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#50 The Message of the Diamond Sutra
>The Layman dropped in at a temple where a priest was giving a public lecture on the Diamond Sutra.
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>When the priest came to the part that says “There is no I and there is no other,” the Layman asked the priest, “About the part that says, ‘There is no I and there is no other,’ who then is lecturing now and who is listening to it?”
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>The priest did not reply, so the Layman said, “I am only a layperson, but I have a rough idea about the teaching involved.”
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>The priest said, “So what are the Layman’s thoughts about it?”
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>The Layman then composed a verse:
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>“There is no I and there is no other.”
How can there be intimacy or estrangement?
I recommend giving up trying to get there by meditation,
But rather, directly seizing the reality at hand.
The message of the Diamond Sutra is:
Nothing is excluded from our experienced world.
From beginning to end,
It inevitably exposes our false identities.
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>Upon hearing this verse, the priest was delighted and expressed his gratitude.
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>Wherever the Layman went, whether it was a place he frequented or was just passing through, his actions were always appropriate to the situation. He was always unpredictable and spontaneous.
^(James Green. The Sayings of Layman P'ang pp. 111-112)
Someone do something unpredictable!
I was just reading this translation of the Heart Sutra and came across a verse "about Shen-kuang" - a footnote says he was "Also known as Hui-ko, the second Patriarch of the Ch'an school of Buddhism in China". I usually see his name written and Huike - the guy that cut off his arm.
>Ten thousand dharmas return to one,
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>The one returns to unity
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>Shen-kuang didn’t understand,
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>And ran after Bodhidharma; before
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>Him by Bear Ear Mountain knelt
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>Nine years seeking dharma
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>To escape King Yama
King Yama is the 'king of hell'.
This is part of the commentary on the second part of the first sentence of the text, which reads:
>When Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva was practicing the profound prajna paramita, he illuminated the five skandhas and saw that they are all empty, and he crossed beyond all suffering and difficulty.
The five skandhas are form, sensation, perception, mental formations, and consciousness.
There's a great verse for that line also:
>The three lights shine everywhere, permeating the three forces.
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>The one returns to the place of union, yet the one comes forth again.
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>See that form is emptiness and that feeling is the same way;
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>False thoughts are the shifting currents, while formation is the arranger of karma;
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>With consciousness, which understands differences, the five shadows are completed.
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>Mirror-flowers and water-moon, beyond defiling dust:
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>Emptiness not empty—the great function of clarity;
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>Vision is yet not a view—happiness indeed!
All the threes brought to mind counting, and the phrase "In front three by three, in back three by three."
The commentary talks about the three lights being the sun, moon and stars, but also the three lights of wisdom: "...the light of the prajna of language, the light of the prajna of contemplative illumination, and the light of the prajna of the characteristic of actuality." It names the three forces as "heaven, earth, and humanity."
The commentator does seem a little opinionated and bossy to me, but ymmv :)
The body of the translation is short enough to repeat here:
>When Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva was practicing the profound prajna paramita, he illuminate
... keep reading on reddit ➡El complejo de inferioridad Latino Americano es una realidad que todos los Latinos se niegan a aceptar. Siempre desde que tengo memoria, mi abuela, residente de los Estados Unidos, me consentía con productos tales como juguetes y ropa de este país. Ella argumentaba que los productos eran de "mejor calidad" y me lo llegué a creer en su momento. Sin embargo, a medida que fui creciendo y empecé a analizar mis alrededores, me di cuenta de que tal pensamiento no era del todo cierto. Todos aquí sabemos que la mayoría de las cosas que consumimos vienen de China, osea productos importados. Por lo tanto, todo lo que diga "made in China" viene de ese país por lo cual, pensé ¿Porque los productos de "pierden calidad" si vienen del mismo país? No hay razón para pensar que lo que se vende en un país latino, por ejemplo México, vale menos que lo de un país de primer mundo. Está idea errónea de que "El latino vale menos" se ha sentado en la cultura de ciertos países en cuanto a, vaya la redundancia, cultura se refiere. Esté pensar se extiende, por ejemplo, al medio audiovisual en el que en muy contadas ocasiones, ya sea una película, corto o serie, Latino Americana es reconocida por medios internacionales o globales, lo cual refuerza esa idea. No obstante, eso no significa que todo lo que se hace en Latino America es oro, ahí está el cine Méxicano y las playeras pirata de los mercados callejeros. Hay que apreciar las buenas obras Latino Americanas como la peli Metegol, la película perdida Sabel, los grandes poetas y escritores, tales como Octavio Paz y Gabriel García Marquéz. Latino America es rica en cultura y arte, solo falta apoyarlo, estoy consciente de que es difícil por los pinches gobiernos corruptos, sin embargo, si algo se hace con cariño, esfuerzo y amor al arte, una obra Latino Americana puede superar a un Holywood cansado.
