The Assembly at Jetavana, and Why Samantabhadra and Mañjuśrī Stand First
The Buddha at Jetavana, in the Hall of the Layered Pavilion, together with five hundred great bodhisattvas — Samantabhadra and Mañjuśrī foremost among them, followed by a hundred and forty-one further companies of named bodhisattvas — five hundred great śrāvakas, and the kings of the heavens. This opening page sets the entire chapter's scene, before Sudhana has even entered the story.
The Setting, and the Five Hundred Bodhisattvas
爾時，佛在舍衛城，祇樹給孤獨園，大莊嚴重閣講堂，與五百菩薩摩訶薩俱，普賢菩薩、文殊師利菩薩而為上首；夜光幢菩薩、須彌山幢菩薩、寶幢菩薩、無礙幢菩薩、華幢菩薩、離垢幢菩薩、日光幢菩薩、正幢菩薩、離塵幢菩薩、明淨幢菩薩、大地端嚴菩薩、寶端嚴菩薩、大慧端嚴菩薩、金剛智端嚴菩薩、離垢端嚴菩薩、法日端嚴菩薩、功德山端嚴菩薩、智光端嚴菩薩、普妙德端嚴菩薩、大地藏菩薩、虛空藏菩薩、蓮華藏菩薩、寶藏菩薩、日藏菩薩、淨德藏菩薩、法印藏菩薩、明淨藏菩薩、臍藏菩薩、蓮華藏菩薩、善德眼菩薩、普見眼菩薩、清淨眼菩薩、離垢眼菩薩、無礙眼菩薩、普眼菩薩、善觀眼菩薩、青蓮華眼菩薩、金剛眼菩薩、寶眼菩薩、虛空眼菩薩、善眼菩薩、天冠菩薩、普照法界慧天冠菩薩、道場天冠菩薩、普照十方天冠菩薩、生諸佛藏天冠菩薩、一切世間最上天冠菩薩、明淨天冠菩薩、無量寶天冠菩薩、受一切如來師子座天冠菩薩、普照法界虛空天冠菩薩、梵王周羅菩薩、龍王周羅菩薩、一切佛化光明周羅菩薩、道場周羅菩薩、一切願海音摩尼寶王周羅菩薩、出生如來光眾寶自在周羅菩薩、莊嚴一切虛空摩尼寶王周羅菩薩、一切如來自在光幢摩尼王網普覆周羅菩薩、一切佛音轉法輪周羅菩薩、三世慧音周羅菩薩、大光菩薩、離垢光菩薩、寶光菩薩、離塵光菩薩、夜光菩薩、法光菩薩、寂靜光菩薩、日光菩薩、自在光菩薩、天光菩薩、功德幢菩薩、智幢菩薩、法幢菩薩、諸通幢菩薩、光幢菩薩、華幢菩薩、摩尼幢菩薩、菩提幢菩薩、梵幢菩薩、普光幢菩薩、梵音菩薩、海音菩薩、大地音菩薩、世主音菩薩、山相擊音菩薩、充滿一切法界音菩薩、一切法海雷音菩薩、降伏一切魔音菩薩、大悲方便雲雷音菩薩、滅一切苦安慰音菩薩、法上菩薩、勝上菩薩、智上菩薩、功德須彌山上菩薩、功德珊瑚上菩薩、稱上菩薩、普光上菩薩、大慈上菩薩、智海上菩薩、如來性起上菩薩、光妙德菩薩、勝妙德菩薩、上妙德菩薩、明淨妙德菩薩、法妙德菩薩、月妙德菩薩、虛空妙德菩薩、寶妙德菩薩、妙德幢菩薩、智妙德菩薩、娑羅林王菩薩、法王菩薩、眾生王菩薩、梵王菩薩、山王菩薩、寶王菩薩、離生王菩薩、寂靜王菩薩、不動王菩薩、仙王菩薩、勝王菩薩、寂靜音菩薩、無礙音菩薩、說大地音菩薩、大海雷音菩薩、雲音菩薩、法光音菩薩、虛空音菩薩、一切眾生善根雷音菩薩、開悟過去願音菩薩、圓滿道音菩薩、智須彌山音菩薩、虛空覺菩薩、離垢覺菩薩、無礙覺菩薩、善覺菩薩、普照三世覺菩薩、廣覺菩薩、普光覺菩薩、法界光覺菩薩，如是等五百菩薩。
Thus have I heard. At one time the Buddha was in the city of Śrāvastī, in Anāthapiṇḍada's Park in Jeta's Grove, in the Hall of the Layered Pavilion, magnificently adorned, together with five hundred bodhisattva-mahāsattvas — Samantabhadra Bodhisattva and Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva foremost among them. With them were: Night-Light Banner Bodhisattva, Sumeru Banner Bodhisattva, Jewel Banner Bodhisattva, Unobstructed Banner Bodhisattva, Flower Banner Bodhisattva, Stainless Banner Bodhisattva, Sunlight Banner Bodhisattva, True Banner Bodhisattva, Dust-Free Banner Bodhisattva, and Pure and Radiant Banner Bodhisattva; Great Earth Adorned in Splendor Bodhisattva, Jewel Adorned in Splendor Bodhisattva, Great Wisdom Adorned in Splendor Bodhisattva, Vajra Wisdom Adorned in Splendor Bodhisattva, Stainless Adorned in Splendor Bodhisattva, Dharma-Sun Adorned in Splendor Bodhisattva, Mountain of Merit Adorned in Splendor Bodhisattva, Light of Wisdom Adorned in Splendor Bodhisattva, and Universal Sublime Virtue Adorned in Splendor Bodhisattva; Great Earth Treasury Bodhisattva, Space Treasury Bodhisattva, Lotus Treasury Bodhisattva, Jewel Treasury Bodhisattva, Sun Treasury Bodhisattva, Pure Virtue Treasury Bodhisattva, Dharma-Seal Treasury Bodhisattva, Pure and Radiant Treasury Bodhisattva, Navel Treasury Bodhisattva, and a second Lotus Treasury Bodhisattva; Eye of Sublime