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102-574: According to the three turnings schema, the Buddha's first sermons, as recorded in the Tripiṭaka of early Buddhist schools , constitute the "first turning" (which include all śrāvakayāna texts). The sūtras which focus on the doctrine of emptiness ( śūnyatā ) like the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra corpus, are considered to comprise the "second turning" (which in this schema is considered provisional), and

204-478: A middle course ( madhyamāpratipada ) between excessive naïveté and excessive skepticism . Satya is usually taken to mean "truth", but also refers to "a reality", "a genuinely real existent". Satya ( Sat-yá ) is derived from Sat and ya . Sat means being, reality, and is the present participle of the root as , "to be" ( PIE *h₁es- ; cognate to English is ). Ya and yam means "advancing, supporting, hold up, sustain, one that moves". As

306-506: A Sutta of direct meaning as a Sutta of indirect meaning. Saṃmuti or samuti (Pāli; Sanskrit: saṃvṛti ), meaning "common consent, general opinion, convention", and paramattha (Pāli; Sanskrit: paramārtha ), meaning "ultimate", are used to distinguish conventional or common-sense language, as used in metaphors or for the sake of convenience, from language used to express higher truths directly. The term vohāra (Pāli; Sanskrit: vyavahāra , "common practice, convention, custom"

408-471: A combination of Hīnayāna and Mahāyāna doctrines, and Joseph Walser agrees that this assessment is correct. The Prajñaptivādins held that the Buddha's teachings in the various piṭakas were nominal (Skt. prajñapti ), conventional (Skt. saṃvṛti ), and causal (Skt. hetuphala ). Therefore, all teachings were viewed by the Prajñaptivādins as being of provisional importance, since they cannot contain

510-401: A composite word, Satya and Satyam imply that "which supports, sustains and advances reality, being"; it literally means, "that which is true, actual, real, genuine, trustworthy, valid". The two truths doctrine states that there is: Chandrakīrti suggests three possible meanings of saṁvṛti : The conventional truth may be interpreted as "obscurative truth" or "that which obscures

612-795: A fourth turning. According to Japanese scholar Junjirō Takakusu , the Sanron (Sanlun) Madhyamaka school divided the teaching into three dharmacakras as well, but with different definitions for each: The Chinese Tiantai school developed a doctrinal classification schema ( panjiào ) which organized the Buddhas teachings into five periods (五時): Likewise, the Huayen school had a five period panjiào of dharma teachings. According to patriarch Zongmi : Tripi%E1%B9%ADaka Tipiṭaka ( Pali: [tɪˈpɪʈɐkɐ] ) or Tripiṭaka ( Sanskrit: [trɪˈpɪʈɐkɐ] ) , meaning "Triple Basket",

714-450: A higher or ultimate reality. Nagarjuna's view is that "the ultimate truth is that there is no ultimate truth". According to Siderits, Nagarjuna is a "semantic anti-dualist" who posits that there are only conventional truths. Jay L. Garfield explains: Suppose that we take a conventional entity, such as a table. We analyze it to demonstrate its emptiness, finding that there is no table apart from its parts [...] So we conclude that it

816-561: A more sedentary monastic community (the Vinaya Piṭaka period). The Vinaya focuses on the rules and regulations, or the morals and ethics, of monastic life that range from dress code and dietary rules to prohibitions of certain personal conducts. Each of the early Buddhist Schools likely had their own versions of the Tripiṭaka . According to some sources, there were some Indian schools of Buddhism that had five or seven piṭakas. According to Yijing , an 8th-century Chinese pilgrim to India,

918-507: A nondual relationship between the two concepts. A metaphor for essence-function is "A lamp and its light", a phrase from the Platform Sutra , where Essence is lamp and Function is light. The Nyingma tradition is the oldest of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism . It is founded on the first translations of Buddhist scriptures from Sanskrit into Tibetan , in the eighth century. Ju Mipham (1846–1912) in his commentary to

1020-738: A number of sub-sects including the Pūrvaśailas, Aparaśailas, Siddhārthikas, and Rājagirikas. In the 6th century CE, Avalokitavrata writes that Mahāyāna sūtras such as the Prajñāparamitā and others are chanted by the Aparaśailas and the Pūrvaśailas. Also in the 6th century CE, Bhāvaviveka speaks of the Siddhārthikas using a Vidyādhāra Piṭaka, and the Pūrvaśailas and Aparaśailas both using a Bodhisattva Piṭaka, implying collections of Mahāyāna texts within these Caitika schools. The Bahuśrutīya school

1122-495: A sense that can only be guessed". These terms were used to identify texts or statements that either did or did not require additional interpretation. A nītattha text required no explanation, while a neyyattha one might mislead some people unless properly explained: There are these two who misrepresent the Tathagata . Which two? He who represents a Sutta of indirect meaning as a Sutta of direct meaning and he who represents

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1224-513: A set of polarities: Buddha-nature - sunyata, absolute-relative, sudden and gradual enlightenment. The Prajnaparamita Sutras and Madhyamaka emphasized the non-duality of form and emptiness: form is emptiness, emptiness is form, as the Heart Sutra says. The idea that the ultimate reality is present in the daily world of relative reality fitted into the Chinese culture which emphasized

1326-538: Is a collection of sacred texts recognized by various sects of Tibetan Buddhism . In addition to sutrayana texts, the Tibetan canon includes tantric texts. The Tibetan Canon underwent a final compilation in the 14th century by Buton Rinchen Drub . The Tibetan Canon has its own scheme which divided texts into two broad categories: There many editions of the Tibetan Canon, some of the major editions include

