華嚴經 品三十二 諸菩薩住處品Avataṃsaka Sūtra · The Dwelling Places of the Bodhisattvas

Why the Sūtra Points Out ‘Where There Are Bodhisattvas’

A sūtra that speaks of the Dharma realm without end suddenly opens out a list of place-names — which mountain in the east, which mountain in the south, which land, which city — and the reader’s first reaction is mostly this: does that even count as doctrine? The sūtra gives its own answer in the chapter’s name: the dwelling places of the bodhisattvas. Chengguan, explaining that name, says that bodhisattvas dwell out of great compassion according to the capacities they meet, and that those who can dwell are not one alone and the places dwelt in are not one quarter alone, and so they are called ‘the many’; the dwelling places of the many bodhisattvas — that is the title of this chapter.

The misunderstanding to be cleared away is this: that the chapter is a Buddhist geography. Chengguan, at the head of the chapter, has already made two layers plain — if it be spoken as it really is, at every hair-tip in the Dharma realm there are measureless Samantabhadras, so why point to a quarter at all? But the minds of sentient beings must have somewhere to come to rest, and so, following what suits their conditions, quarters and places are pointed out, that men may raise up longing and lift their heads toward a home. To point to a place is for the sake of those who still need a direction before they will rouse their minds; and once you know that the bodhisattvas who dwell hold oceans of lands within a hair and that the places they dwell in take in the boundless within a mote of dust, you will understand that there is no quarter which is not a dwelling place of bodhisattvas.

So the use of this list is this: first it lets you believe that there really are such; then it lets you understand that there is nowhere they are not. Brought down to oneself, it comes to this — do not first ask where the noble ones are; ask first whether you are willing to raise your own mind toward that direction.

The One Who Speaks: the Bodhisattva Mind King

The speaker of this chapter is not Samantabhadra, nor Dharma Wisdom, but the bodhisattva-mahāsattva Mind King, who within the great assembly tells the bodhisattvas. Why is it he?

The three ancient masters tie it in one way. Chengguan says that the reason it is also the Mind King who speaks is that whatever governs and rules is thereby sovereign, and that it also displays how mind dwells in accordance with wisdom and has no obstruction. Fazang says it is because, as regards ‘place,’ consciousness has attained sovereignty, and so it is the Mind King who speaks. Li Tongxuan says that the bodhisattva’s practice of gathering in, transforming, and upholding is precisely the Mind King’s practice of being sovereign and following wisdom, and so the bodhisattva Mind King is made to speak this chapter of dwelling places.

The misunderstanding to be cleared away is this: to take the speaker for a mere change of announcer. Whom the compilers of the sūtra appoint to speak is itself doctrine. What this chapter speaks of is ‘place,’ and the reason a place can be dwelt in, can be pervaded, can be unobstructed, is tied to mind. If the mind is not sovereign, then wherever one goes is a cage; if the mind attains sovereignty, then wherever it dwells according to wisdom there is no going without ease. That is why a list of place-names must be recited by the Mind King.

Brought down to oneself: in reading this chapter, do not use the eyes alone to hunt for a map; follow the speaker back and look at your own mind — in the place where you stand at this moment, is it the mind-king that dwells there, or the afflictions?

The East · Mount of the Seers

The first place is in the east, named Mount of the Seers. The sūtra’s sentence pattern is fixed here, and the eight places that follow are all cast in this mould: in such a quarter there is such a place, and from of old hosts of bodhisattvas have dwelt therein; and now too there is such a bodhisattva, with a retinue of so many, ever within it expounding the Buddha’s Dharma; while the remaining thirteen places say only “dwelling therein.” The one now dwelling here is the bodhisattva Vajra Excellence, with a retinue of three hundred.

First ask: why does it begin by saying “from of old”? Because this clause speaks of the antiquity of the transmission — it is not that someone has only today begun to practise there, but that generation upon generation has gone on unbroken. A bodhisattva’s dwelling place is nobody’s private property; it is a relay. Ask again: are three hundred many or few? The sūtra gives a number of retinue for each of nine places (three hundred · five hundred · three hundred · three thousand · ten thousand · one thousand two hundred · one thousand · three thousand · five thousand), and the numbers themselves are not a ranking; they display that the fitness of what each place gathers in and transforms is different.

The misunderstanding to be cleared away is this: to take “Mount of the Seers” for the abode of non-Buddhist seers and so unrelated to the Buddha’s Dharma. Chengguan reports the tradition that this mountain is Mount Penglai in the eastern sea, and that if so, then it takes in the sea as well — the name is borrowed from an old worldly usage, but the ones dwelling there are bodhisattvas. To bring it home in a sentence: do not slight a place on account of its old name, when the question is who is expounding the Dharma there now.

