Avatamsaka Sutra

[Nicholas Weeks]

From beginning of Ten Grounds chapter; Master Hua comments:

All that Bodhisattvas did to teach, transform, tame, and subdue living beings was done at the right time.

The vocation of a Bodhisattva is to teach and transform living beings, tame and subdue living beings, and cause all living beings quickly to accomplish Buddhahood, all at the right time. Sometimes if one speaks inappropriately, and teaches living beings before their roots have ripened or the time is right by blasting Dharma at them, they cannot receive it.

They get scared, have doubts, and they never want to listen to the Buddhadharma again. Bodhisattvas teach and transform living beings at the most appropriate moment. It is just like planting seeds: if planted at the wrong time, they will not come up, and the planting will have been done in vain. If one plants the seeds at the exact time they should be planted, they will grow. Right at the time the seeds of Bodhi should be planted, Bodhisattvas break open the mind-ground of living beings, teach them to bring forth the thought for Bodhi, and plant the seeds which gradually grow, ripen, and yield a harvest of liberation. That is the meaning of “at the right time.”

[Nicholas Weeks]

Good indeed, disciple of the Buddha, I wish you would proclaim all the grounds of practice to approach and enter Bodhi; of all the comfortable Honored Ones throughout the ten directions, none is not proactive of and mindful of the basic roots of wisdom.

Secured in them, that wisdom is also fundamental; all the Buddhas’ Dharmas are produced from them; just as written words are comprised by alphabets, so, too, the Buddhas’ Dharmas are based upon these grounds.

Ten Grounds, chapter 26

[Nicholas Weeks]

What is a buddha? Chapter 37 treats of the body, voice, mind, actions etc. of a buddha. Here is an example re the body:

Third, Buddha-Sons, the sun rises in Jambudvīpa and benefits all sentient
beings in countless ways, such as dispelling darkness, removing coldness and
wetness, nurturing trees and grass, ripening grains and crops, lighting the open
sky, opening flowers, enabling travelers to see their way, and inhabitants to do
their work. Why? Because the sun emits immeasurable radiance.

Buddha-Sons, likewise a Tathāgata, a wisdom sun, appears in the world and benefits all
sentient beings in countless ways, such as ending their evil to produce good,
changing their stupidity into wisdom, rescuing and protecting them with great
lovingkindness, delivering them with great compassion, expanding their
capacities, strengths, and aspirations for bodhi. He enables them to elicit
profound belief and discard the muddled mind, to see and hear [the Dharma]
without destroying causes and conditions, to acquire the god-eye to see the
places of their births and deaths, to acquire the hindrance-free mind without
damaging their roots of goodness, to develop wisdom and open the flower of
enlightenment, and to activate the bodhi mind to complete all Bodhisattva
actions. Why? Because a Tathāgata’s body is a vast wisdom sun, which emits
immeasurable radiance to illuminate all. Buddha-Sons, this is the third
characteristic of a Tathāgata’s body. In this way a Bodhisattva-Mahāsattva
should see His body.

From Rulu's book Two Holy Grounds, page 216

[Nicholas Weeks]

Rulu has just added, from one of her books, an excellent short survey of the Huayan corpus, lineage & teachings:

http://www.sutrasmantras.info/introbook5.html

Also has hot links to Glossary.

[Nicholas Weeks]

Perhaps more scholarship than many care about, but a good study of the varied Sanskrit, Tibetan, Chinese etc. translations of the corpus:

http://imrehamar.elte.hu/downloads/Refl ... HamarI.pdf

[Nicholas Weeks]

Translations for large sutras are slow, but 84000 has started several chapters of the Avatamsaka. From the Tibetan, while checking the Chinese I am guessing.

http://read.84000.co/section/O1JC114941JC14666.html

[Nicholas Weeks]

The Merit and Virtue from First Bringing Forth the Mind
Chapter Seventeen

At that time the heavenly ruler Shakra asked Dharma Wisdom Bodhisattva, “Disciple of the Buddha, what is the measure of the merit and virtue attained when a Bodhisattva first brings forth the Bodhi mind?”

Commentary [by Master Hua]:

This chapter discusses how how much merit and virtue one has at the very first moment one brings forth the great Bodhi mind. After the Brahma Conduct Chapter was spoken, then the Merit and Virtue from First Bringing Forth the Mind Chapter was spoken. The Heavenly Ruler Shakra is the lord God. The heavenly ruler Shakra is also called Indra or Shakra Devanam Indrah. The name are different but the person is the same “Shakra, Chief Among Gods.” The heavenly ruler Shakra manages over all the heavens. He’s also called the Lord of the Heaven of the Thirty-Three

How did he become the heavenly ruler? Originally the heavenly ruler Shakra was a women, a very poor woman who for a long time in the past had a good heart. She saw a Buddha image under the open sky, the roof of its temples in shambles and worn away. She became resolved on renewing its and made a vow to do so. She didn’t want the Buddha image to be under the open sky where it would blown by the wind and battered by the rain, but she didn’t have any money. So at that time she sought for others who had the same resolve as herself. Shes found thirty-two other women, and they together used their strenght to gild the Buddha image.

