The entire Vedic tradition is composed of highly spiritual wisdom and pure knowledge revealed through the hearts of enlightened rishis (seers). It is not a creation made by the mind of man but rather a revelation from the hearts of meditative sages. This ancient wisdom came from the caves and mountains of India where the rishis had ashrams and disciples. Students came to study with them, and the rishis imparted knowledge as they experienced it in a deep state of meditation. These early teachings were an oral tradition and, because there were no books, the students stored the knowledge in their minds and it became a part of them. As written music has no melody, so the written mantra has little energy. For that reason, the rishis believed that mantras should not be written down. They tried to impart this knowledge from one soul to another soul through the oral tradition.
(Source: Lad Textbook, 2001: p. 3, Introduction, Chapter One)

The knowledge of Ayurveda has been passed down to us in sutras or small phrases and the wisdom they contain is there to be unlocked by the inquiring mind. Much of the information in this book is based upon the truths contained in these ancient sutras, written in the form of poetry during Vedic times more than 5,000 years ago. The Sanskrit word sutra literally means to suture with a thread. The words of a sutra convey hidden subconscious meaning to consciousness. However, the discovery of these hidden meanings needs the guidance of a teacher. Though, to the conscious mind, the small phrase of the sutra may look only like a thread passing through the opening of a needle, the sutra is much more and has great hidden wisdom waiting for interpretation.
(Source: Lad Pulse, 1996: p. 1)

Sutra. To translate the Sanskrit word “sutra”, the Chinese used the character that means “to tally”, because a sutra tallies above with the principles of all Buddhas and below with the opportune circumstances for teaching all living beings.   “Sutra” is also defined as a “path”, for it can lead ordinary people to the position of Buddhahood. “Sutra” has four further meanings: stringing together, attracting, constant, and method. A sutra strings together the meanings within it, like beads strung on a thread. It attracts the beings for whom the teaching will be opportune. The sutras present the Dharmas appropriate to the particular needs of beings, as medicine is prescribed to cure specific illnesses. The sutra is like a magnet and living beings are like the iron filings which are attracted to the magnet. The Shurangama Sutra is like a magnet, and so it is called “durable”. But the Shurangama Sutra is even stronger than a magnet. It can keep people from falling ever again. Thus it gathers in living beings so that they cannot possibly fall again into the realms of the hells, or turn into hungry ghosts, or change into animals. They are magnetized so that even if they want to run away they can’t. Even if they want to fall they won’t be able to. That’s how wonderful the sutras are! People come to listen to a sutra lecture and once they’ve heard they become magnetized. They hear one passage and they want to hear the next. “This makes sense!” they exclaim. “I like the flavor. It’s really sweet!” Sutras are said to be constant because from ancient times to the present day they have not changed. Not one word can be added or taken away. They are permanent and unchanging. The sutras are said to be methods, for they are revered by beings in the past, present, and future because they contain methods to cultivate the Way, realize Buddhahood, and teach and
transform living beings.
(Source: Hua, Hsuan, Ven., Shurangama Sutra, 2003: Volume One – The Ten Doors of Discrimination, p. 26)

What is a sutra? A sutra is defined as “path”, the path necessarily passed through in cultivation of the Way. If you wish to cultivate, you must move along that path; if you don’t want to cultivate, following it is unnecessary. But, if you do want to cultivate, “Sutra” is the path you must take. Now, if people don’t walk on a path, it becomes wild and overgrown with vegetation. For example, you may have been able to recite the Heart of Prajna Paramita Sutra without referring to a text, but then four or five months pass without your reciting it, and you forget it. That forgetting is the path becoming overgrown. However, if you walk the path, if you cultivate the Way, then it won’t become overgrown, but every day will become smoother and brighter.
(Source: Hua, Hsuan, Ven., Prajna Paramita Sutra, 2002: p. 17: The Meaning of “Sutra”)

What is the benefit of reciting sutras? Reciting sutras doesn’t yield any benefits. You waste a lot of time and use a lot of energy to recite a sutra. For instance, what is gained by reciting the Heart Sutra in front of the Buddha? You read it from beginning to end, waste energy, spirit, and time, but don’t see any return from it. Ah, cultivators, don’t be so stupid! The benefits which you can see are not real; all appearances are empty and false. To grasp at a form, at what you can see, is not a benefit. That is why reciting sutras isn’t beneficial. 