1428-726: Is a compound Pāli word ti or Sanskrit word of tri (त्रि), meaning "three", and piṭaka (पिटक) or piṭa (पिट), meaning "basket". The "three baskets" were originally the receptacles of the palm-leaf manuscripts on which were preserved the collections of texts of the Suttas , the Vinaya , and the Abhidhamma , the three divisions that constitute the Buddhist Canons. These terms are also spelled without diacritics as Tripiṭaka and Tipiṭaka in scholarly literature. The Tripiṭaka

1530-523: Is a traditional term for several collections of Buddhist sacred scriptures or Buddhist scriptural canons . In ancient India, there were several Buddhist scriptural canons, many of whom had three main divisions or categories of texts: Vinaya (monastic rule), Sutra (which contains teachings of the Buddha) and Abhidharma (which are more systematic and scholastic works). For example, the Pāli Tipiṭaka

1632-682: Is also the encyclopedic Abhidharma Mahāvibhāṣa Śāstra (Taishō Tripiṭaka 1545), which was held as canonical by the Vaibhāṣika Sarvāstivādins of northwest India. Portions of the Mūlasārvāstivāda Tripiṭaka survive in Tibetan translation and Nepalese manuscripts. The relationship of the Mūlasārvāstivāda school to Sarvāstivāda school is indeterminate; their vinayas certainly differed but it is not clear that their Sūtra Piṭaka did. The Gilgit manuscripts may contain Āgamas from

1734-415: Is also used in more or less the same sense as samuti . The Theravādin commentators expanded on these categories and began applying them not only to expressions but to the truth then expressed: The Awakened One, the best of teachers, spoke of two truths, conventional and higher; no third is ascertained; a conventional statement is true because of convention and a higher statement is true as disclosing

1836-529: Is available in Chinese. The Saṃyukta Āgama (Taishō Tripiṭaka 99) was translated by Guṇabhadra , also available in Chinese translation. The Sarvāstivāda is therefore the only early school besides the Theravada for which we have a roughly complete Sūtra Piṭaka. The Sārvāstivāda Vinaya Piṭaka is also extant in Chinese translation, as are the seven books of the Sarvāstivāda Abhidharma Piṭaka. There

1938-574: Is called "the teaching of existence" (有相法輪) since it discusses reality from the point of view of phenomena ( dharmas ) which are explained as existing. The Abhidharma teachings of the various śrāvakayāna (i.e. non-Mahayana) traditions (such as Vaibhasika and Theravada ) are generally also placed into this category. The second turning is said to have taken place at Vulture Peak Mountain in Rajagriha , in Bihar , India. The second turning emphasizes

2040-699: Is composed of the Vinaya Piṭaka , the Sutta Piṭaka , and the Abhidhamma Piṭaka . While Tripiṭaka has become the common term to refer to all the scriptural collections of the various Buddhist schools , most Buddhist scriptural canons (apart from the Pāli Canon) do not really follow the strict division into three piṭakas. Indeed, many of the ancient Indian Buddhist schools had canons with four or five divisions rather than three. The Pāli Canon maintained by

2142-639: Is composed of three main categories of texts that collectively constitute the Buddhist canon: the Sutra Piṭaka , the Vinaya Piṭaka , and the Abhidhamma Piṭaka . Sutras were the doctrinal teachings in aphoristic or narrative format. The historical Buddha delivered all of his sermons in Magadhan . These sermons were rehearsed orally during the meeting of the First Buddhist council just after

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2244-427: Is empty. But now let us analyze that emptiness […]. What do we find? Nothing at all but the table’s lack of inherent existence [...] To see the table as empty [...] is to see the table as conventional, as dependent. In Nāgārjuna 's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā the two truths doctrine is used to defend the identification of dependent origination ( pratītyasamutpāda ) with emptiness ( śūnyatā ): The Buddha's teaching of

2346-566: Is from the Mādhyamaka school of Mahāyāna Buddhism , whose founder was the Indian Buddhist monk and philosopher Nāgārjuna . For Nāgārjuna, the two truths are epistemological truths . The phenomenal world is accorded a provisional existence. The character of the phenomenal world is declared to be neither real nor unreal, but logically indeterminable. Ultimately, all phenomena are empty ( śūnyatā ) of an inherent self or essence due to

2448-555: Is how the non-existence of the self exists, i.e. the existence of the non-existent as explained by the three natures. In this sense, the ultimate truth in the third turning is said to be both existent and non-existent. In his Commentary on the Cheng weishi lun (成唯識 論述記; Taishō no. 1830), Kuiji (a student of Xuanzang), lists the following as the most important sutras for the Yogācāra school: In Chinese Yogācāra , important treatises for

2550-597: Is likely that Zhisheng's catalogue proved decisive because it was used to reconstruct the Canon after the persecutions of 845 CE; however, it was also considered a "perfect synthesis of the entire four-hundred-year development of a proper Chinese form of the Canon." One of the most well known preserved edition of the Chinese Canon is the woodblock edition of the Tripitaka Koreana . These woodblocks became

2652-552: Is no major Mahayana (neither Hinayana or Pratyekabuddhayana) schools in Theravada tradition. The Tantric schools of Theravada tradition use Tantric texts independently, and not as the part of the Collection. Some of the well known preserved Pali Canons are the Chattha Sangayana Tipitaka, Buddha Jayanthi Tripitaka, Thai Tipitaka, etc. The Chinese Buddhist Canon is the Tripiṭaka collection maintained by

