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Mahāyāna — Northern Canon · Kangyur — General Sūtras

Toh 44-38“The Dwellings of Bodhisattvas,” Chapter 38 of the Extensive Sūtra “The Ornaments of the Buddhas”

Pāli / Sanskrit:Bodhisattva­samāvāsa

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Summary

Summary The Dwellings of Bodhisattvas is the thirty-eighth of the forty-five chapters in The Ornaments of the Buddhas . As the title indicates, the focus of this chapter is the locations of bodhisattvas. It enumerates twenty-three dwelling places, giving the names of the bodhisattvas who reside in the first nine while omitting the names of those who reside in the remaining fourteen.

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Full translation (English)

Summary

The Dwellings of
Bodhisattvas is the thirty-eighth of the
forty-five chapters in The Ornaments of
the Buddhas. As the title indicates, the
focus of this chapter is the locations of bodhisattvas. It
enumerates twenty-three dwelling places, giving the names of
the bodhisattvas who reside in the first nine while omitting
the names of those who reside in the remaining fourteen.

Acknowledgements

This sūtra was translated by Thupten Tashi and edited by
the 84000 editorial team.

The translation was completed under the patronage and
supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the
Buddha.

The translation of this text has been made possible
through the generous sponsorship of Thirty and Twenty.

Introduction

The Dwellings ofBodhisattvas is the thirty-eighth of theforty-five chapters in TheOrnaments of the Buddhas. This chaptercontinues The Ornaments of theBuddhas’ series of dialogues that takeplace in Magadha not long after the Buddha’sawakening. It enumerates twenty-three dwellingplaces of bodhisattvas, giving the names of thebodhisattvas who reside in the first nine whileomitting the names of those who reside in theremaining fourteen. Throughout The Ornaments of the Buddhas, the BuddhaŚākyamuni remains silent, and it is through hisblessings that other prominent bodhisattvas offerthese teachings. The Dwellingsof Bodhisattvas and the two precedingchapters are taught by a bodhisattva named King ofMind.

In The Ornaments of the
Buddhas, we find that the Buddha Śākyamuni
who lived in our world is just one of countless
manifestations of the Buddha Vairocana. Śākyamuni is
even referred to as the Buddha Vairocana. Śākyamuni
is simultaneously present in various locations in
our universe—at the Bodhi tree, in the Trāyastriṃśa
paradise of Śakra on the summit of Sumeru, in the
Yāma and Tuṣita paradises high above Sumeru, and in
the highest paradise in the realm of desire, the
Paranirmitavaśavartin paradise. Not only is he said
to be simultaneously present in all these locations
in our own world system, he is also said to be
simultaneously present in countless other worlds.

This proliferation of locations connected withthe Buddha and his teachings allowed for Buddhistholy sites beyond India to assume greatersignificance. Notably, along with sites in northernIndia listed in this chapter we also find siteslocated in China, Kashmir, Gandhara, and Khaśa, hereused as another name for the Central Asiancity-state of Khotan that flourished during thefirst millennium ce. Aswith other canonical works that feature Khotan,including The Prophecy on MountGośṛṅga (Toh 357) and TheQuintessence of the Sun (Toh 257), this reflects the importance ofKhotan in the spread of Buddhism. It is notable thatthere are significant parallels between the sacredsites listed here in TheDwellings of Bodhisattvas and those foundin the final chapter of TheQuintessence of the Sun.

The Dwellings of
Bodhisattvas is found in the second of the
four volumes of The Ornaments
of the Buddhas in the Degé Kangyur. There
is no colophon specific to this chapter, but the
colophon to the entire Ornaments of the Buddhas in the Degé
Kangyur states that it was translated by the Tibetan
master-translator Yeshé Dé, together with Jinamitra
and Surendrabodhi, indicating a translation made
under Tibetan imperial sponsorship in the late
eighth or early ninth century. This dating is
confirmed by the fact that it is listed in both the
Denkarma (Tib. ldan dkar ma) and
Phangthangma (Tib. ’phang thang ma) imperial
catalogs. The colophons of the Narthang, Lhasa, Stok
Palace, Ulaanbaatar, and Phukdrak Kangyurs, however,
ascribe the translation to Vairotsana, while the
catalog (Tib. dkar chag) of the Degé Kangyur mentions
the three translators as above, but adds that Lochen
Vairotsana acted as the editor.

The Dwellings ofBodhisattvas is unavailable in Sanskrit,but is preserved in Chinese and Tibetan translation.A complete English translation of The Ornaments of the Buddhashas been published by Thomas Cleary based onŚikṣānanda’s Chinese version, with the English titleThe Flower OrnamentScripture.
This, to our knowledge, is the first Englishtranslation from Tibetan. It was made from theTibetan text in the Degé Kangyur, in consultationwith the versions found in the Stok Palace Kangyur,the Lhasa Kangyur, and the Comparative Edition(dpe bsdurma).

