The Tenth Stage: Cloud of Teaching

Tenth is the stage of cloud of teaching, emblematic of the ability of practitioners to teach like clouds showering rain. In this stage [...] practitioners [...] attain inconceivable liberation; infinite powers of recollection; and ability to receive, absorb, and hold the revelations of the mysteries of complete enlightenment. (pp. 1562-1563)

Excerpted from "Commentary on Book 39 by Li Tongxuan: Translator's Introduction" in The Flower Ornament Scripture: A Translation of the Avatamsaka Sutra by Thomas Cleary

The Ninth Stage: Good Mind

Ninth is the stage of good mind. Practitioners in this stage gain accurate knowledge of good, bad, neutral, mundane, and transmundane actions. [...] Practitioners also know all about the compartmentalization of mind, the complexity of mind, how the mind becomes defiled, how the mind becomes bound and liberated, and how it creates illusions. Learning to become expert teachers, practitioners in this stage develop analytic knowledge of principles, meanings, expressions, and elocution; and they attain mental command of the teachings through concentration[,] learning to teach in accord with the dispositions, faculties, and inclinations of the people with whom they are working. (p. 1562)

Excerpted from "Commentary on Book 39 by Li Tongxuan: Translator's Introduction" in The Flower Ornament Scripture: A Translation of the Avatamsaka Sutra by Thomas Cleary

The Eighth Stage: Immovability

Eighth is the stage of immovability. In this stage practitioners fully realize that all things are nonconceptual, accessible to nonconceptual knowledge. They become wholly detached from mind, intellect, consciousness, thought, and ideation and thus become free from all striving in thought, word, and deed; no actions based on views, passions, or intentions become manifest in them. Nevertheless, even though they have attained peace and liberation, practitioners in this stage who are supported by their past vows of complete enlightenment do not become complacent but are further inspired to seek infinite knowledge. (pp. 1561-1562)

Excerpted from "Commentary on Book 39 by Li Tongxuan: Translator's Introduction" in The Flower Ornament Scripture: A Translation of the Avatamsaka Sutra by Thomas Cleary

The Seventh Stage: Going Far

Seventh is the stage of going far, in which practitioners are proficient in concentration on emptiness, wishlessness, and signlessness; enter into selflessness and transcend ideas of personality; yet still accumulate virtue and knowledge and do not give up practicing infinite kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity. They detach from the world yet work to beautify the world[;] they become calm and serene, yet they can be passionate as an expedient without, however, becoming inflamed by passion. (p. 1561)

Excerpted from "Commentary on Book 39 by Li Tongxuan: Translator's Introduction" in The Flower Ornament Scripture: A Translation of the Avatamsaka Sutra by Thomas Cleary

The Sixth Stage: Presence

Sixth is the stage of presence. Practitioners enter this stage by observing phenomena in terms of their equality in having no ultimate definition, in having no fixed origin, in being apart from any concept or notion of things, in being primordially pure, in neither coming nor going, in being existent in some sense and nonexistent in another, and in being like dreams or reflected images. (p. 1561)

Excerpted from "Commentary on Book 39 by Li Tongxuan: Translator's Introduction" in The Flower Ornament Scripture: A Translation of the Avatamsaka Sutra by Thomas Cleary

The Fifth Stage: Difficult to Conquer

Fifth is the stage difficult to conquer. Practitioners enter this stage by impartial attention to purity of the teachings of past, present, and future buddhas; to purity of conduct, to purity of mind; to purity of removal of opinion, doubt, uncertainty, and perplexity; to purity of knowledge of what to apply and what to relinquish; to purity of the final discernment and realization of all the elements of enlightenment; and to purity of perfecting all people. They attain unwavering attention and become familiar with both conventional and ultimate truths. As they meditate on all truths, practitioners also develop skill in practical arts and sciences, according to the needs of the people of the time. (pp. 1560-1561)

Excerpted from "Commentary on Book 39 by Li Tongxuan: Translator's Introduction" in The Flower Ornament Scripture: A Translation of the Avatamsaka Sutra by Thomas Cleary

