Mahāyāna sūtra
The Avataṃsaka Sūtra — in full, the Great Vaipulya Sūtra of the Buddha's Flower Ornament — runs to 80 scrolls and 39 chapters. The Inti Dharma library holds all 80 scrolls in a Vietnamese translation from the Linh Sơn Pháp Bảo Đại Tạng Kinh. The index below shows which chapter each scroll belongs to, following the headings in the text, so you can find the chapter you want — such as Pure Conduct, the Ten Grounds, the Practice of Samantabhadra or Entering the Dharma Realm.
Quoted verbatim from scroll 1 in the Inti Dharma library (Vietnamese text).
Như vậy tôi nghe, một lúc Phật ở nước Ma Kiệt Đề, trong đạo tràng bồ đề, ban đầu thành Vô thượng Chánh giác. Nơi đó đất cứng chắc, bằng Kim Cang.
Read the whole sūtra →Each box is one scroll; the small line names the chapter that begins there, or the chapter it continues.
The first chapter, the Wondrous Adornments of the Rulers of the Worlds, fills five scrolls: the Buddha is in Magadha, at the seat of awakening, having just attained supreme awakening; the place is described in images of jewels, light and wondrous sound, and then kings of the gods, kings of the spirits and great bodhisattvas, each with a «door of liberation», come to praise him. The sūtra does not unfold as a continuous story but as a vast assembly moving through many places.
After the Flower-Treasury world and the Buddha Vairocana (chapters 5 and 6), the sūtra moves through assemblies on Mount Sumeru, in the Yāma heaven and in the Tuṣita heaven, each tied to a group of bodhisattva practices: the Ten Abodes (chapter 15), the Ten Practices (chapter 21), the Ten Dedications (chapter 25, across scrolls 23 to 33) and the Ten Grounds (chapter 26, scrolls 34–39). Then come the Ten Concentrations, Superknowledges and Acceptances, the Practice of Samantabhadra (scroll 49), the Appearance of the Tathāgata and Detachment from the World.
The last chapter, Entering the Dharma Realm, runs to 21 scrolls (60 to 80). From scrolls 62–63 on, the sūtra follows the pilgrimage of the youth Sudhana as he seeks out one good friend after another — householders, laywomen, night goddesses and many more — each giving him a door of liberation. This is the part many people look for when they ask about «the Sudhana chapter».
Each scroll is its own reading page; the start of each chapter notes which scrolls of the Chinese text it spans. A newcomer may begin with Pure Conduct (scroll 14) — vows tied to each ordinary act of the day — or the Practice of Samantabhadra (scroll 49) before the long chapters. The sūtra is very large: one scroll a day still takes nearly three months. The library holds the Vietnamese translation only, with no transliteration, recording or download.
The library's version has 80 scrolls and 39 chapters; the longest chapter, Entering the Dharma Realm, runs from scroll 60 to scroll 80.
In chapter 39, Entering the Dharma Realm; Sudhana's search for good friends is told from about scroll 62–63 to the end of the sūtra.
Pure Conduct (scroll 14) or the Practice of Samantabhadra (scroll 49) make a good start, being short and easy to bring into daily life; then read from scroll 1 in order.
