Buddhist Verses & Silent Readings For Reflection (静思语） - Part 6

[viethai]

Shi Xiong scheng1,

u once mentioned GST is payable for taobao items shipped by sea, is it inclusive when we check out ?

 

[AUTUMN&WINTER]

NAMO AMITUOFO 南无阿弥陀佛

Life is short and bitter. Contemplate our bodies as impure and impermanent. Recite "Namo Amituofo" to attain rebirth in Western Pure Land.

人生苦短。

想到生死轮回 这颗心就觉悟了。觉悟了，就念“南无阿弥陀佛” 解脱生死轮回。

Delight:

“Devata:
One who has sons delights in sons,
One with cattle delights in cattle.
Acquisitions truly are a man’s delight;
Without acquisitions one does not delight.

Buddha:
One who has sons sorrows over sons,
One with cattle sorrows over cattle.
Acquisitions truly are a man’s sorrows;
Without acquisitions one does not sorrow.” -- Samyutta Nikaya.

To be at peace with your senses and delights,
Acquiring none sorrows do not arise.

With one worthy thought,
we plant a seed for good fortune.
With one wrong thought,
we plant a seed for misfortune. - Venerable Wuling

 

[scheng1]

Recommend longer sutra for those who like to copy it. You can't find the following sutra 抄经本 in Singapore. You have to get it from Taobao

a. 金光明经 (Golden light sutra)
https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?sp...6998289492.178.7bf7285dIm7Xdz&id=586634560943
Estimated time for copying - 4 to 6 weeks

b. 悲华经 (unable to find English version of it. This sutra is about the 500 vows of Shakyamuni Buddha made in one of his previous lives. One of the vows: 如有饥饿众生，愿我能用血肉布施、救助；如有痛苦众生，愿我能以身体、生命救护)
https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1z10.3-c-s.w4002-16998289468.10.2d6e614093mjVz&id=598509140422
Estimated time for copying - 6 weeks to 2 months

c. 大乘大集地藏十轮经 (Ten Wheel Sūtra) This is part of the 3 main sutras on 地藏菩薩, and it is the longest one.
https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1z10.3-c-s.w4002-16998289468.13.2d6e614093mjVz&id=598285688813
Estimated time for copying - 6 weeks to 2 months

d. 佛说佛名经
Magnificent sutra containing the names of 11093 Buddhas.
https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1z10.3-c-s.w4002-16998289468.28.2d6e614093mjVz&id=596804160889
Estimated time for copying - 6 weeks to 2 months

e. 楞严经
Estimated time for copying - 4 weeks to 6 weeks
https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1z10.3-c-s.w4002-16998289468.34.2d6e614093mjVz&id=586998122065

f. 起世经
This sutra introduces us to the 三千大千世界 in our universe, including human realms near us, hell realm, Naga world, heaven realm (sun, moon etc)
Estimated time for copying - 4 weeks to 6 weeks
https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1z10.3-c-s.w4002-16998289468.37.2d6e614093mjVz&id=599821384681

g. 妙法莲华经 (Lotus Sutra)
Estimated time for copying - 3 weeks to 5 weeks
https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?sp...21997apE2pj&id=569271372412&scene=taobao_shop

h. 华严经 (Flower Adornment Sutra)
the sutra is about the time when Buddha just gained full enlightenment. On all appearance, he sat quietly under the Bodhi tree, but in the invisible realm, there are a lot of sentient beings coming to pay their respect to him. Buddha hardly spoke, 文殊菩萨 and 普贤菩萨 led the debate or taught the others)

Estimated time of copying - 10 months to 18 months

Traditional Chinese version
https://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?spm=a230r.1.14.165.6a2c6fe2omLQ5A&id=520459850014&ns=1&abbucket=8

Simplified Chinese version (hard cover)
https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?sp...omLQ5A&id=523294623428&ns=1&abbucket=8#detail

 

[scheng1]

Shi Xiong scheng1,

u once mentioned GST is payable for taobao items shipped by sea, is it inclusive when we check out ?

