華嚴經 品二 如來現相品Avataṃsaka Sūtra · The Manifestation of the Tathāgata

This Chapter Does Something No Other Scripture Does

The gathering of the multitudes in the preceding chapter being done, this chapter opens straightway with a request for the Dharma. What is strange is that those who make the request do not utter a single word — “they thought in this way,” which is thinking in the mind; and the Buddha of whom the request is made answers not a single word either — he emits light, manifests a flower, brings forth a multitude. Between the one question and the one answer there is not a single word of speech.

Chengguan states the matter with the utmost clarity. Assessing the rite of requesting and questioning in the first assembly, he says: requesting is of two kinds, one requesting aloud in words, one requesting silently in thought; and answering too is of two kinds, one answering by uttering words, one answering by manifesting a mark. Set crosswise against one another these should make nine clauses, and yet in the text only four are actually used. The present assembly accounts for two of these kinds of question and answer — the prose of the chapter on the manifestation of marks is the request in thought, and the verses from within the cloud of articles of offering are the request aloud; while on the Buddha’s side, “first the light points out the lord of the preaching; manifesting the flower betokens the meaning, and manifesting the multitude betokens the teaching” — and this is called the answer by displaying a mark. He adds a further sentence that nails the principle down: the Buddha’s mind is sovereignly free and need not wait upon the raising of words; the Buddha’s power is surpassing, and to manifest one mark is already to answer.

So in reading this chapter the one error most to be guarded against is taking the light, the flower, and the coming of the multitudes to be a stage-setting laid down before the preaching. They are not a setting; they are the answer. The chapter is named the manifestation of the Tathāgata: the mark is the answer, not a prelude to the answer. Brought home to oneself: a person who has truly been answered has not necessarily heard a word; sometimes it is that all at once there is light before the eyes, and the doubt disperses.

How to Read the Chapter’s Name: The Person Who Manifests and the Dharma That Is Manifested

Chengguan’s way of explaining the chapter’s name is well worth learning. He first splits the name into two halves: “the Tathāgata is the person who manifests, and the mark is the dharma that is manifested.” The word “manifest” in the middle runs through both sides — and so he says, “‘manifest’ runs through both the one who acts and what is acted upon; the one who acts and what is acted upon are stated together, and substance and function are set forth as a pair, and so its designation is established.” The name is itself a structure that raises substance and function together.

Then he does something finer still: the Tathāgata has five senses, and manifesting marks also has five senses, “and so they make up ten.” The five senses of Tathāgata are — set forth with respect to principle (the nature of dharmas is named “thus,” coming out of the obstructions is named “come”), stated with respect to practice alone, stated with principle and wisdom joined, stated as free of marks, and stated as fusing and gathering in; and the last of these shows the Huayan house-style most of all: “the one thusness has no second thusness; whether principle or wisdom, whether opened out or joined together, there is nothing that is not thus, and therefore it is named ‘thus.’ There is no dharma outside thusness, and ‘come’ too is just thusness; one who comes in this way is the true Tathāgata.”

It is the five senses of manifesting marks that form the frame of the whole chapter. Chengguan lists them: first, manifesting the mark of light at the mouth, which summons the multitudes of the ten directions; second, manifesting the mark of light between the brows, which points out the lord of the preaching; third, shaking the net of lands, which alerts the faculties of the many; fourth, manifesting a flower before the Buddha, which betokens that the preaching rests upon the fruit; fifth, bringing forth the multitude from the tuft of white hair, which betokens that the teaching flows from the Buddha. The Yanyi chao further points out the syntax of these five: each of them is two clauses, the first settling the mark and the second settling the intent — it says what mark is manifested, and it says why that mark had to be manifested.

Take these five back to the text of the chapter, and the passages of this chapter follow them exactly, not one item too many and not one too few. This is a serviceable way in to reading the Avataṃsaka: the outline is not a frame added from outside; it marks out the rhythm the scripture itself has.

Where the Forty Clauses of Question Come From, and How They Are Apportioned

As to the number of questions, the ancient worthies reckon differently. Chengguan, following the eighty-fascicle text, makes forty clauses, and sets them within the whole scripture’s pattern of questions: in the four places there are three hundred and ten clauses of question in all, the first assembly and the second having forty questions each, the eighth two hundred, and the ninth thirty. Li Tongxuan makes thirty-seven questions — his reckoning is that the earlier part of the prose “purely requests eighteen kinds of the Buddha’s dharma,” and the later part, asking about the seas of the buddhas and bodhisattvas, “has nineteen questions,” making thirty-seven in all. Zhiyan follows the sixty-fascicle text, where the opening out and drawing together of the wording is different, and he reckons twenty-three clauses of question. The three houses each follow the syntax they have sectioned and the text they rely upon; there are these three accounts from of old, and here they are recorded without adjudicating which is superior.

By Chengguan’s division: the forty clauses divide first into two halves — “the first twenty clauses are the request that simply holds a doubt in thought, and the latter twenty are the request that cites an example and raises a dharma.” The first twenty put the doubt directly, and the latter twenty make their request by citing as an example the dharmas that the buddhas of the ten directions have already expounded for other bodhisattvas. Then, by the kinds of sense, he gives a further and more important division: “among the forty clauses, the first twenty ask about the fruit; the last ten ask about the cause; the middle ten make clear that the function of transforming pervades everywhere, and they ask generally about the supporting and supported, the defiled and the pure, cause and fruit. For the first is what is sought, the last is what is practiced, and the middle is what is known.” — The aim of this assembly is to raise up the fruit and urge faith, and therefore it asks about the fruit first.

The first twenty clauses divide again in themselves: the first ten ask about the perfection of virtue and function, the latter ten about the manifestness of substance and mark. Here Chengguan also records a want of correspondence in the wording: the verses for the first ten clauses number only eight, and within them the two questions of supernormal penetration and sovereign freedom are not separately brought out; he does not force a judgment, but sets down both possibilities side by side — either it is a dropping out, or the sense is contained within the clause “that which cannot be appropriated.” This one stroke shows the measure of the ancient worthies well: where the text does not correspond, set it down as it is; do not patch the scripture’s hole for it.

Asking about the Fruit, Part One: From the Ground of a Buddha to That Which Cannot Be Appropriated

1. What is the ground of the buddhas? Chengguan says it straight: “as for ‘the ground of a buddha,’ it is the apportioned station of the virtue of wisdom.” Why is it called a “ground”? Because it has the capacity of generating and the capacity of sustaining. And he gathers the substance in to what matters most: “in essence there are only two that take in everything, namely, true principle and subtle wisdom fused and not two — this is the ground of the buddhas.” True principle and subtle wisdom fused into one savor: that is the ground of a buddha. This clause he judges to be the general one, and the nine clauses beneath it are particular. To set one error right: do not conceive “the ground of a buddha” as a place; it is an apportioned station of virtue.

2. What is the realm of the buddhas? Chengguan explains “realm” in two senses: “it is what compassion and wisdom take as their object, and it is also a delimitation.” It is both the object upon which compassion and wisdom bear and the boundary drawn between what acts and what is acted upon. So to ask about the realm is to ask how far the Buddha’s compassion and wisdom shine — and the answer lies in the universal appearing of the seas of lands of the ten directions in the passages that follow: they shine until there is no farther.

3. What is the sustaining power of the buddhas? Sustaining is not an addition coming from outside. Li Tongxuan takes the text below as the answer: the Tathāgata sustains Samantabhadra so that he enters samādhi — this is the sustaining power of the buddhas. So the sense of sustaining in this scripture is the Buddha’s power entering into the person of the cause and enabling him to preach — and this question takes its proper shape only in the next chapter, when Samantabhadra enters concentration and the buddhas lay their hands upon his crown.

4. What is that which the buddhas walk? Li Tongxuan cites the scripture as the answer: “unobstructed practice is the practice of the Tathāgata,” and again, the practice of Samantabhadra is the practice that all the buddhas walk in common. What is walked is not an itinerary; it is the very path in which a buddha abides and moves; and this chapter’s answer lies in “the surpassing practice of Samantabhadra” celebrated again and again in the verses of the eleven bodhisattvas.

5. What is the power of the buddhas? Power is the virtue that can bring things to accomplishment. This chapter’s answer by displaying a mark falls upon the four graphs “by the spiritual power of the Buddha” — that the multitudes of the ten directions can come, that the bodhisattvas can speak their verses, is in every case said to be by their receiving the Buddha’s majestic spiritual power. Ask about power, and the answer is the source of the motive force of the whole assembly.

6. What is the fearlessness of the buddhas? Fearlessness is the mind’s being without timidity when preaching, because nothing known is left out. For this question there is no separate passage in this chapter to point to, and its answer lies in the broad exposition of the chapters that follow; the reader should know that these forty questions are not one answer to one question: Fazang judges that “they are all in general answered together in this chapter,” limiting it to this chapter; Li Tongxuan, with respect to the thirty-seven questions he reckons, judges that this chapter and several that follow answer them in sum. The two houses set different limits to the range, and the reader should follow each according to its own account, not merging them into one.

7. What is the samādhi of the buddhas? Samādhi is the mind resting on a single object without stirring. The prose of this chapter gives no separate answer, yet the chapter on the samādhi of Samantabhadra follows immediately upon it, and that is the direct taking up of this question — which is just why Chengguan judges the two chapters to be the far and the near skillful means of the manner and rite of preaching the Dharma.

8. What are the supernormal penetrations of the buddhas? 9. What is the sovereign freedom of the buddhas? These two questions Chengguan expressly records as not separately brought out in the verses, and he points out that in the first answer of the chapter on the formation of the worlds it is likewise so. The two possibilities he gives are a dropping out, or a containing of the sense. The reader need not choose one on the ancient’s behalf; what is to be learned is why he did not choose.

10. What is that which cannot be appropriated in the buddhas? This clause is the easiest of all to misread. It does not say that the Buddha does not gather in sentient beings; it says that there is no dharma whatever that can, the other way about, gather in and delimit the Buddha. In the chapter on the Dharma realm Chengguan records a further comparison: there “that which cannot be appropriated” and “supernormal penetration” are wanting, and only “sovereign freedom” is there; hence these three things “joined together may be one, and opened out are three,” and so their appearing and not appearing differ. Three names saying the different openings and joinings of one and the same matter — this is a key for reading the numbers in the Avataṃsaka.

