The Avatamsaka Sutra

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Tariki

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I'm currently reading the Avatamsaka Sutra (also known as the Flower Ornament Scripture) It is a vast text, running to over 1500 pages. D T Suzuki speaks of it as follows........

(As) the consummation of Buddhist thought, Buddhist sentiment, and Buddhist experience...................here not only deeply speculative minds find satisfaction, but humble spirits and heavily oppressed hearts too, will have their burdens lightened...........abstract truths are so concretely, so symbolically represented here that one will finally come to the realization of the truth that even in a particle of dust the whole universe is seen reflected.....

As a "humble spirit" myself....:) .......I do indeed find many burdens lightened by reading and reflecting upon the words of this scripture. I relate it to the guidance of oya-sama, a Japanese word used to embrace the understanding of Amida, the Buddha of Infinite Compassion. "Oya-sama"........has no equivalent in English. It means either a father or a mother and also both of them as parents...............it has no gender. It is neither 'he' nor 'she'......It is the one whose heart is wholly occupied with looking after its own children's welfare. It is probably more motherly than fatherly in that it is not the mighty master or head of a family who reproves, chastens and punishes, but all-embracing love. (Kenryo Kanamatsu, from his book "Naturalness")

Getting back to the Avatamsaka Scripture, its opening chapter, of over 100 pages, extols the virtues, the ways and means, of how enlightenment has manifested itself to infinite numbers of Bodhisattva's. For a Pure Land Buddhist like myself, it speaks of the infinite ways that Amida comes to the human heart, as oya-sama. Drawn virtually at random, here is a small excerpt from the opening chapter.....

The Buddha's ocean of unexcelled virtues
Manifests a lamp which illumines the world:
Saving and protecting all sentient beings,
He gives them all peace, not leaving out one.

The Buddha's virtues are boundless -
No beings hear of them in vain -
He causes them to be free from suffering and always happy:

The powers of the Buddha are all complete -
His array of virtues appears in the world
And all sentient beings are harmonized.

The Buddha cultivated an ocean of compassion,
His heart always as broad as the whole world;
Therefore his spiritual powers are boundless.

Buddha always appears throughout the world;
None of his methods are employed in vain,
Clearing away beings' delusions and torments.

Buddha is the great ocean of knowledge in the world,
Emanating pure light which reaches everywhere,
Whence is born all great faith and resolution.

Buddha, observing the world, conceives kind compassion,
Appearing in order to aid sentient beings,
Showing them the supreme way of peace and joy.

Buddha, in all worlds,
Brings freedom from sorrow, creating great joy;
All potentials and aspirations he purifies.

The Buddha appears in the world,
Observes the inclinations of all beings,
And matures them by various means....

As the translator, Thomas Cleary, explains in the appendix, the "miracles of awareness and existence are 'miracles' of Buddha. They are constantly edifying in the sense that all things are always teaching. The miraculous transformation performed by the Buddha for the enlightenment of all is, from this perspective, the shifting of the mental outlook to experiencing everything as a learning situation"
 
Namaste Tariki,

thank you for the wonderful post and a sharing of the Sutra!

i enjoy Cleary's translations quite a bit.

metta,

~v
 
Vajradhara said:
Namaste Tariki,

i enjoy Cleary's translations quite a bit.

metta,

~v
Click to expand...

Vaj,

I think we owe a great debt of gratitude to those like Thomas Cleary and Bhikkhu Bodhi who must devote so much time to the translation of various Buddhist texts (Mahayana and Theravada) so that the likes of you and I are able to access them - not knowing the original lingo! (Well, possibly you do!) And to the early pioneers.......Rhys Davies, I.B. Horner, Edward Conze etc etc.

:)
 
Known as the King of all Sutras, the Avatamsaka or HuaYan in Chinese is the only Mahayana Sutra one needs. Complete translations into English (other than Cleary) are in progress. Mainly by BTTS started by late Master Hsuan Hua (d. 1995) and BDK publishers, where the lead translator is Bhikshu Heng Shou. BTTS is very slow and BDK is faster but it still may be two more years or so until they publish.

