Christopher Wilkinson

The Bodhicitta Sutra Christopher Wilkinson

The Great Perfection, also known as the Atiyoga or Dzogchen (rDzogs chen), is a tradition of esoteric Buddhism that espouses instantaneous enlightenment. This tradition arrived in Tibet in the Eighth Century of the Common Era and has been maintained up until the present. The literature of the Great Perfection has been divided into three groups or sections: The Mind Section (Sems sde), the Space Section (kLong sde), and the Upadesha Instruction Section (Man ngag sde). The Bodhicitta Sutra is a source work of the Mind Section, and is here translated in full for the first time. The Bodhicitta Sutra is famed in Tibetan literature as the "Do Chu" (mDo bcu), which means The Ten Sutras. The first of the Ten Sutras is the Bodhicitta Sutra, and the next nine sutras are commentaries on it. There is an eleventh Sutra, which is a discussion of the commentarial tradition active in this work. The complete collection of eleven Sutras is therefore also called both "The Bodhicitta Sutra," and "The Ten Sutras."