The Fourth Stage: Radiance

Fourth is the stage of blazing radiance. Practitioners attain this stage by entering into the radiance of the Teaching through ten ways of contemplation: contemplation of the realms of beings, of the realms of the world, of the realms of phenomena and principles, of the realm of space, of the realm of consciousness, of the realm of desire, of the realm of form, of the realm of the formless, of the realm of high-minded devotion, and of the realm of inclinations of the magnanimous mind. Practitioners at this stage examine inner and outer phenomena with precise awareness, getting rid of worldly desire and dejection; they strive for the development, enhancement, and preservation of good states and for the lessening, elimination, and prevention of bad states. (p. 1560)

Excerpted from "Commentary on Book 39 by Li Tongxuan: Translator's Introduction" in The Flower Ornament Scripture: A Translation of the Avatamsaka Sutra by Thomas Cleary

The Third Stage: Refulgence

Third is the stage of refulgence. Practitioners enter this stage by consciously focusing their minds on purity, stability, freedom from illusion, dispassion, nonregression, steadfastness, ardor, tirelessness, high-mindedness, and magnanimity. In this stage they also examine the impermanence, painfulness, impurity, unreliability, destructibility, instability, and momentariness of all that is conditioned, thus causing their minds to become yet more liberated from conditioned things and directed towards enlightened knowledge. (p. 1560)

Excerpted from "Commentary on Book 39 by Li Tongxuan: Translator's Introduction" in The Flower Ornament Scripture: A Translation of the Avatamsaka Sutra by Thomas Cleary

The Second Stage: Purity

Second is the stage of purity, which is sought by way of ten dispositions of mind: honesty, gentleness, capability, docility, tranquillity [sic], goodness, purity, nonattachment, broadmindedness, and magnanimity. In this stage practitioners naturally avoid killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, false speech, coarse speech, useless speech, covetousness, malevolence, and erroneous views. (pp. 1559-1560)

Excerpted from "Commentary on Book 39 by Li Tongxuan: Translator's Introduction" in The Flower Ornament Scripture: A Translation of the Avatamsaka Sutra by Thomas Cleary

The First Stage: Joy

The first stage, the stage of joy, is characterized by calmness, happiness, ebullience, exaltation, delight, vigor, geniality, and freedom from anger. The practitioners of this stage become extremely joyful thinking of the enlightened ones and their teachings, of those working for enlightenment and their practices, of the ways of transcendence, and of the ability to help people. [...] Practitioners in this stage also make a preparatory study of the indications of all the stages, becoming versed in the problems and solutions of the stages, the attainments and cultivation of the stages, and the step-by-step progression through the stages. (p. 1559)

Excerpted from "Commentary on Book 39 by Li Tongxuan: Translator's Introduction" in The Flower Ornament Scripture: A Translation of the Avatamsaka Sutra by Thomas Cleary

The Tenth Stage -- Cloud of Teaching

Leaders in the tenth stage, Cloud of Teaching, bear, receive, take in, and hold immeasurable revelations, clarifications, and clouds of teachings from other leaders.

Based on "The Ten Stages" in The Flower Ornament Scripture: A Translation of the Avatamsaka Sutra by Thomas Cleary

The Ninth Stage -- Good Mind

With superior subtle intellect,
Leaders search out the mental tangles of those around them;
They search out the various tangles of mind
And comprehend who can be taught, what the end and the beginning are.

They comprehend beginningless afflictions, in their interrelatedness of application,
As well as the continuity of their courses through compulsive propensities,
And in terms of the various differences in process of action,
And the vanishing of effect with extinction of cause.

Also, by specific knowledge of principles, they know the present differentiation of things. By specific knowledge of meanings, they know the past and future differentiation of things.

They also know accurately the weakness, mediocrity, and strength of faculties; their nature as appearances in the rapid disintegration repeated in the net of faculties.

They also know accurately the weakness, mediocrity, and strength of intentions; their nature as appearances in the rapid disintegration repeated in the net of intentions.

