Setting

1. Introduction: The Buddha transforms the world in a samādhi and bodhisattvas see the interpenetration of the worlds and buddhas, which is inconceivable for ordinary beings.

2. Samantabhadra: Samantabhadra Bodhisattva describes how all bodhisattvas are united by Vairocana Buddha, through whom they manifest throughout the world in infinite forms.

3. Mañjuśrī: Śāriputra follows Mañjuśrī to the south and he and monks are taught and attain realisations. Mañjuśrī proceeds to Dhanyakara where he meets Sudhana. Sudhana gives rise to Bodhicitta when Mañjuśrī explains the origin of Sudhana’s name. Mañjuśrī tells him to seek buddhahood through the aid of spiritual friends and guides him to Meghaśrī.

The Ten Abodes

States of mind in which a bodhisattva practices, understanding that buddhas and one’s own mind are not separate. Clarification of the implications of each abode, practice, and so forth are given in parentheses based upon the longer discussions in their relevant sections of the Avataṃsaka Sūtra.

1. Inspiration: Meghaśrī, the monk on the peak.

(Giving rise to bodhicitta and vowing to serve buddhas, and attain buddhahood for the benefit of all beings)

2. Preparing the Ground: Sāgaramegha, the monk who learned from a buddha in the ocean. (Developing wholesome attitudes towards others and correcting one’s behaviour to be wholesome)

3. Practice: Supratiṣṭhita, who can pass through anything and go anywhere.

(Contemplating phenomena in regards to the three marks of existence and observation of phenomena in the three realms)

4. Noble Birth: Megha, who teaches about speech with the Wheel of Letters.

(Permanent access to the presence of awakening through deep faith, and deeper understanding about the teachings of buddhas, realising buddhas’ equality)

5. Full Equipment with Skill in Means: Muktaka, who shows all buddhas within his body as products of his own mind.

(Cultivating virtues that can be used to benefit others, while being aware of beings’ nonidentity)

6. Correct State of Mind: Saradhvaja, emanating bodhisattvas and buddhas while walking. (Having unwavering minds with regards to the buddhas, and in regards to their aspiration towards buddhahood for the benefit of beings, due to knowing the signlessness of dharmas) 7. Non-regression: Āśā, who brings beings to irreversibility after they look at her. (Having firmness in practice, and being undaunted about the path and in regards to how formlessness is form and vice versa)

8. Youthful Nature: Bhīṣmottaranirghoṣa, who shows countless buddhas upon touching one’s head.

(Having flawless thought, speech, and deeds and being able to take upon new deeds on the path at will)

9. Spiritual Prince: Jayoṣmāyatana, who endures fires and teaches Sudhana to jump from a razor precipice.

(Knowing what techniques are to be known in order to oppose beings’ afflictions, studying the skills and manners of a spiritual monarch)

10. Coronation: Maitrāyaṇī, teaches many arrays that are one in her palace which reflects all buddhas.

(As a spiritual monarch, analysing and purifying countless worlds and promoting the knowledge proper to buddhas of all worlds, things, and beings)

The Ten Practices

The practices which enable bodhisattvas to put into action, to help self and other, the knowledge of the ten abodes.

1. Joy: Sudarśana, who walks in the woods and teaches Sudhana that he has heard aeons of teachings.

(Based on the perfection of generosity, one develops giving without regard for beings or the given, seeing all as empty, but not taking pride in one’s accomplishments)

2. Beneficial Practice: Indriyeśvara, who plays by the river and has been taught all forms of practical knowledge.

(Based on the perfection of morality, being able to master life and correct behaviour in regards to oneself and others entirely on the basis of non-attachment and knowledge of emptiness)

3. Non-Opposition: Prabhūtā, who satisfies the needs of beings with her vessel without exhausting it.

(Based on the perfection of patience, developing humility and patience in regards to not seeking personal gain and resolving to transcendently aid beings without giving rise to evil states of mind)

4. Indomitability: Vidvān, who produces all needs of beings by looking at the sky.

(Based on the perfection of energy, becoming free from mental poisons and directing energy towards ending one’s delusions and eliminating other’s compulsions and harmful deeds too)

5. Non-Confusion: Ratnacūḍa, who created a house representing the ten pāramitās from the merit of offering a ball of incense to past buddhas.

