A Fistful of Sand

The Śūraṅgama Sūtra has the impossibly long title of “The Sūtra on the  Śūraṅgama  Mantra Spoken from above the Crown of the Great Buddha's Head, and on the Hidden Basis of the Tathagata's Myriad Bodhisattva Practices Leading to Their Verification of the Ultimate Truth.” It never quite lives up to the title – but what could? The title alone seems to promise great wisdom or great confusion with its talk about myriad practices, verification and ultimate truth. So where did this jewel of Mahayana come from? No one knows for sure but some intelligent guesses can be made. The Buddha is not on the list of likely suspects. The first person that gave an account of the  Śūraṅgama Sūtra  was Zhi-sheng, a Chinese monk of the  Tang Dynasty . Zhi-sheng said this book was brought back from Guangxi to Luoyang  during the Kaiyuan era. He gave two different accounts of its travels in two different books of his, both of which were published in 730 CE. First he s...

It had been a few years, maybe 20 of them, since I read the Mahayana version of the Brahma Net Sutra. It is very different from the Pali Canon’s version although they touch on similar subjects. That brief touching and the name are the things they actually have in common aside from the claim that they were both taught by the Buddha. The odds that the Buddha spoke both are slim. The two teachings are not actually related. There is so much wrong with the Mahayana Brahma Net Sutra that one hardly knows where to start. Of course, the answer to any criticism might be, “You don’t understand the Sutra” or “You don’t appreciate the Mahayana teachings” or even “You don’t grasp the significance of the bodhisattva.” These are all standard defense of those who actually like the Sutra and want it propagated. As a matter of fact, I do appreciate the bodhisattva teachings but only when they are correctly portrayed. I appreciate the Mahayana as I have gained much from it. As to whether I under...