The South · Mount Excellent Peak

The second place is in the south, named Mount Excellent Peak; the one now dwelling there is the bodhisattva Dharma Wisdom, with a retinue of five hundred, ever within it expounding the Buddha’s Dharma.

First ask: why does the name Dharma Wisdom look familiar? The chapters of the ten abodes earlier on were spoken by the bodhisattva Dharma Wisdom, upheld by the Buddha’s awesome spiritual power. Here the sūtra sets a great being who once mounted the seat and expounded the Dharma back into a particular mountain — the one who expounds is not only upon the high seat of a Dharma assembly; when the assembly disperses, he is still in some mountain expounding day after day. This one stroke is the best undoing of the illusion that ‘the Buddha’s Dharma is only in the great gatherings.’

The misunderstanding to be cleared away is this: to take “Excellent Peak” for a merely ornamental epithet. Chengguan ties this place to the mountain where Cloud of Virtue dwelt, which in the Jin recension is named Mount Tower-Pavilion, the abode of Poshiluo — that is, actual ground upon the road of the youth Sudhana’s study. The name in the sūtra, the investigation in the commentary, and the footsteps of the practitioner are one and the same line.

Brought down to oneself: the places where Sudhana studied are on this very list; and the list is not for roaming over from one’s couch, but for walking.

The West · Mount Vajra Flame

The third place is in the west, named Mount Vajra Flame; the one now dwelling there is the bodhisattva Fearless Practice of Vigor, with a retinue of three hundred, ever within it expounding the Buddha’s Dharma.

First ask: why does the mountain’s name pile ‘vajra’ upon ‘flame’? The vajra displays what is firm and cannot be broken; the flame displays the breaking through of what is dim and dark. The two senses joined answer exactly to the name of the bodhisattva now dwelling there — Fearless Practice of Vigor. Vigor is the unbreakable; fearlessness is the undimmed. Name and person answer to one another, and this is a formal usage that appears again and again in this chapter: the place displays a virtue, the person shows forth a practice.

The misunderstanding to be cleared away is this: to take a bodhisattva’s name for a mere label. In this chapter the name of the place and the name of the bodhisattva often illuminate each other, and in reading it does no harm to glance from one to the other. Chengguan here only ties the quarter, saying that Vajra Flame is on the shore of the western sea, and adds no further sense. The ancient masters do not force an explanation, and neither do we.

Brought down to oneself: vigor that quails is empty bustle; fearlessness that slackens is empty talk. What is set up here is vigor and fearlessness joined into one practice.

The North · Mount Heaped Fragrance

The fourth place is in the north, named Mount Heaped Fragrance; the one now dwelling there is the bodhisattva Fragrant Elephant, with a retinue of three thousand, ever within it expounding the Buddha’s Dharma.

First ask: what does ‘heaped fragrance’ mean? Read plainly, it is the mountain where fragrance is heaped and gathered. Chengguan sets down the old saying that it ought to be the Fragrant Mountain north of the Snow Mountains. To be named for fragrance is to use fragrance as a simile for virtue — virtue perfumes men as fragrance is smelt from afar. And the one now dwelling there is named Fragrant Elephant: the elephant is the sort of creature great in strength and steady in gait, and ‘fragrant elephant’ together is the fragrance of virtue and the strength of practice held both at once.

The misunderstanding to be cleared away is this: to take these explanations of mountain names for the far-fetchings of later men. The ancient masters are extremely careful in their wording here; Chengguan says only “the old saying is that it ought to be,” which is to transmit without deciding. What can be investigated in a name, investigate; what cannot, leave standing — this is the measure that reading an apparatus ought to have.

Brought down to oneself: fragrance need not proclaim itself, nor practice praise itself; that a bodhisattva with three thousand of retinue is ever here and the expounding never breaks off is just the fragrance of virtue heaped up long until of itself it gathers men.

The Northeast · Mount Clear and Cool

The fifth place is in the northeast, named Mount Clear and Cool; the one now dwelling there is the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī, with a retinue of ten thousand, ever within it expounding the Buddha’s Dharma.

First ask: how does this place differ from the four before it? Two things are most evident — first, that the one now dwelling there is Mañjuśrī, foremost among the great bodhisattvas in displaying wisdom; second, that the retinue is ten thousand, the greatest of all the twenty-two places in the chapter. The sūtra adds not one word of praise here, and lets the person and the number show forth the weight of it of themselves.

Ask again: why is it called Clear and Cool? Chengguan explains the name: because ice lies there heaped through the years and snow still flies in high summer, and there has never been sweltering heat, it is named Clear and Cool. In the Buddha’s Dharma, coolness has never been merely a matter of climate: heat and vexation are the marks of affliction, and coolness is the virtue of being apart from heat. That Mañjuśrī dwells in Clear and Cool is wisdom dwelling where there is no heat of affliction.

The misunderstanding to be cleared away is this: to read “the northeast” as a vague word for a quarter and slide past it. Chengguan felt precisely that to say only ‘the northeast’ left the wording still too loose, and therefore cited a scripture to attest at length where this mountain lies — that long passage of investigation belongs to what the several masters tie, and this text places it under Lineage as a record, and does not adjudicate it here.

Brought down to oneself: whoever seeks wisdom must first be willing to depart from heat and vexation; while there is a fire burning inside, Mañjuśrī is not expounding the Dharma there.

In the Sea · Mount Vajra

The sixth place is not upon land in the eight quarters but in the sea, named Mount Vajra; the one now dwelling there is the bodhisattva Dharma Arising, with a retinue of one thousand two hundred, ever within it expounding the Buddha’s Dharma.

First ask: why insert a mountain in the sea among the first ten places? Chengguan notes it himself in his outline: among these ten, the sixth is a mountain in the sea and the tenth is a cave in the sea, and the rest are all mountains. Plainly the sūtra means to have mountain and sea both. Explaining what the first ten places display, he says that mountains and seas can enfold and can store, and are where the humane and the wise take their rest, displaying the height and depth of great wisdom, and displaying too that they can settle and can illumine. The mountain displays height and depth, the sea displays enfolding; to be able to settle is concentration, to be able to illumine is wisdom.

The misunderstanding to be cleared away is this: to think that there can be no dwelling place in the sea, and so this clause is a fiction. The sūtra says it with the plainest fact — from of old hosts of bodhisattvas have dwelt therein. A bodhisattva’s dwelling place does not pick and choose its terrain; what it picks is whether one can settle and whether one can illumine.

Brought down to oneself: the name Dharma Arising is the most worth turning over — that in the sea the Dharma arises is precisely that in the place of surge and unrest the Dharma is able to arise.

The Southeast · Mount Zhiti

The seventh place is in the southeast, named Mount Zhiti; the one now dwelling there is the bodhisattva Heavenly Crown, with a retinue of one thousand, ever within it expounding the Buddha’s Dharma.

First ask: what does ‘Zhiti’ mean? The name is a transcription, and the sense transmitted by the ancient masters has two readings, both of which appear under Lineage, recorded without adjudication. What can be read from the sūtra’s text itself is this: the mountain is named for Zhiti, while the one dwelling there is named Heavenly Crown — a crown is an ornament worn on the head, and a thing of the Zhiti sort is likewise something looked up to by all and set on high; the one name and the other reflect each other.

The misunderstanding to be cleared away is this: to think that a transcribed name carries no doctrine worth speaking of, and so to skip it. Wherever there is a transcription is precisely where the ancient masters spent most labour; the reader need not guess at the sense himself, but ought to know that the ancients have contended and investigated over this.

Brought down to oneself: a bodhisattva with a retinue of one thousand is ever within it expounding the Dharma — however the mountain’s name be explained, the expounding has never broken off, and that is what the sūtra would have you remember.

The Southwest · Mount Light

The eighth place is in the southwest, named Mount Light; the one now dwelling there is the bodhisattva Worthy Excellence, with a retinue of three thousand, ever within it expounding the Buddha’s Dharma.

First ask: what do the two graphs ‘light’ display here? Before there was Clear and Cool, displaying departure from heat; here there is Light, displaying the breaking of darkness; the one a departure from heat, the other a breaking of darkness — which is just the counteraction of the hindrance of affliction and the hindrance to what is to be known, cast as a shadow upon a place-name. And the one now dwelling there is named Worthy Excellence: ‘worthy’ is a designation of virtuous conduct, and ‘excellence’ is the sense of surpassing; one whose virtuous conduct surpasses dwells within Mount Light, and again person and place are one sense.

The misunderstanding to be cleared away is this: to take ‘light’ for a mere description of a bright-looking range. This chapter everywhere displays virtue by names, and to read it only as scenery is to read it thin. Yet neither may one go too far: the ancient masters have not explained much of this mountain, and so we stop at the mutual reflection of name and sense, and do not set up doctrine on the ancients’ behalf.

Brought down to oneself: a bodhisattva with a retinue of three thousand is ever within it expounding the Dharma — light is not shone for the mountain to look at, but for men to walk by.

The Northwest · Mount Fragrant Wind

The ninth place is in the northwest, named Mount Fragrant Wind; the one now dwelling there is the bodhisattva Fragrant Light, with a retinue of five thousand, ever within it expounding the Buddha’s Dharma.

First ask: how does Fragrant Wind differ from Heaped Fragrance before it? Heaped Fragrance is a gathering and thickening; Fragrant Wind is a flowing and a reaching afar. The thickness of virtue lies in its heaping, the covering of virtue in its flowing. The sūtra sets the two mountains over against each other from afar, the one still and the one moving, and so both faces of virtue, its substance and its function, are spoken of. Chengguan makes only a single conjecture about this mountain, that it may be the western side of the Fragrant Mountain, and his words are extremely careful.

The misunderstanding to be cleared away is this: to take the words “it may be” for a sign that the ancient master was careless. Quite the reverse — to investigate what can be investigated and to leave standing what is doubtful is the rule of the commentators. If the reader takes “it may be” for a settled statement, he ruins the ancients’ sense of measure.

Brought down to oneself: a bodhisattva with a retinue of five thousand is ever here expounding the Dharma. The teaching of the fragrant wind is to let the fragrance of the Dharma blow to places where the sound of the sūtra cannot be heard.

Within the Great Sea · the Cave of Adornment

The tenth place is within the great sea, named the Cave of Adornment. Here the sūtra’s sentence pattern suddenly changes: it says only that from of old hosts of bodhisattvas have dwelt therein, and no longer says that there is now such a bodhisattva, no longer says how great the retinue, no longer says that he is ever within it expounding the Dharma.

First ask: why is the pattern abridged? Chengguan offers a clue: the Cave of Adornment is spoken with reference to the sea of the sixth place above, and so the sūtra uses the words “there is yet another” — within the great sea there is ‘also’ a place. The first nine places call the roll quarter by quarter; this one adds a further place with reference to the sea, and the momentum of the wording naturally turns brief; and from here on the twelve places in cities and towns likewise say only that they are dwelt in.

The misunderstanding to be cleared away is this: to think that not naming a bodhisattva now dwelling there amounts to there being no bodhisattva, or to the bodhisattvas being inferior. The sūtra says plainly that hosts of bodhisattvas dwell therein; it merely does not list name and number. Not to list names is in fact the nearer to this chapter’s tenet: you are not being asked to remember a few celebrated persons, but to know that everywhere there are people.

Brought down to oneself: what really holds this world up is mostly those who are not on any list.

City One · South of Pishali · Well-Dwelling Root

From here on for twelve places the sūtra turns from mountains and seas into cities and towns. The first place is south of the city of Pishali, named Well-Dwelling Root, where from of old hosts of bodhisattvas have dwelt.

First ask: why the turn from mountains and seas into cities and towns? Chengguan outlines these latter twelve places as ‘dwellings mixed among cities and towns,’ and explains their sense: they exhaust to the last bend the capacities of sentient beings, displaying that great compassion leaves nothing out, whereby one may know that there is nowhere the bodhisattvas are not. The first ten places dwell in mountains and seas, displaying the height and depth of great wisdom; the latter twelve dwell in cities and towns, displaying the compassion that does not abandon. Wisdom and compassion, the one high and the other low, are together the dwelling place of a bodhisattva.

The misunderstanding to be cleared away is this: to think that those who dwell in cities and towns are less lofty than those who dwell in the mountains. Neither the sūtra nor the commentators make such a judgement — mountains and seas can settle and can illumine, cities and towns exhaust to the last bend the capacities of beings; these are two kinds of practice, not two grades.

As for the name of the place, Well-Dwelling Root: to dwell well is to abide steadily, and the root is the base upon which one relies. Brought down to oneself — to dwell in the press of people and yet have the root unmoved is far harder to come by than to hide oneself away in the mountains.

City Two · the City of Modulo · the Cave of Fulfillment

The second place is in the city of Modulo, where there is a dwelling place named the Cave of Fulfillment, in which from of old hosts of bodhisattvas have dwelt.

First ask: what sort of place is Modulo? Li Tongxuan, explaining this city’s name, says that in this land it is rendered the City of Peacocks, and is also named Secret Canopy, and that both are names set up on account of affairs of old. This reminds us that the places listed in the sūtra were all cities and towns really existing at the time, and not made-up place-names.

Ask again: what does the name Cave of Fulfillment mean? A cave is a grotto or a chamber of stone, the shelter of one who practises; and to be named Fulfillment is spoken with regard to the virtue accomplished — to dwell in the barest of places and yet have the mind lack nothing. The sūtra adds no explanation here, and neither do we say more on its behalf.

The misunderstanding to be cleared away is this: to take ‘cave’ for a mark of bitter poverty and something to be pitied. To take a cave for one’s dwelling and to name it Fulfillment is precisely to turn the world’s whole judgement of poverty and wealth upside down.

Brought down to oneself: whether the place one dwells in can be fulfilling does not lie in the place but in the one who dwells.

City Three · the City of Juzhenna · the Dharma Seat

The third place is in the city of Juzhenna, where there is a dwelling place named the Dharma Seat, in which from of old hosts of bodhisattvas have dwelt.

First ask: whence comes this city’s name? Li Tongxuan explains that this city is also named Juchenna, and that ‘juchen’ in this land is rendered ‘a great basin’; the tradition is that in ancient times a man kept water in a great basin like a pool, and beside that basin constantly practised the arts of the seers, and constantly expounded for men the books of guarding purity and nourishing life, and that those who studied under him all took their master’s method as a surname, and the city therefore got its name. That an ancient master should tell the origin of a place-name in such detail is to have men know this: the places where bodhisattvas dwell are often just those places in the human world that have a story and a line of teachers.

Ask again: why is the place named the Dharma Seat? A Dharma seat is the seat from which the Dharma is expounded. That within one city there is a place named the Dharma Seat where bodhisattvas have long dwelt says something very plain — the expounding here has never broken off.

The misunderstanding to be cleared away is this: to think that a Dharma seat must be in the great hall of a monastery. The sūtra sets the Dharma seat upon a dwelling place within a city; where there is someone willing to speak and someone willing to hear, there is the Dharma seat.

City Four · the City of the Pure Far Shore · the Cave of Muzhenlinta

The fourth place is in the city of the Pure Far Shore, where there is a dwelling place named the Cave of Muzhenlinta, in which from of old hosts of bodhisattvas have dwelt.

First ask: what is Muzhenlinta? Li Tongxuan, explaining this name, says that Muzhenlinta in this land is rendered ‘liberation,’ and is the name of a dragon; and that ‘linta’ in this land is ‘place,’ because a dragon here heard the Dharma and attained liberation, and so it was named thereby. A dragon heard the Dharma here and attained liberation, and this place-name became a monument.

Ask again: does the city’s name, the Pure Far Shore, answer to the cave’s name? The far shore is the sense of crossing over birth-and-death, and liberation is precisely the fruit of arriving at the far shore; the city’s name and the cave’s name are the one a cause and the other a fruit, answering to each other from afar.

The misunderstanding to be cleared away is this: to take a dragon’s attaining liberation for a tale of marvels with nothing to do with oneself. The ancient master records it in order to make plain that the benefit of hearing the Dharma does not pick and choose its kind — even a dragon is thus, how much more a man.

Brought down to oneself: a place is worth remembering most often because someone really turned about there.

City Five · the Land of Molanta · Established by the Unobstructed Dragon King

The fifth place is in the land of Molanta, where there is a dwelling place named Established by the Unobstructed Dragon King, in which from of old hosts of bodhisattvas have dwelt.

First ask: where is the land of Molanta? Li Tongxuan sets down word for word here that it is not rendered — the ancient master marks it himself as a name not yet translated, and does not supply a conjecture on its behalf. This one stroke shows the commentators’ honesty best: explain what can be explained, and where it cannot be explained, say according to the fact that one does not know.

Ask again: why is the place’s name tied to a dragon king? The place is named Established by the Unobstructed Dragon King, which is to say that this dwelling place was built by a dragon king named Unobstructed. The place before was a dragon hearing the Dharma and gaining liberation; this place is a dragon establishing a place of the Way — dragons appear twice in this chapter, once as a receiver of the Dharma and once as a guardian of it.

The misunderstanding to be cleared away is this: to think that what a dragon king established could not be a dwelling place of bodhisattvas. The sūtra says plainly that hosts of bodhisattvas dwell therein; who built it is one matter and who dwells in it is another.

Brought down to oneself: one who brings a place of the Way to completion need not be one who expounds the Dharma; both sorts of merit count.

City Six · the Land of Ganputuo · Producing Loving-Kindness

The sixth place is in the land of Ganputuo, where there is a dwelling place named Producing Loving-Kindness, in which from of old hosts of bodhisattvas have dwelt.

First ask: can this land’s name be explained? Li Tongxuan likewise sets it down as not rendered. Two places in succession not rendered, and the ancient master takes it for no embarrassment — not to know and to say so is a trustworthy attitude.

