Buddhist Sutras online

[Trunk]

Found this useful site:

Mahayana Buddhist Sutras in English

 

If you have links to other useful Buddhist online resources, this might be a good catch-all thread.

[C T]

http://www.dharmamirror.org/feature/221drounds.asp

[Jetsun]

I was reading about this Sutra just now in a Nan Huai Chin book, he says it is one of the most important and useful Sutras you can find, you can find free copies online but I wonder what the best translation is?

[C T]

I was reading about this Sutra just now in a Nan Huai Chin book, he says it is one of the most important and useful Sutras you can find, you can find free copies online but I wonder what the best translation is?

Not sure which is the best translation, Jetsun. Not many are available. Master Hsuan Hua's detailed work on this sutra is well noted.

 

http://www.cttbusa.org/shurangama1/shurangama_contents.asp

Edited April 28, 2012 by C T

[Vmarco]

I was reading about this Sutra just now in a Nan Huai Chin book, he says it is one of the most important and useful Sutras you can find, you can find free copies online but I wonder what the best translation is?

 

Many like translations with commentaries,...just remember, it's just commentary.

 

http://www.longbeach...0commentary.pdf

 

To me, the Surangama sutra is the most specific of the sutras. Suppose one reads the Fire Sermon,...and they're scratching their heads saying how do I actually get beyond the 6 senses so to have a direct experience. The answer is in the Surangama.

 

 

Avalokitesvara's Dharma-Gate

 

"Avalokitesvara(Contemplator of the World's Sounds) Bodhisattva arose from his seat, bowed at the Buddha's feet, and said to the Buddha:

 

"Bhagavan, I remember when, as many eons ago as there are sand grains in the Ganges, there was a Buddha in the world named Contemplator of the World's Sounds. I aroused the Bodhi-Heart while with that Buddha, who taught me to enter Samadhi through a process of hearing and reflecting."

 

"Initially, I entered into the flow of hearing and forgot the place of entry. Since both that place and the entry were quiet, the two attributes of motion and stillness cancelled each other out and did not arise. After that, gradually advancing, the hearing and what was heard both disappeared. Once the hearing was ended, there was nothing to rely on, and both awareness and its objects became empty. When the emptiness of awareness was ultimately perfected, emptiness and what was being emptied then also ceased to be. With arising and ceasing gone, tranquility was revealed."

 

...."Bhagavan, also due to the effortless wonderful strength of this Vajra Samadhi of Becoming Permeated with Hearing and Cultivating Hearing, I have a kind empathy for all beings in the six paths throughout the ten directions and the three periods of time. Based on my physical and mental accomplishments, I can cause beings who encounter bodies of mine to receive the meritorious virtues of fourteen kinds of fearlessness."

 

First: because I do not contemplate sounds themselves, but rather the contemplator, I can enable beings throughout the ten directions who are suffering and in distress to attain liberation by ccontemplating their sounds of reciting my name.

 

"Second: since I am able to turn my knowledge and views inward, I can keep beings who are caught in a raging fire from being burned."

 

"Third: since I am able to turn my contemplation and listening inward, I can keep beings who are floundering in deep water from being drowned."

 

"Fourth, since my false thinking is cut off and my mind is without thoughts of killing or harming, I can keep beings who enter the territory of ghosts from being harmed."

 

"Fifth: since I am permeated with hearing and have realized what hearing is, so that the six sense-organs have dissolved and returned to become identical with hearing, I can keep beings from being wounded, by causing the knives to break into pieces. I can cause swords to have no more effect than if they were to slice into water, or if one were to blow upon light."

 

"Sixth: since my hearing has become permeating and my essential energy bright, light pervades the Dharma Realm so that absolutely no darkness remains. Then I can keep beings safe from yakshas, rakshasas, kumbhandas, pishachas, and putanas by causing the ghosts to be unable to see them even if they come close to them."

 

"Seventh: since the nature of sound has completely melted away and through contemplation my hearing has returned to itself, leaving involvement with false and defiling sense-objects, I can free beings from the locks of cangues and fetters."

 

"Eighth: when sound is gone and the hearing is perfected, an all-pervasive power of compassion arises, and I keep beings who are travelling a dangerous road from being robbed by robbers."

 

"Ninth: when hearing permeates, a separation from defiling objects occurs so that forms no longer act as thieves. Then I can enable with lust to leave greed and desire far behind."

