The Vows of Samantabhadra
the closing chapter of the Flower Garland Sūtra, and the fifth of the Pure Land sūtras《入不思議解脫境界普賢行願品》
Samantabhadra Bodhisattva closes the vast Avataṃsaka Sūtra with ten vows — a compact summary of the entire bodhisattva path, still recited daily across East Asia — and then promises that whoever holds them will, at the moment of death, behold Amitābha Buddha face to face and be reborn in Sukhāvatī. This is the same chapter twice over: the last fascicle of the Flower Garland Sūtra, and, since the early twentieth century, a core Pure Land text in its own right.
- Chinese
- 《入不思議解脫境界普賢行願品》, translated by Prajñā (般若), a Tripiṭaka master from Kashmir active at the Tang court, completed in 798 CE as the fortieth and final fascicle of the "Forty-Fascicle Avataṃsaka" (四十華嚴, Taishō T293)
- Tradition
- Genuinely two at once: doctrinally, it is the closing chapter of the Avataṃsaka Sūtra, the summation of Sudhana's fifty-three pilgrimages; devotionally, it is the fifth of the "five Pure Land sūtras" (淨土五經), added to the traditional three Pure Land sūtras and one treatise by the modern Pure Land patriarch Yinguang (印光, 1861–1940) specifically because of its closing vow to behold Amitābha Buddha at death
- Speaker
- Samantabhadra Bodhisattva (普賢菩薩), addressing Sudhana (善財童子) at the very end of Sudhana's journey to fifty-three teachers in search of the bodhisattva path
- Length
- A single fascicle, roughly 630 lines in its source printing — short enough to read in one sitting, dense enough that this guide gives it six parts
- Difficulty
- ★★★☆☆ to read — the ten vows are stated in plain, list-like language and repeat a small set of formulas throughout, but the doctrine compressed into those formulas, and the closing verses' rapid shifts between cosmic scale and a single dying person, reward closer attention.
Why This Chapter Belongs to Two Traditions
This chapter is not a Pure Land text dressed up in Avataṃsaka language, and it is not an Avataṃsaka text that happens to mention Amitābha in passing. It is fully both, and this guide treats it that way rather than picking a side.
As Avataṃsaka, its position could not be more central: it is literally the fortieth and final fascicle of the Forty-Fascicle Avataṃsaka, the culmination of the Gaṇḍavyūha narrative in which the youth Sudhana travels to fifty-three teachers in search of the bodhisattva path. Samantabhadra, the last and greatest of those teachers, closes the entire sūtra by distilling everything Sudhana has learned into ten vows — homage, praise, offering, confession, rejoicing, two acts of entreaty, following the Buddha's learning, according with all beings, and universal dedication — a list so compact and so widely used that it is chanted, on its own, in monasteries that may never read another line of the Avataṃsaka's other thirty-nine fascicles.
As Pure Land, its claim is just as direct, and it appears twice in this very text: once in prose, in Part 4, and once in verse, in Part 6. Both times, the text states plainly that whoever holds these ten vows will, at the final moment of life, be abandoned by everything else — relatives, possessions, power — except this "King of Vows," which alone will guide them onward, and that in a single instant they will be reborn in Amitābha Buddha's land of Sukhāvatī, there to behold Amitābha, Mañjuśrī, Samantabhadra, Avalokiteśvara, and Maitreya in person. It was this exact promise that led Yinguang, the thirteenth patriarch of Chinese Pure Land Buddhism, to append this chapter to the traditional "three Pure Land sūtras" (淨土三經 — the Amitābha Sūtra, the Larger Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra, and the Contemplation Sūtra) plus the Chapter on Perfect Penetration through Mindfulness of Buddha already drawn from the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, making the now-standard "five Pure Land sūtras and one treatise" (淨土五經一論) in the early twentieth century.
It would be easy to read Yinguang's early-twentieth-century addition as a later devotional community claiming a text that was never really about them. Chengguan's own 8th-century commentary — read across all six parts of this guide — argues otherwise. Reaching the same closing passage, more than a millennium before Yinguang, Chengguan sets aside the ordinary fivefold scheme of karmic reward he had been using throughout his commentary and opens an entirely new section, titled in his own words "distinctly explaining the fruit of the Pure Land" (別行疏: 別明淨土果) — treating rebirth in Sukhāvatī as its own category of fruit, not one more reward among several. He even addresses, directly, the question of why an Avataṃsaka chapter would end anywhere but Vairocana's own Flower-Treasury World, and answers it (see the reading note in Part 6) by showing that Sukhāvatī was never separate from that cosmology to begin with — one node within Vairocana's own boundless world-ocean, not a rival destination outside it.
The fourth patriarch of Huayan Buddhism, in other words, had already read this chapter as ending in a Pure Land fruit, centuries before the tradition that would eventually claim it as its own fifth sūtra existed in its modern form. This guide's decision to list this chapter under both the Avataṃsaka and Pure Land groups on this site's sūtra index reflects that same double reading, not a compromise between two incompatible claims.
