Vimalakirti and the Awakened Heart

Vimalakirti and the Awakened Heart
Author: Joan Sutherland
Publisher:
Total Pages: 126
Release: 2016-10-07
Genre:
ISBN: 9780991356935

Vimalakirti & the Awakened Heart: A Commentary on The Sutra that Vimalakirti Speaks by Zen teacher Joan Sutherland, Roshi is a timeless meditation on developing a peaceful and generous heart in a world of sorrows, and on how the awakening of each of us is an inextricable part of the awakening of the world. It's the first volume in a collection called Pilgrim's Bundle, handbooks on traditional philosophy, practices, and poetry in a contemporary voice.

Living Skillfully

Living Skillfully
Author: Dale S. Wright
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 177
Release: 2021-11-04
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0197587372

This book offers a contemporary philosophy of life drawing upon Buddhist resources from the Vimalakirti Sutra. Among the major themes in this Mahayana Buddhist scripture is the "skillful means" required to live a healthy and undeluded life. The book adopts that theme as a means of developing a practical approach to contemporary Buddhist life. Following many of the brilliant stories in the sutra, this book attempts to provide clear explanations for the primary Buddhist teachings and the relationships that bind them all together into an inspiring way of living. Among the questions addressed are: who is the Buddha, how is a worldview of change and contingency applicable to current life, what does it mean to claim that there is no permanent self, what are the primary characteristics of an admirable Buddhist life, how is freedom conceived in Buddhism, and how do all of these themes help us address issues that are pressing for us today. Although historical questions do arise in the book, its primary purpose is contemporary and practical, an effort to say clearly how this text helps us stake out a way of living for contemporary, global citizens.

Inconceivable Emancipation

Inconceivable Emancipation
Author: Sangharakshita
Publisher: Windhorse Publications
Total Pages: 172
Release: 2013-10-23
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1909314307

Mahayana Buddhism emphasizes the ideal of the Bodhisattva, one who seeks to become Enlightened out of a compassionate desire to help all living beings. In the Vimalakirti-Nirdesa we meet the Bodhisattva Vimalakirti, a worker of wonders, a formidable debator and skilful teacher. Sangharakshita's commentary illuminates this original text, its myths and symbols, and explores the powerful figure of Vimalakirti and the significance of his teachings.

The Essential Lotus

The Essential Lotus
Author: Burton Watson
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 210
Release: 2002
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780231125079

The Lotus Sutra is considered to be the fundamental Mahayana Buddhist sutra and has had a profound impact on Chinese and Japanese literature. This edition condenses the sutra from the most authoritative version.

The Vimalakirti Sutra

The Vimalakirti Sutra
Author:
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 204
Release: 1997
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780231106566

One of the most popular Asian classics for roughly two thousand years, the Vimalakirti Sutra stands out among the sacred texts of Mahayana Buddhism for its conciseness, its vivid and humorous episodes, its dramatic narratives, and its eloquent exposition of the key doctrine of emptiness or nondualism. Unlike most sutras, its central figure is not a Buddha but a wealthy townsman, who, in his mastery of doctrine and religious practice, epitomizes the ideal lay believer. For this reason, the sutra has held particular significance for men and women of the laity in Buddhist countries of Asia, assuring them that they can reach levels of spiritual attainment fully comparable to those accessible to monks and nuns of the monastic order. Esteemed translator Burton Watson has rendered a beautiful English translation from the popular Chinese version produced in 406 C.E. by the Central Asian scholar-monk Kumarajiva, which is widely acknowledged to be the most felicitous of the various Chinese translations of the sutra (the Sanskrit original of which was lost long ago) and is the form in which it has had the greatest influence in China, Japan, and other countries of East Asia. Watson's illuminating introduction discusses the background of the sutra, its place in the development of Buddhist thought, and the profundities of its principal doctrine: emptiness.

LANKAVATARA SUTRA

LANKAVATARA SUTRA
Author: Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki
Publisher: Lulu.com
Total Pages: 354
Release: 2011
Genre:
ISBN: 8799279711

Mahayana Myths and Stories

Mahayana Myths and Stories
Author: Sangharakshita
Publisher: Windhorse Publications
Total Pages: 597
Release: 2017-03-20
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1909314900

Sangharakshita introduces us to the wonderful world of three of the best-loved Mahayana sutras - a world from which we emerge with treasures in the form of teachings and advice that are a great support in how to live our lives in the everyday world. From the transcendental critique of religion and the means of unification offered by the Vimalakirti-nirdesa to the light shed on economics, ecology and politics by the Sutra of Golden Light, these commentaries offer a unique and deeply meaningful perspective on the value of human existence.

Pruning the Bodhi Tree

Pruning the Bodhi Tree
Author: Jamie Hubbard
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Total Pages: 548
Release: 1997-07-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780824819491

What is Buddhism? According to Hakamaya Noriaki and Matsumoto Shiro, the answer lies in neither Ch’an nor Zen; in neither the Kyoto school of philosophy nor the non-duality taught in the Vimalakirti Sutra. Hakamaya contends that “criticism alone is Buddhism.” This volume introduces and analyzes the ideas of “critical Buddhism” in relation to the targets of its critique and situates those ideas in the context of current discussions of postmodern academic scholarship, the separation of the disinterested scholar and committed religious practitioner, and the place of social activism within the academy. Essays critical of the received traditions of Buddhist thought—many never before translated—are presented and then countered by the work of respected scholars, both Japanese and Western, who take contrary positions.