2754-694: Is preserved in Chinese translation (Taishō Tripiṭaka 1421), translated by Buddhajīva and Zhu Daosheng in 424 CE. Small portions of the Tipiṭaka of the Kāśyapīya school survive in Chinese translation. An incomplete Chinese translation of the Saṃyukta Āgama of the Kāśyapīya school by an unknown translator circa the Three Qin (三秦) period (352-431 CE) survives. The Pāli Canon is the complete Tripiṭaka set maintained by

2856-535: Is said to have included a Bodhisattva Piṭaka in their canon. The Satyasiddhi Śāstra , also called the Tattvasiddhi Śāstra , is an extant abhidharma from the Bahuśrutīya school. This abhidharma was translated into Chinese in sixteen fascicles (Taishō Tripiṭaka 1646). Its authorship is attributed to Harivarman, a third-century monk from central India. Paramārtha cites this Bahuśrutīya abhidharma as containing

2958-559: The Dipavamsa states that during the reign of Valagamba of Anuradhapura (29–17 BCE) the monks who had previously remembered the Tipiṭaka and its commentary orally now wrote them down in books, because of the threat posed by famine and war. The Mahavamsa also refers briefly to the writing down of the canon and the commentaries at this time. According to Sri Lankan sources more than 1000 monks who had attained Arahantship were involved in

3060-461: The Madhyamālaṃkāra of Śāntarakṣita (725–788) says: If one trains for a long time in the union of the two truths, the stage of acceptance (on the path of joining), which is attuned to primordial wisdom, will arise. By thus acquiring a certain conviction in that which surpasses intellectual knowledge, and by training in it, one will eventually actualize it. This is precisely how the Buddhas and

3162-562: The ālayavijñāna , the three natures and mind-only idealism as well as tathāgatagarbha ideas. The teachings of the third turning are further elaborated in the numerous works of Yogācāra school masters like Asaṅga , Vasubandhu , Sthiramati , Dharmapāla , Śīlabhadra , Xuanzang , Jñānaśrīmitra and Ratnākaraśānti . In his Commentary on Distinguishing the Middle from the Extremes ( Madhyāntavibhāga -bhāṣya ), Vasubandhu comments on

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3264-836: The Derge edition, the Lhasa edition, the Peking edition and the Jiang edition. The Tibetan Kangyur and Tengyur were also translated into Classical Mongolian , and these texts compose the Mongolian Buddhist Canon. The Newar Buddhist tradition of Nepal has preserved many Buddhist texts in Sanskrit . The Nepalese Buddhist textual tradition is a unique collection of Buddhist texts preserved primarily in Nepal, particularly within

3366-712: The East Asian Buddhist tradition . This canon contains texts translated various various Indian languages (such as Sanskrit and Gandhari prakrit) into Buddhist Chinese, a form of traditional literary Chinese . The traditional term for the canon is "Great Storage of Scriptures" ( traditional Chinese : 大藏經 ; simplified Chinese : 大藏经 ; pinyin : Dàzàngjīng ; Japanese : 大蔵経 ; rōmaji : Daizōkyō ; Korean : 대장경 ; romaja : Daejanggyeong ; Vietnamese : Đại tạng kinh ). Wu and Chia state that emerging evidence, though uncertain, suggests that

3468-782: The Later Qin dynasty, dated to 413 CE. It contains 30 sūtras in contrast to the 34 suttas of the Theravadin Dīgha Nikāya. A. K. Warder also associates the extant Ekottara Āgama ( Taishō Tripiṭaka 125) with the Dharmaguptaka school, due to the number of rules for monastics, which corresponds to the Dharmaguptaka Vinaya. The Dharmaguptaka Vinaya is also extant in Chinese translation ( Taishō Tripiṭaka 1428), and Buddhist monastics in East Asia adhere to

3570-671: The Madhyamaka school of Nagarjuna are generally included under the second turning. The first sutra source which mentions the "three turnings" is the Ārya-saṃdhi-nirmocana-sūtra ( Noble sūtra of the Explanation of the Profound Secrets), the foundational sutra of the Yogācāra school. Major ideas in this text include the storehouse consciousness ( ālayavijñāna ), and the doctrine of cognition-only ( vijñapti-mātra ) and

3672-688: The Newar Buddhist community of the Kathmandu Valley . It is distinct for its emphasis on preserving the Sanskrit originals of many Mahayana and Vajrayana scriptures, which have otherwise been lost in India and survived only in translations in regions like Tibet and China. The Newars have continued to copy Sanskrit manuscripts up to the present day. The Kathmandu Valley has long been a center for Buddhist scholarship, particularly following

3774-470: The Nikaya Buddhist schools kept different sets of canonical texts with some intentional or unintentional dissimilarities. Yijing notes four main textual collections among the non-Mahayana schools: Yijing notes that though there were numerous sub-schools and sects, the sub-sects shared the Tripiṭaka of their mother tradition (which he termed the "four principal schools of continuous tradition" or

3876-605: The Theravāda tradition as written and preserved in Pali . The dating of the Tripiṭaka is unclear. Max Müller states that the current structure and contents of the Pali Canon took shape in the 3rd century BCE after which it continued to be transmitted orally from generation to generation until finally being put into written form in the 1st century BCE (nearly 500 years after the lifetime of Buddha). The Theravada chronicle called

