World Sacred Scriptures

The Lankavatara Sutra

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W hen things are examined by right knowledge there are no signs obtainable which would characterize them with marks of individuality and generality, therefore, they are said to have no self-nature. Because these signs of individuality and generality are seen both as existing and yet are known to be non-existent, are seen as going out and yet are known not to be going out, they are never annihilated. Why is this true? For this reason; because the individual signs that should make up the self-nature of all things are non-existent. Again in their self-nature things are both eternal and non-eternal. Things are not eternal because the marks of individuality appear and disappear, that is, the marks of self-nature are characterized by non-eternality. On the other hand, because things are unborn and are only mind-made, they are in a deep sense eternal. That is, things are eternal because of their very non-eternality.

temple_buddhist

quote 2557 | The Lankavatara Sutra
Ch.III, p.295, in Dwight Goddard, A Buddhist bible

M ahamati, you and all the Bodhisattvas must seek for this inner self-realization of Noble Wisdom, and not be captivated by word-teaching.

temple_buddhist

quote 2556 | The Lankavatara Sutra
Ch.II, p.293, in Dwight Goddard, A Buddhist bible

M ahamati, you and all the Bodhisattvas should discipline yourselves in the realization and patient acceptance of the truths of the emptiness, un-bornness, no self-natureness, and the nonduality of all things. This teaching is found in all the sutras of all the Buddhas and is presented to meet the varied dispositions of all beings, but it is not the Truth itself. These teachings are only a finger pointing toward Noble Wisdom. They are like a mirage with its springs of water which the deer take to be real and chase after. So with the teachings in all the sutras: They are intended for the consideration and guidance of the discriminating minds of all people, but they are not the Truth itself, which can only be self-realized within one's deepest consciousness.

temple_buddhist

quote 2555 | The Lankavatara Sutra
Ch.II, p.292, in Dwight Goddard, A Buddhist bible

C onditions of existence are not of a mutually exclusive character; in essence things are not two but one. Even Nirvana and Samsara's world of life and death are aspects of the same thing, for there is no Nirvana except where is Samsara, and no Samsara except where is Nirvana. All duality is falsely imagined.

temple_buddhist

quote 2554 | The Lankavatara Sutra
Ch.II, p.292, in Dwight Goddard, A Buddhist bible

M aya, however, is not an unreality because it only has the appearance of reality; all things have the nature of maya. It is not because all things are imagined and clung to because of the multitudinousness of individual signs, that they are like maya; it is because they are alike unreal and as quickly appearing and disappearing. Being attached to erroneous thoughts they confuse and contradict themselves and others. As they do not clearly grasp the fact that the world is no more than mind itself, they imagine and cling to causation, work, birth and individual signs, and their thoughts are characterized by error and false-imaginations. The teaching that all things are characterized by the self-nature of maya and a dream is meant to make the ignorant and simple-minded cast aside the idea of self-nature in anything.

temple_buddhist

quote 2553 | The Lankavatara Sutra
Ch.II, p.292, in Dwight Goddard, A Buddhist bible

E rror is like maya, also, and as maya is incapable from producing other maya, so error in itself cannot produce error; it is discrimination and attachment that produce evil thoughts and faults. Moreover, maya has no power of discrimination in itself; it only rises when invoked by the charm of the magician. Error has in itself no habit-energy; habit-energy only rises from discrimination and attachment. Error in itself has no faults; faults are due to the confused discriminations fondly cherished by the ignorant concerning the ego-soul and its mind. The wise have nothing to do either with maya or error.

temple_buddhist

quote 2552 | The Lankavatara Sutra
Ch.II, p.292, in Dwight Goddard, A Buddhist bible

L ikewise based upon the notion of relativity false-imagination perceives a variety of appearances which the discriminating mind proceeds to objectify and name and become attached to, and memory and habit-energy perpetuate. Here is all that is necessary to constitute the self-nature of false-imagination.

temple_buddhist

quote 2551 | The Lankavatara Sutra
Ch.II, p.290, in Dwight Goddard, A Buddhist bible

F alse- imagination teaches that because all things are bound up with causes and conditions of habit-energy that has been accumulating since beginningless time by not recognizing that the external world is of mind itself, all things are comprehensible tinder the aspects of individuality and generality. By reason of clinging to these false- imaginations there is multitudinousness of appearances which are imagined to be real but which are only imaginary.

temple_buddhist

quote 2550 | The Lankavatara Sutra
Ch.II, p.290, in Dwight Goddard, A Buddhist bible

T he Blessed One replied: So long as people do not understand the true nature of the objective world, they fall into the dualistic view of things. They imagine the multiplicity of external objects to be real and become attached to them and are nourished by their habit-energy. Because of this a system of mentation-mind and what belongs to it-is discriminated and it thought of as real; this leads to the assertion of an ego-soul and its belongings, and thus the mind-system goes on functioning.

temple_buddhist

quote 2549 | The Lankavatara Sutra
Ch.II, p.289, in Dwight Goddard, A Buddhist bible

W hen ideas of body, property and abode are seen, discriminated and cherished in what after all is nothing but what is conceived by the mind itself, an external world is perceived under the aspects of individuality and generality which, however, are not realities, and, therefore, neither a gradual nor a simultaneous rising of things is possible. It is only when the mind-system comes into activity and discriminates the manifestations of mind that existence can be said to come into view.

temple_buddhist

quote 2548 | The Lankavatara Sutra
Ch.II, p.288, in Dwight Goddard, A Buddhist bibles

