Self-realization of Noble Wisdom: The Lankavatara Sutra

by Dwight Goddard (editor)

D.T. Suzuki’s translation of the Lankavatara Sutra was first published in 1932.

Professor Suzuki felt, if the Sutra was ever to be read by general readers, that an editing of it in the interest of easier reading was a necessity. He encouraged Dwight Goddard to undertake the task. One of the few texts that directly communicate from the disposition of ultimate realization, and the subject of study and commentary by many great masters, the Lankavatara was the most influential of all Buddhist scriptures in fixing the general doctrines of Mahayana Buddhism.

Goddard writes, "There is a tradition that when Bodhidarma handed over his begging-bowl and robe to his successor that he also gave him a copy of the Lankavatara, saying that he needed no other sutra."

PROVENANCE EDITIONS

Elegant editions of spiritual classics

Genres: Esoterica, Religion

166 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1983

About the author

American writer Dwight Goddard (1861-1939) studied at a monastery in Kyoto, Japan, for a year and was among the first Westerners to bring Zen Buddhism to the United States. His most famous book is The Buddhist Bible (1938).

Reviews

[Thelbert Dewain Belgard · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is not a straightforward (what I would call) "scholarly" translation of the Lanka. D.T. Suzuki did that in 1932 and no one read it. (I exaggerate to make a point.) Suzuki himself thought his translation of the classic Buddhist scripture needed to be edited to make it more understandable and accessible. That's what Goddard did in this edition.

The Lanka is a relatively late Sutra of the Yogachara school of Buddhist psychology and meditation practice. It's not a tightly organized book. Some scholars have proposed that it may be a collection of writings--perhaps from various teachers of the late Yogacharin school of thought.

I like this edition because it gives you the flavor of the "mind-only" school of Buddhism with only a modest investment in the study of Buddhist technical terms. Anyone -- even someone without much previous experience with Buddhist writings -- will soon get the main point around which most of the book revolves: "...[D]iscrimination takes its rise from the mind becoming attached to the multiplicities of things which in themselves are not real, and that emancipation comes from thoroughly understanding the meaning of Reality as it truly is."