Asking about the Fruit, Part Two: The Six Faculties and the Body-Light, the Voice, the Wisdom

The latter ten clauses Chengguan judges to “ask about the manifestness of substance and mark” — the first ten ask about the function of the virtue, and these ten ask how the substance and mark of that virtue are made manifest.

11. What is the eye of the buddhas? Here the questioning of the six faculties begins. Ask a question first: having already asked about power, fearlessness, samādhi, supernormal penetration, and sovereign freedom, why ask again faculty by faculty? The answer is in the verses of the general request: “Why is the Buddha’s eye without measure? Are the ear, nose, tongue, and body likewise so?” — what is asked is not whether the Buddha has an eye, but why the Buddha’s eye is “without measure.” Measure is delimitation: the eye of a sentient being has its limits of light and dark, of near and far, of inner and outer, and wherever there is one limit, what is seen becomes one portion. That the Buddha’s eye is without measure does not mean that the limits have been enlarged; it means that it does not fall upon the road of delimitation at all. One misunderstanding to be set right: without measure is not the same as seeing very far. However far one sees, it is still a measure of near and far, and once a measure of near and far is set up, there is still the side that cannot be seen. Where it comes to earth: the reader need not try to imagine a pair of eyes that can see through everything; what he should consider is this — that what I see at this moment has a bound because I first set up a position from which to see. Set up the position, and the bound is set up along with it.

12. What is the ear of the buddhas? The verses carry it on with the line “the ear, nose, tongue, and body likewise so,” and those words “likewise so” say that the way of asking about the four faculties of ear, nose, tongue, and body is wholly the same as for the eye: all ask about being “without measure.” So the question of the ear is not how good the Buddha’s hearing is; it is why hearing is without delimitation. The ear of a sentient being has its limits of loud and soft, its boundary of what can and cannot be heard, and it must wait for a sound to come before it hears. That the Buddha’s ear is without measure lies in this, that hearing is established without waiting for the coming and going of sound. One misunderstanding to be set right: the Buddha’s ear must not be confounded with “the voice of the buddhas” of the nineteenth question — the voice is the mark that is uttered, the ear is the faculty that receives; since the scripture sets up two separate questions, they should be read separately. In the prose of this chapter there is no separate passage displaying a mark for the Buddha’s ear; its mark is set forth at length in the chapters that follow, and here only the question is raised. Where it comes to earth: what we fail to hear is mostly not that the sound is too small, but that the mind has already chosen and rejected, and choosing and rejecting is just delimitation.

13. What is the nose of the buddhas? The nose asks about fragrance. The fragrances manifested in this chapter are exceedingly abundant — the bodhisattvas gathering from the ten directions each present “clouds of powdered-incense trees,” “clouds of unguent incense and burning incense in all their colors and forms,” “clouds of every fragrant tree,” and clouds of fragrance fill space and do not disperse. But see this clearly: these fragrances are offerings presented from the side of sentient beings; they are not the answer by displaying a mark for the virtue of the Buddha’s nose. That the Buddha’s nose is without measure does not hang upon how surpassing and subtle the fragrance smelled may be. One misunderstanding to be set right: one must not reverse it and say that since the offering of fragrance is so grand, the virtue of the Buddha’s nose may be seen from it — that is to fill out what acts with what is acted upon. Since the scripture asks a separate clause, it is so that people may know that each of the six faculties, gate by gate, has its own measurelessness, and that this is not taken from the object each faces. Where it comes to earth: fragrance is the object that most easily draws a person along; to smell a fragrance and have the mind follow after it is just where the nose has measure; to smell and not follow is where the measure begins to loosen.

14. What is the tongue of the buddhas? The tongue as a faculty can taste and can also speak. Since the scripture sets up below it a separate question, “what is the voice of the buddhas,” we may know that the tongue here is not the same as the voice: the voice is the mark that is spoken out, the tongue is the faculty that can speak. To ask that the Buddha’s tongue is without measure is to ask why the virtue that can speak is never exhausted — speaking without waiting upon deliberation, speaking without repetition, speaking without diminishing however many are spoken to. One misunderstanding to be set right: the Buddha’s tongue must not be read as the excellent mark of “the broad and long tongue” and left at a matter of shape; the excellent marks are one portion of the body, whereas what is asked here is the function of a faculty. In the prose of this chapter there is no separate passage displaying a mark for the Buddha’s tongue, and its sense is taken up in what the verses of the eleven bodhisattvas say about “a single sound.” Where it comes to earth: human speech is exhaustible because before speaking one must first take up a standpoint; where there is no standpoint to take up, speech does not obstruct speech.

15. What is the body of the buddhas? Of the six faculties, only the body has a perfectly plain answer by displaying a mark in this chapter. The bodhisattva Supreme Sound of All Dharmas, receiving the majestic spiritual power of the Buddha, says: “The Buddha’s body fills the whole Dharma realm, appearing everywhere before all sentient beings; according with conditions he goes to meet what calls, and there is nowhere he does not pervade, and yet he constantly abides upon this seat of awakening.” The four lines answer exactly to the measurelessness of the body: filling the Dharma realm is being nowhere absent; appearing before sentient beings is responding to everything; according with conditions and meeting what calls is responding without missing the occasion; constantly abiding upon this seat is responding without moving from the root. One misunderstanding to be set right: filling the Dharma realm does not mean that the Buddha’s body is very large — large is still a measure. The opposite of large is small, and small and large stand over against one another, which is to have measure. What is said here is that it does not fall within any place, and therefore there is no place of which one could point out that it is not there. Where it comes to earth: the line “and yet he constantly abides upon this seat of awakening” is the most important to read — pervading and not moving are established at the same time, and only so is it the Buddha’s body; take only the pervading and lose the not-moving, and it falls into being a body that runs about everywhere.

16. What is the mind of the buddhas? For the mind the verses set up a line of its own: “And what is it for the mind to be without measure? Would that you reveal for us the skillful means by which this can be known!” — asking and then further requesting to be shown the skillful means by which it may be known, from which we see that the measurelessness of the mind is the hardest to know at once. The answer by displaying a mark in this chapter lies in the one line just before the emitting of light: “At that time the World-Honored One knew what the bodhisattvas were thinking in their minds.” The question of the assembly of seas was a thought in the mind, never uttered, and yet the Buddha already knew it; knowing it, he emitted light as the answer. This knowing does not wait upon the asking in order to know, nor is it wearied by the many things known. One misunderstanding to be set right: the Buddha’s mind must not be read as an exceedingly quick and exceedingly broad inferring; inferring has that which infers and that which is inferred, which is still to have measure. Here what is thought is of itself already present, and there is no act of going to know it. Where it comes to earth: hereafter, whenever the reader meets the words “he knows the minds of sentient beings” in a scripture, he should come back to this passage to read them — the Buddha’s answer arises from the thought in the mind, not from words spoken.

17. What is the body-light of the buddhas? 18. What is the radiance of the buddhas? These two questions should be read apart. The body-light is the light a buddha’s body constantly has, and is substance; radiance runs through the light that is emitted, and is function. This chapter thereupon emits light twice — the light of the teeth at the mouth and the light of the tuft between the brows — and these are exactly the answer by displaying a mark for these two questions. Fazang, explaining the substance and the function of the light in the sixty-fascicle text, says it plainly: jewel-color is the substance of the light, lamp-brightness is the function of the light; because principle is precious it is named jewel-color, because wisdom illumines everywhere it is named lamp-brightness.

19. What is the voice of the buddhas? The question of the Buddha’s voice is answered in the single sound expounding, celebrated again and again in the verses of the eleven bodhisattvas — “the Tathāgata’s single sound is without measure,” “the Buddha sets forth a single subtle sound, heard throughout the buddha-lands of the ten directions.” The voice, as a question, asks why a single sound can answer to measureless minds.

20. What is the wisdom of the buddhas? This is the gathering up of the first twenty clauses. Wisdom is the substance of the ground of a buddha, and every virtue and function asked about in the preceding nineteen questions is, at root, tied to this one wisdom. So when the question reaches wisdom, the side of the fruit has been asked out to the end.

The Twenty Seas Requested by Citing an Example

The twenty-first item is a whole passage: the assembly of seas no longer asks directly, but cites as an example the dharmas that all the buddhas of the world-seas of the ten directions “have expounded for the bodhisattvas,” asking that the Buddha too expound thus for us. This turn is of the greatest importance. The first twenty clauses were ‘I do not understand; please tell me’; these twenty seas are ‘elsewhere the buddhas have already spoken in this way; would that you too speak so’ — placing oneself within the pattern of the buddhas’ sameness of path in order to make the request. Chengguan says that this is exactly the “request that cites an example and raises a dharma,” and points out that in the second assembly these two layers are also present, and that within its citation of an example what is asked is the same as the direct request here, “just so as to set forth the sense of the buddhas’ sameness of path in abbreviated reflection.”

The twenty seas divide into two groups. The first ten seas belong to a buddha: the sea of worlds, the sea of sentient beings, the sea of the arraying of the Dharma realm, the sea of buddhas, the sea of the perfections of a buddha, the sea of the liberations of a buddha, the sea of the transformations of a buddha, the sea of the expositions of a buddha, the sea of the names of a buddha, the sea of the life-spans of a buddha. The latter ten seas belong to the bodhisattvas: the sea of vows, the sea of setting forth, the sea of the aids to the path, the sea of vehicles, the sea of practices, the sea of going forth, the sea of supernormal penetrations, the sea of perfections, the sea of grounds, the sea of wisdom. Counted item by item, the two groups have ten each, with none wanting and none in excess. By Chengguan’s threefold division of the forty clauses, within these latter twenty clauses “the last ten ask about the cause” — the ten seas of the bodhisattvas are the cause; and “the middle ten make clear that the function of transforming pervades everywhere” — the buddha’s sea of worlds, sea of sentient beings, and the seas that follow ask generally about the supporting and supported, the defiled and the pure, cause and fruit.

