*Namo samantabhadra. Namo all buddhas.* *Note*: If you're **not** in one of the [Lotus Underground](https://www.lotusunderground.com/) courses, please [give dana](https://www.lotusunderground.com/support-the-project) to MC Owens if you decide to listen. I ***highly*** recommend taking courses first, or contacting Michael Owens if you've found yourself here without context ### Technical: Make life easier - **Feel free to use the audio files organized and hosted publicly [here](https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/kokmp1rcvby3xhvepnodx/AOw_nvxsIFnHHgsmQkGvMCg?rlkey=yb5wycdq4c8pwsmqb1k399470&st=i6fs34kh&dl=0) if you don’t want to hassle with downloading from the webpage.** - **Get an audiobook listening app.** - I have an **iPhone** and use [this one](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/bookplayer/id1138219998) - If I had an **android** phone, I would try [this one](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ak.alizandro.smartaudiobookplayer&pcampaignid=web_share) - The main feature: pausing in the middle of a 4 hour audio file and coming back to finish later. ### Practical: Practicing the sutra - There are inexhaustibly immeasurably and inconceivably many ways to practice this sutra. Here are some notes on: - Reading/Listening - Reciting - Daily application #### Reading/Listening Read the sutra in a seated or standing position with a straight back. It’s helpful to use a bookstand of some sort so that it’s easy to keep a good posture. When reading, there are two modes: **receiving** and **studying**. - **Receiving:** let the sutra do its thing. This leads to all sorts of interesting appearances. The pattern is to just read even if you don’t know what the sutra is saying. You can “do vipashyana” aka insight practice on the experience as it happens. - **Studying**: It’s studying what the sutra is doing as it does it. Stopping and going back to earlier parts, cross referencing, memorizing etc. Listening is mostly the same as reading the sutra, but I would add driving, walking or lying down as positions. Going on a long walk while engaging with the sutra can be quite phenomenal. **Advanced listening practice**: after already having read a portion of the sutra, one may find listening while conducting normal life quite expansive. Listening while cleaning the house, washing dishes, etc. The challenge here to the practitioner is to notice if it's just background noise, or if it's penetrating appearance. #### Reciting In experience, this is incredibly different than reading silently or listening. Recite standing up, and taking it on in 45 minute sessions to start. A particular note on this is that the experience of reciting to a sangha/group of practitioners is pretty extremely amplified compared to reciting alone. Furthermore, there are parts that seem to “do more” when recited compared to others. Chapter 12 for example, when recited, leads to some pretty exciting experiences. When recited to a group live, I found it was utterly magical. There are other parts of the text which explicitly call out that a plurality of bodhisattvas speak in verse, I haven't played around with this yet, but that implies it should be recited by many people reading together. #### Application This section is not a recommendation, but more of an experimental practice log. After each session of listening, reading or reciting, I attempt to pull out one component that I turn to formal (often seated) practice and/or daily practice. In seated practice, I will take a particular concept presented in the sutra and apply it. I have found the attitude of application to be most important. Application begs for curiosity and an inquisitive nature. The most concrete and easiest example of application is taking the sutra as **pointing out instructions**. Take the following passage: One world system enters all, And all completely enter one; Their substances and characteristics remain as before, no different: Incomparable, immeasurable, they all pervade everywhere. *Cleary translation Chapter 5* If this verse is true, then it is discoverable in the matrix of experience. In seated practice, looking for the experience of *one world system entering all* is not the same as just listening, reading, or thinking about it. Even if I don't find it, the act of looking teaches me something. A more advanced form of application is to take a portion of the text and build a practice informed by it. A complex example is to take the Network of Locations concept and "go" to other places in the mandala in the imaginal: Enter samadhi in the nose faculty and come out in field of sound rather than scents. Enter samadhi in the body of a man and emerge from samadhi in Akshobya's buddhaland. The word "vow" shows up over 1000 times in this text. Writing out and iterating on your best approximation of the bodhisattva vow is a practice you might pull out of the concept. ### Shortcomings This exists to benefit all beings. It is for any who wish to enter the *mahavaipulya buddhavatamsaka sutra*. If it helps, it is because I have had good teachers along the way, who have urged and reminded me to surrender to the path again and again. May that good fortune bloom in your life and in the lives of all around you. If it confuses, it is because I am of limited intelligence, often confused and angry. I ask you humbly to tolerate any mistakes I surely have made.