 

"Tenth: when sound is so pure that there is no defiling object, the sense-organ and the external state are perfectly fused, and nothing is matched to anything else. Then I can enable beings who are full of rage and hate to stop being hateful."

 

"Eleventh: when the defiling objects have gone, a light spirals, and the Dharma Realm and the body and mind are like crystal, transparent and unobstructed. Then I can enableall dark and dull-witted beings whose natures are obstructed¡ªall atyantikas¡ªto forever be free from stupidity and darkness."

 

"Twelfth: when form dissipates and returns to the hearing, then unmoving within the unmoving Bodhimanda I can travel among beings without disturbing anything in their worlds. I can go through the ten directions making offerings to as many Buddhas, Tathagatas, as there are atoms of universe. Beside each Buddha I become a Dharma Prince, and I can enable childless beings throughout the Dharma Realm who wish to have sons to be blessed with meritorious, virtuous, and wise sons."

 

"Thirteenth: with perfect penetration of the six sense-organs, the light and what is illumined are not two. Encompassing the ten directions, a great perfect mirror stands in the Empty Treasury of the Tathagata. I inherit the secret Dharma-doors of as many Tathagatas as there are atoms of universe throughout the ten directions, receiving them without loss. I can enable childless beings throughout the Dharma Realm who seek daughters to be blessed with lovely daughters who are upright, virtuous, and compliant and whom everyone cherishes and respects."

 

"Fourteenth: In this three-thousand-great-thousand world system with its billions of suns and moons, as many Dharma princes as there are grains of sands in sixty-two Ganges Rivers appear in the world, cultivate the Dharma, and act as models in order to teach and transform beings. They comply with beings by means of expedients and wisdom, in different ways for each."

 

....As soon as one sense-organ returns to the source, All the six are liberated.

[styrofoamdog]

These are some translations I've made over the last few years:

 

Lapis Lazuli Texts: Translations

 

There are a few short Daoist classics in here (Baizi Bei and Qingjing Jing), but most of the focus is on Buddhist sutras from the Chinese Buddhist canon. I've been starting to write a few articles as well, but that effort is definitely in the early stages. The end goal is a nice set of freely-available translations and some articles on meditation and cultivation to supplement these. I'll stop plugging my own site now.

 

Rulu also has a nice site with translations of mostly Mahayana texts, including some rare ones that most scholars on the matter aren't even aware of:

 

SutrasMantras.info

 

Rulu has many translations, and it must have taken quite a long time to make all of them. I think there are only a very few people who are doing their own translation projects like this. They are very much DIY efforts.

[forestofemptiness]

Mahayana Sutras with Hsuan Hua's Commentary:

 

http://www.cttbusa.org/sutraswithcommentaries.asp

 

Tipitika, Theravada Suttas:

 

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/index.html

 

A wide variety of all types:

 

http://www.fodian.net/world/index.html

 

Buddhanet E-Books:

 

http://www.buddhanet.net/ebooks.htm

[JustARandomPanda]

Copied from another post:

 

Here is the wonderful Heart Sutra

 

 

Om, Homage to the Perfection of Wisdom the Lovely, the Holy

 

Avalokitasvara, the Holy Lord and Bodhisattva, was moving in the deep course of the Wisdom which has gone beyond.

 

he looked down from on high, He beheld but five heaps, and he saw that in their own being they were empty.

 

Here, O Sariputra,

 

form is emptiness and the very emptiness is form;

 

emptiness does not differ from form, form does not differ from emptiness, whatever is emptiness, that is form,

 

the same is true of feelings, perceptions, impulses, and consciousness.

 

Here, O Sariputra,

 

all dharmas are marked with emptiness;

 

they are not produced or stopped, not defiled or immaculate, not deficient or complete.

 

Therefore, O Sariputra,

 

in emptiness there is no form nor feeling, nor perception, nor impulse, nor consciousness;

 

No eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind; No forms, sounds, smells, tastes, objects to touch, or objects of mind; No sight-organ element, and so forth, until we come to:

 

No mind-consciousness element; There is no ignorance, no extinction of ignorance, and so forth, until we come to:

 

There is no decay and death, no extinction of decay and death. There is no suffering, no origination, no stopping, and no path.

 

There is no cognition, no attainment and no non-attainment.

