#Thomas Cleary

[loneberry]

From “The Flower Bank World” in the Avatamsaka Sutra

The Buddhist Painting of Songgwansa Temple, Suncheon, South Korea (Illustration of Avatamsaka Sutra)

“Then Universally Good also said to the assembly, ‘In the land masses of this ocean of worlds are seas of fragrant waters, as numerous as atoms in unspeakably many buddha-fields. All beautiful jewels adorn the floors of those seas; gems of exquisite fragrances adorn their shores. They are meshed with luminous diamonds. Their fragrant waters shine with the colors of all jewels. Flowers of all kinds of gems swirl on their surfaces. Sandalwood powder settles on the bottom of the seas. They emanate the sounds of Buddhas’ speech. They radiate jewellike light. Boundless enlightening beings, holding various canopies, manifest mystic powers causing the adornments of all worlds to appear therein. Stairways of ten kinds of precious substances are set out in rows, with balustrades of ten kinds of jewels surrounding them. White lotuses ornamented with jewels, as many as atoms in four continents, are spread over the waters, in full bloom. There are unspeakable hundreds of thousands of billions of trillions of banners of ten precious elements, banners of belled gauze of raiments of all jewels, as many as sand grains in the Ganges river, jewel flower palaces of boundless forms, as many as sand grains in the Ganges river, a hundred thousand billion trillion lotus castles of ten precious substances, forests of jewel trees as many as atoms in four continents, networks of flaming jewels, as many sandalwood perfumes as grains of sand in the Ganges, and jewels of blazing radiance emitting the sounds of Buddhas’ speech…”

--From book five “The Flower Bank World” in the The Flower Ornament Scripture (Buddhāvataṃsaka Sūtra), translated from Chinese by Thomas Cleary. The various sutras were originally composed in Sanskrit and compiled and translated into Chinese in the 5th century CE. Thomas Cleary’s English translation is based on the Chinese translation done by the Khotanese monk Shikshananda (652-710 CE), who translated it at the request of the Tang Empress. 

I stumbled upon this sutra in the back of a book that included a ‘glossary of buddhist terms’ while at a Zen meditation retreat. Flower cosmology? That sounds like my shit. Since I didn’t have my phone I wrote the name down on a piece of paper and slipped it into my backpack. It really is as incredible as I imagined it to be.

“Alan Fox has described the sutra's worldview as ‘fractal’, ‘holographic’, and ‘psychedelic’”—yes.

“In the Huayan school, the teaching of interpenetration is depicted through various metaphors, such as Indra's net, a teaching which may have been influenced by the Gandhavyuha chapter's climax scene in Vairocana's Tower. Indra's net is an infinite cosmic net that contains a multifaceted jewel at each vertex, with each jewel being reflected in all of the other jewels, ad infinitum. Thus, each jewel contains the entire net of jewels reflected within.”

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

* * * *

“If people can be open-minded and magnanimous, be receptive to all, take pity on the old and the poor, assist those in peril and rescue those in trouble, give of themselves without seeking reward, never bear grudges, look upon others and self impartially, and realize all as one, then people can be companions of heaven. If people can be flexible and yielding, humble, with self-control, entirely free of agitation, cleared of all volatility, not angered by criticism, ignoring insult, docilely accepting all hardships, illnesses, and natural disasters, utterly without anxiety or resentment when faced with danger or adversity, then people can be companions of earth.” Awakening to the Tao by Liu I-ming (1734–1821) Translated by Thomas Cleary

[alive on all channels]

[uwmspeccoll]

Decorative Sunday

Published in Boston by Shambhala Publications in 2000, The Buddha Scroll is a twenty-first century facsimile of an eighteenth-century reproduction of a twelfth-century work. This accordion-fold book folds out to replicate the 36-foot Qing dynasty scroll, painted by Ding Guanpeng ( 丁觀鵬) in 1767. Ding Guanpeng was commissioned by Emperor Gaozong of Qing to reproduce the Pictorial of Buddhist Icons, completed in 1180 by Zhang Shengwen of the Kingdom of Dali (present day Yunnan Province) after the original work was found water damaged and mismounted.

The Kingdom of Dali and it’s predecessor Nanzhao were situated between Tibet and China and encompassed many ethnic and linguistic groups. Translator Thomas Cleary, who contributed an introduction to the scroll as well as a key to the figures found in the scroll, writes that the depictions in the scroll “reflect the syncretic cultural background of its original model, representing a whole range of Buddhism … it is an unusually eclectic work of art, illustrating the continuity of the many currents that form the great ocean of Buddhism.”

The Buddha Scroll was a gift of Dick Schoen. 

