Kalavinka Shastras

Discuss and learn about the traditional Mahayana scriptures, without assuming that any one school ‘owns’ the only correct interpretation.
Nicholas Weeks
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Kalavinka Shastras

Post by Nicholas Weeks »

[EDIT MARCH 27 2011] This link (nor the one a few posts down) no longer works, but Dharmamitra will, in time, make his works available in PDF format at his Kalvinkapress site.

Bhikshu Dharmamitra's ten Dharma translations from Vasubandhu, Nagarjuna, Zhyi etc. are now available in PDF format. These are identical in content to the books. http://ifile.it/t3aqukl" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Last edited by Nicholas Weeks on Sun Mar 27, 2011 7:57 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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Huifeng
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Re: Free Kalavinka Shastra PDFs

Post by Huifeng »

Will wrote:Bhikshu Dharmamitra's ten Dharma translations from Vasubandhu, Nagarjuna, Zhyi etc. are now available in PDF format. These are identical in content to the books.

http://rcpt.yousendit.com/856995711/bd7 ... 6a0574de41" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Clicking the link will take you to the download site. Just click the "Download" button once there in order to get all of them. They come in a ZIP file so you should unzip the file once you download it in order to browse the files.

(To unzip in Windows XP, you right-click on the file and choose the "Extract All..." option, then you click "Next" and then "Finish").
Thanks, Will. I have a whole pile of these, from during the work-in-progress stages, while still being proof-read. These seem to be the published versions. May I inquire as to how you acquired them? Did the Venerable pass them on for broader dissemination?
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Re: Free Kalavinka Shastra PDFs

Post by Huseng »

I like how he includes the Chinese alongside the English. :smile:
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Re: Free Kalavinka Shastra PDFs

Post by Nicholas Weeks »

Huifeng: Thanks, Will. I have a whole pile of these, from during the work-in-progress stages, while still being proof-read.
So do I.
H: These seem to be the published versions.
Correct.
H: May I inquire as to how you acquired them? Did the Venerable pass them on for broader dissemination?
As a gift, unsolicited. Yes.
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Re: Free Kalavinka Shastra PDFs

Post by Huseng »

I'm happy to hear he decided to let them out freely on the net as .pdf files. :smile:

We need more of that.
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Re: Free Kalavinka Shastra PDFs

Post by Astus »

Hail to Ven. Dharmamitra and FREE DHARMA! :applause:
1 Myriad dharmas are only mind.
Mind is unobtainable.
What is there to seek?

2 If the Buddha-Nature is seen,
there will be no seeing of a nature in any thing.

3 Neither cultivation nor seated meditation —
this is the pure Chan of Tathagata.

4 With sudden enlightenment to Tathagata Chan,
the six paramitas and myriad means
are complete within that essence.


1 Huangbo, T2012Ap381c1 2 Nirvana Sutra, T374p521b3; tr. Yamamoto 3 Mazu, X1321p3b23; tr. J. Jia 4 Yongjia, T2014p395c14; tr. from "The Sword of Wisdom"
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Huifeng
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Re: Free Kalavinka Shastra PDFs

Post by Huifeng »

Will wrote:
Huifeng: Thanks, Will. I have a whole pile of these, from during the work-in-progress stages, while still being proof-read.
So do I.
H: These seem to be the published versions.
Correct.
H: May I inquire as to how you acquired them? Did the Venerable pass them on for broader dissemination?
As a gift, unsolicited. Yes.
Thanks, Will, I thought as much. :smile:
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Re: Free Kalavinka Shastra PDFs

Post by Nicholas Weeks »

Note the new URL, http://ifile.it/t3aqukl" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; in the first post; the old one expired.
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Re: Free Kalavinka Shastra PDFs

Post by Nicholas Weeks »

Just a reminder of which shastras Dharmamitra Bhikshu translated and are available in print & PDF forms. For the free PDFs see the ifile.it URL above.
The Current Kalavinka Press Title List:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Meditation Instruction Texts:

The Essentials of Buddhist Meditation
By Shramana Zhiyi (Chih-i) - (538-597 ce)

The Six Dharma Gates to the Sublime
By Shramana Zhiyi (Chih-i) - (538-597 ce)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bodhisattva Path Texts:

Nagarjuna's Guide to the Bodhisattva Path
The Bodhisambhara Shastra with Abridged Vasitva Commentary
By Arya Nagarjuna (ca 2nd century)

The Bodhisambhara Treatise Commentary
The Sole Extant Commentary on Nagarjuna's Bodhisambhara Shastra
By the early Indian monk, Bhikshu Vasitva (ca 300-500 ce).

