The Lankavatara Sutra: Translation and Commentary

I am halfway through this book but wanted to get a review out to encourage anyone interested in this classic scripture to get it in this edition. It's great. When I first got it in the mail I was worried that the comments and notes that accompany the text by Mr. Pine would be a distraction. On the contrary, there are very helpful: extremely intelligent with an occasional dash of humor (I laughed out loud in the hospital when I read the note that said "Amen," expressing Mr. Pine's gratitude that a certain difficult passage had come to an end. Very funny). As a matter of fact, I have found that Mr. Pine's comments on some of the Buddhist terms used in the text have clarified them for me for the first time. Here is his explanation of the "three modes of reality.""The three modes of reality (tri-sva-bhava) include imagined reality (parikalpita), dependent reality (paratantra), and perfected reality (parin-ishpanna). The three modes do not refer to separate realities. They simply represent the three ways we perceive what is real."This type of comment typifies Mr. Pine's commonsense help for the reader throughout the text.Here is a sample of the text, in this case the Buddha on beings having no "self," translated by the able hand of Mr. Pine."And what does it mean that beings have no self? The assemblage of the skandhas, the dhatus, or the ayatanas arises from ignorance, karma, and desire and includes neither a self nor anything that belongs to a self. As the grasping and attachment of such senses as the eye to from give rise to consciousness, bodies, houses and the world of objects that are perceptions of one's own mind are fabricated and manifested from one's own projections. They change and disappear every moment, like a river or a seed or a candle or the wind or a cloud. Restless like a monkey, attracted to impurities like a fly, and insatiable like a windblown fire, they move like a waterwheel, through life after life and bodily form after bodily form, impelled by habit-energy without beginning, like figures produced by some sort of magic trick or spell or mechanical device. To be skilled in the knowledge of such appearances means to know that beings have no self."I am reading the hard copy at the moment, and am taking it slow--how else could you read a text like this?! But when I get my iPad I am going to download the digital version so I can highlight sections for study (I could have cut and pasted sections here rather than typing them). Great book; great, balanced translation. Extremely helpful notes and comments. I have been waiting for years for a new edition of this after Mr. Suzuki's work. I only wish it had come sooner. Thank you Mr. Pine! This is among my top-ten all-time favorite books, along with Homer ( The Odyssey (Fitzgerald translation) by Homer, Robert Fitzgerald (Translator), D. S. Carne-Ross (Introduction)  and  The Iliad: The Fitzgerald Translation ), Plato, Plutarch, Plotinus ( Plotinus: The Enneads (LP Classic Reprint Series) ), Yoga Vasistha ( Vasistha's Yoga ), Shakespeare, Emerson, Dostoyevsky, Nisargadatta (I Am That), and the works of Jane Roberts/Seth: Seth Speaks ( Seth Speaks: The Eternal Validity of the Soul ), The Nature of Personal Reality ( The Nature of Personal Reality: Specific, Practical Techniques for Solving Everyday Problems and Enriching the Life You Know (Jane Roberts ), The Individual and the Nature of Mass Events ( The Individual and the Nature of Mass Events: A Seth Book (Roberts, Jane ), The Nature of the Psyche ( The Nature of the Psyche: Its Human Expression (A Seth Book ), etc., and a couple of outstanding contemporary works, Wonders of the Natural Mind by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche ( Wonders of the Natural Mind: The Essence of Dzogchen in the Native Bon Tradition of Tibet )and Understanding Our Mind by Thich Nhat Hanh ( Understanding Our Mind: 50 Verses on Buddhist Psychology ).Incidentally, it has been years since I read the Lankavatara, and reading this version now, I am astounded by the similarities of worldviews embodied in it and Jane Robert's/Seth's work: their emphasis on the importance and possibility of the clarity of consciousness, on reality as a creation of mind, on inner levels of reality that are accessible through contemplation, and their notion of the fluid nature of identity, to name a few points. As both authors stress (the Buddha and Jane Roberts, among countless others) reading about spiritual reality is not the same as experiencing it, or as the Buddha reminds us in the Lankavatara, the finger pointing is not the same at the thing pointed at. Nevertheless looking for and finding parallels in works as distant as the words of the Buddha and a 20thy century American mystic is extremely enjoyable and rewarding. I hope you enjoy this editing of the Lankavatara as much as I did!

