Is there a Mahayana/Vajrayana Equivalent to accesstoinsight?

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Mr. G
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Is there a Mahayana/Vajrayana Equivalent to accesstoinsight?

Post by Mr. G »

Does anyone know if there's a Mahayana/Vajrayana Equivalent to accesstoinsight.com? Sort of like an online abhidharmakosha?
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Josef
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Re: Is there a Mahayana/Vajrayana Equivalent to accesstoinsight?

Post by Josef »

mr. gordo wrote:Does anyone know if there's a Mahayana/Vajrayana Equivalent to accesstoinsight.com? Sort of like an online abhidharmakosha?
not yet.
I might say that i think its a good thing that there isnt.
Although access to information is a good thing it isnt difficult to find people taking things out of context on Access to Insight and posting them all over the internet in order to support their own views. I'm not a fan of access to insight personally.
"All phenomena of samsara depend on the mind, so when the essence of mind is purified, samsara is purified. Since the phenomena of nirvana depend on the pristine consciousness of vidyā, because one remains in the immediacy of vidyā, buddhahood arises on its own. All critical points are summarized with those two." - Longchenpa
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Re: Is there a Mahayana/Vajrayana Equivalent to accesstoinsight?

Post by kirtu »

Nangwa wrote:
mr. gordo wrote:Does anyone know if there's a Mahayana/Vajrayana Equivalent to accesstoinsight.com? Sort of like an online abhidharmakosha?
not yet.
I might say that i think its a good thing that there isnt.
Although access to information is a good thing it isnt difficult to find people taking things out of context on Access to Insight and posting them all over the internet in order to support their own views. I'm not a fan of access to insight personally.
Really? How can they take things from Access To Insight out of context?

I began encountering sutras from about 12 or 13 on and Buddhism from about 10 on and have always thought that access to basic teaching is very important now. Of course people can twist things for their own views, etc. but it's more difficult to do in the sutta teachings.

Kirt
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retrofuturist
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Re: Is there a Mahayana/Vajrayana Equivalent to accesstoinsight?

Post by retrofuturist »

Greetings,

I think it is an excellent idea, and if anyone here has the means to create, instigate or participate in such a project, then I would encourage them to pursue that possibility, as it will be a great blessing to Buddhists across the globe.

In the meantime perhaps, someone (perhaps even Dharma Wheel members collectively?) could take up the slightly lesser challenge of creating a Mahayana/Vajrayana equivalent of the Google Saffron Theravada Search Engine.

http://www.google.com/cse/home?cx=00545 ... cbjbznmwso" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Metta,
Retro. :)
Live in concord, with mutual appreciation, without disputing, blending like milk and water, viewing each other with kindly eyes.
Avery
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Re: Is there a Mahayana/Vajrayana Equivalent to accesstoinsight?

Post by Avery »

Hey--

There are actually a number of websites with a nearly complete library of Mahayana scriptures, namely the NTU Digital Library and the SAT Daizōkyō Text Database.

http://shii.org/knows/Sutras" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

However, if you want to read them in English, that'll set you back several million dollars to hire a translator for 40-50 years... :rolleye:

There is no comparable project to the Pali Text Society for Mahayana.
plwk
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Re: Is there a Mahayana/Vajrayana Equivalent to accesstoinsight?

Post by plwk »

Closest one in my estimation.... http://mahajana.lap.hu/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Josef
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Re: Is there a Mahayana/Vajrayana Equivalent to accesstoinsight?

Post by Josef »

kirtu wrote:
Nangwa wrote:
mr. gordo wrote:Does anyone know if there's a Mahayana/Vajrayana Equivalent to accesstoinsight.com? Sort of like an online abhidharmakosha?
not yet.
I might say that i think its a good thing that there isnt.
Although access to information is a good thing it isnt difficult to find people taking things out of context on Access to Insight and posting them all over the internet in order to support their own views. I'm not a fan of access to insight personally.
Really? How can they take things from Access To Insight out of context?