Nagarjuna on the Six Perfections
By Arya Nagarjuna

A Strand of Dharma Jewels
The Earliest Edition of Nagarjuna's Ratnavali
By Arya Nagarjuna

Letter from a Friend
The Three Earliest Editions of Nagarjuna's Suhrllekha
By Arya Nagarjuna

Marvelous Stories from the Perfection of Wisdom
As told by Arya Nagarjuna
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Resolve-for-Enlightenment / Bodhicitta Texts:

On Generating the Resolve to Become a Buddha
Three Works on Bodhicitta. By Arya Nagarjuna, Patriarch Sheng'an Shixian, and the Tang literatus, Peixiu.

Vasubandhu's Treatise on the Bodhisattva Vow
By Vasubandhu Bodhisattva (ca 300 ce)
Last edited by Nicholas Weeks on Fri Aug 20, 2010 3:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Sherab
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Re: Free Kalavinka Shastra PDFs

Post by Sherab »

Astus wrote:Hail to Ven. Dharmamitra and FREE DHARMA! :applause:
I second that. :bow:
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Re: Kalavinka Shastra PDFs

Post by Nicholas Weeks »

Dharmamitra's next project, karma willing, will be Nagarjuna's Dasabhumika Vibhasa. He is over halfway through translating that work. Also there is a revision of Zhiyi's basic meditation manual in the works.
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Re: Kalavinka Shastras

Post by Nicholas Weeks »

The four new translations on the left are English only, those on the right are bi-lingual or tri-lingual. These will be available to the public in a month or so. Details will follow:

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Re: Kalavinka Shastras

Post by Nicholas Weeks »

You may not be able to judge a book by its cover, but this picture (blow up if need be) shows the contents in general:

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Könchok Thrinley
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Re: Kalavinka Shastras

Post by Könchok Thrinley »

Oh nice! I was looking for some of these works by Nagarjuna! Perfect, cannot wait for further updates! :woohoo:
“Observing samaya involves to remain inseparable from the union of wisdom and compassion at all times, to sustain mindfulness, and to put into practice the guru’s instructions”. Garchen Rinpoche

For those who do virtuous actions,
goodness is what comes to pass.
For those who do non-virtuous actions,
that becomes suffering indeed.

- Arya Sanghata Sutra
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Re: Kalavinka Shastras

Post by Queequeg »

Great! Was wondering when new stuff might come out.
There is no suffering to be severed. Ignorance and klesas are indivisible from bodhi. There is no cause of suffering to be abandoned. Since extremes and the false are the Middle and genuine, there is no path to be practiced. Samsara is nirvana. No severance achieved. No suffering nor its cause. No path, no end. There is no transcendent realm; there is only the one true aspect. There is nothing separate from the true aspect.
-Guanding, Perfect and Sudden Contemplation,
Nicholas Weeks
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Re: Kalavinka Shastras

Post by Nicholas Weeks »

In addition to the Nagarjuna shastras, there is also the Ten Grounds Sutra. One translated by Siksananda & one by Kumarajiva, either English-only or Chinese-Sanskrit-English.
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Re: Kalavinka Shastras

Post by Nicholas Weeks »

The new translations are now up at Amazon. Search for Kalavinka Press to see the new Chinese-Skt-English versions of several titles. Also the new Ten Grounds Sutra versions, one by Kumarajiva & one by Shiksananda. Both of these also have PL Vaidya's Sanskrit in appendices.

The smaller Buddha mindfulness book has three methods, with differing purposes. It is also a valuable text.
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Re: Kalavinka Shastras

Post by Nicholas Weeks »

For those who do not read Chinese, nor Sanskrit, (nor wish to learn) the two fat volumes of Nagarjuna's Treatise on the Ten Bodhisattva Grounds can be ignored.

