Today's Reading of the Avatamsaka Sutra: the Harmonious and Unobstructed World of Hua Zang

Some people may ask: In such an era of information explosion, fast pace, and full of all kinds of real-life anxieties, what significance does this ancient classic, which was born more than 2,000 years ago, still have for us? The answer is: The wisdom of the Avatamsaka Sutra is precisely the antidote and nutrition that is most urgently needed in our time. · As the ecological crisis becomes increasingly severe, we urgently need a worldview that can regard nature as a community of life that is connected to us by blood and shares weal and woe, rather than as an object that can be conquered and plundered at will. The idea of ​​"the origin of the Dharma Realm" in the Avatamsaka Sutra is the highest philosophical foundation of this ecological view. It tells us that harming the environment is harming ourselves; ennobling the world is engraving our own hearts. · When social divisions and conflicts of civilizations continue to occur, we urgently need a kind of wisdom that can transcend the "either-or" confrontational thinking and see the possibility of interdependence and mutual achievement between different individuals, different groups, and different cultures. The realm of "nothing is hindered" in the "Huayan Sutra" is the most profound interpretation of this ideal society of "harmony without difference" and "sharing beauty and beauty". · When individuals feel lost, lonely and meaningless in the fragmented life, we urgently need a perspective that can discover the sacred and solemn in the most ordinary things; in the most limited life, achieve infinity and eternity. "The Avatamsaka Sutra" tells us that one good thought can spread throughout the Dharma Realm; one good deed can decorate the land. Each of us is a jewel in Indra's web, unique and reflecting the light of the entire web. And our lives have irreplaceable value and dignity.