What is the Sūtra of Perfect Enlightenment?
«Viên giác» means perfect, all-round awakening; «liễu nghĩa» means a teaching of definitive meaning rather than a provisional one. The sūtra is a single scroll of the Northern Mahāyāna canon. In the last chapter the Buddha gives it other names — the Great Vaipulya Dhāraṇī of Perfect Enlightenment, the Sūtra of Definitive Meaning, the Samādhi of the Secret King, the Realm of the Tathāgata's Certainty — and calls it «the sudden teaching of the Great Vehicle»: those of quick capacity awaken through it, and those who progress step by step are gathered in as well.
The sūtra opens with the World-Honoured One in deep samādhi, with a hundred thousand great bodhisattvas led by twelve. One by one they rise, bow, circle the Buddha three times, kneel with joined palms and ask; the Buddha praises the question and teaches. Chapters 1 to 11 each close with a verse in which the Buddha restates what he has just taught.
What the twelve chapters cover
Mañjuśrī asks about the pure ground of the Tathāgata's practice; the Buddha says ignorance is like the flowers a person with sore eyes sees in the empty sky — know it is unreal and the drifting ends. Samantabhadra asks how one can practise if body and mind are illusory. Samantanetra asks about the stages of reflection and practice. Vajragarbha asks why there is ignorance if beings have always been Buddhas; the answering verse speaks of gold in ore, which once smelted never turns back into ore. Maitreya asks about saṃsāra, and the bodhisattva Pure Wisdom asks how the realisation of beings, bodhisattvas and the Tathāgata differs.
Majestic Virtue asks about the means of practice; the Buddha names three: śamatha, making stillness the practice; samāpatti, seeing body, mind and world as illusion; and dhyāna, relying on neither illusion nor stillness. Sound Discernment hears of 25 pure wheels of meditation. Purifier of Karmic Hindrances is taught the four marks of self, person, being and life-span. Universal Enlightenment hears about finding a good teacher and the four illnesses to avoid: contriving, letting things drift, stopping and extinguishing. Perfect Enlightenment is shown how to set up a practice place for a period of 120, 100 or 80 days, with bowing to the Buddhas, repentance and the rains retreat. Worthy Leader asks the sūtra's name and how to keep it; at the end vajra deities, Brahmā kings, heavenly kings and ghost kings vow to protect those who keep the sūtra.
Reading and chanting the sūtra
The library's translation runs to about 13,800 words; the reading page estimates some 55 minutes, and chanting aloud takes longer. Each chapter is a complete dialogue, so you can read one or two a day. Open the text, press «Chant» and choose the slow speed; tap the screen to pause at a passage you want to read again.
The library holds the Vietnamese translation only — no Sino-Vietnamese transliteration, recording or download yet. For a passage-by-passage explanation, the two scrolls of the Direct Explanation of the Sūtra of Perfect Enlightenment are also in the library in Vietnamese translation.