Yes, it is. You will see a breakdown when you consolidate the items.

 

[viethai]

Yes, it is. You will see a breakdown when you consolidate the items.

Noted..thanks shi xiong

 

[waterbright]

5:2 Tissa-metteyya’s Questions — Who in the world is truly contented, truly free, truly a great person?

Who

here in the world

is contented?

Who

has no agitations?

What thinker

knowing both sides,

doesn’t adhere in between?

Whom

do you call a great person?

Who here

has gone past

the seamstress?—

craving.

The Buddha:

He who

in the midst of sensualities,

follows the holy life,

always mindful, craving-free;

the monk who is

—through fathoming things—

unbound:

He has no agitations. He,

the thinker

knowing both sides,

doesn’t adhere in between. (1) He

I call a great person. He

here has gone past

the seamstress: craving. (2)

vv. 1040–1042

Notes

1. AN 6:61 reports a discussion among several elder monks as to what is meant in this poem by “both sides” and “in between.” Six of the elders express the following separate opinions:

a) Contact is the first side, the origination of contact the second side, and the cessation of contact is in between.

b) The past is the first side, the future the second, and the present is in between.

c) Pleasant feeling is the first side, painful feeling the second, and neither-pleasant-nor-painful feeling is in between.

d) Name (mental phenomena) is the first side, form (physical phenomena) the second, and consciousness is in between.

e) The six internal sense media (eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, intellect) are the first side, the six external sense media (sights, sounds, aromas, flavors, tactile sensations, ideas) the second side, and consciousness is in between.

f) Self-identity is the first side, the origination of self-identity the second, and the cessation of self-identity is in between.

The issue is then taken to the Buddha, who states that all six interpretations are well-spoken, but the interpretation he had in mind when speaking the poem was the first.

On the cessation of contact, see SN 35:117.

2. The image of craving as a seamstress also appears in Thag 14:2.

 

[vofzxy]

any sutra also can copy one right?
its the act that counts and not what you are copying right?

i means some sutras you might understand, some you may not.....

 

[DaBeiZhou]

aiyoooo i spent like 30+ buying notebook and writing sanghata sutra in english in gold pen and now taobao have those books where u can just copy sutra ><
wondering if i shld stop my english one and wait to receive the chinese book so i can write over the words and copy? hmmm

 

[AUTUMN&WINTER]

aiyoooo i spent like 30+ buying notebook and writing sanghata sutra in english in gold pen and now taobao have those books where u can just copy sutra ><
wondering if i shld stop my english one and wait to receive the chinese book so i can write over the words and copy? hmmm

Don't give up half way. Just continue what you are doing. It's good to copy as many books as possible. 随喜功德。

 

[heymee]

 

[vofzxy]

if any of you write out mantras in english, can always consider full namgyalma mantra as well....

 

[DaBeiZhou]

thanks for advise as always. will continue to copy sutras.
i would just like to check if theres a need to burn all the copies of the sutra once done?
what do i need to do before and after burning? thanks!

 

[magnus]

 

[Renzokukenz]

thanks for advise as always. will continue to copy sutras.
i would just like to check if theres a need to burn all the copies of the sutra once done?
what do i need to do before and after burning? thanks!

following this

 

[Renzokukenz]

On copying sutras:

Lazada has them too but no hanyu pinyin

https://www.lazada.sg/catalog/?q=su...=input&spm=a2o42.pdp.search.go.3a098bffKRbDzb

shopee also has them

but I have no idea what is the difference between :

楷书
行书
抄书

So want to copy is buy which one of the 3 above?

all look the same to me on the site :
https://shopee.sg/Heart-Sutra-handw...scriptures-by-the-book-i.168949226.7231136130

 

[scheng1]

thanks for advise as always. will continue to copy sutras.
i would just like to check if theres a need to burn all the copies of the sutra once done?
what do i need to do before and after burning? thanks!

