Sutra Snips

[Skull]

Reputation, profit, wealth, beauty, fame, food, and sleep are things that worldly people like. When one is defiled by worldly dharmas, one cannot achieve transcendental dharma. When worldly dharmas prevail, transcendental dharma seems insignificant.

Master Hsuan Hua, Spring Sun, Lotus Flower

[Skull]

A few verses from the 84000 project's new Gandavyuha Sutra on the nature of a bodhisattva. They title this free to all sutra, the Stem Array:

“Whatever worldly good fortune there is
That occurs within the realms of beings,
The resolute ones renounce it all,
And they remain in the Buddha’s good fortune.

“The world remains fruitless,
Continuously in bondage.
Those whose conduct is free from attachment
Are continuously fixed on benefiting beings.

“Their unequaled conduct
Is inconceivable for all beings.
They who think of the world’s happiness
Bring an end to suffering.

“They have compassion for the whole world
And have the pure wisdom of enlightenment.
They are a light for the world
And bring liberation to the entire world.”

[sky]

Originally Posted by Skull

“They have compassion for the whole world
And have the pure wisdom of enlightenment.
They are a light for the world
And bring liberation to the entire world.”

Nice

[Skull]

Originally Posted by Skull

A few verses from the 84000 project's new Gandavyuha Sutra on the nature of a bodhisattva. They title this free to all sutra, the Stem Array:

Forgot to add the link to the new translation, which is only in e-book formats so far.

https://read.84000.co/translation/UT22084-037-007.html

[Skull]

From a talk by late Lama Yeshe:

Our love is weak. We know we have love, but our love is so limited. That is why we have to meditate on limitless love. The limitation of our love is the problem. Our jealousy comes from this limitation. “I love you.” What does that mean? Does that mean I want you to be happy? No! That means I want to be happy. “I love you” almost means taking advantage in some way. So that is not love; it is completely the opposite. But limitless love is the psychologically healthy way. With limitless love, no one can irritate you. It is amazing! And its function is to understand every person’s needs and to wish that they get the happiness they need. Everyone needs happiness, without exception. With limitless love we give our energy and time with a wish-fulfilling attitude, instead of feeling jealous when someone else receives something.

What is bodhicitta? Bodhicitta is a Sanskrit word. Citta means heart, the totally open heart. It is like the lotus, which first grows in the mud and then slowly, slowly opens up fully into a pristine lotus blossom. So this sense of totally open, or totally developed, can also be understood as omniscience, total wisdom and compassion. And this is what we call “buddha.” “Buddha” means one who is totally open and totally developed, one in whom all limitations have been extinguished. This buddhahood state is also one of total healing. And bodhicitta is the attitude wishing to lead all beings to that total healing state.

And how did the Medicine Buddha become so special, having this energy to heal disease and so forth? The Medicine Buddha was once a sentient being, like us. He was not special. But at a certain point he woke up and saw all living beings, filled with disease, misconceptions, karma, demons and so forth. On this earth how many sentient beings have sicknesses or disease? Now in our twentieth century cancer is everywhere; it is this century’s worst disease. Also, how many people’s minds are sick, occupied by spirits or demons? Then, of course, there is the demon of our ego, which creates great suffering, shaking our minds.

Seeing all this, his bodhicitta attitude grew and became great healing for all these universal living beings. As a bodhisattva he prayed with great determination to be successful in helping sentient beings. He was very determined, which is why he became a great healer.

So what is Medicine Buddha? Medicine Buddha is this attitude, bodhicitta. He is the fully developed consciousness energy of wisdom-compassion, manifesting as blue radiating light.
************************
This teaching by Lama Yeshe is from a Medicine Buddha initiation given at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, on December 18–19, 1979. Excerpted from Big Love: The Life and Teachings of Lama Yeshe. Edited from archive #168 by Nicholas Ribush.

[Skull]

333. Good is virtue until life’s end, good is faith that is steadfast, good is the acquisition of wisdom, and good is the avoidance of evil.

Dhammapada

[Skull]

This series, Library of Wisdom and Compassion by the Dalai Lama now contains seven volumes. They are arranged from basic to advanced.

This is the seventh one:

https://www.simonandschuster.com/boo.../9781614297956

[Skull]

The 84000 translation project will unveil 4 March, 2022 their new free translation of this very large sutra, listing info on 1000 or so buddhas. Dharma Publishing still has their four volume 1986 Fortunate Aeon version available, I think.

The Good Eon

in The Collection The Kangyur Discourses General Sūtra Section
བསྐལ་པ་བཟང་པོ། · bskal pa bzang po
Bhadrakalpika

Summary
While resting in a park outside the city of Vaiśālī, the Buddha is approached by the bodhisattva Prāmodyarāja, who requests meditation instruction. The Buddha proceeds to give a teaching on a meditative absorption called elucidating the way of all phenomena and subsequently delivers an elaborate discourse on the six perfections. Prāmodyarāja then learns that all the future buddhas of the Good Eon are now present in the Blessed One’s audience of bodhisattvas. Responding to Prāmodyarāja’s request to reveal the names under which these present bodhisattvas will be known as buddhas in the future, the Buddha specifies these names and goes on to describe the circumstances surrounding their birth, awakening, and teaching in the world. In the sūtra’s final section, we learn how each of these great bodhisattvas who are on the path to buddhahood first developed the mind of awakening.

Title variants
’phags pa bskal pa bzang po zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
འཕགས་པ་བསྐལ་པ་བཟང་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་ མདོ།
The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Good Eon”
Āryabhadrakalpikanāmamahāyānasūtra
《賢劫經》

[Skull]

Master Hsuan Hua gave lectures on the entire Avatamsaka Sutra over a ten year span. At the beginning of the series he said this about the foundational nature of it:

After becoming a Buddha, Sãkyamuni Buddha reflected how all Buddhas of the past first spoke the Flower Adornment Sutra upon their becoming Buddhas, all Buddhas of the present also speak this sutra first, and all Buddhas of the future will also do the same. The Flower Adornment Sutra must be spoken first, in order for the foundation for Great Dharma to be established. The Flower Adornment Sutra is the foundation of all Buddhadharmas.

[Skull]

After a chanting session of Om Mani Padme Hum, Master Hua wrote a poem, and explained the meaning on the next two pages:

http://www.cttbusa.org/founder/whiteuniverse.asp