Each one of these thirty-three women gave a little money to fix up the temple and to regild the Buddha image. Because of “the first “ women’s merit and virtue, she later became the ruler of the heaven of the Thirty-three, and the other thirty-tow women became the Thirty-two heavenly rulers, one to each of the eight heavens located in each of the four directions—east, west, north and south. Because she had renewed the Buddha image and repaired the temple, she was reborn in the heavens ans became the heavenly ruler Shakra. This god, the heavenly ruler Shakra, Asked Dharma Wisdom Bodhisattva. What did he say? “Disciple of sthe Buddha, what is the measure of the merit and virtue attained—how much is his merit and virtue—when a Bodhisattva first brings forth the Bodhi Mind?”

[Nicholas Weeks]

Dharma Wisdom Bodhisattva on why bodhicitta vows and practices come forth:

Disciple of the Buddha, when all Buddhas first bring forth the mind, they do not do so merely for the sake of making offerings of all kinds of musical instruments to all the living beings in the asamkhyeya world systems in the ten directions, doing so for a hundred kalpas, up to and including a hundred thousand nayuta million kalpas. They do not bring forth the Bodhi mind merely to teach all of those living beings to cultivate the five precepts, the ten paths of good karma or to teach them to dwell in the four dhyanas, the four unlimited minds, the four formless concentrations, or to teach them to attain the Srotaapanna fruit, the Sakridagamin fruit, the Anagamin fruit, the Arhat fruit, or the Pratyeka Buddha path.

But it is for the sake of causing the seed nature of the Thus Come Ones to never be cut off; it is for the sake of pervading all world systems; it is for the sake of crossing over and liberating the living beings in all world systems; it is for the sake of totally knowing the coming into being and destruction of all world systems; it is for the sake of totally knowing the defilement and purity of living beings within all world systems; it is for the sake of totally knowing the purity of the self nature of all world systems; it is for the sake of totally knowing the likes, afflictions, and habits in the minds of all living beings; it is for the sake of totally knowing how all living beings die here are reborn elsewhere; it is for the sake of totally knowing all living beings’ roots and expedient methods.

It is for the sake of totally knowing the activities in the minds of all living beings; it is for the sake of totally knowing all living beings’ wisdom in the three periods of time; and it is for the sake of totally knowing all Buddhas’ state of equality, that they bring forth the Unsurpassed Bodhi mind.

[Svalaksana]

I had been entertaining the idea of getting the single volume edition for many months now. Found the book with an appreciable discount at BookDepository and, after much consideration, decided to purchase it.

I'm preparing to study it now, perhaps I'll dive into it in the upcoming months.

[GDPR_Anonymized001]

I had been entertaining the idea of getting the single volume edition for many months now. Found the book with an appreciable discount at BookDepository and, after much consideration, decided to purchase it.

I'm preparing to study it now, perhaps I'll dive into it in the upcoming months.

Hello, would you share the ISBN number? Or title/author?

[Svalaksana]

I had been entertaining the idea of getting the single volume edition for many months now. Found the book with an appreciable discount at BookDepository and, after much consideration, decided to purchase it.

I'm preparing to study it now, perhaps I'll dive into it in the upcoming months.

Hello, would you share the ISBN number? Or title/author?

It's the renowned three-book edition by Thomas Cleary but comprised into a single volume (and with additional notes and corrections, I believe?).

The ISBN is 978-0-87773-940-1.

[GDPR_Anonymized001]

I had been entertaining the idea of getting the single volume edition for many months now. Found the book with an appreciable discount at BookDepository and, after much consideration, decided to purchase it.

I'm preparing to study it now, perhaps I'll dive into it in the upcoming months.

Hello, would you share the ISBN number? Or title/author?

It's the renowned three-book edition by Thomas Cleary but comprised into a single volume (and with additional notes and corrections, I believe?).

Thanks very much, Manjushri!

The ISBN is 978-0-87773-940-1.

[Svalaksana]

Hello, would you share the ISBN number? Or title/author?

It's the renowned three-book edition by Thomas Cleary but comprised into a single volume (and with additional notes and corrections, I believe?).

The ISBN is 978-0-87773-940-1.

Thanks very much, Manjushri!

No worries. If you're interested in it, do check BookDepository as they often have discounts for specific books and occasionally general discounts too, so you might come across with an opportunity. I get all of my Shambhala and Wisdom books from there.