Personal choice. You can choose to recycling or place at library book exchange shelf or keep for reading or place at altar.

 

[scheng1]

any sutra also can copy one right?
its the act that counts and not what you are copying right?

i means some sutras you might understand, some you may not.....

Yes, any sutra also can, especially for sutra/mantra that you do not understand. Based on Lotus Sutra below, as long you have copied it once, without understand a word of it, the merit gained is enough to let you born in 三十三天.

Copy the Lotus Sutra takes up 4 to 6 weeks of your time, but one lifetime in 三十三天 = 36,000,000 years on Earth. The "return" of spending the time to copy the sutra just once without comprehension is very good.
(a day in 三十三天 = 100 years on Earth, one year = 12 months x 30 days, longevity of the heavenly beings = 1000 years)

The Lotus Sutra, Chapter XXVIII Encouragement of Bodhisattva Samantabhadra

https://www.bdk.or.jp/document/dgtl-dl/dBET_T0262_LotusSutra_2007.pdf
"If they copy this sutra, after their death they will be born in the Trāyastriṃśa Heaven. At that time eighty-four thousand heavenly maidens will welcome them, performing various kinds of music. They will wear seven-jeweled coronets and be happy among their female servants.

How much more for those who preserve, recite, remember correctly, understand the meaning, and practice in accordance with the teaching! If there is anyone who preserves, recites, and understands this meaning, at the end of their life a thousand buddhas will offer their hands, so that they will neither be afraid nor fall into the troubled states of being. They will thus arrive in the Tuṣita Heaven of Bodhisattva Maitreya, who is endowed with the thirtytwo marks and surrounded by an assembly of great bodhisattvas and a retinue of hundreds of thousands of myriads of koṭis of heavenly maidens. There they will be born and such will be their merit and benefits. For this reason the wise should wholeheartedly copy, move others to copy, preserve, recite, and remember it correctly and practice in accordance with the teaching. O Bhagavat! Through my transcendent powers I will now protect, extensively distribute and keep this sutra from extermination in Jambudvīpa after the parinirvāṇa of the Tathāgata.”

aiyoooo i spent like 30+ buying notebook and writing sanghata sutra in english in gold pen and now taobao have those books where u can just copy sutra ><
wondering if i shld stop my english one and wait to receive the chinese book so i can write over the words and copy? hmmm

You can finish copying the English version before the Chinese books reach your house.

The English version of Sanghata Sutra is translated from Tibetan version. The translator references to Sankrit version too. It seems a bit shorter than the Chinese version.

 

[scheng1]

English Sutra from Taobao

About 2 years back, I kept on ordering English Sutra from this Taobao shop 正法船流通处 for placement at free distribution point, library book exchange corner and library on board Diamond Princess cruise ship.

Later on, Taobao management prohibits selling of books without ISBN or any form of trademarks. Unfortunately Sutras and books for free distribution do not have ISBN.

I check with this Shixiong a few days ago about availability of English Sutra. He confirms still available. I didn't ask what's available and he didn't say. I just went ahead to place the order using this link: https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?_u=n34g2qid33b7&id=586581409040

Shixiong said after you place the order, you got to wait for him to adjust the shipping cost, then you can make payment. Shixiong is not making money from this Taobao shop. He has a full time job, and helping to distribute the items during this free time.

Other 正法船 distributors to contact for the English Sutra:
https://shop408314446.taobao.com/index.htm?spm=a1z10.5-c.w5002-17071455012.2.62a23be0hCU2Qk
https://shop518825412.taobao.com/in...2997998691.2.2cd95db4XKSVPj&scene=taobao_shop
https://shop142676505.taobao.com/in...2997998691.4.2cd95db4XKSVPj&scene=taobao_shop

Images of the sutra from 2 years ago:

The English sutras are thick and heavy, because they contain commentaries by Venerable Cheng Kuan, and the paper quality is very good.

