Download Free The Ritual Sutras Book in PDF and EPUB Free Download. You can read online The Ritual Sutras and write the review.

In China Buddhism flourished during the Liang Dyansty (502–587) due in large part to Emperor Wu, who personally met with Bodhidharma, the 28th Indian patriarch from Shakyamuni Buddha. Legend has it that Emperor Wu’s first wife died prematurely and fell into the lower realms. In order to rescue her and to help her spirit ascend to the heavens, Emperor Wu, a great patron of Buddhism, had Chan Master Baozhi compose a repentance ceremony on her behalf. The resulting repentance text was so successful and popular that it is still used in monasteries today. Repentance Dharma of Kindness and Compassion in the Bodhimanda is a complete English translation of what is popularly known as “The Jeweled Repentance of the Emperor of Liang.” It was translated over a period of 15 years by the monks, nuns and laity of the Buddhist Text Translation Society (BTTS). BTTS was founded in 1970 in San Francisco by Tripitaka Master Hsuan Hua as part of the Dharma Realm Buddhist Association. BTTS publishes sutra translations, instructional handbooks, biographies, children’s books, and introductory material on Buddhism.
Ritual is one of the most pervasive religious phenomena in the Tibetan cultural world. Despite its ubiquity and importance to Tibetan cultural life, however, only in recent years has Tibetan ritual been given the attention it deserves. This is the first scholarly collection to focus on this important subject. Unique in its historical, geographical and disciplinary breadth, this book brings together eleven essays by an international cast of scholars working on ritual texts, institutions and practices in the greater Tibetan cultural world - Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, and Mongolia. While most of the chapters focus on Buddhism, two deal with ritual in Tibet's indigenous Bon religion. All of the essays are original to this volume. An extensive introduction by the editor provides a broad overview of Tibetan ritual and contextualizes the chapters within the field of Buddhist and Tibetan studies. The book should find use in advanced undergraduate courses and graduate seminars on Tibetan religion. It will also be of interest to students and scholars of ritual generally.
"The law codes of ancient India"--Cover.
Koichi Shinohara traces the evolution of Esoteric Buddhist rituals from the simple recitation of spells in the fifth century to complex systems involving image worship, mandala initiation, and visualization practices in the ninth century. He presents an important new reading of a seventh-century Chinese text called the Collected Dharani Sutras, which shows how earlier rituals for specific deities were synthesized into a general Esoteric initiation ceremony and how, for the first time, the notion of an Esoteric Buddhist pantheon emerged. In the Collected Dharani Sutras, rituals for specific deities were typically performed around images of the deities, yet Esoteric Buddhist rituals in earlier sources involved the recitation of spells rather than the use of images. The first part of this study explores how such simpler rituals came to be associated with the images of specific deities and ultimately gave rise to the general Esoteric initiation ceremony described in the crucial example of the All-Gathering mandala ritual in the Collected Dharani Sutras. The visualization practices so important to later Esoteric Buddhist rituals were absent from this ceremony, and their introduction would fundamentally change Esoteric Buddhist practice. This study examines the translations of dharani sutras made by Bodhiruci in the early eighth century and later Esoteric texts, such as Yixing's commentary on the Mahavairocana sutra and Amoghavajra's ritual manuals, to show how incorporation of visualization greatly enriched Esoteric rituals and helped develop elaborate iconographies for the deities. Over time, the ritual function of images became less certain, and the emphasis shifted toward visualization. This study clarifies the complex relationship between images and ritual, changing how we perceive Esoteric Buddhist art as well as ritual.
The West's first encounters with the folk tales and myths of the East proved to be a heady experience, as they were based on an entirely different value system and worldview than those that are reflected in the Greek myths and most subsequent Western folk tales. In Myths and Legends of China, author E.T.C. Werner offers up a rich tapestry of Chinese folk narratives. A must-read for fans of world myths, fairy tales, and legends.