Treatise on the Sūtra of the Ten Grounds.
Vajragarbha Bodhisattva, empowered by buddhas as numerous as motes of dust, teaches the ten grounds a bodhisattva ascends between the first arising of the thought of enlightenment and buddhahood itself — Pramuditā, the Ground of Joy, through Dharmameghā, the Ground of the Dharma-Cloud, each entered through its own named set of ten minds, each closed by its own account of a threefold fruit and its own etymology. Vasubandhu's commentary, translated into Chinese by Bodhiruci and collaborators under the Northern Wei, unfolds this sūtra clause by clause across twelve fascicles — the Daśabhūmika chapter of the Avataṃsaka Sūtra given its fullest classical exegesis. This collection translates the whole of it across fifty-two parts, with reading notes drawn first from Jingying Huiyuan's commentary and, from partway through the Third Ground onward — where Huiyuan's own surviving manuscript ends — from Fazang's.
How to read this collection
The Daśabhūmikasūtra-śāstra is Vasubandhu's own commentary on the "Ten Grounds" chapter of the Avataṃsaka Sūtra — the passage that gave the later Huayan school its systematic account of the bodhisattva path. Ten grounds, twelve fascicles: each ground opens with a named set of ten minds or dharmas that arouse entry into it, unfolds through its own distinctive practice, and closes with a threefold fruit — of gentle taming, of gathered retribution, and of vow and wisdom — together with the treatise's own etymology for that ground's name. Two Chinese commentaries carry this collection's reading notes: Jingying Huiyuan's 十地經論義記 (X0753) through the Second Ground and partway into the Third, where his own manuscript physically ends; and, for every ground thereafter, Fazang's 華嚴經探玄記 (T1733), his independent exegesis of the full Avataṃsaka Sūtra.
Each page carries a continuous run of sūtra and commentary together — exactly as Vasubandhu's own text interleaves them — matched against Ru-Yi's English translation, with reading notes quoting the governing commentator's Chinese in full and translating it directly, never paraphrasing without the source in view. Terminology is matched to this site's existing Yogācāra pages wherever an established rendering already exists, and recorded in the translation notes below wherever this treatise required a fresh one.
What each page includes
- The Chinese source text — sūtra and commentary together — beside our English translation, verified character-for-character against the base text for full coverage.
- Reading notes — "after Jingying Huiyuan" through Part 23, "after Fazang" from Part 24 onward.
- The treatise's own recurring structure made visible: each ground's entry-minds, its practice, and its threefold closing fruit.
- Terminology matched to this site's existing Yogācāra pages, most closely the Awakening of Faith in the Mahāyāna.
The Ten Grounds
Each ground is named by the treatise's own closing etymology, most often through a simile — refined gold, moonlight surpassed by sunlight, a wish-fulfilling jewel's own light — mapped against what that ground alone accomplishes.
Read by Part
All fifty-two parts are translated. Each links to the full bilingual text, with reading notes after Jingying Huiyuan through Part 23 and after Fazang from Part 24 onward.
Ground 1 — Pramuditā, the Ground of Joy
Fascicles 1–3 · Parts 1–14Ground 2 — Vimalā, the Ground Free of Defilement
Fascicle 4 · Parts 15–19Ground 3 — Prabhākarī, the Luminous Ground
Fascicle 5 · Parts 20–23Ground 4 — Arciṣmatī, the Blazing Ground
Fascicle 6 · Parts 24–25Ground 5 — Sudurjayā, the Ground Difficult to Conquer
Fascicle 7 · Parts 26–28Ground 6 — Abhimukhī, the Ground of Direct Presence
Fascicle 8 · Parts 29–32Ground 7 — Dūraṅgamā, the Far-Reaching Ground
Fascicle 9 · Parts 33–35Ground 8 — Acalā, the Immovable Ground
Fascicle 10 · Parts 36–40Ground 9 — Sādhumatī, the Ground of Excellent Wisdom
Fascicle 11 · Parts 41–45Ground 10 — Dharmameghā, the Ground of the Dharma-Cloud
Fascicle 12 · Parts 46–52Translation Notes
Recurring terms, kept consistent across all fifty-two parts. Where a term already has an established rendering elsewhere on this site's Yogācāra pages, we reuse it; where this treatise's own vocabulary needed a fresh rendering, we coined one here. See the full translation notes for the complete glossary and the per-part structure table, and also this site's note on translation method.