The Golden Light Sutra

Discuss and learn about the traditional Mahayana scriptures, without assuming that any one school ‘owns’ the only correct interpretation.
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sraddha
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The Golden Light Sutra

Post by sraddha »

http://www.fpmt.org/teachers/zopa/advic ... nlight.asp

One of the most beautiful sutras! The site also contains experiences of people who tried reading the sutra!

http://www.fpmt.org/golden_light_sutra/default.asp#exp
Ngawang Drolma
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Re: The Golden Light Sutra

Post by Ngawang Drolma »

Thanks for this :namaste:
sraddha
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Re: The Golden Light Sutra

Post by sraddha »

You're very welcome! I love reading this sutra -- one of the most beautiful and poetic!
sraddha
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Re: The Golden Light Sutra

Post by sraddha »

Here are a few excerpts
Listen to me, O youth, concerning
The inconceivable greatness
Of the Tathagata, the protector
And savior of the world.

The realm of the buddhas is inconceivable
And the tathagatas are peerless.
All buddhas are ever serene.
All buddhas are perfectly emerged.
All buddhas are of the same hue.
This is the suchness of buddhas.

The Lord Transcendent Victor is uncontrived.
The Tathagata is unborn.
His body, hard as a vajra,
Manifests emanated forms.
Thus, no relic small as a mustard seed
Of the great sage is to be found.

Since his body is without bone and blood,
How can there be a relic?
Yet to benefit living beings,
Skillfully, relics are formed.

Dharmakaya – the complete Buddha;
Dharmadhatu – the Tathagata
Akin to the deed of teaching the Dharma,
These are the body of the Lord.





sraddha
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Re: The Golden Light Sutra

Post by sraddha »


Continually unaware of its benefit,
I have rejected the sublime Dharma;
I have shown unwitting insolence to parents;
These deeds I confess in full.

Childish and veiled by stupidity,
Blind with desire and hatred,
Ignorance, arrogance and pride,
These deeds I confess in full.

-------------------------------
Conquerors that appeared in the past,
Those who dwell now in the ten directions’ worlds,
To those conquerors, I prostrate.
Of these conquerors, I sing praise.

The vanquishing sages are calm, utterly calm and pristine.
Their bodies shine with the color of gold.
Their voices are the sweetest of all melodies,
For they roar the melody of Brahma.
Their hair is bee, peacock and lotus-blue,
Curly and jet-blue as the blue jay.

Like snow and conch, their teeth are ever beautiful –
Intensely white, gleaming like gold.
Their eyes, long and flawless blue,
Resemble lotuses in full bloom.

Their tongues, fine and broad,
sraddha
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Re: The Golden Light Sutra

Post by sraddha »

We have a passage in the Nikayas about the "DRUM OF THE DEATHLESS"
In a world become blind,
I beat the drum of the Deathless.'(MN 26 Ariyapariyesana Sutta)
There's a BEAUTIFUL PASSAGE ABOUT THIS DRUM IN THE GOLDEN LIGHT SUTRA! It's from the beating of this drum that all verses issue forth!

This is found in the chapter on confession of all sins:
One night, without distraction,
I dreamed a vivid dream:
I saw a large and beautiful drum
Filling the world with golden light
And glowing like the sun.
Beaming brightly to all places,
It was seen from ten directions.

Everywhere buddhas were seated
On thrones of precious lapis
At the foot of jeweled trees
Facing assemblies of many hundreds of thousands.

I saw a form like that of a brahmin
Fiercely beat upon the drum;
When he struck it,
These verses issued forth:

By the sound of this majestic drum of golden light,
May the suffering of lower migration,
Yama and the poverty of the three realms
Of the triple thousand worlds cease to be.

By the sound of this majestic drum,
May the ignorance of the world be dispelled.
With fears quelled, just as vanquishing sages are unafraid,
May sentient beings become fearless and brave.

Just as the Omniscient Vanquishing Sage in the world
Is possessed of every excellence of the aryas,
May countless beings too possess oceans of qualities,
Concentration and the wings of enlightenment.

By the sound of this majestic drum,
May all beings be endowed with the melody of Brahma;
May they touch the sublime enlightenment of buddhas;
May they turn the virtuous wheel of the Dharma.

