Announcements

New Publications: Great Cool Grove

15 Sep 2023

The Sūtra of Great Cool Grove, one of five texts that constitute the Pañcarakṣā scriptural collection, has been among the most popular texts used for pragmatic purposes throughout the Mahāyāna Buddhist world. This sūtra promises protection for the Buddha’s “four communities”‍—monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen‍—against a range of illnesses and obstacles originating from the hosts of spirit entities who reside in remote wilderness retreats.
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New Publications: The Great Amulet

15 Sep 2023

The Noble Queen of Incantations: The Great Amulet, one of five texts that constitute the Pañcarakṣā scriptural collection, has been among the most popular texts used for pragmatic purposes throughout the Mahāyāna Buddhist world. As its title suggests, The Great Amulet prescribes the use of amulets into which the incantation is physically incorporated.
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New Publications: Four Publication of Sitātapatrā

4 Aug 2023

The above four texts from the Kangyur are centered on the goddess Sitātapatrā, the “White Umbrella goddess,” and her dhāraṇī or spell, the practice of which has been widely used in Buddhist traditions over the centuries to avert all sorts of misfortunes, illnesses, and obstacles, and is still popular today. Sitātapatrā was emanated by the Buddha from his uṣṇīṣa while he was in deep meditation in the Heaven of the Thirty-Three. In some of the texts she is identified with other female deities such as Tārā.
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New Publications: The White Lotus of Compassion

21 Jul 2023

The Buddha Śākyamuni recounts one of his most significant previous lives, when he was a court priest to a king and made a detailed prayer to become a buddha, also causing the king and his princes, his own sons and disciples, and others to make their own prayers to become buddhas too. This is revealed to be not only the major event that is the origin of buddhas and bodhisattvas such as Amitābha, Akṣobhya, Avalokiteśvara, Mañjuśrī, and the thousand buddhas of our eon, but also the source and reason for Śākyamuni’s unsurpassed activity as a buddha.
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