The Ten Grounds Sutra (Trilingual): The Dasabhumika Sutra - The Ten Highest Levels of Practice on the Bodhisattva Path (Kalavinka Buddhist Classics)

The Ten Grounds Sutra (Trilingual): The Dasabhumika Sutra - The Ten Highest Levels of Practice on the Bodhisattva Path (Kalavinka Buddhist Classics)

"The Ten Grounds Sutra (Trilingual)" is an annotated English Translation by Bhikshu Dharmamitra of Tripitaka Master Kumārajīva's circa 410 ce Sanskrit-to-Chinese translation of the Daśabhūmika Sūtra. This sutra describes in great detail the ten highest levels of bodhisattva practice on the path to buddhahood. This trilingual edition (English / Chinese / Sanskrit) includes the facing-page simplified and traditional Chinese texts along with the entire appended P. L. Vaidya Sanskrit text. The Sanskrit section headings are inset in all three languages for easy mutual correlation. Bhikshu Dharmamitra's poetic and astute translation of the Ten Grounds Sutra opens the door for English speakers to enter the inspiring and compassionate world of bodhisattvas, the extraordinary beings who will become buddhas. In today's world, people so often succumb to despair and discouragement, but when we read the deeds of the bodhisattvas who train their minds and hearts in wisdom and compassion, our hearts soar with inspiration and optimism. We too have the buddha potential and can contribute to the welfare of others as they do. This very readable translations enables us to contact an ancient text that holds modern truths. It's a must read for all spiritual seekers. -- Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron Bhikshu Dharmamitra (ordination name Heng Shou - 釋恆授) is a Chinese-tradition translator-monk and one of the earliest American disciples (since 1968) of the late Guiyang Ch'an patriarch, Dharma teacher, and pioneer of Buddhism in the West, the Venerable Master Hsuan Hua (宣化上人). He has a total of 34 years in robes during two periods as a monastic (1969‒1975 & 1991 to the present). Dharmamitra's principal educational foundations as a translator of Sino-Buddhist Classical Chinese lie in four years of intensive monastic training and Chinese-language study of classic Mahāyāna texts in a small-group setting under Master Hsuan Hua (1968-1972), undergraduate Chinese language study at Portland State University, a year of intensive one-on-one Classical Chinese study at the Fu Jen University Language Center near Taipei, two years of course work at the University of Washington's Department of Asian Languages and Literature (1988-90), and an additional three years of auditing graduate courses and seminars in Classical Chinese readings, again at UW's Department of Asian Languages and Literature. Since taking robes again under Master Hua in 1991, Dharmamitra has devoted his energies primarily to study and translation of classic Mahāyāna texts with a special interest in works by Ārya Nāgārjuna and related authors. To date, he has translated more than fifteen important texts comprising approximately 150 fascicles, including most recently the 80-fascicle Avataṃsaka Sūtra (the Flower Adornment Sutra), Nāgārjuna's 17-fascicle Daśabhūmika Vibhāśa (Treatise on the Ten Grounds), and the Daśabhūmika Sūtra (the Ten Grounds Sutra), all of which are current or upcoming Kalavinka Press publications. Tripitaka Master Kumārajīva (214 - 413 ce) was one of the most prolific and popular of all translators in the history of Chinese Buddhism.