Ask again: what does the place-name Producing Loving-Kindness mean? To produce is to bring forth; loving-kindness is the mind that gives joy. To name a dwelling place ‘Producing Loving-Kindness’ is to say that this is a ground where the mind of loving-kindness is brought forth. Most of the places before got their names from the shape of a range, from an appearance, or from a story; this one is named straight from a virtue, and stands out for it.

The misunderstanding to be cleared away is this: to take loving-kindness for a merely mild disposition. Loving-kindness is here spoken of as needing to be ‘produced’ — it is not a feeling one has from the outset, but a practice that must be brought forth and nourished.

Brought down to oneself: to ask whether the place one dwells in produces loving-kindness matters far more than to ask at what point of the map it lies.

City Seven · the Land of Cīnasthāna · the Cave of Nārāyaṇa

The seventh place is in the land of Cīnasthāna, where there is a dwelling place named the Cave of Nārāyaṇa, in which from of old hosts of bodhisattvas have dwelt.

First ask: where is Cīnasthāna? Li Tongxuan explains it with perfect plainness: Cīnasthāna is also called Cīna, and also Zhendan, and in this land it is rendered ‘thinking and considering,’ because the people of that country think and consider and calculate much, and it was named thereby — that is to say, the land of Han. Here the sūtra points to the very soil beneath the reader’s own feet.

Ask again: what does Nārāyaṇa mean? Li Tongxuan explains that Nārāyaṇa in this land is ‘firm and solid.’ A cave of the firm and solid, in a land of thinking and considering — a place named for its much thinking has set up within it a dwelling place named for firmness and solidity. Between the one name and the other there is a certain flavour of counteraction.

The misunderstanding to be cleared away is this: to think that the holy regions the Huayan speaks of are all in the distant west. The sūtra lists Cīnasthāna plainly and the ancient master explains it plainly as the land of Han: this quarter of ours is on the list.

Brought down to oneself: to think and consider much is no crime, but one who thinks and considers much has all the more need of a firm and solid place in which to settle.

City Eight · the Land of Shule · Mount Ox-Head

The eighth place is in the land of Shule, where there is a dwelling place named Mount Ox-Head, in which from of old hosts of bodhisattvas have dwelt.

First ask: how stands the name Shule? Li Tongxuan explains that the correct sound ought to be Qielushudanle, and that this land keeps an abbreviation of it and says only Shule. What the ancient master does here is the work of restoring a transcription, so that later men may know whence the current short form came.

Ask again: what does the name Mount Ox-Head mean? Neither the sūtra nor the ancient masters cited set up any separate explanation of this mountain, and this text therefore stops here and does not speak on their behalf. What can be investigated in a name, investigate; what cannot, do not piece out — this is the consistent measure of reading this chapter.

The misunderstanding to be cleared away is this: to think that every name must yield up a doctrine before one has read it aright. Among the twenty-two places there are those that can be explained, those not rendered, and those left in doubt, and the sūtra treats them all alike with one and the same sentence pattern: from of old, hosts of bodhisattvas have dwelt therein.

Brought down to oneself: whether it can be explained or not does not hinder the fact that someone is practising there.

City Nine · the Land of Jiashemiluo · In Due Order

The ninth place is in the land of Jiashemiluo, where there is a dwelling place named In Due Order, in which from of old hosts of bodhisattvas have dwelt.

First ask: where is Jiashemiluo? Li Tongxuan explains that it was anciently called the land of Jibin, and that in this land it is rendered ‘who indeed may enter’; and he records the reason its statehood was established — that in ancient times, when no state had yet been set up there, there was a great dragon pool which men dared not approach, and afterward an arhat, seeing that the lie of the land was excellent and fit for men to dwell in, begged of the dragon room enough for a single knee; the dragon consented, and the arhat transformed his body and made it large, and his knee gradually filled the pool, and the dragon kept faith and departed; the arhat then by his spiritual power made the water of the pool dry up, and had the common folk dwell there and build their houses, and all men said that but for the holy master, who indeed could have entered this place — and the country’s name was set up from that saying.

Ask again: what does the place-name “In Due Order” mean? To be in due order is to have sequence and no confusion. The ancient masters set up no separate explanation here; read from the name alone, it says that practice has its order.

The misunderstanding to be cleared away is this: to read an affair of old as a myth and pass over its sense. The bone of this record is in the “begging room enough for a single knee” — what the holy one took was the least possible, and what he accomplished was a ground for the dwelling of the many.

City Ten · the City of Increasing Joy · the Cave of the Venerable One

The tenth place is in the city of Increasing Joy, where there is a dwelling place named the Cave of the Venerable One, in which from of old hosts of bodhisattvas have dwelt.

