華嚴經 品五 華藏世界品 · 所持剎網差別三·重頌Avataṃsaka Sūtra · The Flower-Treasury World · The Differentiated Net of Lands It Sustains, Part Three: The Verses

First, See Clearly What This Passage Is Bringing to a Close

The chapter “The Flower-Treasury World” reaches its last fascicle here. The two preceding passages have already named, sea by sea, the first ten of the ten-tiered fragrant-water seas; this passage first completes the remaining ten seas, then sums everything up in one stretch of prose, and finally restates the whole chapter in one hundred and one verses. The form is in three parts: the naming, the summing-up, and the verses.

Ask first the question most easily passed over: why name so many names? Thousands of characters of sea-names, world-seed names and buddha-names in a row read like a catalogue, not like Dharma. The answer lies in the summing-up: these names are not there for you to remember, they are there so that you may take your stand on two words — “each and every” and “each of its own.” By the time the sūtra has gone on listing for a while, you can no longer hold a single name in mind — and that is exactly the effect it wants. When the names and forms are too many to remember, what is left is just this one thing: “each and every one of them is free, and among them there is no confusion.”

Correcting a misreading: do not read this passage as a map of the cosmos that could be drawn. It does indeed have directions (east, outside), it has levels (the very bottom, level with Vajra Banner, level with the Sahā world, the very top), and it has distances (passing beyond as many worlds as the dust-motes of ten buddha-lands); but the unit of these measures is “grind one buddha's land into dust-motes and count each mote as one” — and once that unit is in play, no map can be drawn. The directions and levels are there so that the mind may walk through them once in order, not so that you may locate anything.

Bringing it home: the right posture for reading this passage is to let the names and forms flow past you, and to pause where “each of its own” occurs. Chengguan outlines the summing-up passage in five subdivisions, and the third is called “concluding the differing modes of the seeds” — difference is the bone of this whole passage.

The Ten Groups of Remaining Seas: One Sentence-Pattern, Laid Out Ten Times

Ask first: do the ten groups share a single sentence-pattern? They do, and an extremely regular one: state the direction (east of, or outside of, such-and-such a fragrant-water sea) → name them one by one, “next there comes a fragrant-water sea named such, its world-seed named such” → gather them up with “fragrant-water seas like these, as many as the dust-motes of an unspeakable number of buddha-lands” → name the sea nearest to the Encircling Mountains together with its world-seed, and say what sound that world-seed takes as its substance → and finally set out the four levels of worlds, from bottom to top, with their buddhas.

Now the ten groups, one by one. The first group lies east of the Stainless Flame Treasury fragrant-water sea, lists eight seas, from Transformed Subtle Body to Jeweled Flame Lamp; the sea nearest the Encircling Mountains is named Crystal Ground, its seed Ever Emitting Light, whose substance is the sound of the pure kalpa of the world-sea, and whose four levels of worlds run from Delightful Pure Light Banner to Supreme Body Fragrance. The second group lies outside the Endless Light Wheel sea, lists nine seas; the nearest sea is Wondrous Tree Blossom, its seed Producing Vast Lands in Every Quarter, whose substance is the sound of all buddhas crushing Māra. The third group lies outside the Vajra Flame Light sea, lists nine seas; the nearest sea is Boundless Wheel-Adorned Floor, its seed Measureless Differentiation of Quarters, whose substance is the sound of the manifold speech of all lands. The fourth group lies outside the Sapphire Jewel Adornment sea, lists nine seas; the nearest sea is Tree-Adorned Banner, its seed Abiding in Indra's Net, whose substance is the sound of the ground of the wisdom of all bodhisattvas. The sixth group lies outside the Lotus Indra's Net sea, lists nine seas; the nearest sea is Dense Flame Cloud Banner, its seed All-Light Adornment, whose substance is the sound of the assemblies at the seats of awakening of all tathāgatas. The seventh group lies outside the Accumulated Jewel Fragrance Treasury sea, lists nine seas; the nearest sea is Jambūnada Jewel Treasury Wheel, its seed Universal Sound Banner, whose substance is the sound of the gate that enters omniscience. The eighth group lies outside the Jewel Adornment sea, lists nine seas; the nearest sea is Issuing Sapphire Jewels, its seed Everywhere Without Difference, whose substance is the sound of the thunderous roar of all bodhisattvas. The ninth group lies outside the Vajra Jewel Mass sea, lists nine seas; the nearest sea is Indestructible Sea, its seed Lotus Court Inlaid with Wondrous Wheels, whose substance is the sound issuing from the power of all buddhas. The tenth group lies outside the Jeweled Battlements of the Celestial City sea, lists nine seas; the nearest sea is Accumulated Necklace Garments, its seed Manifested Wondrous Garments, whose substance is the sound of all buddhas of the three times.

The fifth group must be spoken of on its own. It lies outside the Vajra Wheel Adorned Floor sea; it lists the names of nine seas, and then it simply stops — there is no gathering sentence, “fragrant-water seas like these, as many as the dust-motes of an unspeakable number of buddha-lands”; there is no sea nearest the Encircling Mountains; and there are no four levels of worlds with their buddhas. It is the only one of the ten groups that is so. The sūtra reads thus: what is missing is missing, and one does not fill it in from the text of the other nine.

The first group has one more feature that sets it apart: its direction-word is “east,” whereas the other nine groups all use “outside”; and the two phrases “of a single unmixed purity” and “surrounded by as many worlds as the dust-motes of a buddha-land” occur, in the whole passage, only in the first group and the tenth, and never in the eight groups between. In the sixth group's four levels the phrase “the very top” does not occur; its last level says only “passing upward beyond as many worlds as the dust-motes of seven buddha-lands, there is a world named Pure Sea Adornment.”

Correcting a misreading: these unevennesses are not copyists' slips, nor need they be treated as gaps that must be filled out. The sūtra's own manner is to be full in the first group, abbreviated in the middle, and full again in the last — full at head and tail and sparing in between is the ordinary way of a long enumeration.

Bringing it home: in reading the ten groups, hold on to just two things in each group — what sound the world-seed nearest the Encircling Mountains takes as its substance, and the buddha-names of the four levels of worlds. The first says that the substance of a world is sound; the second says that every level has its buddha. Each of these two becomes a passage of its own later, in the verses.

The Summing-Up, First Subdivision: One Sea, One Seed, the Numbers Alike

Ask first: ten fragrant-water seas matched with ten unspeakable numbers of world-seeds — where does this number come from? Chengguan outlines this sentence as “concluding the total number,” and explains: one fragrant-water sea governs one unspeakable number, so ten seas have ten unspeakable numbers; and one sea is matched with one world-seed, so the number of the seas and the number of the world-seeds are alike.

