Mahayana Sutras

Nicholas Weeks

Nicholas Weeks

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There are a few threads on individual Sutras already, but I thought to give more examples & links within this thread.

This one of many that Rulu has translated at this site:

http://www.sutrasmantras.info/sutra18.html

This one deals with Ālaya, the eighth consciousness, though the term is not used.

Rulu also has several books in print filled with Sutras and comments & notes - very good source for Mahayana.
 
What are the other seven?
 
Thanks for the link, useful.

I like to read sutras and other texts, but for the sake of those not so inclined, to lower the bar and to get a discussion going, can you summarize?
 
Cino said:
Thanks for the link, useful.

I like to read sutras and other texts, but for the sake of those not so inclined, to lower the bar and to get a discussion going, can you summarize?
Click to expand...

Not now - busy. Suggest those who read some of link ask specific questions. Also make use of Internet Search capabilities. I am no expert.
 
A new translation of the Vimalakirti Sutra from the Sanskrit that was lost until found in 1999. Here are some of the reviews:

https://mangalampress.org/vimalikirtinirdesa-reviews/

Janet Gyatso, Hershey Professor of Buddhist Studies, Harvard University:

It is pure delight to welcome this long-awaited and definitive translation of one of the greatest Buddhist classics of all time. With the recent discovery of the lost Sanskrit text in Tibet, Gomez and Harrison have been able to produce an eloquently lucid and at the same time critically erudite rendition of the wonderful teaching of Vimalakīrti. This hugely influential sūtra anticipated many extraordinary developments in both theory and practice across Buddhist Asia, including Zen and Tantra, and is a riveting read for students, scholars, and the general reader alike.
 
Cino said:
What are the other seven?
Click to expand...
The first five consciousness are the sensory consciousnesses--visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, and gustatory.
The sixth consciousness is the intellect.
The Seventh consciousness is the "I-making" consciousness, prone to fallacy.
The Eighth consciousness, Alaya, is the "storehouse consciousness" where habits and other karmic stuff are stored.
The strategy is to have the sixth consciousness purify the fallacies of the seventh consciousness.
 
A comment by the main disciple of Nagarjuna on the Heart Sutra:

Aryadeva [fl. 250] says, "Prajnaparamita is the name of the dharma-kaya, the body that is neither born nor destroyed, that neither comes nor goes, that has the dimensions of emptiness, that is changeless, that fills the entire universe and includes all things and yet fits inside a mustard seed or a mote of dust, and for which metaphors fail."

Quoted in Red Pine's The Heart Sutra.
 
A large sangha of bodhisattvas planned to visit our realm to praise Sakyamuni Buddha. The Padmanetra Buddha in their realm warned them that our Endurance realm was not as sacred & holy as theirs -- so be careful He said in Ratnamegha Sutra 1.23-24:

"Once you are in that realm, be careful. Why? Because among the beings of that realm desire, anger, and dullness are rife. They have no regard for mendicants and no regard for brahmins. They have no concern for their fathers, no concern for their mothers. Numerous are their wishes that run counter to the Dharma. They are spiteful, savage, and malicious. They are impudent and haughty, easily carried away, and full of craving. They are lazy, unkind, and evil. They are tied down by envy and miserliness and suffer from an abundance of afflictions. It is among such beings that Sakyamuni thus-gone one teaches the Dharma.”

“Blessed One,” replied the bodhisattvas, “teaching the Dharma among such sentient beings is a tremendous feat displayed by Sakyamuni thus-gone one.”

“Yes, it is,” the Blessed One Padmanetra agreed. “Noble children, teaching the Dharma among such sentient beings is indeed a tremendous feat displayed by that thus-gone one. Moreover, noble children, when sentient beings within such a world of rampant afflictions give rise to just a single virtuous mind state then they also display a tremendous feat. Why? Well, what would be amazing about finding pure beings in pure worlds? On the other hand, it is indeed a wonder when anyone in a world of rampant afflictions is able, ever so briefly, to engender faith, or go for refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha, or purely observe discipline. However, it is an even greater wonder if, even for just a moment, they can attain a mind free from desire. Still, the greatest wonder of all is if they can briefly develop compassion and give rise to the mind of unexcelled and complete awakening.”

“The Blessed One is amazing!” the bodhisattvas responded. “The Thus-Gone One Sakyamuni is amazing!”
 
Mahayana Buddhism seems to have a complex and meticulously arranged vocabulary for talking about what constitutes a person. I was just reading about all skandhas - the Five Aggregates. Consciousness is one of them. It has further divisions (as others have pointed out here)!
 
Here is the Summary of the latest sutra from the 84000 project - Questions of Layman Viradatta:

While the Buddha is residing in Anāthapiṇḍada’s pleasure garden in
Śrāvastī with a great assembly of monks, elsewhere in Śrāvastī the eminent
householder Vīradatta hosts a meeting with five hundred householders to
discuss certain questions regarding the practice of the Great Vehicle.
Hoping to resolve these questions, Vīradatta and the householders decide to
approach the Buddha in Anāthapiṇḍada’s pleasure garden. There the
Buddha explains how bodhisattvas should engender the spirit of great
compassion while not being attached to the body or to enjoyments, and he
then instructs the householders on how bodhisattvas should examine the
impermanence and impurity of the body. This prose teaching is followed by
a set of verses that reiterate how the body is impure and impermanent and
that elucidate the process of karma and its effects. As a result of this
teaching, Vīradatta and the five hundred householders attain the acceptance
that phenomena are unborn. They then proclaim, in a well-known series of
verses, the merits of aspiring for the awakening to buddhahood. The Buddha
smiles, predicting that Vīradatta and the five hundred householders will
attain spiritual awakening. The sūtra concludes with the Buddha telling
Ānanda about the name of this Dharma discourse.
 
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