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The Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra (the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā) and Religious Tolerance
Teaching Buddhism through Art: Fourteenth-Century Tibet and Canada Today
The Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana and Tiantai Thought in the Sung Dynasty
The Application of Filial Piety Based on the Filial Piety Sutra to Fo Guang Shan Buddhist Order
Perception of the Reality for the Benefit of Sentient Beings: With Special Reference to the Bodhisattvabhūmi
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.
The Influence of Mahayana on Buddhadasa's Thought
Humanistic Buddhism in Singapore
Venerable Master Hsing Yun’s Humanistic Buddhism–New Dawn of True Dharma
The title “venerable master” as used by contemporary Chinese Buddhists appears to have been demeaned and misused, to the extent of sometimes being generally used in reference to male and female monastics. In fact, the word “master” has the Sanskrit root of “śāstṛ,” and is a rather highly esteemed title in Buddhism. As the Itivṛttakasūtra5explains, the title refers to sagely monastics who have attained at least the stage of stream-entere, and up to that of a buddha. Their presence in this world ensures that the wisdom of the Dharma can guide others towards transcending the mundane, bringing boundless benefit and joy to them.
Humanistic Buddhism in Singapore
