtra centers on the Dharma teaching expounded before the Buddha Śākyamuni by Princess Śrīmālā, a female devotee of incomparable meditative stability and aspiration.
Princess Śrīmālā is an exemplary model of a Buddhist woman in the Mahāyāna. She is not a bhikṣuṇī, yet she possesses profound prajna and surpassing conduct of mind. This sūtra preserves her powerful vow, a declaration of the Buddhadharma as mighty as a lion's roar, symbolizing the unshakable spiritual strength of a Mahāyāna practitioner.
Main Content
This sūtra proclaims several central doctrines of the Mahāyāna Buddhadharma. Princess Śrīmālā pledges to follow the Mahāyāna and trusts that all sentient beings possess buddha-nature, meaning the potential to become Buddhas in the future. This doctrine, called gotra (lineage or disposition), affirms that no one is excluded from the path of awakening.
She declares profound vows to take birth in ordinary realms in order to teach and transform sentient beings, following the bodhisattva ideal. In particular, this sūtra records the princess's commitment to protect the Buddhadharma, to guard against its decline, and to help those with the capacity to study and practice the Mahāyāna.
The sūtra also addresses aspects of the eternal buddha-nature (tathāgatagarbha), a concept that holds that buddha-nature is innately present in every sentient being like a golden seed covered over. Through the cultivation of ethics (śīla), meditative concentration (samādhi), and wisdom (prajñā), this seed will blossom. The sūtra emphasizes that all sentient beings, even those who have committed the gravest offenses, have the capacity to transform and attain buddhahood if they sincerely repent.
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