Recording of Goddard's Translation of Lankavatara Sutra

Here's a recording of the Lankavatara Sutra The whole sutra is “chanted” in English by Christian Pecaut with separate files for each chapter making 13 mp3 files.

http://www.archive.org/details/Lankavatara
I've downloaded the files and listen to them while I commute. It makes a wonderful commuting experience.  Pecault chants in a sing-song voice of rising and falling tones that create a very soothing and dynamic atmosphere of reverence. At times it seems that Pecaut is doing his best not to bust out laughing and only holding it together barely until he gets back on track.  

The Lankavatara version being recorded is the one translated by Dwight Goddard in his book A Buddhist Bible which is online at the Sacred Texts site:
http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/bb/index.htm

The main thing I don't like about Goddard's translation is that both the words citta and vijnana are translated into English by using the same word "mind" which causes a lot of confusion when the discussion is about the 8 consciousnesses (vijnana). Thus translating "alayavijnana" as "universal mind" glosses over subtle nuances.

In his 2004 introduction to the etext version of the book, John Bruno Hare explained a bit about the style of translation that Goddard was presenting.

Hare wrote: "Goddard, particularly in this first edition, took the best available translation of key documents and edited them heavily to eliminate repetitious passages and extraneous material. So this is a readers edition, not a critical edition, of these texts. However, he did nothing to water down or simplify the message of the sutras; quite the contrary. One can read this book repeatedly and still come back with new insights on each reading."

But regardless of the translation technicalities, as the Lanka itself says in Goddard's translation,

"Anyone who teaches a doctrine that is dependent upon letters and words is a mere prattler, because Truth is beyond letters and words and books."

We read the Lanka correctly when we read and hear the truth of it and not just the words. This is what Huineng called "turning round the sutra" and "not being turned around by the sutra."

Lastly, for those who wondered where the Zen motto attributed to Bodhidharma came from, we see that the line "not established on word or letters" came from the Lankavatara that Bodhidharma was known to favor. Thus the scholars who claim that the motto came well after Bodhidharma have nothing to stand on when we see that the pieces of the motto came from the Lanka and Bodhidharma was a solid supporter of the Lanka.

Buddhist Faith in "The Sutra of Queen Srimila's Lion's Roar"

Here's a section from the THE SUTRA OF QUEEN ŚRĪMĀLĀ’S LION’S ROAR WHEREIN IS ARTICULATED SEVERANCE OF ALL DOUBTS, CERTAINTY OF THE COMPLETE MEANING, AND ENTRANCE TO THE WAY OF THE ONE VEHICLE. That's the longest title. The shortest title is "SRIMALA SUTRA," and in between are such titles as "QUEEN SRIMALA’S LION’S ROAR SUTRA" Gunabradha's Chinese translation of the title is "THE SUTRA OF THE COMPREHENSIVE GREAT SKILLFUL MEANS OF THE ONE VEHICLE OF ŚRĪMĀLĀ’S LION’S ROAR."

The translation is my own. This comes from the section relating to the topic of "Articulating the Tathagata’s True Children."

Here the Buddha is speaking to Queen Srimila after approving her previous declarations of the Dharma, and he is distinguishing what makes a person a "true child of the Tathagata." In this exerpt, the World Honored One articulates how faith makes us a true child of the Thathagata.

“If my followers follow with the faith that is most superior, then based on their bright faith they already accord with the innate-intelligence of the Dharma and then attain the ultimate. That which accords with the innate-intelligence of the Dharma (1) investigates the establishment of the field of liberation of the intellect and faculties of sense; (2) investigates karmic retribution; (3) investigates the eye of the Arhat [i.e., the wisdom (prajna) eye seeing the emptiness of all dharmas]; (4) investigates joy of the mind’s autonomy and the joy of meditation (zen); and (5) investigates the noble autonomy and fluency of the Arhats, Independent Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of great power.

“With these five kinds of expedient contemplations accomplished, from within future worlds to come after my nirvana, were my followers, who follow with the faith that is most superior based on their bright faith in accord with the innate-intelligence of the Dharma, to have the pure mind of their own nature there become contaminated by afflictions, yet they would attain the ultimate. Indeed that which is the ultimate is the cause of entering the Way of the Great Vehicle. With that which is faith in the Tathagata there exists great efficacy that does not slander the profound meaning.”