Samdhinirmocanasutra

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The samdhinirmocanasutra (lit. sutra of deliverance) is the highest of the buddha's sutra teachings. It summarises and explicates all points of contention or controversy which may exist within buddhism or within other traditions. The main chapter is the eighth chapter in which vairocana-shakyamuni buddha lectures to maitreya bodhisattva on the attainment of perfect enlightenment.

The main doctrine in the samdhinirmocanasutra is the doctrine of the three "dharmalakshanas" (lit. modes or characteristics of phenomena). This definitive teaching on the three dharmalakshanas is the most profound of all the buddha's sutra teachings. The three dharmalakshanas are:

1. the parikalpita (lit. imputational) lakshana
2. the paratantra (lit. other-dependent) lakshana and
3. the parinishpanna (lit. thoroughly completed) lakshana.

Briefly, the first represents mundane, conventional (samvrti) phenomena; the second, absolute (paramartha) or transcendent phenomena; and the third, nondual (advaya) phenomena, containing both the mundane and transcendent. Again, the three represent the three turnings of the dharma wheel (dharmacakrapravartana) by the buddh, viz:

1. the first turning comprising the avatamsaka, hinayana, agama (including the lankavatarasutra) and vaipulya teachings (the establishment of mind-only);
2. the second turning comprising the prajnaparamita and vajrayana (the perfection of mind-only) and
3. the third turning comprising the saddharmapundarika, shuramgama, mahaparinirvana and samdhinirmocana sutras (the refinement of mind-only (cittamatra) into cognition-only (vij~naptimatra).

Again, the three lakshanas definitively taught in the samdhinirmocana sutra also have a profound function. That is to say, they represent the three most essential modes of phenemona, viz:

1. the period before birth ie. past lives (the past)
2. the period of life (the present) and
3. the period after death (the future).

The significance of this teaching is so profound that only the brightest aryabodhisattvas and buddha-tathagatas are able to awaken to it. In the maitreya chapter, the buddha succinctly encapsulates the mahayana teaching of shunyata (emptiness) by saying thus: the present (one's present life) and the future (what may come after death) are conventionally supposed to function independent of the past life (the time before this present birth). Buddha says that one must needs purify this past karma in order to realize reality in this present life. Hence, this teaching leads into the inconceivable as the past lives can only be accessed via the abhij~nas (supernatural cognition) which is the reserve of spiritual adepts like rshis, bodhisattvas and tathagatas.

Buddha always says that in order to realize immortality, one must eliminate life. having eliminated life, one sees that before this present life and after same, there is simply a beginningless and endless void of time which is inconceivable to conceptual thought. Having come to realize this, one can subsequently begin to recreate life which has been forsaken, thereby filling this infinite void past and future with this one present life. thereby one attains immortality. The buddha's teaching is deep, very deep, profound and inconceivable.

In addition, the three lakshanas also represent the three yanas (buddhist careers), viz:

1. the shravakayana - conventional Buddhism
2. the pratyekabuddhayana - transcendent esoteric Buddhism
3. the buddhayana - universal Buddhism