 

Therefore, O Sariputra,

 

it is because of his non-attainmentness that a Bodhisattva, through having relied on the Perfection of Wisdom, dwells without thought-coverings. In the absence of thought-coverings he has not been made to tremble,

 

he has overcome what can upset, and in the end he attains to Nirvana.

 

All those who appear as Buddhas in the three periods of time fully awake to the utmost, right, and perfect Enlightenment because they have relied on the Perfection of Wisdom.

 

Therefore one should know the Perfection of Wisdom as the great spell, the spell of great knowledge, the utmost spell, the unequaled spell, allayer of all suffering, in truth - for what could go wrong? By the Perfection of Wisdom has this spell been delivered. It is like this:

 

gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha.

 

This completes the Heart of perfect Wisdom.

[Thunder_Gooch]

Thanks for this!

 

The Heart Sutra is exactly what I've been looking for!!!

 

[styrofoamdog]

I was reading about this Sutra just now in a Nan Huai Chin book, he says it is one of the most important and useful Sutras you can find, you can find free copies online but I wonder what the best translation is?

There are three principle translations that I am aware of:

 

1. Translation by Charles Luk. This is available in PDF format online for free (legally), but is a bit older, and is not in a very convenient format for reading. Some notes by Hanshan Deqing from the Ming Dynasty are included.
    
   
2. First translation by the Buddhist Text Translation Society. This is just the sutra text, and there are some 8 or 9 additional volumes available of Master Hsuan Hua's commentary, which were published in the same "series".
    
   
3. Second translation by the Buddhist Text Translation Society. This is meant to replace the previous version, and is a completely new translation. It includes a little commentary by Master Hsuan Hua.
   

Of the three texts, I like #3 the most. It is in a very nice format, and represents the "latest and greatest" of the Shurangama Sutra translations. When it came out, it was even given a little website: http://surangama.drba.org.

[Harmonious Emptiness]

ha ha. Was trying to find this topic. Of course, hiding in plain sight right at the top of the page...

 

Many Sutras and other writings in pdf

http://www.buddhanet.net/ebooks_ms.htm

[Harmonious Emptiness]

Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment:

 

http://www.buddhism.org/board/read.cgi?board=Sutra&y_number=1

 

 

I find this sutra sort of explains the concepts of the Diamond Sutra but more explicitly. Especially in regards to the idea of chasing Enlightenment to fulfill the self which can not pass through to Nirvana. Not that the path should be abandoned, but that one should recognize the illusion of a self which seeks to be Enlightened. Yes, paradoxical no doubt, but entirely logical all at the same time.

 

One could also start with the poem summaries at the close of each chapter to get a sense of the sutra if so desired.

 

..

[JustARandomPanda]

Here are two different translations of the Mahavairocana sutra (aka Vairocanasambodhi Sutra)

 

Note: This "sutra" is actually a tantra.

 

Here is Wikipedia's page on the Mahavairocana sutra

 

 

1. Mahavairocana Sutra - pdf

 

2. Vairocanasambodhi Sutra - pdf

[Gerard]

.

 

 

 

Edited September 16, 2013 by Gerard

[Simple_Jack]

http://suttacentral.net/ - An alternative resource, to accesstoinsight.org, for sutta translations w/ parallels from the Agamas in Chinese, Sanskrit, Tibetan, Gandhari, etc.

 

Dhammpada translation by Daw Mya Tin, M.A.: http://www.tipitaka.net/tipitaka/dhp/index.php

Edited March 15, 2014 by Simple_Jack

[Simple_Jack]

http://84000.co/ - translations of texts from the Tibetan Kangyur.

[Simple_Jack]

http://samyukta-agama.blogspot.tw/ - Translation of Samyukta Agama discourses by Bhikkhu Analayo

[dawei]

IBC Sadao Intranet

 

http://elibrary.ibc.ac.th/node/470

[Simple_Jack]

2009 translation of the Shurangama Sutra publicly made available for free download by BTTS: http://www.buddhisttexts.org/surangama.html

 

Description:
For over a thousand years, the Śūraṅgama Sūtra — the “Sūtra of the Indestructible”— has been held in great esteem in the Mahāyāna Buddhist countries of East and Southeast Asia. In China the Sūtra has generally been considered as important, and has been as popular as the Lotus Sūtra, the Avataṁsaka Sūtra, the Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, the Heart Sūtra, and the Diamond Sūtra. The appeal of the Śūraṅgama Sūtra lies in the broad scope of its teachings and in the depth and clarity of its prescriptions for contemplative practice. Its wealth of theoretical and practical instruction in the spiritual life often made it the first major text to be studied by newly ordained monks, particularly in the Chan School. Many enlightened masters and illustrious monastic scholars have written exegetical commentaries on it. To this day, for both clergy and laity in the Chinese Buddhist tradition, the Śūraṅgama Sūtra continues to be the object of devout study, recitation, and memorization.

