The Stem Array
Jayottama
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 1.0.29 (2024)
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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
Jayottama
Then Sudhana, the head merchant’s son, whose mind spread great love throughout the immeasurable realm of beings; whose being was saturated with the tenderness1129 of great compassion; who had accumulated a vast array of the accumulations of merit and wisdom; who had become free of all the dust, darkness, dirt, and mire of the kleśas; who had realized the equality of all phenomena; [F.51.b] who was devoted to the path that leads1130 upward to omniscience; who had chosen1131 the gateway for entering into immeasurable good qualities; who had the exertion1132 of firm diligence that is unimpaired by any bad quality; who was filled1133 with the vast calmness1134 of inconceivable bodhisattva samādhis; who shone with the light of the sun of wisdom that eliminated all the darkness of ignorance; who scattered flowers of wisdom brought by the pleasant, cool breezes of methods; who followed the way of wisdom that emerged from an ocean of great aspirations; and who possessed the wisdom that permeated without impediment the entire realm of the Dharma—he had approached entry into the city1135 of faultless1136 omniscience, and he yearned for the bodhisattva path.
He arrived at the town called Nandihāra and looked and searched for the head merchant Jayottama. He saw him on the eastern edge of the town of Nandihāra, in a forest of ashoka trees that was called Vicitradhvaja. He was encircled by many thousands of householders deciding1137 upon various kinds of civic duties, and in reference to those he talked about the Dharma. He was teaching the Dharma for the sake of eliminating all egotism;1138 abandoning all possessiveness;1139 rejecting all attachment; forsaking all fixation on things; destroying all clinging; cutting through all the bondage of craving; breaking down the doors of all views; clearing away the darkness of doubt, uncertainty, and equivocation; cleansing away the dirt of illusion and deceit; purifying the stains of envy and miserliness; clarifying the lake of the mind; bringing beings to a state of unpolluted mentality; giving rise to an unpolluted faith; [F.52.a] giving rise to the aspiration to see the buddhas; eulogizing the power of bodhisattvas; receiving the Dharma of the buddhas; aspiring to bodhisattva conduct; giving rise to the power of bodhisattva samādhi; teaching the power of bodhisattva wisdom; and attaining the highest purity of the power of bodhisattva memory.
This means that he was teaching the Dharma in order to inspire the aspiration to enlightenment.
Then when the teaching was concluded, Sudhana, the head merchant’s son, approached and bowed his head to the feet of the head merchant Jayottama. He bowed down to him for a long time and said, “Ārya, I am Sudhana, I am Sudhana! I seek bodhisattva conduct. Instruct me, Ārya, on how I should train in bodhisattva conduct and while training how I should aspire to guide and ripen all beings,1140 not forsake seeing all the buddhas, hear the Dharma of all the buddhas, possess the rain1141 from the clouds of the Dharma of all the buddhas, practice in the way of all the buddhas, practice bodhisattva conduct in all world realms, never tire of bodhisattva conduct while dwelling in all kalpas, comprehend1142 the manifestations of all the tathāgatas, receive the blessing of all the buddhas, and attain splendor in the power of all the tathāgatas.”
Then the head merchant Jayottama said to Sudhana, the head merchant’s son, [F.52.b] “Noble one, it is excellent, excellent, that you have developed the aspiration for the highest, complete enlightenment.
