"Thus Have I Heard" is an AI-assisted platform for reading and studying Buddhist scriptures, with its official website at rushiwowen.co. Its core positioning is to help readers overcome the barriers of classical Chinese and understand the general meaning of Buddhist scriptures, while preserving a path back to the original texts for verification.
In terms of purpose, this tool is mainly used for reading, understanding, and assisted study of Buddhist scriptures. It includes 4,515 Buddhist scriptures from CBETA, covering rich content from the sutra collection to the successive dynasties' Buddhist canons, and is suitable for users who wish to systematically read scriptures, delve deeply into doctrine, or conduct academic research.
Main capabilities include:
- Comparison of original texts and modern translations: Classical original texts and modern vernacular translations are placed side by side paragraph by paragraph, allowing readers both to understand the general meaning and to see the basis. For example, in the Heart Sutra, the line "form is not different from emptiness, emptiness is not different from form" corresponds to the vernacular translation: "Material phenomena are not different from emptiness, and emptiness is precisely revealed through phenomena. Phenomena are emptiness, and emptiness is phenomena."
- AI-assisted interpretation and Q&A: When encountering profound terminology and obscure words or phrases, AI can help sort out character meanings, context, and related materials. Users can ask questions along with the text and seek relevant sources and interpretive clues from the scriptures. The platform relies on 20,871 fascicles of successive dynasties' Buddhist canons for retrieval and understanding assistance.
- Multilingual reading: Supports reading in Chinese, English, and Japanese, making it convenient for readers of different language backgrounds.
- Pure Mind Meditation Hall: Provides functions such as lighting incense and meditating with the sound of the chime, allowing readers to give themselves a moment of quiet before opening the scriptures.
In terms of usage, users can directly visit the website, read the classics, and use the original text and translation comparison function. For content they have questions about, they can ask the AI through the Q&A function. Users who are not logged in can ask 1 question per day, and after logging in, full conversations are unlocked. In addition, the platform provides exclusive PDF and EPUB export functions, making offline chanting convenient.
Applicable scenarios include: daily scripture reading and understanding the general meaning, interpretation of classical Chinese in Buddhist studies and thesis writing, assisted understanding of profound terminology, and preparation before quiet meditation. Some user feedback mentions that the left-right split-column original-vernacular comparison saves the effort of flipping back and forth to check, the intelligent translation helps clarify the threads of doctrine, and the AI Q&A is like exchanging with a learned and patient teacher and friend.
In terms of limitations, the materials do not clearly mention the charging model, price, specific AI models, or technical details. They only mention that all classics are free to read and basic Q&A is openly free; users who are not logged in can ask 1 question per day, and after logging in, full conversations are unlocked. Other functional limitations are not yet provided.