Don’t search for benefits. Recite the sutra once and your own nature is cleaned once. When you recite the Heart Sutra once, you have the feeling that you understand a little of its meaning; recite it twice or three times, and each time you understand a little more. Reciting sutras helps the wisdom of your own nature to grow. How much? You can’t see it; nevertheless, you can have a kind of feeling about it. Therefore, it is not possible to talk about the benefits of reciting sutras.

Moreover, each time you recite the sutra your afflictions decrease. You shouldn’t get upset during recitation by thinking, “You over there, you recited it wrong. You recited it too fast; I can’t keep up with you. The sounds that you make when you recite are really unpleasant, so I don’t like to listen to it.” No, don’t waste your effort in those directions. When reciting sutras or mantras, everyone should chant together. It isn’t necessary for everyone to know the language the sutra is being recited in; but able to read the sutra or not, everyone should recite along together. For everyone to practice together, though, doesn’t mean your looking for my faults, and my looking for your faults. If there are really faults, everyone should find them. And if you yourself don’t find your own faults because they are too big, then your cultivation will not be attuned to receive a response.

Reciting sutras is a great help to one’s own nature in developing wisdom. Reciting the Diamond Sutra develops wisdom; reciting the Heart Sutra develops even more wisdom.
(Source: Hua, Hsuan, Ven., Prajna Paramita Sutra, 2002: p. 18: The Meaning of “Sutra”)

You say that there aren’t any benefits gained from reciting sutras, yet the benefits are very great. It’s just that you don’t see them. You don’t see them? Then they are real benefits. Anything that you can see is just the skin.

The word “Sutra” has four other meanings: that which strings together; that which attracts; that which is permanent; and a method. “Stringing together” refers to the connecting of all the meanings which were spoken to make a sutra, as if a piece of thread were used to string them together.

A sutra “attracts” in that it can make use of opportunities for the transformation of sentient beings. This particular sutra is capable of responding to the causal opportunities of all sentient beings and of giving each a medicine to cure that being’s own particular disease. Just as a strong magnet can attract iron from a great distance, a sutra, like a magnet, draws in all sentient beings. We sentient beings are like iron, hard and stubborn, with large tempers and many faults. But as soon as we are pulled into the magnet, we begin to be slowly softened so that our faults fall away. That is the meaning of “that which attracts”.

A sutra is “permanent” because it is eternally unchanging dharma, and has neither beginning nor end. Not one word can be omitted from or added to a sutra; thus it is eternal. In ancient times and in the present, living beings have cultivated and will continue to cultivate according to this sutra.

A sutra is a “method” followed in cultivation of the Way. In the three periods of time, past, present, and future, one cultivates according to this dharma. What is honored in the three periods of time alike is called the method. What is unchanging in the past and present is called the permanent.
(Source: Hua, Hsuan, Ven., Prajna Paramita Sutra, 2002: p. 19: The Meaning of “Sutra”)

Sutra also has the meaning of a marking-line. In ancient China carpenters used a tool called the ink-cup and line. It consisted of a string which was inked black. When the carpenters wanted to be sure that their construction was straight and true, they would stretch the string out, pull it back, and snap it to, in order to make a straight black guideline.

To sum up, a sutra is a set of rules. To recite sutras is to follow the rules. If you don’t recite sutras, then you don’t follow the rules. Since you are now studying prajna, you certainly should respect the rules of prajna. If you do, you will certainly develop your wisdom.
(Source: Hua, Hsuan, Ven., Prajna Paramita Sutra, 2002: p. 20: The Meaning of “Sutra”)

The first is Explaining the Name. Only when you know the Sutra’s name can you begin to understand its principles. Just as when you meet a person you first learn his name, so it is with Sutras, for each has its own particular name. The titles of all Buddhist Sutras may be divided into two parts, the common title and the special title. The special title of this Sutra is the Buddha Speaks of Amitabha, and the word Sutra is the common title, as all discourses spoken by the Buddha are called Sutras.

