Any word on Bhikshu Dharmamitra's Avatamsaka?

[Leo Rivers]

Any word on Bhikshu Dharmamitra's Avatamsaka?

Or Gaṇḍavyūha.

I'll settle for gossip.


PS: Charles Muller suggested a new translation of the Chéng Wéishì Lùn was needed. I know there is another other than the BDK version.

[Svalaksana]

Any word on Bhikshu Dharmamitra's Avatamsaka?

Or Gaṇḍavyūha.

I'll settle for gossip.


PS: Charles Muller suggested a new translation of the Chéng Wéishì Lùn was needed. I know there is another other than the BDK version.

I would greatly appreciate news on this as well, even though I already have Cleary's version.

Regarding Chéng Wéishì Lùn, I've been trying to scavenge for news on the forum as well, as I was hoping to find a good translation of it and the BDK is too expensive for me (with postage and other post related bullexcrement my country has invented since the pandemic).

[Leo Rivers]

Go to BDK Amerixa. They have free pdf downloads of their books!

Try this!

https://bdkamerica.org/download/1861

This volume brings together important texts in the “Consciousness Only” or “Mind Only” school: The Demonstration of Consciousness Only, The Thirty Verses on Consciousness Only, and The Treatise in Twenty Verses on Consciousness Only.

[Zhen Li]

PS: Charles Muller suggested a new translation of the Chéng Wéishì Lùn was needed. I know there is another other than the BDK version.

The other version is on archive:
https://archive.org/details/thedoctrine ... hlun_750_b

Any word on Bhikshu Dharmamitra's Avatamsaka?

I would like to know this as well. His website has not been updated in almost three years. I will try emailing him.

[Leo Rivers]

Thanks for this:
https://archive.org/details/thedoctrine ... hlun_750_b


The Doctrine Of Mere Consciousness Hsuan Tsang, Wei Tat Ch'eng Wei Shih Lun

It's $202.73
on https://www.amazon.com/Cheng-Wei-Shih-L ... 656&sr=1-1

[Zhen Li]

I heard back from Bhikṣu Dharmamitra.

The publication is finished. It's three volumes. They are going up on Amazon first, but I think the data is still processing and I could only find volume three.

Since it was just released, he said it would take some time before it has a page on the Kalavinka website. But I'm eagerly looking forward to the option to buy a PDF copy.

[Leo Rivers]

The Flower Adornment Sutra - Volume Three: An Annotated Translation of the Avataṃsaka Sutra: Volume III, The Gaņdavyūha & A Commentarial Synopsis of the Flower Adornment Sutra


Zhen Li
THANKS

To date, this is the first and only complete English translation of the Avataṃsaka Sutra.

I hope this also means he is doing well.

Yours

Leo

food for thought:
"Despite the former being at the end of the Avataṃsaka, the Gaṇḍavyūha and the Ten Stages are generally believed to be the oldest written chapters of the sutra." from the Wiki, a quote from
Jan Fonten 1967 "The Journey of Sudana"

And PS
Pragmatic Approaches to Translating the Avataṃsaka Commentaries and Sub-commentaries Pragmatic Approaches to Translating the Avataṃsaka Commentaries and Sub-commentaries:
https://www.academia.edu/43640297/Pragm ... mmentaries

[Svalaksana]

I heard back from Bhikṣu Dharmamitra.

The publication is finished. It's three volumes. They are going up on Amazon first, but I think the data is still processing and I could only find volume three.

Since it was just released, he said it would take some time before it has a page on the Kalavinka website. But I'm eagerly looking forward to the option to buy a PDF copy.

This is wonderful news, Zhen Li, thank you very much!

[Zhen Li]

The thanks go only to Bhikṣu Dharmamitra.

Pragmatic Approaches to Translating the Avataṃsaka Commentaries and Sub-commentaries Pragmatic Approaches to Translating the Avataṃsaka Commentaries and Sub-commentaries:

It doesn't bode well when the treatise on translation is itself translated into incomprehensible English. I don't know who they are, but I hope they are not involved in translation. I feel that we should not treat translation as an intellectual or theoretical exercise.

[Javierfv1212]

I would imagine this translation is going to supersede the one by Cleary right? What are the main improvements? Just more accurate translation from the Chinese?

[Leo Rivers]

According to Bhikṣu Dharmamitra in his introduction to the Kalavinka translation of the Dasabhumika/10 Grounds Sūtra, Cleary's 26th chapter of the Avatamsaka sūtra is not that but instead a loose rendering of a seperate Sanscrit edition of the Dasabhumika. If I got it right, Cleary produced a version of the Chinese Avatamsaka with a rendering of a independantly circulated Sanskirit 10 Grounds sutra replacing the version that came packaged with the Avatamsaka as its 26th chapter.

And apparantly Clear's text is not complete but missing stuff.

