Removing The Sheen From Buddhism

[Husky]

Post 9/?



Since I couldn't find where Lokesh got his unterminated "direct quote" from the Avatamsaka Sutra from - in order to see what the full alleged quote was like - I went to plan B: looking up the Sutra myself. Fortunately found an English translation by someone who is sympathetic to the source - Cleary (famous translator of JP/CN language Buddhist works) - and whose translation of the Avatamsaka at least comes recommended by a famous Buddhist (Thurman). So:





- Tracked down an (illegally-downloadable) copy of Thomas Cleary's translation of ShikShananda's 7th century CE Chinese translation of Avatamsaka Sutra.

- The Avatamsaka Sutra portion of the book, as per Thurman, has 1463 pages.

- There's an additional 55 pages that are the author's intro (not available in the pirate version online).

- And then there are many closing pages: glossary, appendix etc. Also not available in the pirated version, which is stripped down to just the Avatamsaka Sutra text.



- The digital book is sadly not searchable (just images/scans of the pages, no OCR).

- Fortunately, the Googlebooks version IS searchable. And the page numbers are the same.

- So a search for Potalaka in the Googlebooks version revealed that the word occurred in 4 pages over Cleary's entire book, only the first 3 pages of which were shown. But that didn't matter, as the 3rd page was already in the glossary section, i.e. when the actual Avatamsaka Sutra is already finished, so the 4th search results page containing "Potalaka" is also past the entire Sutra.



The glossary entry is on p.1601, where Googlebooks' search result snippet for "Potalaka" shows:

"Potalaka is a mountain where many small white flowers grow; this represents the modesty and compassionate behavior of the enlightening being.

Avalokiteshvara represents living in the ocean of birth and"

The search results for the actual Avatamsaka Sutra proper:



- The 3 pages p.1274, p.1275 and p.1280 contain the only 4 occurrences of the word "Potalaka" in the entire Avatamsaka Sutra. (CORRECTED to include 1275.)

- All are in the Gandavyuha Sutra section of the Avatamsaka.



The first two occur on page 1274, which introduces Potalaka, the first of which occurs in the prose section (deemed older) and the second in the verse section (which is deemed later).

The 3rd occurrence (p.1275) says he went to Potalaka.

The 4th and final occurrence is in p. 1280 which has Sudhana farewelling Avalokiteshwara at Potalaka (and offers no description anymore) as he is sent on his way to meet the next spiritual Buddhist character, "the enlightening being Ananyagamin" who is born in the buddhaland of light, one of the many countless buddhalands mentioned in the text (and after Ananyagamin gives his sermon, he sends Sudhana on to meet the "celestial being Mahadeva in the city Dvaravati", etc - which city is not described nor is its location with respect to Potalaka explained: it is just "south" again from Potalaka, and the meaning of Dvaravati - Gateway city? - indicates it may be allegorical.



- But between pages 1274 and 1280 is the entire section first mentioning and then set in Potalaka. (The Ananyagamin section is also supposed to be in Potalaka, since he appeared in Avalokiteshwara's assembly, but there are no more descriptions of the place in that section.)





Sudhana is constantly being sent from one perfect spiritual Buddhist character living in an unidentifiable or unreal but named location to another (the names are often unique to the Sutra and all that that implies). Some backdrops are well described, like the "jewelled apartments and furnishing" of the perfect woman Vasumitra whom Sudhana meets before meeting Veshtila and thereafter meeting Avalokiteshwara. Other localities are simply mentioned by name: Veshtila and Mahadeva's cities are simply named and are "south" from wherever the previous Buddhist character was.**



E.g. Veshtila's house is said to be in the "city of Shubhaparamgama" and he's a householder. More is not said and the city is not described. Note that Buddhism often came up with city names as backdrops for the stories it wants to tell - and a web search for "Shubhaparamgama" only turns up results in the Avatamsaka Sutra, Gandavyuha section - they are not meant to be historical/geographical. (They may have allegorical meanings.) And you don't see anyone searching for Shubhaparamgama, whereas many Buddhists and Bauddhified Hindus are searching for Potalaka. Why? As mentioned before, in Asian Mahayana Buddhists' case, it is because eventually the Avalokiteshwara character - who only gets a few pages of introduction here - grew into a huge, important figure in Mahayana Buddhism. So Buddhists, hoping to find Avalokiteshwara (though not a historic being/not in a physical reality, and developed as/into clone moreover) ended up looking for his location in the physical world instead. But why Bauddhified Hindus should obsess over Potalaka is another question entirely.