3978-815: The Theravāda tradition in Southeast Asia , the Chinese Buddhist Canon maintained by the East Asian Buddhist tradition , and the Tibetan Buddhist Canon maintained by the Tibetan Buddhist tradition are the three main important Tripiṭakas in the contemporary Buddhist world. The Nepalese Buddhist Sanskrit literature has also been very important for modern Buddhist studies scholarship since it contains many surviving Sanskrit manuscripts. Tipiṭaka ( Pāli ), or Tripiṭaka (Sanskrit: त्रिपिटक), means "Three Baskets". It

4080-525: The Three Natures and the Trikaya . The Three Natures are: The Lankavatara Sutra took an idealistic turn in apprehending reality. D. T. Suzuki writes the following: The Lanka is quite explicit in assuming two forms of knowledge: the one for grasping the absolute or entering into the realm of Mind-only, and the other for understanding existence in its dual aspect in which logic prevails and

4182-482: The non-existence of the self ( anattā ), but temporarily exist depending on other phenomena ( pratītyasamutpāda ). In Chinese Buddhism , the Mādhyamaka thought is accepted, and the two truths doctrine is understood as referring to two ontological truths. Reality exists of two levels, a relative level and an absolute level. Based on their understanding of the Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra ,

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4284-575: The parinirvāṇa of the Buddha, much of the Mahāsāṃghika school moved north of Rājagṛha , and were divided over whether the Mahāyāna sūtras should be incorporated formally into their Tripiṭaka . According to this account, they split into three groups based upon the relative manner and degree to which they accepted the authority of these Mahāyāna texts. Paramārtha states that the Kukkuṭika sect did not accept

4386-673: The tathāgatagarbha teaching with the doctrine of the ālayavijñāna and the three natures doctrine. Some key sources of this Indian tendency are the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra , Ghanavyūha Sūtra , and the Ratnagotravibhāga . This Yogācāra-Tathāgatagarbha tradition became influential in East Asian Buddhism and in Tibet. The translator Paramārtha (499-569 CE) was known for promoting this syncretic Yogācāra and for defending

4488-480: The "arya" traditions). However, this does not mean that the various sub-schools did not possess their own unique Tripiṭaka . Xuanzang is said to have brought to China the Tripiṭaka of seven different schools, including those of the above-mentioned schools as well as the Dharmaguptaka , Kāśyapīya , and Mahīśāsaka . According to A. K. Warder , the Tibetan historian Bu-ston said that around or before

4590-465: The "three natures" ( trisvabhāva ). The Saṃdhinirmocana affirms that the teachings of the earlier turnings authentic but are also incomplete and require further clarification and interpretation. According to the Saṃdhinirmocana, the previous two turnings all had an "underlying intent" which refers to the three natures (and their threefold lack of essence), the central doctrine of the third turning. The Saṃdhinirmocana also claims that its teachings are

4692-509: The 1st century CE there were eighteen schools of Buddhism each with their own Tripiṭaka transcribed into written form. However, except for one version that has survived in full and others, of which parts have survived, all of these texts are lost to history or yet to be found. The Mahāsāṃghika Vinaya was translated by Buddhabhadra and Faxian in 416 CE, and is preserved in Chinese translation ( Taishō Tripiṭaka 1425). The 6th century CE Indian monk Paramārtha wrote that 200 years after

4794-414: The Bodhisattvas have said that liberation is to be gained. The following sentence from Mipham 's exegesis of Śāntarakṣita 's Madhyamālaṃkāra highlights the relationship between the absence of the four extremes ( mtha'-bzhi ) and the nondual or indivisible two truths ( bden-pa dbyer-med ): The learned and accomplished [masters] of the Early Translations considered this simplicity beyond

4896-484: The Buddhas of the dharma has recourse to two truths: The world-ensconced truth and the truth which is the highest sense. 9. Those who do not know the distribution (vibhagam) of the two kinds of truth Do not know the profound "point" (tattva) in the teaching of the Buddha. 10. The highest sense of the truth is not taught apart from practical behavior, And without having understood the highest sense one cannot understand nirvana. Nāgārjuna based his statement of

4998-450: The Chinese Buddhist monks and philosophers supposed that the teaching of the Buddha-nature was, as stated by that sutra, the final Buddhist teaching, and that there is an essential truth above emptiness ( śūnyatā ) and the two truths. The doctrine of emptiness ( śūnyatā ) is an attempt to show that it is neither proper nor strictly justifiable to regard any metaphysical system as absolutely valid. It doesn't lead to nihilism but strikes

5100-444: The Dharma is based on two truths: a truth of worldly convention and an ultimate truth. Those who do not understand the distinction drawn between these two truths do not understand the Buddha's profound truth. Without a foundation in the conventional truth the significance of the ultimate cannot be taught. Without understanding the significance of the ultimate, liberation is not achieved. In Nagarjuna's own words: 8. The teaching by

5202-441: The Dharmaguptaka Vinaya. The Dharmaguptaka Tripiṭaka is said to have contained a total of five piṭakas. These included a Bodhisattva Piṭaka and a Mantra Piṭaka (Ch. 咒藏), also sometimes called a Dhāraṇī Piṭaka. According to the 5th-century Dharmaguptaka monk Buddhayaśas, the translator of the Dharmaguptaka Vinaya into Chinese, the Dharmaguptaka school had assimilated the Mahāyāna Tripiṭaka (Ch. 大乘三藏). The Mahīśāsaka Vinaya

