This is the first complete translation form the Sanskrit of this important Mahayana text, and is now available again in a new impression after an absence of over fifteen years.

The introduction describes the general teaching of the Sutra, and the Appendix contains the Sanskrit text, the three Chinese and the one Tibetan version, with their respective English translations.

The Lankavatara Sutra contains almost all the essential teachings of the Mahayana, and this volume is an attempt to elucidate them systematically, at the same time analyzing the contents of the sutra itself. The book includes a Sanskrit-Chinese-English Glossary, which will be of help to Chinese students of Buddhism.

Contents

Bodhidharma, by Sesshu (1420-1506)
Preface
Introduction
Chapter One Ravana, Lord of Kanka, asks for instruction
Chapter Two Collection of all the dharmas
I Mahamati praises the Buddha with verses
II Mahamati's 'one hundred and eight questions'
III 'The one hundred and eight negations'
IV Concerning the Vijnanas
V Seven knds of self-nature
VI Seven kinds of first principle (paramartha), and the philosophers' wrong views regading the mnd rejected
VII Erroneous views held by some Brahmans and Sramanas concerning causation, continuation, etc.; The buddhist views concerning such subjects as Alayavijnana, Nirvana, Mind-only, etc.; attainments of the Bodhisattva
VIII The Bodhisattva's discipling himself in self-realixation
IX The evolution and function of the Vijnanas; The spiritual discipine f the Bodisattva; Verses on the Alaya-ocean and Vijnana-waves
X The Bodhisattva is to understand teh signification of mind-only
XIa The three aspects of noble wisdom (dryajnana)
XIb The attainment of the Tathagatakaya
XII Logic on the hare's horns
XIII Verses on the Alayavijnana and mind-only
XIV Purification of the outflows, insantaneous and gradual
XV Nishyanda-Buddha, Dharmata-Buddha, and Nirmana-Buddha
XVI The Srvaka's realisaton and attachment to notion of self-nature
XVII The eternal-unthinkable
XVIII Nirvana and Alayavijnana
XIX All things are unborn
XX The five classes of spiritual insight
XXI Verses on the triple vehicle
XXII Two classes of teh Icchantika
XXIII The three forms of Svabhava
XXIV The two fold egolessness (nairatmyadvaya-lakshana)
XXV Assertion and refutation (samaropapavada)
XXVI the Bodhisattva assumes various personalities
XXVII On emptiness (sunhata), no-birth, and non-duality
XXVIII The Tathagata-Garbha and the ego-soul
XXIX A verse on the philosophers' discriminations
XXX The four things needed for teh constitution of Bodhisattvahood
XXXI On causation (six kinds), and the rise of existence
XXXII Four forms of word-discrimination
XXXIII On word and discrimination and the highest reaity
XXXIV Verses on reality and its representations
XXXV Mind-only, multitudinousness, and analogies, wit an interpolation ofn tehdualistic notion of existence
XXXVI The teaaching (dharmadesana) of the Tathagatas
XXXVII Four kinds of Dhyana
XXXVIII On nirvana
XXXIX Two characteristics of self-nature
XL Two kinds of the Buddha's sustaining ower (ashishthana)
XLI On the chain of causation (pratityasamutpada)
XLII Words (abhilapa) and realities (bhava)
XLIII On eternality of sound (nityasabda), the nature of error (bhranta), and perversion (viakritani)
XLIV On the nature of maya
XLV That all things are unborn
XLVI On name, sentence, syllable, and their meaning
XLVII On inexplicable statements (vyakritani)
XLVIII All things are and are not (verses on four forms of explanation)
XLIX On the Sravakas, Srotaapanna, Sakridagamin, Anagamin, and Arhat; on the three knots (samyojani)
L The intellect (buddhi), examining and discriminating
LI The elements, primary and secondary
LII the five Skandhas
LIII Four kinds of nirvana and the eight Vijnanas
LIV The false imagination regarding twelve subjects
LV Verses on teh Citta, Parikalpita, Paratantra, and Parinishpanna
LVI The one vehicle and the triple vehicle
Chapter Three On Impermanency
LVII Three forms of the will-body (manomayakaya)
LVIII The five immediacies (pancanantaryani); Desire as mother and ignorance as father
LVIX The Buddha-nature (buddhata)
LX The identity (samata) of Buddhahood and its four aspects
LXI Not a word uttered by the Buddha; Self-realisation and an eternally-abiding reality
LXII On being and non-being; Realism and nihilism
LXIII Realisation and word-teaaching
LXIV Discrimination, an external world, dualism, and attachment
LXV The relation between words (ruta) and meaning (artha)
LXVI On knowledge, absolute (jnana) and relative (vijnana)
LXVII Nine transformations (parinama)
LXVIII The deep-seated ataachment to existence
LXIX Self-nature, reality, imagination, truth of solitude, etc.
LXX The thesis of no-birth
LXXI True knowledge and ignorance
LXXII Self-realisaton and the discoursing on it
LXXIII On the Lokayatika
LXXIV Various views of nirvana
LXXV Is Tathagatahood something made? Its relation to the Skandhas, to emancipation, to knowledge
LXXVI The Tathagata variously designated; relation between words and meaning; not a word uttered by the Buddha
LXXVII Causation, no-birth, self-mind, nirvana
LXXVIII Verses on no-birth and causation
LXXIX Various views of impermanency
Chapter Four On Intuitive Understanding
LXXX Perfect tranquillisation attained by Sravakas, Pratyekabuddhas, and Bodhisattvas; Stages of Bodhisattvahood
Chapter Five On the Deduction of the Permanency of Tathagatahood
LXXXI Permanency of Tathagatahood
Chapter Six On Momentariness
LXXXII The Tathagata-garbha and the Alayavijuana
LXXXIII The five dharmas, and their relation to the three svabhavas
LXXXIV The five Dharmas
LXXXV Tathagata and sands of the Ganga
LXXXVI Momentariness; the eight Vijnanas
LXXXVII Three kinds of the paramitas
LXXXVIII Views on momentariness; discrimination
Chapter Seven On Transformation
LXXXIX On Transformation
Chapter Eight On meat-eating
Chapter Nine The Dharanis
Sagathakam
Appendix