Week/ Lecture 13 - March 22/17
The Spread of Buddhism to East Asia
Chan/Zen Koans
- A monk asked Zhaozhou, “What is the meaning of the first patriarch Bodhidharma coming
from the west?” The master replied, “The cypress tree standing in the courtyard.”
- Wumen’s commentary: “If you understand Zhaozhou’s answer firsthand, there is no
Sakyamuni from before and no Maitreya to come.” [You yourself are the Buddha right here
and now, without any need for reverencing supernatural beings of the past and future.]
The Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara (Lotus Sūtra, chapter 25)
- “If incalculable hundreds of thousands of myriads of millions of
living beings, suffering pain and torment, hear of this
bodhisattva He Who Observes the Sounds of the World and
single-mindedly call upon his name, the bodhisattva He Who
Observes the Sounds of the World shall straightway heed their
voices, and all shall gain deliverance.”
- “If there is one who keeps the name of this bodhisattva He Who
Observes the Sounds of the World, even if he should fall into a
great fire, the fire would be unable to burn him, thanks to the
imposing supernatural power of this bodhisattva.”
- “If he should be carried off by a great river and call upon this
bodhisattva’s name, then straightaway he would find a shallow
place.”
- “If there are beings in the land who can be conveyed to
deliverance by the body of a buddha, then to them the
bodhisattva He Who Observes the Sounds of the World
preaches dharma by displaying the body of a buddha. To those who can be conveyed to
deliverance by the body of a pratyekabuddha he preaches dharma by displaying the body of
a pratyekabuddha . . .”
- “To those who can be conveyed to deliverance by the body of boy or girl he preaches dharma
by displaying the body of boy or girl. To those who can be conveyed to deliverance by the
body of god, dragon, yakṣa, gandharva, asura, garuḍa, kinnara, mahoraga, human, or
nonhuman he preaches dharma by displaying the appropriate body.”
Dharmakara’s 18th vow
- “If O Blessed One, when I have attained enlightenment,
whatever beings in other worlds, having conceived a desire
for right, perfect enlightenment, and having heard my name,
with favourable intent think upon me, if when the time and
the moment of death are upon them, I, surrounded by and at
the head of my community o mendicants, do not stand
before them to keep them from frustration, may I not, on that
account, attain to unexcelled, right, perfect
enlightenment.” (The Longer Land of Bliss Sutra) Pure Lands
- “That buddha’s realm shall be named Free of Defilements
(Viraja). Its land shall be flat and even, clean, well-adorned,
tranquil, rich and abounding in gods and men. It shall have
vaidurya for soil in an eightfold network of highways, each
bordered with cords of pure gold. At their sides shall be columns
of seven-jeweled trees, constantly bearing blossoms and
fruit.” (Lotus Sutra, 51)
- “That buddha shall have thousand-millionfold worlds equal in
number to Ganges’ sands for a single buddha land, the seven
jewels for earth, land as flat as the palm of the hand, without
mountains or hills, vales or dales, river basins or hollows, the
midst of the land filled with terraces and palaces of the seven
jewels, the residences of its gods in the nearby skies, where men
and gods may consort, each able to see the other, with no evil
destinies, also without women, all living beings being born by transformation, there being no
lewd desires . . .”(Lotus Sūtra, 146)
Pure Lands, in the Vimalakirti Sutra
- “At that time Shariputra, moved by the Buddha’s supernatural powers, thought to himself: ‘If
the mind of the bodhisattva is pure, then his Buddha land will be pure. Now when our World
- Honored One first determined to become a bodhisattva, surely his intentions were pure. Why
then is this Buddha land so filled with impurities?’”
- “The Buddha, knowing his thoughts, said to him, ‘What do you think? Are the sun and the
moon impure? Is that why the blind man fails to see them?’”(Vimalakirti Sutra, 29)
- “Shariputra replied, ‘No, World-Honored One. That is the fault of the blind man. The sun and
moon are not to blame.’” (Vimalakirti Sutra, 29)
- “Shariputra, it is the failings of living beings what prevent them from seeing the marvelous
pu
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