co.

Table of Contents

s.

Summary

s.­1

The Dwellings of Bodhisattvas is the thirty-eighth of the forty-five chapters in The Ornaments of the Buddhas. As the title indicates, the focus of this chapter is the locations of bodhisattvas. It enumerates twenty-three dwelling places, giving the names of the bodhisattvas who reside in the first nine while omitting the names of those who reside in the remaining fourteen.

ac.

Acknowledgements

ac.­1

This sūtra was translated by Thupten Tashi and edited by the 84000 editorial team.

The translation was completed under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha.


ac.­2

The translation of this text has been made possible through the generous sponsorship of Thirty and Twenty.

i.

Introduction

i.­1

The Dwellings of Bodhisattvas is the thirty-eighth of the forty-five chapters in The Ornaments of the Buddhas. This chapter continues The Ornaments of the Buddhas’ series of dialogues that take place in Magadha not long after the Buddha’s awakening. It enumerates twenty-three dwelling places of bodhisattvas, giving the names of the bodhisattvas who reside in the first nine while omitting the names of those who reside in the remaining fourteen. Throughout The Ornaments of the Buddhas, the Buddha Śākyamuni remains silent, and it is through his blessings that other prominent bodhisattvas offer these teachings. The Dwellings of Bodhisattvas and the two preceding chapters are taught by a bodhisattva named King of Mind.

i.­2

In The Ornaments of the Buddhas, we find that the Buddha Śākyamuni who lived in our world is just one of countless manifestations of the Buddha Vairocana. Śākyamuni is even referred to as the Buddha Vairocana. Śākyamuni is simultaneously present in various locations in our universe‍—at the Bodhi tree, in the Trāyastriṃśa paradise of Śakra on the summit of Sumeru, in the Yāma and Tuṣita paradises high above Sumeru, and in the highest paradise in the realm of desire, the Paranirmitavaśavartin paradise. Not only is he said to be simultaneously present in all these locations in our own world system, he is also said to be simultaneously present in countless other worlds.

i.­3

This proliferation of locations connected with the Buddha and his teachings allowed for Buddhist holy sites beyond India to assume greater significance. Notably, along with sites in northern India listed in this chapter we also find sites located in China, Kashmir, Gandhara, and Khaśa, here used as another name for the Central Asian city-state of Khotan that flourished during the first millennium ᴄᴇ. As with other canonical works that feature Khotan, including The Prophecy on Mount Gośṛṅga (Toh 357)1 and The Quintessence of the Sun (Toh 257),2 this reflects the importance of Khotan in the spread of Buddhism. It is notable that there are significant parallels between the sacred sites listed here in The Dwellings of Bodhisattvas and those found in the final chapter of The Quintessence of the Sun.3

i.­4

The Dwellings of Bodhisattvas is found in the second of the four volumes of The Ornaments of the Buddhas in the Degé Kangyur. There is no colophon specific to this chapter, but the colophon to the entire Ornaments of the Buddhas in the Degé Kangyur states that it was translated by the Tibetan master-translator Yeshé Dé, together with Jinamitra and Surendrabodhi, indicating a translation made under Tibetan imperial sponsorship in the late eighth or early ninth century. This dating is confirmed by the fact that it is listed in both the Denkarma (Tib. ldan dkar ma) and Phangthangma (Tib. ’phang thang ma) imperial catalogs. The colophons of the Narthang, Lhasa, Stok Palace, Ulaanbaatar, and Phukdrak Kangyurs, however, ascribe the translation to Vairotsana, while the catalog (Tib. dkar chag) of the Degé Kangyur mentions the three translators as above, but adds that Lochen Vairotsana acted as the editor.4

i.­5

The Dwellings of Bodhisattvas is unavailable in Sanskrit, but is preserved in Chinese and Tibetan translation. A complete English translation of The Ornaments of the Buddhas has been published by Thomas Cleary based on Śikṣānanda’s Chinese version, with the English title The Flower Ornament Scripture.

i.­6

This, to our knowledge, is the first English translation from Tibetan. It was made from the Tibetan text in the Degé Kangyur, in consultation with the versions found in the Stok Palace Kangyur, the Lhasa Kangyur, and the Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma).

