Dharma Wheel

Most of your concerns would be resolved if you read the Awakening of Faith and Sutra of Perfect Awakening. Studying Zen can be difficult without a background in the Mahayana.

I have been reading about yogacara, and all the authors point out that there are different interpretations of yogacara. Modern scholars point out that Vasubandhu is not an idealist and his system of yogacara is more compatible with theravada system than the east asian yogacara which has more ideali...

I have been reading about yogacara, and all the authors point out that there are different interpretations of yogacara. Modern scholars point out that Vasubandhu is not an idealist and his system of yogacara is more compatible with theravada system than the east asian yogacara which has more ideali...

He had an issue with Zen that claims a transmission outside the sutras. Basically, he doubted their oral lineage and thought their iconoclasm toward sutra was hypocritical and fake. There's a good comedy bit in Conversation between a Sage and Unenlightened Man with a comical fictionalization of a z...

I’ve practiced it, it’s known as the Surangama Samadhi also the same method is found widespread in other traditions. Ajahn Amaro who is Theravada practices it and calls it listening to the Nada Sound. It’s also found in Sufism. Sit quietly and wait for a gentle ringing sound to manifest in your ear...

Hi, I was reading the chapter on the Shurangama Sutra that describes the method he used to attain enlightenment: turning his faculty of hearing inward and emptying his awareness. Is there a commentary on this chapter that provides more detail on how this is done? I’ve practiced it, it’s known as th...

Also, the one group I found in Taiwan to actually practice this as their main meditation method is Master Hsin Tao's Ling Jiou Shan (Vulture Peak Mountain). Their monastery in Taiwan is beautiful... They have a four-step shamatha practice, which culminates in listening to the sound of no-sound. I r...

All of what you say may be true, but I have run into Zen and Chan Buddhists whose views could be differentiated from atmavada if you had a crowbar. Indeed Reps’ Zen Flesh, Zen Bones contains in its appendix a translation of a brief shaivaite tantra. I haven't read many English books on Zen, but the...

The book while I haven't read the whole thing, seems to have a lot a problems in the later section on Chan Buddhism. He quotes Zongmi and Yanshou Zongmi [This true] nature is like space; it is not to be added to or reduced. There is no need to add [virtues]. Once one stops karmic action but fosters ...

Are these the same thing? If so, Are there distinctions in the way alaya is described in Yogacara and rigpa in Dzogchen? If this has been discussed here already, reference would be appreciated. No, definitely not. The all-basis consciousness is a product of ma rig pa, ignorance, the opposite of rig...

Thanks. Well Huangbo literally stated this and so have many other Mahayana teachers. "All the Buddhas and all sentient beings are nothing but the One Mind, beside which nothing exists." -Huangbo I’m not familiar with Huangbo, but I’m guessing that this statement means something different from what ...

No one seems to understand the meaning of "One Mind" as used by East Asian Buddhist schools, it does not refer to any universal consciousness, it's simply the pure mind or the Buddha Mind. Chandrakirti and the madhyamka's never refuted it since they've never even encountered the doctrine. Of all dha...

Yet the knowing quality is present and infused with consciousness. He did not add that. The term knowing/awareness (zhi 知) was what Heze Shenhui and Guifeng Zongmi propagated, while others ridiculed. So the Platform Sutra (ch 8, BDK ed, p 78) says this of Shenhui: “I told you it was without name or...

I'm not entirely sure if it matters if the sutra itself is authentic. The dharani exists independently of the sutra, in many different versions, including Sanskrit copies, and Tibetan versions. I think it's quite likely that the dharani itself is of Indic origin. Since it was circulating independen...

Sengcan is likely not even a real person so I'm not too sure how weighty his opinion should be but going by his Xinxin Ming I doubt Theravdins or other Sravakas would have accepted his view. Otherwise they would not have been so averse to the Madhyamaka or Thathgata teachings in ancient India and n...

The Theravada does by all means fit the description of Sravakayana described in most Mahayana Sutras - Aims for Arhatship, doesn't teach ultimate emptiness, their abhidharma posits atoms, focuses on only emptiness of the five skhandas, etc. That is quite the list, but of course, the only real issue...

The Theravada does by all means fit the description of Sravakayana described in most Mahayana Sutras - Aims for Arhatship, doesn't teach ultimate emptiness, their abhidharma posits atoms, focuses on only emptiness of the five skhandas, etc. The Mahayana doesn't "Cross into what its criticising". I n...

that would be awesome. unification of theravada and mahayana in a new, renewed and stronger buddhist path. It would make no sense for the Theravada and Mahayana to unify. The Theravada would have to willingly accept being a lower path to the Mahayana and that their goal is just a skillful means the...

If you aren't studying under a teacher I'm not sure why you would have to choose between Zen or Chan there would be nothing wrong in studying writings/teachings from both transmissions of Chan. Since the Japanese and Chinese schools would use much of the same resources (the Tang-Song era dialogues a...

It doesn't really make sense to unify schools. Mahayana includes and accepts the Agamas and Abhidharma works, while if a Theravadin were to accept Mahayana scriptures and treatises that would simply make that person a Mahayana follower, unless they come up with a new explanation of how the Mahayana...