Favorite Sutra?

Discuss and learn about the traditional Mahayana scriptures, without assuming that any one school ‘owns’ the only correct interpretation.
Ngawang Drolma
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Favorite Sutra?

Post by Ngawang Drolma »

Do you have a favorite sutra?

:namaste:
zerwe
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Re: Favorite Sutra?

Post by zerwe »

At the moment my favorite sutra would be the vajra cutter.
Shaun :namaste:
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Su DongPo
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Re: Favorite Sutra?

Post by Su DongPo »

The Heart Sutra. It's really short! :smile:
DGA
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Re: Favorite Sutra?

Post by DGA »

Lotus Sutra.
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kirtu
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Re: Favorite Sutra?

Post by kirtu »

The Mahayana Brahma Net Sutra, the Anthill Sutta, the Lotus Sutra and the Avatamsaka Sutra.

So out of all of them the Brahma Net Sutra.

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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conebeckham
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Re: Favorite Sutra?

Post by conebeckham »

It changes..but currently it's the Avatamsaka and the Brahman Net (nods to Kirtu!)--Lankavatara is in my top ten for sure!

This shows, not the merit or value of the sutras named, though, but the mental condition of myself, the judge.

:tongue:

There is no "best" sutra--there is only that which various beings need, at various times.
དམ་པའི་དོན་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ཆེ་བ་དང་།
རྟོག་གེའི་ཡུལ་མིན་བླ་མའི་བྱིན་རླབས་དང་།
སྐལ་ལྡན་ལས་འཕྲོ་ཅན་གྱིས་རྟོགས་པ་སྟེ།
དེ་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ལ་ནི་ལོ་རྟོག་སེལ།།


"Absolute Truth is not an object of analytical discourse or great discriminating wisdom,
It is realized through the blessing grace of the Guru and fortunate Karmic potential.
Like this, mistaken ideas of discriminating wisdom are clarified."
- (Kyabje Bokar Rinpoche, from his summary of "The Ocean of Definitive Meaning")
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DNS
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Re: Favorite Sutra?

Post by DNS »

Heart Sutra

Lankavatara Sutra

From the Theravada there is the Kalama Sutta (Anguttara Nikaya 3.65) and Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta (Samyutta Nikaya 56.11) and others, if there is a Mahayana equivalent to those (such as in the Agamas).
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Astus
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Re: Favorite Sutra?

Post by Astus »

1 Myriad dharmas are only mind.
Mind is unobtainable.
What is there to seek?

2 If the Buddha-Nature is seen,
there will be no seeing of a nature in any thing.

3 Neither cultivation nor seated meditation —
this is the pure Chan of Tathagata.

4 With sudden enlightenment to Tathagata Chan,
the six paramitas and myriad means
are complete within that essence.


1 Huangbo, T2012Ap381c1 2 Nirvana Sutra, T374p521b3; tr. Yamamoto 3 Mazu, X1321p3b23; tr. J. Jia 4 Yongjia, T2014p395c14; tr. from "The Sword of Wisdom"
tktru
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Re: Favorite Sutra?

Post by tktru »

All of them, as a former Governor of Alaska would say...

A quotation from one of those favorite sutras of mine....
"First: due to my attaining the miraculous wonder of hearing the mind, the essence of mind was liberated from the organ and states of hearing. Therefore, there was no distinction among seeing, hearing, sensation, knowing, and so forth. The enlightenment became a single, perfect fusion, pure and precious enlightenment. For that reason, I am able to manifest many wonderful appearances and can proclaim boundless secret holy mantras. Among those, I may appear with one head, three heads, five heads, seven heads, nine heads, eleven heads, and so forth, including a hundred and eight heads, a thousand heads, ten thousand heads, or eighty-four thousand vajra heads; two arms, four arms, six arms, eight arms, ten arms, twelve arms, fourteen, sixteen, eighteen arms, or twenty arms, twenty-four arms, and so forth until there may be a hundred and eight arms, a thousand arms, ten thousand arms, or eighty-four thousand mudra arms; two eyes, three eyes, four eyes, nine eyes, and so forth including a hundred and eight eyes, a thousand eyes, ten thousand eyes, or eighty-four thousand pure and precious eyes, sometimes compassionate, sometimes awesome, sometimes in Samadhi, sometimes displaying wisdom to rescue and protect living beings so that they may attain great self-mastery."
Shurangama Sutra, Scroll 6
Ngawang Drolma
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Re: Favorite Sutra?

