Saturday 31 October 7pm – Sunday 1 November 11am

    The Buddha has preached the rare Law

    Never heard by us before.

As the first event in the Centre’s new fundraising campaign, Dharmavadana will be reading the entire White Lotus Sutra aloud, live, overnight on Hallowe’en.

Please sponsor Dharmavanda generously!

Dharmavadana says: ‘The White Lotus Sutra, with its wonderful stories and powerful poetry, is one of my favourite sutras. Dating from between the first and second centuries CE, it is one of the most revered of all Mahayana sutras and is believed by many to reveal a higher teaching of the Buddha, for which the Pali suttas were only a preparation. I thought as an opener for the West London Centre’s fundraising campaign, it would be appropriate to undertake a sponsored reading of this treasure among sutras, live from the Centre’s library. I’ll be reading the whole sutra, from the translation in The Threefold Lotus Sutra by Kato, Tamura, Miyasaka with revisions by Soothill, Schiffer and Campana (Kosei, Tokyo 1975). 

‘I estimate that the reading itself will take twelve hours. With breaks – which I will definitely need! – the event will go on for sixteen hours. To watch and hear me at any time during the night, sponsor me and click on the link which will appear on this page twenty-four hours before the start of the reading. You can dip in and out overnight, at any time, and watch as little or much as you like. Check on the programme below and with luck you should be able to tune in for any of your favourite chapters or stories – and you’ll see when not to tune in because I’ll be resting!

Sponsor the event and feel free to leave us a message. You can sponsor any way you wish: £1 (or any other amount) per chapter, an amount per hour or minute, a lump sum for a favourite part of the sutra – or just a lump sum! Just tell us in your message what you’re doing. Messages of encouragement are welcome too – I’ll see them before and after my reading.

‘All proceeds go towards the running costs of the West London Buddhist Centre, which despite cut-backs is in need of funds in order to continue doing its work.’

Dharmavadana has helped, taught at or otherwise supported the WLBC for thirty years. He was Ordained in 2005 and now regularly teaches at the Centre’s outreach group for Ealing and runs a monthly poetry appreciation group. He also co-leads ‘Wolf at the Door’ Buddhist-inspired creative writing workshops and is poetry editor of the Triratna arts magazine Urthona.

Schedule:

Please note in addition to listed breaks, Dharmavadana will be taking a ten-minute break after reading every two chapters.

7.00 pm - Intro, Refuges & Start: Chapters 1-7

1 Introductory

2 Tactfulness

3 A Parable

4 Faith Discernment

5 The Parable of the Herbs

6 Prediction

7 The Parable of the Magic City

10.30 pm - Half Hour Break 

11.00 pm - Chapters 8-14

8 The Five Hundred Disciples Receive the Prediction of Their Destiny

9 The Prediction of the Destiny of Arhats, Training and Trained

10 A Teacher of the Law

11 Beholding the Precious Stupa

12 Devadatta

13 Exhortation to Hold Firm

14 A Happy Life

2.30 am - Half Hour Break

3.00 am - Chapters 15-21

15 Springing Up out of the Earth

16 Revelation of the Eternal Life of the Tathagata

17 Discrimination of Merits

18 The Merits of Joyful Acceptance

19 The Merits of the Preacher

20 The Bodhisattva Never Despise

21 The Divine Power of the Tathagata

6.30 am – One-hour Break - Breakfast!

7.30 am - Chapters 22-28

22 The Final Commission

23 The Story of the Bodhisattva Medicine King

24 The Bodhisattva Wonder Sound

25 The All-Sidedness of the Bodhisattva Regarder of the Cries of the World

26 Dharanis

27 The Story of King Resplendent

28 Encouragement of the Bodhisattva Universal Virtue

11.00 am - Finish; Closing Ceremony - Transference of Merits