Suttas & Sutras

15 Points Per Correct Answer - No time limit  

1. "Now this, monks, is the noble truth of suffering: Birth is suffering, aging is suffering, death is suffering; sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, and despair are suffering; association with the unbeloved is suffering, separation from the loved is suffering, not getting what is wanted is suffering. In short, the five aggregates subject to grasping are suffering." Dukkha sutta (Discourse on Suffering) Dhammacakkapavattana sutta (Setting the Wheel of Dhamma in Motion) Cakkavattisutta (The Wheel-turning Emperor) Mahasatipatthana sutta (The Greater Discourse on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness)

2. "And how does a monk remain focused on the mind in and of itself? There is the case where a monk, when the mind has passion, discerns that the mind has passion. When the mind is without passion, he discerns that the mind is without passion. When the mind has aversion, he discerns that the mind has aversion. When the mind is without aversion, he discerns that the mind is without aversion. When the mind has delusion, he discerns that the mind has delusion. When the mind is without delusion, he discerns that the mind is without delusion." Mahasatipatthana sutta (The Greater Discourse on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness) Ragavinaya sutta (Discourse on the Subduing of Passion) Samadhi sutta (Discourse on Concentration) Samajivina sutta (Living in Tune Sutta)

3. "Not long after King Ajatasattu had left, the Blessed One addressed the monks: 'The king is wounded, monks. The king is incapacitated. Had he not killed his father -- that righteous man, that righteous king -- the dustless, stainless Dhamma eye would have arisen to him as he sat in this very seat.'" Raja sutta (The King Sutta) Abhayarajakumara sutta (Discourse to Prince Abhaya) Samaññaphala sutta (Discourse on the Fruits of the Contemplative Life) Sangama sutta (Battle Sutta)

4. 'Seeing your eyes, my sensual delight     grows all the more. Even if you should go far away, I will think only of your pure,     long-lashed gaze, for there is nothing dearer to me     than your eyes, O nymph with languid regard.' ... Plucking out her lovely eye, with mind unattached she felt no regret. 'Here, take this eye. It's yours.' Straightaway she gave it to him. Straightaway his passion faded right there, and he begged her forgiveness. Anicca sutta (Discourse on Impermanence) Therigatha (Verses of the Elder Nuns) Atthi Raga sutta (Where There is Passion) Culasuññata sutta (Lesser Discourse on Emptiness)

5. "'Jiva, my daughter,' you cry in the woods. Come to your senses, Ubbiri!         84,000     all named Jiva have been burned in that charnel ground. For which of them do you grieve?" "Pulling out     -- completely out -- the arrow so hard to see, embedded in my heart, he [the Buddha] expelled from me     -- overcome with grief -- the grief over my daughter." Dukkha sutta (Discourse on Suffering) Therigatha (Verses of the Elder Nuns) Duggata sutta (Falling upon Hard Times) Theragatha (Verses of the Elder Monks)

6. "Form is empty; emptiness is form. Emptiness is not other than form; form is not other than emptiness." Vimalakirtinirdesa sutra (Sutra of Vimalakirti) Prajñaparamitahrdaya sutra (The Heart of the Perfection Wisdom Sutra) Astadasasahasrikaprajñaparamita sutra (Perfection of Wisdom Sutra in 80,000 verses) Culasunyata sutra (Lesser Discourse on Emptiness)

7. Manjusri replied, "Good sirs, you have all spoken well. Nevertheless, all your explanations are themselves dualistic. To know no one teaching, to express nothing, to say nothing, to explain nothing, to announce, to indicate nothing, and to designate nothing—that is the entrance into nonduality." Srimaladevisimhanada sutra (The Lion's Roar of Queen Srimala Sutra) Vimalakirtinirdesa sutra (Sutra of Vimalakirti) Vajracchedikaprajñaparamita sutra (Diamond Cutter Sutra) Astadasasahasrikaprajñaparamita sutra (Perfection of Wisdom Sutra in 80,000 verses)

8. "Then the Bhagavan turned the third wheel of doctrine, possessing good differentiations, and exceedingly wondrous, for those genuinely engaged in all vehicles, beginning with the lack of own-being of phenomena, and beginning with their absence of production, absence of cessation, quiescence from the start, and being naturally in a state of nirvana. Moreover, that wheel of doctrine turned by the Bhagavan is unsurpassable, does not provide an opportunity [for refutation], is of definitive meaning, and does not serve as a basis for dispute." Saddharmapundarika sutra (Lotus Sutra) Srimaladevisimhanada sutra (The Lion's Roar of Queen Srimala Sutra) Vajracchedikaprajñaparamita sutra (Diamond Cutter Sutra) Samdhinirmocana sutra (The Sutra Elucidating the Condensed Meaning)

9. "Mahamati, since the ignorant and simple-minded, not knowing that the world is only something seen of the mind itself, cling to the multitudiousness of external objects, cling to the notions of beings and non-being, oneness and otherness, bothness and non-bothness, existence and non-existence, eternity and non-eternity, and think that they have a self-nature of their own, all of which rises from the discriminations of the mind and is perpetuated by habit-energy, and from which they are given over to false imagination." Gandavyuha sutra (Ornaments of the Wheel Sutra) Lankavatara sutra (Sutra of the the Descent into Lanka) Prajñaparamitahrdaya sutra (The Heart of the Perfection Wisdom Sutra) Saddharmapundarika sutra (Lotus Sutra)

10. "Suppose there is a person who says the Tathagata has attained the supremely unexcelled bodhi. Subhuti, really there is no Dharma in the Buddha's attainment of the supremely unexcelled bodhi. Subhuti, in the Tathagata’s attainment of the supremely unexcelled bodhi there is no truth or falsehood. This is why the Tathagata says that all of the Dharmas are the Buddha's Dharma. Subhuti, that which is called 'all of the Dharmas,' then, is not all of the Dharmas. This is why it is called 'all of the Dharmas.'" Lankavatara sutra (Sutra on the Descent into Lanka) Suvikrantavikramipariprchaprajñaparamita sutra (Perfection of Wisdom Sutra on Bodhisattva Suvikrantavikramin's Questioning) Gandavyuha sutra (Ornaments of the Wheel Sutra) Vajracchedika sutra (Diamond-Cutter sutra)