Suzuki is both an exacting scholar and an understanding exponent of these difficult concepts. He adds a Sanskrit-Chinese-English Glossary, and also an Index. This work is essential for grasping the main ideas of the scripture.

Monkfish is proud to reintroduce this spiritual classic in paperback edition. It was its first book in its Provenance Editions

The Lankavatara Sutra (Sanskrit: Laṅkāvatāra-sūtra) is a prominent Mahayana Buddhist text that recounts a teaching primarily between Buddha Gautama and a bodhisattva Mahamati.

The Lankavatara Sutra draws upon the concepts and doctrines of Yogacara and Buddha-nature.

It is in incarnating these vows within that a real turn-about or spiritual transformation occurs, and thereby are uprooted the roots of ignorance. The text, thus, offers a spiritual banquet to those who want to taste the bliss eternal.

The Lankavatara Sutra is the holy grail of Zen. Zen’s First Patriarch, Bodhidharma, gave a copy of this text to his successor, Hui–k’o, and told him everything he needed to know was in this book.

It is notably an important sūtra in Zen Buddhism, as it discusses the key issue of "sudden enlightenment". The text survives in one Sanskrit manuscript from Nepal as well as in Tibetan and Han Chinese translation.