The Awakening Site, and Samantabhadra's Assembly
The Avataṃsaka Sūtra opens not with a teaching but with a vision: the ground, the bodhi tree, and the throne of the Buddha's own awakening site, each described in a cascade of jeweled imagery that traditional exegesis reads as reality itself as an awakened mind perceives it — followed by the Buddha's body and wisdom pervading every world without distinction, and the naming of the bodhisattva assembly that surrounds him, led by Samantabhadra.
The Vajra Ground and the Bodhi Tree
如是我聞：一時，佛在摩竭提國阿蘭若法菩提場中，始成正覺。其地堅固，金剛所成；上妙寶輪，及眾寶華、清淨摩尼，以為嚴飾；諸色相海，無邊顯現；摩尼為幢，常放光明，恒出妙音，眾寶羅網，妙香華纓，周匝垂布；摩尼寶王，變現自在，雨無盡寶及眾妙華分散於地；寶樹行列，枝葉光茂。佛神力故，令此道場一切莊嚴於中影現。其菩提樹高顯殊特：金剛為身，瑠璃為幹；眾雜妙寶以為枝條；寶葉扶踈，垂蔭如雲；寶華雜色，分枝布影，復以摩尼而為其果，含輝發焰，與華間列。其樹周圍咸放光明，於光明中雨摩尼寶，摩尼寶內，有諸菩薩，其眾如雲，俱時出現。又以如來威神力故，其菩提樹恒出妙音，說種種法，無有盡極。如來所處宮殿樓閣，廣博嚴麗充遍十方，眾色摩尼之所集成，種種寶華以為莊校；諸莊嚴具流光如雲，從宮殿間萃影成幢。無邊菩薩道場眾會咸集其所，以能出現諸佛光明不思議音摩尼寶王而為其網，如來自在神通之力所有境界皆從中出；一切眾生居處屋宅，皆於此中現其影像。又以諸佛神力所加，一念之間，悉包法界。其師子座，高廣妙好：摩尼為臺，蓮華為網，清淨妙寶以為其輪，眾色雜華而作瓔珞。堂榭、樓閣、階砌、戶牖，凡諸物像，備體莊嚴；寶樹枝果，周迴間列。摩尼光雲，互相照耀；十方諸佛，化現珠玉；一切菩薩髻中妙寶，悉放光明而來瑩燭。復以諸佛威神所持，演說如來廣大境界，妙音遐暢，無處不及。
Thus have I heard. At one time, the Buddha was in the country of Magadha, in the awakening site within the forest of quiet dwelling, having just attained true and complete awakening. That ground was firm and solid, formed entirely of vajra; supreme and wondrous jeweled wheels, and every kind of jeweled flower, and pure maṇi gems, adorned it in splendor; an ocean of every color and mark appeared there without limit; maṇi banners constantly emitted light and constantly sent forth wondrous sounds; nets woven of every jewel, and wreaths of fragrant flowers, hung draped all around; sovereign maṇi jewels transformed and manifested freely, raining down inexhaustible treasures and every kind of wondrous flower scattered upon the ground; rows of jeweled trees stood in ranks, their branches and leaves radiant and lush. Through the Buddha's own spiritual power, every adornment of this awakening site was reflected within it.
The bodhi tree there rose lofty and singular in its splendor: its trunk was vajra, its stem lapis lazuli; every kind of rare and wondrous jewel formed its branches and boughs; its jeweled leaves spread wide, hanging in shade like clouds; jeweled flowers of every mixed color, their branches parting to cast their shadows, further bore maṇi gems for their fruit, holding radiance and sending forth flame, arrayed among the flowers. All around this tree, light shone forth everywhere, and within that light rained down maṇi jewels, and within those maṇi jewels were bodhisattvas, their multitude like clouds, all appearing at once. And through the Tathāgata's own majestic spiritual power, this bodhi tree constantly sent forth wondrous sounds, expounding every kind of Dharma without end or limit.
