The Chapter on Vairocana Begins

At that time, Samantabhadra Bodhisattva further addressed the great assembly, saying: "Buddha's children! Long ago, in ages past, beyond kalpas as numerous as the fine motes of dust in a world, and again doubling that number, there was a world-ocean named the Universal-Gateway's Pure Light. Within this world-ocean, there was a world named Supreme Voice, abiding resting upon an ocean of maṇi flower-nets, with worlds as numerous as the fine motes of dust in Sumeru as its retinue. Its shape was perfectly round, and its ground was endowed with immeasurable adornment; three hundred layers of encircling mountains, forests of every jewel's trees, surrounded it together, and every kind of jeweled cloud covered over it. It was pure and free of defilement, its light shining bright; its cities and palaces were like Sumeru; garments and food arrived according to mere thought. That kalpa was named Every Kind of Adornment."

"Buddha's children! Within that Supreme Voice World, there was a fragrant water ocean named Pure Light. Within that ocean, a great flower, Sumeru, appeared, named the Banner of the Flower and Flame's Universal Adornment, with ten jeweled balustrades encircling it all around. Upon that mountain, there was a great forest, named the Wheel of Maṇi Flower's Branches; immeasurable flower-pavilions, immeasurable jeweled towers and belvederes, arrayed all around in circuit; immeasurable wondrous, fragrant banners, immeasurable jeweled mountain-banners, adorned utterly and afar; immeasurable jeweled puṇḍarīka flowers, blooming in splendor in every place; immeasurable nets of fragrant maṇi lotus flowers, hanging draped all around; music harmonious and delightful, clouds of fragrance shining bright, their numbers each immeasurable, beyond any full accounting; there were hundreds of thousands of millions of nayutas of cities, encircling it all around, where every kind of living being dwelt."

"Buddha's children! To the east of this forest there was a great city, named Flame's Light, the capital of a human king, encircled all around by hundreds of thousands of millions of nayutas of cities; formed and established together from pure, wondrous jewels, its length and breadth each seven thousand yojanas; the seven jewels formed its outer wall, its towers and battlements for repelling enemies, all of them lofty and beautiful; seven layers of jeweled moats, filled full with fragrant water; utpala flowers, padma flowers, kumuda flowers, and puṇḍarīka flowers, all made of every jewel, distributed in every place as ornament; jeweled tāla-palm trees encircled it in seven layers; its palaces and pavilions were all adorned with jewels; every kind of wondrous net was stretched out and spread above it; anointing incense and scattered flowers made it fragrant and lustrous within; there were hundreds of thousands of millions of nayutas of gates, all adorned with jewels; and before each and every gate, there stood forty-nine jeweled precept-banners arrayed in order, one after another."

"Further, hundreds of thousands of millions of gardens and forests encircled it all around; within them there was every kind of mingled fragrance, and the fragrance of maṇi trees, circulating and perfuming everywhere; a multitude of birds sang in harmony, delighting whoever heard them. Every inhabitant dwelling within this great city, none failed to have accomplished the spiritual feet born of karmic recompense, traveling to and fro upon empty space, their conduct the same as the devas; whatever their mind desired arrived entirely according to their very thought. To the south of this city there was a heavenly city, named the Adornment of Tree and Flower; continuing to the right from there, there was a great city of dragons, named Ultimate; next there was a city of yakṣas, named the Vajra's Supreme, Wondrous Banner; next there was a city of gandharvas, named Wondrous Palace; next there was a city of asuras, named the Jeweled Wheel; next there was a city of garuḍas, named the Wondrous, Jeweled Adornment; next there was a city of kinnaras, named Playful Bliss; next there was a city of mahoragas, named the Vajra Banner; next there was a city of the Brahmā king, named Every Kind of Wondrous Adornment... Such as these, there were hundreds of thousands of millions of nayutas of them. Each and every one of these cities was surrounded together by hundreds of thousands of millions of nayutas of pavilions, and each and every one had immeasurable adornment."

"Buddha's children! Within this great forest of the Jeweled Flower's Branch-Wheel, there was an awakening-site, named the Jeweled Flower Universally Illumining, adorned and distributed with every great jewel, maṇi flower-wheels blooming open and filling everything, lit with lamps of fragrance, complete with a cloud of flame of every jeweled color covering over it, its net of light universally illumining, its every adorning implement forever sending forth wondrous jewels, every kind of music forever playing elegant tunes, the sovereign maṇi jewel manifesting a bodhisattva's own body, every kind of wondrous flower pervading the ten directions. Before this awakening-site, there was a great ocean, named the Vajra of Fragrant Maṇi; from it emerged a great lotus flower, named the Wheel of the Flower-Pistil's Flame, that flower vast, a hundred million yojanas across, its stem, leaves, pistils, and dais all wondrous jewels, surrounded together by ten ineffable hundreds of thousands of millions of nayutas of lotus flowers, forever emitting light, forever sending forth a wondrous voice, pervading the ten directions."