Virtue Bodhisattva, Eye of Universal Seeing Bodhisattva, Pure Eye Bodhisattva, Stainless Eye Bodhisattva, Unobstructed Eye Bodhisattva, Universal Eye Bodhisattva, Eye of Skillful Contemplation Bodhisattva, Blue Lotus Eye Bodhisattva, Vajra Eye Bodhisattva, Jewel Eye Bodhisattva, Space Eye Bodhisattva, and Excellent Eye Bodhisattva; Heavenly Crown Bodhisattva, Heavenly Crown of Wisdom Universally Illumining the Dharma-Realm Bodhisattva, Heavenly Crown of the Bodhimaṇḍa Bodhisattva, Heavenly Crown Universally Illumining the Ten Directions Bodhisattva, Heavenly Crown Giving Birth to the Treasury of Every Buddha Bodhisattva, Heavenly Crown Supreme in Every World Bodhisattva, Pure and Radiant Heavenly Crown Bodhisattva, Heavenly Crown of Immeasurable Jewels Bodhisattva, Heavenly Crown Receiving the Lion-Throne of Every Tathāgata Bodhisattva, and Heavenly Crown Universally Illumining the Space of the Dharma-Realm Bodhisattva; Crest of the Brahmā King Bodhisattva, Crest of the Nāga King Bodhisattva, Crest of the Transformation-Light of Every Buddha Bodhisattva, Crest of the Bodhimaṇḍa Bodhisattva, Crest of the Maṇi Jewel-King, Voice of the Ocean of Every Vow Bodhisattva, Crest Giving Birth to the Tathāgata's Light and Mastery over Every Jewel Bodhisattva, Crest of the Maṇi Jewel-King Adorning All of Space Bodhisattva, Crest of the Net of the Sovereign Light-Banner Maṇi King of Every Tathāgata, Universally Covering All Bodhisattva, Crest of Every Buddha's Voice Turning the Dharma-Wheel Bodhisattva, and Crest of the Voice of Wisdom of the Three Times Bodhisattva; Great Light Bodhisattva, Stainless Light Bodhisattva, Jewel Light Bodhisattva, Dust-Free Light Bodhisattva, Night Light Bodhisattva, Dharma Light Bodhisattva, Tranquil Light Bodhisattva, Sunlight Bodhisattva, Sovereign Light Bodhisattva, and Heavenly Light Bodhisattva; Merit Banner Bodhisattva, Wisdom Banner Bodhisattva, Dharma Banner Bodhisattva, Banner of Every Spiritual Power Bodhisattva, Light Banner Bodhisattva, a second Flower Banner Bodhisattva, Maṇi Banner Bodhisattva, Bodhi Banner Bodhisattva, Brahmā Banner Bodhisattva, and Universal Light Banner Bodhisattva; Brahmā Voice Bodhisattva, Ocean Voice Bodhisattva, Great Earth Voice Bodhisattva, Voice of the World's Lord Bodhisattva, Voice of Colliding Mountains Bodhisattva, Voice Filling the Entire Dharma-Realm Bodhisattva, Thunder-Voice of the Ocean of Every Dharma Bodhisattva, Voice Subduing Every Māra Bodhisattva, Thunder-Voice of the Clouds of Great Compassion's Skillful Means Bodhisattva, and Voice of Comfort Extinguishing Every Suffering Bodhisattva; Supreme in Dharma Bodhisattva, Supreme in Victory Bodhisattva, Supreme in Wisdom Bodhisattva, Supreme as the Sumeru of Merit Bodhisattva, Supreme as the Coral of Merit Bodhisattva, Supreme in Renown Bodhisattva, Supreme in Universal Light Bodhisattva, Supreme in Great Kindness Bodhisattva, Supreme as the Ocean of Wisdom