Early Explanations for the Appearance of Mahāyāna sūtras

This presentation argues that the authors of these texts shared a general understanding that the Buddha revealed them to advanced bodhisattvas during his lifetime and appointed them with the task of returning to the world five hundred years later to reveal and spread them. It also considers the ideas that these texts were revealed in meditation or dreams, and that they were revealed by the pratibhāṇa, or inspired speech, of śrāvakas.