Much of the Sutra unfolds in the form of a dialogue between Buddha Shakyamuni and his cousin Ananda, whose personal story provides a narrative frame for the discourse. The Buddha shows Ananda how to turn the attention of his sense faculties inward in order to achieve a deeply focused state of meditation known as samadhi. The Buddha gives instruction in moral purity, in correct understanding of the mind, in avoidance of dangers that may be encountered when absorbed in meditation, and in the practice of the Surangama mantra, which lies at the heart of the Sutra.

[Simple_Jack]

The "Ratnakutasutra" [http://books.google.com/books?id=n7HabuPxdLMC&source=gbs_navlinks_s] which consists of the "Triskandhadharmasutra" ("Sutra of the Three Heaps") that informs an integral practice of all Mahayana traditions: confession of ethical downfalls to abate karmic obstructions in one's mindstream -- http://www.mstcdharma.org/Microsoft%20Word%20-%20confession%20to%20thirty%20five%20Buddhas.pdf.

 

Chinese Buddhism adds 53 buddhas from another sutra -- http://middleland.org/services/88-buddhas-repentance-ceremony/.

 

http://kongmu.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/eighty-eight-buddhas-repentance.pdf -- From this webpage describing the aim of the 88 buddhas repentance practice: http://kongmu.wordpress.com/2011/10/09/88-buddhas/

 

Interesting suttas providing context to practices of giving offerings to hungry ghosts/ancestors:

 

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an10/an10.177.than.html

 

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/pv/pv.1.05.than.html

 

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/dn/dn.31.0.ksw0.html - Buddha's advice to Sigalaka on layperson's code of discipline.

[Simple_Jack]

"The Vimalakirti Sutra" trans. by John R. McRae -- http://www.wisdomlib.org/buddhism/book/the-vimalak%C4%ABrti-sutra/index.html

[Simple_Jack]

Dana-Vacchagotta Sutta ("Benefits of wise giving to those freed from mental hindrances") -- http://dharmafarer.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/22.12-Dana-Vacchagotta-S-A-3.57-piya.pdf

Edited December 10, 2014 by Simple_Jack

[Simple_Jack]

1st "Discourse on the Leashed" translated by Piya Tan -- http://dharmafarer.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/28.7a-Gaddula-S-1-s22.99-piya.pdf

 

2nd "Discourse on the Leashed" translated by Piya Tan -- http://dharmafarer.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/28.7b-Gaddula-S-2-s22.100-piya.pdf

 

"Discourse on the Honey-ball" translated by Piya Tan -- http://dharmafarer.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/6.14-Madhupindika-S-m18-piya.pdf

 

"Skill in Questions: How the Buddha Taught" by Thanissaro Bhikkhu -- http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/skill-in-questions.pdf

[Simple_Jack]

BDK has made their translations of Buddhist texts available for free download (in PDF format) on their website: http://www.bdk.or.jp/bdk/digitaldl.html

[No One]

I found a really good site on the Reddit Pure Land page I will try to dig it up.  Useful it was.  Other than that and Buddhist Text Translation Society I cannot recommend anything further, other than perhaps these rare treasures that I will not be reading until I am training under a Master again.  I only read one sutra currently as the foundation of my practice is lacking, specifically in morality and wholesome ways, The Ten Wholesome Ways 

 

 

Nice ebay page here I got it from: www.ebay.com/usr/purelandbuddhism?_trksid=p2047675.l2559

 

The rare treasures: www.amazon.com/Infinite-Life-Sutra-Larger-Sukhavativyuha/dp/1514182750

 

& the other one is so rare I cannot even remember the name, but the copy available on Amazon was several hundred dollars anyways.  I read a good portion of it at a martial arts Institute and Temple I have been demonically cut off from by own mistakes and am now treading for dear life on a wrong path.

 

Knowing I have gone astray I seek to return to wholesome ways and the right path under a genuine Master.

Edited May 9, 2017 by No One