A Buddhist Bible E-Book

Dwight Goddard

• Herausgeber: Youcanprint
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

Another fundamental guide to the Buddhist philosophy and conception of Buddhist philosophy and understanding of the world. Microcosmos and Macrocosmos.

Leseprobe

CONTENTS

DEDICATION

PREFACE

HISTORY OF CH’AN BUDDHISM PREVIOUS TO THE TIMES OF HUI-NENG (WEI-LANG)

SELF-REALISATION OF NOBLE WISDOM

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER I. DISCRIMINATION

CHAPTER II. FALSE-IMAGINATION AND KNOWLEDGE OF APPEARANCES

CHAPTER III. RIGHT KNOWLEDGE OR KNOWLEDGE OF RELATIONS

CHAPTER IV. PERFECT KNOWLEDGE, OR KNOWLEDGE OF REALITY

CHAPTER V. THE MIND SYSTEM

CHAPTER VI. TRANSCENDENTAL INTELLIGENCE

CHAPTER VII. SELF-REALISATION

CHAPTER VIII. THE ATTAINMENT OF SELF- REALISATION

CHAPTER IX. THE FRUIT OF SELF- REALISATION

CHAPTER X. DISCIPLESHIP: LINEAGE OF THE ARHATS

CHAPTER XI. BODHISATTVAHOOD AND ITS STAGES

CHAPTER XII. TATHAGATAHOOD WHICH IS NOBLE WISDOM

CHAPTER XIII. NIRVANA

THE DIAMOND SUTRA

PREFACE

Based on William Gemmell's Translation Edited, Rearranged and Interpreted.

THE DIAMOND SCRIPTURE

(Vajracchedika Sutra)

DANA PARAMITA--IDEAL CHARITY

SILA PARAMITA--IDEAL BEHAVIOR

KSHANTI PARAMITA--IDEAL PATIENCE

VIRYA PARAMITA--IDEAL ZEAL

DHYANA PARAMITA--IDEAL TRANQUILLITY

PRAJNA PARAMITA--IDEAL WISDOM

SUTRA OF TRANSCENDENTAL WISDOM

PREFACE

Based on Max Muller's Translation

Edited and Interpreted

SUTRA OF TRANSCENDENTAL WISDOM

(Maha-prajna-paramita-hridaya)

SUTRA OF THE SIXTH PATRIARCH

PREFACE

Based Upon Wong Mou-lam's Translation, Edited and Interpreted

CHAPTER I. AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF HUI-NENG

CHAPTER II. DISCOURSE ON PRAJNA

CHAPTER III. DISCOURSE ON DHYANA AND SAMADHI

CHAPTER IV. DISCOURSE ON REPENTANCE

CHAPTER V. DISCOURSE ON THE THREE-BODIES OF BUDDHA

CHAPTER VI. DIALOGUES SUGGESTED BY VARIOUS TEMPERAMENTS AND CIRCUMSTANCES

CHAPTER VII. SUDDEN ENLIGHTENMENT AND GRADUAL ATTAINMENT

CHAPTER VIII. ROYAL PATRONAGE

CHAPTER IX. FINAL WORDS AND DEATH OF THE PATRIARCH

A BUDDHIST BIBLE

THE FAVORITE SCRIPTURES

OF THE ZEN

SECT

Edited, Interpreted & Published By

DWIGHT GODDARD

[FIRST EDITION]

A Buddhist Bible By Dwight Goddard 1932

© David De Angelis 2017 [all rights reserved]

DEDICATION

Dedicated

TO MY HONORED TEACHERS

Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki

PROFESSOR, OTANI UNIVERSITY

Taiko Yamazaki

ROSHI, SO-KO-KU MONASTERY

PREFACE

INDIAN TYPES of ethical and philosophical Buddhism did not easily find acceptance in China; it took centuries of contact before a distinctively Chinese adaptation of Buddhism was effected that proved to be congenial to Chinese soil. This Chinese type of Buddhism is called Ch’an in China, and Zen in Japan, and Zen seems to be the more familiar name for it in America and Europe. Other sects have risen and decreased but they proved to be more or less exotic, they never became indigenous as did Zen. An exception may be suspected in the case of the Pure Land Sects, but it should be remembered that the Pure Land Sects developed from Zen and not independently.

To tell the story of this adaptation of the Indian type of Buddhism until it became fixed in the teachings of the Sixth Patriarch, is the purpose of this book. The main part of the book is given over to English Versions of the favorite scriptures of the Zen Sect. To this is added Historical and Literary Introductions and a few notes that seem to be called for to make certain phases of the Sutras more easily intelligible.

Let us recall the fact that the knowledge of Buddhism in America and Europe has all come within a hundred years. For seventy-five years of that time it was presented largely by Christian linguistic scholars who were more or less unconsciously prejudiced against it and who very imperfectly understood its deeper implications. It is only within the last twenty-five years that books written by competent and sympathetic Buddhist scholars have begun to appear. Moreover, knowledge of Buddhism has come at first through translations of Pali texts which represent an older and more primitive type of Buddhism. It is only recently that the great Sanskrit texts, revealing the later philosophical and metaphysical riches of the Mahayana type, have been translated and appreciated. Buddhism was represented by the earlier Christian scholars as being "atheistic" and "pessimistic," which a more sympathetic study of the Sanskrit texts has shown to be a misunderstanding and a misrepresentation. Surely, an eternal process based on unchanging law and leading to peace of mind and self-less compassion and the self-giving of Bodhisattvas and Buddhas, and the undifferentiated Love and Wisdom which is Buddhahood and Dharmakaya is far removed from "atheism"; and the "Blissful peace and cessation of change," and the self-realisation of Noble Wisdom, have nothing in common with "pessimism." But intelligent interest in Buddhism is increasing and the old time question, that used to be the only question, "What is Buddhism?" is giving way to a new question, "What type of Buddhism is best adapted to meet modern questions and modern problems?" To answer these questions is this book presented.

