The Anunatva-Apurnatva-Nirdesa, "Instructions on Non-decreasing and Non-increasing", is a short Mahayana text belonging to the tathagatagarbha class of sutras. The scripture is only extant in the Chinese translation by Bodhiruci (6th century) and in quotations from the Ratnagotra-vibhāga, which were translated into English by Stephen Hodge in 2003.
Contents
Nirvana
It presents a teaching, delivered in this text by the Buddha to Sariputra, that nirvana is not utter vacuity or the cessation of being, but is the realm of the tathagatagarbha, the unfabricated, utterly pure and everlasting essence of all creatures and beings.
According to Grosnick, in this sutra:
the Buddha responds to the question of whether there is any increase or decrease in the number of beings transmigrating through the triple world by rejecting the questions as ill-conceived, and then by explicitly attacking the idea that nirvana represents a kind of severance, destruction or non-being (the view of decrease), and the idea that it represents a reality over and above the phenomenal life that arises suddenly without cause (the view of increase).
Tathagatagarbha
The Buddha links the tathagatagarbha to the spotless immaculacy of the "dharmakaya" (the ultimate true nature of the Buddha) and "dharmadhatu" (the all-pervading realm of dharma) and states:
First, the tathagatagarbha is intrinsically conjoined with pure qualities from time without beginning; secondly, the tathagatagarbha is intrinsically not conjoined with impure qualities from time without beginning; and thirdly, the tathagatagarbha is unchanging sameness throughout the future [...] it is veridical and not delusive, a pure reality that is without separation and exclusion from jnana [knowingness, awareness], an inconceivable 'dharma' [entity] that is the dharmadhatu.
This sutra is notable for its doctrinal closeness, regarding the tathagatagarbha, to the "Srimaladevisimhanada Sutra" (commonly known as the "Srimala Sutra").