Sanskrit Buddhist Texts

Looking for translations, or for help with translations and transliterations? This is the place.
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Nicholas Weeks
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Sanskrit Buddhist Texts

Post by Nicholas Weeks »

Some of David Reigle's scanned collection of old texts; a little Tibetan, Mongolian & Chinese also:

http://api.ning.com/files/mtQQAFosZfC9I ... dhist.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
May all seek, find & follow the Path of Buddhas.
Nicholas Weeks
Posts: 4209
Joined: Mon Apr 06, 2009 4:21 am
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Re: Sanskrit Buddhist Texts

Post by Nicholas Weeks »

If there are other online sources for Sanskrit Buddhist texts, feel free to add the links in this thread.
May all seek, find & follow the Path of Buddhas.
lotwell
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Re: Sanskrit Buddhist Texts

Post by lotwell »

Thanks! :thanks:

Lotwell
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randomseb
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Re: Sanskrit Buddhist Texts

Post by randomseb »

Thanks,
Recently I've decided to learn sanskrit due to being a bit put off by the translation issues of various texts I read: often the message seems to be garbled by misunderstanding or just inaccuracy of language. So by learning it, I should be able to get back to the original messages (Despite the fact that the Buddha didn't want his sutras translated into the official spiritual language of the time, they went ahead and did anyway after he passed on)

So if others are of same mind, this is what I am referencing at the moment, seems to be pretty good so far:

http://www.learnsanskrit.org/grammar" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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gad rgyangs
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Re: Sanskrit Buddhist Texts

Post by gad rgyangs »

Seb wrote:Thanks,
Recently I've decided to learn sanskrit due to being a bit put off by the translation issues of various texts I read: often the message seems to be garbled by misunderstanding or just inaccuracy of language. So by learning it, I should be able to get back to the original messages (Despite the fact that the Buddha didn't want his sutras translated into the official spiritual language of the time, they went ahead and did anyway after he passed on)

So if others are of same mind, this is what I am referencing at the moment, seems to be pretty good so far:

http://www.learnsanskrit.org/grammar" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
a fine aspiration, but be aware of the fact that many important texts only exist in Tibetan or Chinese, and even when there is a Sanskrit version extant, it is usually much later than the Tibetan or, especially, the Chinese version. No scholar bases a reading on just Sanskrit with no reference to Tibetan and Chinese versions. So the dream that knowing sanskrit will remove all doubt about text interpretation is really just that. Having said that though, personally I give preference to scholars who know all three languages, or at least sanskrit plus one of the others, over scholars who only know either Tibetan or Chinese. Ezra Pound said "I believe in technique as a test of a man's sincerity". If one is really serious about Buddhist studies, and I mean in the sense of making it one's life endeavor, one will learn the languages, as many as possible. I remember my shock when, early in my interest of Tibetan Buddhism, I learned that monks did not routinely study sanskrit, even in the supposedly "scholarly" traditions. I was like, WTF???
Thoroughly tame your own mind.
This is (possibly) the teaching of Buddha.

"I must finally conclude that this proposition, I am, I exist, is necessarily true whenever it is put forward by me or conceived in my mind."
- Descartes, 2nd Meditation 25
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randomseb
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Re: Sanskrit Buddhist Texts

Post by randomseb »

I understand.. To be clear, I am not looking for scholarly knowledge, just a more accurate reading of sutras, as the english translations are somewhat mangled, from what I saw, due either to the lack of equivalent words or from the translator not understanding the meaning of the text, so applying his own slant to it

'Chinese' probably would be more useful to learn as it's still a live language, but eh.. one step at a time
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Re: Sanskrit Buddhist Texts

Post by mañjughoṣamaṇi »

Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon
http://www.dsbcproject.org/
སེམས་རྣམ་པར་གྲོལ་བར་བྱའི་ཕྱིར་བྱམས་པ་བསྒོམ་པར་བྱའོ།
“In order to completely liberate the mind, cultivate loving kindness.” -- Maitribhāvana Sūtra

"The bottom always falls out of the quest for the elementary. The irreducibly individual recedes like the horizon, as our analysis advances." -- Genesis, Michel Serres
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