Preliminary observations:For a Lankavatarian, the arrival in the mail of Red Pine's new translation of the Lankavatara Sutra was like receiving the Holy Grail. This long anticipated release was well-worth the wait. Readers will not be disappointed as this contemporary rendition, through the skillful writing ability of Bill Porter, breathes new life into what is considered a difficult text. I found myself being mesmerized as soon as I opened the book. Often I find myself skipping through a book's preface to get to the content, but not this time. Red Pine weaves a masterful synthesis of the Sutra's origins--from the text itself to wonderful anecdotes revolving around key Zen players who were instrumental in the Lanka's promulgation. One such anecdote relates how Shen-Hsiu, who lost that famous poetry contest with Hui-neng, was actually a greater admirer of the Lanka than the Sixth Patriarch himself; he was even buried beneath a hillock that he affectionately named Mount Lanka.One salient feature that appears again and again in Bill Porter's translation is the Sutra's non-projection of dharmas: "Because the various projections of people's minds appear before them as objects, they become attached to the existence of their projections." The way to become free from one's projections is to realize that "they are nothing but mind" Itself. The Buddha makes Mahamati (the spokesman in the sutra who addresses questions to the Buddha) aware that his incessant inquires are nothing more than "his own and others' imagination and as such are tantamount to pie in the sky." Consciousness itself is a "self-fabricated" fiction, but "bodhisattvas transform their consciousness into the projectionless tathagata-garbha, or the womb from which the buddhas arise." Red Pine is right on target with his understanding of the tathagata-garbha and the alaya-vijnana, the latter "represents the defiled mind", the former "the mind purified." He also stresses a point about practitioners: "The Lanka is not a text that welcomes the casual reader. An understanding of its teachings requires a teacher, or incredibly good karma. And such teachers and karma have always been rare. There have been times when the Lanka achieved a certain amount of popularity, but it has never been a text whose readership was widespread--its reputation, yes, but not its readership." Hence, one can see the validly of his decision to take the reductionist approach in order to enhance the Sutra's readership.I am also delighted that Red Pine decided to include the "Introductory Chapter", something that editions like the Goddard abridged efforts have sorely left out. The interesting and edifying account of Ravana, the Overlord of the Yakshas, being transformed (Bill Porter's translation of pavavriti--or the "turn about" within the deepest recesses of consciousness) through his discourse with the Buddha, in effect having a Yogic self-awakening, highlights in a nutshell the whole teaching within the Lanka on the process of the self-realization of Noble Wisdom. Am looking forward to reading the rest of Bill Porter's marvelous and informative translation--his accompanying commentary is an invaluable and enjoyable asset. The only contentious points thus far is his decision to exclude arya-jnana in favor of buddha-jnana--in doing so he misses the authentic import of the true meaning of the "Noble-Ones" who are instilled with the proper Buddha-gnosis to attain that wonderful self-realization of Noble Wisdom...this is not some "personal revelation" as he asserts (personal revelation is akin to what I was describing in my recent blog: The Rapture ([...] wherein a woman had a personal revelation as to the coming "Rapture"). The self-realization of Noble Wisdom found within the Lanka is not a "personal" revelation, but rather a singular divulgement of the Tathatagas. Also, like most contemporary Buddhist scholars, his emphasis upon the "no-self" leaves much to be desired--even though he breaks-down this "self" down somewhat as being constituted of the Skandhas--he seems, thus far, to be leaning in the direction of pure anatmanism. All in all, a new majestic rendition of the Lanka's marriage between Yogacarism and Zen--what Red Pine calls, "Zen tea in a Yogacara Cup."

Red Pine is an excellent translator and his commentary 👌 is so helpful.

E' un testo complesso ma interessante. Il Lankavatara sutra è una pietra miliare del buddismo, in particolare della tradizione chan cinese (ovvero zen giappo). Red Pine ha fatto un gran lavoro di ricerca tuttavia avrebbe potuto semplificare alcune parti per renderlo più fruibile alla massa.

Excelente tradução. Um sutra comprido, mas muito bem comentado. Primeiro livro que leio do Red Pine e gostei bastante, portanto recomendo.

Es steht da, man befasst sich damit, und das war es. Wer sich nicht damit befasst, der lässt es stehen, und das war es auch.Alles was ich weitergeben kann ist soviel: das Lankavatara ist eine angenehme Herausforderung, für meine Meditationspraxis das Sutra der Wahl um darüber zu meditieren. Es zieht einen Satz für Satz in die Reflektion, denn logisch erschliesst es sich nicht. Ich meine, es wurde für jahrelang praktizierende Laien geschrieben. Für den Buddhisten der voll im hektischen Berufs- und Familienleben steht, ist dieses Sutra ein sehr guter Begleiter.

This translation and commentary of the Lankavatara Sutra makes an important Buddhist sutra more accessible to the English speaking world. It is a significant improvement on the attempts of Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki to translate the sutra in 1932 - Suzuki was a native Japanese speaker who worked from the Sanskrit texts. This work of Red Pine's (A.K.A. Bill Porter) brings a great deal more clarity to the Lankavatara Sutra, making it more understandable and digestible (although it might best be approached as a life-long companion as opposed to a 'read once' kind of book - but then that is in the nature of the teaching).This is the sutra that the legendary Patriarch of Zen, Bodhidharma, brought with him from India in order to reinvigorate Buddhism in China and which he subsequently passed on to his lineage successor - Huike (Hui-k'o). Bodhidharma's teachings were centred on the Lankavatara sutra and he would instruct his disciples that the sutra be used to seal the mind.Red Pine is a translator who is learned in languages and who has lived for decades in East Asia, staying in Buddhist monasteries and developing a keen insight and understanding of Buddhist thought and practice. Not a mere linguists academic, but rather someone who has been ideally groomed to undertake the monumental and important task of translating one of the most precious texts in existence.On its publication, the great wisdom and insight distilled into this rare sutra just became available to millions more very fortunate human beings. Don't Miss!