The Stem Array
Sthāvarā
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)
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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
Sthāvarā
Then Sudhana, the head merchant’s son, eventually reached the goddess of the earth, Sthāvarā, in the land of Magadha’s bodhimaṇḍa. When he arrived there, one million earth goddesses proclaimed to one another, “Someone who will be a refuge for all beings is coming here! Someone who has the essence of the tathāgatas and who will break open the enclosing egg of ignorance of all beings is coming here! Someone who is in the family of the kings of Dharma and will attain the state of an unimpeded, stainless king of the Dharma is coming here! Someone who is a hero with the thunderbolt weapon that has the great power of wisdom and who will subdue the circle of opponents is coming here!”
At that moment, Sthāvarā and the other one million earth goddesses shook the great earth, caused a loud sound like deep thunder, and illuminated the world realm of a billion worlds with a vast light. Their bodies were adorned by all adornments and precious jewelry. They shone and moved in the sky like a mass of streaks of lightning.
They rose up out of the ground, causing the seedlings of all trees to sprout; causing all flowering trees to blossom; causing all rivers to flow; causing lakes, ponds, and reservoirs to rise; causing a great rain of scented water to fall; causing a great wind that scattered a cloud of flowers to blow; causing a quintillion musical instruments to sound; [F.78.a] causing a multitude of divine aerial palaces and ornaments to spread; causing the lords of cows, bulls, elephants, tigers, and deer to make their cries; causing the leaders of devas, asuras, nāgas,1280 and bhūtas to roar; causing the great lords of mountains to clash together; and causing trillions of masses of treasures to emerge.
Then the earth goddess Sthāvarā said to Sudhana, the head merchant’s son, “Noble one, it is excellent that you have come here.1281 This area is where in the past you dwelled and generated roots of merit, where I am the witness for that. Do you wish to see just a fraction of their ripening?”
Sudhana, the head merchant’s son, bowed his head to the feet of the earth goddess Sthāvarā. He circumambulated the earth goddess Sthāvarā many hundreds of thousands of times, keeping her to his right. Then he stood before her and, with his hands placed together in homage, said, “Āryā, I do wish it!”
Then the earth goddess Sthāvarā stamped on the ground with the sole of her foot and revealed an array of countless millions of millions of precious treasures and said, “Noble one, these millions of millions of precious treasures follow you. They go before you. You can use them as you like. They come from the ripening of your merit. They are protected by the power of your merit. You can take from among them whatever you need.
“Noble one, moreover, I have attained the bodhisattva liberation called the essence of invincible wisdom. [F.78.b] Through my possessing this bodhisattva liberation, since the time of the Tathāgata Dīpaṅkara I have constantly followed bodhisattvas and always protected them. Since that time, noble one, I have practiced the mental conduct of the bodhisattvas, been immersed within the scope of wisdom, entered the domain of prayer, realized pure bodhisattva conduct, followed the ways of all samādhis, permeated the vast motivations and higher cognitions of all bodhisattvas, and realized, possessed, and acquired mastery of the powers of all bodhisattvas, the pervasion of the network of all realms, the acquisition of prophecies from all the tathāgatas, the sight at all times of the attainment of buddhahood, all the ways of turning the wheel of the Dharma, all the ways of the clouds of Dharma that elucidate the sūtras, the way of illumination by the great radiance of the Dharma, the way of completely ripening all beings, and the way of the display of all the miraculous manifestations of the buddhas.
“Noble one, I received this bodhisattva liberation, the essence of invincible wisdom, far beyond and even more beyond as many past kalpas as there are atoms in Sumeru, during a kalpa called Avabhāsavyūha, in a world realm called Candradhvajā, from the Tathāgata Sunetra. [F.79.a]
“Noble one, in that way, until this Bhadra kalpa, while cultivating,1282 practicing,1283 increasing, and augmenting this bodhisattva liberation called the essence of invincible wisdom, I have never been deprived of the sight of the tathāgatas.
“During that time, I have propitiated as many tathāgata arhat samyaksaṃbuddhas as there are atoms in an anabhilāpyānabhilāpya of buddha realms. I have seen the miraculous manifestation of all those tathāgatas going to the bodhimaṇḍa. I have witnessed the roots of merit of all those tathāgatas.
“Noble one, I know only the bodhisattva liberation called the essence of invincible wisdom. How could I know the conduct or describe the qualities of bodhisattvas who attend all tathāgatas, who follow the teaching of all buddhas, who enter into the impenetrable wisdom of the tathāgatas, who have the power to pervade the entire realm of phenomena in one instant of mind, who have bodies that are the same as those of the tathāgatas, who have the essence of the stainless intention of all the buddhas, who always realize all appearances of buddhas, and who are emissaries inseparable from the activity1284 of the buddhas?
“Depart, noble one. In this Jambudvīpa, in the land of Magadha, in the city of Kapilavastu, is the goddess of the night named Vāsantī. [F.79.b] 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 earth goddess Sthāvarā, circumambulated the earth goddess Sthāvarā many hundreds of thousands of times, keeping her to his right, and, looking back again and again, departed from the earth goddess Sthāvarā.
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.