Bodhisattva, and Supreme in the Tathāgata's Nature-Arising Bodhisattva; Sublime Virtue of Light Bodhisattva, Sublime Virtue of Victory Bodhisattva, Supreme Sublime Virtue Bodhisattva, Sublime Virtue Pure and Radiant Bodhisattva, Sublime Virtue of Dharma Bodhisattva, Sublime Virtue of the Moon Bodhisattva, Sublime Virtue of Space Bodhisattva, Sublime Virtue of Jewels Bodhisattva, Banner of Sublime Virtue Bodhisattva, and Sublime Virtue of Wisdom Bodhisattva; King of the Sāla Grove Bodhisattva, Dharma King Bodhisattva, King of Sentient Beings Bodhisattva, Brahmā King Bodhisattva, Mountain King Bodhisattva, Jewel King Bodhisattva, King Free of Birth Bodhisattva, Tranquil King Bodhisattva, Immovable King Bodhisattva, King of Sages Bodhisattva, and Victorious King Bodhisattva; Tranquil Voice Bodhisattva, Unobstructed Voice Bodhisattva, Voice Proclaiming the Great Earth Bodhisattva, Thunder-Voice of the Great Ocean Bodhisattva, Cloud Voice Bodhisattva, Voice of the Light of Dharma Bodhisattva, Voice of Space Bodhisattva, Thunder-Voice of Every Sentient Being's Root of Goodness Bodhisattva, Voice Awakening the Vows of the Past Bodhisattva, Voice of the Perfected Path Bodhisattva, and Voice of the Sumeru of Wisdom Bodhisattva; and Awakening of Space Bodhisattva, Stainless Awakening Bodhisattva, Unobstructed Awakening Bodhisattva, Excellent Awakening Bodhisattva, Awakening Universally Illumining the Three Times Bodhisattva, Vast Awakening Bodhisattva, Universal Light Awakening Bodhisattva, and Awakening, Light of the Dharma-Realm Bodhisattva. Such were these five hundred bodhisattvas.
Fazang's commentary reads the setting itself as three concentric statements of perfection before a single bodhisattva is even named: the Buddha's own presence ("智正覺世間圓滿," the perfection of the world of wisdom and awakening), the physical setting's own perfection ("器世間圓滿" — city, park, and hall in turn), and, in the assembly that follows, the perfection of the world of sentient beings. On the setting itself, he glosses Śrāvastī (舍衛城) as "the City of the Hearer" — 聞者城 — tracing the name to a sage once resident there whose disciple, known simply as "the Hearer," first received the teaching from him and later built the city on that spot in his memory; Jeta's Grove and Anāthapiṇḍada's Park he reads as a joint gift, Prince Jeta ("Victory-Won," 誓多) donating the trees and the elder Anāthapiṇḍada — "one who gives to the orphaned and the solitary," so named for his charity to the parentless and childless alike — purchasing the land in gold, the two together founding the monastery and both lending it their names. The hall itself he glosses by its own three-character name: complete in substance is called "great" (大); complete in virtue is called "adorned" (嚴); and function arising from that substance is why it is called "layered" or "many-storied" (重閣) — a pavilion whose height expresses what its foundation already is.