** BTW: The fact that the Sutra eventually shows Sudhana journeying in a cycle and returning back to his point of origin (<- which was also mentioned in wackypedia) - obviously indicating a spiritual journey - may moreover refer to a practice, assuming the text is mirroring the reasonings such motifs are used in older Hindu literature: patterned sequential movement tend to represent yoga/tantra in Hindu literature. And even reveal true, complete forms of contained mantras. E.g. in Valmeeki Ramayanam's Sundara Kandam, Hanuman sequentially meeting with various beings is supposed to be Kundalini Yoga, passing through the rudragranthi and the other ones etc. There is also eventual cyclical return there. But then, many early Buddhists - including Mahayana - and especially composers of Buddhist Sutras were ex-brahmanas, after all, and tended to still use peculiarly-Hindu methods and styles of imparting meditation and even tried to transfer Hindu tantra practices into Buddhism.





Actually, found a searchable version of Cleary's Gandavyuha chapter - relevant, since it's the only chapter mentioning Potalaka in all of the Avatamsaka Sutra.



archive.org/stream/AmitabhaSutra/Ganduvyaha%20Sutra_djvu.txt



Excerpting from sections on a couple of characters that Sudhana visits both before and after Avalokiteshwara, so that it becomes apparent to anyone (who is not self-delusional) that the text is a spiritual journey and that there is no more need to physically locate one character's locality than the next, since they're not historical.

Note that this Buddhist text is written adopting a style seen in some Hindu meditative texts/sections of Puranas, which also describe the spiritual cities or abode of various Gods in their paraloka and their narratives. They also have protagonist characters meeting one God of Hindoo cosmology or learned Hindoo after another, before culminating in an encounter with the primary deity whom they are seeking (e.g. IIRC, Shrimad Bhagavatam). Alternatively they describe the spiritual exploits of the Hindoo Gods also meant for meditation upon (e.g. IIRC DeviMahatmyam). Etc. The Mahayana Buddhist text uses "countless Buddhas in countless Buddhalokas" - i.e. Buddhist cosmology - as a substitute for where Hindu texts were using the countless Gods in their many lokas etc.

Those who knew the excellence of the virtues of Vasumitra, however, and

who were aware of the scope of her knowledge, said, "Good, good! You have

really made gain if you ask about Vasumitra. You surely seek buddhahood;

you surely want to make yourself a refuge for all sentient beings; you surely

want to extract the barbs of passion from all sentient beings; you surely -want

to transform the notion of purity. Vasumitra is in her house, north of the

town square."



Hearing this, Sudhana was delighted. He went to Vasumitra's house and

saw that it was surrounded by tenjewel walls, ten circles of jewel trees, and

ten moats filled with fragrant water covered by celestial jewel lotuses of

various colors, with gold sand spread on the bottom, the rippling waters

producing an intoxicating fragrance, the banks adorned by many jewels.

The house had well-arranged apartments and towers made of all kinds of

precious substances; [... etc etc] The house had diamond beams made from the limbs of

gigantic brilliant jewel trees, and it was an inexhaustible treasury of hun-

dreds and thousands of riches in full view; it was also adorned with ten

large gardens set around it.



(Look, "10 large gardens" - amidst the countless jewel descriptions - therefore it is actual geography! Need to locate Vasumitra's house in someone's patch next...)



[...]