Why are they all called “seas”? A sea is deep and vast and shoreless and takes in what is inexhaustible. This is the habitual language of the Avataṃsaka’s way of measuring, not a rhetorical flourish: whenever what a Dharma-gate contains is itself still inexhaustible Dharma-gates, it is called a sea. Brought down to the reading: when the reader meets the word “sea” in the Avataṃsaka, he should at once withdraw any imagining of a singular thing.

Where the Doubt Comes From: Doubt and Answer Complete One Another

Here there is a real question, and Chengguan raises it himself: “the kings and the bodhisattvas are all at the perfect utmost of their stations; how can there be doubt?” The bodhisattvas and the rulers of the worlds are already at the perfect utmost of their stations; how can there still be doubt?

He first records two explanations from of old: some say the doubt is raised on behalf of sentient beings; some say it is out of longing for the fruit of buddhahood, and further that it sets forth how far apart cause and fruit stand. He appraises these two as “the first provisional and the latter real, and both have a principle that will carry through the other teachings” — both will pass, but that is a way of speaking that carries through other gates of teaching. Coming to this sūtra, he sets up another sense: “within this sūtra, whether real or provisional, there is nothing that is not the doubt of the Dharma realm; for doubt is taken as having power, and together with what is preached and verified it makes dependent origination.” Doubt here is not a deficiency; it is a power, and it and the dharma preached are mutually dependent in their arising.

He then uses an excellent simile: the relation of doubt and answer “is like the mold of an image” — where the mold is convex the image is concave, and where the mold is concave the image is convex. The height and depth of the doubt are exactly what make the height and depth of the answer; it is not that first there is doubt and then the doubt is removed, but that “thought after thought there is always doubt, thought after thought it is always cut off,” both established at once. He adds one further line: “this matter is so from of old, appearing all at once in the ocean-seal” — it is originally so, and in the ocean-seal concentration it appears all at once.

Set one great error right: do not read this passage as ‘the sage feigns having doubts.’ Chengguan precisely does not take that provisional account as final. Brought home to oneself: if a person supposes that practice is a wiping away of doubts one by one until there are none left, that is a schematized imagining; the real state of things is that question and answer arise and subside on one and the same rhythm, and the deeper the asking, the deeper the answer.

A Sound Arises of Itself from the Cloud of Articles of Offering: The Half That Is the Request Aloud

After the request in thought in the prose comes the request aloud. The speaker must be seen clearly — it is not that some bodhisattva rises and speaks, but that “through the majestic and spiritual power of the bodhisattvas, from within the cloud of all the articles of offering a sound arose of itself and spoke these verses.” The sound arises of itself from within the cloud formed of the vessels of offering, and its motive force is the majestic and spiritual power of the bodhisattvas.

This thing is itself a piece of doctrine. The articles of offering are things presented, and of themselves they have no mind; and yet where the mind reaches, the things give voice. This is a glimpse of the Avataṃsaka’s non-obstruction of the supporting and the supported: between the mind that offers and the thing that is offered there is no hard wall. The reader need not hurry to explain it as a marvel; what is to be seen is why the scripture arranges for “things” to utter these forty-one lines of the general request — because those who request the Dharma are not only those few bodhisattvas; it is the whole assembly together with all its adornment that is making the request.

The content of the verses asks the forty clauses of the prose over again, and with more of feeling in it: first praising the Buddha, “through measureless kalpas his practice was fulfilled; beneath the tree of awakening he accomplished right awakening,” next telling of the feeling of the multitudes who have come, “together they have come to this assembly and alike look up in reverence,” and then setting out one by one the ground of a buddha, the buddha’s realm, the sustaining, what he walks, the buddha’s power, the samādhi, the fearlessness, the supernormal penetrations, the six faculties, and the seas, closing with “in this place of awakening, would that you expound them all.” Chengguan records how it differs from the prose: the verses no longer cite an example, but join the two places of the text into a direct request.

Emitting Light from between the Teeth of the Mouth

“At that time the World-Honored One knew what the bodhisattvas were thinking in their minds” — these eight graphs are the hard anchor for the attribution of the speaker in the whole chapter. The request was in thought, and the Buddha responds by knowing the thought; the whole possibility of the answer rests upon this “knowing.” In the eighty-fascicle text and the sixty-fascicle text this line stands without a single graph altered, from which its importance may be seen.

The place from which the light is emitted is “between the teeth of his mouth.” Of this word for “mouth,” Fazang, in his commentary on the sixty-fascicle text, records three different accounts from of old: one house says it is simply the mouth; one says it is the proper front of the face and does not separately indicate the mouth; Master Guangtong says it is the space below the nose and above the mouth. Having set the three accounts side by side, he does not adjudicate which is right, but goes instead by way of the Sanskrit transliteration: in Sanskrit, face and mouth and gate are one and the same word, mukha, and so rendering it as “the mouth of the face” raises the three things together. Upon this he opens out four layers of sense: the mouth betokens that the path of teaching reaches afar; the face betokens facing properly toward the faculties; the gate betokens opening the Dharma and gathering in beings; the teeth betoken the surpassing function — which surpassing function is that “they chew over the savor of the Dharma, and they grind down and break the obstruction of delusion.” The work of teeth is to bite through and to grind, and set upon the Dharma this is digesting the savor of the Dharma and breaking down the obstruction of delusion.

What is the emitting of light for? Fazang settles four intents: manifesting a mark to betoken the real; startling faith into arising; illumining and touching so as to rescue from suffering; summoning from afar in order to gather the multitudes. These four intents cover everything that comes after this passage — why there must be a manifesting, why sentient beings will believe, why there is the benefit of leaving suffering, why the ten directions will come.

The names of the ten rays of light are likewise no random display. Fazang, following the sixty-fascicle text, settles the kinds of sense in them: “the first six are the sea of buddhas, the next two the sea of receptacle-worlds, the next one the sea of sentient beings, and the last one the sea of the skillful means of the Dharma realm”; taken from another angle they may be settled as “the first eight are the wheel of prediction and preaching that is the activity of mind, the next one the wheel of supernormal penetration that is the activity of body, and the last one the wheel of right teaching that is the activity of speech.” One and the same set of names may be divided by the objects illumined and may also be divided by the three activities — this is the ordinary state of Avataṃsaka reading: one set of numbers will often hold more than one sectioning.

Verses Spoken within the Light: Why the Light Can Speak

After the light reaches the other quarters, “the bodhisattvas within those world-seas each and all got to see, within the light, this Flower-Treasury Adorned World-Sea” — first seeing, then hearing. Next comes a sentence to be marked: “By the spiritual power of the Buddha, that light spoke these verses before all the bodhisattva assemblies of the other quarters.” The speaker is the light, and the motive force is ascribed to the spiritual power of the Buddha.

The function of these verses is perfectly definite: it is summoning from afar. So nearly every one of its ten verses closes with an urging to go: “you should go forth and together look up and pay reverence,” “that Honored One of Two Feet, you ought to go and see him,” “you may hasten quickly to where the Tathāgata is,” “you may go and behold, and hear the Dharma that he speaks.” Fazang, on the sixty-fascicle text, settles the structure of these verses in four senses: first raising the Buddha’s virtue in general in order to urge going; next setting forth severally the one who can preach in order to urge coming; then marking out severally what is preached in order to urge beholding; and last concluding generally with the Buddha’s virtue in order to set forth its depth and breadth — and moreover “these four all explain the earlier by the later,” each later part explaining why the earlier part is worth going to.

Set one error right: do not suppose that the light’s speaking is a mythical ornament. The doctrinal landing point of this passage is this — for the teaching to be able to reach a distant place, there need not first be a person who walks there. When the mark appears there, the meaning has arrived there. This is one application, at a distance, of the answer by displaying a mark.

The Ten Directions Receive the Light and Gather: A Response Reaching Ten Places

“At that time all the assemblies of the world-seas of the ten directions, having received the Buddha’s radiance and been awakened by it, each and all came together to where Vairocana Tathāgata was, to draw near and make offerings” — this is the general clause, and the ten directions below are the particulars.

Fazang settles that each of the ten quarters has seven items: the name of the world-sea; the name of the land (these two being the marks of the dharmas relied upon, differing only as general and particular); the name of the buddha; the name of the bodhisattva (these two being the wisdom that enters, differing only as full and partial); host and companions coming together (making clear that the virtues are complete and perfect); raising offerings and making offerings to the Buddha (the sense of according and benefiting, the cause according with the fruit); sitting according to their original quarter (making clear the gathering in of what is scattered and the return to stillness). Counted quarter by quarter, all ten quarters are complete with these seven items, and not one quarter wants any of them. If the reader has hold of these seven items, the ten long passages are no longer a heap of repetitions but the same structure sounded ten times over.

There is also a question asked from of old: why begin from the east? Fazang’s answer is very down to earth — it sets forth the beginning of opening and brightening, and it accords with the customs of the Western Region, where the east is taken as uppermost; the halls and palaces there all face east, and the Tathāgata too for the most part faces east when he preaches, and so the light from his mouth comes forth directly toward the east. He does not make a mystery of the quarters, but explains by custom and rite.

He does not avoid the deeper difficulty either: below it is said that the Flower-Treasury world-sea is boundless; if it is boundless, how can there still be east, west, south, and north? He answers that bound and boundless are not two — “without destroying the bound it is ever boundless, and without breaking the boundless it is ever bounded” — and uses woven brocade as a simile: the white thread runs right through the weaving and is not confounded with the purple nest, and the purple likewise; there must be purple within the white for it to be woven silk, and if there were no purple at all within the white, the purple thread would not run through both weavings, and it would then be embroidery and not woven silk. The sense of the simile is that white and purple run through one another and yet are not confused. He goes a step further and asks: are those ten worlds then the Flower-Treasury? Answer: because they “are it,” they “are not it.” Last he brings out the sense of host and companion — “because the Flower-Treasury is host and those ten are companions, and this host and these companions are perfectly interfused and pervade everywhere every dust-path, layer upon layer, like Indra’s net.” The ten directions are not outside the Flower-Treasury; they are the layered manifesting of the Flower-Treasury itself.

