Dharma Wheel

I can understand that the significance of formally taking refuge is being downplayed in Japanese Buddhism in general and among some western Buddhists. But that is still considered very crucial in Chinese and Tibetan Buddhism today, and for good reasons. For one thing, taking and upholding the refug...

I can understand that the significance of formally taking refuge is being downplayed in Japanese Buddhism in general and among some western Buddhists. But that is still considered very crucial in Chinese and Tibetan Buddhism today, and for good reasons. For one thing, taking and upholding the refuge...

And yes, there's also been development. With the rising of Huayan, TIantai and Huayan scholars in Song China debated fiercely over which school held doctrinal superiority. In these debates, how to properly characterize the dynamic between li and shi had become a central issue. The orthodox Tiantai o...

I tend to agree with ItsRaining that these concepts are not Huayan-specific or even Chinese-Buddhism-specific. Myself not being an expert, my hunch is that these concepts likely have origins in early Chinese metaphysics, though later the Buddhist Huayan School became famous for employing them (I cou...

How practical would creating a full-fledged Sanskrit canon be in terms of copyrights? Lots of existing and future scholarly editions are and will continue to be copyrighted. And manuscripts may be possessed by various institutions. It seems that in terms of pursuing comprehensiveness—I assume that o...

This exact formulation, as a quick search indicates, was from Zhiyi's Great Samatha-vipaśyanā (mohe zhiguan; maka shikan). But the concept seems to be coming from 菩薩瓔珞本業經/Bodhisattva keyūra mūlakarma sūtra, in which it's stated: ...[that is, to uphold] the Four Great Vows. Those who have not overcom...

It's called 修多羅/しゅたら/sutra.

I do recall seeing similar clothes that certain high-ranking lamas wear upon certain occasions (which might be a Tashi-Lhunpo-specific thing). Whether there is a connection I do not know.

Vincent Eltschinger has an article On some Buddhist Uses of the kaliyuga that may be helpful.

It was from the Chinese text itself. It was customary for ancient translators who translated Buddhist texts into Chinese to first give a transliteration of a certain word, and then explain its meaning (often preceded by "秦言," "in Qin-language/Chinese it means"), upon certain occa...

Interestingly it was said the Dharmaguptaka Vinaya was Mahayana if one added a Bodhisattva Vow! I wonder about where specifically this was stated. It reads strange to me. I know that Daoxuan, the most prominent proponent and commentator of the Dharmaguptaka Vinaya in China, once declared that the D...

I wonder if you could kindly pin down the specific paragraphs so that the discussion could be more textually based. My initial hunch is that the whole debate is based on a perceptual model of consciousness/mental activities . I said this mainly because you mentioned "like the eye can only see w...

This year I read that it was common for the Chinese to add their own ideas to foreign texts like Indian Buddhism. My point was just that I prefer the Sanskrit texts because I can feel more confident that the texts represent Buddha more closely. There was a time when Chinese was more the kind of wor...

In the Chinese translation it was "自所持真言" or "所持真言," i.e., the mantra that one (themselves) holds. It does not seem much different in meaning from the Tibetan that Malcolm mentioned. Perhaps the translator wants to emphasize that this is the mantra that the person holds (here to ...

Last year, Jay Garfield and the Sravasti Abbey recorded a lecture series on Yogacara's understanding of emptiness. You can easily find it on Youtube . I cannot think of a more accessible yet informative and philosophically interesting introduction than this. Also, since both parties come from the Ge...

It was a nice introductory lecture on the Tiantai thought; sadly, there was no more time for Dr. Shen to elaborate on certain points.

Also, the lecture has been recorded. I am not sure if the organizers will share the recording with the public.

This is an excellent series! Thank you for sharing.

Traditionally, any time before the dawn counts as part of the previous day. The Chinese vinaya tradition only requires one to undertake the precepts early in the morning—it doesn't have to be dawn. And, to my very unreliable impression, in practice, Theravadins also do not strictly require the prece...

Because I have to read 菩萨璎珞本业经 in Chinese, it might take me a month to get through it, because my Chinese is rather poor. It's only two scrolls though, not as bad as Buddhāvataṁsaka. If anyone with better Chinese than me knows a Taishō citation that leads directly to the section of the sūtra in que...

If you examine the available literature in Tibetan translation on the subject, we find that for example, Asanga, Vasubandhu, Sthiramati, etc., devote virtually no time at all to explicating the distinction between the three turnings of the wheel, which itself is given a single passage in the Sandhi...

Indian Buddhists were completely unimpressed with Sutric Descriptions of different schemes and divisions of the sutras into time periods of the Buddha’s life. They betray very little interest in such claims. But Chinese Buddhists were very interested in such schemes, in trying to make sense of this...