Customer Reviews

The Scripture on the Explication of Underlying Meaning (Bdk English Tripitaka Translation Series)

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If your idea of yoga is body postures or breath control or sitting in meditation to deepen your tranquility of mind and clarify your insight into wisdom you are on a path that leads, at least in the Buddhist context, to this text, which has been translated twice before by Thomas Cleary as [a course in] "Buddhist yoga" and John Powers as "the Wisdom of the Buddha".

The Cleary text is aimed at being very simple and straightforward, an effort to make it easy to assimilate text. The power's book is lovely having facing pages of Tibetan and English text and a full set of notes. In a review of John Powers book that you can find on the Internet by Tom Graham you can get the background picture of just how frustrating it is that a text this important as a background to both the Yogacara School and the view of the Tantras is almost completely overlooked by American Buddhists. This newest translation offers a both a crystal clarity of translation and a wonderful table of contents as well as some insightful footnotes that make for a compact commentary on the text all by themselves.

Those who are used to physical yoga and the notion yoga involving conceptual meditation don't even recognize this as a form of yoga because they are unfamiliar with the presentation and the essence of non-conceptual yoga which is of course the pinnacle of Vajrayana Buddhism. Originally written in the early second century it lay the foundation for all the Buddhist yoga to come. I have written a concordance to the chapters of the "Buddhist yoga" and "Wisdom of the Buddha" translations in my review of both of those books. You would do well to check all the comments on those two translations as well as the Tom Graham review. It is only then you'll begin to understand what you're missing if you are a Buddhist of the Mahayana tradition.

This translation, according to my opinion is quite good, because the language to be used here is quite simple ( English is not my mother language). This Sutra give me the new point of view in the meaning of words. Budha spoke this Sutra in the immeasurable place adorned by seven precious jewels, that illuminate the world realms in ten directions. He taught us not to cling to the language/words, because the reality is apart from words, and also we must avoid dualism. For further discussion and information you could send e-mail to dh4rm4id@yahoo.com