Post by Ngawang Drolma »

I do like the Golden Light sutra :)
plwk
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Re: Favorite Sutra?

Post by plwk »

Da one where it tells ya to stop yadayada-ing and start practising? Wats iz name?
Nicholas Weeks
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Re: Favorite Sutra?

Post by Nicholas Weeks »

Avatamsaka Sutra!
May all seek, find & follow the Path of Buddhas.
Schrödinger’s Yidam
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Re: Favorite Sutra?

Post by Schrödinger’s Yidam »

The Uttaratantra, hands down.
1.The problem isn’t ‘ignorance’. The problem is the mind you have right now. (H.H. Karmapa XVII @NYC 2/4/18)
2. I support Mingyur R and HHDL in their positions against lama abuse.
3. Student: Lama, I thought I might die but then I realized that the 3 Jewels would protect me.
Lama: Even If you had died the 3 Jewels would still have protected you. (DW post by Fortyeightvows)
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Re: Favorite Sutra?

Post by Admin_PC »

The Shorter Sukhavativyuha Sutra, as it's the one I've read the most commentaries on, the one I've recited the most, and the one that tends to pop into my head at the most random times. That being said, there are a LOT of sutras I enjoy.
Bakmoon
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Re: Favorite Sutra?

Post by Bakmoon »

The Avatamsaka Sutra is my favorite. It's a veritable encyclopedia of both practical and doctrinal information, and it's expressed in such beautiful and profound poetry and imagery.

After that, I'd probably say the Lankavatara Sutra. It just covers so much ground and clarifies so many things.

In third place I'd either say the Prajnaparamita Sutra in 25,000 lines or the Diamond Sutra.

The Pratyutpana Samadhi Sutra is always worth reading. Also the Samdhinirmocana Sutra as well.

I find the Srimaladevi Sutra to be the clearest of the Tathagatagarbha Sutras personally.

For non-Mahayana Sutras I would probably say the Saccavibhanga Sutta, the Samannaphala Sutta, the Brahmajala Sutta, the Satipatthana Sutta, the Anapanasati Sutta, and the Chachakka Sutta all make it onto my favorites list.
Rakz
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Re: Favorite Sutra?

Post by Rakz »

Nicholas Weeks wrote:Avatamsaka Sutra!
seconded
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Boomerang
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Re: Favorite Sutra?

Post by Boomerang »

The Sanghata Sutra was the first long sutra that I recited all the way through. Every once in a while I listen to the audiobook.
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Sprouticus
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Re: Favorite Sutra?

Post by Sprouticus »

:anjali:

The Heart Sutra and the Karaniya Metta Sutta. The mantra at the end of the Heart Sutra is very moving, each and every time I hear or recite it.
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well wisher
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Re: Favorite Sutra?

Post by well wisher »

Arewe allowed to pick multiple favourties?
Then my favourties, for now, will be: Amitabha Sutra, Heart Sutra, and the Kalama Sutra.
(I mgiht add more as time goes along).

I find each sutra has its own significant meaning and can make one's own life happier with less fetters, if applied to the correct situaion - avoiding "extermist harming views", of course.

Even if some sutra might contradict some others, if you rotate it situationally ....
you can get the best out of each sutra and dharma! :yinyang:
Best wishes,
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Re: Favorite Sutra?

Post by Malcolm »

The Ārya-aṣṭasāhasrikā-prajñāpāramitā specifically, and all Prajñāpāramita sūtras in general.
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