The pivot here is “one sea, one seed.” Through the thousands of characters before, under every single fragrant-water sea there hung a single world-seed — not one too many, not one too few. So “ten unspeakable numbers of fragrant-water seas” and “ten unspeakable numbers of world-seeds” are not two reckonings; they are two faces of one reckoning.

Correcting a misreading: do not read “unspeakable” as “cannot be told.” It is the name of a number, the utmost term of counting, as when one goes from hundreds, thousands, ten-thousands and koṭis on up to the limit. When the sūtra says “as many as the dust-motes of an unspeakable number of buddha-lands,” it first grinds one buddha's land into dust-motes for its unit and then multiplies that by “unspeakable” — it is pushing the number out to where the capacity of the mind can no longer hold it, so that the mind lets go of its own accord.

Bringing it home: this subdivision teaches one thing — the moment you find yourself counting, you have already taken the wrong road.

The Summing-Up, Second Subdivision: All of Them Rest on That One Great Lotus

Ask first: these ten unspeakable numbers of world-seeds — what do they rest upon? They rest upon the lotus “Adorned with a Maṇi-King Banner Manifesting the Forms of All Bodhisattvas.” Chengguan outlines this sentence as “concluding what the seas and seeds rest upon,” and points out that this is the very great lotus, spoken of earlier, that sustains the seas of lands.

There is a knot in the naming here, and Chengguan points it out on the spot: the great lotus of the earlier passage was named “Manifold Radiance Stamen Fragrance Banner,” while here it is called “the lotus Adorned with a Maṇi-King Banner Manifesting the Forms of All Bodhisattvas” — two different names in two places. He gives two explanations and lets both stand: one, that it is a single lotus bearing different names according to its function; two, that this name is the same as the name of the bed of the sea at the very centre in the earlier passage, and may be a name the translator took by mistake. He does not decide which is right.

Correcting a misreading: do not suppose that the ancient worthies must always deliver a single answer. What Chengguan does here is to set out both possibilities without settling on one — this way of “letting both stand without adjudicating” is the ordinary practice of the commentators, not vagueness.

Bringing it home: all the world-seeds rest upon a single lotus. This sentence is one of the most important closings in the whole chapter: however many seas, however many seeds, however many levels have been laid out above, underneath there is only one flower.

The Summing-Up, Third Subdivision: The Ten “Each of Its Own” Phrases

Ask first: wherein lies the difference between one world-seed and another? The sūtra answers in a single breath with ten “each of its own” phrases: each has its adornments joined on without a break, each emits jewel-colored light, each has clouds of light spread over it, each has its adorning furnishings, each has its differences of kalpas, each has buddhas appearing in it, each expounds Dharma-teachings like a sea, each has beings filling it, each enters universally into the ten directions, each is sustained by the spiritual power of all buddhas. The word “all” in the preceding sentence, “all rest upon … the lotus,” states what they share; these ten “each of its own” phrases state how they differ — one sameness and one difference, forming an exact pair. Chengguan outlines this as “concluding the differing modes of the seeds,” and says that it is largely the same as the earlier section explaining the land-seeds, and as the ten aspects in the chapter “The Formation of the Worlds.”

These ten “each of its own” phrases are not a heaping-up of rhetoric; they are the table of contents for the verses. When Chengguan divides the verse sections, the wording of several of his outline-headings carries the very words of the summing-up: among the nine verses on the seeds that sustain, “next two on their quarters and their entering into them, the last one on the sustaining power of the buddhas” answers exactly to “each enters universally into the ten directions” and “each is sustained by the spiritual power of all buddhas”; and within the ninety-one verses on what is sustained, the fourth passage “sets out the adorning furnishings of the worlds, each of its own,” the fifth “sets out the reach of adornment, each of its own, without any break,” the seventh “sets out the differences of kalpas, each of its own,” and the eighth “sets out the appearance of buddhas, each of its own” — four headings using the words “each of its own” outright; and the particular explanation of the tenth passage says, “this is precisely to set forth ‘each expounds Dharma-teachings like a sea.’” For the remaining passages the commentary makes no such pairing — indeed for the third passage Chengguan says plainly that there is no corresponding sentence in the summing-up (see the third passage below). Reading the sūtra by itself, the presence and absence of light sung in the ninth passage may be set against “each emits jewel-colored light” and “each has clouds of light spread over it”; but this is a pairing made by reading the text, not an adjudication of the commentators.

Correcting a misreading: “each of its own” does not mean “having nothing to do with one another.” The very next subdivision is about to say that they are joined on one to the next into a net — “each of its own” is difference, and “forming a net” is non-obstruction; the two sentences must be read together.

Bringing it home: remember these ten phrases, and the verses will not read as one hundred and one scattered pieces.

The Summing-Up, Fourth Subdivision: Joined into a Single Net

Ask first: how are world and world set in place? The sūtra says: within each and every one of these world-seeds, all the worlds rest upon adornments of every kind, joined on one to the next, tied together into a net of worlds. Chengguan outlines this as “concluding the lands within the seeds,” and explains the three words “net of worlds” with a simile: each and every world is like a mesh of a net, joined on one to the next; as when a net holds something, its horizontal and vertical strands cross and bind and everywhere answer to one another, like the pearl-net of the heavens.

The simile of the mesh is exact: mesh and mesh are not confounded — that is “each of its own”; mesh and mesh are joined by one and the same cord — that is “forming a net”; and the mesh itself is empty — a net can hold what it holds precisely because its meshes are empty.

Correcting a misreading: do not read “net” in the sense of bondage. The net here is a net that sustains, not a net that entangles.

Bringing it home: this simile of the heavenly pearl-net reappears twice in the verses — once of the appearance of lands, “they are like the jeweled net of the lord of gods, its light ever ablaze,” and once of the shape of lands, “their shape like the jeweled net of Śakra.” One in respect of light, one in respect of shape.

The Summing-Up, Fifth Subdivision: Everything Referred Back to the Flower-Treasury

Ask first: where does all this finally come home? To the Flower-Treasury Adorned World-Sea. Chengguan outlines this as “concluding by referring all back to the Flower-Treasury,” and says that this is the place of establishing.

The four preceding subdivisions open outward all the way — opening out ten seas, opening out ten unspeakable numbers of world-seeds, opening out ten “each of its own” phrases, opening out a net of worlds; and at the fifth subdivision a single sentence draws it all back: all these differences of every kind are established everywhere within the Flower-Treasury Adorned World-Sea. It opens to the utmost without scattering, because there is a place of establishing.

Correcting a misreading: the weight of “established everywhere” falls on “everywhere,” not on “established.” It is not that someone built a thing in some place; it is that one and the same matter holds good in all places at once.

