The Abhidhamma Pitaka ò This means ‘the great teaching basket’. ò It offers explanations of ideas such as karma and nirvana. ò It tells you about the most effective ways to meditate.
REMEMBER! The Sutras This is the sacred text of Mahayana Buddhism.
The most important of the Sutras is the Lotus Sutra. It contains poetry, sermons and stories. It also sets out the Mahayana teaching on the Bodhisattvas.
The Lotus Sutra examines the ways in which the Bodhisattvas try to help others reach enlightenment. Perhaps the best known Bodhisattva today is the Dalai Lama.
REMEMBER! A Bodhisattva is a perfect being who has gained enlightenment. However, out of compassion, he/she chooses to postpone nirvana and be reborn in order to serve humanity.
Tibetan Buddhists believe that the current Dalai Lama is the 74th reincarnation of Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva of compassion.
The title Sutras means ‘threads’.
SP TLIGHT ON THE DALAI LAMA
The title Dalai Lama literally means ‘Ocean teacher’ or ‘the teacher whose wisdom is as deep as the ocean’. The Dalai Lama is the head monk of Tibetan Buddhism.
Buddhism was first introduced to Tibet around 750 CE by an Indian Buddhist monk named Padma Sambhava, author of The Tibetan Book of the Dead.
However, the institution of the Dalai Lama is a relatively recent one. There have been only fourteen Dalai Lamas in the entire history of Tibetan Buddhism. The first Dalai Lama was Gedun Drub (1391–1474).
The current Dalai Lama is Tenzin Gyatso. He was born on 6 July 1935 to a peasant farming family in northeastern Tibet. His followers believe him to be the reincarnation of the thirteenth Lama, Thubten Gyatso.
The Dalai Lama in Paris in 2003. 232
REMEMBER! Reincarnation means that after this body has died, your soul passes on into a new body and begins a new life.
