Heng Shun
Developing Virtue Secondary School
City of 10,000 Buddhas, Talmage, California
Samantabhadra
Bodhisattva The Bodhisattva, Samantabhadra is one of the four great Bodhisattvas in Mahayana Buddhism. He is known for his great practice. In the Flower Adornment (Avatamsaka) Sutra it repeatedly states that all Bodhisattvas throughout the universe have become Buddhas by means of his ten great practices and vows. These ten are: 1) to worship and revere all Buddhas, 2) to praise the Tathagatas, 3) to extensively make offerings, 4) to repent of and reform karmic obstacles, 5) to rejoice in and follow the merit and virtue of others, 6) to request that the "wheel of Dharma" be turned, 7) to beseech the Buddhas to remain in the world, 8) to constantly follow and learn from the Buddhas, 9) to always comply with living beings (represents the Bodhisattva's compassion), and 10) to transfer all of one's merit to others.
Please note that this reader is
still in the preliminary stages of development.
Buddhist Reader
Unless noted otherwise, these excerpts from the Sutras
with commentary are taken from the public lectures by the Venerable Master
Hsuan Hua, and have been published by the Buddhist Text Translation Society
(BTTS).
Chapter One- Suffering: The Problem of Existence
Final Warmth After Death
Chapter Two- The Cause of Suffering: Ignorance and Karma
Venerable
Purna's Question: Why Does Samsara Exist?
Why Ignorance Has No Cause: The
Analogy of Yajnadatta
The
Retributions for the Ten Unwholesome Karmas
Chapter Three- The Path to the Cessation of Suffering: Practicing
the Dharma
What is the Buddha-dharma?
Link
to Articles on the Five Moral Precepts
Link
to Articles on Buddhism and Respect for Parents
Chapter Four- The Cessation of Suffering: The Realm of the Buddha
Does Buddhism Teach that the
World is Evil?
Chapter Five- Sangha: The Third Jewel
The Monastic Kashaya Robe
An Excellent Resource for Buddhist Terminology: Buddhism A to Z
Additional Materials:
Back to the Source: Schools
of Buddhist Practice
Publications Available from the Buddhist Text Translation Society
History
of the Wheel of Samsara
Link to
the Meaning of the Wheel of Samsara
This site was created by Heng Shun at the NEH Summer Institute "Cultures and Religions of the Himalayan Region," held at the College of the Holy Cross, Summer 2004