The Stem Array
Ratnacūḍa
Toh 44-45
Degé Kangyur, vol. 37 (phal chen, ga), folios 274.b–396.a; vol. 38 (phal chen, a), folios 1.b–363.a
- Surendrabodhi
- Vairocanarakṣita
- Bandé Yeshé Dé
- Jinamitra
Imprint
Translated by Peter Alan Roberts
under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha
First published 2021
Current version v 1.0.30 (2024)
Generated by 84000 Reading Room v2.26.1
84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha is a global non-profit initiative to translate all the Buddha’s words into modern languages, and to make them available to everyone.
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Table of Contents
Summary
In this lengthy final chapter of the Avataṃsaka Sūtra, while the Buddha Śākyamuni is in meditation in Śrāvastī, Mañjuśrī leaves for South India, where he meets the young layman Sudhana and instructs him to go to a certain kalyāṇamitra or “good friend,” who then directs Sudhana to another such friend. In this way, Sudhana successively meets and receives teachings from fifty male and female, child and adult, human and divine, and monastic and lay kalyāṇamitras, including night goddesses surrounding the Buddha and the Buddha’s wife and mother. The final three in the succession of kalyāṇamitras are the three bodhisattvas Maitreya, Mañjuśrī, and Samantabhadra. Samantabhadra’s recitation of the Samantabhadracaryāpraṇidhāna (“The Prayer for Completely Good Conduct”) concludes the sūtra.
Acknowledgements
Translated by Peter Alan Roberts and edited by Emily Bower, who was also the project manager. Ling Lung Chen was consultant for the Chinese, and Tracy Davis copyedited the final draft. The translator would like to thank Patrick Carré and Douglas Osto, who have both spent decades studying and translating this sūtra, for their advice and help.
The translation was completed under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha.
The generous sponsorship of Richard and Carol Weingarten; of Jamyang Sun, Manju Chandra Sun and Siqi Sun; and of an anonymous donor, which helped make the work on this translation possible, is most gratefully acknowledged.
Text Body
Chapter 45: The Stem Array
Ratnacūḍa
Sudhana, the head merchant’s son, had conviction in that river of merit. He viewed that field of merit. He purified that mountain984 of merit. He climbed down that stairway to the bathing place of merit. He opened that treasury of merit. He viewed that treasure of merit. He purified that domain of merit. He carried away that heap of merit. He developed that strength of merit. He increased that power of merit.
Sudhana eventually arrived at the town of Siṃhapota. He searched for Ratnacūḍa, the head-merchant patron of the Dharma. He saw him in the middle of a market.985 Sudhana bowed his head to Ratnacūḍa’s feet, circumambulated Ratnacūḍa, keeping him to his right, many hundreds of thousands of times, [F.16.b] and sat down before him. With his hands together in homage, he said, “Ārya, I have developed the aspiration for the highest, complete enlightenment, but I do not know how bodhisattvas should train in bodhisattva conduct and in what way they should practice it.
“Ārya, will you not bestow on me the instruction for the bodhisattva path, which is the path by which I will become omniscient?”
Ratnacūḍa, the head-merchant patron of the Dharma, grasped the hands of Sudhana, the head merchant’s son, led him to his home and, showing Sudhana his home, said, “Noble one, look at my home!”
Sudhana looked at it. The house was made of pure, bright Jambu River gold. It was vast and tall and encircled by a wall of silver. It was beautified by arrangements of bright crystals. It was adorned by a hundred thousand clusters of beryls. There was an array of pillars of white coral. A lion throne made of red pearls had been erected. Lion banners made of asteria jewels were displayed. Overhead there was a shining canopy of jewels. It was draped in nets of gold adorned with wish-fulfilling jewels. There was an array of countless varieties of precious jewels. It was furnished with ponds made of emerald and filled with cool water. It was encircled by trees made of precious materials. It was massive. It was vast. It had ten stories. It was very tall. It had eight doors.
On the first floor he saw food and drink being distributed.
On the second floor he saw clothing being given away. [F.17.a]
On the third floor he saw jewelry and adornments being given away.
On the fourth floor he saw being given away the most precious, excellent maidens on the great earth who are the pleasures enjoyed in harems.
On the fifth floor he saw an assembly of bodhisattvas on the fifth bhūmi who were dedicated to the pleasure of talking together986 about the Dharma, whose thoughts were concerned with the benefit and happiness of the world, who were accomplished in all treatises, who had the power of retention, who had the seal987 of samādhi, who rose from samādhi, who analyzed samādhi, and who had attained the light of wisdom.
