Suvarṇa-prabhāsottama Sūtra

‘The Sutra of Golden Light’. An important Mahāyāna sūtra that emphasizes the cosmic aspect of the Buddha's nature and describes him as omnipresent in all phenomena. The text contains the famous story of how the Buddha out of compassion (karuṇā) once sacrificed his body to a hungry tigress. The sūtra was influential in Japan, particularly during the Nara period, due to the political implications of its teaching that the Dharma transcends the division between church and state.

A Dictionary of Buddhism, Oxford University Press, 2003, 2004 (which is available in electronic version from answer.com)