Chapter on the Dwellings of Bodhisattvas
1.

The Translation

[F.394.b]


1.­1

Then the bodhisattva King of Mind spoke again to those bodhisattvas, “O children of the Victorious One! In the east, there is a mountain called Appearance of a Sage, where bodhisattvas in the past have resided. In this dwelling place a bodhisattva called Vajraśrī teaches Dharma surrounded by a retinue of three hundred bodhisattvas.

1.­2

“O children of the Victorious One! In the south, there is a mountain called Heap of Glory, where bodhisattvas in the past have resided. [F.395.a] In this dwelling place a bodhisattva called Dharmamati teaches Dharma surrounded by a retinue of five hundred bodhisattvas.

1.­3

“O children of the Victorious One! In the west, there is a mountain called Possessed of Vajra Radiance, where bodhisattvas in the past have resided. In this dwelling place a bodhisattva called Walks with the Gait of a Lion teaches Dharma surrounded by a retinue of three hundred bodhisattvas.

1.­4

“O children of the Victorious One! In the north, there is a mountain called Heap of Incense, where bodhisattvas in the past have resided. In this dwelling place a bodhisattva called Gandhahastin teaches Dharma surrounded by a retinue of three thousand bodhisattvas.

1.­5

“O children of the Victorious One! In the east, there is a mountain called Mountain of Meadows,5 where bodhisattvas in the past have resided. In this dwelling place a bodhisattva called Mañjuśrī teaches Dharma surrounded by a retinue of ten thousand bodhisattvas.

1.­6

“O children of the Victorious One! In the northeastern direction, there is a mountain called Vajra Mountain, Site of Four Great Oceans, where bodhisattvas in the past have resided. In this dwelling place a bodhisattva called Dharmodgata teaches Dharma surrounded by a retinue of twelve hundred bodhisattvas.

1.­7

“O children of the Victorious One! In the southeastern direction, there is a mountain called Stūpa, where bodhisattvas in the past have resided. In this dwelling place a bodhisattva called Divine Aggregates teaches Dharma surrounded by a retinue of one thousand bodhisattvas. [F.395.b]

1.­8

“O children of the Victorious One! In the southwestern direction, there is a mountain called Jyotiṣprabha, where bodhisattvas in the past have resided. In this dwelling place a bodhisattva called Bhadraśrī teaches Dharma surrounded by a retinue of three thousand bodhisattvas.

1.­9

“O children of the Victorious One! In the northwestern direction, there is a mountain called Gandhamādana, where bodhisattvas in the past have resided. In this dwelling place a bodhisattva called Radiating Luminous Incense teaches Dharma surrounded by a retinue of five thousand bodhisattvas.

1.­10

“O children of the Victorious One! In the great ocean, there is a place called Good Cave, where bodhisattvas in the past have resided.

1.­11

“O children of the Victorious One! To the south of Vaiśālī, there is a place called Stable Roots, where bodhisattvas in the past have resided.

1.­12

“In a land called Pāṭaliputra, there is a place called Golden Park of the Saṅgha, where bodhisattvas in the past have resided.

1.­13

“In a land called Mathurā,6 there is a place called Satisfying Cave, where bodhisattvas in the past have resided.

1.­14

“In a land called Relinquishing the Vase, there is a place called Dharma Seat, where bodhisattvas in the past have resided.

1.­15

“In a land called Perfect Virtue, there is a place called Mucilinda Cave, where bodhisattvas in the past have resided.

1.­16

“In a land called Vatsa, there is a place, established by nāgas, called Añcala, where bodhisattvas in the past have resided. [F.396.a]

1.­17

“In a land called Kamboja, there is a place called Exalted by Love, where bodhisattvas in the past have resided.

1.­18

“In a land called China, there is a place called Nārāyaṇa Cave, where bodhisattvas in the past have resided.

1.­19

“In a land called Khaśa, there is a mountain called Gośṛṇga, where bodhisattvas in the past have resided.

1.­20

“In a land called Kashmir, there is a place called Sudarśaka, where bodhisattvas in the past have resided.

