The Sutra Of Golden Light

The Sutra of Golden Light is a Mahayana sutra with great power and benefit. Reading the sutra helps bring peace to the world, promotes healing, gives great protection, and most importantly, plants the seed of enlightenment. This version is the much anticipated translation by Losang Dawa, done at the direct request of Lama Zopa Rinpoche. It is the first translation available from the Tibetan. “Anybody who wants peace in the world should read The Golden Light Sutra. This is a very important practice to stop violence and wars in the world. The Golden Light Sutra is one of the most beneficial ways to bring peace. This is something that everyone can do, no matter how busy you are – even if you can read one page a day, or a few lines and in this way continually read The Golden Light Sutra.” –Lama Zopa Rinpoche. 2006 Edition.

Golden Light Sutra, Sutra of Golden light The Sutra of Golden Light is a Mahayana sutra with great power and benefit. Reading the sutra helps bring peace to the world, promotes healing, gives great protection, and most importantly, plants the seed of enlightenment. This version is the much anticipated translation by Losang Dawa, done at the direct request of Lama Zopa Rinpoche. It is the first translation available from the Tibetan. "Anybody who wants peace in the world should read The Golden Light Sutra. This is a very important practice to stop violence and wars in the world. The Golden Light Sutra is one of the most beneficial ways to bring peace. This is something that everyone can do, no matter how busy you are even if you can read one page a day, or a few lines and in this way continually read The Golden Light Sutra." -Lama Zopa Rinpoche 152 pages, 2011 edition.

The Sutra of Golden Light has captured imaginations for centuries but remains as mysterious as it is beautiful. With skill and clarity, Sangharakshita translates the images and episodes, providing an exploration filled with practical insights. Retaining the magic of the original sutra, he shows how this ancient text can help us through a range of contemporary issues such as ecology and economics, culture, and morality while all the time showing that if we wish to change the world, the most important step we can take is to start with ourselves.

In this pioneering study of the shifting status of the emperor within court society and the relationship between the state and the Buddhist community during the Heian period (794–1185), Asuka Sango details the complex ways in which the emperor and other elite ruling groups employed Buddhist ritual to legitimate their authority. Although considered a descendant of the sun goddess, Amaterasu, the emperor used Buddhist idiom, particularly the ideal king as depicted in the Golden Light Sūtra, to express his right to rule. Sango’s book is the first to focus on the ideals presented in the sūtra to demonstrate how the ritual enactment of imperial authority was essential to justifying political power. These ideals became the basis of a number of court-sponsored rituals, the most important of which was the emperor’s Misai-e Assembly. Sango deftly traces the changes in the assembly’s format and status throughout the era and the significant shifts in the Japanese polity that mirrored them. In illuminating the details of these changes, she challenges dominant scholarly models that presume the gradual decline of the political and liturgical influence of the emperor over the course of the era. She also compels a reconsideration of Buddhism during the Heian as “state Buddhism” by showing that monks intervened in creating the state’s policy toward the religion to their own advantage. Her analysis further challenges the common view that Buddhism of the time was characterized by the growth of private esoteric rites at the expense of exoteric doctrinal learning. The Halo of Golden Light draws on a wide range of primary sources—from official annals and diaries written by courtiers and monks to ecclesiastical records and Buddhist texts—many of them translated or analyzed for the first time in English. In so doing, the work brings to the surface surprising facets in the negotiations between religious ideas and practices and the Buddhist community and the state.

From its earliest days, Buddhism has been closely intertwined with medicine. Buddhism and Medicine is a singular collection showcasing the generative relationship and mutual influence between these fields across premodern Asia. The anthology combines dozens of English-language translations of premodern Buddhist texts with contextualizing introductions by leading international scholars in Buddhist studies, the history of medicine, and a range of other fields. These sources explore in detail medical topics ranging from the development of fetal anatomy in the womb to nursing, hospice, dietary regimen, magical powers, visualization, and other healing knowledge. Works translated here include meditation guides, popular narratives, ritual manuals, spells texts, monastic disciplinary codes, recipe inscriptions, philosophical treatises, poetry, works by physicians, and other genres. All together, these selections and their introductions provide a comprehensive overview of Buddhist healing throughout Asia. They also demonstrate the central place of healing in Buddhist practice and in the daily life of the premodern world. This anthology is a companion volume to Buddhism and Medicine: An Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Sources (Columbia, 2019).