Dharma Wheel

I think there are different stages. In "Nagarjuna in Context" (p.23) it says that the earliest known sutras (translated by Lokaksema) rarely refer to mahayana, hinayana and bodhisattvayana, it is more about doctrinal-practical differences rather than sectarian. I can't remember where I rea...

There is only one type of inferior tradition in Buddhism and that is what another tradition imagines to be so. Buddhism per definition is the path to liberation, no matter what tradition. Shingon (and Tendai, another Japanese school that maintains an esoteric tradition) are different from Tibetan Va...

In Jiang Wu's "Enlightenment in Dispute" there is a brief discussion of the situation of ordination in Ming times. Since the 14th century it's been under control by the central government, restricting full ordination to 40 by county and 20 by town. In the early 16th century the ordination ...

Discussion regarding the differences in ordination and precepts: http://dharmawheel.net/viewtopic.php?f=69&t=11532

If you consider Tantra your primary interest you can find Tibetan Vajrayana sources plenty in English. Shingon is a different matter and to pursue it you would soon find the need to learn Japanese because of the lack or English resources, not to mention ordination in Japan. Learning to read the cano...

Sara, What I meant is that in Japan the full Vinaya ordination does not exist among indigenous Buddhist schools. It is another thing that married clergy is a common practice, but Zen traditions also have training monasteries where celibacy is upheld. However, celibacy (brahmacarya) in itself doesn't...

What precepts do you mean? Lay precepts are for life, bodhisattva precepts are until buddhahood, monastic precepts are for life. What you can give back are the monastic (Vinaya) precepts, but to be re-ordained it takes the community to approve it. Otherwise you don't lose the other vows. You can do ...

zangskar wrote:Buddhistdoor's Buddhism in a nutshell is here: http://wfcs.buddhistdoor.com/OldWeb/bdo ... /index.htm
Best wishes, Lars

Big thanks to you!

Here's the link to the Tiantai panjiao system: Classification of Teaching.

What you mean is how to produce high quality translations that contain the necessary references and such to make understanding easier. I assume that those who can read any canonical language also have at least a basic knowledge of their contents, so the translations made are acceptable. As an exampl...

While the most favoured Sutras have been translated already, as you mentioned, I can't help but thinking it would be a tremendous resource to have the complete Mahayana Canon available in English. Perhaps once translated Sutras seen as obscure long ago will have a new relevance in the modern period...

Who was the main formulator of the Tian Tai system,and where can I read about him in English? He was Zhiyi . There isn't much you can read in English unfortunately, and the "Buddhism in a Nutshell" series on BuddhistDoor.com has been removed and I can't find any copy of it (it had a nice ...

It seems to be that while Tibetan Buddhism followers tend to focus on shastras in translation, from Chinese most of the important Mahayana sutras have been translated already. For instance, all the sutras used in Korean novice training are available in English, although not the commentaries. There a...

LOL If we're ever going to propose a Mahayana Sutra translation project to sponsors we need to figure out people's favourites, right? :rolling: Since people here can read English but only very few knows canonical languages there is a big chance that all the favourite sutras are already translated, ...

In Chan there is no categorisation of definitive and interpretable sutras, however, there are a couple of scriptures that are used to represent the common view of Mahayana according to their position. Although Tiantai claims the Lotus and the Nirvana Sutras as the final teachings of the Buddha, I've...

Complete Enlightenment Sutra

Vimalakirti Sutra

Diamond Sutra

(are you making statistics?)

The Digha, Majjhima and Samyutta Nikaya were among my first Buddhist books in English, and I'm working on obtaining the Anguttara. I haven't read them from beginning to end as I usually read suttas by topic. The Satipatthana Sutta (in "Heart of Buddhist Meditation" by Nyanaponika) was a te...

This might be your personal position or that of Mahayana scholars. But it's not the position of the Drikung Kagyu lineage. Or any Kagyu or Dzogchen lineage for that matter. Awareness of awareness is beyond the mind. Here are a few quotes from you from Dzogchen instructions. "For a person of be...

Thanks, very clear. How does awareness of awareness fit into the above? The friend of mine who suggested I try Gangshar's vivid awareness said that this is what Gangshar is talking about: to be aware of awareness itself. Which doesn't negate objects, but doesn't attend to them either. One attends t...

Apologies for getting a bit analytical. I'm trying to avoid doing something that feels like vivid awareness, but is not. To do this, I need to know if I'm on the right track. Let's say there are two main types of awareness: awareness of objects (physical and mental) and pure awareness (no objects)....

Sara, I said that Japanese schools don't have full monastic ordination (i.e. according to the Vinaya) and not that there are no monasteries. Does the OBC observe the Dharmagupta Vinaya or another one? No Caodong school exists in China as an individual organisation, although there is the Caodong line...