On the sixth floor he saw bodhisattvas who had attained the state of the perfection of wisdom, who had profound wisdom, who had clairvoyantly perceived the pacification of all phenomena, who came forth from all the gateways that were the essences and gateways of the samādhis and retentions,988 whose range of activity was free of obscuration, who practiced nonduality, who manifested discussions of the Dharma, and who followed the way of the perfection of wisdom, analyzed it, elucidated it, and discussed the many gateways to the perfection of wisdom. These included the gateway to the perfection of wisdom called the essence of peace, the gateway to the perfection of wisdom called the categories of wisdom for all beings, the gateway to the perfection of wisdom called the unwavering turning, the gateway to the perfection of wisdom called the dust-free light, the gateway to the perfection of wisdom called the essence989 of invincibility, the gateway to the perfection of wisdom called the illumination of beings,990 [F.17.b] the gateway to the perfection of wisdom called the field of the way that is followed, the gateway to the perfection of wisdom called the essence of the ocean,991 the gateway to the perfection of wisdom called the attainment of all-seeing equanimity, the gateway to the perfection of wisdom called the possession of inexhaustible treasure, the gateway to the perfection of wisdom called the ocean of the ways of the Dharma, the gateway to the perfection of wisdom called following the ocean of beings, the gateway to the perfection of wisdom called unimpeded eloquence, and the gateway to the perfection of wisdom called resting in objectlessness after focusing on the clouds of the Dharma. They discussed the perfection of wisdom through countless millions of such gateways to the perfection of wisdom in a countless array of separate gatherings of assemblies of bodhisattvas.
On the seventh floor he saw an assembly of bodhisattvas who had all attained the patience of perceiving everything as echoes, who had given rise to infallible wisdom and method, and who had received the clouds of the Dharma from all tathāgatas.
On the eighth floor he saw an assembly of bodhisattvas who had all attained clairvoyance that would never diminish, who moved within all world realms, whose images appeared within all the gathered assemblies, whose bodies were distributed throughout the entire realm of phenomena, whose field of experience never departed from being at the feet of all the tathāgatas, who encountered the bodies of all the buddhas, and who were the first individuals to speak within the assemblies of the followers of all the tathāgatas. [F.18.a]
On the ninth floor he saw an assembly of bodhisattvas who were all in their final lifetime.
On the tenth floor he saw when all the tathāgatas first developed the aspiration for enlightenment, their conduct, their setting forth, their oceans of prayers, the range of their buddha miracles, their buddha realms, all their circles of followers, their teaching the wheel of the Dharma, and their power to guide beings.
When he had seen this, he asked Ratnacūḍa, the head-merchant patron of the Dharma, “Ārya, how did you gain this pure good fortune? How did you plant the roots of merit that have ripened in this way?”992
Ratnacūḍa answered, “Noble one, I remember that in the past, more kalpas ago than there are atoms in a buddha realm, there was a world realm called Cakravicitra, and in that world appeared a tathāgata, an arhat, a samyaksaṃbuddha, one with wisdom and conduct,993 a sugata, one who knows the world’s beings, an unsurpassable guide who tames beings, a teacher of devas and humans, a buddha, a bhagavat named Anantaraśmidharmadhātusamalaṃkṛtadharmarāja. That tathāgata, together with a billion śrāvakas, such as Jñānavairocana, and a trillion bodhisattvas, such as Jñānasūryatejas, having been invited by King Dharmeśvararāja, went to the great park called Maṇidhvajavyūharāja.994
“When the Tathāgata had entered the town [F.18.b] and was passing through the market, in order to make an offering to the Tathāgata and his saṅgha of bodhisattvas and śrāvakas, I played music and burned a pellet of incense to spread the aroma. By burning that pellet of incense, the entirety of Jambudvīpa was covered for seven days with multicolored clouds995 of perfume that took on the forms of all beings.
“From those clouds of perfume came these words: ‘The tathāgatas have an inconceivable accumulation of the stainless knowledge of the three times. That omniscience is free of all obscuration. They have eliminated all the propensities for kleśas. All that is offered to the tathāgatas will bring the immeasurable great result of omniscience. It will unite you with omniscience.’
“Those words were emitted from those masses of clouds of incense through the blessing of the Buddha in order to ripen my roots of merit and increase the power of the roots of merit of countless996 beings.
“Noble one, I dedicated the roots of merit from the manifestation of that miracle to three objectives through the blessing of the Tathāgata. What are those three? I made the dedication so that I would have the complete vision of all kalyāṇamitras, of all buddhas, and of all bodhisattvas.
“Noble one, I know only this bodhisattva liberation called the unimpeded display of the field of prayer. [F.19.a] How could I know the conduct or describe the qualities of the bodhisattvas who are the source of limitless good qualities, who have entered an unalloyed ocean of buddha bodies, who have received the rain from unalloyed Dharma clouds, who have entered an ocean of unalloyed qualities, who have extended the net of completely good conduct, who have entered the range of unalloyed samādhis, who have the unalloyed continuous roots of merit of all bodhisattvas, who have the unalloyed nonconceptual conduct of all the tathāgatas, who have entered the unalloyed equality of the three times, who have the unalloyed ability to dwell tirelessly in all kalpas, and who reside on the level of an unalloyed complete range of vision?