Bringing it home: with this the prose ends. Chengguan appends here the sentence “the prose of the twofold explanation of the two sections is herewith complete” — “the two sections” being the two topics set up in the earlier text; with this all the prose has been explained, and what follows is entirely verse.

The First Verse of the Restatement: The Flower-Treasury in Its Own Substance

Ask first: of the one hundred and one verses, why does the first verse stand as a passage by itself? Because what it sings is not the lands that are sustained, but the Flower-Treasury itself. Chengguan divides the whole restatement into two: the first verse sets out the Flower-Treasury in its own substance, and the remaining hundred verses sing the net of lands it sustains.

For the four lines of this verse Chengguan gives a heading to each: the first line, “the great sea of the Flower-Treasury world,” states the name; the second, “equal to the Dharma realm and without difference,” says that its measure is never broken and so is identical with true nature; the third, “its adornment is utterly pure,” says that it is complete in the adornments of merit; and the fourth, “it abides in empty space,” says that it abides without obstruction.

The heaviest of the four is the second. “Equal to the Dharma realm and without difference” — this sea, which is a dependent recompense, is equal to the Dharma realm and without difference from it. All the names and forms laid out in the thousands of characters before would be, without this line, no more than an exceedingly large picture; with this line, that picture is the Dharma realm itself.

Correcting a misreading: do not read “it abides in empty space” as “it hangs in mid-air.” It is to be read together with the second line: because it is equal to the Dharma realm and without difference, there is no other thing propping it up — having nothing to rest on is what is called abiding in empty space.

Bringing it home: the eye of the whole chapter is in this one line. Whatever the hundred verses that follow may speak of — coming to be and breaking down, suffering and pleasure, light and sound — none of it falls outside this line.

The Nine Verses on What Sustains: Seven Matters of the Land-Seeds Themselves

Ask first: what do the nine verses from the second to the tenth sing? They sing the land-seeds that sustain — that is, the world-seed itself, which can contain all worlds. Chengguan divides these nine verses into seven matters: the first verse speaks of their interpenetrating without confusion; the second of their arrangement in ranks; the third of the substance and adornment of the land-seeds; the next two distinguish their shapes; the next one their resting-place; the next two their quarters and their entering; and the last the sustaining power of the buddhas.

Now verse by verse. The second verse, “each and every one of them is free, and among them there is no confusion” — this is interpenetrating without confusion: they interpenetrate one another and yet are not confounded, answering exactly to the “each of its own” of the summing-up. The third verse, “the land-seeds are well arrayed, their shapes distinct and their adornments diverse” — this is arrangement in ranks: not a random heap, but ordered in their placing. The fourth verse, “the sounds that the buddhas send forth in transformation become, in all their kinds, their substance” — this is the substance of the land-seeds, answering to what was said of every one of the ten groups above, that such-and-such a sound is its substance; the substance of a world is a sound sent forth by the Buddha in transformation, and this line is to be kept in mind. The fifth and sixth verses speak of shape in two verses together: Sumeru, a city, a net, the round of water spun into a wheel, vast lotus flowers, a mountain banner, a tower, turning, vajra — nine shapes listed in one breath, and the last line gathers them itself: “inconceivable in this way, they are all of them vast land-seeds.” The seventh verse, “all rest upon lotus flowers” — this is the resting-place, answering to the one great lotus of the second subdivision of the summing-up. The eighth and ninth verses speak in two verses of quarters and entering: within the nets of light there appear multitudes of lands, “everywhere throughout the seas of the ten directions,” and all the adorning furnishings — “all lands are gathered into them”; the one is a pervading outward, the other an entering inward. The tenth verse, “all by the power of the Great Seer” — this is the sustaining power of the buddhas, “the Great Seer” being another name for the Buddha.

Correcting a misreading: do not read “interpenetrating without confusion” as “arranged tidily.” To interpenetrate is to cross and to enter into one another; not to be confused is not to be muddled by that crossing. Of things merely tidy there would be no need to say that they are unconfounded; it is precisely because they interpenetrate that “unconfounded” is worth saying at all.

Bringing it home: these nine verses are the outline of the ninety-one that follow. The fourth verse states substance, the fifth and sixth state shape, the seventh states resting-place — and substance, shape and resting-place are exactly what the third and sixth passages below will expound at length.

The First Passage, Its Statement of the Topic: Beginning from Half a Verse

Ask first: of the ninety-one verses on the lands that are sustained, the first passage alone takes twenty-eight verses — where does it begin? From half a verse. Chengguan puts it with great precision: these twenty-eight verses fall into two, the opening half-verse stating the topic and the rest expounding that topic at length.

The half-verse that states the topic is “within all the land-seeds the worlds are inconceivable.” Chengguan explains the words “inconceivable” thus: because they are of many kinds and many sorts, they are called hard to conceive. Hard to conceive does not mean mysterious and unsayable; it means that the threads are too many for a single mind to take in.

Correcting a misreading: do not treat “inconceivable” as a shield against explanation. The sūtra, having said that they are hard to conceive, immediately goes on for twenty-seven and a half verses to say why they are hard to conceive — after “hard to conceive” there still comes a full exposition: this is the manner of the Avataṃsaka.

Bringing it home: everything after this half-verse is an answer to “why are they hard to conceive?” And the answer is a single word: difference.

The First Passage, Simile (1): Through Defiled Causes, Lands Come to Be and Break Down

Ask first: why do worlds come to be and break down? Chengguan divides the nine and a half verses of simile into three parts, the first part of three and a half verses speaking of defiled causes.

The latter half of the eleventh verse, “some are coming to be, some are breaking down, and some have already been destroyed,” first sets out the fact: three states standing together at once. The twelfth verse then joins the simile of the leaves of a forest — among the leaves of a forest some are being put forth and some are falling; and within the land-seeds the worlds too come to be and break down in just this way. Chengguan takes this verse and a half together, and says that what it sets forth is that the seed is of long duration while the worlds within it come to be and break down. This is the placing side by side of two scales of time: the forest stands, the leaves are exchanged.

The thirteenth verse changes the simile: resting upon one and the same forest, the fruits borne differ in kind; resting upon one and the same land-seed, beings of every different kind dwell. Chengguan says that this verse sets forth that although the land-seed is one, the lands dwelling within it are various. The twelfth verse speaks of coming to be and breaking down in time; the thirteenth speaks of difference in space.

The fourteenth verse gathers them up: just as, when seeds differ, the fruits borne each differ, so, because karmic power has its differences, beings and their lands are unalike. Chengguan says that this verse “refers all back to the seed of karma” — the three and a half verses of defiled causes come home to that one seed, karma.

Correcting a misreading: do not read “defiled causes” as “the causes of breaking down.” What the defiled causes state is that both coming to be and breaking down arise from karma, not that only breaking down does.

