The Lankavatara Sutra: Translation and Commentary (NONE)

Although we don’t know if he lectured on the Lankavatara or if he was conversant with Zen, two hundred years later, the Northern School of Zen credited Gunabhadra with bringing Zen to China, such was the importance of the sutra he translated.

personal realization of the ultimate knowledge of buddhas,

“And how do bodhisattvas become adept at distinguishing the perceptions of their own minds? They regard the three realms like this: as merely distinctions of the mind, devoid of a self or what belongs to a self, as motionless and free from coming or going, the result of the habit-energy of erroneous fabrications without beginning, and the various f

The three new schemes are those of the five dharmas, the three modes of reality, and the eight forms of consciousness. The five dharmas divide our world into name, appearance, projection, correct knowledge, and suchness; the three modes of reality do the same with imagined reality, dependent reality, and perfected reality;

And just as the past is a projection, so are the future and the present. Lord of Lanka, the tathagatas do not project what amounts to reality.75 They transcend projection and fabrication76 and do not go along with distinguishing forms, except to instruct or to pacify the ignorant.

but teachings are unfaithful172 / for truth isn’t in the words

Indeed, this is the constant refrain of the sutra. But it isn’t just about Zen; it is firmly rooted in what would later become known as Yogacara Buddhism as well.

and usually refers to the appearance of a deity upon earth—and from which we get the word avatar.

and from every hair and pore, a blazing radiance that resembled a world-destroying conflagration, rainbows in the sky, or the sun at dawn.52