The East: Lotus Banner Who Contemplates the Supreme Dharma, and the Throne of the Treasury of Flower-Radiance

From the east comes the bodhisattva Lotus Banner Who Contemplates the Supreme Dharma, from the world-sea Pure Light Lotus Adornment and the land Maṇi-Necklace Vajra Treasury, the buddha there being named King of the Boundless Space of the Awakening of the Dharma-Water. The nine classes of clouds of offering he manifests set up no common class-name (whereas in each of the remaining nine quarters the items have a tail-word of a shared kind), and two of them bear the word “flower”: clouds of the bodily marks of bodhisattvas, clouds raining down the radiance of every jeweled lotus, clouds of jeweled Sumeru peaks, clouds of the light of sun-orbs, clouds of jeweled flower necklaces, clouds of every music, clouds of powdered-incense trees, clouds of unguent incense and burning incense in all their colors and forms, clouds of every fragrant tree.

Fazang matches senses to the articles of offering: the flower is the sense of purity and the sense of opening out; Sumeru is the sense of surpassing height; the sun is the sense of removing darkness. Taken together, the lotus, the Sumeru, and the sun-orb offered in the east all fall upon the word ‘opening’ — answering to the east as the beginning of opening and brightening. The bodhisattva’s name, Lotus Banner Who Contemplates the Supreme Dharma, lies on the same line: contemplating is the function of wisdom, the lotus is pure and opens out, and the banner stands out alone and high. The place of sitting is “a lion-throne of the treasury of the radiance of flowers,” conjured according to his quarter.

One thing for the reader to learn: these names are not decoration. Name, offering, and throne are very often of one and the same class of sense — a person’s name, the offering he brings, and the throne he sits upon commonly say the same thing. The passage on the east is a broad instance on this line: nine items share no class-name, and yet the one sense of the lotus runs through the name (Lotus Banner Who Contemplates the Supreme Dharma), the offering (clouds raining down the radiance of every jeweled lotus), and the throne (the lion-throne of the treasury of flower-radiance).

The South: Wisdom That Illumines Everywhere the Sea of Dharma, and the Clouds of Maṇi-Kings

From the south comes the bodhisattva Wisdom That Illumines Everywhere the Sea of Dharma, from the world-sea Treasury Adorned with the Radiance of Every Jewel-Moon and the land Boundless Light, Perfect Adornment, the buddha there being named Sumeru King of the Virtue of the Radiance of Universal Wisdom. The ten classes of clouds of offering he manifests all take the maṇi-king as their substance: clouds of maṇi-kings that are treasuries of the radiance of every adornment, clouds of maṇi-kings raining down every jeweled ornament and illumining everywhere, clouds of maṇi-kings whose jeweled flames blaze and extol the names of the buddhas, clouds of maṇi-kings that proclaim all the Buddha’s teachings, clouds of maṇi-kings of manifold subtle trees adorning the place of awakening, clouds of maṇi-kings whose jeweled radiance illumines everywhere and displays manifold conjured buddhas, clouds of maṇi-kings that display everywhere the adorned images of every place of awakening, clouds of maṇi-kings of dense-flamed lamps that tell of the realms of the buddhas, clouds of maṇi-kings bearing the images of the inconceivable palaces of the buddha-lands, clouds of maṇi-kings that display everywhere the images of the bodies of the buddhas of the three times.

The maṇi is the wish-fulfilling jewel, and its virtue lies in being able to display — displaying names, displaying the Buddha’s teachings, displaying conjured buddhas, displaying places of awakening, displaying the bodies of buddhas. And so among the ten clouds of the south three are ‘displaying such and such’ — displaying manifold conjured buddhas, displaying the adorned images of the places of awakening, displaying the images of the bodies of the buddhas of the three times. The bodhisattva’s name, Wisdom That Illumines Everywhere the Sea of Dharma, says the very same thing: the illumining of wisdom is like the containing of a sea, and each thing contained gets to be displayed.

Fazang, matching the ten senses of the articles of offering, says that the jewel “is the sense of being precious.” Precious and able to display — this is the place the maṇi holds in the betokening of this chapter.

The West: Moonlight and Fragrant Flame, Universal Adornment, and the Clouds of Pavilions

From the west comes the bodhisattva Moonlight and Fragrant Flame, Universal Adornment, from the world-sea Lovely Jeweled Radiance and the land Bringing Forth Supreme and Subtle Articles That Sustain the Body, the buddha there being named Jeweled Adornment of the Merit of Fragrant Flame. The ten classes of clouds of offering all take the pavilion as their substance: clouds of pavilions of jeweled fragrance and manifold subtle flowers, clouds of pavilions of jewel-kings of boundless colors and forms, clouds of pavilions of jeweled lamps and fragrant flames, clouds of pavilions all of pearl, clouds of pavilions of every jeweled flower, clouds of pavilions adorned with jeweled necklaces, clouds of pavilions that display everywhere the treasury of the radiance of every adornment of the ten directions, clouds of pavilions adorned with manifold jewel-powder inlaid together, clouds of pavilions of every adornment extending throughout the ten directions, clouds of pavilions with flower gates and nets of bells.

Fazang explains the sense of the pavilion as “the sense of building up in tiers, as when compassion and the rest are raised upon right wisdom” — a pavilion is built up story upon story, and to raise great compassion upon right wisdom is to build up in tiers. So what the passage on the west betokens is the layering of practice: not merit laid out flat, but built up one tier resting upon another.

The name of the land, Bringing Forth Supreme and Subtle Articles That Sustain the Body, answers to this as well — the articles that sustain the body are the conditions relied upon; and a pavilion is a thing relied upon raised upon a thing relied upon. The reader may notice this: when the Avataṃsaka takes architecture as a simile, it is mostly speaking of successive stages that rely upon one another without obstructing one another.

The North: Radiance of the Lion’s Swift Valor, and the Clouds of Trees

From the north comes the bodhisattva Radiance of the Lion’s Swift Valor, from the world-sea Perfect Treasury of the Radiance of the Beryl Lotus and the land Adorned with Utpala Flowers, the buddha there being named King of the Sound of the Banner of Universal Wisdom. The clouds of offering he manifests all take the tree as their substance: clouds of manifold subtle trees of every fragrance and maṇi jewel, clouds of trees adorned with dense leaves and subtle fragrance, clouds of adorning trees that conjure forth trees of every boundless color and form, clouds of trees adorned with every flower spread all about, clouds of trees adorned with the perfect radiance of every jeweled flame, clouds of trees adorned with the display of bodhisattva bodies of every sandal fragrance, clouds of trees adorned with the display of the inconceivable adornments of the places of awakening of former times, clouds of trees that are treasuries of manifold jeweled garments and are like the radiance of the sun, clouds of trees that send forth everywhere every delightful sound.

Fazang explains the sense of the tree as “the sense of establishing.” A tree is a thing that grows out of one root and spreads branches and leaves everywhere — and this chapter is at this moment set beneath the tree of awakening, so the betokening of the tree is all the more intimate. What the passage on the north betokens is spreading everywhere from a single root: the root once set up, colors and forms, flowers, flames, fragrance, bodies, and sounds all come forth from it.

The bodhisattva’s name, the Lion’s Swift Valor, is the mark of bold decision and fearlessness, and it matches the sense of establishing: whoever can establish must first be able to decide.

The Northeast: Supreme Lamp of Radiance, Treasury of Inexhaustible Merit, and the Clouds of Lion-Thrones

From the northeast comes the bodhisattva Supreme Lamp of Radiance, Treasury of Inexhaustible Merit, from the world-sea Banner of the Crystal Color of Jambū-River Gold and the land Adorned with Manifold Jewels, the buddha there being named Lamp of Fearlessness in All Dharmas. The ten classes of clouds of offering all take the lion-throne as their substance: clouds of lion-thrones of the jeweled lotus treasury of boundless colors and forms, clouds of lion-thrones of the treasury of the radiance of maṇi-kings, clouds of lion-thrones decked with every adornment and every manner of ornament, clouds of lion-thrones of the treasury of manifold jeweled garlands and lamp-flames, clouds of lion-thrones raining down jeweled necklaces everywhere, clouds of lion-thrones of the treasury of every fragrant flower and jeweled necklace, clouds of lion-thrones of the treasury of maṇi-kings that display the adornments of every buddha’s seat, clouds of lion-thrones with doors and windows, steps and terraces, and the necklaces and every adornment, clouds of lion-thrones of the treasury of the jeweled branches and stems of every maṇi tree, clouds of lion-thrones of the treasury of the radiance of the sun inlaid with jeweled fragrance.

Fazang explains the sense of the throne as “the sense of gathering in and benefiting.” A throne is a place of abiding, able to bring a person to rest and to receive benefit. That the first of the four intermediate quarters offers thrones has its sense here: having come and gathered, they must have a place to abide.

Worth noting is that what this quarter offers is thrones, and after arriving they too “each conjured a lion-throne of the banner of the radiance of jeweled lotus and maṇi” and sat. To offer thrones to the Buddha and oneself also to have a throne — between what is offered and what is received there is no separation at all, and this is a small footnote to the non-obstruction of the supporting and the supported in this chapter.

The Southeast: Lamp of Wisdom, Universal Brightness, and the Clouds of Curtains

From the southeast comes the bodhisattva Lamp of Wisdom, Universal Brightness, from the world-sea Golden Adornment, Beryl Radiance Illumining Everywhere and the land Pure Fragrant Radiance, the buddha there being named King of Universal Joy and Deep Faith. The ten classes of clouds of offering all take the curtain as their substance: clouds of maṇi curtains of every wish-fulfilling king, clouds of curtains adorned with sapphire and every flower, clouds of maṇi curtains of every fragrance, clouds of curtains of jeweled flame-lamps, clouds of maṇi-king curtains that display the Buddha’s supernormal penetrations and his preaching of the Dharma, clouds of maṇi curtains that display the colors and images of every adorning garment, clouds of curtains of the radiance of every cluster of jeweled flowers, clouds of curtains with the sound of jeweled nets and bells, clouds of curtains with maṇi for their dais and lotuses for their net, clouds of curtains that display the colors and images of every inconceivable adornment.

A curtain is a thing that covers and protects, of a kind with the canopy but closer-woven. The buddha of this quarter is named King of Universal Joy and Deep Faith, and the bodhisattva Lamp of Wisdom, Universal Brightness — faith and wisdom being inside and outside of one another: faith is like a curtain that covers and protects, bringing a person to safety; wisdom is like a lamp that is universally bright, bringing a person to see. There must be covering and protecting before there can be long abiding, and long abiding before wisdom can come to completion.

