What is the exact number of original jataka tales? If we look around we see Jataka tales, panchatantra, Esop's fables and many others are all mixed up. Where can I read original Jataka tales online?

On researching Zen Buddhist literature I'm seeing a gap after Dogen's Shobogenzo in the 13th century, and before Hakuin's Commentary in the 17th century. Was there any notable Zen writing produced during this period? What was happening in Zen history during this time?

I'd heard about Heinrich Dumoulin's two volume History of Zen a number of times, but Dumoulin not being a Buddhist himself led me to avoid it. However, I ran into the set at a library recently, and to my surprise it's actually reading pretty well, and appears to be somewhat objective / extensive. What I'm curious about is the good and bad of the book. What did he get right, and what did he get wrong about Zen's history? Essentially a short critical analysis of this book and where / where I shouldn't be skeptical. If there are too many factual errors in the book to list them all, then calling this out and a few small examples should suffice.

I think I've noticed some conceptual overlaps between Buddhism and Western Philosophy and Science. What are good sources for comparing and contrasting Western ideas and Buddhism? What are suspected sources of eastern ideas appearing in Western works? I list some speculated commonalities below by my admittedly incomplete understanding. What knowledge I have of Buddhism primarily comes from books by Thich Nhat Hanh and Alan Watts. I also attended Pure Land services for a while. **PSYCHOLOGY** For example, Mindfulness has a bit in common with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Meta-Cognition. Mindfulness is, in part, awareness of ones thoughts. Meta-cognition is awareness and control of one's cognitive processes. One's thinking isn't dominated by random firing to which the thinker is oblivious. The Second Nobel truth relates suffering to delusion, CBT relates emotional suffering to "Cognitive Distortions". These distortions are typically lack of present-mindedness, obsessing over past and future. They also involve a general failure to consider events in their full context. **LITERATURE** 'When Hamlet asks Rosencrantz and Guildenstern why they would volunteer to come to a prison, they respond that they don't think of Denmark as a prison. Hamlet explains, “[T]here is / nothing good or bad but thinking makes it / so.” '. Here the 'good' and 'bad' are pleasure and pain and the degree to which they are experienced. CBT says something similar- one has emotional suffering because of thinking one way about them as opposed to alternatives. Buddhism says suffering is due to various delusions. CBT faults "Cognitive Distortions". In his The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde says, "To become a spectator of one's own life is to escape the suffering of life.” One can be self-aware, aware of oneself in a third person sense, and one can be aware of one self in the first person, as an 'I'. Here Wilde seems to be relating reduction of suffering with reducing ego. Just prior to writing this book, he wrote the forward to a friend's book on The Tao Te Ching. His line might also might touch upon a mindful self-awareness as well as a capacity to be amidst unfortunate events and yet not suffer, at least emotionally. William Blake speaks of The Human Form Divine which seems to overlap with Blessed Human Existence. "To see a World in a Grain of Sand And a Heaven in a Wild Flower Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand And Eternity in an hour" speaks to a element of timelessness. Apparently Blake was familiar with Vedic works- Awakenings: Blake and the Buddha **PHILOSOPHY/EPISTEMOLOGY** More significantly, Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics approaches ethics with an emphasis on character development as opposed to focusing on only individual acts. One is less ethical than ideal if one does the right things for the wrong reason, if they have the wrong motivation. Western philosophy categorizes ethical theories which emphasize character as Virtue Ethics. So both Aristotle and the Buddha would fall into this category. Also, Aristotle is notorious for advocating Moderation in All Things, similar to The Middle Way, very similar to the Dharma Seal - Nirvana is Beyond Extremes. Buddhism also seems to have a lot in common with Stoicism which teaches something very similar to "All Emotions Are Pain"- The Second Seal of Dharma as discussed here by Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche on Four Seals of Dharma . Science strives to be objective and not subjective. A subjective experience is very personal, ego-centered. Personal stake in an experiment's outcome one tries to avoid. Go where the evidence leads and don't shoe horn it into a pet theory, which admittedly may be going on here. There are some elements of experience which are more or less universalizable. There's a distancing of ones understanding from the self or personal stakes. Data is assessed by means of an impersonal method of evaluation. One doesn't have a gut feeling that there is a correspondence in the data, one has methods for proving a correspondence with statistical significance, e.g. Statistical Hypothesis Testing. Are these all just a coincidences? Superficial linguistic commonalities? Are humans in touch with something that speaks to them about Buddhism regardless of their background? I've read that the Dharma is everywhere. Emerson speaks of The Oversoul like some speak of dharma.