Hi everyone,
Can you please recommend any good resources for reading sutras online? I'd also appreciate any recommendation for a good podcasts on the topic or audio library of sutras being read.
Thank you and all the best.
Naručena sam sutra za drugu dozu ali je praznik pa ne znam hoće li uopće biti cijepljenja. Tražim po netu ali ne nalazim informacije. Nazvala bi ali ne znam točno tko bi mogao znati, liječnik opće prakse ili epidemiološka služba moje županije?
I came across the Lankavatara Sutra today, and it seemed to contradict so many things that I know about Buddhist teachings.
For example, phrases like: ‘These who perform such evil actions go to the most terrible of the hells. In fierce hells such as Raurava the actions of those who devour meat bear fruit.' (Please correct me if I'm wrong).
and
"Both of these evil acts bear fruit in the fires of hells such as Raurava." (referring to both killing for meat and requesting for meat)
I've been told what we eat don't really matter, but why is that so when it states that the Buddha had such strong feelings about it?
Please let me know if it is inappropriate, and I'm definitely not trying to take any sides. I'm completely neutral and just very worried.
“Dear people, only the great enlightened teachers can presume to knock down the buddhas an patriarchs, judge the rights and wrongs of the world, repudiate and set aside the scriptural teachings, and rebuke and insult all you little ones.”
Now I don’t think Linji would have said that if “the mind is Buddha” means that we’re all enlightened.
“The scriptural teachings are all openly revealed explainations, but students do not understand them.”
I think he was referring to r/zen with this one
So I had a conversation with someone earlier today and she said there is a mantra to chant whenever we delete Buddha images (online or from our phone) and for sutras even though it’s a PDF format.
She said she has been given a mantra by a Rinpoche and it is an esoteric mantra. The Rinpoche information is only on one Chinese webpage, none on any other languages webpages.
I disagree with the given mantra because:
- I feel that there is no harm in deleting images and PDF sutras. I delete them because I no longer have space on my phone or that I have finished reading them. Not because I “hate” or dislike them.
- I don’t think it’s a legit source.
- I have not heard of this from my teachers across several traditions. I have only heard of the physical disposal methods.
- I don’t think we should complicate our lives further with new procedures.
If anyone needs the mantra to verify, you can DM me. I don’t wish to share it here because I don’t think it’s legit.
Opinions from the sub pls.
Mi maturanti bi bili zahvalni❤
Podrška Frelenserima !!!
"Obezbedite nam internet ispred skupštine da možemo da radimo!"
Udruženje radnika na internetu bori se za poboljšanje uslova rada radnika na internetu kroz definisanje njihovog radnopravnog i poreskopravnog statusa i prilagođavanje sistema poreza i doprinosa njihovim specifičnim potrebama.
Predstavnici Udruženja radnika na internetu (frilenseri) kampuju i jutros ispred Doma Narodne skupštine u Beogradu, gde su postavili šatore, ali su u međuvremenu oslobodili kolovoznu traku za saobraćaj.
https://preview.redd.it/gbbtv7o5zwr61.jpg?width=526&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a45b4aa93bc1788ffe80c21c55e599f29a3eb514
Primarno pitam jer me zanima bi li vam taj novac bio dovoljan da si poslozite zivot tako da do kraja zivota ste financijski neovisni i ne morate raditi vise nikada za nekog drugoga.
I čisto iz znatiželje, bilo bi super ako možete uz odgovor dodati i svoju dob.
Hello everyone.
I'm beggining at Buddhism, and I'd like to know what is the first Sutra I should read, I'd be thankful.
Also, if you know about a link to read it online would help a lot.
Thank you very much 🙏
I've been reading the Lotus sutra lately, and I've sort of become enamored with the imagery, the vast cosmic scope of it all, as well as the stories and allegories. It's a beautiful symbolic drama. A grand mythic tale about you, me and about everything. I'm still trying to make sense of it all, and I suspect that, since it's really one great upaya, the sutra is meant to be fluid and to be open to different, perhaps infinite, interpretations.
So, with this mind, I was just wondering...what does the Lotus sutra mean to you?
Edit: Thanks for sharing your perspectives everyone!
Hello everyone. I've recently begun learning about Buddhism. I have read much about it by now but from modern teachers who refer to the suttas/sutras, not from the texts themselves. I would love to read them but it has been so difficult to find a reliable source that explains what exactly I'm looking at. Most of the websites that I've been able to find seem to have scattered collections that are organized in a way that only confuse me more. There are so many different volumes and abbreviations and subsections that the websites use that I just feel lost. It seems like they are designed for people who already know what to look for.
Do you guys have any sources I can look into, or even books I can buy that offer me a reading guide for searching the texts in a way that newcomers can digest?
Edit: Thank you all so much for the replies
