Earth and Space News: Thich Nhat Hanh and Indra's Net at Van Hanh and Ajanta Cave 1

Summary: Indra's net allies Ajanta cave 1 wall paintings and sculptures in India with Van Hanh University of founder Thich Nhat Hanh in Vietnam and vice-versa.

Vạn Hạnh Zen Temple, built in 1990, occupies the site of Vạn Hạnh University's School of Applied Science, founded by Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh in 1964; 716 Nguyễn Kiệm Street, Ho Chi Minh City, southeastern Vietnam; 2011: Diane Selwyn, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Indra's net affects all beings, places, things and times and associates Ajanta cave 1 wall paintings and sculptures in India with Van Hanh Buddhist University of founder Thich Nhat Hanh in Vietnam.

Vedic hymns such as the 2,800-plus-year-old Atharvaveda (from Sanskrit अथर्ववेद, "[sage] Atharvan's [priestly] knowledge") bear biographies of Aryan deities brought into northwest India in 1700 BCE. Indra, guardian of the East and regulator of the atmosphere, king of the celestials and storm god, continued in Hindu mythology since he constructed our world. He developed our house-like world from four corner-posts and walls, two doors for entering and exiting the sun and one thatched roof from the overcast sky.

Indra enshrouded the entire world within his infinite net of infinite numbers of infinite connections to infinite numbers of jewels, each with infinite numbers of facets.

Thich Nhat Hanh, founder of Van Hanh Buddhist University at the former Saigon in Ho Chi Minh City, features Indra's net in a same-named journal article.

The journal Resurgence's Exposing Consciousness issue gauges that "In Indra's net, the one is present in the all, and the all is present in the one." Thich Nhat Hanh harvests interactive, interconnected Interbeing from Indra's net since the infinite connections, facets and jewels hold any one connection, facet and jewel and vice-versa. Interactive, interconnected Interbeing immerses 1,500-plus-year-old Ajanta cave 1 wall paintings and sculptures in Maharashtra state within initiation of Van Hanh Buddhist University in 1964 and vice-versa.

Twenty-first century, like fifth-century, visitors journey along pradakshina (from Sanskrit प्रदक्षिण, "to the right turning") aisles between Ajanta cave 1 wall paintings and 12 colonnaded pillars.

First-phase, 2,000- to 2,300-year-old and second-phase 1,300- to 1,600-year-old Ajanta chaitya (from Sanskrit चैत्य, "memorial monument") prayer-hall caves kept devotional, instructional, meditational aisles and rear-wall shrines.

First- and second-phase vihara (from Sanskrit विहार, "walking [hall]") monasteries look like dormitory cells linked around respectively little entry halls and large prayer-hall aisles and shrines. The 117.13- by 90.55-foot (35.7- by 27.6-meter) monastery cave 1 manifests Gautama Buddha (from Sanskrit गोतम, "brightness [dispels] darkness" and बुद्ध, "awakened") in his royal reincarnations. It notes his bodhisattva (from Sanskrit बोधिसत्त्व, "enlightened existence") reincarnations as Kings Champeyya, Mahajanaka, Mahaummagga, Sankhapala and Sibi and 550th as Siddhartha (from Sanskrit सिद्धार्थ, "successful").

Ajanta cave 1 observes Prince Siddhartha offering his Turning Wheel of Truth observations after overcoming Mara and that chief evil spirit's daughters Delight, Discontent and Thirst.

Ajanta cave 1 presents Prince Siddhartha persuading Sravasti townspeople, stepbrother Nanda and wife Yasodhara about the Buddhist Sangha (from Sanskrit संघ, "multitude") lay and monastic community.

Indra's net perhaps queues Ajanta cave 1 wall paintings and sculptures among artistic equivalents and encyclopedic predecessors of Van Hanh University of founder Thich Nhat Hanh. It perhaps relates area cultures and languages and Buddhist histories in Ajanta cave 1 wall paintings and sculptures to those in Van Hanh University and vice-versa. Satavahana Emperor Harishena (died 477?) sponsoring Ajanta cave 1 wall paintings and sculptures in strife-torn India suggests Thich Nhat Hanh founding Van Hanh in strife-torn Vietnam.

Indra's net of interactive, interconnected Interbeing transmits instructional Ajanta cave 1 wall paintings and sculptures through Van Hanh University of founder Thich Nhat Hanh and vice-versa.

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

scene from the Mahajanaka Jataka on north wall of Ajanta Cave 1; Ajanta Caves, Maharashtra, west-central India; Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2015, 07:20: Jean-Pierre Dalbéra, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ajanta_Cave_1_Mahajanaka_Jataka_mural_on_horse.jpg; Jean-Pierre Dalbéra (dalbera), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/dalbera/16166533204

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Earth and Space News

Friday, June 21, 2019

Thich Nhat Hanh and Indra's Net at Van Hanh and Ajanta Cave 1

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