Tag Archives: David L. McMahan

Traveling with Sudhana during his spiritual sojourn in the Gandavyūha-sūtra has oftentimes been ultra-cinematic in context. J.J. Abrams would not have been able to capture one iota of its stellar-scope. If totally entered into with a sincere spirit one is empowered and privileged to experience this majestic-mystic landscape and thus gain a full appreciation of the Hua-Yen Spirit that created it. One clearly discerns how the whole Avatamsaka Saga is a syncretic recapitulation of the entire Mahāyāna Enterprise. Nothing else comes close in terms of its dynamic-range of metaphoric interpretation of divine refuge, liberation, and transformation in the Buddhadharma. The Bodhisattvic-formation, as revealed through Sudhana’s visitation with the 52 Spiritual Benefactors—53 when one includes Sudhana’s hypostatic-union with Bodhisattva Samantabhadra—is fine-tuned to such a degree that the reader and spiritual adept gains an unparalleled appreciation of the high-road to Bodhisattvahood and the crowning appellation—Buddhahood Itself. David L. McMahan in his seminal text, Empty Vision: Metaphor and Visual Imagery in Mahāyāna Buddhism, succinctly narrows down this process in the following knowledge metaphors: read more