I began encountering sutras from about 12 or 13 on and Buddhism from about 10 on and have always thought that access to basic teaching is very important now. Of course people can twist things for their own views, etc. but it's more difficult to do in the sutta teachings.

Kirt
i've seen people use cut and paste jobs from accesstoinsight that are used to put forth some pretty wacky arguments.
The new buddhist forum stands out as one where this kind of thing goes on unchecked, among other things.
"All phenomena of samsara depend on the mind, so when the essence of mind is purified, samsara is purified. Since the phenomena of nirvana depend on the pristine consciousness of vidyā, because one remains in the immediacy of vidyā, buddhahood arises on its own. All critical points are summarized with those two." - Longchenpa
Huseng
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Re: Is there a Mahayana/Vajrayana Equivalent to accesstoinsight?

Post by Huseng »

This might be useful:

http://www.fodian.net/world/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Kind of like Access to Insight, though not as extensive.
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Astus
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Re: Is there a Mahayana/Vajrayana Equivalent to accesstoinsight?

Post by Astus »

Creating anything similar to ATI in English is quite difficult. First of all there are copyright issues. Mahayana sutras have been translated by a large number of translators and groups. But you can find a lot around the Web if you know where to go. Plus Mahayana is a lot more diverse than Theravada.

On the other hand, you cannot get almost any Abhidhamma material online even though many of them are translated by PTS.
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"
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Re: Is there a Mahayana/Vajrayana Equivalent to accesstoinsight?

Post by Astus »

By the way, does anyone know a good source of online (modern) Japanese translations for sutras?
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"
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Re: Is there a Mahayana/Vajrayana Equivalent to accesstoinsight?

Post by Huseng »

Astus wrote:By the way, does anyone know a good source of online (modern) Japanese translations for sutras?
I find when I look for them online they tend to be links to all the various book merchants who want to sell paper copies of various texts.

I often wonder myself if there are any actual archives... :rolling:
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Re: Is there a Mahayana/Vajrayana Equivalent to accesstoinsight?

Post by Astus »

Huseng wrote:I find when I look for them online they tend to be links to all the various book merchants who want to sell paper copies of various texts.

I often wonder myself if there are any actual archives... :rolling:
Exactly my experience. Almost every little Japanese temple have their own homepage but no teachings? Really strange. Do you know any reason behind this?
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"
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Mr. G
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Re: Is there a Mahayana/Vajrayana Equivalent to accesstoinsight?

Post by Mr. G »

I'll take the time to look over the links...thanks everyone.
  • How foolish you are,
    grasping the letter of the text and ignoring its intention!
    - Vasubandhu
Huseng
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Re: Is there a Mahayana/Vajrayana Equivalent to accesstoinsight?

Post by Huseng »

Astus wrote:
Huseng wrote:I find when I look for them online they tend to be links to all the various book merchants who want to sell paper copies of various texts.

I often wonder myself if there are any actual archives... :rolling:
Exactly my experience. Almost every little Japanese temple have their own homepage but no teachings? Really strange. Do you know any reason behind this?
Well, I'm sure they slap on the HTTP:// address on the business cards and it potentially draws in business if they're doing funerals or other such profitable priestcrafts.

The temples that devote themselves to practise and community service might just provide the details of events and schedules.

Take this one for example:

http://home.catv.ne.jp/rr/ryuuunji/main.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A lot of schedule information, but no sutras.


Soto-shu's official website provides comics (kind of teachings I guess):

http://www.sotozen-net.or.jp/kids/c_dogen/co_d_001.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


And Rinzai's official site has some dharma talks:

http://www.rinnou.net/cont_04/story.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Unfortunately it seems that most academic work that is conducted in Japan is limited to print material. Even annotated and translated texts, which should be freely available, are kept as print versions for the most part. The popular translators of sutras like Nakamura Hajime for example all published their work for the commercial market, so copyrights all apply and the company won't make it digitally available.
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