Fascicle Sixty Opens; Sounds From the Golden Bells
Fascicle sixty — the very last fascicle of this translation of the Avataṃsaka — opens directly from fascicle fifty-nine, continuing the same unbroken vision, under a new sub-division of this final chapter. Sudhana now sees his own body present in the very midst of every buddha's own assembly, beholding wondrous, extraordinary things such as these. He also hears, from within the tower's own golden bells, inconceivable, subtle, wondrous sounds — the sound of first raising the mind of bodhi; the sound of every pāramitā and vow a bodhisattva carries out; the inconceivable sound of every buddha being reverently honored and served; the sound of a buddha-land's own purification; the sound of the cloud of the buddha's own Dharma. Every ornament within the tower likewise sends forth these same subtle, wondrous sounds. He further hears that a certain bodhisattva, in a certain world, during a certain kalpa, was turned by a certain good friend to dedicate his roots of goodness and give rise to a great vow; and that, in the presence of a certain buddha, in the midst of a great assembly, he raised the mind of bodhi — the very sound of it.
Fascicle Sixty Opens: The Sound of Every First Bodhicitta
## 大方廣佛華嚴經卷第五十九
## 大方廣佛華嚴經卷第六十
東晉天竺三藏佛馱跋陀羅譯
### 入法界品第三十四之十七
◎爾時，善財自見己身在諸佛所，見如是等諸奇特事。又聞樓觀諸金鈴中，出不思議微妙音聲，所謂：初發菩提心聲；菩薩所行諸度願聲；恭敬供養，不可思議諸佛音聲；淨佛剎聲；佛法雲聲。諸莊嚴具，亦出如是微妙音聲。又聞某菩薩，在某世界，於某劫中，某知識化迴向善根，出生大願；於某佛所，大眾之中，發菩提心聲。
[Fascicle fifty-nine of the Buddhāvataṃsaka-sūtra concludes.]
[Fascicle sixty of the Buddhāvataṃsaka-sūtra.]
Translated by Buddhabhadra, Tripiṭaka Master of India, under the Eastern Jin.
[Chapter Thirty-Four, Entering the Dharma-Realm, Part Seventeen.]
At that time, Sudhana saw his own body present in the very midst of every buddha's own assembly, beholding wondrous, extraordinary things such as these. He also heard, from within the tower's own golden bells, inconceivable, subtle, wondrous sounds — the sound of first raising the mind of bodhi; the sound of every pāramitā and vow a bodhisattva carries out; the inconceivable sound of every buddha being reverently honored and served; the sound of a buddha-land's own purification; the sound of the cloud of the buddha's own Dharma. Every ornament within the tower likewise sent forth these same subtle, wondrous sounds. He further heard that a certain bodhisattva, in a certain world, during a certain kalpa, was turned by a certain good friend to dedicate his roots of goodness and give rise to a great vow; and that, in the presence of a certain buddha, in the midst of a great assembly, he raised the mind of bodhi — he heard the very sound of it.
This is the final fascicle of the entire sixty-fascicle Taishō text of Buddhabhadra's translation — the sūtra's own concluding scroll, within which the whole remainder of the tower vision, Maitreya's own final instruction, and (as the sūtra elsewhere indicates) Sudhana's eventual meeting with Samantabhadra will unfold. Fazang reads the shift here from visual to auditory revelation — sound now joining sight as a vehicle for the vision's own content — as significant: where the earlier visions showed Sudhana Maitreya's own biography directly, this stretch instead has him overhear, through bell-sound alone, the biographies of other bodhisattvas entirely unconnected to Maitreya, extending the vision's own scope from a single figure's history to the whole of the bodhisattva path as carried out by countless others.
Part 393 Complete
The final fascicle has opened, and the sounds of the golden bells have begun. Part 394 continues with further sounds — bodhisattvas completing their own practice, attaining buddhahood in specific lands, and finally entering parinirvāṇa — each sound naming its own unrepeated particulars.
Continue to Part 394 →