1.­21

“In a land called Increasing Joy, there is a place called Sthavira Cave, where bodhisattvas in the past have resided.

1.­22

“In a land called Jalandhar, there is a place called Teaching with Hands Folded, where bodhisattvas in the past have resided.

1.­23

“In the vicinity of the land called Gandhara, there is a place called Cave of Provisions, where bodhisattvas in the past have resided.”

1.­24

This concludes “The Dwellings of Bodhisattvas,” the thirty-eighth chapter of the extensive sūtra, “The Ornaments of the Buddhas.”

n.

Notes

n.­1
Dharmachakra Translation Committee, trans., The Prophecy on Mount Gośṛṅga, Toh 357 (84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2021).
n.­2
Dharmachakra Translation Committee, trans., The Quintessence of the Sun, Toh 257 (84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2022).
n.­3
Yi Ding has noted the close parallels between The Dwellings of Bodhisattvas and chapter 13 of The Quintessence of the Sun (Toh 257) 12.19, arguing that The Dwellings of Bodhisattvas drew from The Quintessence of the Sun and not the inverse. See Yi Ding 2017, pp. 3–7.
n.­4
Situ Paṇchen, folio 120.a.6.
n.­5
Translated based on the Degé: spang ri. Stok Palace and Lhasa editions: spong ri.
n.­6
Stok Palace and Lhasa editions: ma thu ra. Degé: ma dur na.
b.

Bibliography

Tibetan

byang chub sems pa’i gnas. Toh 44-38, Degé Kangyur vol. 36 (phal chen, kha), folios 394.b–396.a.

byang chub sems pa’i gnas. bka’ ’gyur (dpe bsdur ma) [Comparative Edition of the Kangyur], krung go’i bod rig pa zhib ’jug ste gnas kyi bka’ bstan dpe sdur khang (The Tibetan Tripitaka Collation Bureau of the China Tibetology Research Center). 108 volumes. Beijing: Krung go’i bod rig pa dpe skrun khang (China Tibetology Publishing House), 2006–9, vol. 36, pp. 827–30.

byang chub sems pa’i gnas. Stok Palace Kangyur vol. 31 (phal chen, ga), folios 352.b–354.a.

Phangthangma (dkar chag ’phang thang ma). Beijing: mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 2003.

Denkarma (pho brang stod thang ldan dkar gyi chos kyi ’gyur ro cog gi dkar chag). Toh 4364, Degé Tengyur vol. 206 (sna tshogs, jo), folios 294.b–310.a.

Chinese

Buddhabhadra, trans. Dafang guang fu hua yan jing 大方廣佛華嚴經. Taishō 278.

Śikṣānanda, trans. Dafang guang fu hua yan jing 大方廣佛華嚴經. Taishō 279.

Western Languages

Cleary, Thomas. The Flower Ornament Sutra: A Translation of the Avatamsaka Sutra. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 1984.

Yi Ding. “A Philological Look at ‘Chapter Bodhisattva-Abodes’ in the Buddhāvataṃsaka: Its Reconstruction, Textual Origin, and Mahāyāna Context.” A paper presented at the International Conference on Mount Wutai and The Buddhāvataṃsaka Sūtra, Shanxi province, China, July 12–15, 2017.

g.

Glossary

Types of attestation for Sanskrit names and terms

AS

Attested in source text

This term is attested in the Sanskrit manuscript used as a source for this translation.

AO

Attested in other text

This term is attested in other Sanskrit manuscripts of the Kangyur or Tengyur.

AD

Attested in dictionary

This term is attested in Tibetan-Sanskrit dictionaries.

AA

Approximate attestation

The attestation of this name is approximate. It is based on other names where Tibetan-Sanskrit relationship is attested in dictionaries or other manuscripts.

RP

Reconstruction from Tibetan phonetic rendering

This term is a reconstruction based on the Tibetan phonetic rendering of the term.

RS

Reconstruction from Tibetan semantic rendering

This term is a reconstruction based on the semantics of the Tibetan translation.

