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By far the most important Sutra associated with the studies of Huayen Buddhism is the Avatamsaka Sutra.

PREAMBLE TO THE AVATAMSAKA SUTRA

The Avatamsaka Sutra spoken by Vairocana Buddha describes the state of Enlightenment of the historical Gautama Buddha and forms the basis of the metaphysics of interpenetration and mutual containment of all phenomena in the universe. Avatamsaka Sutra Chapter 1 Book 1.1 Preambe, one of the basic Huayen Buddhist liturgical songs, is sung in Mandarin by Ven. Sakya Longyen of Great Flower Garland Monastery. This Preamble especially is sung in the morning service at the Great Flower Garland Monastery to remember guru's and the devotees' unyielding will towards liberation from sansara.

According to Buddhist mythology,

"the Avatamsaka Sutra was expounded by Shakyamuni Buddha 21 days after his Enlightenment. The Sutra was compiled by Bodhisattva Manjushri and his disciple Ananda, and was said to be kept in the dragon palace in the heaven.

"It was said that later on, the Sutra was found and read by Nagarjuna. It was said that there were three volumes, including billions of verses in many, many chapters in the first volume, 498,800 verses in 1,200 chapters in the second, 100,000 verses in 38 chapters in the last. Since the first two volumes were so huge and difficult for ordinary people to study and understand, Nagarjuna brought the last volume and circulated it in this world.

"When this Sutra was propagated to China in three versions, each being translated by one of the three following great masters :

    1. Buddhabhadra in 420 AD - It has 36,000 verses in 60 chapters (fascicles). As it is the first one translated in the Jin Dynasty, it is called the old Sutra, or the Jin Sutra
    2. Siksananda - It has 45,000 verses in 80 chapters. It is also known as the new Sutra, or the Tang Sutra since it was translated in the Tang Dynasty, and
    3. Prajna - It has 40 chapters and was also translated in the Tang Dynasty later on and is thus called the later Sutra.1

 

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Click on the Image to Pay Homage to Upadhyaya Shakyamuni Buddha

Namo Upadhyaya Shakyamuni Buddha

Below please find a complete list of full texts of the Huayen School contained in the Tripitaka,

1. www.buddhistdoor.com/oldweb/index.htmTung Lin Kok Yuen. 28 Feb. 2009