Remaining for inconceivable eons,
May they teach the Dharma to guide migrating beings.
Conquering delusion and overcoming affliction,
May their attachment, hatred and ignorance be pacified.

May sentient beings who have fallen to lower migrations,
Whose bodies of bone are alight with blazing flame,
Hear the speech of this majestic drum;
May the proclamation “Homage to the Tathagata!” be heard.

In the course of hundreds of births
And tens of thousands of millions of births,
May every being remember their former lives,
Hear these teachings completely
And always recall the vanquishing sages.

By the sound of this majestic drum,
May beings always find the company of buddhas.

sraddha
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Re: The Golden Light Sutra

Post by sraddha »

For those beings who lack abode or support
And are wretched and bereft of refuge,
May I in future times
Become their refuge, protector and guardian.

So that I may end their suffering and its source,
And become a wellspring of all virtue,
In the future, I shall accomplish enlightening deeds
For eons as many as those gone past.

Through this confession of Sublime Golden Light,
May the ocean of my misdeeds dry up.
May the ocean of my karma be depleted.
May the ocean of my delusions be exhausted.
May the ocean of my merit be complete.

May the ocean of my wisdom be perfectly pure
And become an ocean of every virtue.
May enlightenment’s precious qualities be complete
Through the power of the confession of Sublime Golden Light.

May the force of my merit brightly shine.
May the light of my enlightenment be pristine.
Through the sublime light of stainless wisdom,
May the light of my form glisten
And cause the light of merit to gleam.
sraddha
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Re: The Golden Light Sutra

Post by sraddha »

Today is Sunday -- those who practice this sutra should certainly read it today; and if you don't perhaps you should try reading it today!

:smile:
O buddhas who continually look upon beings,
I request you to gaze intently upon me.
Your compassionate minds always overflowing,
May you hold the remorseful always near.

Due to countless sinful actions
Performed in hundreds of eons past,
My mind is pierced and stricken with grief,
Wretchedness, sorrow and fear.

Solemnly fearing unwholesome deeds,
I shall always keep my mind modest.
Wherever I commit the smallest action,
I will not succumb to frivolous excitement.

Since buddhas are compassionate
And dispel the fright of all beings,
I entreat them to hold the remorseful fast
And free us from every fear.

May the tathagatas keep at bay
My negative karma and emotion.
May the buddhas always bathe me
With the water of their compassion.
sraddha
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Re: The Golden Light Sutra

Post by sraddha »

O Conqueror, your body resembles refined gold,
For its glorious presence possesses a golden hue.
You are golden like the golden king of mountains.
The White Lotus Seer has features of gold.

Sublime major marks adorn your body in full;
Sublime minor signs embellish your body parts.
You are brilliant and possess the fine splendor of gold.
Utterly pristine, serene as the lord of mountains,
You have the voice of Brahma and Brahma’s melodic sound.

You roar the rumbling song of the lion and that of the dragon too;
Your sixty-fold melody echoes and resounds.
Conqueror, your melody holds cuckoo and peacock songs.
Utterly without stain, spotless and immaculate with glorious light,
O Conqueror, marks of hundreds of virtues adorn you.
Your ocean of wisdom is supremely flawless and pristine;
Conqueror, like Sumeru you are endowed with every virtue.
With supreme compassion for the welfare of beings,
You are the supreme bestower of peace upon the world.
Granting the state of tranquility beyond death,
O Conqueror, you expound the highest sublime truth
And usher in the serenity beyond suffering.

O Conqueror, through revealing the nectar of the Dharma
You usher in the deathless city;
An abode of peace,
You are the source of everything serene.

O Conqueror, you free migrating beings from suffering
And liberate creatures from the ocean of misery;
You place them well upon the path to peace
And give happiness to every being.

Nothing can be found that is comparable
To the sage’s ocean of virtue and wisdom.
Possessing compassion for beings laden with life,
You have the powers of love, perseverance and skill.
Nicholas Weeks
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Re: The Golden Light Sutra

Post by Nicholas Weeks »

Since this glorious sutra is getting more attention in the 2019 Saka Dawa, this thread is being bumped up.