There is also a one volume English only version. With a very comprehensive outline of contents, Glossary & Notes over 700 pages, but radiant with good Mahayana!
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Re: Kalavinka Shastras

Post by Nicholas Weeks »

A little background on the translator:
I owe an immense debt of gratitude to the members of the
liver care and transplant teams at Seattle’s University of Washington
Medical Center who cured me of liver cancer in 2010, gave me a liver
transplant several months later, and finally cured me of hepatitis C in
the winter of 2014–15. Without their wonderfully attentive and compassionate
care along with the marvelous generosity of an anonymous
liver donor, I would have died a half dozen years ago and thus never
could have completed the scriptural translations I have produced in
the last eight years.
Bhikshu Dharmamitra (ordination name “Heng Shou” – 釋恆授) is a
Chinese-tradition translator-monk and one of the earliest American
disciples (since 1968) of the late Guiyang Ch’an patriarch, Dharma
teacher, and pioneer of Buddhism in the West, the Venerable Master
Hsuan Hua (宣化上人). He has a total of 34 years in robes during
two periods as a monastic (1969‒1975 & 1991 to the present).
Dharmamitra’s principal educational foundations as a translator
of Sino-Buddhist Classical Chinese lie in four years of intensive
monastic training and Chinese-language study of classic Mahāyāna
texts in a small-group setting under Master Hsuan Hua (1968–1972),
undergraduate Chinese language study at Portland State University,
a year of intensive one-on-one Classical Chinese study at the Fu Jen
University Language Center near Taipei, two years of course work
at the University of Washington’s Department of Asian Languages
and Literature (1988–90), and an additional three years of auditing
graduate courses and seminars in Classical Chinese readings, again
at UW’s Department of Asian Languages and Literature.
Since taking robes again under Master Hua in 1991, Dharmamitra
has devoted his energies primarily to study and translation of
classic Mahāyāna texts with a special interest in works by  rya
Nāgārjuna and related authors. To date, he has translated more
than fifteen important texts comprising approximately 150 fascicles,
including most recently the 80-fascicle Avataṃsaka Sūtra (the
“Flower Adornment Sutra”), Nāgārjuna’s 17-fascicle Daśabhūmika
Vibhāśa
(“Treatise on the Ten Grounds”), and the Daśabhūmika Sūtra
(the “Ten Grounds Sutra”), all of which are current or upcoming
Kalavinka Press publications.
May all seek, find & follow the Path of Buddhas.
Nicholas Weeks
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Re: Kalavinka Shastras

Post by Nicholas Weeks »

Part of the Introduction to new book - Nāgārjuna on Mindfulness of the Buddha:
In this volume I present Ārya Nāgārjuna’s explanations of three
closely related but rather different “mindfulness-of-the-Buddha”
practices that are sometimes mistaken for each other:

“Mindfulness of the Buddha” as Pure land practice;
“Mindfulness of the Buddhas” as cultivation of the “seeing-the-Buddhas” (pratyutpanna) samādhi;
and “Recollection of the Buddha” as a protective practice.

In order to facilitate the clear understanding of the first two of
these three topics, I present exemplary chapters from Nāgārjuna’s
Treatise on the Ten Grounds, and, to distinguish and clarify the final
topic, I present a long passage from Nāgārjuna’s Exegesis on the Great Perfection of Wisdom Sutra.

In his Treatise on the Ten Grounds, a third of the way through his
discussion of the first bodhisattva ground, Nāgārjuna explains the
“pure land” practice that involves reverential devotion to and invocation
of the name of a particular buddha with the aim of achieving
irreversibility on the bodhisattva path with the option of gaining
rebirth in that buddha’s purified buddha world. It is my translation
of that single-chapter discussion, “The Easy Practice” (Chapter 9)
that constitutes the first section of this book.

Later in that same text, in the final third of his discussion of the
first bodhisattva ground, Nāgārjuna explains in great detail how
to engage in “mindfulness of the Buddhas” practice in such a way
that one may then enter the pratyutpanna samādhi, the samādhi in
which one is able to see the buddhas of the ten directions and listen
to them teach the Dharma. It is my translation of that marvelously
detailed six-chapter discussion of “mindfulness of the Buddhas”
that forms the second section of this book.

Two thirds of the way through the immense (34-fascicle)
“Introduction” to his 100-fascicle Exegesis on the Great Perfection of
Wisdom Sutra
, Nāgārjuna presents a very detailed description of
“the eight recollections” of which the initial subsection is his discussion
of “recollection of the Buddha.” It is my translation of that
discussion that forms the third section of this book.
May all seek, find & follow the Path of Buddhas.
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