“Depart, noble one. In this southern region there is a land called Vetramūlaka. There, in a town called Samantamukha, dwells a perfume-seller head merchant by the name of Samantanetra. Go to him and ask him, ‘How should a bodhisattva train in bodhisattva conduct? How should a bodhisattva practice it?’ ”
Sudhana bowed his head to the feet of Ratnacūḍa, the head-merchant patron of the Dharma, circumambulated Ratnacūḍa, the head-merchant patron of the Dharma, many hundreds of thousands of times, keeping him to his right, and, looking back again and again, departed from Ratnacūḍa, the head-merchant patron of the Dharma. [B2]
Colophon
This was translated and revised by the Indian upādhyāyas Jinamitra and Surendrabodhi and by the chief editor Lotsawa Bandé Yeshé Dé and others.2232
Tibetan Editor’s Colophon
A Multitude of Buddhas is the marvelous essence of the final, ultimate, definitive wheel from among the three wheels of the Sugata’s teaching. It has many other titles, such as The Mahāvaipulya Basket, The Earring, The Lotus Adornment, and so on.
It has seven sections:2233 A Multitude of Tathāgatas,2234 The Vajra Banner Dedication,2235 The Teaching of the Ten Bhūmis,2236 The Teaching of Completely Good Conduct,2237 [F.362.b] The Teaching of the Birth and Appearance of the Tathāgatas,2238 The Transcendence of the World,2239 and Stem Array.2240 These are subdivided into forty-five chapters.
According to Butön Rinpoché and others, it contains thirty-nine thousand and thirty verses, a hundred and thirty fascicles, and an additional thirty verses. In the Tshalpa Kangyur edition there are a hundred and fifteen fascicles, the Denkarma edition has a hundred and twenty-seven fascicles,2241 and present-day editions have various numbers of fascicles.2242
This sūtra was first received from Ārya Nāgārjuna by Paṇḍita Buddhabhadra and Paṇḍita Śikṣānanda (652–710), and they both translated it into Chinese. It is taught that Surendrabodhi and Vairocanarakṣita became principal editors for a Chinese translation.
As for the lineage of the text, there is the lineage from China: The perfect Buddha, Ārya Mañjuśrī, Lord Nāgārjuna, the two paṇḍitas mentioned above, and Heshang Tushun. Then the lineage continued through others until Üpa Sangyé Bum received it from Heshang Gying-ju. Then that lineage was passed on through Lotsawa Chokden and has continued up to the present time.
The lineage from India is as follows:
It was passed from Nāgārjuna to Āryadeva, and then Mañjuśrīkīrti, and so on, until Bari Lotsawa received it from Vajrāsana. It is taught that the lineage then continued through Chim Tsöndrü Sengé, the great Sakya Lord,2243 and so on.
However, I have not seen any other text or history of a translation made by any other lotsawa or paṇḍita other than those listed in the colophon to this translation into Tibetan.
The king of Jangsa Tham2244 had a complete Kangyur made that was based on the Tshalpa Kangyur. At the present time this is known as the Lithang Tshalpa Kangyur (1609–14). I considered this to be a reliable source and so have made it the basis for this edition. However, it has many omissions, accretions, and misspellings, and therefore I have at this time corrected it by seeking out many older editions.
There are variant Indian texts and conflicting translations, and I have not been able to ascertain from them a definitive single meaning or correct words. Nevertheless, this text is nothing but a valid edition.
There are varying translations of terms that have been left unrevised, as there is no contradiction in meaning. For example, it has rgyan instead of bkod pa;2245 ’byam klas instead of rab ’byams;2246 so so yang dag par rig pa instead of tha dad pa yang dag par shes pa;2247 thugs for dgongs pa;2248 [F.363.a] nyin mtshan dang zla ba yar kham mar kham dang instead of nyin mtshan dang yud du yan man dang;2249 and tha snyad instead of rnam par dpyod pa.2250
Sanskrit words have many cases and tenses, so that although the Tibetan lotsawas and paṇḍitas, who had the eyes of the Dharma, translated their meaning, their tenses, cases, and so on are difficult to discern. Those are the majority of the examples of uncertainty, and there are also a few other kinds, but they are nevertheless in accord with Tibetan grammar.
In most texts there are many archaic words, so that the meaning of the translation is not clear, but there is a consistency when those words are all in archaic Tibetan. However, there appears to have occurred in later times a strong adulteration of the text so that there is a mixture of archaic and modern forms. There are also unreliable placements of the shad mark that differentiates clauses, but all these have been left as they are because these faults are few and minor. Therefore, this revision has been diligently edited without becoming analogous to knocking down the ancient megaliths of the southern regions.
May this remain for the entire kalpa within the circle of the Cakravāla Mountains, as bright as the sun and moon, as the glory of the merit of nonsectarian beings and the precious teaching of the Buddha.
This was printed in the water tiger year called dge byed (1722),2251 in the presence of Tenpa Tsering (1678–1738), the divine Dharma king who rules in accordance with the Dharma, who has the vast, superior wealth of the ten good actions, and who is a bodhisattva as a ruler of humans and the source of happiness in the four regions of greater Tibet.
This was written by the attendant Gelong Tashi Wangchuk, who in the process of revision was commanded to become its supervisor.
Ye dharmahetuprabhavā hetun teṣān tathāgato hy avadat. Teṣāñ ca yo nirodha evaṃ vādī mahāśramanaḥ.