Find more Decorative Sunday posts here. 

-Olivia, Special Collections Graduate Intern

[stairnaheireann]

#OTD in 1939 – In one of the more intriguing episodes of World War II, German U-Boat 35 under the command of Kapitan Werner Lott disembarked 28 men at Dingle, Co Kerry from the Greek cargo ship Diamantis.

About 15.40 hours on 3 Oct, 1939, the Diamantis was torpedoed by U-35 and sank 40 miles west of the Scilly Islands. Because the lifeboats were not suited for use in the bad weather, Lott decided to take all crew members aboard and landed them the next day at Dingle, Co Kerry. On a stormy evening in October 1939 the realities of World War II reached the shores of the Dingle Peninsula. A crowd of…

[dandanjean]

Shōsan-Dōgen et autres

Lorsque les gens oublient qu’ils sont appelés à mourir, et agissent comme s’ils croyaient vivre éternellement, ils se montrent incapables d’apprécier les mois et les années qui passent. Regardez-les donc! Leurs seules raisons d’être? Cupidité, colère et mensonge! Ils confondent bonté et flatterie, sens de l’honneur et cajoleries. Qu’il s’agisse de la société ou de leur propre famille, ils…

[bodyalive]

* * * *

Externally, if you forget fame and profit, your body will be at peace. Inwardly, if you forget cogitation and rumination, your mind will be at peace.

— Anonymous Taoist (late Qing dynasty (1644-1911), Secret Records of Understanding the Way, :: Thomas Cleary translated and edited, Taoist Meditation: Methods for Cultivating a Healthy Mind and Body. (via modernshxmxn)

[alive on all channels]

Untitled, Christine Brache 2017 //  Portrait of a Woman (Detail), Nicolas de Largillière 1696 //  {Cero Umano}, Gorche 2013 //  Apollo et Daphne (Detail), Rene-Antoine Houasse1677

[dicerollai]

The Secret of the Golden Flower (Thomas Cleary) Pg. 125 Paragraphs 1-3

" There are times of interaction and noninteraction of real knowledge and conscious knowledge as long as their union has not been stabilized.

A poem entitled "Combining Yin and Yang" in The Book of Balance and Harmony says, "To reach the Tao is basically not above and below, always rise and descend, the ubiquitous flow of vital sense naturally returns of itself. At the peak of awareness, reality becomes accessible to consciousness; in recondite abstraction, nondoing joins with doing. When the clouds recede and the rain disperses, the spiritual embryo is complete; the creative principle comes into play, producing a new birth."

Definitions of process and cycle are matters of method; at this point the means are transcended and there is no conscious fixation on expedient distinctions. According to Buddhist metaphor, this is like "leaving the raft behind on reaching the other shore." "

[transthadymacdermot]

Girls when they plot to overthrow the British government

[journeytothewest-daily]

Further reading: Introductory texts to Buddhism, Taoism, The Tang Dynasty (when the story is set) and the Ming Dynasty (when it was written)

All available on the Internet Archive.

Buddhism

Old Path White Clouds by Thich Nhat Hahn

Stepping into Freedom: An Introduction to Buddhist Monastic Training by Thich Nhat Hahn

The Other Shore: A New Translation of the Heart Sutra by Thich Nhat Hahn

Elaborations on emptiness : uses of the Heart Sūtra by Donald Lopez

Classics of Buddhism and Zen : the collected translations of Thomas Cleary

Youtube channel with teachings I love: Longchenpa, Zen/Chan Buddhism, Mahayana Buddhism.

Daoism

The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff

Tao Te Ching translated by Jonathan Star

What is Tao? by Alan Watts

The Zhuangzi

A video from a channel I really like

Tang Dynasty

China's Golden Age: Everyday life in the Tang Dynasty by Charles Benn

Women of the Tang Dynasty by May Holdsworth

Ming Dynasty

The Glory and Fall of the Ming Dynasty by Albert Chan

A Tale of Two Melons: Emperor and Subject in Ming China by Sarah Scheewind

The Eunuchs in the Ming Dynasty by Shih Shan Henry Tsai

A Brief History of Chinese Fition by Lu Hsun

Enjoy the read.

[radical-revolution]

When flowing water...meets with obstacles on its path, a blockage in its journey, it pauses. It increases in volume and strength, filling up in front of the obstacle and eventually spilling past it...

Do not turn and run, for there is nowhere worthwhile for you to go. Do not attempt to push ahead into the danger... emulate the example of the water: Pause and build up your strength until the obstacle no longer represents a blockage.