SU

Source Unspecified

This term has been supplied from an unspecified source, which most often is a widely trusted dictionary.

g.­1

Añcala

  • thu ba
  • ཐུ་བ།
  • añcala AD

A dwelling place of bodhisattvas located in the region of Vatsa.

g.­2

Appearance of a Sage

  • drang srong ’byung ba
  • དྲང་སྲོང་འབྱུང་བ།
  • —

Dwelling place of the bodhisattva Vajraśrī.

g.­3

Bhadraśrī

  • bzang po’i dpal
  • བཟང་པོའི་དཔལ།
  • bhadraśrī AD

“Glorious Goodness,” the bodhisattva who resides at a place called Jyotiṣprabha.

g.­4

Cave of Provisions

  • brgyags kyi phug
  • བརྒྱགས་ཀྱི་ཕུག
  • —

A dwelling place of bodhisattvas located in Gandhara.

g.­5

children of the Victorious One

  • rgyal ba’i sras
  • རྒྱལ་བའི་སྲས།
  • jinaputra AD

An epithet of bodhisattvas. See g.47 for the definition of Victorious One.

g.­6

China

  • rgya ba
  • རྒྱ་བ།
  • cīna AD

The two Chinese translations of this text render the name as zhendan 眞旦 (Taishō 278) and zhendan 震旦 (Taishō 279), both of which refer to China. In this chapter, it is the region in which the dwelling place of bodhisattvas called Nārāyaṇa Cave is located.

g.­7

Dharma Seat

  • chos kyi stan
  • ཆོས་ཀྱི་སྟན།
  • —

A dwelling place of bodhisattvas located in the region called Relinquishing the Vase.

g.­8

Dharmamati

  • chos kyi blo gros
  • ཆོས་ཀྱི་བློ་གྲོས།
  • dharmamati AD

“Intelligence of Dharma,” the bodhisattva who resides at a place called Heap of Glory.

g.­9

Dharmodgata

  • chos kyi ’phags pa
  • ཆོས་ཀྱི་འཕགས་པ།
  • dharmodgata AD

“Nobility of Dharma,” the bodhisattva who resides at a place called Vajra Mountain, Site of Four Great Oceans.

g.­10

Divine Aggregates

  • lha’i phung po
  • ལྷའི་ཕུང་པོ།
  • —

The bodhisattva who resides at a place called Stūpa.

g.­11

Exalted by Love

  • byams pas ’phags pa
  • བྱམས་པས་འཕགས་པ།
  • —

A dwelling place of bodhisattvas located in Kamboja.

g.­12

Gandhahastin

  • spos kyi glang po
  • སྤོས་ཀྱི་གླང་པོ།
  • gandhahastin AD

“Elephant of Incense,” the bodhisattva who resides at a place called Heap of Incense.

g.­13

Gandhamādana

  • spos kyi ngad can
  • སྤོས་ཀྱི་ངད་ཅན།
  • gandhamādana AD

“Fragrant Mountain,” the dwelling place of the bodhisattva Radiating Luminous Incense.

g.­14

Gandhara

  • sa ’dzin
  • ས་འཛིན།
  • gāndhāra AD

The present-day Gandhara region was located in northwest Pakistan and northeast Afghanistan. This region was historically important for the development of Buddhism. In this chapter, Gandhara is identified as the region in which the dwelling place of bodhisattvas called Cave of Provisions is located.

g.­15

Golden Park of the Saṅgha

  • dge ’dun gyi kun dga’ ra ba gser
  • དགེ་འདུན་གྱི་ཀུན་དགའ་ར་བ་གསེར།
  • —

A dwelling place of bodhisattvas located in Pāṭaliputra.

g.­16

Good Cave

  • phug bzang po
  • ཕུག་བཟང་པོ།
  • —

Dwelling place of bodhisattvas located in the great ocean.

g.­17

Gośṛṇga

  • ba lang gi mgo bo
  • བ་ལང་གི་མགོ་བོ།
  • gośṛṇga AD

A hill in the Central Asian oasis city-state of Khotan. According to The Prophecy on Mount Gośṛṅga (Toh 357), it is here that the Buddha prophesied that this area would one day become a great Buddhist kingdom. Gośṛṅga means “cow horn” in Sanskrit, and the hill is said to have received this name due to having two pointed peaks. Note that in The Prophecy on Mount Gośṛṅga this place name is rendered ri glang ru.

