The Sutra of Forty-two Chapters consists of a brief prologue and 42 short chapters (mostly under 100 Chinese characters), composed largely of quotations from the Buddha. Most chapters begin "The Buddha said..." but several provide the context of a situation or a question asked of the Buddha. The scripture itself is not considered a formal sutra, and early scriptures refer to the work as "Forty-two Sections from Buddhist Scriptures" or "The Forty-two Sections of Emperor Xiao Ming." Because of its association with the entrance of Buddhism to China, it is accorded a very significant status in East Asia.

Annotation First published in 1906, SERMONS OF A BUDDHIST ABBOT remains one of the best introductions to Buddhist thought for a Western audience. Presented with an incisive new foreword by one of today's foremost scholars of Buddhism and Japanese religion, it contains the lectures and articles of the Japanese Zen abbot Soyen Shaku, whose talks in the United States first popularized Buddhism. Foreshadowing the attitude and method of many contemporary teachers, Shaku advocates an approach to religious life that stresses personal understanding based on practice and experience, rather than the acceptance of received creeds and doctrines. His lucid explanations make use of Western religious, philosophic, and psychological references to clarify the ideas central to understanding of Mahayana Buddhism, which is the basis of all schools and denominations.

Teachings and Commentary on the Sutra of Infinite Meanings is compiled from the teachings expounded during the seven-day Buddhist retreats in 1972 and 1973. Master Cheng Yen explained the sutra word by word, verse by verse, and complemented it with many analogies and real-life stories, connecting matters to principles.The book is organized as follows: The first volume includes the Preface, which describes the background of the teachings and Master Cheng Yen’s karmic affinity with the Sutra of Infinite Meanings, as well as her commentary on the first chapter of the sutra, “Chapter on Virtues.” The second volume includes the commentary on the second and third chapters of the sutra, “Chapter on Expounding the Dharma,” and “Chapter on the Ten Merits.” As for the last passage in the “Chapter on the Ten Merits,” “At this time, Great Magnificent Bodhisattva-Mahasattva and the eighty thousand bodhisattva-mahasattvas then rose from their seats” to, “At this time, all in the assembly rejoiced. They paid their respects to the Buddha and accepted and upheld the teachings as they departed,” the audio tape of Master Cheng Yen’s teaching on this section has been lost. Therefore, only the sutra passages have been kept without any additions.《無量義經講述》編纂依據一九七二年及一九七三年佛七開示《無量義經》內容，證嚴上人逐字逐句講述經文，輔以較多譬喻、生活點滴，事理相應。此書章節編輯，將上人與《無量義經》因緣、背景等段落，輯成「前言」一章，而〈德行品〉、〈說法品〉、〈十功德品〉，則各自獨立成章。第一冊包含了「前言」以及〈德行品〉；第二冊則包含了〈說法品〉以及〈十功德品〉。唯〈十功德品〉最後一段經文「是時大莊嚴菩薩摩訶薩，與八萬菩薩摩訶薩，即從坐起，……爾時大會皆大歡喜，為佛作禮，受持而去」，因錄音帶佚失，闕漏當時開示此段經文的內容，故僅保留經文未作增補。

In this Sutra, which was the first to be transported from India and translated into Chinese, the Buddha gives the most essential instructions for cultivating the Dharma, emphasizing the cardinal virtues of renunciation, contentment, and patience.

For the third time, the dharma talks of Zen Master Thich Phuoc Tinh are available in English. These talks focus on the Forty-two Chapters Sutra, the first Buddhist text translated into Chinese around the fourth century that form the basis for the Ch'an and Zen schools of Buddhism in Southeast Asia. ""The Forty-two Chapters sounds the ancient drum of dharma wisdom, the embodied practice of mindfulness in daily life....It is full of gems shining light on the benefits for our moment in time whether we identify as Buddhist or not. It is a genuine invitation to wake up and cultivate the inner stability and freedom needed now more than ever in our great transition towards a new understanding of our deep humanity."" --Larry Ward, Ph.D, Director, The Lotus Institute

Collected in this volume are three of the most widely-disseminated shorter canonical texts of East Asian buddhism, namely The Scripture in Forty-Two Parables, The Eight Revelations from the Realm of Higher Beings, and The Heart of the Virtue of Wisdom, presented in a new domesticated translation based on a literary reading of the Chinese source texts. The Scripture in Forty-Two Parables (a.k.a. The Sūtra in Forty-Two Sections, The Sūtra in Forty-Two Parts, or The Sūtra of Forty-Two Chapters), dating to A.D. 67, is believed by many to be the earliest work of buddhism to be introduced from India into China, and as such is afforded special status in Chinese buddhism and folklore. The scripture is divided into forty-two sections, consisting for the most part of direct quotes from the Buddha addressing an audience of entry-level initiates. In the scripture, explanation of buddhist concepts is done in colloquial language, and vivid metaphors are created to relate core beliefs to such daily concerns as family, marriage, charity, wealth, ambition, temptation, and sex. References to The Scripture in Forty-Two Parables appear in such Chinese historical records as the Annals of the Later Han, and play a central role in the martial arts novel The Deer and the Cauldron by cult author Louis Cha. The Scripture in Forty-Two Parables is regarded as one of three canonical legacy teachings of the Buddha in the Zen buddhist traditions of China, Japan and Korea. The Eight Revelations from the Realm of Higher Beings (a.k.a., The.Sūtra of the Eight Realizations of Great Beings or The Eight Great Awakenings Sūtra) is another of the Buddha’s three legacy teachings of the East Asian Zen tradition, similarly directed at an audience of initiates and written in the vernacular style characteristic of early buddhist transmissions to China. The Eight Revelations from the Realm of Higher Beings takes as its subject the impermanence of the psycho-physical world and the illusory nature of sensory experiences, pointing out that attachment and desire lie at the heart of these illusions, and, in the latter half of the scripture, goes on to prescribe methods to see past these illusions. With a similar emphasis on the illusory nature of reality is the third text in this series, The Heart of the Virtue of Wisdom, better known as the Prajñāpāramitā Heart Sūtra (Prajñāpāramitā. Hṛdaya Sūtra)—arguably the most revered and most commonly chanted scripture in all of the world’s buddhist traditions. In its brief length, the Heart Sūtra touches upon virtually all of the core concepts of buddhist philosophy, including the five skandhas, the twelve āyatanas, the eighteen dhātus, and the twelve nidānas, along with dukkha and the Four Noble Truths, explaining eventually that all such dogmatic teachings, along with the psycho-physical world we live in and the sensory stimuli we experience, are illusory in nature, and must be understood as such before one can move on to a higher level of understanding (anuttarā samyak-saṃbodhi) and approach the blissful state of nirvāṇa. The sūtra ends atypically with a transliterated dhāraṇī mnemonic for chanting, a verse which, in many regional buddhist traditions, is believed to be imbued with spiritual or transcendental powers. The method of translation adopted this volume differs somewhat from that found in most existing buddhist translations into English. In this collection, the Chinese originals are treated as literary in nature, and a structuralist reading is applied to arrive at the meaning of the text. A domesticating strategy is then used to render the cultural elements of the narrative in an attempt to create dynamic equivalence between the experiences of source and target language audiences.

"Sutra on the Eight Realizations of the Great Beings explains the virtues of simplicity, generosity, and compassion.