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The Sutra on the Threefold Wonderful Awareness of the Great Beings
The Sutra of the Eight Realizations of Great Beings, translated by Master An Thế Cao at the beginning of the 3rd century in Luoyang, is based on the Eight Mindfulnesses Sutra in the Ekottarāgama (volume 37, sutra 6) and the Aṅguttaranikāya (8.30). It has been rendered into the Mahayana tradition with skillful language, adding terms such as Bodhisattva, Mahayana, and Dharma body. The original Āgama text only lists eight terms (non-desire, knowing enough, seclusion, diligence, mindfulness, concentration, wisdom, non-argumentation), while Master An Thế Cao’s translation preserves the full content and also adds four new points on non-discriminative giving, generating the Mahayana mind, eloquence, and non-argumentation.
List of the eight realizations in the Sutra of the Eight Realizations of Great Beings (according to Master An Thế Cao’s translation):
- 1 – Mindfulness, Concentration, Wisdom: contemplating impermanence, suffering, non-self, and emptiness in order to give rise to mindfulness, concentration, and insight
- 2 – Non-Desire: the more desires, the more suffering; with few desires, body and mind are at ease
- 3 – Knowing Enough: knowing what is enough, being content in poverty while maintaining the Way, “only insight is our career”
- 4 – Diligence: diligently practicing the Way, transforming afflictions, subduing the four kinds of Māras, escaping the prison of the five aggregates and the three realms
- 5 – Broad Learning & Eloquence: learning widely to transform delusion, develop insight, attain eloquence in teaching without engaging in idle debate
- 6 – Giving & Non-Discrimination: giving equally to those we dislike and those we love, letting go of past wrongs, not hating evil people
- 7 – Seclusion: in the world but not of the world, living in the world without being stained by worldly pleasures; the three robes and alms bowl are Dharma instruments
- 8 – Mahayana Mind: birth and death are like a house on fire; generating the Mahayana mind to universally save all beings, taking on suffering in order to bring everyone to great joy
