I BEGAN FORMAL Buddhist practice in 1969, studying at Antaiji, a tiny Soto Zen temple in what was, at the time, the northern edge of Kyoto, Japan. Kosho Uchiyama Roshi (1912–1998) taught shikantaza, “only mind your sitting,” yet in his public lectures he praised Kanzeon Bosatsu, Guan Yin Bodhisattva, the Awakened Being of Great Compassion; Jizo Bosatsu, Earth Treasury Bodhisattva, the Awakened Being of Great Vows; Munjo (Manjushri) Bosatsu and Fugen (Samantabhadra) Bosatsu, identified with Great Wisdom and Great Practices, respectively. His presentation of Zen was embedded in the larger framework of the Mahayana teachings, replete with admiration for the four great “celestial bodhisattvas” of the Mahayana.
Uchiyama Roshi said that if Buddhism had a contribution to make to the twentieth-century world, it was going to come from the limitless hearts of the bodhisattvas, who cultivated the Way and dedicated their merit on behalf of all beings—humans, animals, ghosts, and gods alike.
Three years later, when I made my way across the Bay from Berkeley to Gold Mountain Monastery in San Francisco’s Mission District, I immersed myself in the full banquet of traditional Chinese Mahayana practices: Chan meditation, Pure Land recitation, mantra practices, monastic Vinaya observances, and the study of the Buddha’s words in the Mahayana sutras.
Tripitaka Master Hsuan Hua (1918–1995) gave line-by-line exegesis of the big three sutras—the Avatamsaka or Flower Garland, the Lotus of the Wonderful Dharma, and the Shurangama Sutras—for ninety minutes every night. He was a reformer of the Tiantai School’s lecturing style; he explained directly from the sutra text, instead of the standard Asian style, which relies primarily on a written commentary on the original sutra itself. Master Hua wanted to “let the Buddha’s voice be heard in the West,” and he encouraged us to translate into English every word of his explanation, which he delivered in Mandarin Chinese.
“We want to see if the Buddha can speak English; further, since I don’t speak English, I want you young Americans to translate these sutras into all the major languages of the world,” he said. “Once people understand the magnanimous compassionate heart of the bodhisattvas, they won’t want to go to war any longer.”
Even with a schedule of eight weekly lectures, Master Hua required nine years to complete his explanation of the The describes the path of the bodhisattva in great detail, including the many practices that bodhisattvas use to teach sentient beings. Among those is one set of remarkable practices