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5304-447: The Huayan school were in the area of its metaphysics. It taught the doctrine of the mutual containment and interpenetration of all phenomena, as expressed in Indra's net . One thing contains all other existing things, and all existing things contain that one thing. Distinctive features of this approach to Buddhist philosophy include: Huayan teaches the Four Dharmadhatu , four ways to view reality: The teachings of Zen are expressed by

5406-424: The Mahāyāna sūtras as buddhavacana ("words of the Buddha"), while the Lokottaravāda sect and the Ekavyāvahārika sect did accept the Mahāyāna sūtras as buddhavacana . Also in the 6th century CE, Avalokitavrata writes of the Mahāsāṃghikas using a "Great Āgama Piṭaka," which is then associated with Mahāyāna sūtras such as the Prajñāparamitā and the Daśabhūmika Sūtra . According to some sources, abhidharma

5508-422: The Mūlasārvāstivāda school in Sanskrit. The Mūlasārvāstivāda Vinaya Piṭaka survives in Tibetan translation and also in Chinese translation (Taishō Tripiṭaka 1442). The Gilgit manuscripts also contain vinaya texts from the Mūlasārvāstivāda school in Sanskrit. A complete version of the Dīrgha Āgama (Taishō Tripiṭaka 1) of the Dharmaguptaka school was translated into Chinese by Buddhayaśas and Zhu Fonian (竺佛念) in

5610-533: The Pali canon, the distinction is not made between a lower truth and a higher truth, but rather between two kinds of expressions of the same truth, which must be interpreted differently. Thus a phrase or passage, or a whole sutta, might be classed as neyyattha or samuti or vohāra , but it is not regarded at this stage as expressing or conveying a different level of truth. Nītattha (Pāli; Sanskrit: nītārtha ), "of plain or clear meaning" and neyyattha (Pāli; Sanskrit: neyartha ), "[a word or sentence] having

5712-441: The Parinibbana of the Buddha. The teachings continued to be transmitted orally until eventually being written down in the first century BCE. Even within the Sūtra Piṭaka it is possible to detect older and later texts. The Vinaya Piṭaka appears to have grown gradually as a commentary and justification of the monastic code (Prātimokṣa), which presupposes a transition from a community of wandering mendicants (the Sūtra Piṭaka period) to

5814-434: The Vedic scriptures, which combine the ritualistic injunctions of the Brahmana and speculative philosophical questions of the Upanishads as one whole 'revealed' body of work thereby contrasting the jñāna kāņḍa with karmakāņḍa . [REDACTED] Religion portal While the concept of the two truths is associated with the Madhyamaka school, its history goes back to the earliest years of Buddhism . In

5916-520: The Vijnanas are active. The latter is designated Discrimination ( vikalpa ) in the Lanka and the former transcendental wisdom or knowledge ( prajna ). To distinguish these two forms of knowledge is most essential in Buddhist philosophy. When Buddhism came to China from Gandhara (now Afghanistan) and India in the first/second century CE, the two truths teaching was initially understood and interpreted through various ideas in Chinese philosophy , including Confucian and Taoist ideas which influenced

6018-593: The West , in collaboration with the Nagarjuna Institute in Kathmandu , Nepal , has worked to digitize and distribute Sanskrit scriptures into the Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon (DSBC) project. The scope of the DSBC project is vast, encompassing the digitization of at least 600 Mahayana Buddhist sutras that have survived in Sanskrit. As of now, the DSBC has successfully digitized over 604 texts, equating to roughly 50,000 pages, with more than 369 scriptures available on its official website. The collection continues to expand as additional texts are digitized and made accessible to

6120-648: The basis for the modern edition of the Japanese Taishō Tripiṭaka , the most widely used and digitized edition for modern scholarship. The Taishō Daizōkyō is the standard modern edition as systematized by Japanese scholars, published in Japan from 1924 to 1929. While still referred to by the traditional term "Tripiṭaka", it is actually divided into many more textual categories, including: Āgamas (equivalent to Nikāyas), Jātakas , Mahāyāna Sūtras , Esoteric texts, Vinaya, Sutra Commentaries, Abhidharma, Mahayana Śāstras (‘Treatises’), Chinese commentaries, Chinese Treatises, Histories and biographies. The Tibetan Buddhist canon

6222-543: The chain of dependent origination." For Dölpopa, some of the key “sutras of definitive meaning” included: the Śrīmālādevī Siṃhanāda Sūtra , Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra , Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra , Aṅgulimālīya Sūtra , Ghanavyūha Sūtra , Buddhāvataṃsakasūtra , Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra , and the Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra . Dölpopa's classification of Tathāgatagarbha sutras was influential on numerous later Tibetan authors. The Rime master Jamgon Kongtrul (1813–1899) also held that these buddha-nature sutras belonged to

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6324-418: The characterization of ultimate reality we find in Yogācāra than with what we find in Madhyamaka . The latter's characterization of ultimate reality in terms of emptiness is primarily a negative one, it describes it in terms of what is not there (a substantially existent core, svabhava ), while the former's is more positive, postulating a foundational consciousness that is the source of all appearance. Due to

6426-435: The code of conduct and moral virtues in the Vinaya basket particularly, have similarities to some of the surviving Dharmasutra texts of Hinduism. Much of the surviving Tripiṭaka literature is in Pali, with some in Sanskrit as well as other local Asian languages. The Pali Canon does not contain the Mahayana Sutras and Tantras as Mahayana schools were not influential in Theravada tradition as in East Asia and Tibet. Hence, there