I've noticed reference to the 28 Yaksha Generals in several texts. To my current knowledge, the Mahāmāyūrīvidyārājñī Sūtra and the 卍新纂續藏經 Vol. 02, No. 183 (二十八夜叉大軍王名號) are the only text that explicitly lists them. Are there any other extant material that lists the names of these generals? Many thanks.

I'm not firm in tibetan buddhism, but my old daddy had wanted to make a spiritual gift to me 12 years ago- I'd put it into the bookshelf after I'd read a handful of pages, and was a bit puzzled why this might have such a big reminescence as I've heard somewhere (and expected because of having got it by my father as a special birthday present). Recently I was beginning a small research, especially about Padmasambhava, and there it occured to me that he was said to be the autor/to have been the spiritual background of the "tibetisches Totenbuch" (german name). I was surprised and saw now, that the book of my father was "tibetanisches Totenbuch" - which is a suspicious change - at least suitable for better business. On amazon I've found both titles and that of mine was looking color- and playful and that what I don't own looked more serious. > Q: Are the books at least related? Is the "tibetanisches Totenbuch" something like "tibetisches Totenbuch for dummies" or is it a complete different work *(possibly just profiting from the extreme similarity of the titles - but what do I know...)*? ***Addendum***: in the book they say: subtitle "...or The after-death-experiences on the Bardo-stage" and then "... after the english edition of Lama Kazi Dawa-Samdup, published by Evans-Wentz, (...) newly edited commented and introduced by Lama Anagarika Govinda" On the next page they write: "the title of the original edition was "the tibetan book of the dead". But I do not find yet any reference to Padmasambhava (may be deeply in the book itself?) which was irritating me. ***Addendum 2*** Ah, now I find something which looks relevant. The first 150 pages are simply introductions (which made me silly when I read into it and tried to make any sense of what was said), on pg 148 Padmasambhava is first time mentioned and then on pg 159 it seems that the traditional text does really start. So I think this answers my (stupid?) question ...

>And then I remembered a passage I had read in one of Suzuki's essays. "What is the Dharma-Body of the Buddha?" ('"the Dharma-Body of the Buddha" is another way of saying Mind, Suchness, the Void, the Godhead.) The question is asked in a Zen monastery by an earnest and bewildered novice. And with the prompt irrelevance of one of the Marx Brothers, the Master answers, "The hedge at the bottom of the garden." "And the man who realizes this truth," the novice dubiously inquires, '"what, may I ask, is he?" Groucho gives him a whack over the shoulders with his staff and answers, "A golden-haired lion." This story is quoted from Huxley's The Doors of Perception. What is the meaning of the story?

According to Buddhism, Maitreya Buddha is a Buddha who will come some time in the future. Some sources say he will come hundreds of thousands of years from now, but the [Manimekalai](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manimekalai) , a 6th century Buddhist epic poem written in the language Tamil, seems to suggest an earlier timeframe. [Here](https://ia801406.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/20/items/manimekhalaiinit031176mbp/manimekhalaiinit031176mbp_tif.zip&file=manimekhalaiinit031176mbp_tif/manimekhalaiinit031176mbp_0184.tif&scale=8&rotate=0) is what chapter 12 of the Manimekalai says: > That dharma, people in this world do not know. But within the circuit of this universe, the devas understand it and at their request **the Deva will come down again to this world from the Tushita Heaven in the year 1616**. Then everyone in this world will feel impelled to practice the doctrine or mercy. My question is, what is this year "1616" that the Manimekalai identifies as the year when Maitreya Buddha will come? What calendar is it using? It's clearly not the Gregorian calendar, since that wasn't in vogue in 6th century India.