A curiosity (to me) is that the Pali Text Society reprinted in 2016 R.E. Emmerick's translation. Not sure if that reprint was his first edition from 1970 or the 2nd edition that Motilal published.
May all seek, find & follow the Path of Buddhas.
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Könchok Thrinley
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Re: The Golden Light Sutra

Post by Könchok Thrinley »

Also apparently Lama Zopa Rinpoche said students can get a lung from listening to this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tFCRFtOKUg
“Observing samaya involves to remain inseparable from the union of wisdom and compassion at all times, to sustain mindfulness, and to put into practice the guru’s instructions”. Garchen Rinpoche

For those who do virtuous actions,
goodness is what comes to pass.
For those who do non-virtuous actions,
that becomes suffering indeed.

- Arya Sanghata Sutra
Nicholas Weeks
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Re: The Golden Light Sutra

Post by Nicholas Weeks »

Wiki mentions:
In Tibetan, there are three versions of the Sutra: the 21, 29, and 31 chapter versions. The 29 Chapter Version was probably the most popular in Tibet and Tibetan Buddhist regions.
FPMT published a 15, then a 21 chapter version. I wonder if there is, in English, the 29 or 31 chapter versions? Are these really extra chapters, or were some of the longer chapters of the 21 broken up to make 29 or 31 chapters?
May all seek, find & follow the Path of Buddhas.
pemachophel
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Re: The Golden Light Sutra

Post by pemachophel »

I've compared the chapter on Drdha from the 21-chapter version and the 29-chapter version. The 29-chapter version has a whole ritual for invoking Drdha, including building a mandala, and three mantras which the 21-chapter version doesn't include at all. Can't say about any of the other chapters.
Pema Chophel པདྨ་ཆོས་འཕེལ
Nicholas Weeks
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Re: The Golden Light Sutra

Post by Nicholas Weeks »

pemachophel wrote: Sun Jun 09, 2019 10:38 pm I've compared the chapter on Drdha from the 21-chapter version and the 29-chapter version. The 29-chapter version has a whole ritual for invoking Drdha, including building a mandala, and three mantras which the 21-chapter version doesn't include at all. Can't say about any of the other chapters.
That makes sense, many sutras contain tantric, magical stuff, so there may be more in the longer versions.

Since I have not read it straight thru in a long time, I was reminded of the ritualistic elements when reciting the Sarasvati chapter. Much of the sutra emphasizes Buddha's invisible helpers - yakshas, devis, etc.

Since the OP links to the sutra are dead, here is a live one:

https://fpmt.org/wp-content/uploads/tea ... 07lttr.pdf
May all seek, find & follow the Path of Buddhas.
pemachophel
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Re: The Golden Light Sutra

Post by pemachophel »

Yeah, the herbal bath in the Saraswati chapter is really interesting. Although I recongize some of the ingredients, I haven't yet had time to track down the botanical/pharmacological identifications of all the ingredients. In theory, it should be possible to have the "formula" made up in Kathmandu.
Pema Chophel པདྨ་ཆོས་འཕེལ
WeiHan
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Re: The Golden Light Sutra

Post by WeiHan »

This sutra has a chapter on how to purify one's negative karma. The earliest Chinese Mahayana repentance practice is based on this sutra. Then slowly, other repentance practices such as 88 Buddhas confession which includes the Three Heaps Sutra replaced it.
Nicholas Weeks
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Re: The Golden Light Sutra

Post by Nicholas Weeks »

Most of us have heard that our Buddha, in a previous lifetime, gave his body to a starving tigress. This event, in prose and verse, is told in chapter 18 of this sutra. The Tathagata said that sacrifice was a major step toward buddhahood for him. Here is how that chapter ends:
I, the Tathagata Shakyamuni was formerly Mahasattva, Son of King Maharatha who made the tigress well.

Shuddhodana, the great king was the king called Maharatha, and Queen Maya was the sublime queen. Mahapranada became Maitreya. Likewise, Prince Mahadeva was the youthful Manjushri. The tigress was Mahaprajapati; the five bhikshus were her five cubs.

When Mahasattva gave the tigress his body, he made this altruistic wish: “By the merit of completely giving my body, may I, in future times for eons utterly beyond thought, perform the deeds of buddhas for sentient beings.”
May all seek, find & follow the Path of Buddhas.
Nicholas Weeks
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Re: The Golden Light Sutra

Post by Nicholas Weeks »

Here is another PDF version:

Golden-Light Sutra.pdf
(729.62 KiB) Downloaded 122 times
May all seek, find & follow the Path of Buddhas.
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