The Lankavatara Sutra

 study  transports the practitioner to the time of the foundation of Zen.

The Sutra has always been a favorite with the Ch’an Sect (Zen, in Japan) and has had a great deal to do with that sect’s origin and development. There is a tradition that says, when Bodhidharma handed over his begging-bowl and robe to his successor that he also gave him his copy of the Lankavatara, saying, that he needed no other sutra. In the early days of the Ch’an Sect the Sutra was very much studied, but because of its difficulties and obscurities it gradually dropped out of common use and has been very much neglected for the past thousand years. But during that time many of the great Masters have made it a subject of study, and many commentaries have been written upon it. Although other sutras have been more commonly read, none have been more influential in fixing the general doctrines of Mahayana Buddhism, and in bringing about the general adoption of Buddhism in China, Korea, and Japan.

Primary Points of the Lankavatara Sutra

Meditation
“There are four kinds of Dhyana (concentrative meditation):
The meditation practiced by beginners;
the meditation devoted to the examination of meaning;
the meditation with Thusness for its object;
and the meditation of the Buddha Tathágatas”
Shakyamuni Buddha in the Lankavatara Sutra

Intuition
“Between the Universal Mind and the Personal Mind
is the intuitive-mind, which is dependent upon Universal Mind
for its cause and support and enters into relation with both.
It partakes of the universality of Universal Mind, and shares its purity.
Through the intuitive-mind, the faculty of intuition,
the inconceivable wisdom of Universal Mind is revealed and made realizable.”
Shakyamuni Buddha in the Lankavatara Sutra

The Nature of Ignorance
“The mind-system, which is the most characteristic mark of personality,
originated in ignorance, …is stored in the Universal Mind since beginning-less time,
and is still being accumulated where it conditions the appearance of personality and its environment.”
Shakyamuni Buddha in the Lankavatara Sutra

Practice
“The purification of the [conditioning] of mind
is at best slow and gradual, requiring both zeal and patience.
But … the self-realization of Noble Wisdom is a purification
that comes instantaneously by the grace of the Tathágatas.”
Shakyamuni Buddha in the Lankavatara Sutra

Awakening
“While having relations with an objective world,
there is no rising in the minds of the Tathágatas
of discriminations between the interests of self
and the interests of others, between good and evil, there is
just the spontaneity and effortless actuality of perfect behavior.”
Shakyamuni Buddha in the Lankavatara Sutra