There he saw Vasumitra, who was beautiful, with golden skin and black

hair, her limbs and body well proportioned, more beautiful in form than all

celestial and human beings in the realm of desire, her voice finer even than

that of the god Brahma. She knew the language of all beings; she had a pleas-

ant voice that could pronounce any sound, and was skilled in freedom of

phonetic organization. She was well versed in all arts and sciences, she had

learned to use the magic of true knowledge, and she had mastered all aspects

of the expedient means of enlightening beings. Her beautiful body was dec-

orated with assortedjewelry, draped with a radiant mesh made of all kinds of

precious substances, shining with an array of countless celestial jewel orna-

ments. She wore a tiara of large wish-fulfilling gems, her waist was adorned

with diamonds, and she had a lapis lazuli necklace on. She had a large,

attractive retinue, all with the same virtues, the same practice, and the same

vow. She was an inexhaustible treasury of goodness and knowledge. He also

saw the whole house, with all its jeweled apartments and furnishings lit up

by the lovely, refreshing, pleasant, blissful, enrapturing light that emanated

from her body.



[She mentions spiritual Buddhist stuff - that Buddhists are meant to read and which visions will help them progress in their Buddhism.

Then onto the next visit:]



"I know this enlightening liberation of ultimate dispassion, but how can I

know the practice or tell the virtues of the enlightening beings who are

endowed with the skill of endless means and knowledge, who are vast, inex-

haustible treasuries of good, who are in the realm of invincible knowledge?



"South of here is a city called Shubhaparamgama, where a householder

named Veshthila is presenting offerings to the shrine of the buddha Sandal-

wood Throne. Go ask him how to learn and carry out the practice of

enlightening beings."



So Sudhana paid his respects to Vasumitra and left.



Veshthila



Then Sudhana went to Veshthila's house in the city of Shubhaparamgama.

Paying his respects to the householder, he said, "Noble one, I have set my

mind on supreme perfect enlightenment, but I do not know how to learn

and carry out the practice of enlightening beings. I hear that you give

enlightening beings instruction; please tell me how to learn and carry out

the practice of enlightening beings."



Veshthila said, "I have attained an enlightening liberation called 'not ulti-

mately exhausted.' To my way of thinking, no buddha in any world ever has,

does, or will become finally extinct, except as a docetic device. When I

opened the door of the shrine of the buddha Sandalwood Throne, I attained

an enlightening concentration called 'manifestation of the endless lineage

of buddhas.' I enter this concentration in each mental moment, and every

moment understand many kinds of excellence."



Sudhana asked, "What is the sphere of this concentration?"

Veshthila replied, "When I am in this concentration, all the successive

buddhas of this world-system — beginning with Kashyapa, Kanakamuni,

Krakucchanda, Vishvabhuj, Shikhin, Vipashyin, Tishya, Pushya,

Yashottara, and Padmottara — appear to me. In the continuity of vision of

buddhas, by the continuity of the succession of buddhas, in one mental

moment I see a hundred buddhas; in the next moment of awareness I find a

thousand buddhas, then a hundred thousand buddhas, a million buddhas, a

hundred million, a billion, a trillion, a quadrillion, a quintillion; I immedi-

ately become aware of the succession of appearance of untold numbers of

buddhas, of as many buddhas as atoms in the continent, as many as atoms in

untold buddha-lands. I also comprehend the order of preparations of those

buddhas' initial aspiration, their spiritual transformation on achieving the

aspiration for enlightenment, the purity of execution of their various vows,

their purification of action, their fulfillment of the transcendent ways, their

attainment of all the stages of enlightening beings, their perfection of

attainment of tolerance, their conquering of demons, the supernal manifes-

tation of their spiritual transfiguration on becoming perfectly enlightened,

the variety of purity of their buddha-lands, the variety of their development

of sentient beings, the variety of their audiences, the variety of their auras of

light, the majesty of their teaching activities, and their accomplishment of

the miracles of buddhas.



[... etc etc. Veshthila describes simultaneously seeing the past present and future with Buddhas everywhere.

Can compare with Hindu texts on the same minus the multiple Buddhas. Can also compare it with Hindu texts like the Gita, where the Hindoo God (Krishna) was already described as manifest in all directions, everywhere, in his countless manifestations; and which explained that divya chaksus makes this visible. [The divya chakshus of Hindu religion was another thing that Buddhism would in time encroach on.]



Anyway, Veshthila - after continuing on his visions of multiple Buddhas everywhere at all times but all in the current moment - eventually sends Sudhana on his way too. This time to Avalokiteshwara in Potalaka:]



"I know this enlightening liberation of ultimate nonextinction; how can I

know the practice or tell of the virtues of the enlightening beings who have

attained instantaneous knowledge of past, present, and future, who dwell in

all concentrations in the space of an instant [...]



"South of here is a mountain called Potalaka, where an enlightening

being named Avalokiteshvara lives. Go ask him how to learn and carry out

the practice of enlightening beings."



Then Veshthila said in verse,



Go, Sudhana, to Mount Potalaka in the ocean, a pure abode of the valiant,



Made of jewels, covered with trees, scattered with flowers, complete

with gardens, ponds, and streams.



On the mountain the steady, wise Avalokiteshvara dwells for the bene-

fit of the world.



Go ask him the virtues of the Guides — he will teach you great, won-

derful means of attainment.



So Sudhana paid his respects to Veshthila and went on.



Avalokiteshvara



Reflecting on the teaching of Veshthila, entering the treasury of zealous

application of enlightening beings, remembering the power of

mindfulness of enlightening beings, remembering the power of the suc-

cession of enlightened guides, realizing the unbroken continuity of

buddhas, remembering the progression of the hearing of the names of bud-

dhas, following the principles of the teachings of the buddhas, entering

into the array of collective practice of the buddha-teachings, intent on the

the exclamation made by buddhas on becoming perfectly enlightened,

focusing his attention on the inconceivable action of buddhas, Sudhana

made his way to Mount Potalaka.



Climbing the mountain, he looked around for Avalokiteshvara and saw

him on a plateau on the west side of the mountain, which was adorned with

springs, ponds, and streams, sitting wakefully on a diamond boulder in a

clearing in a large woods, surrounded by a group of enlightening beings

seated on various jewel rocks, to whom he was expounding a doctrine called

"light of the medium of great love and compassion," which concerns the

salvation of all sentient beings.



Transported with joy on seeing Avalokiteshvara, his eyes fixed on him,

his mind undistracted, full of the energy of faith in the spiritual benefactor,

thinking of seeing spiritual benefactors as at once seeing buddhas, thinking

of reception of the multitudes of all truths as originating in spiritual bene-

factors, thinking of the attainment of all virtues as deriving from spiritual

benefactors, thinking of how hard it is to meet spiritual benefactors, think-

ing of spiritual benefactors as the source from which the jewels of

knowledge of the ten powers are obtained, thinking of spiritual benefactors

as the source of vision of inexhaustible knowledge, thinking that the growth

of the sprouts of goodness depends on spiritual benefactors, thinking that

the door of omniscience is revealed by spiritual benefactors, thinking that

the way to enter the ocean of great knowledge is pointed out by spiritual

benefactors, thinking that the accumulation of the store of omniscience is

fostered by spiritual benefactors, Sudhana went up to Avalokiteshvara.



The enlightening being Avalokiteshvara, seeing Sudhana approaching in

the distance, said, "Welcome, you who have set out on the incomparable,

lofty, inconceivable Great Vehicle, intending to save all beings who are

oppressed by various firmly rooted miseries and have no refuge, seeking to

directly experience all the teachings of buddhas, which are beyond all



[... No more descriptions of Potalaka until the verse section, which starts by retreading Sudhana's visit to Avalokiteshwara from the beginning, before Avalokiteshwara then speaks again, in verse this time:]



Then this was said:



Having respectfully rendered honor and praise,

Sudhana, well controlled, went south.

On a cliff of a mountain he saw Avalokiteshvara,

the seer who abides in compassion.



On a diamond slope, adorned with jewels,

Sitting on a lion seat in a lotus calyx, the Steadfast,

Surrounded by various creatures and enlightening beings,

Expounds the Teaching to them.



[...]



[... Avalokiteshwara says positive things about the nature of a Bodhisattva and how compassion is the source for this. And then proceeds to explain his compassion.

