This is a translation of the first of four volumes of the Mah?y?na version of the Mah?parinirv??a-s?tra, one of the most revered and influential Buddhist texts in East Asia. It is based on the Chinese translation by the Indian monk Dharmak?ema from a Sanskrit text of which only fragments remain. Not to be confused with an early Buddhist sutra of the same name, the Nirvana Sutra is most famous for its doctrine of the "buddha-nature” as universally present in all living beings.