Inside the Flower Garland Sutra: Huayan Buddhism and the Modern World

by Ben Connelly

Overview

A Soto Zen teacher explores the core teachings of the ancient Flower Garland school of Buddhism through an innovative and engaging narrative showing how to put these teachings into practice.

Huayan Buddhism arose in the sixth century in China rooted in the Mahayana Flower Garland Sutra. The teachings of Huayan and the sutra that inspired it had a profound influence on Chan and Zen. Huayan is relational, practical, and positive. Its emphasis on interdependence, celebration of the sensual world, and diversity of people and practices provides inspiration for what Thich Nhat Hanh called “engaged Buddhism”.

With Inside the Flower Garland Sutra Zen teacher Ben Connelly explains the significance of Huayan teachings for Buddhist practice. Each chapter is a commentary on one of the thirty lines of Uisang’s “Song of Dharma Nature”—a seminal Korean text that summarizes key aspects of Huayan thought—thus providing a broad overview of Huayan teachings and their practical implications for contemporary life, with a mix of testimonies from real-life situations and references to influential Buddhist texts.

Arising fifteen hundred years ago, Huayan has made a deep impact on East Asian Buddhism, and has much to offer during this era when many folks see ever-deepening divisions. Connelly explores how Huayan offers particular wisdom for those concerned about how to care for their own lives as they work to end harms such as ecological devastation, poverty, militarism, addiction, marginalization, and exploitation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781614298779
Publisher:	Wisdom Publications MA
Publication date:	07/15/2025
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.50(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Ben Connelly is a Soto Zen teacher and Dharma heir in the Katagiri lineage. He also teaches mindfulness in a wide variety of secular contexts, including police and corporate training, correctional facilities, and addiction-recovery and wellness groups. Ben is based at Minnesota Zen Meditation Center and travels to teach across the United States. He’s the author of Inside the Grass Hut: Living Shitou’s Classic Zen Poem, Inside Vasubandhu’s Yogacara: A Practitioner’s Guide, and Mindfulness and Intimacy.

Editorial Reviews

Each chapter reflects the author's curiosity, delight, and unfolding personal spiritual insights that arise as he immerses himself in the dazzling abundance of Huayan Buddhism.

Mushim Patricia Ikeda

Ben Connelly’s Inside the Flower Garland Sutra is a significant landmark in the development of Western Buddhist practice. I am deeply grateful to him for this excellent book, so supportive as we face a time of challenge.

Taigen Dan Leighton

In this jewel of a book, Ben Connelly does what he knows how to do so well—he shows me that my own twenty-first-century life and a seventh-century Buddhist text can talk to each other. Whether you are a scholar of Buddhism or someone who has just begun to meditate, this book will encourage you.

Susan Moon

Ben Connelly reaffirms the invitation for us, offering a set of pointers that can open us to a view of that glorious world of enlightenment depicted in the Flower Garland Sutra, taking a set of verses of thirty lines composed by Uisang, a seventh-century Korean monk, as guideposts in the adventure.

Ruben L. F. Habito

Ben Connelly’s contemporary commentary on thirty verses of a Huayan classic skillfully evokes awe with the interconnectedness of everything in magical display, illuminating this very moment.

Judith Simmer-Brown