Flower Adornment (Avatamsaka) Sutra - Chapter 40 (New Edition)

Chapter Forty Entering the Inconceivable State of Liberation by Means of the Practices and Vows of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva is considered one of the most important sacred texts in Mahayana Buddhism because it describes the ten great practices and vows that all Bodhisattvas without exception cultivate in order to become Buddhas. This chapter is also the culmination of the amazing spiritual quest of the youth Good Wealth (Sudhana), who had visited 53 "good friends" or good enlightened teachers, each of whom represented a progressively higher level of enlightenment on the path to becoming a Buddha. In the words of the Bodhisattva, "If there are living beings who hear or have faith in these great king of vows, or receive, uphold, read, recite from memory, or extensively explain them for others, all the merit and virtue that they obtain can only be known by the Buddhas and by no one else."