The Translation

Chapter on the Dwellings of

Bodhisattvas

Then the
bodhisattva King of Mind spoke again to those
bodhisattvas, “O children of the Victorious One! In
the east, there is a mountain called Appearance of a
Sage, where bodhisattvas in the past have resided.
In this dwelling place a bodhisattva called Vajraśrī
teaches Dharma surrounded by a retinue of three
hundred bodhisattvas.

“O children of the Victorious One! In the south,
there is a mountain called Heap of Glory, where
bodhisattvas in the past have resided. In this dwelling
place a bodhisattva called Dharmamati teaches Dharma
surrounded by a retinue of five hundred
bodhisattvas.

“O children of the Victorious One! In the west,there is a mountain called Possessed of VajraRadiance, where bodhisattvas in the past haveresided. In this dwelling place a bodhisattva calledWalks with the Gait of a Lion teaches Dharmasurrounded by a retinue of three hundredbodhisattvas.

“O children of the Victorious One! In the north,
there is a mountain called Heap of Incense, where
bodhisattvas in the past have resided. In this
dwelling place a bodhisattva called Gandhahastin
teaches Dharma surrounded by a retinue of three
thousand bodhisattvas.

“O children of the Victorious One! In the east,there is a mountain called Mountain of Meadows, where bodhisattvas in thepast have resided. In this dwelling place abodhisattva called Mañjuśrī teaches Dharmasurrounded by a retinue of ten thousandbodhisattvas.

“O children of the Victorious One! In the
northeastern direction, there is a mountain called
Vajra Mountain, Site of Four Great Oceans, where
bodhisattvas in the past have resided. In this
dwelling place a bodhisattva called Dharmodgata
teaches Dharma surrounded by a retinue of twelve
hundred bodhisattvas.

“O children of the Victorious One! In the
southeastern direction, there is a mountain called
Stūpa, where bodhisattvas in the past have resided.
In this dwelling place a bodhisattva called Divine
Aggregates teaches Dharma surrounded by a retinue of
one thousand bodhisattvas.

“O children of the Victorious One! In the
southwestern direction, there is a mountain called
Jyotiṣprabha, where bodhisattvas in the past have
resided. In this dwelling place a bodhisattva called
Bhadraśrī teaches Dharma surrounded by a retinue
of three thousand bodhisattvas.

“O children of the Victorious One! In the
northwestern direction, there is a mountain called
Gandhamādana, where bodhisattvas in the past have
resided. In this dwelling place a bodhisattva called
Radiating Luminous Incense teaches Dharma surrounded
by a retinue of five thousand bodhisattvas.

“O children of the Victorious One! In the greatocean, there is a place called Good Cave, wherebodhisattvas in the past have resided.
“O children of the Victorious One! To the southof Vaiśālī, there is a place called Stable Roots,where bodhisattvas in the past have resided.
“In a land called Pāṭaliputra, there is a placecalled Golden Park of the Saṅgha, where bodhisattvasin the past have resided.

“In a land called Mathurā, there is a place called
Satisfying Cave, where bodhisattvas in the past have
resided.

“In a land called Relinquishing the Vase, thereis a place called Dharma Seat, where bodhisattvas inthe past have resided.
“In a land called Perfect Virtue, there is aplace called Mucilinda Cave, where bodhisattvas inthe past have resided.
“In a land called Vatsa, there is a place,established by nāgas, called Añcala, wherebodhisattvas in the past have resided.
“In a land called Kamboja, there is a placecalled Exalted by Love, where bodhisattvas in thepast have resided.

“In a land called China, there is a place called
Nārāyaṇa Cave, where bodhisattvas in the past
have resided.

“In a land called Khaśa, there is a mountaincalled Gośṛṇga, where bodhisattvas in the past haveresided.
“In a land called Kashmir, there is a placecalled Sudarśaka, where bodhisattvas in the pasthave resided.
“In a land called Increasing Joy, there is aplace called Sthavira Cave, where bodhisattvas inthe past have resided.
“In a land called Jalandhar, there is a placecalled Teaching with Hands Folded, wherebodhisattvas in the past have resided.
“In the vicinity of the land called Gandhara,there is a place called Cave of Provisions, wherebodhisattvas in the past have resided.”
This concludes “TheDwellings of Bodhisattvas,” thethirty-eighth chapter of the extensive sūtra,“The Ornaments of theBuddhas.”