On why Samantabhadra and Mañjuśrī alone stand at the head of five hundred bodhisattvas, Fazang gives three reasons that all point toward the same pairing. First, and most structurally: 普賢當法界門，是所入也；文殊當般若門，是能入也 — "Samantabhadra corresponds to the gate of the Dharma-realm, which is that which is entered; Mañjuśrī corresponds to the gate of prajñā, which is that which enters" — together naming, before the chapter has done anything else, exactly what its own title promises: a realm to be entered, and the wisdom that enters it. Second, by mastery: Samantabhadra has sovereign mastery in samādhi, Mañjuśrī sovereign mastery in prajñā. Third, by scope: Samantabhadra makes manifest what is vast and all-encompassing, Mañjuśrī what is deep and penetrating — breadth paired with depth. Every one of Sudhana's fifty-three teachers to come will, in one way or another, unfold some portion of this same pairing; this page states it once, at the very threshold, so that the pairing can simply be recognized rather than re-argued each time it recurs.
The hundred and forty-one further bodhisattvas are not, on Fazang's reading, a random inventory — 列名中有一百四十一大位，十十有十四位 — they fall into fourteen name-groups of (nominally) ten each, a handful running one or two names short or long, and each group's shared word carries its own significance: "banner" (幢) signifies conduct and virtue rising visibly above the rest; "adorned in splendor" (端嚴) signifies the twofold adornment of merit and wisdom; "treasury" (藏) signifies virtue held complete within, the way heartwood is held within a tree; "eye" (眼) signifies illumination of the Dharma-realm; "heavenly crown" (天冠) signifies pure virtue crowning the very peak of the mind; "crest" or topknot (周羅) signifies virtue weighty enough to command honor; "light" (光) carries a double sense, the light of the body and the light of wisdom, illuminating outward and inward at once; the second "banner" set shifts from standing alone to subduing what opposes it; "voice" (音) signifies a voice pleasing enough to delight whatever faculty hears it; "supreme" (上) signifies surpassing the assembled multitude; "sublime virtue" (妙德) signifies auspiciousness made visibly excellent; "king" (王) signifies sovereignty within the Dharma; the second "voice" set shifts from the voice's own beauty to its skill in expounding subtle teaching; and "awakening" (覺) signifies a clarity that illumines principle while discerning the capacities of those it teaches. Fazang is explicit that these fourteen groups are not fourteen separate topics so much as fourteen facets of the same two leading bodhisattvas' own qualities, distributed and multiplied across the assembly they head — which is also why, on his count, the full list runs to exactly a hundred and forty-one named positions before the text simply closes with "such were these five hundred bodhisattvas," leaving the remaining number implicit rather than individually named.
The Bodhisattvas' Qualities, the Śrāvakas, and the Kings of the Heavens
此諸菩薩，皆悉出生普賢之行，境界無礙，充滿一切諸佛剎故；持無量身，悉能往詣一切佛故；具足無礙淨眼，見一切佛明自在故；至無量處，一切諸佛成正覺時，悉能往詣，現前見佛無休息故；無量智光，普照一切諸法海故；於無量劫，說不可盡，辯清淨故；究竟虛空界，智慧境界悉清淨故；無所依止，隨其所應，現色身故；除滅癡曀，善分別知眾生界故；虛空智慧，放大光網，普照一切諸法界故。復與五百大聲聞俱，悉覺真諦，證如實際，深入法性，離生死海；安住如來虛空境界，離結使縛；不著一切，遊行虛空，於諸佛所疑惑悉滅，深入信向諸佛大海。復與諸天王俱，悉已恭敬供養過去諸佛，長夜饒益一切眾生，心常行慈，未曾忘失；守護群生，入勝智門，不捨一切眾生；出生諸佛正法境界，守護佛法，受持佛性，生如來家，專求一切智門。
All these bodhisattvas had given rise to the practice of Samantabhadra: their domain was unobstructed, filling every buddha-land; they held countless bodies, able to go before every buddha; they were endowed with unobstructed, pure eyes, seeing the radiant sovereignty of every buddha; reaching countless places, whenever any buddha attained perfect awakening they were able to go there, beholding that buddha face to face without cease; their immeasurable light of wisdom universally illumined the ocean of every dharma; through countless eons their eloquence, inexhaustible, remained pure; their wisdom, reaching to the very limit of the realm of space, was entirely pure; resting on no fixed ground, they manifested physical bodies according to what was needed; having dispelled the haze of delusion, they skillfully discerned and knew the realm of sentient beings; and their wisdom, vast as space, released a great net of light universally illumining every dharma-realm.
