avatmaska sutra (flower ornament)

[TrevorMcmanis]

I'm working on thomas cleary's translation..this is a very interesting text.has anyone else read this? this text is considered very important in old chinese zen circles and cultural buddhists that have a dash of every tradition in their lives in places like china and japan.The first book speaks of the how the buddhas pentrate every fabric of being and it taps into who the various deities of spirits cities forests insentient and sentient reached libearation.This is kind of like the practice of zazen and realizing enlightenment in the moment.All beings have the karmic potential to be enlightened due to our buddha nature which lies in everything..

[anista]

Re: avatmaska sutra (flower ornament)

I've read it. It is very interesting, although very, very boring (in my opinion - and I usually like reading sutras!) . Could be the English translations though.

If you like Avata?saka, try the novel Little Pilgrim by South Korean poet Ko Un. It's a beautiful story based on the last chapter of the Avata?saka s?tra.

[Jundo]

Re: avatmaska sutra (flower ornament)

Hi,

The "Flower Garland" ("Hua-Yen" in Chinese or "Kegon" in Japanese) Sutra and school has had an important, although indirect, influence on Zen perspectives via the Hua-yen/Kegon and Tendai traditions (Dogen was a Tendai monk and Tendai incorporated some of Hue-yen, and Dogen was always heavily influenced by his studies there during his career and, I feel, his writings overflow with beautiful Hua-yen ... or might as well be Hua-yen ... imagery).

Countless Buddhas in every blade of grass, every blade of grass holding the whole universe and all universes ... etc.

Heinrich Dumoulin has a bit on this from page 45 to 49 here (although his romantic depiction of Japanese nature and art at the end is a bit "over the top").

http://books.google.com/books?id=9CYeWYtYBS4C&pg=PA45&lpg=PA45&dq=hua+yen+and+zen&source=bl&ots=zUO_NkQndd&sig=4TRNOz-B_XO7LYYT5nB5drxjdMI&hl=en&ei=gWzNTKCRJ4LOvQPx1JAC&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CEEQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=hua-yen%20&f=false

Gassho, Jundo

[BrianW]

Re: avatmaska sutra (flower ornament)

I've always loved the imagery in the Avata?saka Sutra. I even started a bit of a computer imaging project, which seems never to get completed, some time ago inspired from the sutra....sample image below.

The "Flower Garland" ("Hua-Yen" in Chinese or "Kegon" in Japanese) Sutra and school has had an important, although indirect, influence on Zen perspectives via the Hua-yen/Kegon and Tendai traditions (Dogen was a Tendai monk and Tendai incorporated some of Hue-en, and Dogen was always heavily influenced by his studies there during his career and, I feel, overflow with beautiful Hua-yen ... or might as well be Hua-yen ... imagery).

Thanks Jundo.....I always wondered what might be the connection, but I guess if I think about it some of the imagery you see in, for example, Bendowa or Uji, it is possible to see a connection.

If you like Avata?saka, try the novel Little Pilgrim by South Korean poet Ko Un. It's a beautiful story based on the last chapter of the Avata?saka s?tra.

Thanks Anista....I will have to pick that up. "Cultivating the Mind" of Love by Thich Nhat Hanh also weaves the Avatmaka Sutra in the book. Nice short read that can be polished off in an afternoon. He goes back and forth between explaining various sutras and a personal story about a nun that he fell in love with as a young man.

Gassho,
Jisen/BrianW

Attached files

[TrevorMcmanis]

Re: avatmaska sutra (flower ornament)

This is great info I'm a big fan of Ko Un. I have seen many photographs of japanese zen monks also wearing traditional tendai robes.The cultural interweave is very interesting.Dogens practice on Mt. Hiei is also an interesting factor.Thanks guys!