Book reading suggested by Asia Study Center

Since the end of the 1^st century b.C. the Buddhism spread its teachings mostly following the philosophy of the Mahayana School, later known as the Great Vehicle, which spirit was  based on Karuna, compassion, and Shunyata, emptiness.

The bodhisattva, he who was perceiving the path of freedom, became more and more a relevant figure; its particularity was its vote to go with all the sentient beings till the end of the same path he was crossing, teaching them how to go on. 

The meaning of Karuna rises in the wise man when he becomes completely conscious of the condition, the same for everyone, in which we all are merged in. Emptiness is at the same time the way one goes through and the solution for the end of the sufferance.

we can see that the thread that bind us to these two Sutra is more than 2000 years old but they still represent the jewel and the heart of the Buddhist's experience to knowledge, they are the pure distilled essence of that millenary Teaching. 

The two Sutras bring us immediately to that strange nobody's land, where we need to leave out our conceptual instruments and idealistic temptations. They show us that there's no way to explain what is "realty" : "that dharma, entirely known or demonstrated by the tathagata cannot be hanged, one cannot speak about it, it is not a dharma, nor a non-dharma", because the realty is empty "form is emptiness and emptiness is form" . 
 

The value of searching the knowledge lies in our spirit, where the knowledge itself already lives and speaks: the Buddhism has given us its answers and these Sutras are the supreme ones. 
 

Edward Conze (1904-1979) was born in London but educated at various German universities. He is best known for his pioneering translations of Buddhist texts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Conze

by Giovanna Agostini,
ASIA Study Center