The Infinite Journey: The Stem Array (Gaṇḍavyūha Sūtra) - Part 1

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The Infinite Journey: The Stem Array (Gaṇḍavyūha Sūtra) - Part 1

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Series: The Stem Array (Gaṇḍavyūha Sūtra) by Dzongsar Khyentse, 2021 (2 tracks)

Descriptionངོ་སྤྲོད།

The Stem Array (Gandavyuha), 30 October 2021, Online - Part 1

Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche explores The Stem Array (Gaṇḍavyūha Sūtra), following the spiritual journey of Sudhana, a wealthy merchant who seeks truth through pilgrimage. Meeting more than fifty extraordinary teachers—including a child, a prostitute, physicians, and common workers—Sudhana discovers that the bodhisattva path requires abandoning narrow, conventional views of reality and embracing the infinite Mahāyāna perspective. Far from a simple Buddhist fairy tale, this sūtra deconstructs our limited understanding of the world, challenging what we accept as real. Through diverse and unexpected mentors, practitioners learn that wisdom can be found anywhere, in anyone—if we approach life with radical openness. The teaching culminates with Samantabhadra's Prayer of Aspiration, pointing toward the boundless nature of awakened reality.

Citation

Khyentse, Dzongsar. "The Infinite Journey: The Stem Array (Gaṇḍavyūha Sūtra) - Part 1." Produced by Siddhartha's Intent Oct 30, 2021. Video, 1:04:09. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2zNCrpi5Lc.

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1 Teaching on

Gaṇḍavyūhasūtra [बुद्धावतंसकनाममहावैपुल्यसूत्रात गण्डव्यूहसूत्रः पटलः]. sdong pos brgyan pa'i le'u [སྡོང་པོས་བརྒྱན་པའི་ལེའུ]. [Chapter 45: The Gaṇḍhavyūha Sūtra (84000)]. Translated by Divākara, Jinamitra, Surendrabodhi, Ye shes sde, Prajña, Sheng-chien. Kangyur, RKTSK 44-45 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=44-45&typ=1.སྡོང་པོས་བརྒྱན་པའི་ལེའུ

Classical WorksAbout this item

In this lengthy final chapter of the Avataṃsaka Sūtra, while the Buddha Śākyamuni is in meditation in Śrāvastī, Mañjuśrī leaves for South India, where he meets the young layman Sudhana and instructs him to go to a certain kalyāṇamitra or "good friend," who then directs Sudhana to another such friend. In this way, Sudhana successively meets and receives teachings from fifty male and female, child and adult, human and divine, and monastic and lay kalyāṇamitras, including night goddesses surrounding the Buddha and the Buddha’s wife and mother. The final three in the succession of kalyāṇamitras are the three bodhisattvas Maitreya, Mañjuśrī, and Samantabhadra. Samantabhadra’s recitation of the Samantabhadracaryāpraṇidhāna ("The Prayer for Completely Good Conduct") concludes the sūtra. (Source: 84000)

Sūtra - Sūtras mainly refer to the discourses delivered by the Buddha and his disciples, and the Sūtra corpus is one of the three main sets of teachings which form the Buddhist canon. Skt सूत्र  Tib མདོ།  Ch 佛经  

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Sūtra - Sūtras mainly refer to the discourses delivered by the Buddha and his disciples, and the Sūtra corpus is one of the three main sets of teachings which form the Buddhist canon. Skt सूत्र  Tib མདོ།  Ch 佛经  

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Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'bodhisattva'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

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Mahāyāna - Mahāyāna, or the Great Vehicle, refers to the system of Buddhist thought and practice which developed around the beginning of the Common Era, focusing on the pursuit of the state of full enlightenment of the Buddha through the realization of the wisdom of emptiness and the cultivation of compassion. Skt महायान  Tib ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ།  Ch 大乘  

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Sūtra - Sūtras mainly refer to the discourses delivered by the Buddha and his disciples, and the Sūtra corpus is one of the three main sets of teachings which form the Buddhist canon. Skt सूत्र  Tib མདོ།  Ch 佛经  

Go to the page with the definition of 'sūtra'

Sūtra - Sūtras mainly refer to the discourses delivered by the Buddha and his disciples, and the Sūtra corpus is one of the three main sets of teachings which form the Buddhist canon. Skt सूत्र  Tib མདོ།  Ch 佛经  

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Prajñā - One of the key terms for wisdom or knowledge, most often having the sense of insight, transcendent knowledge, or perhaps gnosis. In some contexts it can also refer to cognition or intellectual understanding. Skt प्रज्ञा  Tib ཤེས་རབ་  Ch 般若  

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Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'bodhisattvas'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'bodhisattvas'