6528-422: The complementarity of the second and third turning teachings. Meanwhile, the Gelug school considers only the second turning as definitive. The Gelug founder Tsongkhapa rejected the definitive nature of the Yogācāra texts and instead argued that the definitive sutras are only those which teach emptiness as the ultimate meaning. On this, he relies on the Teachings of Akshayamati Sutra . The Jonang school on

6630-419: The context of Buddhist hermeneutics , "definitive" refers to teachings which need no further explanation and are to be understood as is, while "implicit" or "provisional" refers to teachings which are expedient and useful but must be further interpreted and drawn out. In the Tibetan tradition, some schools like Nyingma hold that the second and third turnings are both definitive. Nyingma works tend to emphasize

6732-414: The definitive third turning. The teachings found in several of the "treatises of Maitreya ", such as the Madhyāntavibhāgakārikā , Ratnagotravibhāga and the Dharmadharmatāvibhāga are also considered to be part of the third turning by several schools of Tibetan Buddhism. Furthermore, in Tibetan Buddhism , Buddhist tantra and its associated scriptures are sometimes considered to also be part of

6834-544: The destruction of Indian monasteries after the 12th-century Muslim conquests . Tibetan scholars often visited to acquire texts, and local Newar Buddhists, including householder clergy (śākyabhikṣus and vajrācāryas ), were proficient in Sanskrit, making it a significant language for Buddhist scholarship in the region. From the 19th century onwards, Sanskrit manuscripts from Nepal were collected and sent to academic institutions in Calcutta and Europe by figures like Brian H. Hodgson, contributing to modern Buddhist studies. However,

6936-503: The earliest written Buddhist Tripiṭaka texts may have arrived in China from India by the 1st century BCE. An organised collection of Buddhist texts began to emerge in the 6th century CE, based on the structure of early bibliographies of Buddhist texts. However, it was the 'Kaiyuan Era Catalogue' by Zhisheng in 730 that provided the lasting structure. Zhisheng introduced the basic six-fold division with sutra, vinaya, and abhidharma belonging to Mahāyāna, Pratyekabuddhayana and Sravakayana . It

7038-458: The focus of modern Newar Buddhist literature was largely on local compositions in the Newari vernacular, reflecting the distinct practices of Newar Buddhism. Newar texts often used bilingual formats, integrating Sanskrit and Newari, and employed diverse calligraphic scripts like Newā Lipi and Rañjana . A recent digital humanities project is compiling a Sanskrit Buddhist canon based on surviving Sanskrit Buddhist literature . The University of

7140-399: The highest teachings to be those of the "vaitulya" ("well-balanced", or "extensive") Mahāyāna sūtras (such as the Mahāparinirvāṇa itself) which teach the eternal nature of the Tathagata , and how "all living beings possess buddha-nature." Vajrayana schools sometimes refer to Buddhist tantra as the "fourth turning." As explained by Lama Surya Das , some traditions consider Dzogchen as

7242-518: The ideas of Chán (Zen) Buddhism , as can be seen in the Five Ranks and other Chan texts. Chinese thinking often took the two truths to refer to two ontological truths (two ways of being, or levels of existence ): a relative level and an absolute level. For example, Taoists at first misunderstood sunyata (emptiness) to be akin to the Taoist non-being. In Madhyamaka the two truths are two epistemological truths : two different ways to look at reality. Chinese Madhyamaka ( Sanlun ) thus rejected

7344-524: The influence of Yogācāra-Tathāgatagarbha thought, some Buddhist traditions also consider the tathāgatagarbha (also known as buddha-nature ) teachings as part of the third turning. For example, the Jonang master Dölpopa Shérap Gyeltsen (1292-1361) held that the Tathāgatagarbha sutras contained the "final definitive statements on the nature of ultimate reality, the primordial ground or substratum beyond

7446-586: The metaphor of the gradual process of refining beryl to describe the way the Buddha teaches in three phases of teaching: 1. "discourses on impermanence, suffering, no self, and unattractiveness, which provoke revulsion", 2. "discourses on emptiness, signlessness, and wishlessness" and finally 3. "discourses known as The Irreversible Wheel of the Dharma and The Purification of the Triple Sphere. " Tibetan exegesis has generally seen this passage as referring to

7548-655: The mundane world and society. But this does not tell how the absolute is present in the relative world. This question is answered in such schemata as the Five Ranks of Tozan and the Oxherding Pictures . The polarity of absolute and relative is also expressed as "essence-function". The absolute is essence, the relative is function. They can't be seen as separate realities, but interpenetrate each other. The distinction does not "exclude any other frameworks such as neng-so or "subject-object" constructions", though

7650-483: The ontological reading of the two truths. However, drawing on buddha-nature thought (such as that of the Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra ) and on Yogacara sources, other Chinese Buddhist thinkers defended the view that the two truths did refer to two levels of reality (which were nevertheless non-dual and inferfused), one which was conventional, illusory and impermanent, and another which

7752-502: The other hand, see only the third turning sutras as definitive, and hold the texts of the second turning as provisional. Other Mahāyāna sutras also mention a similar idea of the Buddha teaching in different phases, some which are provisional and others which are considered final. The Dhāraṇīśvararāja sūtra (also known as the Tathāgatamahā­karuṇā­nirdeśa ), mentions that it is part of the “irreversible turning” and uses