Notes

Bibliography

Tibetan

Chinese

Western Languages

Victorious Onejinargyal baརྒྱལ་བ།
children of the Victorious Onejinaputrargyal ba’i srasརྒྱལ་བའི་སྲས།
King of Mindcittarājasems kyi rgyal poསེམས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ།
Vajraśrīvajraśrīrdo rje dpalརྡོ་རྗེ་དཔལ།
Dharmamatidharmamatichos kyi blo grosཆོས་ཀྱི་བློ་གྲོས།

Walks with the Gait of a Lion

seng ge’i ’gros su ’gro ba
སེང་གེའི་འགྲོས་སུ་འགྲོ་བ།

Gandhahastingandhahastinspos kyi glang poསྤོས་ཀྱི་གླང་པོ།
Mañjuśrīmañjuśrī’jam dpalའཇམ་དཔལ།
Dharmodgatadharmodgatachos kyi ’phags paཆོས་ཀྱི་འཕགས་པ།

Divine Aggregates

lha’i phung po
ལྷའི་ཕུང་པོ།

Bhadraśrībhadraśrībzang po’i dpalབཟང་པོའི་དཔལ།

Radiating Luminous Incense

spos kyi ’od zer rab tu ’gyed pa
སྤོས་ཀྱི་འོད་ཟེར་རབ་ཏུ་འགྱེད་པ།

Appearance of a Sage

drang srong ’byung ba
དྲང་སྲོང་འབྱུང་བ།

Heap of Glory

dpal gyi phung po
དཔལ་གྱི་ཕུང་པོ།

Heap of Incense

spos kyi phung po
སྤོས་ཀྱི་ཕུང་པོ།

Mountain of Meadows

spang ri
སྤང་རི།

Vajra Mountain, Site of Four Great Oceans

rgya mtsho chen po bzhi’i gnas rdo rje’i ri
རྒྱ་མཚོ་ཆེན་པོ་བཞིའི་གནས་རྡོ་རྗེའི་རི།

Stūpastūpamchod rtenམཆོད་རྟེན།
Jyotiṣprabhajyotiṣprabhari skar ma’i ’odརི་སྐར་མའི་འོད།
Gandhamādanagandhamādanaspos kyi ngad canསྤོས་ཀྱི་ངད་ཅན།

Possessed of Vajra Radiance

rdo rje’i ’od ’phro ba can
རྡོ་རྗེའི་འོད་འཕྲོ་བ་ཅན།

Good Cave

phug bzang po
ཕུག་བཟང་པོ།

Vaiśālīvaiśālīviśālashin tu yangs paཤིན་ཏུ་ཡངས་པ།

Stable Roots

rtsa ba shin tu brtan pa
རྩ་བ་ཤིན་ཏུ་བརྟན་པ།

Pāṭaliputrapāṭaliputrapa ta la’i buཔ་ཏ་ལའི་བུ།

Golden Park of the Saṅgha

dge ’dun gyi kun dga’ ra ba gser
དགེ་འདུན་གྱི་ཀུན་དགའ་ར་བ་གསེར།

Mathurāmathurāma dur naམ་དུར་ན།

Satisfying Cave

tshim par byed pa’i phug
ཚིམ་པར་བྱེད་པའི་ཕུག

Relinquishing the Vase

ril ba gtong ba
རིལ་བ་གཏོང་བ།

Dharma Seat

chos kyi stan
ཆོས་ཀྱི་སྟན།

Perfect Virtue

dge ba’i phul du phyin pa
དགེ་བའི་ཕུལ་དུ་ཕྱིན་པ།

Mucilinda Cave

btang bzung gi phug
བཏང་བཟུང་གི་ཕུག

Vatsavatsabe’uབེའུ།
Añcalaañcalathu baཐུ་བ།
Kambojakambojakam po tsaཀམ་པོ་ཙ།

Exalted by Love

byams pas ’phags pa
བྱམས་པས་འཕགས་པ།

Chinacīnargya baརྒྱ་བ།

Nārāyaṇa Cave

mthu bo’i che phug pa
མཐུ་བོའི་ཆེ་ཕུག་པ།

Khaśakhaśakhasakha shaཁ་ཤ།
Gośṛṇgagośṛṇgaba lang gi mgo boབ་ལང་གི་མགོ་བོ།
Kashmirkaśmīrakāśmīrakha cheཁ་ཆེ།
Sudarśakasudarśakashin tu ston paཤིན་ཏུ་སྟོན་པ།

Increasing Joy

dga’ ba ’phel ba
དགའ་བ་འཕེལ་བ།

Sthavira Cave

gnas brtan gyi phug
གནས་བརྟན་གྱི་ཕུག

Jalandharjaladharachu ’dzinཆུ་འཛིན།

Teaching with Hands Folded

khyor po ston pa
ཁྱོར་པོ་སྟོན་པ།

Gandharagāndhārasa ’dzinས་འཛིན།

Cave of Provisions

brgyags kyi phug
བརྒྱགས་ཀྱི་ཕུག

Translation source: Interpreted by AILicense: CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 (84000.co) · VI: bản dịch AI, chờ đối chiếu · VI removed 2026-08-27 to honour the ND (no-derivatives) term

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