W ords and sentences are produced by the law of causation and are mutually conditioning, they cannot express highest Reality. Moreover, in highest Reality there are no differentiations to be discriminated and there is nothing to be predicated in regard to it. Highest Reality is an exalted state of bliss, it is not a state of word-discrimination and it cannot be entered into by mere statements concerning it. The Tathagatas have a better way of teaching, namely, through self-realization of Noble Wisdom.

temple_buddhist

quote 2547 | The Lankavatara Sutra
Ch.II, p.287, in Dwight Goddard, A Buddhist bible

D iscrimination of meaning is based upon the false-imagination that these sweet sounds which we call words and which are dependent upon whatever subjects they are supposed to stand for, and which subjects are supposed to be self-existent, all of which is on error. Disciples should be on their guard against the seductions of words and sentences and their illusive meanings, for by them the ignorant and the dull-witted become entangled and helpless as an elephant floundering about in the deep mud.

temple_buddhist

quote 2546 | The Lankavatara Sutra
Ch.II, p.286, in Dwight Goddard, A Buddhist bible

W ords are an artificial creation;
[…] No, Mahamati, the validity of things is independent of the validity of words.

temple_buddhist

quote 2545 | The Lankavatara Sutra
Ch.II, p.286, in Dwight Goddard, A Buddhist bible

T he assertion of philosophical views concerning the elements that make up personality and its environing world that are non-existent, assume the existence of an ego, a being, a soul, a living being, a "nourisher," or a spirit. This is an example of philosophical views that are not true. It is this combination of discrimination of imaginary marks of individuality, grouping them and giving them a name and becoming attached to them as objects, by reason of habit-energy that has been accumulating since beginningless time, that one builds up erroneous views whose only basis is false-imagination. For this reason Bodhisattvas should avoid all discussions relating to assertions and negations whose only basis is words and logic.

temple_buddhist

quote 2544 | The Lankavatara Sutra
Ch.II, p.285, in Dwight Goddard, A Buddhist bible

B ut the way of instruction presented by the Tathagatas is not based on assertions and refutations by means of words and logic.

temple_buddhist

quote 2543 | The Lankavatara Sutra
Ch.II, p.284, in Dwight Goddard, A Buddhist bible

T he Blessed One replied, saying: Mahamati, the error in these erroneous teachings that are generally held by the philosophers lies in this: they do not recognize that the objective world rises from the mind itself; they do not understand that the whole mind-system also rises from the mind itself; but depending upon these manifestations of the mind as being real they go on discriminating them, like the simple-minded ones that they are, cherishing the dualism of this and that, of being and non-being, ignorant of the fact that there is but one common Essence.

temple_buddhist

quote 2542 | The Lankavatara Sutra
Ch.II, p.283, in Dwight Goddard, A Buddhist bible

B ecause of folly they do not understand that all things are like maya, like the reflection of the moon in water, that there is no self-substance to be imagined as an ego-soul and its belongings, and that all their definitive ideas rise from their false discriminations of what exists only as it is seen of the mind itself. They do not realize that things have nothing to do with qualified and qualifying, nor with the course of birth, abiding and destruction, and instead they assert that they are born of a creator, of time, of atoms, of some celestial spirit. It is because the ignorant are given up to discrimination that they move along with the stream of appearances, but it is not so with the wise.

temple_buddhist

quote 2541 | The Lankavatara Sutra
Ch I, p.282, in Dwight Goddard, A Buddhist bible

T hen said Mahamati to the Blessed One: Why is it that the ignorant are given up to discrimination and the wise are not?
The Blessed One replied: It is because the ignorant cling to names, signs and ideas; as their minds move along these channels they feed on multiplicities of objects and fall into the notion of an ego-soul and what belongs to it; they make discriminations of good and bad among appearances and cling to the agreeable. As they thus cling there is a reversion to ignorance, and karma born of greed, anger and folly, is accumulated. As the accumulation of karma goes on they become imprisoned in a cocoon of discrimination and are thenceforth unable to free themselves from the round of birth and death.

temple_buddhist

quote 2540 | The Lankavatara Sutra
Ch I, p.282, in Dwight Goddard, A Buddhist bible

M ahamati, since the ignorant and simple-minded, not knowing that the world is only something seen of the mind itself, cling to the multitudinousness of' external objects, cling to the notions of being and non-being, oneness and otherness, bothness and not-bothness, existence and non-existence, eternity and non-eternity, and think that they have a self-nature of their own, all of which rises from the discriminations of the mind and is perpetuated by habit-energy, and from which they are given over to false imagination.

temple_buddhist

quote 2539 | The Lankavatara Sutra
Ch I, p.279, in Dwight Goddard, A Buddhist bible

B y tranquility is meant Oneness, and Oneness gives birth to the highest Samadhi which is gained by entering into the realm of Noble Wisdom that is realizable only within one's inmost consciousness.

temple_buddhist

quote 2538 | The Lankavatara Sutra
Ch I, p.277, in Dwight Goddard, A Buddhist bible

A ll that is seen in the world is devoid of effort and action because all things in the world are like a dream, or like an image miraculously projected. This is not comprehended by the philosophers and the ignorant, but those who thus see things see them truthfully. Those who see things otherwise walk in discrimination and, as they depend upon discrimination, they cling to dualism. The world as seen by discrimination is like seeing one's own image reflected in a mirror, or one's shadow, or the moon reflected in water, or an echo heard in the valley. People grasping their own shadows of discrimination become attached to this thing and that thing and failing to abandon dualism they go on forever discriminating and thus never attain tranquility.

temple_buddhist

quote 2537 | The Lankavatara Sutra
Ch I, p.277, in Dwight Goddard, A Buddhist bible

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