Here one easily confused thing should be pointed out: the bodhisattva of this quarter is named Lamp of Wisdom, Universal Brightness, the same name as the sixth of the bodhisattvas who speak verses later on. These are two different sets of persons — the bodhisattvas of the ten directions who come to the gathering are one set, and the bodhisattvas who appear within the radiance and from the tuft of white hair and speak the verses are another. The reader must distinguish them when citing, and not take them for one person.

The Southwest: Topknot of Universal Flower Flame-Light, and the Clouds of Canopies

From the southwest comes the bodhisattva Topknot of Universal Flower Flame-Light, from the world-sea Sunlight Illumining Everywhere and the land Lion Sun-Radiance, the buddha there being named Sound of the Radiance of Universal Wisdom. The clouds of offering he manifests take the canopy as their substance: clouds of jeweled canopies of manifold subtle adornments, clouds of flower canopies adorned with radiance, clouds of canopies of the pearl treasury of boundless colors, clouds of maṇi-king canopies that send forth the sound of the compassion of all bodhisattvas, clouds of canopies of manifold subtle jeweled flame-garlands, clouds of canopies decked with subtle jewels and hung with nets and bells, clouds of canopies adorned with the branches of maṇi trees, clouds of maṇi-king canopies with sunlight illumining everywhere, clouds of canopies of every unguent incense and burning incense, clouds of canopies of the sandalwood treasury, clouds of canopies adorned with the universal radiance of the vast realm of a buddha — this quarter lists one item more than the others, the actual count item by item being eleven; the scripture is not uniform here, and this is recorded as it is, without forcing it into uniformity.

Fazang explains the sense of the canopy as “the sense of shading and covering.” What the canopy betokens is the shade of kindness: among these items, the one called the maṇi-king canopy that sends forth the sound of the compassion of all bodhisattvas puts the sound of compassion directly into the canopy, and the sense is plainest there. The buddha’s name, the world’s name, and the land’s name of this quarter all carry “sunlight” — the sun can illumine and can also scorch, and so a canopy is needed; illumining and shading go together, which is wisdom and compassion going together.

The Northwest: Maṇi-King of Inexhaustible Radiance, and the Clouds of Perfect Radiance

From the northwest comes the bodhisattva Maṇi-King of Inexhaustible Radiance, from the world-sea Jeweled Radiance Shining Forth and the land Adorned with Manifold Fragrances, the buddha there being named Radiance of the Sea of Measureless Merit. The ten classes of clouds of offering all take perfect radiance as their substance: clouds of the perfect radiance of every jewel, clouds of the perfect radiance of every jeweled flame, clouds of the perfect radiance of every subtle flower, clouds of the perfect radiance of every conjured buddha, clouds of the perfect radiance of the buddha-lands of the ten directions, clouds of the perfect radiance of jeweled trees with the thunder-sound of the realm of a buddha, clouds of the perfect radiance of every beryl jewel and maṇi-king, clouds of the perfect radiance that in a single thought displays the forms of boundless sentient beings, clouds of the perfect radiance that sends forth the sound of the great vows of all tathāgatas, clouds of the perfect radiance of maṇi-kings that set forth and transform with the sounds of all sentient beings.

The two words “perfect radiance” are the eye of this quarter. In the quarters before, what was offered was flowers or trees or thrones or canopies, all still carrying shape; here what is offered is light, and light that is perfect — the sense of shape is spent, and only the sense of illumining is left. Among these items, the one called the perfect radiance that in a single thought displays the forms of boundless sentient beings is the most worth turning over: the perfection of the light lies not in how bright the light is in itself, but in this, that within a single thought the forms of boundless sentient beings all appear within it.

The bodhisattva’s name, Maṇi-King of Inexhaustible Radiance, agrees wholly with what he offers, which bears out what was said above of name and offering being of one class.

The Nadir: Wisdom of the Flaming Radiance of the Dharma Realm, and the Clouds of Radiance

From below comes the bodhisattva Wisdom of the Flaming Radiance of the Dharma Realm, from the world-sea Treasury of the Subtle Virtue of Lotus Fragrance and the land Jeweled Lion-Radiance Shining Forth, the buddha there being named Radiance of the Dharma Realm. The clouds of offering he manifests take radiance as their substance: clouds of the radiance of every maṇi treasury, clouds of the radiance of every fragrance, clouds of the radiance of every jeweled flame, clouds of radiance that send forth the sound of every buddha preaching the Dharma, clouds of radiance that display the adornments of every buddha-land, clouds of the radiance of every subtle flower pavilion, clouds of radiance that display how the buddhas of every kalpa teach and transform sentient beings, clouds of the radiance of every inexhaustible jeweled flower-stamen, clouds of the radiance of every adorned throne.

Below and above are, among the ten directions, the pair in which the sense of “non-obstruction” shows most. Below is commonly conceived as low, as sunken; and yet the names of this quarter run all the way through as Radiance of the Dharma Realm and Wisdom of the Flaming Radiance of the Dharma Realm — at the very lowest place what is offered is still the light of the Dharma realm. This is precisely where the Avataṃsaka will not let a person rank high and low by the quarters.

Among these items, the one called the clouds of radiance that display how the buddhas of every kalpa teach and transform sentient beings takes time also into the light: the light illumines not only space but the kalpas as well.

The Zenith: Wisdom of Unobstructed Power and Diligence, and the Clouds of Flaming Radiance

From above comes the bodhisattva Wisdom of Unobstructed Power and Diligence, from the world-sea Adorned with the Shining Forth of Maṇi Jewels and the land Markless Subtle Radiance, the buddha there being named King of the Radiance of Unobstructed Merit. The ten classes of clouds of offering all take flaming radiance as their substance: clouds of jeweled flaming radiance of boundless colors and forms, clouds of the flaming radiance of nets of maṇi jewels, clouds of the flaming radiance of the adornments of every vast buddha-land, clouds of the flaming radiance of every subtle fragrance, clouds of the flaming radiance of every adornment, clouds of the flaming radiance of the transformations of the buddhas, clouds of the flaming radiance of manifold subtle trees and flowers, clouds of the flaming radiance of every vajra, clouds of maṇi flaming radiance that tells of the boundless practices of a bodhisattva, clouds of the flaming radiance of every pearl lamp.

The name of the land, Markless Subtle Radiance, is the most important name among all the ten directions. Come to the zenith, and even the mark is withdrawn; only subtle radiance is left. And what is offered is flaming radiance — flame being what moves and does not stay, light that has force in it. The bodhisattva’s name, Wisdom of Unobstructed Power and Diligence, says the same thing: marklessness is not forcelessness; it is just because there is no mark that there is no obstruction, and just because there is no obstruction that the power of diligence is inexhaustible.

With this the ten directions are complete. Counted quarter by quarter, the ten places of the ten directions each have one great bodhisattva, one world-sea, one land, and one buddha’s name, and not one quarter wants any of them; while the classes of clouds of offering manifested, counted quarter by quarter, are: east nine · south ten · west ten · north nine · northeast ten · southeast ten · southwest eleven · northwest ten · below nine · above ten — the ten quarters are not uniform, and this is recorded as it is, without forcing it into uniformity.

The Conclusion of the Gathering: The Six Layers of Non-Obstruction and the Benefit Thought after Thought

After the ten directions are told severally comes the conclusion. The scripture first states the measure — within world-seas numerous as the dust motes of a thousand million buddha-lands there are bodhisattva-mahāsattvas numerous as the dust motes of a thousand million buddha-lands, and each of them again has a retinue numerous as the dust motes of a world-sea surrounding him. Next it states the virtuous substance: once seated, from within the pores of the bodies of these bodhisattvas each severally manifests rays of radiance numerous as the dust motes of ten world-seas, and within each ray there appear again bodhisattvas numerous as the dust motes of ten world-seas, all seated upon lion-thrones of the lotus treasury; and these bodhisattvas are able to enter everywhere into each single dust mote in every sea of the arraying of the Dharma realm, and within each single dust mote there are vast lands numerous as the dust motes of ten buddha-worlds, and within each single land there are the buddhas of the three times.

Fazang takes this one clause apart into six layers of non-obstruction, and moreover “each manifold times more than the one before” — body and light unobstructed; light and person unobstructed; person and dharma unobstructed; dust mote and land unobstructed; the supporting and the supported unobstructed; the function of transforming unobstructed. Each layer has one more manifold of levels than the one before. And he adds a judgment of the greatest importance: this is “the real virtue of the dependent origination that is just so of itself in the Dharma realm of the One Vehicle; it is not a transformation.”

Set one great error right: do not read this passage as a display of spiritual transformations. Fazang says plainly, “it is not a transformation” — it is not conjured up; it is the real virtue of the Dharma realm being originally so. A transformation has one who transforms and something transformed; the real virtue of dependent origination has no such twofold division. Brought down to the reading: in reading the inexhaustible passages of the Avataṃsaka, if the mind keeps asking ‘how was this conjured up?’, it will keep failing to get in.

Next comes the benefit in function. The scripture leads with “thought after thought” and gives ten Dharma-gates — sovereign freedom within dreams; displaying the passing away and taking birth of the gods; proclaiming all the practices of a bodhisattva; shaking every land everywhere and praising the Buddha’s merit and spiritual transformations; purifying the buddha-lands and revealing the seas of great vows; the Buddha’s voice that gathers in everywhere the speech of all sentient beings; being able to rain down clouds of all the Buddha’s teachings; radiance illumining everywhere the lands of the ten directions and displaying spiritual transformations throughout the Dharma realm; displaying the Buddha’s body everywhere, filling and pervading the Dharma realm, with the power of the liberation of every tathāgata; the bodhisattva Samantabhadra establishing every sea of the places of awakening where assemblies gather. Counted item by item, they are ten, with none wanting. Fazang settles these ten clauses as “the first nine set forth severally, and the last one concludes generally” — the first nine are Dharma-gates opened out separately, and the last, ‘Samantabhadra establishing,’ gathers them in.