g.­18

Heap of Glory

  • dpal gyi phung po
  • དཔལ་གྱི་ཕུང་པོ།
  • —

Dwelling place of the bodhisattva Dharmamati.

g.­19

Heap of Incense

  • spos kyi phung po
  • སྤོས་ཀྱི་ཕུང་པོ།
  • —

Dwelling place of the bodhisattva Gandhahastin.

g.­20

Increasing Joy

  • dga’ ba ’phel ba
  • དགའ་བ་འཕེལ་བ།
  • —

The region in which the dwelling place of bodhisattvas called Sthavira Cave is located.

g.­21

Jalandhar

  • chu ’dzin
  • ཆུ་འཛིན།
  • jaladhara AD

An ancient city in northern India, possibly the present-day Jalandhar in the Punjab region. Here it is identified as the region in which the dwelling place of bodhisattvas called Teaching with Hands Folded་is located.

g.­22

Jyotiṣprabha

  • ri skar ma’i ’od
  • རི་སྐར་མའི་འོད།
  • jyotiṣprabha AD

“Starlight Mountain,” the dwelling place of the bodhisattva Bhadraśrī.

g.­23

Kamboja

  • kam po tsa
  • ཀམ་པོ་ཙ།
  • kamboja AD

An ancient kingdom at the crossroads of present-day South Asia, Central Asia, and West Asia. In this chapter, it is the region in which the dwelling place of bodhisattvas called Exalted by Love is located.

g.­24

Kashmir

  • kha che
  • ཁ་ཆེ།
  • kaśmīra AD
  • kāśmīra AD

The area known today as the Kashmir Valley, situated between the Himalayas and the Pir Panjal Range. In this chapter, it is identified as the region in which the dwelling place of bodhisattvas called Sudarśaka is located.

g.­25

Khaśa

  • kha sha
  • ཁ་ཤ།
  • khaśa AD
  • khasa AD

The Central Asian city-state more commonly known in Tibetan as li yul and in English as Khotan. Here mentioned as the region in which the dwelling place of bodhisattvas called Gośṛṇga is located.

g.­26

King of Mind

  • sems kyi rgyal po
  • སེམས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ།
  • cittarāja AD

Name of the bodhisattva who teaches this and other chapters in The Ornaments of the Buddhas.

g.­27

Mañjuśrī

  • ’jam dpal
  • འཇམ་དཔལ།
  • mañjuśrī AD

Definition from the 84000 Glossary of Terms:

Mañjuśrī is one of the “eight close sons of the Buddha” and a bodhisattva who embodies wisdom. He is a major figure in the Mahāyāna sūtras, appearing often as an interlocutor of the Buddha. In his most well-known iconographic form, he is portrayed bearing the sword of wisdom in his right hand and a volume of the Prajñā­pāramitā­sūtra in his left. In addition to the epithet Kumārabhūta, which means “having a youthful form,” Mañjuśrī is also called Mañjughoṣa, Mañjusvara, and Pañcaśikha.

In this text:

Here the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī resides at a place called Mountain of Meadows.

g.­28

Mathurā

  • ma dur na
  • མ་དུར་ན།
  • mathurā AD

A city approximately fifty kilometers north of present-day Agra in what is now the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. In this chapter, Mathurā is the location of the bodhisattva dwelling place called Satisfying Cave.

g.­29

Mountain of Meadows

  • spang ri
  • སྤང་རི།
  • —

Dwelling place of the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī.

g.­30

Mucilinda Cave

  • btang bzung gi phug
  • བཏང་བཟུང་གི་ཕུག
  • —

A dwelling place of bodhisattvas located in the region called Perfect Virtue.

g.­31

Nārāyaṇa Cave

  • mthu bo’i che phug pa
  • མཐུ་བོའི་ཆེ་ཕུག་པ།
  • —

A dwelling place of bodhisattvas located in China.

g.­32

Pāṭaliputra

  • pa ta la’i bu
  • པ་ཏ་ལའི་བུ།
  • pāṭaliputra AD

The capital of Magadha was moved to the city of Pāṭaliputra during the Mauryan expansion, after which it served as the capital of Aśoka’s empire. It is identified with the modern Indian city of Patna. In this chapter, Pāṭaliputra is the location of the bodhisattva dwelling place called the Golden Park of the Saṅgha.

