Mahayana Sutras

Nagarjuna Bodhisattva in his Treatise on the Ten Bodhisattva Grounds reminds us to cool our censorious tendencies:

If one assesses inward qualities on the basis of externals
and hence develops an attitude of slighting condescension,
one brings ruin on oneself as well as on one’s own roots of goodness
so that, at the end of one’s life, one falls into the wretched destinies.

As for the places to which someone else’s mind proceeds,
one may be mistaken about them, for they are hard to know.
Therefore one must not make false assessments
with regard to any being.

It is only someone possessed of all-knowledge
who can fully know their minds’ states
and the subtle, secret places to which they may proceed.
Hence, with regard to judging other beings,

the Buddha said, “It is only those who are my equals
who can pass judgment on other beings.”
If the Buddha himself spoke in this manner,
who then could have the ability to pass judgment on others?
 
With the full moon this evening, we mark the celebration of the Buddha's birth, awakening, and parinirvāṇa, known in Tibetan as Saga Dawa Düchen. This offers us all a wonderful opportunity to remember the Buddha with joyful practice!

We consider 84000’s vision and work to be a unique celebration of the Buddha’s awakening, and on this auspicious day, we are very pleased to release our newest publication: The Perfection of Wisdom in Twenty-Five Thousand Lines.
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https://read.84000.co/translation/toh9.html#toc

Summary:
The Perfection of Wisdom in Twenty-Five Thousand Lines is among the most important scriptures underlying both the “vast” and the “profound” approaches to Buddhist thought and practice. Known as the “middle-length” version, being the second longest of the three long Perfection of Wisdom sūtras, it fills three volumes of the Kangyur. Like the two other long sūtras, it records the major teaching on the perfection of wisdom given by the Buddha Śākyamuni on Vulture Peak, detailing all aspects of the path to enlightenment while at the same time emphasizing how bodhisattvas must put them into practice without taking them‍—or any aspects of enlightenment itself‍—as having even the slightest true existence.
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Nicholas Weeks said:
A good source of books, statues etc

https://www.namsebangdzo.com/Default.asp
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There are some lovely and interesting things here.
My knowledge of Buddhism is mostly at a surface level at this time. I've read enough about world religions to have sort of a broad understanding. There's a Buddhist magazine called Lion's Roar that I got a gift subscription to.

Are you a scholar and/or a practicing Buddhist?
 
A short sutra on four essential factors that bodhisattvas need:

https://read.84000.co/translation/UT22084-066-009.html?#titles

While residing in the Jeta Grove in Śrāvastī, the Buddha explains to an assembly of monks and bodhisattvas four factors of the path that bodhisattvas must not abandon even at the cost of their lives: (1) the thought of awakening, (2) the spiritual friend, (3) tolerance and lenience (which are here counted as one), and (4) dwelling in the wilderness. The sūtra concludes with two verses in which the Buddha restates the four factors and asserts that those who do not relinquish them will attain complete awakening.
 
Another short Sutra on four needed factors for the Path:

https://read.84000.co/translation/UT22084-066-007.html

While Buddha Śākyamuni is residing in the Sudharmā assembly hall in the Heaven of the Thirty-Three, he explains to the great bodhisattva Maitreya four factors that make it possible to overcome the effects of any negative deeds one has committed. These four are: the action of repentance, which involves feeling remorse; antidotal action, which is to practice virtue as a remedy to non-virtue; the power of restraint, which involves vowing not to repeat a negative act; and the power of support, which means taking refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha, and never forsaking the mind of awakening. The Buddha concludes by recommending that bodhisattvas regularly recite this sūtra and reflect on its meaning as an antidote to any further wrongdoing.
 
For innumerable kalpas they [the bodhisattvas] had amassed powerful
aspirations for enlightenment. Their faces were smiling, their words
straightforward; they were never irritated, and they spoke in
musical cadences. Their minds were overwhelmingly brilliant,
and they had ceaseless inner confidence in their knowledge.

They had obtained patient conviction concerning the integral
sameness of all constituents of reality and with their fearlessness
overawed boundless assemblies. They had ways of teaching
across the furthest reaches of ten million kalpas with
a single word. They delighted in seeing how all dharmas are like
illusions, mirages, the moon in water, dreams, and echoes.
Immeasurably fearless was their knowledge, and they fully
understood all the intricacies of behavior and subtle moods of
living beings.

Vast was their virtue, their minds unhindered; they were
without egocentric pride, and were endowed with patience.
Their virtue was like a great wave billowing, and they embraced
all the holy aspirations existing within the limitless array of the
Buddha-fields.