Bringing it home: the three similes — forest leaves, tree fruits, seeds — advance in a single line: first you see exchange, then you see difference, and at last you see where the difference comes from.

The First Passage, Simile (2): Through Pure Causes, Three Causes

Ask first: since defiled causes have been spoken of, what are the pure causes? Chengguan says that the next three verses set forth the pure causes, and one cause to each verse: the first is the cause that is a purified mind, the second the condition that is the Buddha's vows, the third the cause that is pure karma.

The fifteenth verse is the simile of the mind-king jewel: that pearl which puts forth color according to the mind shows whatever color your mind is; when the minds of beings are purified, they see purified lands. This is the cause that is a purified mind — the purity of a land comes first in the mind.

The sixteenth verse is the simile of the great dragon king: the dragon king raises up clouds that fill all of space, and the power of the Buddha's vows brings forth lands of every kind. This is the condition that is the Buddha's vows — it does not come from one's own mind, it comes from the Buddha's side.

The seventeenth verse is the simile of the conjuror and his spells: a conjuror plying his spells can produce things of every kind, and the karmic power of beings likewise makes lands inconceivable. Chengguan assigns this verse to the cause that is pure karma.

Correcting a misreading: the three verses are three causes, not three ways of saying one cause. Mind, the Buddha's vows, karma — let any one of the three be lacking and this passage is not fully taught. The second above all: the Buddha's vows are an outward condition, not determined by the minds of beings; the Avataṃsaka's teaching on the pure land stands here alongside the teaching of mind-only without either dispossessing the other.

Bringing it home: when you examine yourself, ask all three: is my mind pure or not? have I received the Buddha's vows? and where is my karma being made?

The First Passage, Simile (3): Concluding Defiled and Pure Together

Ask first: the defiled causes have been spoken of and the pure causes have been spoken of — why then three more verses? Because the two sides must be spoken of together. Chengguan says that these three verses “conclude the defiled and pure causes together.”

The eighteenth verse is the simile of the painter: painted images of every kind are what a painter makes, and all lands are painted by that painter, “mind.” Chengguan assigns this to “the cause that is defilement and purity according to mind” — one mind that can paint the defiled and can paint the pure, and therefore a concluding of both together.

The nineteenth verse says that the bodily forms of beings each differ, arising according to the discriminations of mind, and that the lands of every kind are all of them from karma. Here Chengguan lays down something of the first importance: this verse takes the direct recompense as a simile for the dependent recompense, and it is likewise “taking the cause as a simile for the condition”; mind is the cause, which draws on a matured fruit, while the coarseness or the fineness of that fruit lies wholly in karma as the condition. To divide mind and karma into the two levels of cause and condition — this is the finest cut in the whole passage.

The twentieth verse is the simile of the guiding master: when one guiding master is seen, different people see different colors in him; and as the mental conduct of beings differs, the lands they see differ likewise. Chengguan says that this verse “sets forth mind and karma together,” since “conduct is karma”; and he adds a further sentence: this also serves as a simile for beings dwelling in one and the same place and yet seeing differently.

Correcting a misreading: do not read “mind the painter” as “everything is made by my mind alone, and therefore the world does not exist.” The nineteenth verse, immediately following, states the matter in full: mind is the cause, karma is the condition, and the coarseness or fineness of the fruit is settled by the condition. Mind-only does not abolish karma.

Bringing it home: the four words “one place, different seeing” are the most usable here. In one and the same place two people see two scenes — this is not a matter of who is right and who is wrong; their mental conduct differs.

The First Passage, Doctrinal Statement (1): Defiled and Pure

Ask first: the similes are finished — where does the doctrinal statement begin? Chengguan says the latter eighteen verses are the doctrinal statement, in three parts: first six verses setting forth the defiled and the pure, next four setting forth coming to be and breaking down, and last eight setting forth suffering and pleasure.

The six verses on the defiled and the pure divide again into two. The first two verses show that the marks of purity are each of their own kind: the twenty-first verse says that to the very bounds of all the lands a net of lotus flowers is spread, their appearances unlike and their adornments wholly pure; the twenty-second says that those lotus nets are where the nets of lands abide, with adornments of every kind and beings of every kind dwelling there.

The latter four verses distinguish them with respect to their causes. Of the twenty-third verse, “that is by reason of the afflictions of beings that it is seen so there,” Chengguan says that this verse speaks of the defiled alone, since it is by reason of afflictions. The twenty-fourth says that the defiled and pure, the measureless land-seeds, “arise according to the minds of beings and are sustained by the power of bodhisattvas,” and the twenty-fifth says that defilement and purity “arise from karmic power, and are what bodhisattvas manifest” — of these two verses Chengguan says that they run through both the defiled and the pure, since karma runs through both good and evil, and since they are moreover assigned to the two sides, bodhisattvas and beings. Of the twenty-sixth verse, “their wondrous adornments of every kind are what the buddhas have made pure,” Chengguan says that this verse speaks of the pure alone, since it belongs to the Buddha.

Correcting a misreading: the words “perilous and not level” in the twenty-third verse do not say that the land itself is perilous. The sūtra's construction is “that is by reason of the afflictions of beings that it is seen so there” — it is seen so there, not that it is so there in itself. The difference is one word.

Bringing it home: four verses, four levels — the defiled alone; both, by way of mind; both, by way of karma; the pure alone. From affliction all the way to the Buddha, and the two levels in the middle are where we actually stand.

The First Passage, Doctrinal Statement (2): Coming to Be and Breaking Down

Ask first: how are the four verses on coming to be and breaking down divided? Chengguan outlines them a verse and a sentence at a time.

Of the twenty-seventh verse, “the great fire at the kalpa's end burns inconceivably; and though what appears is a form ruined and foul, that place is nonetheless ever firm,” Chengguan says that this is “the coarse breaks down while the fine remains”: the breaking down is by evil karma, while the remaining has two causes, one on the side of the Buddha and one being good karma. Here he cites a sūtra in evidence, saying that the pure land is never destroyed and that gods and humans constantly fill it; and he adds three sentences: although their perishing is not simultaneous, their arising must be in the same place; and although they are said to be in the same place, their appearances are constantly unseen by one another, and this is why they are hard to conceive.

Of the twenty-eighth verse, “they rest upon the wheel of wind and abide as well upon the wheel of water,” Chengguan says that this is “while the karma remains, the place stands”: while the karma is still there, the place holds firm. Of the twenty-ninth verse, “yet in truth there is no coming to be, nor is there any breaking down,” Chengguan says that this is “the marks of the world differ, while the nature is without arising or ceasing.” Of the thirtieth verse, “within each and every thought of mind measureless lands are brought forth; by the awesome spiritual power of the Buddha they are all seen as pure and free of defilement,” Chengguan says that this refers all back to causes and conditions: within, through the transformations of mind, there are the myriad differences of the defiled and the pure; without, by borrowing the Buddha as condition, what could there be that is not pure?

Correcting a misreading: do not be in haste, at the twenty-ninth verse, to cancel the coming to be and breaking down just spoken of. Coming to be and breaking down are said of the marks; no arising and no ceasing are said of the nature; the two lines do not quarrel, they are two faces of one matter. If, because of “there is no coming to be,” one denied coming to be and breaking down, one would cancel the eight verses on suffering and pleasure that follow along with it.

Bringing it home: “within, through the transformations of mind; without, by borrowing the Buddha as condition,” in the thirtieth verse, is the summation of the whole part. The two conditions, inner and outer, answer exactly to mind and the Buddha's vows in the three verses on pure causes.

The First Passage, Doctrinal Statement (3): Suffering and Pleasure

Ask first: what do the last eight verses say? They say suffering and pleasure. Chengguan divides them into three layers: the first three verses discuss suffering and pleasure in general terms with respect to lands; the middle three speak of the three evil destinies within a single land; the last two speak of the pleasures of humans and gods.

The first three verses: the thirty-first says that a land made of clay, hard in substance, dark and without light, is where those who do evil karma dwell; the thirty-second says that a land made of vajra, defiled and full of great dread, with much suffering and little pleasure, is where those of scant merit are placed; the thirty-third says that lands made of iron and wrought of red copper, their stone mountains steep and fearsome, are filled with people of offense and evil. All three verses speak of suffering in terms of the material of the land — and the material is the very showing-forth of karma.

The middle three verses take the three evil destinies one by one: the thirty-fourth speaks of the hells, where beings suffer with none to rescue them, ever in darkness, burned by a sea of flames; the thirty-fifth speaks of animals, of shapes ugly in every kind, constantly undergoing suffering by reason of their own evil karma; the thirty-sixth speaks of the place of Yama, scorched by hunger and thirst, climbing the great mountain of fire and undergoing the gravest sufferings.

The last two verses turn: the thirty-seventh speaks of lands composed of the seven jewels and palaces of every kind, “gained by pure karma”; and the thirty-eighth speaks directly to the reader — you should contemplate the humans and gods of the world, and when the fruit of pure karma is accomplished, pleasure is enjoyed at every moment.

Correcting a misreading: do not read these eight verses as reward and punishment. The sūtra's constant construction is “by reason of their own evil karma,” “gained by pure karma” — what is spoken of is the naturalness of cause and effect, not someone handing out portions.

Bringing it home: the thirty-eighth verse uses an imperative, “you should contemplate the world.” The first passage of twenty-eight verses closes here, and it closes on an act: contemplating.

The Second Passage: The Fineness of the Lands

Ask first: what can two verses say? They say one thing that runs most sharply against common sense. Chengguan outlines these two verses as “showing the fineness of the lands,” and says that the former verse raises the fruit while the latter distinguishes with respect to the cause.

The thirty-ninth verse, “within each and every pore there are lands numbering in the koṭis, inconceivably; their appearances and adornments are of every kind, yet there has never been any crowding or constraint” — this raises the fruit. The weight is in the last line: there has never been any crowding. Hundreds of millions of lands enter a single pore, and if one still asks “how do they fit?”, that is to measure them with a measure of large and small. The sūtra blocks this question in advance: there has never been any crowding or constraint.

The fortieth verse, “the karma of beings each differs, and so the worlds are of measureless kinds; grasping and clinging arise therein, and the suffering and pleasure undergone are unalike” — this distinguishes with respect to the cause. Why can a single pore contain a koṭi lands and yet beings feel crowded? Because “grasping and clinging arise therein.” Once grasping arises, measure appears; and once measure appears, there is crowding.

Correcting a misreading: do not take a pore's containing lands as a display of spiritual power. The fortieth verse pulls the matter back at once: the reason suffering and pleasure are undergone differently is grasping, not space.

Bringing it home: these two verses are the shortest passage in the whole restatement, and the closest to the body. That you feel crowded today is not because the place is small.

The Third Passage: The Substance of the Worlds

Ask first: ten verses set forth substance — what does “substance” mean here? It means what a world takes for its material and its support. Chengguan says that for this passage there is no corresponding sentence in the summing-up, and that its meaning is to be seen in the sūtra text above — that is, in what each of the ten groups above said, that such-and-such a sound is its substance.

The ten verses one by one. The forty-first: made of many jewels, constantly giving off boundless light. The forty-second: light for its substance, abiding resting upon a wheel of light. The forty-third: made of the disc of the moon, fragrant garments spread all about, bodhisattvas filling a single lotus flower. The forty-fourth: made of many jewels with color and form free of stain, like the jeweled net of the lord of gods with its light ever ablaze. The forty-fifth: fragrance for its substance, or made of vajra flowers, the shapes of the shadows and light of maṇi. The forty-sixth: accomplished by the whirling of flowers, transformation-buddhas filling them. The forty-seventh: made of multitudes of flowering trees, wondrous branches spread over the seat of awakening, clouds of maṇi giving shade. The forty-eighth: illumined by pure light, made of vajra flowers, and some made of the Buddha's transformed voice, ranged boundlessly into a net. The forty-ninth: like bodhisattvas, like a wondrous jeweled crown of maṇi, like the shape of a throne brought forth from manifested light. The fiftieth: made of the powdered fragrance of sandalwood, or of the light between the Buddha's brows, or of the sound within the Buddha's light, and thus such lands are accomplished.

Among these ten verses — jewels, light, the moon's disc, fragrance, flowers, trees, sound — the material runs from coarse to fine all the way, and the last three verses fall wholly upon the Buddha: the Buddha's transformed voice, the light between the Buddha's brows, the sound within the Buddha's light. This is the direction of the passage: the substance of a world is, in the end, the Buddha.

Correcting a misreading: do not read “light for its substance” and “sound for its substance” as figures of speech. In the prose of the ten groups above, the substance of every world-seed was some particular sound; that is said outright, and is not rhetoric.

Bringing it home: ask what the world you dwell in takes for its substance. If you cannot answer, then first listen — the answer the sūtra gives is sound.

The Fourth Passage: The Adorning Furnishings, Each of Its Own Kind

Ask first: five verses set forth the adorning furnishings — where does the weight fall? On the increase of number.

The fifty-first verse says that some lands are adorned with a single light and some see adornments of many kinds, wondrous in every kind — one and many are set against each other first. The fifty-second says that some take the wondrous things of ten lands for their ornament, and some take everything within a thousand lands to deck themselves out. The fifty-third says that some take the goods of a koṭi lands to adorn a single land, their appearances unlike and “all of them appear as reflected images.” The fifty-fourth pushes to the limit: taking the goods of an unspeakable number of lands to adorn a single land, each and every one giving off light, all arising from the power of the Tathāgata's vows. The fifty-fifth gathers up: some lands are what the power of vows has purified, and within all their adornments multitudes of seas of lands are seen everywhere.