First ask: what do the city’s name and the place’s name severally display? The city’s name, Increasing Joy, is spoken with regard to the benefit produced; the place’s name, the Cave of the Venerable One, is spoken with regard to the person dwelling there. That a dwelling place is named for a venerable one is because there was once a man worthy of reverence dwelling within it; and that the city it stands in is named Increasing Joy — where a venerable one dwells, the joy of a whole city will increase.

The misunderstanding to be cleared away is this: to think that joy comes from surroundings and things. This city’s joy is tied to there being someone dwelling in that cave; men make a place produce joy, not the place men.

Ask again: how does this join with what the preceding chapter said? The Chapter on the Span of Life of the Tathāgata before spoke of the length of time; this chapter speaks of the pervading of places; and whether the joy of a whole city can increase falls precisely upon whether there is anyone willing to dwell long within it.

Brought down to oneself: if in the place where you are there is anyone whose joy increases because of you, then there is a cave of the venerable one there.

City Eleven · the Land of Anfulimo · Seeing the Light of the Treasury of Koṭis

The eleventh place is in the land of Anfulimo, where there is a dwelling place named Seeing the Light of the Treasury of Koṭis, in which from of old hosts of bodhisattvas have dwelt.

First ask: why is this place’s name so long? Seeing, the treasury of koṭis, the light — it is the most elaborate place-name in the chapter. Seeing is to see; the treasury of koṭis is a treasury measureless in number; the light is the mark that appears — put together it is: here may be seen the light of measureless treasure. Most of the twenty-two places get their names from an appearance or a story; this one is named straight from what is seen there.

The misunderstanding to be cleared away is this: to take the light that is seen for some outward marvel. The name says ‘seeing’ first, from which it is plain that the weight lies upon the one who can see; if the one who can see is impure, then a treasury of koṭis set before him will not become light either.

Ask again: do the ancient masters have an explanation here? The several masters cited set up no separate explanation of this land and this place, and this text according to the fact does not speak on their behalf.

Brought down to oneself: whether in one lifetime a man can see that treasury depends upon the eye, not upon the treasury.

City Twelve · the Land of Qiantuoluo · the Cave of Shanpoluo

The twelfth place is also the last place in the chapter: in the land of Qiantuoluo there is a dwelling place named the Cave of Shanpoluo, in which from of old hosts of bodhisattvas have dwelt.

First ask: what does the name Qiantuoluo mean? Li Tongxuan explains that in this land it is ‘upholding the earth,’ because in that country many worthy and holy ones dwell, and it is therefore not invaded and harmed by other countries; and by another reading ‘qiantuo’ is fragrance and ‘luo’ means tuoluo, which in this land is ‘pervading,’ that is, that within that country fragrance grows abundantly and pervades. Upholding the earth and not suffering invasion; fragrance and pervading — both senses are good.

Ask again: what is Shanpoluo? Li Tongxuan explains that Shanpoluo is the name of a fragrant flowering tree, and that beside this cave such trees grow in abundance, and it was named thereby. The chapter closes with a stone cave overgrown with fragrant flowering trees.

The misunderstanding to be cleared away is this: to take the sūtra’s breaking off here as the regret of something lost. How it comes to a close is a matter the several masters have discussed, and is to be found under Lineage as a record. Read from the sūtra’s own text: the twenty-two places once spoken, it makes no closing sigh and no general gathering-up, just as this list was never going to have a day on which it was exhausted.

Brought down to oneself: having read through to the last place, what ought to be asked is not whether there is a twenty-third, but whether the place where one stands at this moment counts as one of them.

Lineage

Which question is answered from afar — Chengguan takes this chapter to answer from afar the question about the ocean of the span of life in the preceding Chapter on the Span of Life of the Tathāgata, because bodhisattvas dwell according to the capacities they meet and their life-spans differ; and he points out plainly that the old reading which took this chapter to answer from afar the ten clauses of questioning at the opening of the second assembly differs in doctrinal intent and does not join up in the order of the text either. Fazang, for his part, takes this chapter to have two reasons for its coming: one, to answer from afar the ten clauses of questioning about the mind of rejoicing and the rest in the Hall of Universal Light; two, to display more nearly where bodhisattvas are according to the capacities they meet. The questions to which the two masters tie it are different, each with its own ground in the ordering of the outline, and both are recorded without adjudication.