Bhadrakalpika Sūtra, p. 5
 
Some background on the Sutra in 42 Sections the first one translated in China:

In the year of 67 C.E., at the special invitation by Emperor Ming of the
Later Han Dynasty, two Indian Buddhist masters from India,
Kashyapa-matanga and Gobharana, arrived at Luoyang (洛陽), China.
Five years before their arrival, in 62 C.E., Emperor Ming had dreamed
that a golden man flew into his palace. The next day he consulted his
advisor who told the emperor that must be the sage Buddha. In 64 C.E.
a delegation was sent to India to seek the Buddhadharma.
Kashyapa-matanga and Gobharana came with white horses, bearing
precious sutras, Buddha statues, and relics. The emperor built them a
monastery - the very first Buddhist monastery in all of China, aptly
named The White Horse Monastery (白馬寺). There they undertook the
great task of translating The Sutra of Forty-Two Chapters - the first
Buddhist text translated into the Chinese language.
In the Sutra there are aspects of Theravada and Mahayana; expedient
means and ultimate reality; gradual cultivation and sudden
enlightenment. Even more importantly, all of the various teachings in
the Sutra of Forty-Two Chapters are ultimately one single vehicle
pointing to one single goal – enlightenment.
Today one can go on a pilgrimage to the graves of these two great
Buddhist masters in the ancient White Horse Monastery in Luoyang,
China. Generations of Buddhists are forever indebted to Venerable
Kashyapa-matanga and Venerable Gobharana for this monumental
scripture.
 
This Sutra in 42 Sections is only a few pages without commentary and it is not exclusively Mahayana. This link gives a translation of Master Hua's commentary also. The actual sutra text is in bold type.

http://www.cttbusa.org/42sections/42sec_contents.asp

Sutra Preface

When the World Honored One had attained the Way, he thought, "To leave desire behind and to gain calmness and tranquillity is supreme." He abided in deep meditative concentration and subdued every demon and externalist.
In the Deer Park he turned the Dharma-wheel of the Four Noble Truths and took across Ajnata-kaundinya and the other four disciples, who all realized the fruition of the Way.
Then the Bhikshus expressed their doubts and asked the Buddha how to resolve them. The World Honored One taught and exhorted them, until one by one they awakened and gained enlightenment. After that, they each put their palms together, respectfully gave their assent, and followed the Buddha's instructions.
 
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Section 1 [42 Sections Sutra]
Leaving Home and Becoming an Arhat

The Buddha said, "People who take leave of their families and go forth from the householder's life, who know their mind and penetrate to its origin, and who understand the unconditioned Dharma are called Shramanas. They constantly observe the 250 precepts, and they value purity in all that they do. By practicing the four true paths, they can become Arhats."


Master Hua comments:

By practicing the four true paths. The four true paths refer to the Four Noble Truths: suffering, accumulation, cessation, and the Way.
 
Section 2
Eliminating Desire and Ending Seeking

The Buddha said, "Those who have left the home-life and become Shramanas cut off desire, renounce love, and recognize the source of their minds. They penetrate the Buddha's profound principles and awaken to the unconditioned Dharma. Internally they have nothing to attain, and externally they seek nothing. They are not mentally bound to the Way, nor are they tied to karma. They are free of thought and action; they neither cultivate nor attain certification; they do not pass through the various stages, and yet they are highly revered. This is the meaning of the Way."
 
Section 12 of 42 Sections Sutra
A List of Difficulties and an Exhortation to Cultivate

The Buddha said, "People encounter twenty different kinds of difficulties: It is difficult to give when one is poor. It is difficult to study the Way when one has wealth and status. It is difficult to abandon life and face the certainty of death. It is difficult to encounter the Buddhist sutras. It is difficult to be born at the time of a Buddha. It is difficult to be patient with lust and desire. It is difficult to see fine things and not seek them. It is difficult to be insulted and not become angry. It is difficult to have power and not abuse it.

"It is difficult to come in contact with things and have no thought of them. It is difficult to be vastly learned and well-read. It is difficult to get rid of pride. It is difficult not to slight those who have not yet studied. It is difficult to practice equanimity of mind. It is difficult not to gossip. It is difficult to meet a Good and Wise Advisor. It is difficult to see one's own nature and study the Way. It is difficult to teach and save people according to their potentials. It is difficult to see a state and not be moved by it. It is difficult to have a good understanding of skill-in-means."
 
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