(Based on the perfection of meditation, developing mindfulness so that one’s mind becomes imperturbable and so one can aid beings without confusion)

6. Good Manifestation: Samantanetra, who can cure beings and teach them the Dharma and makes magical perfumes.

(Based on the perfection of wisdom, developing non-acquisitiveness in body, speech, and mind based on knowledge of thusness and emptiness)

7. Non-Attachment: King Anala, who manifests illusory torturers and criminals in order to guide evil beings of his land away from evil.

(Based on the perfection of skilful means, developing non-attachment towards sacred and mundane one knows how to teach according to beings’ needs and without emotional attachment)

8. Difficult-to-Attain: King Mahāprabha, whose kingdom appears to be either clay or jewels depending upon beings’ faculties.

(Based on the perfection of vows, one develops non-weariness in regards to the vow of universally aiding beings, and will always travel back and forward to aid beings without grasping to mundane or supramundane)

9. Good Teaching: Acalā, whose house makes Sudhana enter many samādhis and who can allow one to see countless buddhas.

(Based on the perfection of power, one develops the intellectual and super-mundane powers to aid beings, aiding beings as refuges for them and revealing the power of awakening)

10. Truth: Sarvagāmin, who dwells on a mountain peak and teaches going everywhere. (Based on the perfection of knowledge, one develops knowledge of truth and falsehood on a transcendent level, knowing both how to benefit beings, the right times to do so, and what to teach them)

The Ten Dedications

These are the dedications of a bodhisattva’s virtues to the attainment of buddhahood in order to save all sentient beings out of compassion. In addition to awakened mind (abodes) and practices, one needs to have proper direction in order to aim them at the correct goal. Dedication is using the combination of wisdom and compassion.

1. Saving All Beings Without Clinging to any Image of Beings: Utpalabhūti, who liberates beings by compounding fragrances.

(Based upon the first six perfections and the four immeasurables, one dedicates these virtues to aiding beings to enable their purification and awakening)

2. Indestructible Dedication: Vaira, who knows treasures in the oceans and helps mariners obtain them while teaching them the Dharma.

(Developing indestructible faith in the buddhas, bodhisattvas and the path based on joy and the essential empty nature of things, but not clinging to any forms)

3. Equal to All Buddhas: Jayottama, who teaches businessmen and elders of the city. (Not perceiving any like or dislike for anything, one develops a free and joyous mind which is equal to the bliss of buddhas’ attainments, and one dedicates the virtues of this to beings’ attainments)

4. Reaching All Places: Siṃhavijṛmbhita, who teaches beings at the feet of jewelled trees to remove their vain imaginings and offer to all buddhas but does not perceive any beings. (Using the power of one’s virtues to reach all places and times to aid beings through teaching, and universally perceiving all places)

5. Infinite Stores of Virtue: Vasumitrā, who creates dispassion by the skilful means of sensedesires.

(Through repentance and removal of the defilements, one listens to the Dharma, puts it into practice, and thus dedicates virtue to awakening and all buddhas)

6. Actively Stabilizing All Roots of Goodness: Veṣṭhila, who realises buddhas don’t enter nirvāṇa and sees them all in successive moments.

(Exercising generosity to all beings in all ways based upon control of body and mind in order to foster development of beings’ good qualities)

7. According to all Sentient Beings: Avalokiteśvara, who allows beings to overcome their fears by manifesting and allowing them to use his name to help them when in peril. (Giving people what they need without any artifice, expectations, or pride and developing an unattached, and liberated mind)

8. Characteristic of True Thusness: Ananyagāmin, who passes countless lands in a single thought, paying homage to countless buddhas and heling countless beings therein. (Developing clear and perfect recollection, and vowing to attain freedom of body, speech, and mind without clinging to anything or anyone, or relying on anything such as discriminatory views)

9. Without Bondage or Attachment: Mahādeva, who manifests treasures for beings to give away to teach them relinquishment.

(Developing emancipation from compulsion, and dedicating virtues to non-attached actions and thoughts)

10. Infinite Dedication Equal to the Cosmos: Earth Goddess Sthāvarā, who witnesses the roots of goodness of all buddhas at the site of awakening.

(Focusing on giving bodhicitta to others, being impartial and cultivating awakening action for the benefit of all)

The Ten Stages

The stages whereby, applying the abodes, practices, and dedications, bodhisattvas gradually develop the qualities needed for buddhahood.