— Thomas F. Cleary, I Ching: The Book of Change

[disenchanteds]

thanks for tagging @closetoyou-pdf and @wineonmytshirt <3

last song: push go by poppy

favourite colour: purple

last book: reading the art of war by sun tzu translated by thomas cleary

last tv show: watching lost and a chinese drama called the double with ky family

last movie: everything everywhere all at once

sweet/savoury/spicy: generally savoury -> spicy -> sweet

last thing I googled: nodding emoji

relationship status: single

current obsession: mcr and bandom in general, sabrina carpenter, hermitcraft lore, all for the game and taylor swift still lurking though

looking forward to: uhhh idk making more gifs I guess? also my exam results in january I don't want to wait anymore

npt: @chappellrroan @mainepdf @gambitandrogues @tolerateit @katesprydes

[dinaive]

The essential Koran : The Opening Translated and presented by Cleary, Thomas F.

[nepentheisms]

Trimax Volume 8 has one of my favorite Vash quotes in it.

"Only the victims of violence can truly describe its essence."

Really, this whole exchange with Knives that happens in the first chapter of this volume sounds very Buddhist in its language. I'll do my best to parse out some of the concepts I think are at play here, but I should make it clear that I do not have as extensive a personal history with Buddhism as I do with Christianity. I was raised Christian growing up, but my experience as a Chinese-American kid with immigrant parents meant a lot of early childhood exposure to works of fiction with Buddhist themes (think Journey to the West). Also, because we lived in an area with a sizeable population of east and southeast asian immigrants, I developed a surface level familiarity with Buddhist iconography and terminology thanks to friends who were raised Buddhist and regular encounters with Buddhist artwork in local businesses. The rest of my knowledge comes from informal self-study. If anyone out there has more relevant experience in this field, feel free to correct me if I get anything wrong.

Here we go: LONG POST AHEAD

What first caught my attention was Knives' word choice - "I was enlightened." I'm curious what word in the Japanese text was translated as "enlightened" here. A lot of foundational Buddhist literature was written in Sanskrit, and the Sanskrit word that is often translated into English as "enlightenment" is bodhi. This word carries connotations of waking up and coming into awareness and knowledge. In Japanese, the words I've seen for this concept are satori and kenshō.

According to Thomas Cleary, who translated many pieces of Zen Buddhist literature throughout his career, kenshō is the "Zen insight into the essence of one's own being," and satori is "complete kenshō" (1) . Kenshō is written using the Chinese characters 見 (jiàn) which means "see" and 性 (xìng) which means "nature" or "character." This is of particular interest for the above panels, because Knives is saying his pain "revealed [his] true self," and he wants humans to likewise look within to confront the reality of what they are.

Now, at this point in the story, it's pretty clear that Knives' ideas about both who he is and the nature of humanity as a whole are flawed. He's insisting that he has attained enlightenment - some transcendent insight into reality - but from a Buddhist perspective, he's very far off the mark because his mindset was skewed from the start. In fact, Vash gives a keen diagnosis of how Knives is going wrong when he says "We've suffered, but you bottled it up, keeping yourself from feeling the pain and never finding the true source of it." Vash's point is that after obtaining the knowledge of humanity's capacity for evil, Knives only sought to avoid further pain at all cost instead of seeking a deeper understanding of how he's been hurt. The conclusion Knives drew was "the fundamental nature of humans is that they are a threat to me, and they are my inferiors. If they cause pain to me, it is because of their inherent evil, and the only way I can eliminate the potential for suffering is by killing them all." But contrary to Knives' perspective, the path out of suffering in the enlightened Buddhist perspective isn't through forcibly imposing your will on the rest of world until you've destroyed everything that could hurt you.

Instead, Buddhism considers dukkha (suffering) the first of the Four Noble Truths and emphasizes that we should accept the reality that as finite beings in a world constantly in flux, unpleasant emotions and experiences will always find us. There always will be elements outside of our control, but we don't have to allow the hurt they cause to create persistent negative states of being. What we need to do is to not run away from suffering but to understand the cause of it (find "the true source of it" as Vash says) and develop an awareness of how it arises within us - this is the second Noble Truth, called samudhaya. In Buddhism, the origin of suffering is linked to desire and attachment, and Buddhist philosophy posits that by following the fourth Noble Truth, known as the Noble Eightfold Path, the practitioner can experience the third Noble Truth, nirodha (cessation of the desires giving rise to suffering).

With the way Knives currently is, this cessation is something that'll be out of reach for him even if he succeeds in his goals, because he hasn't reckoned with the fear and need for control that is motivating him. He can't complete the path to enlightenment, because his view of the path is obscured by self-delusion. Knives constantly acts as though his goals and feelings are the only ones that matter, but suppose he does realize his vision and kill every human being on the planet. What then? Isn't he effectively alone since there is no one else around that he considers his equal? And where does all the hate that he has purposely cultivated for over a century go? It's doubtful that he'd be able to let go of his attachment to such emotions so easily.