 Although five kinds of beings may speak Sutras,

1) The Buddhas,

2) The Buddha’s disciples,

3) Gods,

4) Immortals, and

5) Transformation beings, that is, gods or Buddhas who transform into human form.

The disciples, gods, immortals, and transformation beings must first receive the Buddha’s certification before they speak Sutra; without certification, what they speak is not truly a Sutra. This Sutra was spoken by the Buddha, not by those in the other four categories; it came from Shakyamuni Buddha’s mouth.
(Source: Hua, Hsuan, Ven., Amitabha Sutra, 2002: p. 2: Explaining the Name)

The knowledge of Ayurveda has been passed down to us in sutras or small phrases and the wisdom these sutras contain is there to be unlocked by the inquiring mind. Much of the information in this book is based upon the truths contained in these sutras, composed in the form of poetry during ancient times, more than 5,000 years ago. The words of a sutra bring hidden knowledge to consciousness. However, the understanding of this knowledge and its hidden meaning need the guidance of a teacher.
(Source: Lad Textbook, 2001: p. 3, Introduction, Chapter One)

The Sanskrit word sutra means to suture with a thread. The small phrase of the sutra is analogous to a thread passing through the eye of a needle. The eye of the needle is small but the trail of the thread leads to great hidden wisdom waiting for interpretation. A seed is a tree in minute form. A sutra is analogous to the seed. The seed can have many meanings and can describe a variety of forms: a small sapling, a mature tree, flowers, fruits, acorns or nuts. It is clear that the seed embraces the totality. It is the microcosm within the macrocosm. The same is true of a sutra.
(Source: Lad Textbook, 2001: p. 3, Introduction, Chapter One)

“The 4 Vedas (ancient Indian texts): Rk [Rig], Sama, Yajus [Yajur], Atharva.”
Source: Charaka Samhita, Sutrasthana Summary Section 30#20

“Vaidyas are devoted to Atharva Veda, because it has dealt with the subject of medicine.”
Source: Charaka Samhita, Sutrasthana Summary Section 1#43], Source: Charaka Samhita, Sutrasthana Summary Section 30#21

“Categories of Medicine covered under the Atharva Veda: Prescribing donation, propitiatory rites, offerings, auspicious rites, oblations, observance of rules, expiations, fasting, incantations, etc.., and medicine for promotion of life.”
Source: Charaka Samhita, Sutrasthana Summary Section 30#21

The Charaka Samhita, compiled approximately 400 C.E., is the oldest ancient Sanskrit Ayurvedic text still in existence and describes the five subdoshas of vata. The Sushruta Samhita text, compiled by the sage Nagarjuna, first described surgery, blood and the five pitta subdoshas.
(Source: Lad Textbook, 2001: p. 3, Introduction, Chapter One)

Observations, collected over thousands of years, finally developed into Ayurveda when experts like Charaka, the author of the famous text known as the Charaka Samhita, codified them into systems. Charaka means “wanderer,” and Charaka must himself have spent many months in the jungles watching the behavior of wild animals in order to have gained the vast cache of wisdom which is his treatise. Primitive men and women may never have suspected that such systematic codification would happen, for they knew only that a certain bark, root, leaf, flower or fruit would return them to health when they were ill.
(Source: Svoboda, Hidden, 1994: p. 22)

Vagbhata was a famous Ayurvedic physician from the 6th century C.E. who wrote the Ashtanga Hridayam and the Ashtanga Sangraha. Earlier sages in the oral lineage of Ayurveda were Lord Brahma, who taught Prajapati, who passed it to the Ashvin twins. They, in turn, taught Indra, who passed it to Atreya (6th century B.C.E.), who taught Agnivesa, who in the 5th century B.C.E. wrote the first major Ayurvedic treatise, which is no longer in existence.
(Source: Lad Textbook, 2001: p. 4, Introduction, Chapter One)

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