Introduction by the English translator of this prayer, Jesse Fenton:
"Thus have I heard. At one time the Bhagavan was at Sravasti in the Jeta grove, in the Anathapindada garden within a magnificent estate. He was with Samantabhadra, Manjushri and five thousand other bodhisattvas who had all undertaken the bodhisattva practice and aspirations of all-embracing good, Samantabhadra."
There, at Sravasti, begins the Gandavyuha Sutra, whose final pages are the "Extraordinary Aspiration of the Practice of Samantabhadra." Originally written in Sanskrit, the sutra was translated into Chinese beginning in the second century c.e. and into Tibetan toward the end of the first millennium. Virtually all Mahayana schools revere this sutra. In China, the Hwa Yen school of Buddhism was almost entirely devoted to the study of the Avatamsaka Sutra, of which the Gandavyuha Sutra is the last chapter.
The Sutra tells the story of the young pilgrim, Sudhana, and describes the process of an individual's development of wisdom and skillful means through Sudhana's experience of fifty-two spiritual guides. Sudhana sets out on his quest to learn the ways of a bodhisattva under the guidance of Manjushri, who had himself come from the presence of the Buddha at Sravasti. At the very end of Sudhana's journey to receive teachings from these diverse teachers, Samantabhadra addresses the "Extraordinary Aspiration" to Sudhana as his culminating advice.
During his journey, Sudhana visits a succession of spiritual guides who teach by describing their own practice of the bodhisattva path and the methods they use to guide sentient beings. Each teacher sends Sudhana onward to another teacher until Sudhana meets Samantabhadra, the quintessential bodhisattva. In a magnificent vision, Sudhana sees the body of Samantabhadra from which radiate visions of all worlds throughout the universe in every eon past, present and future. He sees the birth and destruction of world systems throughout time, all the beings of those worlds and all the activities of bodhisattvas within those worlds.
Joyful and ecstatic, Sudhana looks still more closely with the increased clarity of the bliss of seeing reality, and sees within each and every pore of Samantabhadra's body infinite Buddha lands occupied by infinite Buddhas teaching and guiding beings. In the midst of this vision, Sudhana becomes equal to Samantabhadra in all aspects of a bodhisattva's wisdom, compassion and activity. Having removed all limiting projections and conceptions, Sudhana himself pervades the universe to benefit beings. Samantabhadra then recites the "Extraordinary Aspiration" summarizing all the practices and views of a bodhisattva, the teachings of these fifty-two teachers.
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