Tag Archives: Wŏnhyo

The Vajrasamādhi Sutra

Posted on January 1, 2016 by Vajragoni


Wŏnhyo

Our next text for study from our sūtra-series is the Vajrasamādhi Sūtra. Firstly, a thank-you is in order for one of our readers, JB, who recently brought this magnificent text to our attention. We are also indebted to Robert E. Buswell, Jr. for his excellent scholarly texts, The Formation of Ch’an Ideology in China and Korea, The Vajrasamādhi Sūtra—A Buddhist Apocryphon; and his Cultivating Original Enlightenment: Wŏnhyo’s Exposition of The Vajrasamādhi Sutra. His first work focuses on the doctrinal and historical position of this uniquely “Korean” Ch’an-Sŏn Sutra. (1) Buswell draws the conclusion that the Sutra’s author (circa 685 C.E.) was the legendary monk, ŏmnang, who is reported to have studied under Daoxin, the primary founder of the East Mountain School. As we shall discover within this series its doctrinal and contemplative/meditative dimensions are highly attuned with the East Mountain School—particularly on the notion of “Keeping the One”—Shou-i: read more

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Closing Reflection: Entry into the Dharmadhātu

Posted on December 22, 2015 by Vajragoni

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

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Mind As Absolute Suchness

Posted on December 2, 2014 by Vajragoni

(Hakeda)

The part on outline has been given; next the part on interpretation [of the principle of Mahayana] will be given. It consists of three chapters: read more

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Awakening of Faith: Preliminaries

Posted on December 1, 2014 by Vajragoni

INVOCATION

(Hakeda)

I take refuge in [the Buddha,] the greatly Compassionate One, the Savior of the world, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, of most excellent deeds in all the ten directions;
And in [the Dharma,] the manifestation of his Essence, the Reality, the sea of Suchness, the boundless storehouse of excellencies;
[And in the Sangha, whose members] truly devote themselves to the practice,
May all sentient beings be made to discard their doubts, to cast aside
their evil attachments, and to give rise to the correct faith in the Mahāyāna, that the lineage of the Buddhas may not be broken off. read more

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