The Seven Buddhas

The sutra, The Seven Buddhas (Skt. Saptabuddhaka; Tib. སངས་རྒྱས་བདུན་པ།, Wyl. sangs rgyas bdun pa), opens with the Buddha Shakyamuni residing in an alpine forest on Mount Kailash with a sangha of monks and bodhisattvas. The Buddha notices that a monk in the forest has been possessed by a spirit, which prompts the bodhisattva Akashagarbha to request that the Buddha teach a spell to cure diseases and exorcise demonic spirits. The Buddha then emanates as the set of “seven successive buddhas,” each of whom transmits a dharani to Akashagarbha. Each of the seven buddhas then provides ritual instructions for using the dharani.

There are three versions of text with this title that are included in the General Sūtra Section, Toh 270, the Action Tantra Collection, Toh 512, and the Compendium of Incantations, Toh 852 of the Dergé Kangyur.

Text

The Tibetan translation of this sutra can be found in the General Sutra section of the Tibetan Kangyur, Toh 270

• English translation: The Seven Buddhas