Together with them were five hundred great śrāvakas, all of whom had awakened to the true truth, realized reality as it is, penetrated deeply into the dharma-nature, and left behind the ocean of birth and death; abiding in the Tathāgata's own realm of space, they were free of the fetters of affliction; unattached to anything, they wandered freely through space, and every doubt regarding the buddhas had been extinguished in them, so deeply had they entered into faith toward the great ocean of the buddhas.
Together with them, too, were the kings of the heavens, all of whom had already reverently made offerings to the buddhas of the past, and through long nights had brought benefit to every sentient being, their minds constantly practicing loving-kindness without ever forgetting it; guarding all beings, they had entered the gate of supreme wisdom, never abandoning a single sentient being; giving rise to the domain of every buddha's true Dharma, they guarded the Buddha-dharma, upheld the buddha-nature, were born into the household of the Tathāgata, and single-mindedly sought the gate of omniscience.
Fazang reads the ten clauses praising the bodhisattvas two ways at once, without treating either as exclusive of the other: as qualities every one of the five hundred equally possesses, and — more precisely — as ten phrases each keyed to one of the fifteen leading positions named just before them. The very first clause, praising a domain "unobstructed, filling every buddha-land," he reads as praising Samantabhadra and Mañjuśrī specifically, since universal practice and a domain without limit are exactly what the two leaders, between them, accomplish; the clauses that follow work outward through the fourteen name-groups in the same paired fashion — bodies reaching everywhere paired with eyes that see everywhere, wisdom-light illumining the Dharma paired with eloquence never exhausted, and so on to the final clause, wisdom vast as space releasing a net of light, which closes the list the way "awakening, light of the Dharma-realm" closed the name list itself.
On the five hundred great śrāvakas, Fazang first explains the honorific "great" (大) in the ordinary sense — these are śrāvakas of the fourth and final fruit, of the unshakeable lineage, foremost among śrāvakas as Śāriputra and his companions are elsewhere — but adds a second, sharper reading of his own: 大者是第四果故，又是不動種姓故...又釋此等並是大菩薩示現作聲聞 — "or again: these are all great bodhisattvas manifesting in the form of śrāvakas," exactly as the newly-translated Avataṃsaka's chapter on the Tathāgata's inconceivable state describes, appearing here as if deaf and blind to what is unfolding around them precisely in order to make the profundity of this teaching visible by contrast. The ten qualities praising them fall into four movements on his reading: the first three name the three trainings completed — awakening to truth is the path of seeing, realizing the ultimate is the path of cultivation, penetrating the nature is the path beyond further training; the next two describe an abiding in the emptiness of self that these śrāvakas share, in part, with the Tathāgata's own twofold emptiness, and a corresponding freedom from the nine fetters and ten proclivities; the next two describe mastery of spiritual power and non-attachment to the world; and the last two describe doubt fully extinguished and faith made unshakeable — which Fazang reads as itself a mark of these figures' true, hidden stature, since what they are shown believing without doubt is nothing less than a buddha's own most profound self-mastered fruit.
The kings of the heavens receive ten qualities in five deliberate pairs: prior cause, in offerings made to past buddhas and long benefit given to beings; present practice, compassion entering into wisdom; abiding in the impure while making the pure manifest, since they do not abandon defiled sentient beings even as they bring forth the Buddha's own pure Dharma; guarding the Dharma in two directions at once — outwardly protecting the teaching so that it continues to circulate, inwardly upholding their own true nature so that its realization is never lost; and finally the "household" pair, born into the Buddha's own family and single-mindedly pursuing the work proper to that family — omniscience itself named here as a "gate," Fazang notes, precisely because it is what leads all the way through to a buddha's own wisdom, not merely toward it.
Part 1 Complete
This closes Part 1: the Buddha's assembly at Jetavana, in the Hall of the Layered Pavilion, with Samantabhadra and Mañjuśrī at the head of five hundred bodhisattvas named across fourteen groups, five hundred great śrāvakas, and the kings of the heavens. Part 2 turns to what this whole assembly, silently, wishes the Buddha would reveal — and to the Buddha's own answer: entering the Lion's-Vigor Samādhi, and transforming the hall and the grove itself into something no longer of this world.
Continue to Part 2 — The Assembly's Wish, and the Buddha's Samādhi →