Suttas Websites

DaltheJigsaw

If anyone has any others to add, please do so.

http://www4.bayarea.net/~mtlee/
http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~rone/Buddhism/sutras.html
http://www.ciolek.com/WWWVLPages/ZenPages/Daily-Zen-Sutras.html

I would like to get some commentaries for some of them.
If anyone has any idea where I can get commentaries for some of the more popular Suttas, please let me know as well.

Thank You All!

Talisman

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/index.html

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/index-sutta.html

DaltheJigsaw

Thank You! Talisman!

Jason

For Pali suttas online, there's always Access To Insight. Leigh Brasington also has some on his site. As for where to order Pali suttas and commentaries, I suggest checking out the Pali Text Society and the Buddhist Publication Society.

DaltheJigsaw

Thank you Jason!
What about Zen Buddhist Suttras? Or are they all the same? Separate?

Talisman

The mahayana sutras are less organized.

DaltheJigsaw

The mahayana sutras are less organized.

Oh!
In what sense?
Who spoke them? Who wrote them down? Who verbally recited them?

Jason

As far as I'm aware, Zen is part of Mahayana, and generally utilizes various Mahayana sutras such as the Heart Sutra the Diamond Sutra and the Lankavatara Sutra, when they use them at all. Some Zen schools mainly rely on other works such as Dogen's Shobogenzo.

Talisman

They are a series. There are different "phases." I havent read them all (obviously) but these are the one's I have read.

Astasahasrika Prajnaparamita (very long but very good)
The Diamond Sutra
The Heart Sutra
Lankavatara Sutra (This is what zen is based off of, I'm about 3/4 done)
Vimilikirti Nirdesa Sutra
Lotus Sutra (only read parts)
Mahaparinirvana Sutra (only read parts)

Good explanation of the different types of mahayana sutras at wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahayana_sutras

Talisman

In general, the pali suttas have a very distinct, recognizable style. The way that the Buddha teaches is through specific classifications of different phenomena. He is very succinct and organized. The teachings blend into one-another in a way that is outright GENIUS. Although there are definitely elements of the supernatural, the pali sutras are typically more "realistic" in setting and characters.

The mahayana sutras are much more abstract. They focus on the qualities and methods of the Boddhisattva path. This can entail different thigns to different practitioners. My personal beliefs differ from some other views regarding the Boddhisattva path. The mahayana sutras, for me, are very beautiful and profound. The images and concepts they describe, and how the Buddha and other characters describe them, are themselves a method for awakening. The simple process of reading the Lanka or Astasahasrika, or Diamond sutra is meritorious in that it focuses ones attention on the emptiness of conditioned phenomena and the virtues of the paramitas.

I feel that one should be well-versed in both the pali and the mahayana sutras if one wishes to follow the path of the Boddhisattva. As the vows state, "The Dharma gates are infinite, I vow to master them all."

Currently I am studying the pali suttas rather extensively. There is a lot of material and every topic leads to several others. I practice zazen primarily, but also study and practice anapanasati on occassion. (Anapanasati is far more extensive and requires a lot determined practice to be successful.)

kaci

some other nice translations of the pali:
METTANET - LANKA

also of interest, a fairly radical and interesting approach:
BuddhaDust

it has helped me a great deal to read as many different translations and interpretations as possible - bringing the concepts into english is very slippery ..

DaltheJigsaw

Thanks everyone!