"Buddha's children! Within that Supreme Voice World, in its very first kalpa, there appeared in the world Tathāgatas as numerous as the fine motes of dust in ten Sumerus. Its very first buddha was named the Supreme Cloud of Sumeru, the Mountain of Every Merit. Buddha's children! You should know that, a hundred years before that buddha was about to appear, within this great forest of the Maṇi Flower's Branch-Wheel, every adornment became pervasively pure. That is to say: it sent forth inconceivable clouds of jeweled flame, gave rise to a voice praising the Buddha's own merit, proclaimed the voices of countless buddhas; it unfurled light and spread a net, covering over the ten directions entirely; its palaces and pavilions illumined one another; its jeweled flowers' light rose and gathered to form clouds; it further sent forth a wondrous voice, telling of the vast roots of goodness that every living being had cultivated in ages past, telling the names of every buddha of the three periods of time, telling of the ultimate path of the vow and conduct cultivated by every bodhisattva, telling of every kind of speech by which every Tathāgata turns the wondrous Dharma-wheel. Having manifested marks of adornment such as these, it revealed that the Tathāgata was about to appear in the world. Within that world, every king, upon seeing these marks, had their roots of goodness ripen, and all wished to behold the Buddha, and so came to the awakening-site. At that time, the Buddha, the Supreme Cloud of Sumeru, the Mountain of Every Merit, suddenly appeared within the great lotus flower of that very awakening-site. His body pervaded universally, equal to the true Dharma-realm, and every buddha-land showed his birth; every awakening-site was entirely reached by him. His boundless, wondrous form was fully endowed with purity; nothing in any world was able to eclipse or overshadow it. Endowed with every jeweled mark, each and every one distinct and clear, every palace entirely manifested his reflected image; every living being was able, with their own eyes, to behold boundless transformation-buddhas emerging from his very body, every kind of colored light filling the world. Just as, within this Pure Light fragrant water ocean, atop the Sumeru of the Flower and Flame's Adorning Banner, within the great forest of the Maṇi Flower's Branch-Wheel, his body appeared and he sat upon that very throne — so too, within that Supreme Voice World, upon sixty-eight thousand millions of Sumeru peaks, his body likewise appeared and he sat there as well. At that time, that buddha then emitted great light from between his brows; that light was named the Voice That Rouses Every Root of Goodness, with light as numerous as the fine motes of dust in ten buddha-lands as its retinue, filling every land of the ten directions entirely. If there were living beings fit to be tamed, that light touched and illumined them, and they were spontaneously awakened, their every delusion's heat put to rest, every net of their coverings torn asunder, every mountain of their obstruction subdued, every defilement and turbidity of theirs purified; they gave rise to great faith and understanding, and gave birth to supreme roots of goodness, forever leaving behind every difficulty and every fear, extinguishing every affliction of body and mind, and gave rise to the mind that seeks to behold the Buddha, hastening toward omniscience. At that time, every lord of the world, together with their retinues, immeasurable hundreds of thousands of them, having been awakened by the Buddha's own light, all went to the place of the Buddha, and bowed their heads to his very feet."

"Buddha's children! Within that Flame's Light great city, there was a king, named Delighting to Behold Excellent Wisdom, who governed hundreds of thousands of millions of nayutas of cities; he had thirty-seven thousand consorts and court ladies, with Fortune and Auspiciousness foremost among them; he had five hundred princes — a variant text says twenty-five thousand — with Great Majestic Light foremost among them; and Crown Prince Great Majestic Light had ten thousand consorts, with Wondrous Vision foremost among them. At that time, when Crown Prince Great Majestic Light beheld the Buddha's own light, through the power of roots of goodness he had cultivated in ages past, he then and there realized ten kinds of dharma-gateways. What were these ten? They were: he realized the samādhi of the wheel of merit of every buddha; he realized the universal-gateway dhāraṇī of every buddha's own Dharma; he realized the treasury of vast, skillful means, the perfection of wisdom; he realized the great compassion, the great adornment that tames every living being; he realized the great pity, the universal cloud of voice; he realized the great joy, the supreme mind giving rise to boundless merit; he realized the great equanimity, truly awakening to every dharma; he realized the great spiritual transmutation, the equal treasury of vast, skillful means; he realized the great vow, increasing the power of faith and understanding; and he realized the gateway of eloquence universally entering the light of omniscience."

At that time, Crown Prince Great Majestic Light, having attained such light of the Dharma, sustained by the Buddha's own power, universally beheld the great assembly, and spoke a verse, saying: