Avatamsaka Sutra

Avatamsaka Sutra (Skt. Avataṃsakasūtra; Tib. མདོ་ཕལ་པོ་ཆེ་, do palpo ché, Wyl. mdo phal po che) or Buddhavatamsaka Sutra (Skt. Buddhāvataṃsaka-sūtra), 'The Sutra of the Ornament of the Buddhas' — one of the most important (and largest) of all Mahayana sutras. It includes the Sutra of the Ten Bhumis and the Gandavyuha Sutra, which in turn includes Samantabhadra's Aspiration to Good Actions.

Tibetan Text

The Tibetan version in 45 chapters forms a whole section (named Ornaments of the Buddhas section) of the Sutra section of the Kangyur and spans four volumes.

The text was translated in Tibetan in the 9th century by Surendra and Vairocana Rakṣita.

• Ornaments of the Buddhas section, Toh 44, འཕགས་པ་སངས་རྒྱས་ཕལ་པོ་ཆེ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཤིན་ཏུ་རྒྱས་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།, Derge Kangyur, Volumes 35, 36, 37 & 38

English Translation

• The Flower Ornament Scripture, translated (from Chinese) by Thomas Cleary (Boston & London: Shambhala, 1987, 1993)

Quotation

ལྔ་བརྒྱ་ཐ་མར་གྱུར་པ་ན། །

ང་ཉིད་ཡི་གེའི་གཟུགས་སུ་གནས། །
ང་ཡིན་སྙམ་དུ་ཡིད་བྱོས་ལ། །

དེ་ཚེ་དེ་ལ་གུས་པར་གྱིས། །

In the last five hundred year period,
I will appear in the form of scriptures.
Consider them as identical to me,
And treat them with due respect.

Buddha Shakyamuni, Avatamsaka Sutra

Internal Links

• Sutra of Completely Pure Conduct

External Links

• The Sūtra of the Ornament of the Buddhas
• Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche teaching on the Avatamsaka Sutra