A traditional commentary was given by Master Hua over many years. This site shows the chapters with his comments that have been put online as of May 2020: http://www.cttbusa.org/fas1/fas_contents.asp

Here the chapters of the root text only that are available:
http://www.cttbusa.org/avatamsaka/avatamsaka_contents.asp

The print version in several volumes, with Master Hua's comments (in hardback) is available as Flower Adornment Sutra.
 
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Those with vast aspirations,
Vast motivation, and vows
Will reach the field of activity of the jinas
And attain vast enlightenment.

From chapter one of the Gaṇḍavyūha Sutra or as translated by 84000 Project The Stem Array.
 
Sutra:

Fire-ruling Spirit Light Illumining the Ten Directions gained a passage into liberation of refuting forever all foolish, attached views.

Commentary:

The next Fire-ruling Spirit is named Light Illumining the Ten Directions. As you can see, most of these Fire-ruling Spirits have light from fire. This particular Fire-ruling Spirit was named for having light that shines throughout the ten directions. She gained a passage into liberation of refuting forever all foolish, attached views. People who lack of wisdom, clarity, and light are foolish. Yet fools do not consider themselves foolish. Not knowing that they themselves are fools, they insist on the exact opposite and say that intelligent people are fools.

This is similar to the situation of a black crow landing on the back of a black pig and noticing the blackness of the pig, but not seeing its own blackness. Fools are the same way. They are fools precisely because they deny their own foolishness. Due to their foolishness, they have attachments that obstruct their understanding. Failing to understand situations, they become caught up in those situations. Rather than managing affairs, they are tied up by those affairs. With such attachments, they cannot achieve liberation, especially when they stubbornly cling to their own views. They insist that their own viewpoint is correct. An example of such intractable views can be found in our Way-place, where there are adults as well as children. When the children come here, they want to play. If the adults have a rigid outlook, they may claim that, because the children make so much noise here, their only recourse is not to attend the sutra lectures. They are so intransigent that they use the children as an excuse for not attending. Not only do they themselves not attend, they dissuade other people from attending. These are all instances of attachments to views. So long as people cling to such attached viewpoints, they cannot become enlightened. They cannot attain this passage to liberation. This Fire-ruling Spirit, however, could refute these types of foolish, attached views, and thus she did reach this passage into liberation.
 
A local So. Cal. Mahayana monk, Master YongHua, began teaching from the Avatamsaka corpus in 2020. Here is his first of many video lectures:

 
Tariki said:
I'm currently reading the Avatamsaka Sutra (also known as the Flower Ornament Scripture) It is a vast text, running to over 1500 pages. D T Suzuki speaks of it as follows........

(As) the consummation of Buddhist thought, Buddhist sentiment, and Buddhist experience...................here not only deeply speculative minds find satisfaction, but humble spirits and heavily oppressed hearts too, will have their burdens lightened...........abstract truths are so concretely, so symbolically represented here that one will finally come to the realization of the truth that even in a particle of dust the whole universe is seen reflected.....

As a "humble spirit" myself....:) .......I do indeed find many burdens lightened by reading and reflecting upon the words of this scripture. I relate it to the guidance of oya-sama, a Japanese word used to embrace the understanding of Amida, the Buddha of Infinite Compassion. "Oya-sama"........has no equivalent in English. It means either a father or a mother and also both of them as parents...............it has no gender. It is neither 'he' nor 'she'......It is the one whose heart is wholly occupied with looking after its own children's welfare. It is probably more motherly than fatherly in that it is not the mighty master or head of a family who reproves, chastens and punishes, but all-embracing love. (Kenryo Kanamatsu, from his book "Naturalness")

Getting back to the Avatamsaka Scripture, its opening chapter, of over 100 pages, extols the virtues, the ways and means, of how enlightenment has manifested itself to infinite numbers of Bodhisattva's. For a Pure Land Buddhist like myself, it speaks of the infinite ways that Amida comes to the human heart, as oya-sama. Drawn virtually at random, here is a small excerpt from the opening chapter.....

The Buddha's ocean of unexcelled virtues
Manifests a lamp which illumines the world:
Saving and protecting all sentient beings,
He gives them all peace, not leaving out one.

The Buddha's virtues are boundless -
No beings hear of them in vain -
He causes them to be free from suffering and always happy:

The powers of the Buddha are all complete -
His array of virtues appears in the world
And all sentient beings are harmonized.