Ch’an Buddhism in China and Korea and Zen in Japan, for a thousand years, have been powerful in moulding the spiritual, ethical and cultural life of great nations. Today, when Christianity seems to be slipping, it is the most promising of all the great religions to meet the problems of European civilisation which to thinking people are increasingly forboding. Zen Buddhism, with its emphasis on mind-control, its dispassionate rationality, its cheerful industry, not for profit but for service, its simple-hearted love for all animate life, its restraint of desire in all its subtil manifestations, its subjection of desire to wisdom and kindness, its practical and efficient rule of life, its patient acceptance of karma and reincarnation, and its actual foretaste of the blissful peace of Nirvana, all mark it out as being competent to meet the problems of this materialistic and acquisitive age.

*

The original texts of these Scriptures are very corrupt, disorderly, loaded with accretions and, in places very obscure. The purpose of the present Versions is to provide an easier and more inspiring reading. For scholarly study students are expected to refer to the more precise translations of linguists.

The rules that have been followed in preparing these Versions are as follows:

To omit all matter not bearing directly upon the theme of the Sutra.

To arrange into a more orderly sequence.

To interweave and condense cognate teachings.

To interpret obscure words and teachings.

The need. for this course will be apparent to any earnest minded person who goes to the Scripture for spiritual guidance, inspiration and comfort.

In the Sutras there are certain Sanskrit words that are of great importance to the understanding of the teaching that are difficult to translate in single words. It seems advisable to speak about them at this time.

DHARMA: Law, Truth. Specifically Dharma has come to be used for the Buddha's teaching as a whole, and also as Truth in its universal aspect.

DHARMAKAYA: Truth-body, Truth-principle, Truth-essence. It is used synonymously with such terms as: Buddhahood, Tathagatahood, Nirvana, Noble Wisdom, Universal or Divine Mind, to refer to Ultimate Reality as being universal, undifferentiated, harmonious, inscrutable.

BUDDHA: The Perfectly Enlightened One; the One who has fully attained the goal of spiritual unification.

TATHAGATA: The One who has "thus come." It is used synonymously with Buddha to express the highest personification of Reality. The two terms may be differentiated in the sense that Buddha is the "ingoing" aspect of spiritual attainment, while Tathagata is the "forth-going" aspect of spiritual self-giving and service, both being manifestations of Dharmakaya.

PRAJNA: the active aspect of Dharmakaya; Ultimate Principle of unified Love and Wisdom. It is commonly translated Wisdom but it means far more than that as it includes both the differentiating principle of intellection and the integrating principle of Love. In significance it resembles the Chinese Tao.

ARYA-PRAJNA: Noble Wisdom, synonymous with all other terms denoting Ultimate Reality.

TATHAGATA-GARBHA: The Womb from which emerge all manifestations and all individuations. It is used synonymously with Universal or Divine Mind. Dharmakaya refers to the universal, or pure essence, or "such-ness" of Reality, in contrast to the transformations of the Tathagata.

ALAYA-VIJNANA: Universal, or Divine Mind, or all-conserving Mind. It is used synonymously with Tathagata-garbha and Noble Wisdom.

ARYA-JNANA: that which transcends knowledge, or Transcendental Intelligence. It is used synonymously with Arya-prajna, but signifies the realisation-aspect of Noble Wisdom.

BODHI: is the wisdom content of Prajna.

KARUNA: is the love or compassion content of Prajna.

JNANA: is the knowledge, or cognition, or thinking content of Prajna.

MANAS: the intuitive mind; the connecting link between Universal Mind and the individual, or conscious, or discriminating, mind.

MANO-VIJNANA: the conscious, perceiving, discriminating, thinking, intellectual, mind.

VIJNANA: the principle of discrimination; the sense-minds.

CITTA: mind in general.

DWIGHT GODDARD.

Thetford, Vermont, U. S. A. 1932.

HISTORY OF CH’AN BUDDHISM PREVIOUS TO THE TIMES OF HUI-NENG (WEI-LANG)

THE TRAFFIC between India and China in very early times was very considerable in spite of the tremendous difficulties and dangers of the passes over the high Himalayas, the Tibetan deserts and the appalling wastes and tempests of the Southern seas. But in spite of the difficulties intimations of Buddhism began to percolate into China certainly as early as the First Century before the Christian Era and by the First Century after eminent Indian scholars were finding it worth their trouble to make the arduous journey for the sake of the welcome and the honor they received at the Imperial Court and by the literati, so that by the Second Century Buddhist scriptures were being rapidly translated into Chinese.

The Chinese while being notably intellectual were not especially philosophical or religiously minded. They were a practical people and their culture was largely given up to ethics, history, poetry and art. The exuberant imagery, subtle symbolism, erudite philosophy, and deep psychological insight of the Mahayana Buddhist Scriptures came as an intellectual revelation to Chinese scholars and was everywhere received with scholarly enthusiasm. For five hundred years this went on with increasing momentum but. with very little adaptation and change to make it more in line with Chinese mentality and racial habits of thought and national customs. To be sure it had found a certain affinity with Confucian scholarship and ethical idealism, and with Taoist mysticism and naturalistic iconoclasm. All the outstanding Buddhist leaders were Indian born and educated and it was an Indian type of Buddhism that was being pressed upon the Chinese converts; it was Indian philosophy that was being studied and Indian ways of meditation that were being practiced; Buddhism was still a foreign cult. It was not until the Fourth Century that signs of the birth and development of a Chinese type of Buddhism began to be apparent.