C.f. on how Hindu Gods are said to be Karunanidhi - storehouse/abode of compassion.

Interesting is that Avalokiteshwara says that anyone who says his name will be freed from all harms - which harms he lists, it's the usual kind listed in Hindu stotras too - and all this is clearly modelled on the Hindu Gods: who had already promised freedom from all such troubles too when one says their name or just thinks of them.]



At that moment an enlightening being named Ananyagamin descended

from the eastern sky and stood on the top of the mountain range surround-

ing this world. As soon as he set foot on the mountain, the whole world

quaked and appeared to be made of jewels. The body of that enlightening

being gave off such a light that the sun and moon were overwhelmed, [...]



Then Avalokiteshvara said to Sudhana, "Do you see the enlightening

being Ananyagamin in this assembly?"



Sudhana said, "Yes."



Avalokiteshvara said, "Go to Ananyagamin and ask him how to learn and

carry out the practice of enlightening beings."



So then Sudhana paid his respects to Avalokiteshvara and went.



Ananyagamin



Then Sudhana, with Avalokiteshvara's verse of knowledge in mind, had

not seen enough of Avalokiteshvara but obeyed his words and went to the

enlightening being Ananyagamin. Paying his respects, Sudhana said,

"Noble one, I have set my mind on supreme perfect enlightenment, but I

do not know how to learn and carry out the practice of enlightening

beings. I hear you give enlightening beings instruction, so please tell me

how an enlightening being is to learn and carry out the practice of enlight-

ening beings."



[...]



Ananyagamin said, "I have attained an enlightening liberation 'speeding

forth in all directions.'"



Sudhana asked, "What buddha did you learn it from? How far away is that

buddha's world, and when did you leave that world?"



Ananyagamin said, "This point is hard for celestial, human, and titanic

beings, for monks and priests, to know, being the power of an enlightening

being, the unregressing energy of an enlightening being, the accomplish-

ment of the energy of an enlightening being. It cannot be heard or retained

or believed in or comprehended by those who are not under the tutelage of

spiritual benefactors, who are not under the attention of buddhas, who have

no accumulated roots of goodness, who have not purified their intentions,

who have not attained the faculties of enlightening beings, who do not have

the eye of wisdom."



Sudhana said, "Please tell me, noble one — I will believe, I will have faith,

by the empowerment of buddhas and the assistance of spiritual benefactors."



Ananyagamin said, "I come from the buddha-land of a buddha named

Born of Universal Lightan a world to the east called Full of Light. I attained

the enlightening liberation 'speeding forth in all directions' at the feet of

that buddha.



[...]



"South of here is a city called Dvaravati, where the celestial Mahadeva

lives. Go ask him how to learn and carry out the practice of enlightening

beings."



So Sudhana paid his respects to the enlightening being Ananyagamin and

went on.



Mahadeva



[...] Sudhana went to the city of

Dvaravati and asked for Mahadeva.



The people of the city told Sudhana, "This Mahadeva is in a temple at a

crossroads in the city expounding the Teaching in a giant body." Sudhana

then went to Mahadeva, paid his respects, and said, "Noble one, I have set

my mind on supreme perfect enlightenment, but I do not know how to

learn and carry out the practice of enlightening beings. I hear that you give

enlightening beings instruction, and wish you would tell me how to learn

and carry out the practice of enlightening beings."



Then the celestial Mahadeva extended four hands in four directions,

brought water from the oceans with extreme speed and washed his face; he

scattered golden flowers over Sudhana and said, "Enlightening beings are

hard to get to see, extremely hard to get to hear. They rarely appear in the

world, being so exalted. They are supreme lotuses of humanity, saviors of



[...]

Sudhana asked, "What is the sphere of this 'cloud net' liberation?"