7854-620: The popularity of the novel, the term "sānzàng" is often erroneously understood as a name of the monk Xuanzang . One such screen version of this is the popular 1979 Monkey (TV series) . The modern Indian scholar Rahul Sankrityayan is sometimes referred to as Tripiṭakacharya in reflection of his familiarity with the Tripiṭaka . Pali Canon: Myanmar Version of Buddhist Canon (6th revision): Chinese Buddhist Canon: Tibetan tradition: Tripiṭaka collections: Sri Lankan version of Tipiṭaka: Two truths doctrine The Buddhist doctrine of

7956-607: The public. The Chinese form of Tripiṭaka , "sānzàng" (三藏), was sometimes used as an honorary title for a Buddhist monk who has mastered the teachings of the Tripiṭaka. In Chinese culture, this is notable in the case of the Tang Dynasty monk Xuanzang , whose pilgrimage to India to study and bring Buddhist texts back to China was portrayed in the novel Journey to the West as "Tang Sanzang" (Tang Dynasty Tripiṭaka Master). Due to

8058-438: The senses, while mithya-samvrti or "false samvrti" refers to false cognitions of "things" which do not exist as they are perceived. Nagarjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā provides a logical defense for the claim that all things are empty ( sunyata ) of an inherently-existing self-nature. Sunyata, however, is also shown to be "empty", and Nagarjuna's assertion of "the emptiness of emptiness" prevents sunyata from constituting

8160-629: The sūtras which teach Yogācāra themes (especially the three natures doctrine ), like the Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra, comprise the final and ultimate "third turning". In East Asian Buddhism , this classification system was expanded and modified into different doctrinal classifications called "panjiào" (判教), which were developed by different Chinese Buddhist schools. The first turning is traditionally said to have taken place at Deer Park in Sarnath near Varanasi in northern India . It consisted of

8262-702: The task. The place where the project was undertaken was in Aluvihare , Matale , Sri Lanka. The resulting texts were later partly translated into a number of East Asian languages such as Chinese, Tibetan and Mongolian by ancient visiting scholars, which though extensive are incomplete. Each Buddhist sub-tradition had its own Tripiṭaka for its monasteries, written by its sangha , each set consisting of 32 books, in three parts or baskets of teachings: Vinaya Pitaka (“Basket of Discipline”), Sutra Pitaka (“Basket of Discourse”), and Abhidhamma Piṭaka (“Basket of Special [or Further] Doctrine”). The structure,

8364-469: The teaching of the four noble truths , dependent arising , the five aggregates , the sense fields , not-self , the thirty seven aids to awakening and all the basic Buddhist teachings common to all Buddhist traditions and found in the various Sutrapitaka and Vinaya collections. These teachings are known as the " Hinayana " teachings (lesser or small vehicle) in Mahayana. In East Asian Buddhism , it

8466-485: The teachings of emptiness (Skt: śūnyatā ) and the bodhisattva path. The main sutras of this second turning are considered to be the Prajñāpāramitā sutras . In East Asian Buddhism, the second turning is referred to as "the teaching that the original nature of all things is empty, that signs are not ultimately real" (無相法輪). The second turning is also associated with the bodhisattva Manjushri . The analytical texts of

8568-476: The theory of the "stainless consciousness" ( amala-vijñāna ), which is revealed once the ālaya-vijñāna is purified. As noted by Jan Westerhoff , the identification of buddha-nature teachings with the Yogācāra's third turning happened not only because several sutras (like the Laṅkāvatāra ) explicitly synthesized the two doctrines, but also because: the notion of the tathāgatagarbha lines up more naturally with

8670-633: The third turning included the Yogācārabhūmi-śastra , Xuanzang's Cheng Weishi Lun , and the Daśabhūmikasūtraśāstra ( Shidi jing lun 十地經論, T.26.1522, also called Dilun ), which is Vasubandhu's commentary on the Daśabhūmika-sūtra ( Shidi jing 十地經). The Indian Yogācāra tradition eventually developed various works which synthesized Yogācāra with the tathāgatagarbha thought found in various Mahayana sutras . This synthesis merged

8772-493: The third turning. The schema of the three turnings found in Yogācāra texts identify Yogācāra teachings as the final and definitive interpretation of the Buddha's teaching. However, the schema was later adopted more widely, and different schools of Buddhism , as well as individual Buddhist thinkers, give different explanations as to whether the second or third turnings are "definitive" (Skt: nītārtha ) or "provisional" or "implicit" (Skt: neyārtha, i.e. requiring interpretation). In

8874-459: The three turnings (though the sutra itself does not use this terminology). The Dhāraṇīśvararāja is also important because it is a key source for the Ratnagotravibhāga , an influential buddha-nature focused treatise. The Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra states that its teachings are the highest and ultimate Dharma . It also states that teachings on not-self and emptiness are provisional skillful means . The Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra considers

8976-437: The three turnings and how they relate to the three natures. According to Vasubandhu, the first turning teaches the non-existence of the self (atman) through an analysis of the five aggregates . The second turning then establishes how the very (false) appearance of a (non-existent) self comes about from its aggregate parts through dependent arising . The third turning then, explains the fundamental nature of emptiness itself, which

9078-407: The true characteristics of events. The Prajñaptivāda school took up the distinction between the conventional ( saṃvṛti ) and ultimate ( paramārtha ) truths, and extended the concept to metaphysical-phenomenological constituents ( dharma ), distinguishing those that are real ( tattva ) from those that are purely conceptual, i.e., ultimately nonexistent ( prajñāpti ). The distinction between