Then comes the benefit gained. The scripture leads with “causing sentient beings numerous as the dust motes of Mount Sumeru” and gives ten things: leaving the suffering of the evil destinies; entering into the rightly settled; being born among the gods according to delight; dwelling in the position of the śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas; serving good friends and being complete in every meritorious practice; arousing the unsurpassed mind of awakening; going toward the non-retrogressive ground of a bodhisattva; gaining the pure eye of wisdom and seeing the dharmas of equality that the Tathāgata sees; dwelling in the seas of the powers and vows and purifying the buddha-lands; dwelling in Vairocana’s vast sea of vows and being born into the family of the Tathāgata. Counted item by item, they are ten. These ten things run from leaving suffering all the way to being born into the family of the Tathāgata, a complete stairway. Fazang, explaining this passage in the sixty-fascicle text, opens out four layers of matched explanation (matching the six stations of the common teaching, the three teachings, the four teachings, the three vehicles and the One Vehicle), and records of himself that “all the above is benefit within a single thought; all other thoughts are to be reckoned by this” — all of it within a single thought.

Verses Spoken with One Voice within the Radiance: The Bodhisattvas Tell of Themselves

The speaker of these verses must be got right: it is “the bodhisattvas within the radiance sent forth their voices at one and the same time” — not one representative, but the bodhisattvas together giving voice within the radiance. Earlier, the sound arising from within the cloud of articles of offering was a thing speaking; here it is a multitude speaking; in neither case does it fall upon a single person.

The content of the verses is a telling of the realm in which they practice: practicing through sea-like kalpas without weariness; exhausting the seas of kalpas cultivating skillful means and yet constantly proclaiming that the nature is quiescent; cultivating and purifying every vow of the buddhas of the three times; entering everywhere into the assemblies of the buddhas; seeing all the lands everywhere with the pure eye of wisdom; dwelling on the tip of a single hair and shaking the ten directions without causing sentient beings to be afraid; measureless bodies within each single dust mote; all the kalpas of the three times displayed in a single instant; knowing this body to be like an illusion, without substance. The last verse comes home to “the surpassing practice of Samantabhadra he is able wholly to enter.”

Fazang, on the sixty-fascicle text, settles these ten verses as “the first five praise the bodhisattvas’ virtue in general, and the latter five celebrate the foregoing Dharma-gates,” and within the first five he divides again into three of the virtue of their own portion (self-benefit, transforming others, gaining the Dharma) and two of advancing beyond (outward benefit, inward completeness), while the latter five answer to manifesting the Dharma, shaking the lands, the adornment of the body, entering the kalpas, and preaching the Dharma.

The position of these verses within the whole chapter is very delicate: they come after the gathering of the multitudes and before the light between the brows. The multitudes have gathered, the Dharma has not yet been preached, and the multitudes tell of their own realm — which is to tell the reader what kind of person it is who can receive the Dharma that follows.

Emitting Light between the Brows: Pointing Out the Lord of the Preaching

At the second emitting of light the place has changed — no longer the mouth, but between the brows. What it is for has changed too: the first time it was to summon the multitudes, this time it is “in order that the whole great assembly of bodhisattvas might gain the spiritual power of the Tathāgata’s boundless realm.” The second of Chengguan’s five senses of manifesting marks says it plainly: manifesting the mark of light between the brows, which points out the lord of the preaching.

Fazang explains the betokening of the space between the brows and of the white tuft: the space between the brows lies in the middle of the two eyes, and betokens the dharma of the One Vehicle of the middle way; the white tuft is white in color, and betokens the untainted white and pure dharma of the path of realization; and moreover white is the root of all colors, so it betokens further that this One Vehicle is the source of all the teachings. These three layers should be read apart: the middle way is said with respect to position, the white purity with respect to color, and the root of all colors with respect to the relation between white and the other colors.

In this passage there is also the third of the manifested marks — “it also shook everywhere the net of the many worlds, and within each single dust mote there appeared countless buddhas,” which is what Chengguan calls “shaking the net of lands, which alerts the faculties of the many.” The shaking is not to frighten; it is to alert. One who is deep asleep must first be shaken awake before there can be any talk of seeing.

Most important of all is the way the light is gathered back: “Having done these things for the assembly at the place of awakening of the bodhisattva Samantabhadra, that light circled the Buddha to the right and entered in beneath his feet.” The light comes forth from between the brows and yet enters in beneath the feet. Fazang answers this excellently: coming forth from the tuft and entering at the feet “betokens that the dharma above can be handed down below, and that handing it down does not lose the root — therefore it returns and enters in”; and asked how, the space between the brows and the soles of the feet being different places, it can be said to “return,” he answers that it is because it sets forth that above and below are not two. He gives a second layer as well: that the light of the tuft illumines Samantabhadra makes clear the fruit riding upon the cause; that it returns and enters in beneath the feet makes clear the cause completing the fruit.

Brought home to oneself: what comes from a high place must be able to come down to the lowest place, and only when it comes down to the lowest place without losing its root is it called handing down.

A Great Lotus Appears before the Buddha: Betokening That the Preaching Rests upon the Fruit

The fourth manifested mark is “manifesting a flower before the Buddha, which betokens that the preaching rests upon the fruit.” The scripture says, “At that time, before the Buddha, a great lotus suddenly appeared. This flower had ten kinds of adornment, and no other lotus could match it.”

The ten kinds of adornment, item by item, are: manifold jewels inlaid together making its stalk; the king of maṇi jewels making its treasury; the manifold jewels of the Dharma realm everywhere making its petals; the many fragrant maṇi jewels making its stamens; Jambū-river gold decking and illumining its dais; a subtle net covering it above with light and color pure; within a single thought displaying the spiritual transformations of boundless buddhas; being able to send forth every sound everywhere; the Buddha’s body appearing in reflection within the king of maṇi jewels; and within its sounds being able everywhere to proclaim all the practices and vows that bodhisattvas cultivate. Counted item by item they are ten, agreeing with the “ten kinds” the scripture itself marks. The first five are the shape and body of the flower (stalk, treasury, petals, stamens, dais), and the latter five are the function of the flower (covering, displaying transformations, sending forth sounds, reflecting the Buddha’s body, proclaiming the practices and vows) — five of body and five of function, shape and function each half.

Why a lotus? Fazang settles it bluntly: the lotus is the meaning that is expressed, and the bodhisattva Supreme Sound is the teaching that expresses; and that Supreme Sound sits upon the flower is called “the bestowing of the teaching in accordance with the meaning.” The teaching is set up upon the meaning, not the meaning upon the teaching — and this is the root order for reading every scripture and teaching. What is called “betokening that the preaching rests upon the fruit” is just this: what this flower betokens is the fruit-virtue relied upon, and the Dharma is about to be preached in reliance upon it.

Set one error right: do not read this flower as scenery. It is the doctrinal foundation of this preaching, and the throne upon which Samantabhadra relies when he enters concentration in the next chapter comes forth from it.

Bringing Forth the Multitude from the Tuft of White Hair: The Teaching Flows from the Buddha

The fifth manifested mark is “bringing forth the multitude from the tuft of white hair, which betokens that the teaching flows from the Buddha.” The scripture says that after this flower was brought forth, in a single thought, from within the mark of the tuft of white hair of the Tathāgata there was a bodhisattva-mahāsattva named Supreme Sound of All Dharmas who came forth together with bodhisattvas numerous as the dust motes of a world-sea.

The order here cannot be reversed: first the flower, then the coming forth of the multitude; first the meaning, then the teaching. After Supreme Sound comes forth he sits upon the dais of the lotus, and his retinue upon the stamens, each dwelling in due order — even the order of the seating tells the levels of what expresses and what is expressed.

The scripture goes on to describe the virtue of Supreme Sound: he had penetrated the profound Dharma realm and given rise to great joy; he had entered the path the Buddha walks and his wisdom was without hindrance; he had entered the immeasurable sea of the Buddha’s dharma-body; he had gone to where the tathāgatas are in every land; from all the pores of his body he displayed supernormal penetrations; thought after thought he contemplated the whole Dharma realm; and moreover “the buddhas of the ten directions together bestowed their power upon him,” causing him to dwell everywhere in every samādhi and to the end of future kalpas constantly to see the buddhas. This passage establishes his standing as speaker for the verses that follow — he is able to speak because the buddhas of the ten directions together bestowed their power upon him.

Then he “thereupon within the great assembly, receiving the majestic spiritual power of the Buddha, contemplated the ten directions and spoke these verses.” These verses are the first of the eleven praises. Chengguan sections this passage as “the text divides into two: the first one is the praise of the bodhisattva from between the brows, and the latter ten are the praises of the bodhisattvas of the ten directions” — one plus ten, eleven in all. So the reader should be clear: the praise of Supreme Sound is an independent first, and the ten that follow are another set.

The verses of Supreme Sound open with one of the two most famous lines in the whole scripture — “the Buddha’s body fills the whole Dharma realm, appearing everywhere before all sentient beings.” The structure of these verses runs from the pervading of the Buddha’s body, on to a single hair displaying many seas of lands, on to the bodhisattvas of the ten directions gathering like clouds, on to the wisdom-realm of dividing the body being established within the practice of Samantabhadra, and home at last to “everywhere for sentient beings they emit great radiance, and each rains down the rain of Dharma in accord with their minds.” From pervading to entering, from entering to establishing, from establishing to benefiting beings — one complete line.

A General Word on the Ten Praises: Praise as Answer

Below, ten bodhisattvas speak verses one after another. One thing must be made clear first: these ten praises are not ten sets of impressions; they are answers. Among these praises Chengguan settles the ten verses of one praise as answering the foregoing question about “sovereign freedom,” dividing them into three parts — the first six verses make clear the gathering in of beings with none left out, the next two the non-obstruction of quiescence and function, the last two the shorelessness of the great function. And at the end of the chapter he sums up by saying that the above has matched ten clauses in summary, and that within them the sense of the forty clauses is complete, though it cannot be pointed out one by one.

This ties the front and the back together: the question of forty clauses is answered in the marks of light, and answered too in these eleven praises. So with each praise below the reader may bring a question to set against it — what is this praise answering?

