Asian American / Asian Research Institute
The City University of New York
A travelogue of a geologist visiting the hand carved ancient Cave Shrines of Hindus and Buddhists near Aurangabad in the state of Maharashtra in India. These caves were accidentally discovered in early eighteenth century. Starting in Mumbai (Bombay) in Maharashtra state, we go through Aurangabad to the caves of Ajanta and then on to Ellora. … Read more
The Mahayana school of Buddhism in China often emphasized the role of altruism and disparaged self-salvation. Its sutras were considered to be the first sermons by the Buddha whose profound ideas were too difficult for the ordinary people to understand. To cater to their level, it was said that Buddha then delivered the Agama Sutra for the less intellectually endowed. For more than 1500 years after it was translated into Chinese, Agama Sutra has been ignored by Chinese Buddhists mainly because of this prejudice. More recently, Master Yin Shun has vastly expanded the research started by Lu Jing, and has written many volumes of texts to clarify the origins of Buddhism. This lecture will be based mostly on writings by him and his disciples.