1. Joy: Night Goddess Vāsantī, who dispels the darkness of ignorance and guides beings from fear.

(Developing joy from thinking of buddhas, bodhisattvas and their practice, and the Dharma so as to give what beings need)

2. Purity: Night Goddess Samantagambhīraśrīvimalaprabhā, who goes everywhere through the bliss of tranquil meditation, knowing the omnipresent essence of all objects.

(Primarily develop purity of mind based upon morality)

3. Refulgence: Night Goddess Pramuditanayanajagadvirocanā, whose emanations show the ten perfections to all beings and was inspired to awakening by Mañjuśrī and Samantabhadra. (Developing nine levels of meditation by focusing on the marks of existence and the purity and development of the mind)

4. Blazing Radiance: Night Goddess Samantasattvatrāṇojaḥśrī, who never parts from Samantabhadra and appears in all worlds and adapts to all conditions.

(Contemplating realms and worlds and thus entering the radiance of the Dharma)

5. Difficult to Conquer: Night Goddess Praśāntarutasāgaravatī, who experiences great joy from Vairocana Buddha and his manifestations, vowing to put an end to all beings’ sufferings. (Developing impartial attention to the purity of teachings and conduct so that one has unwavering attention and meditation being able to thus develop skills according to beings’ needs)

6. Presence: Night Goddess Sarvanagararakṣāsaṃbhavatejaḥśrī, who has a liberation of entry into sound which teaches the Dharma to all beings according to their minds.

(Seeing all things as having no ultimate definition or distinction, and as ultimately pure, one sees the arising and falling of worlds as being like dreams, and engages in absorption in emptiness, signlessness, and wishlessness)

7. Far Going: Night Goddess Sarvavṛkṣapraphullanasukhasaṃvāsā, who attained liberation under a past king who gave away all beings needed, who became Vairocana.

(Going beyond ideas of personality, one detaches from the world but is able to continue to act in the world without being stained by it)

8. Immovability: Night Goddess Saravajagadrakṣāpraṇidhānavīryaprabhā, who attained a liberation by freeing tortured prisoners, but teaches that bodhisattva liberations are beyond ordinary understanding.

(Fully realising things are nonconceptual becoming detached from mental states with no actions based upon mental states arising and by means of knowledge distinguish the path and practices, carrying out awakening activities with non-retrogression)

9. Good Mind: Night Goddess Sutejomaṇḍalaratiśrī, who attained her liberation by being a buddha’s wet nurse in the past.

(Accurately knowing all kinds of actions, all that is beneficial and not beneficial, they become expert teachers at this stage, learning to teach in accord with beings’ needs)

10. Clouds of Teaching: Gopā, who has a liberation observing oceans of bodhisattva samādhis as a result of joining a prince bodhisattva Vairocana in a past life under a past buddha, and thence never being separated from him on the path.

(Gaining incalculable samādhis and liberation, one can rain down teachings from perfect awakening, which is nearby them)

The Practice of Universal Good (Samantabhadra)

These ten teachers represent the eleventh stage, which is the practice of Universal Good, which has ten aspects, and which culminates in full Buddhahood.

1. Producing Knowledge from Compassion: Māyā

2. Consistently Remembering All Truths through Mastery of Knowledge and Compassion: Surendrābhā

3. Teaching Worldly Principles Everywhere: Viśvāmitra

4. Penetrating the Mysteries of Writing and Higher Knowledge of Arts: Śilpābhijña 5. Helping People by both Conventional and Mystical Arts and Sciences:

Bhadrottamā

6. Pure Liberation by Being in the World Without Clinging Thoughts: Muktāsāra

7. Illumination by Pure Knowledge working in the World: Sucandra

8. Finding Infinite Forms in Formlessness: Ajitasena

9. Speaking so as to Reveal Truth: Śivarāgra

10. Living in the World with Complete Knowledge and Compassion: Śrīsaṃbhava &

Śrīmati

Conclusion

1. Maitreya: Who reveals the tower of Vairocana and informs Sudhana that he will attain Buddhahood in one lifetime.

2. Mañjuśrī: Who shows Sudhana how effort and roots are required for knowledge.

3. The Vow of Practice of Samantabhadra: Who completes Sudhana’s practice and makes the vow of good bodhisattva conduct, or King of Prayers.