Do you also read Mahayana Sutras?

Exploring Theravāda's connections to other paths - what can we learn from other traditions, religions and philosophies?
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Do you also read Mahayana Sutras?

Yes, all the time
16
22%
Sometimes, in passing
31
42%
No, I only read the Tipitaka
26
36%
 
Total votes: 73

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mettafuture
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Do you also read Mahayana Sutras?

Post by mettafuture »

:meditate:
meindzai
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Re: Do you also read Mahayana Sutras?

Post by meindzai »

Maybe should have included "used to." :)

-M
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mettafuture
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Re: Do you also read Mahayana Sutras?

Post by mettafuture »

meindzai wrote:Maybe should have included "used to." :)

-M
Doh! I knew I forgot an option. lol.

But since you no longer read them, I guess that could qualify as a "no."
Sanghamitta
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Re: Do you also read Mahayana Sutras?

Post by Sanghamitta »

No , but I did once read The Lord Of The Rings.
The going for refuge is the door of entrance to the teachings of the Buddha.

Bhikku Bodhi.
meindzai
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Re: Do you also read Mahayana Sutras?

Post by meindzai »

mettafuture wrote:
meindzai wrote:Maybe should have included "used to." :)

-M
Doh! I knew I forgot an option. lol.

But since you no longer read them, I guess that could qualify as a "no."
I guess, but I haven't ruled out the possibility that I will again, so I put "sometimes." Such temporal discinctions are often matters of interpretation.

RIMMER: Constantly fails the exam? I'd hardly call eleven times
"constantly." I mean, if you eat roast beef eleven times in your life,
one would hardly say that person constantly eats roast beef. No, it
would be a rare, nay, freak occurrence.

-M
meindzai
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Re: Do you also read Mahayana Sutras?

Post by meindzai »

Sanghamitta wrote:No , but I did once read The Lord Of The Rings.
And there fell a celestial rain of Mandâravas, while the drums (of heaven) resounded without being struck; the gods and elves in the sky paid honour to the highest of men.
Oh wait,that's the Lotus Sutra! (probably not a very good translation though...)

-M
Sanghamitta
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Re: Do you also read Mahayana Sutras?

Post by Sanghamitta »

Naughty.. :smile:
The going for refuge is the door of entrance to the teachings of the Buddha.

Bhikku Bodhi.
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jcsuperstar
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Re: Do you also read Mahayana Sutras?

Post by jcsuperstar »

meindzai wrote:
Sanghamitta wrote:No , but I did once read The Lord Of The Rings.
And there fell a celestial rain of Mandâravas, while the drums (of heaven) resounded without being struck; the gods and elves in the sky paid honour to the highest of men.
Oh wait,that's the Lotus Sutra! (probably not a very good translation though...)

-M
way to steal my joke...
สัพเพ สัตตา สุขีตา โหนตุ

the mountain may be heavy in and of itself, but if you're not trying to carry it it's not heavy to you- Ajaan Suwat
Kenshou
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Re: Do you also read Mahayana Sutras?

Post by Kenshou »

Used to. Though there came to a point where I started to understand the divisions between the schools of Buddhism, and then I happened to notice that most of the sutras/suttas that actually made sense to me were all coming out of the Tipitaka. And though it isn't the same as sutras, I still read koans once and awhile. I've still got a fondness for Chan/Zen and like their literature, but in practice I put Theravada at the top.

Some of the Mahayana sutras can be so funny though;

The Best Sutra Ever

And the Buddha spoke to the assembly:
"I am about to speak the greatest Sutra ever."
"This is the best Sutra ever, this Sutra is really great."
"If you study this Sutra diligently 10,000 times, you will be Enlightened in this life."
"If you fail to do so, you will surely spend many kalpas in Hell.
"This marks the end of the Best Sutra Ever.


Okay, great, but where's the content? :thinking: Maybe a Westerner like me just can't interpret the imagery, but I think I'll go read the Pali Canon instead, *cough*...
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bodom
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Re: Do you also read Mahayana Sutras?

Post by bodom »

I enjoy the Platform Sutra and the Heart Sutra, Red Pines translation's.

:anjali:
Liberation is the inevitable fruit of the path and is bound to blossom forth when there is steady and persistent practice. The only requirements for reaching the final goal are two: to start and to continue. If these requirements are met there is no doubt the goal will be attained. This is the Dhamma, the undeviating law.

- BB
Mawkish1983
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Re: Do you also read Mahayana Sutras?

Post by Mawkish1983 »

I answered "no", because I don't.
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theravada_guy
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Re: Do you also read Mahayana Sutras?

Post by theravada_guy »

Greetings all,

I second what mawkish said.
With mettā,

TG
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mettafuture
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Re: Do you also read Mahayana Sutras?

Post by mettafuture »

I answered sometimes because I'm very selective about the ones I read. I don't bother with most Mahayana Sutras, especially the ones that claim to be the words of Siddhartha Gautama. Most of those texts, in my opinion, are counterfeit. However, I do believe that there have been other great thinkers since the Buddha, and I always keep an open spot on my bookshelf for their writings.
Last edited by mettafuture on Tue Jan 26, 2010 5:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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retrofuturist
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Re: Do you also read Mahayana Sutras?

Post by retrofuturist »

Greetings,

I don't read them, though once I read a book called Starmaker by Olaf Stapledon, of which Sangharakshita said...
I was staying in Bombay with a Polish friend of mine who happened to be a follower of J.Krishnamurti. One day he gave me, when I was staying with him, a book to read and this was a book called "Star Maker" by Olaf Stapledon. It's a comparatively early but very good example indeed, of science fiction. And my friend said to me, "You will like this very much. It's just like a Mahayana Sutra." And indeed when I read it I found that that was quite a fair description of it. Of course, there is a great deal of difference between the Mahayana Sutras and even the best of science fiction because the former have a very definite spiritual, not to say transcendental, content. But there are a number of important resemblances too, because neither the Mahayana Sutras generally nor science fiction is confined to this particular planet, this particular Earth. Both of them tend to show consciousness, Man himself as ranging up and down time, and throughout space, from one side as it were to the other. And this can be a very liberating experience even if only imaginatively realised.
Source: http://www.freebuddhistaudio.com/texts/ ... =jewel&p=7" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Metta,
Retro. :)
"Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."
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Kare
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Re: Do you also read Mahayana Sutras?

Post by Kare »

I have read lots of Mahayana texts - but found them more and more superfluous and unnecessary. Some, like the Lotus Sutra, are downright disgusting. Still I can enjoy some of the beautiful paradoxes in the Lankavatara Sutra, or the deep and sincere feelings expressed in the Bodhicaryavatara, or the penetrating insights of for instance Vasubandhu in his Madhyantavibhagashastra. There is, however, a cathegory of Mahayana texts that have meant a lot to me, and that is Zen stories. In these stories there often are poignant pointers to reality that are easily recognizable from a Vipassana point of view.
Mettāya,
Kåre
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