g.­33

Perfect Virtue

  • dge ba’i phul du phyin pa
  • དགེ་བའི་ཕུལ་དུ་ཕྱིན་པ།
  • —

The region in which the dwelling place of bodhisattvas called Mucilinda Cave is located.

g.­34

Possessed of Vajra Radiance

  • rdo rje’i ’od ’phro ba can
  • རྡོ་རྗེའི་འོད་འཕྲོ་བ་ཅན།
  • —

Dwelling place of the bodhisattva Walks with the Gait of a Lion.

g.­35

Radiating Luminous Incense

  • spos kyi ’od zer rab tu ’gyed pa
  • སྤོས་ཀྱི་འོད་ཟེར་རབ་ཏུ་འགྱེད་པ།
  • —

The bodhisattva who resides at a place called Gandhamādana.

g.­36

Relinquishing the Vase

  • ril ba gtong ba
  • རིལ་བ་གཏོང་བ།
  • —

The region in which the dwelling place of bodhisattvas called Dharma Seat is located. Thomas Cleary translates this (from the Chinese) as Kuchara.

g.­37

Satisfying Cave

  • tshim par byed pa’i phug
  • ཚིམ་པར་བྱེད་པའི་ཕུག
  • —

A dwelling place of bodhisattvas located in Mathurā.

g.­38

Stable Roots

  • rtsa ba shin tu brtan pa
  • རྩ་བ་ཤིན་ཏུ་བརྟན་པ།
  • —

A dwelling place of bodhisattvas, located south of Vaiśālī.

g.­39

Sthavira Cave

  • gnas brtan gyi phug
  • གནས་བརྟན་གྱི་ཕུག
  • —

A dwelling place of bodhisattvas located in the region called Increasing Joy.

g.­40

Stūpa

  • mchod rten
  • མཆོད་རྟེན།
  • stūpa AD

Dwelling place of the bodhisattva Divine Aggregates.

g.­41

Sudarśaka

  • shin tu ston pa
  • ཤིན་ཏུ་སྟོན་པ།
  • sudarśaka AD

A dwelling place of bodhisattvas located in Kashmir.

g.­42

Teaching with Hands Folded

  • khyor po ston pa
  • ཁྱོར་པོ་སྟོན་པ།
  • —

A dwelling place of bodhisattvas located in Jalandhar.

g.­43

Vaiśālī

  • shin tu yangs pa
  • ཤིན་ཏུ་ཡངས་པ།
  • vaiśālī AD
  • viśāla AD

Capital of the Licchavī republic and an important city during the life of the Buddha. An attested Sanskrit equivalent of the Tibetan shin tu yangs pa is Viśāla, which is synonymous with Vaiśālī.

g.­44

Vajra Mountain, Site of Four Great Oceans

  • rgya mtsho chen po bzhi’i gnas rdo rje’i ri
  • རྒྱ་མཚོ་ཆེན་པོ་བཞིའི་གནས་རྡོ་རྗེའི་རི།
  • —

Dwelling place of the bodhisattva Dharmodgata.

g.­45

Vajraśrī

  • rdo rje dpal
  • རྡོ་རྗེ་དཔལ།
  • vajraśrī AD

“Glorious Vajra,” the bodhisattva who dwells on the mountain called Appearance of a Sage.

g.­46

Vatsa

  • be’u
  • བེའུ།
  • vatsa AD

One of the sixteen great kingdoms of ancient India. The region in which the dwelling place of bodhisattvas called Añcala is located.

g.­47

Victorious One

  • rgyal ba
  • རྒྱལ་བ།

An epithet of buddhas.

g.­48

Walks with the Gait of a Lion

  • seng ge’i ’gros su ’gro ba
  • སེང་གེའི་འགྲོས་སུ་འགྲོ་བ།
  • —

The bodhisattva who resides at a place known as Possessed of Vajra Radiance.

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(tr.). The Dwellings of Bodhisattvas (, Toh 44-38). 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2023:
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