The palace-halls and towered chambers in which the Tathāgata dwelt were vast, adorned, and resplendent, filling the ten directions entirely, formed of maṇi gems of every color gathered together, and further adorned with every kind of jeweled flower; the light streaming from every ornament there flowed like clouds, and, from among the palace halls, gathered shadows formed themselves into banners. Boundless assemblies of bodhisattvas at this very awakening site all gathered there together, and, through sovereign maṇi jewels able to manifest the inconceivable sounds and light of every buddha, formed a net there, from which every domain reached by the Tathāgata's own sovereign spiritual power issued forth; the dwellings and houses of every living being all appeared there, their very images reflected. And, empowered further by the spiritual power of all the buddhas, within a single thought, it embraced the entire Dharma-realm.
That lion throne was lofty, vast, wondrous, and fine: its dais was maṇi, its net was lotus flowers, its wheel was formed of pure and wondrous jewels, and it was adorned with garlands of flowers of every mixed color. Halls and pavilions, towers and chambers, stairways and thresholds, doors and windows — every object and form there was fully adorned in every respect; the branches and fruit of jeweled trees stood arrayed all around. Clouds of maṇi light shone upon one another; the buddhas of the ten directions transformed and manifested as pearls and gems; the wondrous jewels within the topknots of every bodhisattva all emitted light, coming to illuminate it with radiance. And, sustained further by the majestic spiritual power of the buddhas, it expounded the Tathāgata's vast and boundless domain, its wondrous sound reaching far and wide, extending everywhere without exception.
It is worth pausing on how differently this opens compared to every other sūtra on this site. The Lotus Sūtra, the Diamond Sūtra, even the Great Compassion Dhāraṇī Sūtra all begin with the Buddha in an ordinary-enough setting, about to address an audience in language that audience can follow. Here, nothing is described in terms an unenlightened listener could verify by looking around: the ground is vajra, the tree's fruit is jewels containing bodhisattvas, the throne's net reflects every dwelling of every living being anywhere. Huayan exegesis reads this not as decorative excess but as the sūtra's own method stated before any doctrine is taught — this is what the awakening site actually looks like from within an awakened mind's own perception, where a single throne can reflect the whole Dharma-realm "within a single thought" without any of the imagery being metaphorical exaggeration. Every later teaching in this sūtra about phenomena interpenetrating without obstruction is already being shown here, in the very first paragraph, before it is ever argued for.
The Buddha's Body and Wisdom, Pervading Every World
爾時，世尊處于此座，於一切法成最正覺，智入三世悉皆平等，其身充滿一切世間，其音普順十方國土。譬如虛空具含眾像，於諸境界無所分別；又如虛空普遍一切，於諸國土平等隨入。身恒遍坐一切道場，菩薩眾中威光赫奕，如日輪出，照明世界。三世所行，眾福大海，悉已清淨，而恒示生諸佛國土。無邊色相，圓滿光明，遍周法界，等無差別；演一切法，如布大雲。一一毛端，悉能容受一切世界而無障礙，各現無量神通之力，教化調伏一切眾生；身遍十方而無來往，智入諸相，了法空寂。三世諸佛所有神變，於光明中靡不咸覩；一切佛土不思議劫所有莊嚴，悉令顯現。
At that time, the World-Honored One, seated upon this very throne, had accomplished the most perfect awakening with respect to every dharma; his wisdom entered the three periods of time, all of them equal alike; his body filled every world entirely, and his voice accorded universally with the lands of the ten directions. Just as empty space contains within it every form, yet makes no discrimination among any of its objects, so too, just as empty space pervades everything equally, he entered equally into every land alike. His body forever sat, pervading every awakening site at once, and, amid the assembly of bodhisattvas, his majestic light blazed forth, like the wheel of the sun rising to illuminate the world.
Every practice of the three periods of time, the whole great ocean of blessing, had already been made entirely pure in him, and yet he constantly showed himself born within every buddha-land still. His boundless forms and marks, his light perfect and complete, pervaded the whole Dharma-realm equally, with no distinction anywhere; he expounded every dharma as a great cloud spreads itself abroad. At the very tip of every single hair, he was able to contain every world without any obstruction, manifesting in each an immeasurable power of spiritual transformation, teaching and taming every living being; his body pervaded the ten directions with no coming or going at all, his wisdom entering every mark and form, understanding every dharma as empty and still. Every spiritual transformation of the buddhas of the three periods of time was, within his very light, seen in its entirety without exception; every adornment of every buddha-land, across every inconceivable kalpa, was made to appear there in full.
