29 Jul 2021
While the Buddha is residing on Vulture Peak Mountain, the bodhisattva Siṃhavikrāntagāmin asks him a series of questions about emptiness and the nondual view in which the dichotomy between subject and object has been left behind. The Buddha responds with a discourse in verse identifying the nature of phenomena as the single principle of emptiness.
Read more »
22 Jul 2021
The Questions of Rāṣṭrapāla is one of the earliest Mahāyāna sūtras and belongs to the Ratnakūṭa collection of the Chinese Tripiṭaka and the Tibetan Kangyur. Among the forty-nine works that constitute this collection, The Questions of Rāṣṭrapāla is one of the few texts for which Indian originals are extant.
Read more »
19 Jul 2021
Applying academic methods to the study and translation of Tibetan Buddhist texts July 19, 2021, Toronto—The University of Toronto’s Department for the Study of Religion has received a grant from global non-profit 84000: Translating the Words of the …
Read more »
15 Jul 2021
The benefits of building stūpas and of honoring them are mentioned in numerous passages in the sūtras and vinaya texts, but this is one of only a small number in which this theme is the principal one.
Read more »
14 Jul 2021
Global non-profit initiative 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha is partnering with the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB) to establish the Buddhist Texts Translation Initiative at the university’s Department of Religious Studies, opening July 2021.
Read more »
8 Jul 2021
In this sūtra, the Buddha Śākyamuni explains the connection between the bodhisattvas’ aspirations and the virtues of their future buddha realms. He describes the various qualities that help bodhisattvas bring their aspirations to fulfillment.
Read more »
1 Jul 2021
Ascertaining the Vinaya: Upāli’s Questions is a sūtra focused on the relationship between and integration of the prātimokṣa vows of monastic discipline and the conduct of a bodhisattva who follows the Mahāyāna tradition.
Read more »
24 Jun 2021
This discourse takes place while the Buddha Śākyamuni is with a large community of monks, along with numerous bodhisattvas. Ten of the bodhisattvas present in the retinue have become discouraged despite exerting themselves for seven years. The bodhisattva Undaunted therefore requests the Buddha to bestow upon them an instruction that will enable them to generate wisdom.
Read more »
19 Jun 2021
The Buddha, while at the Jetavana monastery in Śrāvastī, tells Mañjuśrī of a buddha realm far above the world, in which lives the Buddha Aparimitāyurjñāna. He states that those who recite, write, hear, and so on, the praise of this buddha, or make offerings to this text, will have numerous benefits, including a long life and a good rebirth.
Read more »
17 Jun 2021
In this brief sūtra, the Buddha proclaims the importance of respect for and service to one’s parents. By making use of similes to explain to the assembly of monks how exalted a child’s service to their father and mother is, he proclaims one’s parents worthy of gifts and tender care.
Read more »
