From: pjm@cshl.org (Pat Monardo)
Subject: No-prefix Buddhism [Re: Nichiren and the Lotus Sutra]
Organization: Cold Spring Harbor Labs
Date: Sun, 30 Aug 1992 17:02:19 GMT

In article <1992Aug29.214559.29897@cco.caltech.edu> fstawit@icomp01.lerc.nasa.gov (Tawit Chitsomboon) writes:
>
>I agree with Weng Fai that we should read the sutras with care.
>I would go even beyond Buddhadasa's suggestion in that I would
>like to see all Buddhist sects to have a common 
>collection of sutras, about the size of the Christian Bible.

I think this is unnecessary. Several "Bibles" already exist.
Take your pick: Abhidharmakosa, Visuddhi Magga, Lam Rim,
Prajnaparamita.

>This Buddhist Bible would contain only the core teaching of the
>Buddha. All the barks should be collected into various commentaries.
>The Abhidhamma definitely should be regarded as a commentary.

The Abhidhamma method has produced wondrous results (see above list).
Why not use these books? They are terrific! The sutras have lost most of
their chronological and other contextual information. The best that
can be done is the Abdhidhamma method and we know the difficulties
there but the above list of books reveals the triumphs of this effort.

>
>Finally, Buddhadasa said that the sutras that begin with 'Maha' (Great)
>should be read with extreme care. He didn't believe that the 
>Buddha would give such a long talk in one  session. Even if so,
>it would be difficult to remember the entire sutra without
>interpolations.
>

Why wouldn't the Buddha give teachings to certain special communities
extending over several days? I think this would be common.

Back to prefix-less Buddhism:
I am a disciple of Buddha, Nagarjuna, and Longchenpa.
This spans the prefixes, and i have no trouble with this.
I personally love Visuddhimagga by Buddhaghosa, even more
than Vasubandhu's Abhidharmakosa. Let's consider the Samadhi
section of the Visuddhi Magga and i will try to reveal that
the basis of the mahayana meditation techniques all spring
from the hinayana. The first topics are the Kasinas of which
10 are listed: earth, water, fire, air, blue, yellow, red, kasina,
white, light, limited-space. It is possible to view these
as Mandalas and if one takes these 10 Kasinas and combine them
in various ways one gets more and more elaborate Mandalas
until one reaches the Kalachakra Mandala which is the union of
all of them. I wont talk about foulness and mindfulness since
they are obviously in both traditions. One then comes to
The Divine Abidings (brahmavihara-niddesa). The person here
develops Love, Joy, Equanimity, and Compassion. The object
is to transcend the limited view of a commom being wrt to
these mental qualities and develop them from a Divine Perspective.
One imagines that one is a Divine Being and one cultivates
these qualities from a Divine Perspective. This is Deity Yoga.
The next medition topic concerns The Immaterial States,
know as formless meditation. I took my mind through the
practices described in this chapter and i think that this
is equivalent to Emptiness Yoga. From my understanding
(i view Vajrayana as the Samadhi basket of Mahayana,
not a separate Way), Mahayana is an advancement of Hinayana
but that they are both spring from the same tradition.
The sectarianism probably evolved my socio-political 
concerns and both sides are equally culpable. It's
simply the conservative-liberal battles that will
be with mankind forever. I reject the extemes of
both traditions.

-- 
-- Pat Monardo
-- pjm@cshl.org
Newsgroups: soc.religion.eastern