Google’s NotebookLM allows users to upload documents and then have Google’s AI digest those documents. Most important in my use is that you can ask questions and the answers will come from those documents. If the source documents don’t have an answer for a question, the AI reports that. It does not look elsewhere for answers.

I have created a Lotus Sutra Study notebook in NotebookLM. You can check it out here. In that notebook are these sources.

• The Third Edition of Murano’s Translation of the Lotus Sutra from Kumarajiva’s Chinese.
• Leon Hurvitz’s Translation of the Lotus Sutra from Kumarajiva’s Chinese and extant Sanskrit texts.
• Gene Reeve’s Translation of the Lotus Sutra from Kumarajiva’s Chinese.
• Burton Watson’s Translation of the Lotus Sutra from Kumarajiva’s Chinese merged with the interpretive lectures of Rev. Shokai Kanai.
• BDK English Tripiṭaka Series translation of the Lotus Sutra from Kumarjiva’s Chinese.
• H. Kern’s Translation of the Lotus Sutra from Sanskrit.
• Tibetan White Lotus of the Good Dharma, a translation from the Sanskrit.
• A collection of Tiantai Buddhist texts, published by BDK America, that include the Infinite Meanings Sutra and the Sutra on All-embracing Goodness Bodhisattva, Vasubandhu’s commentary and A Guide to the Tiantai Fourfold Teachings by Chegwan.
• An Annotated Translation of the Sutra of Immeasurable Meaning from a 1957 doctoral dissertation from the University of the Pacific.

I have also added material generated by NotebookLM as source material. An example of this is a “Lexicon of Proper Names in the Lotus Sutra.” This spreadsheet lists English names from Murano, Reeves, Hurvitz and Watson, the Sanskrit name, the context (i.e. Arhat, Bodhisattva, God, place name), the chapters in which the name appears and notes. I’m going to have Gemini add the Japanese names to this table as well. Eventually,
I will add this to this website but I need to figure out how to format it for viewing online.

All of this is an explanation of why I will be posting AI generated content here periodically. I feel this content will help explain the importance of the Lotus Sutra. The Dharma Storybooks are a byproduct of this work.

The content I post from this work in NotebookLM will be published in the category Lotus Sutra Study Papers.

Tomorrow: The Lotus Sutra in Four Parts