In Search of the Bodhisattva Way: The Child Sudhana’s Journey to Enlightenment from the Avatamsaka Sūtra (2026) is a translation by Joseph Britton, Yoshiro Ogura, and Eri Suzuki Tomita of Dr. Kosei Morimoto’s condensation of the Gandavyuha or “Entry into the Dharma Realm” text, itself a significant portion of the Avatamsaka Sutra. Born in 1934, Morimoto is one of Shambhala’s oldest and most venerable contributors, having served as Todai-ji’s abbot and head of the Kegon school (Japanese Avatamsaka) from 2004–07. Intriguingly, he has a doctorate in Islamic Studies from Kyoto University and has authored books on Islamic history, economics, and Ibn Khaldun, aside from his writing on the Nara period and the Avatamsaka Sutra.
Edited by Susan O’Leary, with contributions from O’Leary herself and Kazuaki Tanahashi, In Search of the Bodhisattva Way is presented as an English translation (that came about over several decades with the help of several hands) of Morimoto’s work, which itself was a condensation of Yuichi Kajiyama’s Japanese translation of the Sanskrit text of the Gandavyuha. This journey is already less winding than it could have been, with Kajiyama’s foundational Japanese translation having bypassed earlier Japanese and Chinese versions.
The introduction pays considerable attention to explaining the complex origins, theology, and imagery of the Avatamsaka. While all these aspects are critical to a solid understanding of the Gandavyuha’s background, of greater relevance is the specific story of the Gandavyuha, which tells the story of Sudhana. He is a young pilgrim who is sent to learn the Dharma from 53 spiritual friends (kalyana-mitra) of all backgrounds and powers, and eventually attains enlightenment as a bodhisattva. The introduction contains a fascinating and inspiring overview of a three-hour ritual still held at Todai-ji, which is called “Dedication to the Wondrous Friends” and is a memorial service honoring these kalyana-mitra, emblematic of Todai-ji’s role as the seat of the Kegon-kyo.
Morimoto’s condensation of Yuichi Kajiyama’s Japanese translation (from 920 pages to 136) was made in the spirit of simplifying what could feel, in his words, to be a “scattered” narrative in which the reader loses the essence of the story. In Search of the Bodhisattva Way is therefore an edited polishing that reveals the true radiance of the myth of Sudhana.
Some might define a myth as a true story that never happened, but offers important lessons to civilization or human consciousness: the story of Trojan Horse, the love affair of Lancelot and Guinevere, or the adventures of King Gesar. This is an attractive framing, but the “never happened” also seems unfair to the great myths of world history, because only strict fiction can be said to have “never happened.” And even then, we’re only talking about this material world that we perceive to be conventionally true, one which we have no choice but to provisionally accept to be able to function in our “thrown-ness” (geworfenheit).
Rather, in the context of mythic time, one could say that the story of Sudhana, and other works like that of Homer’s epic poems or other foundational texts like the Epic of Gilgamesh or Journey to the West are eternally recurring events with specific beats and motifs. The unusual character roster of the Gandavyuha embodies this mix of people detached from time (secular practitioners, monastics, and deities) and those recognizable to any Buddhist, including Mahhamaya and Gopa (or the Buddha’s wife, commonly known as Yasodhara). The anonymous compiler of the Gandavyuha seemed convinced that learning from this succession of 53 teachers was necessary for Sudhana to acquire the knowledge and meditative methods required for liberation, while also giving readers a glimpse into the mystical insight that touches the universe beyond time and space.
Morimoto’s condensation is divided into 55 chapters and a prologue. The chapters, true to his intention, are much snappier and to the point without losing the majesty and almost dizzyingly lavish discourse by the narrator, and the speech of the wondrous friends. Let’s revisit the dialogue of one of the more famous figures, Gopa the aforementioned wife of the Buddha, who confirms to Sudhana her cosmic powers of time travel and the comprehensive, inter-dimensional divine eye.
Sudhana, I have attained a bodhisattva’s liberation, Observation of the Ocean of Concentration of all Bodhisattvas. With this power, I travel to any age in the world, and I know the births and deaths of all living beings under all conditions—their growth and achievements and the results of their good and bad deeds. I know buddhas appear in all ages, in uncountable worlds with the cycles of births, deaths, and rebirths. I know they aspire for all-encompassing wisdom, take sacred vows, serve the previous buddhas, fulfill the practice of bodhisattvas, enter the ocean of enlightenment, disseminate the sacred teachings, and perform miracles to save all sentient beings. (191)
Throughout each fabled encounter, Morimoto retains the cosmic, breathtaking language deployed in the original while slimming down its repetitive, monastic-recitation elements. In his afterword, he observes that Sudhana reaches his destination and is able to contemplate the samboghakaya of Samantabhadra—seeing uncountable buddha-lands with as many limitless buddhas in Samantabhadra’s very pore (and therefore being guided by the bodhisattva to enter all worlds and lead all beings to enlightenment). However, even when encountering Vairocana, the primordial buddha of the Avatamsaka and East Asian Mahayana and tantric Buddhism, the cosmic buddha simply radiates light without speaking. Some things are left unsaid. What’s the meaning behind Manjushri’s initial “hero’s call” to Sudhana? What’s the significance of Manjushri’s and Samantabhadra’s appearance at the end?
Morimoto’s excellent and intriguing historical analysis offers one final surprise: that the Greek, Roman-era text Periplus of the Erythraean Sea reveals a prosperous, almost idyllic community of multicultural Greek-Egyptian merchants trading with Indian counterparts along the west coast and southern part of India. This commercial flourishing and explosion of wealth, which was stimulated by trade in precious items like spices, medicinal herbs, cotton and silk, exotic animal parts, and much more, corresponded to the then-ruling Satavahana dynasty’s power and devotion to building monumental Buddhist iconographical masterpieces and monuments across South India.
Morimoto concludes that the compiler of the Gandavyuha would actually have been aware of the enormous wealth that the South Sea trade from the Roman Empire brought to the Indian subcontinent. Perhaps such tales directly inspired the Avatamsaka imagination of such lavish imagery on the Buddhist heavenly realms. Seeking to insert a religious tale into this new source of inspiration, “the compiler of the Gandavyuha entrusted himself to Manjushri and wrote the whole story in one go as a drama with the wealthy young seeker Sudhana as its hero. With the support of wealthy followers of Mahayana Buddhism, the compiler imagined various regions in Southeast Asia as future destinations for the child Sudhana to visit, and Borobudur’s monumental temple, the largest in all the Buddhist world, attests directly to this journey. (273–74)
I initially proposed that mythic time isn’t concerned with what happened or didn’t happen in our “unreal reality.” Even the meta-priorities of myth-making and myth-telling are never so simple; hence Morimoto’s conclusion that Sudhana’s journey continued in our very own space and time. The Gandavyuha and Avatamsaka consciously break down dualities; what happened or didn’t happen, where and when; those are all the wrong questions. Mythic time can only be ensured by leaving the narrative relatively open, with no definitive answer to how one becomes a bodhisattva. What is certain is that the path of learning is one of continuous exploration: free, playful, and unbounded by all limitations and dualities.
References
Morimoto, Kosei. 2026. In Search of the Bodhisattva Way: The Child Sudhana’s Journey to Enlightenment from the Avatamsaka Sūtra (Ed. Susan O’Leary; Trans. Joseph Britton, Yoshirō Ogura, and Eri Suzuki Tomita). Boulder, CO: Shambhala Publications.
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