One general pattern for the speakers must also be accounted for: all ten say “receiving the majestic spiritual power of the Buddha, he contemplated the ten directions and spoke these verses” (two of them saying “the majestic power of the Buddha,” and one “contemplated the ten directions throughout”). Counted item by item, of the ten, eight say “receiving the majestic spiritual power of the Buddha” and two say “receiving the majestic power of the Buddha”; nine say “contemplated the ten directions” and one says “contemplated the ten directions throughout.” The wording differs a little and the attribution is wholly the same: the speaker is a bodhisattva, and the motive force is the Buddha. This is the fixed form of the attribution of speakers in the prose of the Avataṃsaka, and it must not be read as a bodhisattva showing off his own powers.

Praise One, King of the Wisdom of the Lotus Radiance Who Contemplates All Supreme Dharmas: Wisdom Enters the Dharma Realm and Appears According to the Occasion

The first is King of the Wisdom of the Lotus Radiance Who Contemplates All Supreme Dharmas. His verses begin from “the profound wisdom of the Tathāgata enters everywhere into the Dharma realm” — the first words fall upon wisdom, answering exactly to the foregoing question, “what is the wisdom of the buddhas?”

The backbone of this praise is the pair of same and different. “The buddhas are one and the same dharma-body, without support and without difference” is the same; “in accord with the minds of all sentient beings he causes them to see the form and shape of a buddha’s body” is the different. On the side of the same, the dharma-body is without support and without difference; on the side of the different, the form and shape that sentient beings see are each unlike. The two are not one before the other; they are at once: it is just because there is no difference that he can appear in accord with every difference.

He goes on to say “upon a single buddha-body he conjures forth measureless buddhas” and “within each single pore, nets of radiance reach the ten directions,” coming home to “in each single body of the Tathāgata the buddhas he displays are equal in number to sentient beings.” Set one error right: do not read “the buddhas he displays are equal in number to sentient beings” as meaning that the number of buddhas equals the number of sentient beings — that turns it into arithmetic. What it says is this: wherever there is one sentient being, there is a buddha there answering him; and where the answering reaches, there the Buddha is.

Praise Two, Radiance of the Wisdom of Dharma-Joy: Without Birth, Yet Displaying Birth

The second is Radiance of the Wisdom of Dharma-Joy. The eye of this praise is the four lines in the middle: “the Buddha’s body has no birth, and yet he is able to display being born; the nature of dharmas is like space, and the buddhas abide within it.” When Li Tongxuan explains “what is the ground of the buddhas,” it is precisely these two lines he cites as the answer — the nature of dharmas is like space and the buddhas abide within it, and this is the ground of the Tathāgata.

Without birth and yet able to display birth: this is the hardest knot in the whole chapter. If the Buddha’s body really had birth, then having birth it must have cessation, and could not constantly appear; if the Buddha’s body were purely without birth and could not display birth, then sentient beings would forever have no share in seeing him. The scripture’s answer falls on neither side: “without a place of dwelling and without any going, everywhere one can see the Buddha”; “without substance, without a place of dwelling, and with no birth that can be got at, without mark and without shape, all that he displays is like a shadow.”

The last verse says, “the bodies of all the buddhas all have inexhaustible marks, and though what they display is measureless, their colors and forms are never exhausted” — what is displayed is measureless and yet the colors and forms are never exhausted, precisely because it was never taken out of a limited store to begin with. Brought home to oneself: seeing the Buddha is not waiting for a thing to appear; it is seeing at the place where nothing is got.

Praise Three, Wisdom of the Universal Brightness of Fragrant Flame-Radiance: One Who Sees the Buddha’s Spiritual Power Is One Who Has Already Entered

The third is Wisdom of the Universal Brightness of Fragrant Flame-Radiance. This praise changes the angle — it speaks not of the Buddha but of the person who can see the Buddha. It opens with “the bodhisattvas of this assembly have entered the ground of the Buddha beyond conceiving, and each and every one of them is able to see the spiritual power of every buddha.”

Why can they see? Because “their wisdom-bodies are able to enter throughout the dust motes of every buddha-land, they see their own bodies within them, and they see the buddhas everywhere.” The condition of seeing is not standing near; it is that the wisdom-body has already entered throughout. He says further, “the practices and vows of Samantabhadra, cultivated and purified, are already bright and clean, and so within every buddha-land they are able to see everywhere the Buddha’s spiritual transformations” — being cultivated and purified and bright and clean is the precondition.

The use of this praise to the reader is the most direct of all: it converts all the inconceivable scenes that went before into a condition of practice. Set an error right: do not suppose that the realm of the Avataṃsaka is put on for people to gawk at. The scripture says clearly that the one who can see that realm is one who is already within it. “Their bodies abide in every place, and every place is equal; and when wisdom is able to move in this way, one has entered the realm of the Buddha” — practicing equality is the gate of entry.

Praise Four, Radiance of the Wisdom of the Lion’s Swift Valor: The Pervading of the Wheel of Dharma and the Difference of the Names

The fourth is Radiance of the Wisdom of the Lion’s Swift Valor. This praise speaks specially of turning the wheel of Dharma, and it opens by marking the name of the lord: “the Buddha Vairocana is able to turn the wheel of true Dharma; the many lands of the Dharma realm are all pervaded by it like clouds.”

Most worth turning over are these two lines: “in all the lands of the buddhas, within the vast assemblies, his names are each different, and according to what befits them he sets forth the subtle Dharma.” The Buddha’s names in different lands are each unlike, and yet what is turned is one and the same wheel of Dharma. This settles a practical perplexity — why the names of buddhas in the scriptures are so many. The answer is: the names differ according to the occasion, and the substance of the Dharma does not differ with them.

He says further, “the Buddha’s body is equal to the dust motes of the lands, and everywhere he rains down the rain of Dharma, without birth and without difference, appearing throughout all the worlds” — still no difference and yet difference appearing. The last verse says, “past, future, and present, all the buddhas, the tathāgatas, and the subtle wheels of Dharma they turn — in this assembly all of it may be heard”: the wheels of Dharma turned by the buddhas of the three times can all be heard within this one assembly. This is a direct statement of the Avataṃsaka’s view of time, and it also answers to the earlier line, “all the great vows of the buddhas of the three times will be proclaimed beneath the tree of awakening.”

Praise Five, Treasury of Merit, Wisdom of the Sea of Dharma: From the Sea of Sounds to the Ground of the Powers

The fifth is Treasury of Merit, Wisdom of the Sea of Dharma. The thread of this praise is sound, answering exactly to the question “what is the voice of the buddhas?”

He speaks first of those who can enter: “the sons of the Buddha of this assembly have well cultivated the manifold kinds of wisdom, and such people as these are already able to enter a gate of skillful means such as this.” Then of the pervading of the sound: “within each single land they send forth everywhere a vast voice, proclaiming the place where the Buddha walks, heard throughout the buddha-lands of the ten directions.” Then he turns to the side of the hearer: “the vast voice of the buddhas — there is nothing in the Dharma realm that does not hear it; and a bodhisattva is able to know it and skillfully to enter the sea of sounds.”

Most important are these two lines: “all the sounds that sentient beings have, and the sovereignly free voice of the Buddha — having gained the wisdom of sounds, he is able to know them all.” The sounds of sentient beings and the voice of the Buddha are, for one who has gained the wisdom of sounds, one and the same thing — not that the speech of sentient beings is translated into the Buddha’s Dharma, but that they were the same all along.

The last verse, “from one ground he gains a further ground, and dwells within the ground of the powers; through koṭis of kalpas he diligently practices, and the Dharma he gains is just so,” brings the whole praise back to the stations of practice: none of this is inborn; it is gained from one ground to another, through koṭis of kalpas of diligent practice. This is the line closest to the successive stages of practice among all eleven praises of this chapter.

Praise Six, Lamp of Wisdom, Universal Brightness: Only Free of Marks Does One See the Guide

The sixth is Lamp of Wisdom, Universal Brightness (not the same person as the bodhisattva of the same name who came to the gathering from the southeast, as was distinguished above). This praise opens with the steepest line in the whole chapter: “all the tathāgatas are far removed from the manifold marks; and if one can know this dharma, then one sees the guide of the world.”

The praises before have said so much of marks — pores, nets of radiance, form-bodies, seas of lands; and here of a sudden it is said that the Tathāgata is far removed from the manifold marks. This is not a reversal of the verdict; it sets the foregoing marks back in the place where they belong. Marks can be seen, and yet to see a mark is not to see the Buddha; one must know that the buddhas are far removed from the manifold marks before one counts as having seen the guide.

He then gives the method of seeing: “within the samādhi of a bodhisattva the light of wisdom is universally clear, able to know of all the buddhas the sovereignly free nature of their substance” — knowing the nature of the substance by the light of wisdom within concentration. And again, “seeing the true substance of the Buddha, one then awakens to the profound Dharma, contemplating everywhere the Dharma realm and taking a body in accord with one’s original vow.”

“The one solid and dense body may be seen within every dust mote” is the key line of this praise. Solid and dense means it cannot be divided; being one and yet seen within every dust mote is precisely the joining of being free of marks and appearing everywhere. The last verse comes home to “because of the Buddha’s majestic spiritual power, the many bodhisattvas appear; and sustained by the Buddha’s power they see the tathāgatas everywhere” — even the seeing itself is sustained by the Buddha’s power.

Praise Seven, Topknot of Flower Flame, Wisdom of Universal Brightness: The Dharma-Body and Faith

The seventh is Topknot of Flower Flame, Wisdom of Universal Brightness (this one receives “the majestic power of the Buddha,” not “the majestic spiritual power,” a difference of wording with the same sense). This praise speaks of the relation between the dharma-body and sentient beings.

“The Buddha takes the Dharma as his body, pure as space; and the manifold colors and shapes he displays are all to bring beings to enter into this Dharma” — the colors and shapes displayed are not the end; they are for bringing people to enter into the Dharma. This one line is the master key to the betokening of the whole chapter: every manifested mark is for the sake of bringing beings in.

He then distinguishes two kinds of person: “if there are those who deeply believe and rejoice and who are moreover gathered in by the Buddha, one should know that people such as these are able to give rise to a mind that comprehends the Buddha’s wisdom”; and “those who have little wisdom are unable to know this dharma, but those whose eye of wisdom is pure are able to see it here.” Deep faith and a pure eye of wisdom are on one side, little wisdom on the other. Set an error right: “little wisdom” here is not an insult; it states a boundary — the scripture itself admits that this Dharma-gate is not opened to every faculty all at once.