“Noble one, I purify the gateway to omnipresent1143 bodhisattva conduct through the power of the attainment of noncomposite miracles1144 while residing in the absence of existence. In that way, remaining in this gateway to omnipresent1145 bodhisattva conduct, in all billion-world universes, in all the Trāyastriṃśa1146 paradises, in all the Yāma paradises, in all the Tuṣita paradises, in all the Nirmāṇarati paradises, in all the Paranirmitavaśavartin paradises, in all the abodes of the māras, in all the places that are classed as paradises within all desire realms, in all the nāga worlds, in all the nāga abodes, in all the yakṣa worlds, in all the yakṣa abodes, in all the rākṣasa worlds, in all the rākṣasa abodes, in all the kumbhāṇḍa worlds, in all the kumbhāṇḍa abodes, in all the preta worlds, in all the preta abodes, in all the gandharva worlds, in all the gandharva abodes, in all the asura worlds, in all the asura abodes, in all the garuḍa worlds, in all the garuḍa abodes, in all the kinnara worlds, in all the kinnara abodes, in all the mahoraga worlds, in all the mahoraga abodes, in all the human worlds, in all the human abodes, villages, towns, market towns, districts, [F.53.a] countries, and capitals, and for all classes of beings that are within all desire realms I teach the Dharma, reject all that is not Dharma, pacify all disputes, dispel all conflict, pacify all quarrels, prevent all battles, pacify wars, pacify hostility, cut through all bondage, break open all prisons, dispel all fear, and end the practice of nonvirtuous activities. I turn beings away from killing and from taking what is not given, sexual misconduct, telling lies, slandering, harsh speech, idle speech, avariciousness, maliciousness, and wrong views. I turn beings away from all that should not be done and make them engage in all virtuous Dharma activity, and I make all beings train in all skills. I teach, prepare, elucidate, and present all the treatises that are beneficial to the world, so as to bring happiness to the world, to ripen beings, to follow false doctrines1147 in order to describe the special higher wisdom, to dispel all wrong views, and to describe and teach all the Buddhadharma. I overwhelm and teach the Dharma to all the devas in the form realm as far up as the Brahmā paradise.
“Just as I teach the Dharma in the world realms of this billion-world universe, I do so in world realms in the ten directions as numerous as the atoms in an indescribable quintillion buddha realms. I teach the Dharma of the buddhas. [F.53.b] I teach the Dharma of the bodhisattvas. I teach the Dharma of the śrāvakas and the Dharma of the pratyekabuddhas. I teach the hells. I teach the path that leads to the hells. I teach the unhappiness1148 of beings in the hells. I teach the animal existences. I teach the different kinds of animal existences, the paths that lead to animal existences, and the suffering of animal existences. I teach the world of Yama. I teach the path that leads to the world of Yama. I teach the suffering in the world of Yama. I teach the higher existences. I teach the path that leads to the higher existences. I teach the practice and enjoyment of happiness in the higher existences. I teach the human world. I teach the path that leads to the human world. I teach the various experiences of happiness and suffering in the human world.
“In that way, noble one, I also teach the Dharma of the world, the creation of the world, the destruction of the world, the transgressions in the world, and the renunciation of the world.
“In this way, I teach the Dharma in order to explain the bodhisattva path, reject the faults of saṃsāra, teach the qualities of omniscience, pacify the delusion and sufferings of the existences, describe the unobscured true nature, illuminate the activities of being in the world, describe all the happiness and suffering of being in the world, contemplate the designations of the abodes of all beings, teach the tathāgata qualities that have no location, counter the wheel of all karma and kleśas, and describe the turning of the tathāgata’s wheel of the Dharma. [F.54.a]
“Noble one, I know this gateway to pure, omnipresent1149 bodhisattva conduct, the stainless1150 display of the noncomposite miracles1151 based in the absence of existence,1152 but how could I know the conduct or describe the qualities of the bodhisattvas who know all; who fill the surfaces of all realms with illusory bodies of wisdom; who have attained the level of the complete eyes of wisdom; who have the supreme hearing of the range of speech, sound, and communication;1153 who have attained the power of the light of Dharma gateways that fill the three times; who are heroic beings who have the mastery of the power of the wisdom that includes all phenomena; who possess beautiful, fine tongues that are endowed with a domain of speech that is directed separately, according to their aspirations, to inconceivable, immeasurable beings; who have bodies that are like illusions and equal to all bodhisattvas, with complexions and forms that accord with the various wishes of an ocean of beings; who possess inconceivable bodies that have a conduct no different from that of all the tathāgatas; who have bodies of wisdom that follow all three times; and who have a scope and field of conduct that is as immeasurable and vast as the expanse of space?
“Depart, noble one. In this southern region, in the land called Śroṇāparānta, there is a city by the name of Kaliṅgavana where dwells a bhikṣuṇī by the name of Siṃhavijṛmbhitā. Go to her and ask her, ‘How should a bodhisattva train in bodhisattva conduct? How should a bodhisattva practice it?’ ”
Then Sudhana, the head merchant’s son, bowed his head to the feet of the head merchant Jayottama, [F.54.b] circumambulated the head merchant Jayottama many hundreds of thousands of times, keeping him to his right, and, looking back again and again, departed from the head merchant Jayottama.
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.