#pali canon

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

And what is right speech? Abstaining from lying, from divisive speech, from abusive speech, and from idle chatter: This is called right speech. —Gautama Buddha, Mahācattārīsakasutta, Pāli Canon (c 500 BCE)

[Scott Horton]

[gleaningsinbuddhafields]

An Introduction to Buddhist Sutras

I was inspired to write this post after seeing this joke online on that one social-media site: https://twitter.com/tanaka_tatsuya/status/1861530374968430741?s=53&t=tX_Y4nc8hZKwwENjRcVvzw The joke here is a Japanese-Buddhist monk looking at a receipt from Muji (a Japanese home goods store), and commenting that this “sacred text” shows they purchased a lot.1 This happens to us too. Anyhow, what…

[buddhismnow]

Crossing the Flood.

Crossing the Flood. This sutta uses the metaphor of crossing a dangerous flood (ogha) to represent transcending samsara. https://wp.me/pFy3u-7mo

Crossing the Flood Thus have I heard. On one occasion the Blessed One was dwelling at Savatthi in Jeta’s Grove, Anathapiṇḍika’s Park. Then, when the night had advanced, a certain devatā of stunning beauty, illuminating the entire Jeta’s Grove, approached the Blessed One. Having approached, he paid homage to the Blessed One, stood to one side, and said to him: “How, dear sir, did you cross the…

[theravadin]

hi! as you may know i have just acquired the bhikku nanamoli/bhikku bodhi english translation of the majjhima nikaya! i would like to ask anyone willing to comment on this, what order should i read the suttas in? i was initially going to simply read them from 1 to 152 in the order they are presented in the book, but i also found this study guide which offers perhaps a more coherent/cohesive order in which to progress through the suttas. for anyone who has spent time with these texts, which of these two reading orders would you recommend?

[thejsacco]

Enough Self Improvement

Our world is always imploring us to improve. You need to have a better physique, create some new skills so that you don’t get left behind, improve your relationships, your spirituality, learn a new language, or manage your money better. Here is the thing; the list is endless and 90% of the investment you make reading or taking classes in self improvement is pretty much worthless. Why do we get on…

[bunger-royale]

"Does Master Gotama have any position at all?" "A 'position,' Vaccha, is something that a Tathagata has done away with. What a Tathagata sees is this: 'Such is form, such its origination, such its disappearance; such is feeling, such its origination, such its disappearance; such is perception...such are fabrications...such is consciousness, such its origination, such its disappearance.' Because of this, I say, a Tathagata — with the ending, fading away, cessation, renunciation, & relinquishment of all construings, all excogitations, all I-making & mine-making & obsessions with conceit — is, through lack of clinging/sustenance, released."

-- Aggi-Vacchagotta Sutta: To Vacchagotta on Fire

[robsmooth]

The asier viewing the prophecy were like:

[palilious]

been thinking about Caleb Nomad again

[transgenderer]

Writing my treatise on the fusion of traditional Buddhist ethics and modern liberal sexual mores (in sanskrit, of course): the Poly Canon

[philippequeau]

L’esprit dans l’esprit

“L’esprit dans l’esprit” ©Philippe Quéau (Art Κέω) 2024 Dans un texte du Canon Pali appelé « Le grand discours sur les fondations de l’attentioni », je lus un jour cette question : « Et comment un moine reste-t-il concentré sur l’esprit en lui-même ? » En mon esprit surgit alors une autre question, celle de l’ambiguïté de la question même. S’agit-il pour le moine de se concentrer sur « l’esprit…

[gleaningsinbuddhafields]

Who Dwells In This House?

I’ve been mulling over a certain quotation of Honen (法然, 1133–1212), the 12th century Buddhist monk credited with spreading the Pure Land tradition in Japan, and thus founder of movements such as Jodo-Shu and Jodo-Shinshu: “All of our deeds in the realms of saṃsāra result from ties with the three worldly passions of greed, anger, and ignorance. Understand that when the worldly passions of greed,…

[buddhismnow]

Crossing the Flood.

