Translating the Ineffable: Reflections on Bringing the Dharma to the West

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Reverend Heng Sure, an experienced translator and Buddhist teacher, will share his reflections on processes of translation.

Every encounter with the Buddha’s teachings is an encounter with translation. On a linguistic level, the Buddha’s teachings were translated from Sanskrit and other Indic languages into Chinese and Tibetan. On a cultural level, Buddhism has adapted to many cultures, including to American and European cultures in recent history. On an existential level, the ineffable experience of awakening has been put into words by the Buddha and other great teachers through the ages.

What does it mean for us as we study the Buddha’s teachings? Do we ever have access to the “real” teachings? And, how can we contribute to the work of bringing the Buddha’s teachings to the West?

About the speaker:

Reverend Heng Sure was ordained as a Buddhist monk in 1976. Early in his monastic life, he undertook an over six-hundred-mile pilgrimage from South Pasadena to Ukiah for world peace. During this entire journey, he bowed down to the ground every third step. In the two years it took to make the pilgrimage, he observed a practice of total silence. Rev. Heng Sure has an M.A. in Oriental Languages from UC Berkeley, and a Ph.D. from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. He serves as the Managing Director of the Berkeley Buddhist Monastery and teaches on the staff at the Institute for World Religions. He has been involved with many translation projects over the years, currently leading a group in (re)translating the Flower Adornment (Avatamsaka) Sutra.

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