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Pratyutpanna Samadhi Sutra / Surangama Samadhi Sutra
By: Lokaksema and Paul Harrison, Tr. / Kumar
Pratyutpanna Samadhi / Surangama Samadhi Sutra
 
Our Price: $35.00
Members Price: $31.50
Author: Lokaksema and Paul Harrison, Tr. / Kumarajiva and John Mc Rae, Tr.
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 9781886439061


Product Code: 12081
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"The Pratyutpanna Samadhi Sutra"
The Pratyutpanna-buddha-sammukhavasthita-samadhi-sutra (hereafter abbreviated to PraS) is one of the important sources of information on the early development of Mahayana Buddhism, even though it may not be appropriate to regard it as an early Mahayana sutra itself.
The PraS is generally thought to be a work of Pure Land Buddhism. Certainly it has been much used by followers of that school in China and Japan, as well as by adherents of other sects. However, to call the PraS a Pure Land sutra is a radical oversimplification, for it is certainly not at all like the other great sutras of that school, the larger and smaller Sukhavati-vyuha-sutras and the so-called Amitayur-dhyana-sutra.
As its name indicates, PraS propounds a particular samadhi, or meditation, called the pratyutpanna-buddha-sammukhavasthita-samadhi, i.e. "the meditation in which one is brought face to face with the Buddhas of the present" or "the meditation of direct encounter with the Buddhas of the present." The object of this meditation may be all or any of the myriad Buddhas of the present, and although the text of the PraS mentions Amitabha by name, he is merely adduced as an example, as the Buddha of the present par excellence.

"The Surangama Samadhi Sutra"
The Surangama Samadhi Sutra is an exquisite religious scripture. One of the most profound of all Mahayana texts, it depicts a vision of Buddhism that is thoroughly transcendent and at the same time uniquely humanistic. Here the Buddha Shakyamuni is no mere historical personage, but the one eternal cosmic Buddha who is the source of all other Buddhas. The Dharma Shakyamuni teaches is the Surangama Samadhi, the meditative concentration of the "heroic march" to Buddhahood, which is presented in overwhelmingly lavish terms as the very key to the enlightenment of the Buddhas and all of their awesome spiritual power. And the prize that awaits those who practice and achieve mastery of this incredible samadhi is not merely enlightenment in individual terms, but the unsurpassable and perfect enlightenment of Buddhahood itself.


Pratyutpanna Samadhi Sutra by Lokaksema and Paul Harrison, Tr. / Surangama Samadhi Sutra by Kumarajiva and John Mc R', Tr., Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, Hardcover, 94 pages, $35.00

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