The canonical literature of Buddhism has a number of characteristics that make it unique among the religious scriptures of the world. First, the literature is not contained within a single canon: various regional, linguistic, and sectarian divisions...

TREASURE TRADITION. The Treasure (gter ma) tradition has some precedents in Indian Buddhism. One striking example is a prophecy by the Buddha in the Pratyutpannasamādhi Sūtra that predicts the sūtra would come to be hidden in the...

SŪTRA LITERATURE. The Sanskrit term sūtra means "a thread"; it is also used, however, to refer to a short, aphoristic sentence and, collectively, to a work consisting of such sentences. Sūtra literature, as...

Those of the Theravāda are to be found in the Tipitaka (q.v.) or three ‘baskets’ of the Pali Canon. For trans. into English see Pali Text Society. For an Analysis see A.P.C. new edn. The S. of the Māhāyana are in Sk.,...

Jap., Hokekyō. Scripture written in India probably in the second century A.D. See, The Lotus of the Wonderful Law, abridged version by Soothill from the Chinese (Oxford, 1930). Teaches the identification of the historical Buddha with the...

The ‘turning over’ of merit acquired by good deeds of an individual to the benefit of another being, or of all beings. The doctrine appears in the Theravāda but is more fully developed in the Mahāyāna. (Cp. Parināmana,...

The ‘turning about’ or sudden ‘revulsion at the deepest seat of consciousness’ which is the Buddhist moment of conversion. Collates with Ālayavijñāna (q.v.). (See Suzuki, Studies in the Lankavatara...

‘Representation-Only’. Alternative name for the Indian school of Bsm. better known as the Yogācāra or Vijñānavāda School. (See...

Buddhist texts texts can be categorized in a number of ways, but the most fundamental division is that between canonical and non-canonical texts. The former, including the Sutras (Sanskrit) or Suttas (Pali), are held to be, literally or metaphorically,...