At that moment the celestial Mahadeva manifested a heap of gold the size

of a mountain before Sudhana, as well as a heap of silver, a heap of lapis laz-

uli, a heap of crystals, a heap of coral, a heap of emeralds, a heap of starry

jewels, a heap of clear jewels, a heap of radiant jewels, a heap of jewels with

facets facing in all directions,

[... etc]



"South of here, at the site of enlightenment in the region of Magadha in

Jambudvipa, lives an earth goddess named Sthavara. Go ask her how to learn

and carry out the practice of enlightening beings."



So then Sudhana paid his respects to Mahadeva and went on.



Sthavara



Then Sudhana went to the earth goddess Sthavara at the site of enlighten-

ment in Magadha.

Which Magadha is that supposed to be then?



- if Jambudvipa in the above means India, then isn't Sudhana already supposed to be in India? (Since some Buddhist writers - mainly non-Indian - were under the impression the journey took place in India.) That is, why should Sudhana be told to go "south of here to Magadha in Jambudvipa" if he was already in Jambudvipa India? The previous waystation, Dvaravati, was already south of Potalaka which was already south of Sudhana's previous stopover point, etc. If this Sutra's Magadha is finally in Jambudvipa-as-India, then those previous places Sudhana had visited immediately before that were not in India. Meaning: Potalaka and Dvaravati etc were therefore not in India.



- The other meaning of Jambudvipa in Buddhism is the realm where humans reside. So Sudhana's travelling constantly south in this stretch from Veshthila's place to Potalaka to Dvaravati to come to the human realm Jambudvipa, which was then south of wherever (and whatever realm) he was in at the point he got told to visit some place "Magadha" in Jambudvipa. In other words, if Magadha is finally in Jambudvipa/human realm, then all the places Sudhana visited before Magadha were not in the human realm. Once again pointing out that Potalaka wasn't in India (or the world, the avg human-inhabited physical/earthly plane or whatever). In other words, the Avatamsaka is clearly a spiritual text with a spiritual backdrop.





See here: wacky's Jambudvipa page's Buddhism section mentions that in Buddhist cosmology "Jambudvipa is the southernmost island" and "Jambudvīpa is the region where the humans live" and that the other 3 island-continents surrounding KAmadhAtu's Meru "are not accessible to humans from Jambudvīpa" (the 4th continent).



en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jambudvipa

Jambudvīpa (Sanskrit: जम्बुद्वीप) is the dvipa ("island" or "continent") of the terrestrial world, as envisioned in the cosmologies of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, which is the realm where ordinary human beings live.



[...]



In Buddhism

The Buddhist cosmology divides the bhūmaṇḍala (circle of the earth) into three separate levels: Kāmadhātu (Desire realm), Rūpadhātu (Form realm), and Ārūpyadhātu (Formless realm). In the Kāmadhātu is located Mount Sumeru which is said to be surrounded by four island-continents. "The southernmost island is called Jambudvīpa". The other three continents of Buddhist accounts around Sumeru are not accessible to humans from Jambudvīpa. Jambudvīpa is shaped like a triangle with a blunted point facing south. In its center is a gigantic Jambu tree from which the continent takes its name, meaning "Jambu Island".



Jambudvīpa is the region where the humans live and is the only place where a being may become enlightened by being born as a human being. It is in Jambudvīpa that one may receive the gift of Dharma and come to understand the Four Noble Truths, the Noble Eightfold Path and ultimately realize the liberation from the cycle of life and death. Another reference is from the Buddhist text Mahavamsa, where the emperor Ashoka's son Mahinda introduces himself to the Sri Lankan king Devanampiyatissa as from Jambudvipa, referring to what is now the Indian subcontinent.

Again:



- Either Jambudvipa means India and Sudhana had travelled south from some non-Indic place (where Potalaka and Dvaravati were) to reach India the Jambudvipa,

- OR Jambudvipa means the human realm, so Sudhana had travelled south from the non-human island continents in kAmadhAtu (where the previous stopover points like Potalaka and Dvaravati etc were) to then reach Jambudvipa, the southernmost continent - in Buddhist cosmology the realm where humans live - in order for Sudhana to arrive at Magadha to meet the next Buddhist spiritual character.



Either way, that would make Potalaka NOT in south India (Kerala or Tamilnadu) and not anywhere in India either.