Existence and Enlightenment in the Lankavatara Sutra: A Study in the Ontology and Epistemology of the Yogacara School of Mahayana Buddhism (SUNY Series in Buddhist Studies) [Paperback]

Florin Giripescu Sutton (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 406 pages
• Publisher: State University of New York Press (November 27, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0791401731
• ISBN-13: 978-0791401736
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #770,930 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An illuminating look at a Buddhist classic with new eyes, September 10, 2010

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Leo Rivers "Leo Rivers" (www.madimi.com) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Existence and Enlightenment in the Lankavatara Sutra: A Study in the Ontology and Epistemology of the Yogacara School of Mahayana Buddhism (SUNY Series in Buddhist Studies) (Paperback)

The Lankavatara sutra has three identities at least. It's early translations in the 400s in China became a whole school of interpretation unique to it, albeit it was replaced as the most popular Mahayana Sutra in China. This was a unique take and not necessarily proportional to what was in the minds of the people who made up the contributors to the Sanskrit text. Then there is the Lankavatara sutra as was seized on by its transit through Tibet where it was translated in the Imperial Era of the 800s, but in Tibet's medieval era became a spiritual-political football in the struggle between those who analyzed the Emptiness teachings and Yogacara teachings as being the second and third turning of the wheel of the Dharma, and then argued about which was the provisional truth and which was the definitive truth. The this wonderful sutra actually stands outside of this argument and stands on its own 2 feet. It is this third voice, the voice of the Lankavatara sutra that this author tries to bring out like a lawyer speaking for the text as if the text were someone on trial in the court of law.

It is time for this intelligent and erudite defense because now, 30 years after the text was translated by DT Suzuki, the decades have helped put many issues in perspective thanks to modern scholarship. We can actually hear the voice of the Sutra of above the roar of its traditional proponents of every school and camp.

Reference here is made to modern philosophy but what is borrowed is explained. Unlike some authors he does not try to translate Buddhism into some modern formal philosophical language.

It is interesting to see that this text, like many Mahayana Sutras, is actually a little library of collected smaller texts and sayings and he does a wonderful job of marshaling quotes from the book into a form less random than the looseleaf recipe-book collage of the actual text. This is one of those few modern academic texts on Buddhism is not only done in a clear voice that modern laypeople could understand, but it is talking about a subject in such a way as that one's own practice and understanding of Buddhism is deepened.