The last part says, “abiding in the buddha-lands, arising in every place, without going and without coming — such is the dharma of the buddhas,” and closes with “in the sea of all sentient beings the Buddha’s body appears like a shadow; and according to the differences in their understanding they see the guide accordingly” — what is seen differs according to understanding, and this hands the responsibility back to the reader: what kind of buddha you see depends on how far you understand.

Praise Eight, Inexhaustible Radiance of Majestic Wisdom: The Marks of the Lands and the One Real Principle

The eighth is Inexhaustible Radiance of Majestic Wisdom. What is special about this praise is that it is the only one of the eleven to treat in detail the shapes of the lands: “the many seas of lands of the ten directions, buddha-lands of every kind and measureless, are all level and pure, formed of sapphire. Some are inverted, some abide on their side, some are like a lotus closing up, some are round, some are square, and there are manifold forms of every kind.”

Inverted, on their side, like a lotus closing up, round, square — this passage is of one system with the shapes of the seas of lands treated at length in the chapter on the Flower-Treasury world further on. Here a summary of them is given first, laying the ground for what follows.

And having told a thousand differences of shape, he gathers at once to the one: “the subtle wheel of Dharma that he turns — the nature of dharmas is without difference, and relying upon the one real principle he sets forth the manifold marks of dharmas.” The shapes are measureless; the principle relied upon is one. This is the axis of the praise.

The last verse, “within all the lands one sees the Buddha seated at the place of awakening, the Buddha’s body appearing like a shadow, and neither arising nor ceasing can be got at,” answers to “all that he displays is like a shadow” in the second praise. The eleven praises often echo one another like this, and the reader may take note: they are not each speaking on their own.

Praise Nine, Wisdom of the Universal Brightness of the Dharma Realm: Faith, Understanding, Vow, and Wisdom as the Steps of Entry

The ninth is Wisdom of the Universal Brightness of the Dharma Realm (this one also receives “the majestic power of the Buddha”). This praise is the most serviceable of all: it sets out the conditions of “being able to enter” as a stairway.

First what is seen: “the subtle body of the Tathāgata, its colors and forms are beyond conceiving; those who see it give rise to joy, and reverently they take faith and delight in the Dharma” — seeing and giving rise to joy, reverence, faith and delight: this is the first step. Next those who can know: “the bodhisattvas of great wisdom enter deeply into the sea of dharmas, and sustained by the Buddha’s power they are able to know this skillful means.” Then four things are set out: “if there are those who have faith and understanding, together with the great vows, and are complete in profound wisdom, they penetrate all dharmas” — faith and understanding, great vows, profound wisdom, penetration, one after another.

Then the fruit: “they are able, upon the bodies of the buddhas, to contemplate them one by one, and colors and sounds are no obstruction to them, and they comprehend the manifold realms”; “they are able, upon the bodies of the buddhas, to dwell in what wisdom practices, swiftly to enter the ground of the Tathāgata and to gather in the Dharma realm everywhere.”

The last two verses say, “numerous as the dust motes of the buddha-lands, lands of every kind such as these they are able to cause, within a single thought, to appear within each single dust mote” and “all the many lands and the affairs of supernormal penetration all appear within a single buddha-land — such is the power of a bodhisattva” — coming home at last to “the power of a bodhisattva.” After so much has been said of the Buddha’s realm, this praise sets it upon the bodhisattva’s own power: this is not scenery for an onlooker; it is a matter that can be cultivated and gained.

Praise Ten, Unobstructed Wisdom of the Power of Diligence: The Single Sound and Not Grasping

The tenth, and the last, is Unobstructed Wisdom of the Power of Diligence. He begins from sound: “the Buddha sets forth a single subtle sound, heard throughout the buddha-lands of the ten directions; the manifold sounds are all complete within it, and the rain of Dharma fills and pervades all.” A single sound in which the manifold sounds are complete — this is the last answer to the question of the Buddha’s voice.

The middle turns to the dharma-body: “the dharma-body is like space, without obstruction and without difference; and its colors and shapes are like a reflected image, the manifold marks of every kind appearing.” Then he uses an exceedingly clear explanation: “a reflected image has no quarter or place, and like space it is without substantial nature; and one whose wisdom is vast penetrates their equality.” When Chengguan explains this passage he says the sense of the reflected image through to the end — that the reflected image sets forth having no quarter or place means that when the light is in the east the shadow is in the west, and when the light is in the west the shadow is in the east; when the substance stands opposite the image is born and yet comes from nowhere; when the substance withdraws the image perishes and yet goes nowhere; and therefore this image is, in its very substance, empty and without substance. His explanation of the next line, “like space,” is likewise most spare: because it cannot be grasped; though it manifests a shape, it is like the moon in water, equal as space.

And so the four lines at the end follow of themselves: “the Buddha’s body cannot be grasped, without birth and without any making; in response to beings it appears everywhere before them, equal as space.” Cannot be grasped and yet appears everywhere before them — this is precisely the general answer to the forty questions of the whole chapter.

The last two verses close with “the Buddha Vairocana, whose power of vow pervades the Dharma realm, within all the lands constantly turns the unsurpassed wheel” and “within a single hair he displays spiritual transformations, and all the buddhas alike proclaim it; and though one pass through measureless kalpas, one cannot reach its bound.” To close with shorelessness is exactly the Avataṃsaka style.

The Conclusion Extended without End: This Is Only One Place of Awakening in Jambudvīpa

One sentence at the end of the chapter pushes the scale of the whole assembly open again: “Just as in this place of awakening within these four continents, where by the spiritual power of the Buddha bodhisattva multitudes numerous as the dust motes of a koṭi world-seas came from each of the ten directions to the gathering, so should it be known that within all the world-seas, in the many places of awakening within each set of four continents, it is likewise so.”

Chengguan sections this passage into two layers: first raising this case; second, with the words “it should be known,” extending it to that. He also settles a small question — why say “the four continents”? “As for ‘the four continents,’ the intent is upon Jambudvīpa — the words are general and the intent particular.” The words say the four continents in general, but the meaning falls upon Jambudvīpa. He points out at the end the use of this sentence: since it is the gathering of the bodhisattvas like clouds that is here concluded and extended, it is all the more set forth that what was praised above is that of the ten directions. At the end of the chapter the commentary reads “the far skillful means is finished” — this chapter, as the far skillful means of the manner and rite of preaching the Dharma, ends here.

This sentence is the reader’s last calibration: the multitudes numerous as the dust motes of a thousand million buddha-lands seen above are a matter of this one place of awakening only, and places of awakening like this are in every set of four continents within all the world-seas. Set an error right: if on reading this far the numbers feel unreal, one is still reading them as quantity. It is not reporting a count; it is withdrawing the notion that ‘this one assembly is special.’

Lineage

The sense of this chapter was carried on by four later tracks, all of them recorded without adjudication. The line of Chengguan: he opens the chapter with the four gates of the reason for its coming · the explanation of the name · the tenet and aim · the explanation of the text, sets up ‘the five senses of Tathāgata and the five senses of manifesting marks’ to make ten, judges the text of the chapter to divide broadly into six (the assembly of seas requesting together · light summoning those with affinity · the summoned rushing like clouds · auspicious signs betokening the preaching · the Buddha’s virtue extolled · the conclusion extended without end), and assesses the requesting and questioning of the first assembly in five gates, judging this assembly to be a question of forty clauses and its answer to be “the answer by displaying a mark”; and on the question whether the doubt is provisional or real, he records the two explanations from of old and then sets up separately the sense that “doubt is taken as having power, and together with what is preached and verified it makes dependent origination,” using the mold and the image as a simile — this is where the Avataṃsaka’s sense of dependent origination comes to rest in this chapter. The line of Fazang: he explains this scene within the chapter Rocana Buddha of the sixty-fascicle text, sectioning it by the “long division into ten,” of which this chapter is the first two parts; on the word for “mouth” he records three explanations from of old and does not adjudicate, going instead by way of the Sanskrit transliteration; he settles the four intents of emitting light, the four intents of gathering the multitudes, the seven items for each of the ten quarters, and the ten senses of the articles of offering; on the bound and the boundless of the Flower-Treasury he sets up the simile of the brocade nest and the answer of host and companion in Indra’s net; and on the virtue of the bodhisattva multitude he settles six layers of non-obstruction and pronounces it “the real virtue of the dependent origination that is just so of itself in the Dharma realm of the One Vehicle; it is not a transformation.” He also refutes the old opinion that “these questions are to be matched to answers in the assemblies below,” holding that the forty questions are answered generally in this chapter. The line of Zhiyan: he explains in accordance with the sectioning of the sixty-fascicle text, settling the tenet and aim by person and dharma each complete in substance, mark, and function; he reckons the clauses of question as twenty-three, and matches the three bodies to the first twelve clauses — this together with Chengguan’s forty clauses and Li Tongxuan’s thirty-seven questions makes three numbers, and there are these three accounts from of old, which are recorded here. The line of Li Tongxuan: he takes this chapter and the four that follow under the general gate of “raising the fruit to urge cultivation,” reckons the questions as thirty-seven (eighteen kinds of the Buddha’s dharma plus nineteen seas of the buddhas and bodhisattvas), judges this chapter to have two emissions of light, three when the pores of the bodhisattvas are included, and ten through the whole scripture from first to last, and cites the text below as the answer to each question in turn — a track different from those who explain by the sectioning of a commentary, and this too is recorded without adjudication.

As for the framework books of the Huayan school, upon a thorough search the items of this chapter are not found in them, and the absence is recorded in accordance with fact, nothing from elsewhere being put in its place. Outside this chapter, the answers to its forty questions are distributed among the chapters that follow: the seventh and eighth items, samādhi and supernormal penetration, have their proper exposition in the chapter on the samādhi of Samantabhadra and beyond; the questions about the seas have their broad treatment in the chapter on the formation of the worlds and the chapter on the Flower-Treasury world; while as to the uneven appearing of the two items “that which cannot be appropriated” and “supernormal penetration,” Chengguan has already pointed out that in the chapter on the Dharma realm they are opened and joined otherwise. What this chapter opens is a mark, and what it answers is the whole scripture — this is the thing most to be remembered in reading the first assembly.