The Questions of Shrimati the Brahmin Woman

This sutra, The Questions of Shrimati the Brahmin Woman (Skt. Śrīmatībrāhmaṇīparipṛcchā; Tib. བྲམ་ཟེ་མོ་དཔལ་ལྡན་མས་ཞུས་པ།, Wyl. bram ze mo dpal ldan mas zhus pa) presents a dialogue between the Buddha Shakyamuni and a brahmin woman called Shrimati whom he encounters while collecting alms in the city of Varanasi. Inspired by the Buddha’s majestic and graceful presence, Shrimati inquires about the teaching he gave at nearby Deer Park. In response, the Buddha reprises the teaching on how the twelve links of dependent origination lead to suffering and how their cessation leads to the end of suffering. Shrimati then asks about the nature of ignorance, the first of the twelve links. The Buddha offers a profound response and raises the distinction between ultimate truth and conventional teaching. At this, Shrimati makes the aspiration that she too may turn the many wheels of Dharma just as the Buddha has done. The Buddha then smiles and prophesies her eventual awakening. The sutra concludes with the Buddha describing Shrimati’s virtuous deeds in past lives, in which she had venerated each of the six previous buddhas.

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The Tibetan translation of this sutra can be found in the General Sutra section of the Tibetan Dergé Kangyur, Toh 170

• English translation: The Questions of Śrīmatī the Brahmin Woman