The Buddha cultivated an ocean of compassion,
His heart always as broad as the whole world;
Therefore his spiritual powers are boundless.

Buddha always appears throughout the world;
None of his methods are employed in vain,
Clearing away beings' delusions and torments.

Buddha is the great ocean of knowledge in the world,
Emanating pure light which reaches everywhere,
Whence is born all great faith and resolution.

Buddha, observing the world, conceives kind compassion,
Appearing in order to aid sentient beings,
Showing them the supreme way of peace and joy.

Buddha, in all worlds,
Brings freedom from sorrow, creating great joy;
All potentials and aspirations he purifies.

The Buddha appears in the world,
Observes the inclinations of all beings,
And matures them by various means....

As the translator, Thomas Cleary, explains in the appendix, the "miracles of awareness and existence are 'miracles' of Buddha. They are constantly edifying in the sense that all things are always teaching. The miraculous transformation performed by the Buddha for the enlightenment of all is, from this perspective, the shifting of the mental outlook to experiencing everything as a learning situation"
Click to expand...

Fascinating. I am not very well versed in Mahayana Buddhism. Only recently I learned a bit from a few kindhearted people who taught me.

Thank you for this thread.
 
From Bhikshu Dharmamitra's Introduction:

Translator’s Introduction

As the latest in my series of translations of bodhisattva path texts
important in the history of Classic Indian and Chinese Mahāyāna
Buddhism, I present here my annotated English translation of the
eighty-fascicle edition of the “Great Expansive Buddha’s Flower
Adornment Sutra” (大方廣佛華嚴經) together with my “Commentarial
Synopsis of the Flower Adornment Sutra” [in volume Three] which condenses the narrative
story line and most important ideas of this entire sutra into less
than one hundred and fifty pages.
 
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Nicholas Weeks said:
Those with vast aspirations,
Vast motivation, and vows
Will reach the field of activity of the jinas
And attain vast enlightenment.

From chapter one of the Gaṇḍavyūha Sutra or as translated by 84000 Project The Stem Array.
Click to expand...
what exactly did the Buddha mean by vast aspiration and vast motivation ?
 
From the new Kalavinka Press Preface to all chapters:

The Flower Adornment Sutra’s description of the cosmos as consisting of
infinitely many quantumly entangled interpenetrating worlds populated
by countless buddhas, bodhisattvas, and other beings playing out a grand
scenario of karma and Dharma in all the realms of rebirth is so vast, so
multi-leveled, so intricate, and so marvelous that it is nearly impossible for
anyone to envision, grasp, and simultaneously hold all of its amazing teachings
in mind without the aid of some sort of simplifying skillful means with which
to keep track of this scripture’s main story lines and ideas as they are set forth
in its thirty-nine chapters and several thousand pages.

To that end, for the benefit of those readers who feel they might benefit
from such an aid to reinforced understanding, in addition to the
approximately thirteen hundred clarifying and commentarial endnotes provided
for my translation of the Flower Adornment Sutra, I have also included
here [in vol. III] a general synopsis of the main events, primary teachings, and most
important ideas contained in each of those thirty-nine chapters as well
as in the traditionally appended conclusion, “The Conduct and Vows of
Samantabhadra” with which this grand spiritual saga concludes.

For the most part, these synopses of the content of each of the sutra
chapters are constructed from a series of quotations interspersed with my
brief comments that together more or less reconstruct the narrative and
most important ideas of the often rather long chapters that in a half dozen
instances range between one hundred and seven hundred pages in length.
 
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Here is a section of Śramaṇa Yongguang’s “Condensed Outline of
the Avataṃsaka Sutra” which shows how the chapters relate to the
seven places and nine assemblies that comprise this Great Expansive Buddha’s
Flower Adornment Sutra:

The first assembly was at the site of enlightenment where
Samantabhadra Bodhisattva served as the host of that assembly for
the discussion of the Tathāgata’s dharmas of dependent and direct
[spheres of karmic rewards]. The Buddha emanated light from
his mouth and light from between his brows and Samantabhadra
Bodhisattva entered the Vairocana treasury body samādhi.
Altogether there were six chapters [in this assembly], as follows:
Ch. 01 – The Wondrous Adornments of the Leaders of the Worlds;
Ch. 02 – The Appearances of the Tathāgata;
Ch. 03 – The Samādhis of Samantabhadra;
Ch. 04 – The Formation of the Worlds;
Ch. 05 – The Flower Treasury [Ocean of] World; and
Ch. 06 – The Vairocana Chapter.