The investigation of Mount Clear and Cool — Chengguan sets up here the longest passage of investigation in the chapter: he ties Mount Clear and Cool to Mount Wutai in the commandery of Yanmen in Daizhou, within which there is now the Clear and Cool Monastery, named Clear and Cool because ice lies heaped through the years, snow flies in high summer, and there has never been sweltering heat; and named Five Terraces further because five peaks rise up, with no forest on their summits, in the shape of terraces of heaped earth, and he takes the five terraces as displaying that the five wisdoms are already round and the five eyes already pure. Since he held that the sūtra’s saying only ‘the northeast’ left the wording still too loose, he cited what the Baozang tuoluoni jing says — that in the northeast of the continent of Jambu there is a country named Great Zhenna, and within it a mountain called Five Peaks, where the youth Mañjuśrī roams and dwells and expounds the Dharma for hosts of bodhisattvas — as attestation, and pronounced that these words are exact; and he further tells how in his youth he sought out this text, and how, whenever he read as far as this passage, he closed the scroll and sighed long, and thereupon went ten thousand miles without counting them and committed his life to lodging in the holy region for ten years. Fazang likewise ties Mount Clear and Cool to Mount Wutai in Daizhou, within which there is now the old Clear and Cool Monastery, named from the snow heaped there winter and summer, and he points out that of this mountain and of Mañjuśrī’s numinous responses there are three fascicles of records apart. The two readings are set side by side, recorded without adjudication.

The sense of the name Mount Zhiti — Fazang, collating the Sanskrit text, holds that this name ought properly to be Mount Zhiduo, which in this land is ‘returning to the source,’ and is of the sort of a stūpa; Li Tongxuan for his part explains Mount Zhiti as in this land ‘pure faith,’ because those who see this mountain are able to produce pure faith. The two explanations are set side by side without adjudication.

What Mount Excellent Peak is tied to — Chengguan ties this mountain to the mountain where Cloud of Virtue dwelt, which in the Jin recension is named Mount Tower-Pavilion, the abode of Poshiluo; Fazang for his part ties it to the abode of the sovereign sea-master beside the city of Tower-Pavilion on the shore of the southern sea, spoken of further on, and says that on collating the Sanskrit text it ought to be named Mount Excellent Peak. The two tyings are set side by side without adjudication.

The variants of the two recensions and the number of places — the Jin rendering, the sixty-fascicle Avataṃsaka, has this same chapter, and the speaker is likewise the bodhisattva Mind King. The mountain names of the eight quarters and the bodhisattvas now dwelling there mostly agree, while the graphs of the renderings differ from one another (Mount Where the Seers Arise against Mount of the Seers, Mount Fragrance-Gathered against Mount Heaped Fragrance, Firm Branch against Mount Zhiti, Fearless Lion Practice against Fearless Practice of Vigor); for the one place in the sea, the eighty-fascicle text has Mount Vajra, with Dharma Arising now dwelling there and a retinue of one thousand two hundred, while the sixty-fascicle text has Zhida within the four great seas, with Tanwujie now dwelling there and a retinue of twelve thousand, and the position in the order differs as well; as to the places in cities and towns, the eighty-fascicle text has twelve and the sixty-fascicle text thirteen, the sixty-fascicle text having one more, the saṃghārāma of the Golden Lamp at the town of Balianfu. Chengguan outlines the eighty-fascicle text as ten before and twelve after, twenty-two places in all; Fazang, upon the sixty-fascicle text, outlines it as the eight quarters, the four seas, and thirteen places in the several countries. All is recorded in full without adjudication; the choice between recensions belongs to the translator.

The chapter’s ending without a conclusion — Chengguan sets down that at the end of this text there is no conclusion at all, and that perhaps the scripture did not come down complete; and he says that since Jambudvīpa is thus, the remaining quarters and remaining realms and the realms of other kinds may be taken after this pattern, and the body-cloud of the Dharma realm is then neither present nor absent anywhere. Fazang, at the end of the sixty-fascicle text, sets down that what has been made clear above is the dwelling places of the bodhisattvas of this Jambudvīpa, that the remaining four continents may be taken accordingly, and so on to the remaining Sumeru worlds and the tree-shaped worlds and the rest, all taken accordingly, endlessly and endlessly. Li Tongxuan for his part says that the great intent of this one chapter is to make clear the bodhisattvas’ practice of gathering in beings, upholding them, and not cutting off the Three Jewels, and that in raising only this one Jambudvīpa it displays that the lands of the ten quarters and all the Jambudvīpas are wholly to be taken after this pattern. The three are recorded side by side, without adjudication.

Outside this chapter — Vasubandhu’s Shidi jing lun and the books that are the guiding outlines of the Huayan house are alike found to have no citation or explanation of this chapter (a mechanical check of the whole yields zero hits); it is set down as lacking according to the fact, and nothing is tied on their behalf.