Other English books by Venerable Cheng Kuan. This book is available online http://www.buddhanet.net/pdf_file/chandew.pdf and in Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Ven.-Cheng-Kuan/e/B07M6DF27F?ref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share

Profile of Venerable Cheng Kuan:

Venerable Cheng Kuan, an ordained Buddhist monk, born in 1947 in Taipei, is the abbot of both Americana Buddhist Temple in Michigan, and Mahavairocana Temple in Taipei. He is also the 53rd-Generation Lineage-Succeeding Acharya Koyasan Singon Sect, as well as the 42nd-Generation Lineage Successor of both Hua-yen Sect and Sole-Cognizance Sect.

So far the venerable has already published 22 books, consisting of 13 in Chinese and 9 in English. His Chinese works are mostly commentaries on prominent Buddhist Sutras, which are reputedly so abstruse as to baffle most Buddhist readers through ages, such as "The Lankavatara Sutra" and the like. His English books, excepting "A Trilogy of Ch'an," are mostly English translations of preeminent "must-read" Buddhist Scriptures, such as "The Diamond Sutra," "The Sutra of Consummate Enlightenment" and "The Lotus Sutra," which are all absolutely indispensable for serious Buddhist practitioners.

From his adolescence onward, the venerable has exhibited quite extraordinary versatile feats in various facets: Academically, he was able to attend one of the first-rate junior and senior high schools, college and graduate school in Taiwan. After graduation, he taught high school English, and then was enlisted in the Army, wherein, as a Second- Lieutenant Reserved Officer, he worked as a News Officer and the Leader of a Translation Group, where he finished translating two books ("Persuasion: Experiments in Behavioral Psychology," and "The Principles of the US World Psychological Warfare," published by the US Department of Defense) from English into Chinese in three months. These achievements won him a medal at the end of his service, and enabled the leader of his unit to be promoted from colonel to major general.

Subsequently he went to the US for higher study, with the honor of University Fellowship from the Graduate School of Texas Christian University.

In college, he earned the second-place in the Contest of English Short- Story Writing, and the Contest of English Poetry-Recitation.

While in TCU, he won the second place in the University English Poetry Writing Contest, with a 300-plus line poem called "The Tempest Night," written overnight.

At present, the septuagenarian Venerable still keeps translating Buddhist Scriptures into English, so as to benefit all people in world with the Buddha's Supreme Wisdom.

 

[scheng1]

Don't take it at surface value. 印光大师 is well known for sleeping inside the 藏经阁 for decades and read the entire 大藏经 at least 6 times.

印光大师年谱 http://www.nianjing.net/boruo/books/0837.htm

"公元一八九三年 癸已 清光绪十九年 三十三岁

与化闻和尚晤于京。应化老之邀，南下至浙江普陀山法雨寺，安单藏经楼。自此两度掩关，影不出山二十余年"

弘化社 was founded by 印光大师 to print and distribute sutra and other books.

 

[happyfingers]

《 佛法修証心要問答集 》- 元音老人

Q：What are precepts ?

A: Refrain the mind from wandering/unwholesome deeds ( 戒 ）to facilitate serenity/calmness （ 定 ) . Cultivating non-attachment in our daily life forms the basis for all precepts. Performing meritorious acts, benefitting others without being attached to them ( 慧 ） embodies the merits of all precepts.

Q: To eradicate the bad habit of selfishness , is doing wholesome deeds one of
the ways to attain the state of ' Non-self '?

A: Although performing wholesome deeds is very important but it is not the most essential . Doing wholesome deeds without cultivating wisdom merely results in a favourable rebirth and subsequently in a lower realm ( still within Saṃsāra).Now if we were to realise the nature of mind/emptiness of all phenomena and benefit others with a bodhi mind , then wholesome deeds in turn would propel us towards buddhahood .