The Drama of Cosmic Enlightenment, White Lotus Sutra

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4. What is your own personal bias in respect of abstract, conceptual language on the one hand, and non-rational, poetic language on the other? How does this work itself out in your own life? How is this reflected in terms of how you relate to scientific and poetic truths? 5. How do you relate to the contention that archetypal experience is as significant as our ongoing everyday experience of ourself? In the group Share and discuss any relevant experience sparked off by reading the text above and the questions that have been of interest to you, as well as any other issues relating to the principal themes of the unit. 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 8 of 150
Unit 2 – The Mahāyāna’s Stance Aim This unit, in focusing on the spiritual tradition of the Mahāyāna from which the Saddharma-puṇḍarīka Sūtra emerged, aims to help us clarify some of the spiritual concerns and attitudes that inspired Mahāyāna practitioners and that are expressed throughout the Sūtra. Preparation As for the last unit, below is a précis condensing a number of Urgyen Sangharakshita‘s lectures and published writings (see references below). Read this and reflect on one, or more, of the questions that you‘ll find at the end. ―In discussing how best to read the Sūtra we have come to some understanding of why the Lotus Sūtra explores the Dharma principally through parables, myths, symbols and archetypes. As we read the Sūtra, it is also important to bear in mind that it is a product of the second great phase of Indian Buddhism, the Mahāyāna. And while the fundamentals, the essence of the Dharma remains the same, the way the Sūtra presents the Dharma reflects the particular emphases and perspectives of the Mahāyāna. Although one way to deepen our understanding of these concerns is through studying the history of the development of the Mahāyāna – and there are some excellent explorations of this (see ‗Further reading‘ in the Appendix) – in this unit we will simply introduce a few of the distinctive emphases of the Mahāyāna expressed in the Lotus Sūtra. In keeping with the Sūtra‘s mode, we‘ll start with a parable. Let‘s suppose that there is a terrible famine somewhere of the kind that still happens. People are gaunt and emaciated, and there is horrible suffering. In a certain town in the country which has been struck by this famine there live two men: one old, one young, who each have an enormous quantity of grain, easily enough to feed all the people. The old man puts outside his front door a notice which reads: ‗Whoever comes will be given food.‘ But after that statement there follows a long list of conditions and rules. If people want food they must come at a certain time, on the very minute. They must bring with them receptacles of a certain shape and size. And holding these receptacles in a certain way, they must ask the old man for food in certain set phrases which are to be spoken in an archaic language. Not many people see the notice, for the old man lives in an out-of-the-way street; and of those who do see it, a few come for food and receive it, but others are put off by the long list of rules. If food is only available on those terms it seems less troublesome to go hungry. When the old man is asked why he imposes so many rules, he says, ‗That‘s how it was in my grandfather‘s time whenever there was a 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 9 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: References affinity with it, becaus
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Page 21 and 22: offering his children different car
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Page 27 and 28: Enlightenment, he would be the guar
Page 29 and 30: In the group 1. Assigning parts to
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Page 33 and 34: Read Chapter Five of the Sūtra. As
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Appendix: Unit 3 - The Saddharma-pu
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Whatever be the truth of the matter
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as by a class of Mahāyāna Sūtras
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The Great Drama concludes with Śā
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Abridgement of the White Lotus Sūt
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Delight our every heart. The earth
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Though they pooled their capacities
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But bhiksus and bhiksunis Obsessed
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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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