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Bodhisattva in the Perfection of Wisdom Buddhist Texts
When we talk about the Prajnaparamita, we sometimes get deep into it. To begin, I have always been interested in the fact that before Sakyamuni became the Buddha and gained his enlightenment, he went to other teachers. We don’t often think about what his teachers have taught him. For example, Alara Kalama taught him a meditation where he could experience infinite space and be conscious of infinite space. After being taught about how to meditate in this way and having experienced infinite space, the Buddha thought it was interesting but it wasn’t good enough. He still hasn’t had the release and hasn’t reached moksha. So, he continued to study with other teachers. Uddaka taught him to go deeper into his mind and reach a mental state which is neither perception nor the lack of perception. A very deep and special state. But, once again, it wasn’t sufficient. Why wasn’t it sufficient? What was lacking? Why did he keep pursuing another path? What was the path he pursued? And, what was the difference between what he finally reached and what his great teachers had taught him? I looked into the Eight Thousand-Line Perfection of Wisdom Sutra having these questions in mind. When we look into this sutra, it is interesting to see that when the Buddha had gathered his audience, all of them were arhats. There was not a bodhisattva in sight. Where were all these bodhisattvas then? What we later on defined as a bodhisattva is what the Prajnaparamita Sutras taught for the first time. The Prajnaparamita created the bodhisattvas. In other words, at the time when he started teaching, this was the first Prajnaparamita Sutra. When the Buddha first taught it, there were no bodhisattvas of the type that we later see. Later in the sutra the bodhisattvas appeared. It was a sequential thing. In the beginning, it tells us that everybody was an arhat.
略論南詔的十一面觀音信仰
觀音信仰文化深植於中國文化的土壤，洱海區域歷史悠久的觀音信仰傳統與中原的觀音信仰有密切關係。《南詔歷代國王禮佛圖》是張勝溫所畫《梵像卷》中唯一一幅繪有南詔諸王禮佛場景的畫像，它反映了南詔王室自羅晟開始崇奉十一面觀音的歷史。唐高宗、武則天時期，以國家守護神的形象受到普遍崇奉的十一面觀音信仰傳入南詔。南詔在原有的觀音信仰的基礎上，借著天寶戰爭的契機，將具備「護國神」地位的十一面觀音作為南詔整合地方部落的神靈加以供奉，由此也決定了兼具般若智慧和大悲精神的觀世音在洱海區域信仰結構中的地位和影響。
星雲大師不二思想研究——以《心經》詮釋為中心
《心經》篇幅雖短，卻是《大般若經》的中心和宗要，是對整個佛教般若思想的集中表達，在般若體系中占據著重要地位。星雲大師在虔誠信仰佛教的外婆影響下，四、五歲時就會能夠背誦《心經》，足見大師與《心經》之間因緣深厚。星雲大師出家之後，在佛法修行實踐中對《心經》尤其重視，不僅自己堅持時時誦念體解，同時一直鼓勵信徒們在日常生活中「每天至少誦一卷《心經》」。不僅如此，大師還在半個多世紀的弘法過程中，多次向信眾宣講《心經》。據不完全統計，從1955年至2015年的六十年時間裡，星雲大師以公開宣講或者私下講解的方式，為信眾講解《心經》的次數多達十八次。有關統計情況請見文末附表。