Key Terms
The Six Parts
The chapter's natural divisions — first the ten vows in prose, unevenly sized as their own content demands, then the entire chapter restated in thirty-eight closing verses across two parts — each with the Chinese–English text side by side and reading notes drawn from Chengguan's 8th-century commentary. Read in order, or jump to whichever part you need.
The Ten Vows Announced, and the First Four
Samantabhadra names the ten vows, then unfolds homage, praise, offering, and repentance — including the ten kinds of bowing, up to the inexhaustible homage of Indra's Net.
爾時普賢菩薩摩訶薩 至 我此懺悔無有窮盡 Part 2 · 隨喜・請轉法輪・請佛住世Rejoicing, and Two Supplications
Rejoicing in every scrap of merit in existence, then two acts of entreaty: requesting the Dharma wheel to turn, and requesting every buddha and true teacher to remain in the world.
復次言隨喜功德者 至 我此勸請無有窮盡 Part 3 · 常隨佛學・恆順眾生Following the Buddha's Learning, and According with All Beings
Vairocana's own past-life sacrifice of skin, bone, and blood for a single verse, and this chapter's longest vow — the bodhi tree rooted in every sentient being, watered by great compassion.
復次言常隨佛學者 至 我此隨順無有窮盡 Part 4 · 普皆迴向・校量功德・臨終往生The Tenth Vow, and the Fruits of This Teaching
Dedication, including the vow to bear beings' heaviest karmic suffering in their place, this teaching's own measure of its merit, and — in prose — a dying person led into Amitābha's presence.
復次言普皆迴向者 至 皆得往生阿彌陀佛極樂世界 Part 5 · 重頌十大願王（上）The Ten Vows in Verse
All ten vows restated in thirty-eight compact stanzas, from bowing before every buddha in the universe to a bodhisattva's power to compress every eon into a single thought.
所有十方世界中 至 以普賢行悟菩提 Part 6 · 重頌十大願王（下）・流通分Meeting Amitābha, and the Fruits of the Vow-King
This chapter's most famous line — beholding Amitābha face to face at the moment of death, in verse — a final measure of merit, and the sūtra's own quiet close.
一切如來有長子 至 信受奉行About the Source
The Chinese is Prajñā's translation (般若, Taishō T293), completed in 798 CE as the closing fascicle of the Forty-Fascicle Avataṃsaka, sourced here from the CBETA electronic canon (Chinese Buddhist Electronic Text Association), which collates the Taishō edition against earlier printed canons and adds modern punctuation. The English translation was made for Ru-Yi Meditation Center directly from this Chinese, without reference to any existing English translation, following the same conventions as this site's other sūtra pages.
The reading notes across all six parts draw primarily on Chengguan's (澄觀, 738–839) 大方廣佛華嚴經普賢行願品別行疏, the single most influential commentary this chapter has ever received, with occasional reference to the subcommentary added by his disciple Zongmi (宗密, 780–841), the 普賢行願品別行疏鈔. Both are sourced from the same CBETA electronic canon, and both are long in the public domain. Chengguan is traditionally counted as the fourth patriarch of the Huayan school, and Zongmi as the fifth; their joint commentary carries roughly the standing, for this chapter, that Shandao's commentary carries for the Contemplation Sūtra on this site.
The commentary is listed here as a reference consulted, not reproduced. Each "Reading note — after Chengguan" is Ru-Yi's own English synthesis of the commentary's key points, images, and distinctions for that passage — not a translation of the commentary in full. See also this site's note on translation method.
Further Reading
- Prajñā's Chinese text · Taishō T293, CBETA — the canonical edition at CBETA (Chinese Buddhist Electronic Text Association), the source text of this guide.
- 大方廣佛華嚴經普賢行願品別行疏鈔 · Chengguan and Zongmi — the 8th–9th-century commentary and subcommentary these pages' reading notes draw on, freely hosted at CBETA (public domain).
- Thomas Cleary (tr.), The Flower Ornament Scripture (Shambhala, 1993) — includes a complete scholarly English translation of this chapter as the closing fascicle of the Avataṃsaka, useful for comparison against this guide's own independent translation.
- Various devotional English translations of this chapter circulate independently under titles like "The Vows of Samantabhadra" or "The King of Vows," prepared for chanting rather than close doctrinal study — worth comparing for how differently the same ten vows read outside a commentary-guided translation.
- Yinguang (印光, 1861–1940) — the modern Pure Land patriarch whose early-20th-century decision to add this chapter to the "three Pure Land sūtras and one treatise," making the now-standard "five Pure Land sūtras," is discussed above; his correspondence and essays, where translated into English, discuss his reasoning for the addition.
Chinese sūtra source: Prajñā's translation (Taishō T293), public domain. Chinese commentary source: Chengguan's 普賢行願品別行疏 (8th–9th c.) with Zongmi's subcommentary, both public domain. English translation and reading guide written for Ru-Yi Meditation Center. See also this site's note on translation method.