my desert island book
- Wyrd & Highly Strange
- May 9
- 5 min read
Most of us have probably played this game. "What one book would you take with you if you were going to be stranded on a desert island for who knows how long?" A friend asked me this a while back, and I knew immediately: the Avatamsaka Sutra, otherwise known as the Buddhāvatamsaka Sūtra, the Hua Yan Jing (花嚴經), the Flower Ornament Scripture, the Flower Adornment Sutra, or the Flower Garland Sutra. Answering the question "Why?" takes a bit longer.
The first time I encountered this massive text (my favorite English translation runs to 1,600 pages*) was in the first year of a 3-year Dharma training program. Technically, it was the third year in the rotation, but students were allowed to enter during any year in the 3-year cycle. I wasn't a newbie to Buddhism, but I also wasn't deeply into the texts. Our teacher, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, put the Avatamsaka in the third year curriculum because of its importance in Buddhist Mahayana philosophy. It is the foundational text of the Huayan school of Buddhism.
We were assigned only a few books/chapters of the sutra, but I was entranced by the text. Each student was required to do a talk/presentation, so I chose this sutra. I found that the sutra had inspired art, music, architecture, poetry, as well as philosophy and practice. Its influence was as dizzingly vast as the words and worlds in it.
Here is the opening paragraph, to give a flavor:
THUS HAVE I HEARD. At one time the Buddha was in the land of Magadha, in a state of purity, at the site of enlightenment, having just realized true awareness. The ground was solid and firm, made of diamond, adorned with exquisite jewel discs and myriad precious flowers, with pure clear crystals. The ocean of characteristics of the various colors appeared over an infinite extent. There were banners of precious stones, constantly emitting shining light and producing beautiful sounds. Nets of myriad gems and garlands of exquisitely scented flowers hung all around. The finest jewels appeared spontaneously, raining inexhaustible quantities of gems and beautiful flowers all over the earth. There were rows of jewel trees, their branches and foliage lustrous and luxuriant. By the Buddha's spiritual power, he caused all the adornments of this enlightenment site to be reflected therein.
I won't go into explanations, because it's a text to be experienced, not explained. Instead, I will share more of the world of the sutra as it has manifested in my own life.
In the library of the Buddhist monastery where our Dharma training class met, there was a large case that displayed a massive Chinese text. Our teacher explained that it was the entire Hua Yan Jing, written by hand using the monk-scribe's own blood as ink. Imagine feeling such devotion to a text that you would use your own blood to copy it! I was overwhelmed.
I also learned that the Venerable Sheng Yen, an esteemed Chinese Buddhist monk, had used the sutra during a long solo retreat. He would read one character of the Chinese text and then recite a mantra and do a prostration. Imagine feeling such devotion to a text that you would bow to each syllable!
"The first half year of my retreat, I emphasized repentance prostration to undo my heavy karma. First I prostrated through the Lotus Sutra; later, the Avatamsaka Sutra. After reading a character, I would recite a mantra and then prostrate. The mantras were "Na mo fa-hua hui-shang fo pusa" for the Lotus Sutra, ("Homage to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of the Lotus Assembly") and "Na mo hua-yen hai-hui fo p'u-sa" for the Avatamsaka Sutra. ("Homage to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of the ocean of wisdom of the Avatamsaka Sutra.") This I did through the whole sutra. After prostrating for five hours I would meditate." (Ven. Sheng Yen)
Now, I haven't done those practices myself, but I did offer my own form of contemporary devotion: I scanned the entire English translation, one page at a time. This was before any e-text version was available, and I wanted to be have the sutra with me and available all the time.
I undertook another devotional practice, too. A few years after encountering the sutra, I took a first-year class in Mandarin Chinese at a local university. Sitting in a classroom full of vibrant 18-20-year-olds, many of whom were Asian, was quite a practice of humility! I loved the class and I loved the language. And I took the class so I could read the Hua Yan Jing in Chinese.
The Buddhist monastery I mentioned above was the home of the well-known Theravadin Buddhist monk, Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi. I knew Bhante (the honorific used to address him) already, and when he found out I was devoted to this sutra and wanted to read it in its original Chinese, he offered to tutor me.
The monastery where I knew Bhante, and where he still lives today, is Chuang Yen Monastery in upstate New York. He has worked diligently through the years to improve his mastery of Chinese, and in particular, Buddhist Chinese. Buddhist Chinese is its own language. It uses the same characters as Mandarin and other forms of Chinese, but the meanings are very different. Many native Chinese speakers cannot read or understand Buddhist Chinese. So, I needed help learning Buddhist Chinese if I had a prayer of reading the Hua Yan Jing!
For some months, perhaps a year or more, I met with Bhante weekly via Skype or occasionally in person, to read one book of the vast sutra. It was, as I recall, the first book of the sutra that he had read, a project he undertook during a long stay at his father's house. It was an amazing experience! I felt so intimate with the text, and it was another form of devotion to read it carefully (and always excruciatingly slowly) character by character.
Serendipitously (or not), the main temple at Chuang Yen houses the largest Buddha statue in the U.S.. And it is Vairocana Buddha, the Buddha of the Hua Yan Jing. So, I could go and sit in the magnificent Buddha hall and gaze at the Buddha of my beloved sutra.
But the sutra was not finished with me yet. After leaving Buddhism, I entered the path of the Diamond Approach. One day, while listening to a teaching by one of the school's founders, Hameed Ali (aka A. H. Almaas), I heard him mention the Hua Yan sutra. I nearly fell out of my chair! It's very uncommon for anyone outside of Buddhism to know anything about the sutra, especially anything about its inner meaning. Hearing Hameed describe it, and relate it to the Diamond Approach path, I knew viscerally that I was exactly where I needed to be.
So, long story short, my choice of desert island reading is pretty obvious, no? What would yours be? And what's the story behind it? I'd love to know!
* This is my favorite translation, despite its flaws and errors. First, Thomas Cleary was an accomplished translator. Secondly, he was not a Buddhist, so there is no soteriological motive lurking behind his translation. And finally, the book itself is beautifully produced, a pleasure to hold and read.
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