Tag Archives: Three Turnings of the Wheel

This series will expound upon a seminal and early text of the Yogācāra school. The Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra (Ārya-saṃdhi-nirmocana-sūtra) actually predates the proclaimed formulators of the Yogācāra school proper, Asanga and his half-brother Vasubandhu. The Sutra is comprised of different parts, the earliest being composed in India during the Second Century AD and its finalized form in the Third. One of the theories, to which I endorse, suggests that the text was written by monks or yogins who comprised exceptional Siddhis-powers and subsequently, (through visualization) inspirationally became the mouthpiece for the Buddha and the Maha-Bodhisattvas who questioned him in the text. According to one of its earliest commentators, Jñānagarbha, Saṃdhinirmocana “means ‘cutting the knots of the afflictive obstructions and the obstructions to omniscience’ through definitely freeing the profound thought [of Buddha]. It is a “sutra” because it is simply a complete statement of what is definite.” (John Powers— Two commentaries on the Samdhinirmocana-Sutra /​ by Asanga and Jnanagarbha, pg.68) read more