America. In the summer of 1968, the Ven. Mater began a series of lectures on the great scriptures of the Mahayana, completing first the Surangama Sutra, then the Lotus Sutra, and finally the avatamsaka [Flower Adornment] Sutra in 1979, and he ontinued lecturing regularly until his gradual retirement in the late 1980's. These incomparable lectures were the first of their kind to be heard in any Western country.