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Rude Awakenings - Forest Sangha Publications

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^0 N O T E S 06C H A P T E R 1 0 : T H E T R E A S U R E H O U S E“There is nothing but water at the holy bathing places; and I know that they are useless,for I have bathed in them.” Songs of Kabir, trans. Rabindranath Tagore (1977).“All conditioned processes are transient, practise with diligence...” Digha Nikaya, MahaparinibbanaSutta (sutta 16), 6:7. [DN ii, 156].Information on Sikhs and their religion came from booklets supplied by the NewcastleSikh Gurdwara and Naipaul (1990).C H A P T E R 1 1 : D A R K A N G E L“Homage to the perfection of wisdom, the lovely, the holy!...here O Sariputta, form isemptiness and the very emptiness is form...” This is from the Heart Sutra, which is afourth-century C.E. encapsulation of the perfection of wisdom teachings. The prajnaparamitadiscourses had evolved to such length and complexity by then that their messagehad to be abbreviated for practical transmission. The Heart Sutra and theDiamond-Cutter Sutra are now the most popular forms, with the Heart Sutra (onlytwenty-five lines) being frequently chanted in Zen and other Mahayana monasteries.This translation is by Edward Conze (in Conze 1978), an English scholar who devotedhis entire working life to translating the Prajnaparamita texts from Sanskrit into English.Incidentally, the one letter that contains the ineffable essence of prajna is “A.” Formore on this teaching see Hixon (1993)."...there is no ignorance, nor extinction of ignorance..." Conze's Heart Sutra (Conze1978)"...cannot be expounded and learned..." and "Those who are thoroughly devoted to Prajnaparamitawill not die suddenly..." Both are from the rendition of the Perfection OfWisdom in 8,000 lines by Lex Hixon (1993)“spires which licked the clouds” and “richly adorned towers and fairy-like turrets,” etc.,Beal (1914).“an illness of the season” and “late in the day, when the sun was about to set...,” etc.,Takakusu (1966).“Ikhtiyar-ud-din-Muhammad, with great vigour and audacity...” This comes from theMuslim historian Minhaju-s-Sirj’s Tabaka’t-i, who is quoted in several sources, some ofwhich call him Muhammad Bakhtyar, e.g., Dhammika (1992).Joshi (1967) gives a telling account of the decline of Buddhism during the period ofNalanda’s later life, using the accounts of pilgrims to show how increasing wealth wasaccompanied by moral degeneration and sectarian disputes. For example, I-Tsing: “Itis unseemly for a monastery to have such great wealth. Granaries full of rotten corn,many servants, male and female, money and treasures hoarded in the treasury withoutusing them.”2 9 3

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