The Great Tripitaka Master Hsuan Hua is the founder of the Sagely City of Ten Thousand Buddhas in Talmage, California. A Tripitaka Master is one who has mastered the Three Divisions of the Buddhist Canon. The Master was born on the sixteenth day of the third lunar month in the year of Wu Wu at the beginning of the century, in Shuangcheng County of Jilin Province, in China. He arrived in the United States by plane in 1962. He lectured on the chapter of the Conduct and Vows of Universal Worthy Bodhisattva, from the Avatamsaka Sutra in 1969. In the summer of 1971, he began his nine-year lecture series on the Avatamsaka Sutra. He began by explaining National Master Ch’ing Liang’s Preface and Prologue to the Avatamsaka Sutra.
When he was young, he bowed to his parents every morning and evening. He was known as Filial Son Bai. When his mother passed away, he left the home-life and then lived in a simple hut by his mother’s grave to observe filial piety for three years. He bowed to the Avatamsaka Sutra, meditated, ate one meal a day, did not lie down to sleep at night and cultivated very vigorously. He influenced and benefited countless living beings.
From the time of Shakyamuni Buddha, the Tripitaka Master Hsuan Hua is counted as the Forty-fifth Generational Patriarch. He vowed to take on the sufferings of all living beings and to transfer all the blessings and bliss which he should receive to all living beings. Just as in the Avatamsaka Sutra, the very moving sections that describe the inconceivable selflessness and great compassion of a Great Sage, the Tripitaka Master is also that way. An excerpt from the text reads:
I would prefer all alone to undergo such multitudes of suffering, rather than that living beings would fall into the hells. I should, for the sake of those who are in the places of danger and difficulty such as the hells, the animals, and the realm of King Yama, use my body as a pawn, and ransom and save all those living beings in the evil paths so that they can be freed…. I vow to guard and protect all living beings and never abandon them. What I say is sincere and true, and there is nothing false about it.

On June 7,1995, the tenth day of the fifth lunar month, the Master manifested the stillness. After the Master was cremated, there were thousands of green (jade-like) blue, black and other colored shariras. Shariras are the result of purity, samadhi, and wisdom.

National Master Ch'ing Liang

National Master Ch’ing Liang was born in 738A.D., on the 26th year of the reign of T’ang Emperor Hsuan Tsung. He had the physical marks of a Great Sage.
In the year 784, he decided to write a commentary on the Avatamsaka Sutra. He prayed for an auspicious portent and received a response. When he began to compose the Prologue, he wrote without pausing and without alterations. After he had finished writing the Prologue in 787, he had an auspicious dream. Auspicious portents manifested when he lectured the Prologue and the Sutra.
The Master was the Precept Master of nine emperors and he lived till the age of 102.
It is recorded that twenty-one days after the Master had perfected his stillness, the luster of his body became even brighter. At first he was buried at the stupa at Chung Nan Mountain. Later, his body was cremated and there were thousands of shariras. His tongue did not burn.

Before I proceed with this sacred work, I must first express my profound gratitude towards:

1. Shakyamuni Buddha and the Great Bodhisattvas for speaking the Avatamsaka Sutra.
2. The Venerable Ananda for compiling the Sutra.
3. Nagarjuna Bodhisattva for bringing the Sutra back to the human realm.
4. The Tripitaka Master Hsuan Hua for his wonderful exposition of the Preface and Prologue to the Sutra, and the Sutra.
5. National Master Ch’ing Liang for his brilliant composition of the Preface and Prologue to the Sutra.
6. All the translators whose precious efforts have made it possible for me to study the Sutra in English.

Writer's Foreward

Each section of this book contains an OUTLINE and an ANNOTATION. The OUTLINE will be a very brief delineation based only on the AVATAMSAKA SUTRA. It will be exceedingly simple and abrupt because to give a more complete summary would be too big a project and moreover, that is not the intent of this book. The reader can refer to the glossary for a simple definition of Buddhist technical terms. Any inaccuracies or discrepancies are due to my incompetence. Being aware of my own limitations, I began this sacred task with a sense of shame. I felt intimidated by my own shallow learning and poor virtue.

Some of the writer’s interpretations and own views will appear under the annotation. I may highlight a principle mentioned in the Sutra or attempt to connect it to a basic Teaching. But, that certainly does not imply that the other passages of the Sutra are less significant. In actuality, the innumerable principles contained in the AVATAMSAKA SUTRA are multi-layered, interpenetrating, unimpeded, boundless, and ineffably wonderful. Hence, it is not possible for me to discuss them all. Moreover, this is only an introduction.

The main purport of this book is merely to inform people about the existence and accessibility of the AVATAMSAKA SUTRA, and to promote what is fundamental and essential. By making that clear, the writer hopes that the reader will excuse the author’s incoherent and crude style.

If this very candid and simple introduction to the AVATAMSAKA SUTRA can prompt you to read the AVATAMSAKA SUTRA, then it would have served its humble purpose.

February 2000,
Sagely City of 10,000 Buddhas
Talmage, California, USA.