The line that a single hair's tip contains every world "without any obstruction" is, in Huayan terms, the small containing the great without either being altered by the encounter — a claim the school's later systematizers treated as literally true of the relationship between any phenomenon and any other, not as a figure of speech about vastness. Note also the very deliberate framing: the sūtra never actually names Vairocana in this fascicle, referring throughout only to "the Buddha" or "the World-Honored One," yet everything described — a body identified with the whole Dharma-realm, wisdom with no distinction across the three times — is standard Huayan shorthand for Vairocana's own dharmakāya specifically. The sūtra lets the reader infer the identification from the description itself before ever supplying the name.
The Assembly, Led by Samantabhadra
有十佛世界微塵數菩薩摩訶薩所共圍遶，其名曰：普賢菩薩摩訶薩、普德最勝燈光照菩薩摩訶薩、普光師子幢菩薩摩訶薩、普寶焰妙光菩薩摩訶薩、普音功德海幢菩薩摩訶薩、普智光照如來境菩薩摩訶薩、普寶髻華幢菩薩摩訶薩、普覺悅意聲菩薩摩訶薩、普清淨無盡福光菩薩摩訶薩、普光明相菩薩摩訶薩、海月光大明菩薩摩訶薩、雲音海光無垢藏菩薩摩訶薩、功德寶髻智生菩薩摩訶薩、功德自在王大光菩薩摩訶薩、善勇猛蓮華髻菩薩摩訶薩、普智雲日幢菩薩摩訶薩、大精進金剛臍菩薩摩訶薩、香焰光幢菩薩摩訶薩、大明德深美音菩薩摩訶薩、大福光智生菩薩摩訶薩……。如是等而為上首，有十佛世界微塵數。此諸菩薩，往昔皆與毘盧遮那如來共集善根，修菩薩行；皆從如來善根海生，諸波羅蜜悉已圓滿；慧眼明徹，等觀三世；於諸三昧，具足清淨；辯才如海，廣大無盡；具佛功德，尊嚴可敬；知眾生根，如應化伏；入法界藏，智無差別；證佛解脫，甚深廣大；能隨方便，入於一地，而以一切願海所持，恒與智俱盡未來際；了達諸佛希有廣大祕密之境，善知一切佛平等法，已踐如來普光明地，入於無量三昧海門；於一切處，皆隨現身；世法所行，悉同其事；總持廣大，集眾法海；辯才善巧，轉不退輪；一切如來功德大海，咸入其身；一切諸佛所在國土，皆隨願往；已曾供養一切諸佛，無邊際劫，歡喜無倦；一切如來得菩提處，常在其中，親近不捨；恒以所得普賢願海，令一切眾生智身具足。成就如是無量功德。
He was surrounded by an assembly of bodhisattva-mahāsattvas as numerous as the fine motes of dust in ten buddha-world-systems, named as follows: Samantabhadra Bodhisattva-Mahāsattva, the Bodhisattva-Mahāsattva of the Lamp of Universal Virtue's Supreme Light, the Bodhisattva-Mahāsattva of the Universal Light's Lion Banner, the Bodhisattva-Mahāsattva of the Universal Jeweled Flame's Wondrous Light, the Bodhisattva-Mahāsattva of the Universal Voice, Ocean of Merit's Banner, the Bodhisattva-Mahāsattva Whose Universal Wisdom-Light Illumines the Tathāgata's Domain, the Bodhisattva-Mahāsattva of the Universal Jeweled Topknot's Flower Banner, the Bodhisattva-Mahāsattva of the Universally Awakened, Delightful Voice, the Bodhisattva-Mahāsattva of Universal Purity and Inexhaustible Blessed Light, the Bodhisattva-Mahāsattva of the Mark of Universal Light, the Bodhisattva-Mahāsattva of the Great Brightness of the Ocean-Moon's Light, the Bodhisattva-Mahāsattva of the Stainless Treasury of Cloud-Voice, Ocean-Light, the Bodhisattva-Mahāsattva Born of Wisdom, the Jeweled Topknot of Merit, the Bodhisattva-Mahāsattva of the Great Light of the Sovereign King of Merit, the Bodhisattva-Mahāsattva of the Excellent, Courageous Lotus-Topknot, the Bodhisattva-Mahāsattva of the Universal Wisdom-Cloud's Sun Banner, the Bodhisattva-Mahāsattva of the Vajra Navel of Great Diligence, the Bodhisattva-Mahāsattva of the Fragrant Flame's Light-Banner, the Bodhisattva-Mahāsattva of the Great, Bright Virtue's Profound and Beautiful Voice, and the Bodhisattva-Mahāsattva Born of Wisdom, Great Blessed Light — bodhisattvas such as these, and more, as their foremost, an assembly as numerous as the fine motes of dust in ten buddha-world-systems in all.