I'm convinced that I give meaning to whatever I perceive. Which either can make me suffer or happy. So I have seen that I create my own suffering. That state is reflected in my body (or bodies?). Objective reality holds no meaning it itself. The meaning arises the moment I interpret information. This insight came to me after meditation where I saw things arising from nothing. I could choose to stay in the nothingness by not interpreting, or observe, interpret and meaning arose. What buddhist topics are related to this phenomenon?

The concept of "Quality" relates to the direct experience of the moment, as described in the book *Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance*. I was wondering if this has a parallel in Buddhism? To me, the idea of Quality seems to be like Sunyata turned inside-out. Here is a quote from the book: > Quality ... you know what it is, yet you don't know what it is. But > that's self-contradictory. But some things are better than others, > that is, they have more quality. But when you try to say what the > quality is, apart from the things that have it, it all goes poof! > There's nothing to talk about. But if you can't say what Quality is, > how do you know what it is, or how do you know that it even exists? If > no one knows what it is, then for all practical purposes it doesn't > exist at all. But for all practical purposes it really does exist. What would we call this idea?

I have heard about are couple of places in the Vinaya which discusses situations involving reanimated corpses. I want to find the exact locations and reference. Also are there any other in the Tipitaka and / or Commentaries this appear? In addition, p252, THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA THE INDIAN EMPIRE VOL II HISTORICAL mentions: > A collection of pretty and ingenious fairy-tales is the Vetala pancha vimsati, or ' Twenty-five Tales of the Goblin,' stories supposed to be told to king Vikrama of Ujjayini by a demon inhabiting a corpse. They are known to English readers from Sir Richard Burton's Vikram and the Vampire. Another collection of fairy-tales is the Simhasana-dvatrimsika, or ' Thirty two Stories of the Lion-seat,' supposed to be told to king Vikrama by his throne. **Both these works are of Buddhistic origin.** To the same class belongs the Suka-saptati, or ' Seventy Stories of a Parrot,' represented as narrated to a wife whose husband is away on his travels. In which Buddhist text does this appear? Particularly is there references to such in the Vinaya and commentaries or sub commentaries.

I read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig a few years ago and really enjoyed it. However I'm not convinced it's got anything to do with Zen . From what I remember the protagonist spends a lot of time fixing his motorbike and contemplating the notion of quality. But does the text link into Buddhism generally and Zen specifically? If not, why has it got Zen in the title?

[Ryōkan Taigu](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ry%C5%8Dkan) is described as, > Ryōkan Taigu (良寛大愚?) (1758–1831) was a quiet and eccentric Sōtō Zen Buddhist monk who lived much of his life as a hermit. Ryōkan is remembered for his poetry and calligraphy, which present the essence of Zen life. He is also known by the name Ryokwan in English. I'm reading this poem and am puzzled by it. [In A Dilapidated Three-Room Hut](http://allpoetry.com/In-A-Dilapidated-Three-Room-Hut-) In a dilapidated three-room hut I’ve grown old and tired; This winter cold is the Worst I’ve ever suffered through. I sip thin gruel, waiting for the Freezing night to pass. Can I last until spring finally arrives? Unable to beg for rice, How will I survive the chill? Even meditation helps no longer; Nothing left to do but compose poems In memory of deceased friends. One of the things that puzzles me is the last line ("memory of deceased friends"). I thought (I'm probably mistaken again :-) that Buddhists are advised to "live in the present" and to avoid living "in memory", and to deconstruct the self instead of thinking "I feel" and "I suffer" and "I last". Can you say what Ryōkan's intention might have been in writing this poem? Wikipedia says, of [Sōtō](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C5%8Dt%C5%8D) , > The meditator strives to be aware of the stream of thoughts, allowing them to arise and pass away without interference. Perhaps that's what this poem is doing: simply awareness of a stream of thoughts? What's the difference between that and, I don't know, any other ordinary unenlightened mode of thought or life?

In some of Ryōkan's poems such as this one he mentions the Buddhas of the three worlds > While I gather firewood and wild grasses on this hill, > > the Buddhas of the three worlds > > Are also celebrating Who are the Buddhas and what are the three worlds?

I have been listening to free buddhist audio (FBA) podcast and have watched some videos about buddhism but i would like to see some introductory literature. Where to start?