The Drama of Cosmic Enlightenment, White Lotus Sutra

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members of the group may wish to share from engaging with material or other exercises in the Appendix. 3. Conclude your session by reading the excerpt from the Abridgement again. Triratna Dharma Training Course for Mitras Year Four – Module 4: The Drama of Cosmic Enlightenment Parables, Myths and Symbols of the Saddharma-puṇḍarīka Sūtra http://freebuddhistaudio.com/study Page 24 of 150
Unit 6 – The Jewel in the Lotus Aim To continue to explore the symbolism of lower and higher self through firstly the parables of the ‗Place of Jewels‘, and the ‗Drunkard and the Jewel‘, and secondly that of Avalokiteśvara‘s mantra. Preparation While Chapter 10‘s parable of the ‗Drunkard and the Jewel‘ has similar motifs to that in the ‗Myth of the Return Journey‘, there are some essential differences that are interesting to explore. At the same time, as Sangharakshita demonstrates in his lecture, the parable has close resonances with Avalokiteśvara‘s mantra. So, although Avalokiteśvara‘s role in the Lotus Sūtra is arguably peripheral, this is an opportunity to pay attention to Chapter 25, devoted to perhaps the most prominent of Mahāyāna Bodhisattvas. For a succinct recapitulation of this section of the Sūtra, read the relevant paragraphs, reproduced here, from Chapter Nine of Sangharakshita‘s The Eternal Legacy, pp.114- 117. ―Interest now shifts from the future to the past. Addressing the whole body of his disciples, the Buddha speaks of Mahābhijñājñanabhibhu, a Tathāgata who had flourished incalculable aeons earlier and whose career in certain respects parallels his own. While the rest of this Buddha‘s followers had remained content with the Hīnayāna doctrine, his sixteen śrāmaṇera sons, born before his retirement from the world, had aspired to Supreme Enlightenment, and for their benefit he had preached the Saddharma-puṇḍarīka. All of them had subsequently been crowned with the highest spiritual achievement, the youngest being none other than the speaker, Śākyamuni, himself. The countless beings to whom the sixteen, as śrāmaṇeras, had given instruction, were now reborn as human beings and had become Hīnayāna bhikshus. Similarly those who, at the time of his parinirvāṇa, were still unable to accept the Mahāyāna, would be reborn in other world-systems where, under his guidance, they would continue their training and be led, eventually, into the way of Supreme Enlightenment. His seeming entry into parinirvāṇa was only a device for training monks of lower aims. In reality there could be only one parinirvāṇa and one yāna, not a second or a third. The Tathāgata preached the Hīnayāna Nirvana for the sake of those who were bent on the enjoyment of trifling things and deeply attached to human desires. This is illustrated by a parable: A guide is conducting a large party of travellers through a dense forest, along a dangerous and difficult road, to Ratnadvīpa, ‗The Place of Jewels‘, their destination. On the way the travellers become exhausted, and tell the guide they want to turn back. The latter, out of pity, thereupon conjures up a magic city and invites them to rest and refresh themselves therein. Only when they have regained Triratna Dharma Training Course for Mitras Year Four – Module 4: The Drama of Cosmic Enlightenment Parables, Myths and Symbols of the Saddharma-puṇḍarīka Sūtra http://freebuddhistaudio.com/study Page 25 of 150
Page 1 and 2: Triratna Dharma Training Course for
Page 3 and 4: you could share this with other gro
Page 5 and 6: We may discover it comes as quite a
Page 7 and 8: References affinity with it, becaus
Page 9 and 10: Unit 2 - The Mahāyāna’s Stance
Page 11 and 12: The Mahāyāna derives its inspirat
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Page 21 and 22: offering his children different car
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Page 31 and 32: Saddharma-puṇḍarīka, XXIV, vv
Page 33 and 34: Read Chapter Five of the Sūtra. As
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Page 41 and 42: ―To see a World in a Grain of San
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Page 47 and 48: White Lotus Sūtra Appendix Introdu
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Page 63 and 64: as by a class of Mahāyāna Sūtras
Page 65 and 66: The Great Drama concludes with Śā
Page 67 and 68: Abridgement of the White Lotus Sūt
Page 69 and 70: Delight our every heart. The earth
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Such hear not the name of Buddha, N
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‗The Buddha-way which I walk, I w
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Adornment.‘ Why? Because your Bod
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capable of pulling the chariot smoo
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Chapter 4: Belief And Understanding
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eing seized?‘ But the attendant h
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‗You shall become Buddhas!‘ We
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Homage all prostrate, Every kind of
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Each in their different soils, Each
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I teach the Dharma equally; As I te
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close by. That great city was a mer
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Like this also were we, and Like th
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And wearing the Tathagata robe, Sit
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universe the Saddharma-puṇḍarī
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Ananda: Śākyamuni Buddha at once
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This Sūtra so hard to keep, If any
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Assuming the name of Aranyas, Will
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Chapter 14: Steadfastness Ananda: T
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Manjushri, when a son of the Buddha
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Will behold the wonderful: Seen wil
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They are thus assembled? Mighty of
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I from a long distant past Have tau
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observe their faith and all their f
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Who heals all misery and affliction
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Chapter 22: Entrustment Ananda: Whe
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http://freebuddhistaudio.com/series
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Appendix: Unit 5 - The Myth of the
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Appendix: Unit 6 - The Jewel in the
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your Ārya body and hear the six sy
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http://freebuddhistaudio.com/talks/
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Appendix: Unit 8 - The Revelation o
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Serindia: http://www.serindia.com/i
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as it were, (again a metaphor so do
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abstract ideas, concepts, and the o
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Buddhahood, which is in the dimensi
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It doesn‘t mean that if you take
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mind. In the place, as it were, if
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And in the second case, when we reg
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The Drama of Cosmic Enlightenment, White Lotus Sutra

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