Work Classification Layer
Compare Works
Pick two or more works to set their attribute fingerprints, dimension-by-dimension passages, and shared school embodiments side by side. Especially useful for author-stage comparisons (Wittgenstein early vs late) and for setting a single tradition's foundational texts against each other.
The Lankavatara Sutra
Suzuki's 1932 translation of the Lankavatara Sutra
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | The Lankavatara Sutra (Mid) |
|---|---|
| Time · Extent | Infinite |
| Time · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Time · Grain | Continuous |
| Time · Freedom | Non-Deterministic |
| Time · Traversability | Linear |
| Time · Dimensionality | One |
| Time · Direction | Uni-directional |
| Space · Extent | Infinite |
| Space · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Space · Curvature | Flat |
| Space · Dimensionality | Three |
| Space · Locality | Local |
| Matter · Extent | Infinite |
| Matter · Ontological Status | Relational |
| Matter · Conservation | Variable |
| Matter · Dimensionality | Three |
| Matter · Locality | Local |
| Observer · Time Instance | Single |
| Observer · Space Instance | Single |
| Observer · Knowledge Extent | Total |
| Observer · Knowledge Retainment | Total |
| Observer · Physicality | Embodied |
| Observer · Agency | Active |
| Observer · Number | Plural |
| Observer · Metaphysical Agency | Impersonal |
| Observer · Moral Authority | Revelation |
| Observer · Theological Method | — |
| Energy · Extent | Infinite |
| Energy · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Energy · Conservation | Variable |
| Energy · Dispersibility | Reversible |
| Information · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Information · Cosmic Conservation | Variable |
| Information · Personal Conservation | Variable |
| Information · Granularity | Continuous |
Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence
What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.
Time
The Lankavatara Sutra
1932 publication; mid-Suzuki Anglophone-period; between the Essays in Zen Buddhism (1927-1934) and the Introduction to Zen Buddhism (1934).
Space
The Lankavatara Sutra
Kyoto composition (Suzuki at Otani University) with extensive Routledge-London publishing relationship; transnational Anglophone Buddhist-studies and Zen-practice readership.
Matter
The Lankavatara Sutra
The Lankavatara-sutra; Yogācāra-Vijñānavāda 'consciousness-only' doctrines; the eight-consciousnesses analysis; the three-natures analysis; the proto-tathāgatagarbha material; the Chan/Zen connection to the sūtra via Bodhidharma.
Observer
The Lankavatara Sutra
Mid-Suzuki as bridge-figure between traditional Japanese Zen-Buddhist scholarship and the emerging Anglophone Buddhist-studies and Zen-practice communities.
Energy
The Lankavatara Sutra
Translational-scholarly, doctrinal-expository, missionary-pedagogical energies for Western Buddhist learning.
Information
The Lankavatara Sutra
Substantial English translation with introductory study, glossary, and apparatus; foundational Anglophone Lankavatara reference.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
Suzuki's Lankavatara has remained an important Anglophone scholarly Buddhist translation. More recent academic-Buddhist-studies scholarship (Robert Sharf, Bernard Faure) has been critical of Suzuki's 'Zen-as-trans-historical-mysticism' interpretive framing; recent translations (Red Pine, Sutton) and academic Yogācāra-studies scholarship (Schmithausen, Lambert Schmithausen, Dan Lusthaus) have largely superseded Suzuki's particular interpretive positions while preserving the importance of his pioneering translational work.