The Buddhāvataṃsaka-nāma-mahāvaipulya-sūtra (The Mahāvaipulya Sūtra named "Buddhāvataṃsaka") is one of the most influential Mahāyāna sutras of East Asian Buddhism.Hamar, Imre. Buddhāvataṃsakasūtra, 2015, in Brill's Encyclopedia of Buddhism (Volume One), Handbook of Oriental Studies. Section 2 South Asia, Volume: 29-1. Editor-in-Chief: Jonathan Silk. It is often referred to in short as the . In Classical Sanskrit, avataṃsa, vataṃsa and uttaṃsa (from stem taṃs, meaning "to decorate") all mean garland, wreath, or any circular ornament, such as an earring; suffix -ka often functions either as a diminutive or plural. Thus, the title may be rendered in English as A Garland of Buddhas, Buddha Ornaments, or Buddha's Fine Garland. In Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit, the term avataṃsaka means "a great number," "a multitude," or "a collection." This is matched by the Tibetan title of the sutra, which is A Multitude of Buddhas (Tibetan: sangs rgyas phal po che).
Modern scholars consider the Buddhāvataṃsaka to be a compilation of numerous smaller sutras, many of which originally circulated independently and then were later brought together into the larger mature Buddhāvataṃsaka. Many of these independent Buddhāvataṃsaka sutras survive in Chinese translation.
The text has been described by the translator Thomas Cleary "the most grandiose, the most comprehensive, and the most beautifully arrayed of the Buddhist scriptures." The Buddhāvataṃsaka describes a cosmos of infinite realms upon realms filled with an immeasurable number of Buddhas. This sutra was especially influential in East Asian Buddhism. The vision expressed in this work was the foundation for the creation of the Huayan school of Chinese Buddhism, which was characterized by a philosophy of interpenetration. The Huayan school is known as Hwaeom in Korea, Kegon in Japan and Hoa Nghiêm in Vietnam. The sutra is also influential in Chan Buddhism.
Title This work has been used in a variety of countries. Some major traditional titles include the following: Sanskrit: , The Mahāvaipulya Sūtra named "Buddhāvataṃsaka". Vaipulya ("extensive") refers to key Mahayana sutras. "Garland/wreath/adornment" refers to a manifestation of the beauty of Buddha's virtues or his inspiring glory. The term avataṃsaka also means "a great number," "a multitude," or "a collection." This matches the content of the sutra, in which numerous Buddhas are depicted as manifestations of the cosmic Buddha Vairocana. Chinese: Dàfāngguǎng Fóhuāyán Jīng , commonly known as the Huāyán Jīng (), meaning "Flower-adorned (Splendid & Solemn) Sūtra." Vaipulya here is translated as "corrective and expansive", fāngguǎng (). Huā () means at once "flower" (archaic; namely ) and "magnificence." Yán (), short for zhuàngyán (), means "to decorate (so that it is solemn, dignified)." Japanese: (), usually known as the (). This title is identical to Chinese above, just in Shinjitai characters. or (), the Sino-Korean pronunciation of the Chinese name. , shortened to the , the Sino-Vietnamese pronunciation of the Chinese name. , Standard Tibetan Tangut (romanized): Tha cha wa tha fa sho ldwi rye According to a Dunhuang manuscript, this text was also known as the .
History The Buddhāvataṃsakasūtra was written in stages, beginning from at least 500 years after the death of the Buddha. One source claims that it is "a very long text composed of a number of originally independent scriptures of diverse provenance, all of which were combined, probably in Central Asia, in the late third or the fourth century CE." Japanese scholars such as Akira Hirakawa and Otake Susumu meanwhile argue that the Sanskrit original was compiled in India from sutras already in circulation which also bore the name "Buddhavatamsaka".Hamar, Imre (Editor). Reflecting Mirrors: Perspectives on Huayan Buddhism (ASIATISCHE FORSCHUNGEN), 2007, page 92
The Ten Stages sutra (Daśabhūmika) and the Flower Array sutra (Gaṇḍavyūha) have both survived in Sanskrit. There are two other parts of the Avatamsaka which have survived in Sanskrit, the Bhadracaryāpraṇidhāna (The Aspiration Prayer for Good Conduct), and the Anantabuddhakṣetraguṇodbhāvana-nāma-mahāyāna-sūtra (Cultivating the Qualities of Infinite Buddhafields). Apart from these four texts and some fragments, the rest of the sutra only survives in Chinese and Tibetan translations.Takeuchi Yoshinori (editor) (1995). Buddhist Spirituality: Indian, Southeast Asian, Tibetan, and Early Chinese, p. 160. Motilal Banarsidass.
Two full Chinese translations of the Buddhāvataṃsakasūtra were made. Fragmentary translation probably began in the 2nd century CE, and the famous Ten Stages Sutra, often treated as an individual scripture, was first translated in the 3rd century. The first complete Chinese version was translated by Buddhabhadra around 420 in 60 scrolls with 34 chapters, and the second by Śikṣānanda, assisted by BodhiruciRobert Buswell Jr. The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, 2013, pp. 134. around 699 in 80 scrolls with 40 chapters.Hamar, Imre (2007), The History of the Buddhāvataṃsaka Sūtra. In: Hamar, Imre (editor), Reflecting Mirrors: Perspectives on Huayan Buddhism (Asiatische Forschungen Vol. 151), Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, , pp.159-161 There is also a translation of the Gaṇḍavyūha section by Prajñā around 798. The second translation includes more sutras than the first, and the Tibetan translation, which is still later, includes many differences with the 80 scrolls version. Scholars conclude that sutras were being added to the collection.
The single extant Tibetan version was translated from the original Sanskrit by Jinamitra et al. at the end of ninth century.
