Avatamsaka Sutra

[Mahayana]

From Dharmamitra's synopsis' Preface to all chapters:

The Flower Adornment Sutra’s description of the cosmos as consisting of
infinitely many quantumly entangled interpenetrating worlds populated
by countless buddhas, bodhisattvas, and other beings playing out a grand
scenario of karma and Dharma in all the realms of rebirth is so vast, so
multi-leveled, so intricate, and so marvelous that it is nearly impossible for
anyone to envision, grasp, and simultaneously hold all of its amazing teachings
in mind without the aid of some sort of simplifying skillful means with which
to keep track of this scripture’s main story lines and ideas as they are set forth
in its thirty-nine chapters and several thousand pages.

To that end, for the benefit of those readers who feel they might benefit
from such an aid to reinforced understanding, in addition to the
approximately thirteen hundred clarifying and commentarial endnotes provided
for my translation of the Flower Adornment Sutra, I have also included
here [in vol. III] a general synopsis of the main events, primary teachings, and most
important ideas contained in each of those thirty-nine chapters as well
as in the traditionally appended conclusion, “The Conduct and Vows of
Samantabhadra” with which this grand spiritual saga concludes.

For the most part, these synopses of the content of each of the sutra
chapters are constructed from a series of quotations interspersed with my
brief comments that together more or less reconstruct the narrative and
most important ideas of the often rather long chapters that in a half dozen
instances range between one hundred and seven hundred pages in length.

New Kalavinka Press edition

[cb2008]

Originally Posted by Mahayana

From chapter 37, the Manifestation of the Buddha.

The Tataghata, The One Who Comes (Goes) in Sanskrit, is the same concept as Brhman in Vedanta.

The Tathāgata’s wisdom is measureless, unimpeded, and universally able to benefit all beings. It resides in complete abundance within the persons of all beings. It is solely because of all foolish common people’s false conceptions and attachments that they fail to know this, fail to realize this, and fail to acquire its benefits.

Bolded beautifully expresses the same Vedantic truth, and only natural because the origin of both is the same source, the One Perfect Wisdom.
Buddha arrived at the right time, in the right place, and showed the right right way for those in need. This is true of all avatar, including Jesus and Mohammad. Those seeking liberation are drawn to it like a thirsty person to water.
The concept of ignorance too is the same, it is originless, exists, is the cause of bondage, and is removed through knowledge, understanding.

[Mahayana]

Originally Posted by Mahayana

Recently a complete translation, in three volumes, of this Sutra was published by Kalavinka Press. Also in pdf format for free or very cheap:

A reminder of how to find & download any Kalavinka Press translation, such as the Avatamsaka Sutra for free. Of course the printed volumes can be bought also:

Dharma Jewels Directory Page

[Mahayana]

To encourage the study (in volume one) of this seminal chapter 12, here is the Kalavinka Press translator's summary of it:

Chapter 12
Foremost Worthy

Having already spoken of the merit of the pure conduct, Mañjuśrī began
this chapter by asking Foremost Worthy Bodhisattva to expound on the
meritorious qualities associated with making and cultivating the resolve to
attain bodhi, whereupon Foremost Worthy replied with three hundred and
seventy-two verses in which he made it clear that the meritorious qualities
flowing from this are measureless, how much the more so when the bodhisattva
then fully cultivates the grounds and perfections.

Foremost Worthy then observed that, when the bodhisattva arouses the
resolve to attain highest bodhi, this is a result of causes and conditions of
which the first and foremost is faith in the Buddha, the Dharma, and bodhi.
Having generated such faith, he then does not seek worldly aims such as
the five objects of desire, kingship, wealth, personal pleasure, or great fame.
Rather, he makes this resolve with the aim of extinguishing the suffering of
beings and enabling them to attain the highest happiness.

Foremost Worthy then pointed out that it is due to this faith that the bodhisattva
is then able to uphold the precepts, cultivate the bases of training,
and fulfill all the meritorious qualities. Foremost Worthy then embarked
on a long series of some forty-five “if this, then that” verses by which he
described how it is that each of the subsequent developments based on faith
and cultivation result in the highest levels of accomplishment on the path
to buddhahood.

Foremost Worthy then proceeded to describe how the bodhisattva then
uses the skillful means of appearing in the forms of all different kinds of
beings in order to successfully teach right Dharma to all beings, thus carrying
out the Dharma works of all the great bodhisattvas and buddhas, sometimes
using song, dance, discussions, and worldly arts and skills to spread
the Dharma, sometimes becoming village elders, caravan guides, kings,
great officials, or physicians, and sometimes becoming even large trees on
a vast plain, medicine, a trove of jewels, sometimes becoming renunciates
from other religious traditions, manifesting in all these different ways for
the sake of turning beings to the path of right Dharma.

Foremost Worthy next described in some eighty stanzas a supreme
“happiness” samādhi developed by the bodhisattva by which he is able
to liberate the many kinds of beings, emanating many different kinds of
inconceivable radiance that enable all who see these lights to take up the
training. He then described this bodhisattva’s amazing uses of right concentration
by which he may enter concentration in a single pore and emerge
in any manner of different phenomena, summarizing this very long section
by saying, “This is what is meant by the inconceivable sovereign mastery of
samādhi of those of countless meritorious qualities.”

Foremost Worthy continued on to the end of the chapter rhapsodizing
on the qualities and capacities that ultimately develop from the momentous
act of long ago having made the resolve to attain the highest enlightenment,
the resolve that finally, after the passage of countless lifetimes of
using innumerably many different skillful means to bestow every kind of
marvelous benefit on every sort of being then ultimately culminates in the
realization of buddhahood. When Foremost Worthy came to the end of his
verses, the lands of the ten directions shook and moved in six ways, the
light of Māra’s palaces became obscured, the wretched destinies came to a
standstill, and the buddhas of the ten directions all appeared directly before
him, touched the top of his head with their right hands, and said in unison,
“It is good indeed, good indeed that you so quickly proclaim this Dharma.
We all rejoice in accord with this.” It was at this point that the second of this
sutra’s eight assemblies came to an end.

[Mahayana]

Recitation of Sutras is a common practice, here is the story of one who seemed to gain nothing from such - but eventually...

There once was a Dharma Master named Eloquence. Where was he from? No one knew. His practice was reciting the Avatamsaka Sutra. He had been reciting it for sixteen years and had not experienced any benefits; he was still very foolish and did not understand the principles. Later on, he thought to himself, “Oh! Even though I have been reciting the Avatamsaka Sutra for so long, I haven’t become enlightened, and I haven’t experienced any benefits. It must be that I haven’t treated the sutra with enough reverence; that is why I still do not understand the meanings in the sutra.”

Therefore, he came up with a way to protect the sutra and kept it very clean. He used all kinds of incense wood to make a box, and placed the sutra in the box. When walking, he would carry the box on top of his head; when he was not walking, he would place the box in front of him and prostrate before it. It was in this way that he paid reverence to the Avatamsaka Sutra at all times: prostrating to and contemplating the sutra in every moment.

Three years later, he had a dream in which Samantabhadra Bodhisattva explained the wonderful meanings of the Avatamsaka Sutra to him, and instructed him on how to practice. Samantabhadra Bodhisattva gave him Dharma instructions in the dream, and he suddenly became enlightened. Before this, he had recited the Avatamsaka Sutra for sixteen years and could not remember even one line. After this dream, reading the sutra was like looking in a mirror: each word of the sutra was crystal clear as if reflected in a mirror. And after reading the sutra he did not forget any of it—he was able to remember it forever.

From Vajra Bodhi Sea, Jan. 2023 issue