Now this is all beyond my pay -grade. I am no scholar. But I trust Bhikṣu Dharmamitra and have shelled out to Amazon for all 3 vols!

[Matt J]

I'll be more impressed once they're read. In my house, they would go on my bookshelf, and there they would stay.

Now this is all beyond my pay -grade. I am no scholar. But I trust Bhikṣu Dharmamitra and have shelled out to Amazon for all 3 vols!

[Leo Rivers]

I'll be more impressed once they're read. In my house, they would go on my bookshelf, and there they would stay

Take heart

I actually have a plan. Nibble around the edges,... and see if it takes. If not.. the Cottage Grove Oregon Library gets 'em.

#1- There are "interview" summaries for the Gaṇḍavyūha and stage breakdowns for the Dasabhumica on the Net.

#2- There is Cook's intro to Hua-yen Buddhism: The Jewel Net of Indra Francis H. Cook, Pennsylvania State University Press (1977) for an orientation.

#3- For background there is a series of essays edited by Imre Hamar called Reflecting Mirrors: Perspectives on Huayan Buddhism. https://www.amazon.com/Reflecting-Mirro ... 344705509X

#4- And there are folks here to chat with.

[Leo Rivers]

AND THERE'S MORE...

https://www.amazon.com/Avatamsaka-Buddh ... 6784&psc=1

Robert Gimello
Avatamsaka Buddhism in East Asia: Huayan, Kegon, Flower Ornament Buddhism. Origins and Adaptation of a Visual Culture


WARNING: I have offered these references in a goodwill hope they help in encouragement. If they fall short or fail please correct me.

The volume about Avatamsaka Buddhism in East Asia is the result of a symposium organized in France in 2008. 15 contributions reflect the ways of manifestation and of expression of Huayan doctrines in several geographical regions and at different periods. Compared with previous valuable studies, the present volume intends to open broader perspectives, to give the opportunity to develp opened problematics, based on primary sources, textual and iconological. The Avatamsaka doctrines have developed particular ways of expression and paradigms on the Chinese soil, as a sinized Buddhism, they may be said to have achieved a philosophical revolution in the history of Mahayana: the Absolute is not the goal of the philosophical and soteriological inquiry, but its point of departure. The world is not only an illusion to be transcended but a manifestation of this very Absolute. The Avatamsaka can be seen as the backbone of influencial currents, the Chan or Zen, the Tiantai or Tendai, the Ritualistic Buddhism, the Pure Land teachings, as well as the Song studies. The renewal of problematics on history of religion in the Far East region, as the so-called combined scheme simultaneously philosophical (exoteric) and ritualist (esoteric), gives a meaning to the approach of Avatamsaka current as common denominator linked from China till the Qitan region to Korea and Japan

[Lethemyr]

Now this is all beyond my pay -grade. I am no scholar. But I trust Bhikṣu Dharmamitra and have shelled out to Amazon for all 3 vols!

Amazon won't ship it to Canada though...

It'll probably just take some time.

[Leo Rivers]

Try Barnes & Noble!

try https://www.amazon.ca/

Maybe they'll mail to the US...

[Svalaksana]

Now this is all beyond my pay -grade. I am no scholar. But I trust Bhikṣu Dharmamitra and have shelled out to Amazon for all 3 vols!

Amazon won't ship it to Canada though...

It'll probably just take some time.

Try Bookdepository, all 3 of them are in there now.

[curtstein]

Is it cheating if I start with volume 3? Totally serious question. I mean that has the Gandavyuha INCLUDING "The Conduct and Vows of Samantabhadra" AND the Commentarial Synopsis! And now that I think of it I'll probably get volume 2 after that. So it looks like I'll finally read the Avatamsaka Sutra - backwards?

[Leo Rivers]

It's what I'm doing. I BELIIEVE but don't know if the Dasabhumica is in volume 2. And as there is academic concurrence that the Gandavyuha and the 10 Stage Sūtra independantly circulated before the aggregation or creation of the other works as a part of an Avatamsaka Cultiral movement.

But the Gandavyuha is a Universe to itself, dwarfing Tolkien or Dune as immersive experiences.... the unpacking of worlds out of every leaf and ornament of pavillion is a challenge for me, to be honest. And the way this text was put into practice of meditation is a mystery to me. I have resolved to at least pursue this. What happens with vol 1 and 2 for me may be to be planted on a shelf, as an another poster admitted.

[ThreeVows]

Is it cheating if I start with volume 3? Totally serious question. I mean that has the Gandavyuha INCLUDING "The Conduct and Vows of Samantabhadra" AND the Commentarial Synopsis! And now that I think of it I'll probably get volume 2 after that. So it looks like I'll finally read the Avatamsaka Sutra - backwards?

You can totally read that chapter/sutra as a standalone.

Same with chapter 26 in the 2nd volume, the Dashabhumika Sutra.