(1): The Thomas Cleary book I'm referencing is Kensho: The Heart of Zen

[dandanjean]

Livre-devenir

Les confucéens privilégient la maîtrise de soi et le retour à la justesse, les bouddhistes mettent l’accent sur la réduction des dix mille phénomènes en pure vacuité, et les taoïstes considèrent comme chose essentielle l’affinement fondateur du moi. Les sages de ces trois religions centrent leur enseignement sur l’affranchissement de la colère et de la cupidité. * “La distance qui sépare les…

[transsexualhamlet]

i think i hauve covid

[Zvorr on deviantart, Effects of Lightning Strikes on the Human Body (recolored), Jose Gabriel Alegria Sabogal

Jen Mazza, Natalie Schultheiss, Tracery by Timothy Cleary (recolored)

Takato Yamamoto, adapto on tumblr, The Incredulity of St. Thomas]

[glowing-disciple]

Reading List - 2025

Currently Reading:

Adventures in Cryptozoology Vol. 1 by Richard Freeman

Digital Logic and State Machine Design by David J. Comer

Books Read:

Gods and Myths of Ancient Egypt by Robert A. Armour

Leonard McCoy: Frontier Doctor

Future Reading:

All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren

Always Running by Luis J. Rodriguez

Ancient Mysteries, Modern Visions by Philip S. Callahan

Anne of Green Bagels by Susan Schade and Jon Buller

Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery

The Anti-Mary Exposed by Carrie Gress

The Arm of the Starfish by Madeleine L'Engle

The Art Nouveau Style by Stephan Tschudi Madsen

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

Beezus and Ramona by Beverly Clearly

Black Beauty by Anna Sewell

The Blade Itself by Joe Ambercrombie

The Book of Dragons by Edith Nesbit

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

The Call of the Wild by Jack London

Carmilla by Josphen Sheridan Le Fanu

The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger

Champions of the Rosary by Donald H. Calloway

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

The Complete Works of H. P. Lovecraft

Cranfod by Elizabeth Gaskell

Cubism by Guillaume Apollinaire

Dancing with Siva by Sivaya Subramuniyaswami

Dark Journey Deep Grace by Roy Ratcliff

Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

The Dialogue of St Catherine of Siena by St. Catherine

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett

Evolution by Nowell Stebbing

Expressionism by Ashley Bassie

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods by Hal Johnson

Found in a Bookshop by Stephanie Butland

Frankenstein by Mary Shelly

Freaks on the Fells by R. M. Ballantyne

Freckles by Gene Stratton-Porter

Fundamentals of Character Design by Various Authors

A Girl of the Limberlost by Gene Stratton-Porter

Good Hunting by Theodore Roosevelt

Graceling by Kristin Cashore

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The History of Don Quixote de la Mancha by Miquel de Cervantes Saavedra

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

Humorous Ghost Stories by Various Authors

I, Robot by Isaac Asimov

Illuminated Manuscripts by Tamara Woronowa

The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis

The Intellectual Life: Its Spirit, Conditions, Methods by Fr. A. G. Sertillanges

The Island of Doctor Moreau by H. G. Wells

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

The Javelin Program by Derin Edala

Joan Miro by Joan Miro

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

The Life of St Catherine of Siena by Blessed Raymond of Capua

Light of the Western Stars by Zane Grey

Living by the Sword by Eric Demski

The Longest Cocktail Party by Richard DiLello

Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell

Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis

Middlemarch by George Eliot

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

North and South by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

Orlando by Virginia Woolf

Otis Spofford by Beverly Clearly

Pat of Silver Bush by L. M. Montgomery

Peter and Wendy by J. M. Barrie

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

Return of the Thief by Megan Turner

The Secret of the Rosary by St. Louis de Montfort

The Shining by Stephen King

Show Me God by Fred Heeren

The Silmarillion by J R R Tolkien

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

Strange Love by Ann Aguirre

The Story of a Soul by St. Therese of Liseux

The River by Gary Paulsen

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte

Things My Son Needs to Know About the World by Fredrik Backman

The Third Man Factor by John Geiger

Till We Have Faces by C. S. Lewis

The Time Machine by H. G. Wells

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

Villette by Charlotte Bronte

Walking Practice by Dolki Min

The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells

We Are Where the Nightmares Go and Other Stories by C. Robert Cargill

The Weiser Field Guide to Cryptozoology by Deena West Budd

The White Mountains by John Christopher

Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers

Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell