Is there an Interest in a Classical Yogācāra Thread?

Discuss and learn about the traditional Mahayana scriptures, without assuming that any one school ‘owns’ the only correct interpretation.
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Leo Rivers
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Is there an Interest in a Classical Yogācāra Thread?

Post by Leo Rivers »

Is there an Interest in a Classical Yogācāra Thread?

I was thinking about starting a thread with would focus on the period from of An Shigao from Parthia who went to the capitol of china in 148 CE and wrap it up with Kambala and his Ālokamālā a little before 600 CE. Whatever comes up to be posted in this area would be plugged into this thread and bump it to survive,.. or die.

The Time Frame: This will take up from the Śrāvaka Yogācārabhūmi through the tail end of the classical Mahāyāna vision of a Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra.
The Place: Largely the Northwest Corner of the Indian Subcontinent and the Silk Route.
The Focus: Looking from whatever oasis back towards India.

The Side-Issues:
-Mommy, where Mahāyāna come from?
-The Nature of the border between old and new. (What is anachronistically distinguished as a Hinā and a Mahā yāna).
-The unique issues of meditation focused practitioners.
-The Yogācāra Program.
- and *

I would provide a bibliography such as I have been able to muster and access to such materials in each period and topic - each in one post. That post would be like their "data page". And I would no longer clutter up the site with posts that like diverse gents that really all are headed to the same pub to drink. But I would be only doing this much. I am neither a scholar nor a teacher or a meditation seasoned soul. There are others on this list who are profoundly profoundly learned. My special qualification is I have no affiliation and am by nature very secular in my attitudes. :alien:

But this era and its content of Buddhists struggling how to add the new to what was traditional is an echo in the past to the situation we children of Modernity experience beholding the ships arriving with goods from the past on our shores - this is really is what I am interested in and I would like to have someone to talk to.

Leo
:buddha1:

* (Picture gently distancing oneself from the Holy Śāntarakṣita, all things Tibetan, and the profusion of the Prajñā/Zen schools of China with the same gentleness that you would peel a lady-friend with sunburn after a day at the beach.)
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pueraeternus
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Re: Is there an Interest in a Classical Yogācāra Thread?

Post by pueraeternus »

Actually how about a Yogacara subforum under General Mahayana? Having just one thread would be confusing as diverse lines of inquiry would all clutter into one and it will be difficult to follow.

I would be interested.
"Men must want to do things out of their own innermost drives. People, not commercial organizations or chains of command, are what make great civilizations work. Every civilization depends upon the quality of the individuals it produces. If you over-organize humans, over-legalize them, suppress their urge to greatness - they cannot work and their civilization collapses."
- A letter to CHOAM, attributed to the Preacher
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Leo Rivers
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Re: Is there an Interest in a Classical Yogācāra Thread?

Post by Leo Rivers »

Actually how about a Yogacara sub-forum under General Mahayana?
I will try to learn how to do that.

Honestly, I think it will be like a Meditation Music CD that is the sound of crickets for 60 minutes, but I am game to try. It won't be the first birthday party I been to where only one piece of cake got served. :smile:
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kirtu
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Re: Is there an Interest in a Classical Yogācāra Thread?

Post by kirtu »

Leo Rivers wrote:Is there an Interest in a Classical Yogācāra Thread?
I'm certain there would be.

Kirt
Kirt's Tibetan Translation Notes

"Even if you practice only for an hour a day with faith and inspiration, good qualities will steadily increase. Regular practice makes it easy to transform your mind. From seeing only relative truth, you will eventually reach a profound certainty in the meaning of absolute truth."
Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.

"Only you can make your mind beautiful."
HH Chetsang Rinpoche

"Most all-knowing Mañjuśrī, ...
Please illuminate the radiant wisdom spirit
Of my precious Buddha nature."
HH Thinley Norbu Rinpoche
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pueraeternus
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Re: Is there an Interest in a Classical Yogācāra Thread?

Post by pueraeternus »

I remember there used to be a yogacara.net forum, but it no longer exist. It was actually moderated/owned by a former poster in E-Sangha, but I forgot what his handle was. A professor of some kind - I think Sanskrit studies.

It would be good to start something that can grow into a go-to place for all things Yogacara.
"Men must want to do things out of their own innermost drives. People, not commercial organizations or chains of command, are what make great civilizations work. Every civilization depends upon the quality of the individuals it produces. If you over-organize humans, over-legalize them, suppress their urge to greatness - they cannot work and their civilization collapses."
- A letter to CHOAM, attributed to the Preacher
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Spirituality
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Re: Is there an Interest in a Classical Yogācāra Thread?

Post by Spirituality »

I think threads on particular yogacara issues belong in the academic forum. I'm sure that unless you're a moderator you can't create a subforum for yogachara.

Personally - if I were a moderator - I'd vote against such a subforum, because it's just not necessary.
Greg
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Re: Is there an Interest in a Classical Yogācāra Thread?

Post by Greg »

Spirituality wrote:I think threads on particular yogacara issues belong in the academic forum. I'm sure that unless you're a moderator you can't create a subforum for yogachara.

Personally - if I were a moderator - I'd vote against such a subforum, because it's just not necessary.
I think if there was going to be one, that would be a better place than Sutra studies, because so much of the relevant literature is commentaries, and the whole discussion is rather academic by nature as mentioned.
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