One, ten, a thousand, a koṭi, unspeakable — the five verses are an ascending stair, and at every step the last line lets go: the fifty-third says “all of them appear as reflected images,” the fifty-fourth says “arise from the power of the Tathāgata's vows,” the fifty-fifth says “multitudes of seas of lands are seen everywhere.” The more there are, the less substantial; and the less substantial, the more they can enter one another.

Correcting a misreading: do not read these five verses as a comparison of riches. The adorning furnishings pile higher and higher precisely so that the line “appear as reflected images” may stand — of a thing that really could be piled up, one could not say that it is like a reflection.

Bringing it home: read this passage together with the one before it: the former says that the substance is the Buddha's sound, this one says that the appearance is like a reflected image. Substance real and appearance like a reflection — the two lines are to be kept in mind together.

The Fifth Passage: The Reach of Adornment, Without Any Break

Ask first: what does “the reach of adornment without any break” mean? Chengguan gives two sentences of explanation: because it gathers in the adornments of the three times, there is no break; and because it is referred back to the Buddha, it is seen everywhere within a single dust-mote.

The five verses are read accordingly. The fifty-sixth says that the purified lands gained by cultivating the vows of Samantabhadra have within them the adornments of all lands of the three times appearing entire — this is “gathering in the adornments of the three times.” The fifty-seventh says, “Son of the Buddha, you should contemplate the awesome spiritual power of the land-seeds; the lands to come, of every kind, are made to be seen, as in a dream” — what is to come can be seen now, as in a dream. The fifty-eighth says that the worlds of the ten directions and the seas of lands gone by are all within a single land, appearing as images that seem conjured — the past too can be seen now. The fifty-ninth says that all the buddhas of the three times together with their lands can all be contemplated and seen within a single land-seed. The sixtieth closes upon the spiritual power of the Buddha: within a single dust-mote multitudes of lands appear, all of them clearly seen and yet “like shadows, having no reality.”

“Without any break” does not mean unceasing in time; it means that the three times have not been cut apart. Past and future are not elsewhere: they are in a single land, a single dust-mote, here.

Correcting a misreading: do not read “as in a dream,” “seem conjured,” “like shadows, having no reality” as denials. All three similes come after “are made to be seen,” “can all be contemplated and seen,” “all of them are clearly seen” — it is first said that they are clearly seen, and only then that they are like reflections. Were they unreal, they could not be seen at all, and there would be no five verses here.

Bringing it home: this passage is the recompense of the vows of Samantabhadra. The fifty-sixth verse says it at the outset: cultivate the vows of Samantabhadra, and these are the purified lands one gains.

The Sixth Passage: The Shapes of the Worlds

Ask first: ten verses list shapes — how many in the end are listed? Going through them line by line: the great sea, Sumeru, Indra's net, a forest, a jewel wheel, a lotus flower, a throne, three corners, a qulejia, a walled city, the body of the Brahmā king, the topknot of the lord of gods, a half-moon, a maṇi mountain, the sun's disc, the whirlpool of a fragrant sea, a wheel of light, the rim of a wheel, an altar-terrace, the Buddha's white hair-mark, his fleshly topknot, his broad long eyes, the Buddha's hand, a vajra scepter, a mountain of flame, a lion, a sea-clam — twenty-seven kinds. Chengguan says that the meaning of this passage is to be seen in the text above, referring to the two verses distinguishing shape among the nine verses on what sustains.

These twenty-seven kinds are scattered through nine verses, and may be pointed out verse by verse: the sixty-first raises the great sea and Sumeru; the sixty-second raises Indra's net and the forest, and says “the buddhas fill them”; the sixty-third raises the shape of a jewel wheel and the form of a lotus, saying that at their eight corners adornments of every kind are furnished; the sixty-fourth raises the shape of a throne, three corners, the qulejia, a walled city, and the body of the Brahmā king; the sixty-fifth raises the topknot of the lord of gods, the half-moon, the maṇi mountain, and the sun's disc; the sixty-sixth raises the whirlpool of a fragrant sea and the wheel of light, and appends the line “which the Buddha in ages past adorned and purified”; the sixty-seventh raises the rim of a wheel, an altar-terrace, the Buddha's white hair-mark, his fleshly topknot, and his broad long eyes; the sixty-eighth raises the Buddha's hand, the vajra scepter, and the mountain of flame, and says “with bodhisattvas everywhere throughout them”; the sixty-ninth raises the shape of a lion and the shape of a sea-clam, and closes with the line “their measureless colors and forms of every kind differ each in their substance.”

These twenty-seven kinds fall into three classes. One class is natural shapes: the great sea, Sumeru, the forest, the half-moon, the sun's disc, the whirlpool of a fragrant sea, the mountain of flame, the lion, the sea-clam. One class is things made by human craft: Indra's net, the jewel wheel, the throne, the walled city, the rim of a wheel, the altar-terrace, the vajra scepter, and the whole train of furnishings such as the maṇi crown. And one class is the most singular of all, the persons of buddhas and gods: the body of the Brahmā king, the topknot of the lord of gods, the Buddha's white hair-mark, his fleshly topknot, his broad long eyes, the Buddha's hand — the shape of a world turns out to be a part of the Buddha's body.

The seventieth verse gathers all twenty-seven at once: within a single land-seed the shapes of lands are without end, and all abide by the power of the Buddha's vows, guarded and kept in mind. So the listing of twenty-seven kinds is not for the sake of exhausting them; it is so that you may come to a stop at the twenty-eighth — there are more after this, and they cannot be told.

Correcting a misreading: do not get stuck on “some are like a qulejia.” In Chengguan's Huayan jing shu, within this passage, no text explaining this name is to be found; here it is left, as the fact stands, undetermined, and no explanation is supplied on the ancient worthies' behalf.

Bringing it home: the most usable thing in this passage is that class of shapes belonging to the Buddha's body. The shape of a world is the Buddha's hand, the Buddha's brow, the Buddha's eye — here the dependent recompense and the direct recompense meet.

The Seventh Passage: The Differences of Kalpas, Each of Its Own Kind

Ask first: two verses speak of time — what do they say? They say the length of abiding and the frequency of coming to be and breaking down.

The seventy-first verse says that some lands abide for a kalpa, some abide for ten kalpas, and on beyond a hundred thousand to the number of the dust-motes of a land — this is length. The seventy-second says that some, within a single kalpa, see lands coming to be and breaking down, while some are measureless and numberless on to the inconceivable — this is frequency. Chengguan outlines these two verses as “setting forth the time-spans in which lands abide.”

