Flower Ornament Sutra with Bob Thurman | Saturday Night Live Broadcast
Channel: Tibet House US Menla Online
Date: 2023-01-15

Flower Ornament Sutra with Bob Thurman | Session 73

Bob Thurman invites all aboard to continue an epic exploration of "The Buddha-Garland (Avatamsaka) Sutra, or The Flower Ornament Scripture," as the master translator Thomas Cleary called his English version from the Chinese Huayen Ching. Described by Cleary as "the most comprehensive and the most beautifully arrayed of the Buddhist scriptures," the Avatamsaka Sutra describes in exquisite detail a cosmic multi-verse of infinite inter-penetrating realms. Illuminating the majesty and holographic coherence of the Buddha's non-dual vision of reality, the sutra illuminates numerous key Mahayana topics, including the detailed stages of the Bodhisattva career, the many visionary powers of meditation, and the ultimate inconceivable equality of all beings and things in emptiness.

Written in stages beginning at least 500 years after the Buddha’s parinirvana, the Avatamsaka Sutra is among the longest of the Buddha’s sutras, a compilation of texts often organized in 40 chapters. Using Cleary’s three volume translation, Thurman will teach this text in its entirety for the first time ever, sharing with us his characteristic brilliance and wit in unpacking the wisdom and symbolism of this seemingly fantastical sutra with an emphasis on its relevance to our “ordinary” daily lives in the 21st century.

This video is a part of the Tibet House US Menla Digital Archives & is brought to you by the generosity of it's membership community.

 Full access to past 72 Sessions begins at only $20: https://thusmenla.org/p/flower-ornament-sutra

Flower Ornament Sutra with Bob Thurman | Session 73

This video is a part of the Tibet House US Menla Digital Archives & is brought to you by the generosity of it's membership community. To watch more videos please visit: https://thus.org
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