9180-508: The true nature" as a result. It is constituted by the appearances of mistaken awareness. Conventional truth would be the appearance that includes a duality of apprehender and apprehended, and objects perceived within that. Ultimate truths are phenomena free from the duality of apprehender and apprehended. Buddha's teaching of Dharma may be viewed as a path ( mārga ) of release from suffering or Dukkha . The first Noble Truth equates life-experiences with pain and suffering. Buddha's language

9282-485: The two "are completely different from each other in terms of their way of thinking". In Korean Buddhism, essence-function is also expressed as "body" and "the body's functions": [A] more accurate definition (and the one the Korean populace is more familiar with) is "body" and "the body's functions". The implications of "essence/function" and "body/its functions" are similar, that is, both paradigms are used to point to

9384-438: The two truths ( Sanskrit : dvasatya , Wylie : bden pa gnyis ) differentiates between two levels of satya (Sanskrit; Pali: sacca ; word meaning " truth " or " reality ") in the teaching of the Śākyamuni Buddha : the "conventional" or "provisional" ( saṁvṛti ) truth, and the "ultimate" ( paramārtha ) truth. The exact meaning varies between the various Buddhist schools and traditions . The best known interpretation

9486-626: The two truths ( satyadvayavibhāga ) was fully developed by Nāgārjuna ( c.  150  – c.  250 CE ) of the Madhyamaka school. The Madhyamikas distinguish between loka-samvriti-satya , "world speech truth" c.q. "relative truth" c.q. "truth that keeps the ultimate truth concealed", and paramarthika satya , ultimate truth. Loka-samvriti-satya can be further divided in tathya-samvrti or loka-samvrti , and mithya-samvrti or aloka-samvrti , "true samvrti" and "false samvrti". Tathya-samvrti or "true samvrti" refers to "things" which concretely exist and can be perceived as such by

9588-553: The two truths on the Kaccāyanagotta Sutta. In the Kaccāyanagotta Sutta, the Buddha , speaking to the monk Kaccayana Gotta on the topic of right view, describes the middle Way between nihilism and eternalism: By and large, Kaccayana, this world is supported by a polarity, that of existence and non-existence. But when one sees the origination of the world as it actually is with right discernment, "non-existence" with reference to

9690-416: The ultimate and most profound truth which cannot lead to a nihilistic interpretation of the Dharma which clings to non-existence (unlike the second wheel, which can be misinterpreted in a negative way) and is also incontrovertible and irrefutable (whereas the second wheel can be refuted). As such, the third turning is also called "the wheel of good differentiation" ( suvibhakta ), and "the wheel for ascertaining

9792-600: The ultimate truth. It has been observed that this view of the Buddha's teachings is very close to the fully developed position of the Mahāyāna sūtras. Scholars at present have "a nearly complete collection of sūtras from the Sarvāstivāda school" thanks to a recent discovery in Afghanistan of roughly two-thirds of Dīrgha Āgama in Sanskrit. The Madhyama Āgama ( Taishō Tripiṭaka 26) was translated by Gautama Saṃghadeva, and

9894-503: The ultimate" ( paramartha -viniscaya ). In East Asian Buddhism, the third turning is referred to as “ultimate turn of the Dharma wheel” (無上法輪). Other Mahāyāna sutras are considered to be associated with the Yogācāra school, and thus, with the third turning (though these sutras themselves do not mention "three turnings"). These include the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra and the Ghanavyūha Sūtra , both of which discuss Yogācāra topics like

9996-533: The vocabulary of Chinese Buddhism . As such, Chinese Buddhist translations and treatises made use of native Chinese terminology, such as "T’i -yung" (體用, "Essence and Function") and " Li-Shih " (理事, Noumenon and Phenomenon) to refer to the two truths. These concepts were later developed in the Chinese Buddhist traditions like the Wéishí and Huayan schools. The doctrines of these schools also influenced

10098-455: The world does not occur to one. When one sees the cessation of the world as it actually is with right discernment, "existence" with reference to the world does not occur to one. According to Chattopadhyaya, although Nagarjuna presents his understanding of the two truths as a clarification of the teachings of the Buddha, the two truths doctrine as such is not part of the earliest Buddhist tradition. The Yogacara school of Buddhism distinguishes

10200-722: Was eternal, unchanging and pure. The Huayan school or Flower Garland is a tradition of Mahayana Buddhist philosophy that flourished in China during the Tang period . It is based on the Sanskrit Flower Garland Sutra (S. Avataṃsaka Sūtra , C. Huayan Jing ) and on a lengthy Chinese interpretation of it, the Huayan Lun . The name Flower Garland is meant to suggest the crowning glory of profound understanding. The most important philosophical contributions of

10302-679: Was not accepted as canonical by the Mahāsāṃghika school. The Theravādin Dīpavaṃsa , for example, records that the Mahāsāṃghikas had no abhidharma. However, other sources indicate that there were such collections of abhidharma, and the Chinese pilgrims Faxian and Xuanzang both mention Mahāsāṃghika abhidharma. On the basis of textual evidence as well as inscriptions at Nāgārjunakoṇḍā , Joseph Walser concludes that at least some Mahāsāṃghika sects probably had an abhidharma collection, and that it likely contained five or six books. The Caitikas included

10404-468: Was simple and colloquial. Naturally, various statements of Buddha at times appear contradictory to each other. Later Buddhist teachers were faced with the problem of resolving these contradictions. Nagarjuna and other teachers introduced an exegetical technique of distinguishing between two levels of truth, the conventional and the ultimate. A similar method is reflected in the Brahmanical exegesis of

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