They also know accurately the weakness, mediocrity, and strength of dispositions; their nature as appearances in the rapid disintegration repeated in the net of dispositions.

They also know accurately the weakness, mediocrity, and strength of wills; their nature as appearances in the rapid disintegration repeated in the net of wills.

Based on "The Ten Stages" in The Flower Ornament Scripture: A Translation of the Avatamsaka Sutra by Thomas Cleary

The Eighth Stage -- Immovability

Just as the sun and moon, while in the sky,
Appear as reflections in water,
Remaining in the highest knowledge of the unmoving essence of Thusness,
Enlightening beings appear, as reflections, intending to purify the world.

Excerpted from "The Ten Stages" in The Flower Ornament Scripture: A Translation of the Avatamsaka Sutra by Thomas Cleary

The Seventh Stage -- Far-Going

[Leaders] gain access to the seventh stage by means of ten kinds of special undertaking in the Path which are accomplished by skill in means, transcendent wisdom, and knowledge.

[...]

The seeking of good for all beings is giving;
Discipline is the cessation of afflictions, tolerance is noninjury;
Energy is ever-greater vigor in their undertakings;
Imperturbability on the Path is the meditation of the virtuous.

Excerpted from "The Ten Stages" in The Flower Ornament Scripture: A Translation of the Avatamsaka Sutra by Thomas Cleary

The Sixth Stage -- Presence

[Leaders] in this stage of Presence fully develop unbreakable intent, certain intent, good intent, profound intent, unretreating intent, unrelenting intent, pure intent, endless intent, intent to seek knowledge, intent to perfectly unite means and wisdom.

Excerpted from "The Ten Stages" in The Flower Ornament Scripture: A Translation of the Avatamsaka Sutra by Thomas Cleary

The Fifth Stage -- Difficult to Conquer

In this stage, those experienced lords of contentment
Destroy the actions of false teachers, the abodes of manifold views.
All the good they do is in the cause of enlightened knowledge,
Wishing to become saviors of beings, rich in the ten powers.

[...]

They practice generosity without concern for appearances,
With well-disciplined minds, fundamentally tranquil, extremely calm:
They tolerate what is made in the world, knowing the imperishable truth;
They are endowed with vigor and strength, detached from all things.

Excerpted from "The Ten Stages" in The Flower Ornament Scripture: A Translation of the Avatamsaka Sutra by Thomas Cleary

The Fourth Stage -- Blazing

Those established in the splendor of this stage
Have their minds set on pure truth;
Their zeal blazes, they increase good qualities--
All defilement, impurity, heedlessness, and doubt vanish.

Excerpted from "The Ten Stages" in The Flower Ornament Scripture: A Translation of the Avatamsaka Sutra by Thomas Cleary

The Third Stage -- Luminescent*

Reflecting that wisdom comes from learning,
Enlightening beings strive diligently as learners;
Day and night, in the cause of learning, doing nothing else,
They seek the truth as the ultimate goal.

Excerpted from "The Ten Stages" in The Flower Ornament Scripture: A Translation of the Avatamsaka Sutra by Thomas Cleary

* Originally "Refulgence"

The Second Stage -- Purity

Just as gold becomes more and more free from all impurities when put in vitriol, so do enlightening beings in this stage of Purity, by virtue of riddance of the impurities of envy and bad behavior, accomplish purity of generosity and morality. Among the four means of salvation, kind speech is paramount in them; among the ten transcendent ways, morality is paramount. [...] Why? To become the best of beings, unexcelled leaders and guides, and ultimately omniscient refuges.

Excerpted from "The Ten Stages" in The Flower Ornament Scripture: A Translation of the Avatamsaka Sutra by Thomas Cleary

The First Stage -- Extreme Joy

When one attains this stage, five fears depart --
Not being able to make a living, dying, reputation, misery, fear of groups --
Thus fear is gone: why?
Because there is no attachment to self.

Excerpted from "The Ten Stages" in The Flower Ornament Scripture: A Translation of the Avatamsaka Sutra by Thomas Cleary