Crossing the Flood. This sutta uses the metaphor of crossing a dangerous flood (ogha) to represent transcending samsara. https://wp.me/pFy3u-7mo

Crossing the Flood Thus have I heard. On one occasion the Blessed One was dwelling at Savatthi in Jeta’s Grove, Anathapiṇḍika’s Park. Then, when the night had advanced, a certain devatā of stunning beauty, illuminating the entire Jeta’s Grove, approached the Blessed One. Having approached, he paid homage to the Blessed One, stood to one side, and said to him: “How, dear sir, did you cross the…

[cryptidblue1]

You can tell when I have gained or returned to an old hyperfixation by if I go through the effort to make a fan alt in XIV after creating justifications for the main job said alt will have...AND run them through ARR for nth time since I started this stupid MMO.

[thejsacco]

The Perils Of Attachment

Introduction This is a bit longer than my normal posts as the topic of this post is focused on the 2nd Noble Truth “the origin of dukkha” and also touches on the 3rd and 4th Noble truths. For the purposes of this blog post, you can think of craving and attachment as the same thing and will be used interchangeably. Most of my references are from books in the Pali Canon. The Pāli Canon is the…

[apricops]

iirc according to the Pali Canon of Buddhism the Buddha had a big ol hog

no google results for "girthful messiahs"

[talonabraxas]

Vairocana | The Five Wisdom Buddhas Talon Abraxas

Not all Buddhas were considered flesh and blood or walked the earth. The Five Wisdom Buddhas are the Wisdom states as persons. The body of Vairocana is the body of the True Dharma.

The Five Wisdom Buddhas arose during the Mahayana development in India and were taken up by Tantric Buddhism. In Japan they appear in Shingon. These Buddhas differ from the Buddhas who appear in the lineage or who are said to have walked the earth at a certain time in a certain place as they represent principles of Mahayana teaching. They are sometimes called ‘Meditation Buddhas’ to distinguish them and because they may only be encountered in the states of meditation that form their bodies.

Vairocana is called the ‘Sun Buddha’ and is the ‘First’ (Skt. Adi) or ‘Primoridial’ Buddha and sits in the central place of the Five Wisdom Buddhas mandala surrounded by the four other Wisdom Buddhas who sit at the cardinal points. His name in Japanese is Dainichi Nyorai – The Buddha of Universal Illumination. His names and attributes are all connected with light and illumination, rays of life-giving power that initiate, nourish and sustain as the sun does all life on earth.

In Mahayana teaching his body is the Body of the Dharma (Skt. Dharmakaya), and is synonymous with such terms in Zen as ‘True Nature’, ‘True Face’ and ‘Buddha-nature’. His nature is emptiness (Skt. Sunyata), the ‘unborn’ of which the Buddha spoke in the Pali Canon, without which that which is born and created could not come into being.

Vairocana first appeared in the Brahmajala Sutra, a 5th Century manuscript written in Sanskrit and translated into Chinese by Kumarajiva. The title translates into English as Brahma’s Net Sutra. This relates to the analogy used by the Buddha who described a net that spreads throughout the universe in the three dimensions of space: length, breadth and depth. Where three strands meet there is a jewel to hold them in place like a dewy spider’s web. Each jewel reflects both itself and all the other jewels in the net simultaneously. The feel of this image is used to point towards the reality of emptiness, the true nature of the Dharmakaya – which is the body of Vairocana.

“Now, I, Vairocana Buddha, am sitting atop a lotus pedestal; on a thousand flowers surrounding me are a thousand Sakyamuni Buddhas. Each flower supports a hundred million worlds; in each world a Sakyamuni Buddha appears. All are seated beneath a Bodhi-tree, all simultaneously attain Buddhahood. All these innumerable Buddhas have Vairocana as their original body. “

-The Brahma’s Net Sutra

As the primordial principle Vairocana speaks outside the phenomenal world where all time is simultaneous. Although in the phenomenal world he has this or that name and is portrayed using this or that hand position (mudra), wearing certain garments and headdress, in truth he is beyond conceptual imagination and yet is ever present in each form, as Master Hakuin wrote: ‘‘like salt in seawater or glue in paint.”

In Shingon Buddhism he is represented by the Sanskrit letter ‘A’ which expresses life & death; emergence & return.

The mantra associated with Vairocana is:

Om a-vi-ra-hûm-kham vajradhâtu vam (Skt.) Om All Pervading One; Imperishable One