In the Pali Canon the Buddha often compares himself to the lion, the king of beasts, and one of the epithets the Buddhist tradition ascribes to him is Sakyasiha, the lion of the Sakyan clan. The Buddha describes his proclamation of the Dhamma as his " lion's roar," a designation the commentaries say implies the qualities of supremacy, fearlessness, and unchallengeable ness. The two sutta were originally translated by the eminent English scholar-mon, Bhikku Nanamoli, in his draft translation of the entire Majjima Nikaya. The translations have been edited and revised by Bhikku Bhodi, who has also provided introductions and notes.
What should be the goal of human life? What course of conduct should we follow to free ourselves from suffering? This inquiry into the good has always been the spur to the spiritual development of man, and the different answers sages and saints have given have been the seeds out of which the great religions have grown. As the answers are diverse, so the spiritual system that have grown from them are also diverse.
In this booklet we will discuss why we should take an interest in what the Buddha taught and the significance of these teachings as part of Buddhist practice. Hopefully some of you will get encouraged to start reading the sutta and get inspired by the very words of the Buddha himself.
One of the most common unquestioned assumptions among Buddhist meditators is that Satipatthana is synonymous with Vipassana. This assumption, it seems, often is a result of reading the Satipatthana Suttas in isolation without carefully considering the context in which satipatthana is used throughout the Sutta. When the broader view of the entire Sutta Pitaka is taken into account, it becomes clear that such an assumption, at best, is only partially correct. In this short study he will investigate the various contexts in which satipatthana appears and particularly consider is relationship with samadhi.
This book is a great gift from Bhante Dewananda in conveying his ideas on the Metta Sutta. A pearl is hidden inside the shell of an oyster. While most deliverances of the Metta Sutta are given in the shape of an oyster, Bhante Dewananda has peeled the layers away in order for us to see the beauty of the pearl within. This is the greatest gift that one can receive.
A historical analysis of the Mahaparinibbana Sutta of the Digha Nikaya of the Pali Canon. The Mission Accomplished is undoubtedly an eye opening contribution to Buddhist analytical Pali studies. In this analytical and critical work Ven. Dr. Pategama Gnanarama enlightens us in many areas of subjects hitherto unexplored by scholars. His views on the beginnings of the Bhikkhuni Order are interesting and refreshing. They might even be provocative to traditional readers, yet be challenging to the feminists to adopt a most positive attitude to the problem. Prof. Chandima Wijebandara, University of Sri Jayawardhanapura, Sri Lanka.
Vimalakirti is a Bodhisattava who appears as a layman in order to help 'all living beings'. A worker of wonders, he reveals distant universes, feeds thousands of beings with a single bowl of nectar, and wins a philosophical debate with a thunderous silence,. Because he is enlightened the means he uses are highly skillful yet utterly inconceivable.
Bhikkhu Bodhi’s sophisticated and practical instructions on how to read the Pali of the Buddha’s discourses will acquaint students of Early Buddhism with the language and idiom of these sacred texts. Here the renowned English translator of the Pali Canon opens a window into key suttas from the Samyutta Nikaya, giving a literal translation of each sentence followed by a more natural English rendering, then explaining the grammatical forms involved. In this way, students can determine the meaning of each word and phrase and gain an intimate familiarity with the distinctive style of the Pali suttas—with the words, and world, of the earliest Buddhist texts. Ven. Bodhi’s meticulously selected anthology of suttas provides a systematic overview of the Buddha’s teachings, mirroring the four noble truths, the most concise formulation of the Buddha’s guide to liberation. Reading the Buddha’s Discourses in Pali shares with readers not only exceptional language instruction but also a nuanced study of the substance, style, and method of the early Buddhist discourses.
The Lankavatara Sutra is one of the most important Mahayana texts, and the Napalese Buddhists consider it to be one of the nine canonical texts. The text contains almost all the main ideas, both philosophical and theological, of Mahayana Buddhism. The Yogacara School of Mahayana considers this text to be its fundamental text, as it contains all those ideas of idealism, like Mind-only, store-house-consciousness, which would form the basis of the philosophy of this school.
The sermon on the Foundation of Mindfulness Maha Sathipattana Sutta is the twenty second of the Long-length Discourses Collection of the discourses of the Buddha. There is yet another version of it, ten in the collection of Middle Length Discourses, which differs only by the absence of detailed explanation of the Four Noble Truth.