Taken together, the two verses mean this: time itself is also each of its own kind. One kalpa of one land is not equal to one kalpa of another; in one place there is a single arising and a single ceasing, in another measureless arisings and ceasings.

Correcting a misreading: do not treat “kalpa” as a common measuring-rod. This passage exists precisely to knock that rod away.

Bringing it home: read it against “there has never been any crowding” of the second passage: in space there is no crowding, in time there is no evenness. Neither space nor time is a container standing outside.

The Eighth Passage: In Each, Buddhas Appear

Ask first: eight verses set forth the appearing of buddhas, and the very first line is a difficulty — some lands have buddhas and some lands have no buddha. How is this to be understood?

The seventy-third verse sets four cases side by side: lands with buddhas, lands without a buddha, some with only one buddha, some with measureless buddhas. The seventy-fourth then resolves the case of no buddha: if a land has no buddha, then from a world in another quarter a buddha comes by transformation and displays there every kind of deed that can be done. The seventy-fifth sets out the sequence of the deeds displayed: vanishing from the heavens, descending in spirit, entering the womb, being born, subduing Māra, accomplishing right awakening, turning the unsurpassed Dharma wheel — this is the constant course of a buddha's display. The seventy-sixth says that according to what the minds of beings delight in he displays appearances of every kind, and turns the wheel of the wondrous Dharma answering to their faculties and their wishes.

The seventy-seventh says that within each and every buddha-land a single buddha arises in the world and over a koṭi thousand years expounds the unsurpassed Dharma. The seventy-eighth is the joint of this passage: if beings are not vessels for the Dharma they cannot see the buddhas, and if there is delight and seeking in their minds then in every place they can see him. The seventy-ninth says that within each and every land there is a buddha arising in the world, and the buddhas within all lands, numbering in the koṭis, are inconceivable. The eightieth closes upon spiritual transformation: each and every buddha among them displays measureless transformations, filling the Dharma realm everywhere and taming beings numerous as a sea.

Correcting a misreading: “lands without a buddha” does not mean that the Buddha does not go there. The seventy-fourth verse says that a buddha comes by transformation from another quarter, and the seventy-eighth says that one who is not a vessel cannot see him — so “without a buddha” is said with respect to seeing, not with respect to the Buddha.

Bringing it home: the seventy-eighth verse may be taken word for word as a mirror for oneself. Whether or not one gets to see a buddha, the only variable the sūtra gives is whether the mind delights and seeks.

The Ninth Passage: The Presence and Absence of Light

Ask first: ten verses set forth light, and Chengguan's division is of the utmost simplicity: the first verse speaks of absence, the latter nine of presence.

The eighty-first speaks of absence: some lands have no light, dark and full of terror, the touch of suffering like knives and swords, and those who see it feel for themselves its bitter sting.

The latter nine speak of presence, one kind of light-source to a verse. The eighty-second: the light of the gods, of palaces, of sun and moon. The eighty-third: light the land has of its own, and pure light given off by trees, with the reason pointed out — there has never been any suffering there, and that is by the power of the merit of beings. The eighty-fourth: the light of mountains, of maṇi jewels, of lamps, gathered up with the line “all of this is the karmic power of beings.” The eighty-fifth: the light of the Buddha and the light of lotus flowers. The eighty-sixth: the light of flowers, of fragrant waters, of unguent incense and burning incense, gathered up with the line “all of this is by the power of pure vows.” The eighty-seventh: the light of clouds, of maṇi and clam-pearls, of the Buddha's spiritual power, and says that this light “can proclaim sounds that delight the mind.” The eighty-eighth: the light of jewels and the light of vajra flame, saying “their pure sound can quake afar, and wherever it reaches there is no mass of suffering.” The eighty-ninth: the light of maṇi jewels, of adorning furnishings, and of the seat of awakening, shining amid the gathered assembly. The ninetieth closes upon the Buddha: the Buddha sends forth a great light, transformation-buddhas fill it, the light touches everywhere in its shining, and the Dharma realm is wholly pervaded.

Three times in the nine verses the cause is pointed out: the power of merit, karmic power, the power of pure vows. And from the eighty-seventh verse on, the light begins to give off sound — light and sound meet here, and this leads straight into the last passage.

Correcting a misreading: do not read “some lands have no light” as meaning that the Buddha's light does not reach them. The eighty-first verse speaks of the state of that land, and the ninetieth says that the Buddha's light “wholly pervades the Dharma realm” — both sentences hold at once; whether or not one can receive the light is another matter.

Bringing it home: this passage gives a usable list: which kind is the light around you? The light of the gods, the light of sun and moon, lamplight — or the light of the power of vows?

The Tenth Passage: Sounds Good and Evil

Ask first: the last eleven verses — why end with sound? Because among the ten “each of its own” phrases of the summing-up there is one that reads “each expounds Dharma-teachings like a sea”; the last of them, “each is sustained by the spiritual power of all buddhas,” Chengguan has already assigned to the last of the nine verses on what sustains. Chengguan says that this passage is precisely to set forth that phrase, “each expounds Dharma-teachings like a sea.” He divides the eleven verses into three layers: the first two say that the evil destinies are evil only; the middle three say that humans and gods run through both good and evil; the last six say that buddhas and bodhisattvas are good and not evil.

The first two verses: the ninety-first says that some lands are exceedingly fearsome, giving off the howling sound of great suffering, a sound bitter in the extreme at which hearers give rise to revulsion and dread. The ninety-second names them: the hells, animals, and the place of Yama — turbid and evil worlds, constantly giving off sounds of grief and suffering.

The middle three verses: the ninety-third says that within some lands sounds that can be delighted in constantly come forth, gladdening the mind and according with the teaching, and this is gained by pure karma. The ninety-fourth says that in some the sound of Śakra is constantly heard, in some the sound of Brahmā, in some the sound of the lords of all the worlds. The ninety-fifth says that within some lands wondrous sounds come forth from the clouds, and jeweled seas, maṇi trees and the sound of music fill them.

The last six verses belong wholly to buddhas and bodhisattvas. The ninety-sixth says that within the round light of the buddhas the manifested sounds are without end, and the wondrous voices of bodhisattvas are heard everywhere in the ten directions. The ninety-seventh says that in lands inconceivable there is the sound of the Dharma wheel turning everywhere, the sounds issuing from the sea of vows, the wondrous sound of cultivation. The ninety-eighth says that all the buddhas of the three times are born in worlds of every kind, their names wholly complete and their sounds without end. The ninety-ninth says that some within a land hear the sound of the power of all buddhas, and that the ten grounds, the perfections and measureless Dharma-gates are all expounded. The hundredth says that by the power of the vows of Samantabhadra wondrous sounds are expounded in a koṭi lands, that sound like a peal of thunder, abiding through kalpas without end. The hundred and first is the last line of the whole chapter: the Buddha, within purified lands, displays a sovereign sound, and within the Dharma realm of the ten directions there is not a being who does not hear it.