The second assembly was in the Hall of Universal Light where
Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva served as the host of that assembly for the
discussion of the Dharma gateway of the ten faiths. The Buddha
emanated light from the wheel signs on the bottom of his two feet.
In this assembly, he did not enter meditative absorption. Altogether
there were six chapters [in this assembly], as follows:
Ch. 07 – The Names of the Tathāgatas;
Ch. 08 – The Four Truths of the Āryas;
Ch. 09 – The Radiant Enlightenment;
Ch. 10 – The Bodhisattvas Ask for Clarification;
Ch. 11 – Pure Conduct; and
Ch. 12 – The Foremost Worthy.

From translator's Introduction to volume One.
 
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The third assembly was in the Trāyastriṃśa Heaven Palace where
Dharma Wisdom Bodhisattva served as the host of that assembly
for the discussion of the Dharma gateway of the ten abodes. The
Buddha emanated light from the toes of his two feet. Dharma
Wisdom Bodhisattva entered the samādhi of measureless skillful
means. Altogether there were six chapters [in this assembly], as
follows:
Ch. 13 – Ascent to the Summit of Mount Sumeru;
Ch. 14 – The Praise Verses on the Summit of Mount Sumeru;
Ch. 15 – The Ten Abodes;
Ch. 16 – The Brahman Conduct;
Ch. 17 – The Merit of the Initial Resolve; and
Ch. 18 – Clarifying the Dharma.

The fourth assembly was in the Suyāma Heaven Palace where
Forest of Meritorious Qualities Bodhisattva served as the host of
that assembly for the discussion of the Dharma gateway of the
ten practices. The Buddha emanated light from the top of his two
feet. Forest of Meritorious Qualities Bodhisattva entered the bodhisattva’s
skillful reflection samādhi. Altogether there were four
chapters [in this assembly], as follows:
Ch. 19 – Ascent to the Suyāma Heaven Palace;
Ch. 20 – Praise Verses in the Suyāma Heaven Palace;
Ch. 21 – The Ten Practices; and
Ch. 22 – The Ten Inexhaustible Treasuries.
 
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The fifth assembly was in the Tuṣita Heaven Palace where Vajra
Banner Bodhisattva served as the host of that assembly for the discussion
of the Dharma gateway of the ten dedications. The Buddha
emanated light from his two knees. Vajra Banner Bodhisattva
entered the bodhisattva wisdom light samādhi. Altogether there
were three chapters [in this assembly], as follows:
Ch. 23 – The Ascent to the Tuṣita Heaven Palace;
Ch. 24 – The Tuṣita Heaven Palace Praise Verses; and
Ch. 25 – The Ten Dedications.

The sixth assembly was in the Paranirmita-vaśavartin Heaven
Palace where Vajragarbha Bodhisattva served as the host of
that assembly for the discussion of the Dharma gateway of the
ten grounds. The Buddha emanated light from the hair mark
between his brows. Vajragarbha Bodhisattva entered the wisdom
light samādhi. Here there is a single chapter, the Ten Grounds
Chapter, number twenty-six.

The seventh assembly was in the Hall of Universal Light where
the Tathāgata served as the host of that assembly for the discussion
of the Dharma gateway of equal enlightenment and sublime
enlightenment. The Buddha emanated light from between his brows
and light from his mouth. The Buddha entered the kṣaṇa samādhi.
Altogether there were eleven chapters [in this assembly], as follows:
Ch. 27 – The Ten Samādhis;
Ch. 28 – The Ten Superknowledges;
Ch. 29 – The Ten Patiences;
Ch. 30 – Asaṃkhyeyas;
Ch. 31 – Life Spans;
Ch. 32 – The Bodhisattva Abodes;
Ch. 33 – The Inconceivable Dharmas of the Buddhas;
Ch. 34 – The Ocean of Major Marks of the Tathāgata’s Ten Bodies;
Ch. 35 – The Qualities of the Light of the Tathāgata’s Subsidiary Signs;
Ch. 36 – The Practices of Samantabhadra; and
Ch. 37 – The Manifestation of the Tathāgata.
 
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