Divine Stories

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Nicholas Weeks
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Divine Stories

Post by Nicholas Weeks »

That is the title of the translation from the Sanskrit of Divyaavadaana an ancient collection of 36 Dharma stories & two sutras. This is part one, covering the first 17 stories. Bhikkhu Bodhi writes on the blurb:
These are essentially human stories that record the trials and struggles of the Buddha's personal disciples as they meander through the corridors of samsara, seeking light, purity and final freedom.
Andy Rotman is the translator, Wisdom the publisher. http://www.wisdompubs.org/book/divine-stories" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Last edited by Nicholas Weeks on Fri Apr 29, 2016 4:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Good and evil have no fixed form. It's as easy to turn from doing bad to doing good as it is to flip over the hand from the back to the palm. It's simply up to us to do it. Master Hsuan Hua.
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Nicholas Weeks
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Joined: Tue Dec 30, 2008 11:26 pm
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Re: Why Buddhas Smile

Post by Nicholas Weeks »

The Buddha’s Smile

Now it is a law of nature that whenever lord buddhas manifest their
smiles, rays of blue, yellow, red, and white light, and those the color of
topaz, rubies, diamonds, beryl, sapphires, crystals, red pearls, right spiraling
conch shells, quartz, coral, gold, and silver emerge from their
mouths, some going downward and some going upward.

Those that go downward enter
the various hells down to the Avīci (Ceaseless Torture)
... Becoming cold, they fall in the
hot hells, and becoming hot, they fall in the cold hells. In this way, at
that moment, those rays of light alleviate the particular torments of
those beings who dwell in these various hells.

And so they think,
“Friends, have we died and passed away from this place? Have we been
reborn somewhere else?”

Then, in order to engender their faith, the Blessed One manifests a
magical image of himself for them to see. Seeing this magical image,
they think, “Friends, we haven’t died and passed away from this place,
nor have we been born someplace else. Instead, it’s this person who
we’ve never seen before; it’s by his power that our particular torments
are alleviated.”

Cultivating faith in their minds toward this magical
image, they then cast off that karma still to be suffered in these hells and
take rebirth among gods and mortals, where they become vessels for
the [four noble] truths.
[page 136]
Good and evil have no fixed form. It's as easy to turn from doing bad to doing good as it is to flip over the hand from the back to the palm. It's simply up to us to do it. Master Hsuan Hua.
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Nicholas Weeks
Posts: 4210
Joined: Tue Dec 30, 2008 11:26 pm
Location: USA West Coast

Re: Divine Stories

Post by Nicholas Weeks »

It has been a few years but now volume 2 of these tales is out:

https://www.wisdompubs.org/book/divine-stories-0
Good and evil have no fixed form. It's as easy to turn from doing bad to doing good as it is to flip over the hand from the back to the palm. It's simply up to us to do it. Master Hsuan Hua.
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