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Enlightenment Available in Upstate New York

by Iva Skoch on Jul 31st 2007 at 4:06PM

During a recent trip up the Hudson river (Carmel, NY to be precise,) friends took me to The Chuang Yen Monastery, home of the largest indoor Buddha statue in the Western hemisphere. I must say the complex of buildings is quite impressive, especially the one that houses the 37-foot tall Buddha Vairocana and 10,000 small Buddha statues. The hall can accommodate 2,000 people.

For those advanced in Buddhism, this is what they say about him: "Vairocana is regarded as the highest form, a god of light whose reflection throughout the universe is represented as endless. His wisdom is the Wisdom of the Dharmadhatu. The Dharmadhatu is the Realm of Truth is which all things exist as they really are. Vairocana's wisdom is also referred to as the All-Pervading Wisdom of the Dharmakaya, the absolute Buddha nature."

There you have it. Almost as mind-boggling as Heidegger.

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