Sutras
Sutras are the source of basic Buddhist teachings. The Pali Canon contains the Theravada sutras, or suttas, written, not surprisingly, in Pali. The Mahayana Canon, now primarily preserved in Chinese (although many of the original texts were in Sanskrit), contains versions of most of the Pali suttas, called agamas, and thousands of additional sutras, including the Prajnaparamita (“perfection of wisdom”) Sutras (including the Heart Sutra and the Diamond Sutra), the Avatamsaka Sutra, the Vimalakirti Sutra, the Lotus Sutra, and the Lankavatara Sutra. These Mahayana texts are considered basic reference points of the Zen tradition.
Not technically a sutra, but very important in the Theravada tradition, is the Dhammapada, a short text consisting of short verses in plain language. There are a number of English translations; Gil Fronsdahl’s is especially notable since he is both a scholar of Buddhism and a teacher in the Theravada tradition.
The sutras listed here emphasize the ones important to the Zen tradition; most are important to other Mahayana traditions as well. Because translations vary in quality, the links take you to either specific translations or (when there are several good options) a short list of specific translations. You are encouraged to look further, especially for useful commentaries. The traditions informing our practice are:
The Pali Canon
The Mahayana Canon
The Pali Canon
The suttas in the Pali Canon contain fundamental teachings embraced by all Buddhists. An excellent compilation of these texts, with commentary, is Bhikkhu Bodhi’s In The Buddha’s Words. Many of them are also available online. Here are a few examples of important (and short) suttas:
Adittapariyaya Sutta (The fire sermon) This short sutta exhorts us to achieve liberation from the fires of our senses and thinking.
Anapanasati Sutta (On the awareness of breath) This sutta describes techniques of meditation and stages of awakening.
Dhammacakkappattana Sutta (The first turning of the wheel of the dharma) By tradition the first teaching of the Buddha, this sutta sets forth basic notions such as the four noble truths, the eightfold path, impermanence, and dependent origination.
Satipatthana Sutta (On the foundations of mindfulness) This sutta describes the techniques used in traditional mindfulness (vipassana) meditation.
The Mahayana Canon
The Mahayana tradition contains many schools and sub-schools and is very complex. Paul Williams’s textbook Mahayana Buddhism is an excellent overview of the entire Mahayana tradition, and a helpful guide to reading individual sutras. Important sutras whose translations are of varying degrees of accessibility:
Avatamsaka Sutra: This one of the most ornate, complex, and longest (over 1,000 pages) of the Mahayana sutras. Several important concepts of Mahayana Buddhism come from it: that all things are created by mind alone; the Bodhisattva path; dependent origination. Well over 1,000 pages long, the standard translation in English is by Thomas Cleary, entitled The Flower Ornament Sutra. A translation from the Buddhist Text Translation Society, entitled The Flower Adornment Sutra is available for free online. Tony Prince’s book Universal Enlightenment is a clear and accessible description of both Huayen Buddhism and the Avatamsaka Sutra.
The Diamond Sutra contains teachings especially important to Zen, including emptiness, dependent origination, not being attached to thinking, and a methodology that is skeptical of anything dependent on language. It is short and highly readable, with many translations. Especially recommended are the translation and commentary by Red Pine, Thich Nhat Hanh’s translation and commentary The Diamond that Cuts Through Illusion, and Huineng’s commentary (translated by Thomas Cleary along with The Sutra of Hui-neng).
The Heart Sutra is chanted by all Mahayana traditions. Its main teaching of emptiness deconstructs earlier, more conventional Buddhist concepts. There are many translations and commentaries; the translation in our chanting book is excellent. Googling “commentaries on the Heart Sutra” elicits over 400,000 results. To help you find your way through this thicket, we recommend the commentary by Red Pine (bundled with his translation) which cites many other commentaries and gives a good sense of the context in which the Heart Sutra arose.
The Lotus Sutra is the key sutra in both Tiantai (Jap. Tendai, Kor. Cheontae) and Nichiren Buddhism. It is the source of many images and parables — the burning house, the dharma rain, and so on — used in many Mahayana traditions, including the Zen tradition, enveloped in ornate language praising the Buddha, his key disciples, and the sutra itself. We recommend Gene Reeves’ translation and Burton Watson’s translation, which work from somewhat different texts. The Buddhist Text Translation Society also has an online free translation.
The Vimalakirti Sutra is actually has a plot, which makes it among the more readable sutras. It begins with the enlightened layman Vimalakirti’s illness — an excuse for him to teach everyone the path of a bodhisattva — and ends with his besting Manjushri, the Bodhisattva of wisdom, in dharma combat where the challenge is no manifest non-duality and Vimalakirti’s silence is recognized as superior to Manjusri’s speech. There is an amusing (yes, it is seriously funny) episodes in which Shariputra is a foolish foil to a female deity and gender is shown to be an arbitrary concept. We recommend Burton Watson’s translation.
The Lankavatara Sutra is the highly philosophical sutra supposedly brought to China by Bodhidharma. It systematically and meticulously examines many major and minor concepts in Buddhism, cutting through all of them, and hence cutting through language and thinking. While considered a key sutra for Zen, until recently it did not have a pervasive presence in either the popular or scholarly imagination in Europe or the Americas. There was no reliable and readable English translation until 2012 when Red Pine produced a translation and commentary.