Lankavatara-Sutra

The Lankavatara Sutra ( Skt. Lankavatara - sūtra; Chinese楞伽 经, Pinyin Leng Qie jīng, W.-G. Leng -chia ching; jap Ryoga kyō; Tib: Long kar gshegs pa'i mdo, to German as: " Sūtra of the arrival ( Buddha) in Lanka " ( Lanka ( लंका ) is a Sanskrit term for a mythological place of the Sri Lanka today is roughly equivalent to ) is one of the most important sutras of Mahayana Buddhism. Traditionally, it is used as a literal tradition of the Buddha considered, even if it is well developed only between the first half of the fourth and the first half of the fifth century.

History

The contents of the sutra occupy a central position for the characteristics of the Chinese, Japanese and Tibetan Buddhism. It is one of the six orthodox writings of Yogācāra - schools such as the Faxiang. It is also the cornerstone of Chinese Chan Buddhism and its Japanese variant of Zen Buddhism. It was brought by Bodhidharma at the end of the fifth century to China and reached Japan in the eighth century, in the ninth Tibet. Known translations into Chinese are:

Into English and Japanese, it was translated by Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki. Since 1995 there is a German translation of the Sanskrit text.

Content

The Sutra takes a critical look with the Brahman schools of Indian philosophy as the Sankhya and the Pasupata apart and outlines possible matches to the Mahāyāna dar. Furthermore, the hallmark concerns of the Yogācāra as the doctrine of Tathāgatagarbha and the eight types of consciousness ( ASTA vijñānāni ) discussed.

The essence of the sutra revolves around the concept of " Cittamatra ": this refers to the totality of the Psycho- spiritual as the basis for the variety of phenomena, ie both the subjective- psychological as well as the objective- material. Cittamatra means literally "spirit alone," in the broader context " All existence is merely the Spirit." The humorous texts of the Sutra to help this statement on religious experience. Everything that is, is to be recognized as purely spiritual, but not in the sense of solipsism, but that things are in the first place in our consciousness.

As awareness is conceived by its means the separation and distinction as a basis for the conventional view of the world, it is also the fundamental starting point to overcome the false Dychotomien of subject and object, and finally the sorrowful cycle of rebirth in samsara.

Quotes

Quoted from the translation of Karl -Heinz Golzio (see references ):