Correcting a misreading: do not read the three layers as a graded ranking. The ninety-ninth verse says “the grounds, the perfections, and the measureless — Dharma such as this is all expounded”: what is expounded is precisely the ten grounds and the perfections, that is, the content of the other chapters of this very sūtra. This passage does not merely say that there are pleasant sounds; it says that the whole of the Avataṃsaka is being expounded within these lands.

Bringing it home: the hundred and one verses of the whole chapter begin at “the great sea of the Flower-Treasury world is equal to the Dharma realm and without difference” and end at “within the Dharma realm of the ten directions there is not a being who does not hear it.” The opening line says the Dharma realm, equal and without difference; the closing line says that within the Dharma realm there is none who does not hear — head and tail are buckled onto the two words “Dharma realm.” All those sea-names, seed-names, buddha-names, shapes and lights come home in the end to one thing: this sound, you can hear.

Lineage

Immediately after this passage comes the chapter “Vairocana,” and fascicle ten ends here. Looking back, this passage carries on from the sea-by-sea naming of the net of lands sustained in the two preceding passages of the same chapter; and before that stand the two passages on the Flower-Treasury in its causes, fruits and own substance, and on the arrangement and adornment of the treasury-sea. Chengguan closes the prose of the whole chapter with “the general summary and explanation,” and then gathers the meaning of the whole chapter with the restatement in verse; with this the chapter is complete.

At the third subdivision of the summing-up, “concluding the differing modes of the seeds,” Chengguan links the passage directly to the chapter “The Formation of the Worlds,” saying that it is largely the same as the earlier section explaining the land-seeds and as the ten aspects in “The Formation of the Worlds.” The unit for chapter four in this edition may be read alongside: chapter four states the ten matters of the world-sea, while this chapter states the actual condition of the single sea that is the Flower-Treasury; the one states it in general, the other in particular.

As for the provenance of the name “world-seed,” the ancient worthies assign it differently. Zhiyan, commenting on the sixty-fascicle text, cites the gradation in fascicle fifty of the Da zhidu lun — a three-thousandfold great-thousand world-system is one world; worlds as many as the sands of the Gaṅgā are one buddha-world; buddha-worlds like these are a sea of buddha-worlds; and seas of buddha-worlds like these are a buddha-world-seed — and by this establishes the name; he further cites the names of ten kinds of world (world-nature, world-sea, world-wheel, world-fullness, world-differentiation, world-whirl, world-turning, world-lotus, world-Sumeru, world-appearance), and asks himself why ten are stated, answering that it is in order to show the measureless. Fazang, commenting on the same sixty-fascicle text, does not use the term “world-seed” within the range of the corresponding chapter as recorded. Chengguan, commenting on the eighty-fascicle text, explains the “world-seed” of the sūtra text directly, subdivision by subdivision, and does not trace the name back further. The three are recorded together without adjudication.

On the number of the world-seeds too the two reckon differently. Chengguan speaks from the summing-up: one sea governs one unspeakable number, so ten seas have ten unspeakable numbers, and one sea to one seed, so the numbers are alike — he takes the number of the sūtra text and sets up no formula of his own. Li Tongxuan, for his part, sets up a model: within the great lotus there are said to be, in sum, world-seeds as many as the dust-motes of ten unspeakable numbers of buddha-lands, but because the text of the teaching is limited he provisionally posits one hundred and twenty-one world-seeds — eleven at the centre, each with twenty tiers above and below, the lowest tier having vast worlds as many as the dust-motes of one buddha-world surrounding it, the second tier the dust-motes of two buddha-worlds, the third the dust-motes of three buddha-worlds, doubling tier by tier from below upward until the topmost tier is complete with the dust-motes of twenty buddha-worlds; outside these eleven are one hundred world-seeds of one tier each, and further out, near the vajra mountains, ten world-seeds of four tiers each. At the end he works out the total: reckoning thus through above and below, altogether vast lands as many as the dust-motes of two hundred and ten buddha-lands make up one world-seed. And by this he marks off the teaching of the three vehicles: the world-seed of which the three vehicles speak is built up in layers with the sands of the Gaṅgā for its measure, whereas this sūtra does not limit its number by the sands of the Gaṅgā. The two follow different routes of calculation. Recorded together without adjudication.

As for the name of the lotus in the second subdivision of the summing-up differing from the earlier text, Chengguan brings out two explanations — either one flower with different names according to its meaning, or a name the translator took by mistake — and settles on neither. Recorded without adjudication.

On the form of the verse restatement itself, Fazang has a separate general treatment. At the head of his explanation of the corresponding chapter he sets up ten instances of the difference between prose and verse restatement: with respect to the sharp and the dull; to before and after; to the ripe and the unripe; to the plain and the ornate; to the two kinds of retention; to mutual completion; to the accomplishment of the round; to substance and appearance; to the general and the particular; and to mind and speech. Of these the ninth, “with respect to the general and the particular” — prose points particularly to its aim, while the verse restatement covers and gathers generally — he supports by citing the verses of this very chapter on the worlds. Read accordingly, the reason the hundred and one verses of this passage can gather thousands of characters of names and forms into a hundred and one verses is precisely that the office of the verse form is to cover and gather generally, not to repeat item by item. Recorded together without adjudication.

The sixty-fascicle text has no text for this passage that can be collated line by line. Within the range of the corresponding chapter as recorded, the sixty-fascicle text uses “world-sea” and the name “world-seed” is not to be found, nor is the manner of naming the twenty tiers one by one; the nearest in function is the passage in which Samantabhadra raises “the ten matters of the world-sea,” together with the verses praising the inconceivability of the world-sea that follow it. The two texts share a structure while differing in wording: who speaks, to whom, what is spoken, and why — these four agree; the names and forms and the syntax are wholly different. Recorded in full without adjudication.

In the unit for the chapter “Entry into the Dharma Realm” in this edition there is a passage that cites “the Flower-Treasury world-sea” and lists the names of the worlds gathered in by the world-seeds; the names it lists overlap with, but do not wholly coincide with, the names of the ten kinds of world cited by Zhiyan. Recorded without adjudication.

Throughout the whole chapter “The Ten Grounds” no text with the words “the Flower-Treasury world” is to be found. The Ten Grounds chapter sets forth the stages of practice, while this chapter sets forth the dependent recompense, the sea of lands; compared by the structure of their scenes the two are different from the outset — that the term is absent here is only to be expected, and is not an omission.