Seven Wonders of the Buddhist World (video)

(청암(靑巖), watch 1:14:03 version on Facebook) (영어자막) 불세계(佛世界)의 7대(七大) 불가사의(不可思議)

Seven Wonders of the Buddhist World

Staff (Lion's Roar, lionsroar.com, 10/13/11) edited by Wisdom Quarterly

Bettany Hughes at Hsi Lai Temple, Los Angeles

(BBC/PBS) British historian Bettany Hughes travels from India to Los Angeles in a newly aired BBC documentary, Seven Wonders of the Buddhist World.

Her travels begin in an ancient part of India, the land of the historical Buddha’s awakening and teaching [though he was born in adjacent Scythia/Sakaland, Gandhara now Afghanistan (ranajitpal.com), at Maha Bodhi ("Great Awakening") Temple. While there, the historian tells us about Buddhism's Three Jewels:

1. the Buddha (Teacher)
2. the Dharma (Teaching)
3. the Sangha (Taught).

Next, Hughes travels to Vajrayana Buddhist Boudhanath Stupa in Nepal, where she explores some of the Teachings of the Buddha, then on to Kandy, Sri Lanka, to the Temple of the Tooth, where she explores the Teachings on karma, a central tenet of the Buddha's Teachings, who in his day was known as a karmavadin, a "teacher of the efficacy of deeds."

In Theravada Buddhist Thailand, Hughes discusses samsara — the "endless cycle of rebirth and redeath" — while at Wat Pho Temple, before going to magnificent Angkor Wat in Cambodia and discussing Buddhist meditation.

Hsi Lai is the largest in western hemisphere.*

In Hong Kong, Hughes visits the Giant Buddha and discusses Zen Buddhism, before ultimately concluding her journey in the San Gabriel Valley, Los Angeles, at the Taiwanese Mahayana Buddhist Hsi Lai Temple, where she tries to understand more about the Buddha's teachings on nirvana. More

*Upstate New York's Chaung Yen Monastery (BAUS.org), where American Theravada Buddhist scholar-monk and translator Bhikkhu Bodhi teaches, may be as large or even larger, with its pond and rural setting in Carmel. Hughes would do well to visit it for her next installment.

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