According to Paramārtha, a 6th-century monk from Ujjain in central India, the Buddhāvataṃsakasūtra is also called the "Bodhisattva Piṭaka." In his translation of the Mahāyānasaṃgrahabhāṣya, there is a reference to the Bodhisattva Piṭaka, which Paramārtha notes is the same as the Avataṃsaka Sūtra in 100,000 lines. Identification of the Buddhāvataṃsakasūtra as a "Bodhisattva Piṭaka" was also recorded in the colophon of a Chinese manuscript at the Mogao Caves: "Explication of the Ten Stages, entitled Creator of the Wisdom of an Omniscient Being by Degrees, a chapter of the Mahāyāna sūtra Bodhisattvapiṭaka Buddhāvataṃsaka, has ended."
Overview
The sutra, among the longest Buddhist sutras, is a compilation of disparate texts on various topics such as the Bodhisattva path, the interpenetration of phenomena (dharmas), the omnipresence of Buddhahood, the miraculous powers of the Buddhas and bodhisattvas, the visionary powers of meditation, and the equality of things in emptiness.Takeuchi Yoshinori (editor). Buddhist Spirituality: Indian, Southeast Asian, Tibetan, and Early Chinese, page 160
According to Paul Demiéville, the Buddhāvataṃsaka collection is "characterized by overflowing visionary images, which multiply everything to infinity, by a type of monadology that teaches the interpenetration of the one whole and the particularized many, of spirit and matter" and by "the notion of a gradual progress towards liberation through successive stages and an obsessive preference for images of light and radiance."Takeuchi Yoshinori (editor). Buddhist Spirituality: Indian, Southeast Asian, Tibetan, and Early Chinese, page 161 Likewise, Alan Fox has described the sutra's worldview as "fractal", "holographic", and "psychedelic".Fox, Alan. The Practice of Huayan Buddhism, 2015.04, http://www.fgu.edu.tw/~cbs/pdf/2013%E8%AB%96%E6%96%87%E9%9B%86/q16.pdf
Holistic cosmos
The East Asian Buddhist view of the text is that it expresses the infinite universe as seen by a Buddha (the Dharmadhatu), who sees all phenomena as empty and thus infinitely interpenetrating, from the point of view of enlightenment. This interpenetration is described in the Buddhāvataṃsakasūtra as the perception "that the fields full of assemblies, the beings and aeons which are as many as all the dust particles, are all present in every particle of dust." Thus, a Buddha's view of reality is also said to be "inconceivable; no sentient being can fathom it". The following passage from the Buddhāvataṃsaka describes this holistic idea of universal interpenetration or interfusion which sees the total sum of all things as being contained in each individual phenomena:Children of the Buddha, just as if there was a great sūtra, as extensive as the great universe, in which are written down all phenomena in the great universe. That is to say, in it is written about the phenomena in the great enclosing iron mountains, as extensively as the great enclosing iron mountains; it is written about the phenomena on earth, as extensively as the earth; it is written about the phenomena in the medium universe, as extensively as the medium universe; it is written about the phenomena in the small universe, as extensively as the small universe. In the same vein, all phenomena – be they of the four continents, or the great oceans, Sumeru mountains, the palaces of the gods in the heavens of the realm of desire, the palaces in the realm of form, and the palaces of the formless realm – are written down to an equal length. Even though this sūtra is as extensive as the great universe, it can be fully comprised within a single particle of dust. As it is with one particle, so it is with all particles of dust.Hamar, I. Faith, Practice and Enlightenment in the Avataṃsaka-sūtra and the Huayan School, in Imre Hamar and Takami Inoue (eds.) Faith in Buddhism. Budapest Monographs in East Asian Studies 6. Budapest: Institute of East Asian Studies, Eötvös Loránd University 2016. This idea would later become central in East Asian Buddhist traditions like the Huayan school and Zen.
Mind-only and emptiness Paul Williams notes that the sutra contains both the "mind-only" (cittamatra, Yogacara) teachings and the emptiness teachings (associated with Prajñaparamita and Madhyamaka). The sutra thus teaches that all things are empty of inherent existence and also speaks of "pure untainted awareness or consciousness (amala-citta) as the ground of all phenomena".
Teachings about emptiness and mind-only can be found throughout the sutra, especially in chapters 10, 1 6, and 22 of the 60 fascicle version (T 278).Kim-May Hyung-Hi. The Relation between Emptiness and Mind-only According to the Life of the Bodhisattva as Described in the Avataṃsaka-sūtra. In Gimello, Robert; Girard, Frédéric; Hamar, Imre (2012). Avataṃsaka Buddhism in East Asia: Huayan, Kegon, Flower Ornament Buddhism; origins and adaptation of a visual culture, p. 74. Asiatische Forschungen: Monographienreihe zur Geschichte, Kultur und Sprache der Völker Ost- u. Zentralasiens, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. The sutra contains various statements affirming the mind-only teaching. For example, it states: "The triple world is only mind", and "Everything is created by the mind alone." It also affirms emptiness when it states: "The triple world is completely empty. That is the vision of the Buddhas;" and "all dharmas lack intrinsic nature; to understand the nature of dharmas like this is to see Vairocana."
The power of the Buddhas The Buddhāvataṃsakasūtra also highlights the visionary and mystical power of attaining the spiritual wisdom which sees the nature of the world:
Endless action arises from the mind; from action arises the multifarious world. Having understood that the world's true nature is mind, you display bodies of your own in harmony with the world. Having realized that this world is like a dream, and that all Buddhas are like mere reflections, that all principles [dharma] are like an echo, you move unimpeded in the world (Trans in Gomez, 1967: lxxxi)