The Rice Seedling Sutra

Buddha's Teachings on Dependent Arising

Yeshe Thabkhe

• Publisher: Wisdom Publications
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN:
  9781614296430
• eBook ISBN:
  9781614296447
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Eastern Philosophy

One of Tibet's great scholars presents the Buddha's profound teachings on the laws of karma and dependent arising. In the Rice Seedling Sutra, the Buddha unpacks the law of cause and effect. He notes how in the natural world, a seed becomes a sprout, which produces a flower, which bears fruit. A seed has no intention to sprout; when the right conditions are assembled the fruit arises. Similarly, when our senses encounter an object, a sense consciousness arises naturally, without our intending it. This, says the Buddha, is also how karma works and how actions performed out of ignorance create suffering, whether we want it or not. And this same law of causality also governs enlightenment—when the right conditions are assembled, awakening is assured. In many sutras like this one, the Buddha explains that to understand his Dharma is to understand dependent arising. Geshe Yeshe Thabkhe explores dependent arising, and the corollary teaching of emptiness, through this sutra and others. Commenting on the works of Indian masters such as Shantaraksita, he shows how belief in a creator god is incompatible with dependent arising, and by illuminating the teachings of Nagarjuna and Chandrakirti, he shows how we do—and do not—exist. Geshe Yeshe Thabkhe was among the last generation of scholars to be trained in Tibet before the Chinese occupation. He has been teaching Westerners for decades, having worked with top scholars in the United States, and he is especially familiar with this sutra, having translated the commentary by Kamalasila into Hindi. Here his deep familiarity, combined with his extensive command of the Buddhist scriptures, allows him to present the Buddha's words in a rich and authoritative context.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Contents
• Preface
• The Rice Seedling: A Mahayana Sutra
• 1. How to Seek Reality by Means of Buddha’s Teaching on Dependent Arising
• 2. Analysis of the Divine Creator
• 3. Is Dependently Arisen Production Actual Production?
• 4. How Phenomena Exist
• 5. The Trainings of the Three Types of Persons
• 6. Escaping the Wheel of Life
• 7. The Factors of Dependent Arising
• 8. How the Self Exists
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• About the Author
• Copyright