LUSB 401 - THE NEVERENDING DHARMA
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LUSB 401 - THE NEVERENDING DHARMA

The Neverending Dharma or How to Read a Sutra

DESCRIPTION

Unlike the Christian Bible or the Islamic Quran, there is no single text or even collection of texts that all practicing Buddhists regard as sacred. Rather, there is an entire genre of poetic literature know as sūtras which are considered sacred, with hundreds if not thousands of sūtras in the smallest of Buddhist canons. What is amazing is that almost all sūtras have the same general format, beginning with the phrase ‘Thus have I heard,’ followed by the location in which the events happened, the audience, and the occasion for the teaching, which is typically someone from the gathered audience asking the Buddha a question. While many sūtras do appear to be simply ‘records’ of things that were said by the Buddha in response to these questions, especially those sūtras attributed to the earlier periods of Buddhist history, the majority of sūtras, especially those of the Mahāyāna traditions of Central and East Asia, are literary marvels weaving together complex tapestries of allegory, narration, and philosophical discourse.

This course is a broad overview of the history, translation, and transmission of Buddhist sūtras, from what is known of their origins up to their availability in the modern world. This course also covers what is unknown about sūtras; the lost and forgotten, and what has yet to be translated or even looked at.

Primary Reading

1️⃣ Steven Collins, “On the very idea of the Pali Canon” Journal of the Pali Text Society, XV (1990), p. 89-126

On the Very Idea of the Pāli Canon - Steven Collins_text.pdf3986.6KB

2️⃣ Paul Harrison, “Mediums and Messages: Reflections on the Production of Mahāyāna Sūtras” in The Eastern Buddhist XXXV, 1&2, p115-151

Mediums and Messages_Harrison.pdf2395.5KB

3️⃣ K. Priscilla Pedersen, “Notes on the Ratnakūṭa Collection” Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, Vol. 3, No. 2, 1980, pp. 60-66

Notes on the Ratnakūṭa Collection.pdf494.6KB

4️⃣ Donald S. Lopez Jr. The Lotus Sūtra: A Biography (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2016)

5️⃣ Imre Hamar, “The History of the Buddhāvataṃsaka Sūtra: Shorter and Longer Texts” in Reflecting Mirrors: Perspectives on Huayan Buddhism (Asiatische Forschungen) (Harrassowitz Verlag; 1., Aufl. ed. edition, 2007), p. 139 -168

Reflecting_Mirrors_Perspectives_on_Huaya (1).pdf18259.6KB

6️⃣ Arthur Waley, The Real Tripitaka (London: Geaorge Allen and Unwin Ltd), p. 85-94

7️⃣ Philip B. Yampolsky, The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch, from the Introduction, ‘Formation of the Legend (New York; Columbia University Press, 1967), p.1-55.

Yampolsky_Platform Sutra.pdf2959.1KB

8️⃣

Suggested Reading

Kōgen Mizuno, Buddhist Sutras: Origin, Development, Transmission (Tokyo; Kosei Publishing, 1982)

SYLLABUS

🕉️Session 1 - The Tripiṭaka 🕉️Session 2 - The Bodhisattva-Piṭaka 🕉️Session 3 - The Mahāratnakūṭa and other collections🕉️Session 4 - The Lotus Sūtra 🕉️Session 5 - The Buddhāvataṃsaka Sūtra🕉️Session 6 - The Tripiṭaka Master 🕉️Session 7 - Collected Sayings 🕉️Session 8 - The Mantra-Piṭaka