Every one of these bodhisattvas had, in ages past, gathered wholesome roots together with the Tathāgata Vairocana, cultivating the bodhisattva practice; every one of them had been born from the very ocean of the Tathāgata's wholesome roots, and every one of the pāramitās was already perfected within them. Their eyes of wisdom were bright and penetrating, beholding the three periods of time equally; in every samādhi, they were fully endowed with purity; their eloquence was vast as the ocean, boundless and inexhaustible; they were endowed with the Buddha's own merit, dignified and worthy of reverence; they knew the capacities of every living being, and taught and tamed each accordingly; they had entered the treasury of the Dharma-realm, their wisdom without any distinction; they had realized the Buddha's own liberation, profound and vast; able to follow skillful means, they had entered into a single ground, and, sustained by the whole ocean of every vow, they remained forever united with wisdom to the very limit of the future; they had penetrated the rare, vast, and secret domain of every buddha, skillfully knowing the equal Dharma of every buddha; they had already trodden the Tathāgata's own ground of universal light, entering the gateway of the ocean of measureless samādhis; in every place, they manifested their bodies according to what was needed; whatever worldly dharma was practiced, they shared entirely in the same undertaking; their total retention was vast, gathering in the whole ocean of every dharma; their eloquence was skillful, turning the wheel that never turns back; the whole great ocean of merit of every Tathāgata had entered wholly into their own bodies; wherever any buddha dwelt, in whatever land, they went there according to their vow; having already made offerings to every buddha across kalpas without limit, they did so with joy that never tired; wherever any Tathāgata attained awakening, they constantly remained there, drawing near without ever departing; and, forever sustaining the very ocean of Samantabhadra's own vows they themselves had attained, they caused the wisdom-body of every living being to become fully complete. Accomplishments of merit such as these, immeasurable, they had achieved.
The sūtra names only twenty bodhisattvas before writing "and so on" — a deliberate, stated gesture toward an assembly it calls literally uncountable ("as numerous as the fine motes of dust in ten buddha-world-systems"), rather than an incomplete list the translator has trimmed. That Samantabhadra, not Mañjuśrī, stands first and gives his name to the closing description — "the ocean of Samantabhadra's own vows" — sets the register for the whole sūtra: Mañjuśrī's wisdom appears throughout the text that follows, but it is Samantabhadra's vow and practice, the vow this site has already translated in full as the sūtra's own closing chapter, that the opening assembly is built around. The sūtra effectively names its own last chapter in its first one, before Sudhana's pilgrimage toward that same vow has even begun.
Part 1 Complete
This closes Part 1: the vajra ground and jeweled bodhi tree of the Buddha's awakening site, his throne reflecting the whole Dharma-realm, his body and wisdom pervading every world without distinction, and the naming of the bodhisattva assembly led by Samantabhadra. Part 2 turns to the sūtra's next and far longer roster: an extraordinary sequence of deities and spirits — of the earth, the mountains, the rivers, the seas, the winds, the directions, day and night, and every heaven up through the form realm — each category introduced by name, one of the most sustained catalogs of named beings anywhere in Buddhist literature.