In the Avatamsaka Sutra, the Bodhisattva is a bodhisattva of vows, a bodhisattva of mercy, a bodhisattva of seeking salvation, and a bodhisattva who rescues sentient beings with meritorious virtues and excellent capacities. The Bodhisattva Mahasattva is born by one's own vow, practicing and transferring merits to save all sentient beings. To achieve the original goal of Vairocana Buddha, which is the salvation of all sentient beings, one practices according to the vow of transferring merits, which is the deed of the Buddhas as the actualization of the Buddhas' resulting virtues for other sentient beings. This can be said the deed of the Samantabhadra Bodhisattva. The Bodhisattva path of the Avatamsaka Sutra is a process in which the Bodhisattva practices the Bodhisattva path, and the Bodhisattva has the purpose of setting up and practice numerous vows to benefit numerous sentient beings.
The collection of the Bodhisattvas with the same names and the same titles in the preface and distribution of the Bodhisattva Dharma meeting in the Avatamsaka Sutra can be seen as "a socially necessary element in our present age, with empathy, communication, and adding energy for the Bodhisattva vows," which is meant to be a world as a flower transcending individual beings.
To approach the Avatamsaka Sutra easily in a word, the society and the world of this era desperately need the thought of transferring merits by 'the principle that pain decreases through sharing with neighbors while living in the world, and that happiness multiplies, nay, increases in innumerable quantities by sharing with neighbors.'
By giving back to each other through sharing and generosity, the ideal society preached by the Buddha will be created, and it will become a bridge through which we can communicate with our neighbors and be happy together. Along with those who study Buddhism, we should be able to turn to the 'good and courageous mind' so that all things in the universe can communicate with the Bodhisattva Mahasattva's heart of great compassion regardless of religious differences.
It is said that as soon as ordinary people set their mind on the Bodhisattva vow, they will live the life of a Buddha. And the Buddha's life is revealed as the Bodhisattva's 'ten stays, ten practices, ten transferring merits, and ten grounds'. At this time, the bodhisattva practice is not the practice to attain Buddhahood, but the practice of the Buddha after attaining Buddhahood, and it is the ekayana Bodhisattva path that does not require the three-vehicle procedure, because it is a specific form of the appearance of an enlightened Tathagata.
With this, the Bodhisattva for Dharma sermon seen in the Chapter of Transferring Merit in Ten Types is a Vajrapani, indicating that he stands tall with the will of flag, and that he erects sentient beings by bodhi with mercy and wisdom. He returns home with bodhi and reality, and defeats all demons in submission, which means the extinction of fear.
In the Chapter of Transferring Merit in Ten Types, although there is the cultivation of great wisdom and great mercy in the ten stays and ten practices, there is a lot of yearning to escape the world by cultivating empty and quiet wisdom. So, this position turns the mind to escape the world of ten stays and ten practices, generating the will to enter the world of life and death and growing the practice of great compassion and generosity. It can be seen as the completion of the great compassion and generosity, as all the heavenly kings, celestial women, and the countless masses of dragons, gods, and eight groups of excellent beings were all satisfied.
In the ekayana Bodhisattva path of the Avatamsaka Sutra, the Bodhisattva communicates with the world of truth through samadhi, takes refuge in the eternal Tathagata, sympathizes with and admires the original vow of Tathagata, practicing the Bodhisattva path. In the chapter of ten stays, the Bodhisattva Fahui's immeasurable expedient samadhi signifies that 'immeasurable expedient' does not only mean the actions of the Bodhisattvas of the Ten stays, but also means that there are limitless expedients for all Bodhisattvas to unfold in the future. In the chapter of ten practices, it enters into the excellent and thoughtful meditation of the Bodhisattva of the Forest of Virtuous Merit. This can be thought of as emphasizing the precepts of the Bodhisattva as the basis for these ten practices: prescribing and observing the dharma in detail with the meditation observing its meaning, contemplating with righteous thoughts to establish the Dharma text. It is considered as the name of samadhi emphasizing that the ten paramitas benefiting sentient beings are based on the peace of the Dharma based on meditation. In the chapter of ten grounds, the Bodhisattva Vajrapani enters the samadhi of Great Wisdom and Light (大智慧光明三昧), receives the promise of the ten Buddhas about his future Buddhahood, and preaches the dharma about ten grounds. Just as a wheel-turning sage king receives the position upon reaching the 10th dharma cloud knowledge, it is called a position appropriate to his capacity, meaning that the Bodhisattva has completed all knowledge and bears the responsibility of replacing the Tathagata. It is a characteristic of the samadhi of great wisdom light in the chapter of ten grounds that it can be said to be a samadhi that can replace the Buddha and can show the appearance of the Buddha's eight scenes in a way like the Buddha.
The chapter of transferring merit in ten types is a story of the Vajrapani Bodhisattva entering into the samadhi of wisdom and light with the Buddha's divine power in the old spirit and supernatural power of Vairocana Tathagata, due to the purity of wisdom and the excellence of the Bodhisattva's good capacity. Although the Bodhisattva has cultivated great wisdom and great compassion through the ten grounds and ten practices, he has a lot of desire to escape from the world, but he turns around and cultivate more wisdom to enter the realm of life and death in order to realize that the nature of life and death is originally liberation, cultivating great generosity and compassion eternally. In addition, the difference can be seen as the countless masses of the heavenly king, celestial women, dragons, gods, and eight groups of excellent beings were saved by the act of great mercy. And it is also through the Bodhisattva's samadhi of wisdom and light that sentient beings are led to the Bodhisattva's samadhi of great wisdom and light in the chapter of the ten grounds.
When compared from the achievements in the chapter of transferring merits in ten types, the status achieved in the chapter of ten stays is the status of abhiṣeka, whose core content is the the prediction about one's attaining Buddhahood. The status achieved in the chapter of ten practices is the status of attaining the position of courageous lion, whose essence is strenuous effort. The status achieved in the chapter of ten grounds is the status of attaining the position of dharma clouds, whose essence is accomplishing the merit of the Buddha.
In the chapter of transferring merits in ten types, which is the subject of this thesis, the status of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva is achieved as a fruit position, whose essence is transferring merit. And the heavenly sermon expresses the ascetic ranks of ten stays, ten practices, ten types of transferring merit, and ten grounds by the emission of light from the body parts of the Buddha corresponding to them. Especially, the emission of light from the knee, whose free function of bending, spreading, and turning symbolizes the perfect freedom in transferring merit. The Bodhisattva transfers merit, by his vow, with the heart of identifying oneself to others so that he may know what is needed by them.
Next, by the observation of ten perfections as the essence of the thought of transferring merit, their location was investigated. First, when we look at the interpretations of the chapter of transferring merit in ten types by commentators, the three monks of Huiyuan, Fazang, Jinggwan, we conclude that all of them have something in common in that they divide the chapter into three categories: sentient beings, bodhi, and actual transferring of merit. The characteristics of the chapter as explained by the three monks are seen in that all the pursuits in the fulfillment of the great vow and practice by the Samantabhadra Bodhisattva are directed to the three points, expressing the same positioning of the chapter as the turning point progressing from the division of self and others to the reality of no division of self and others.
If you look at the characteristics of the ten paramitas in the chapter of transferring merit in ten types, the ten stays, the ten practices, the ten types of transferring merit, and the ten grounds are all listed as the parts corresponding to the ten paramitas respectively. The various Bodhisattva practices of the ten stays are based upon the ten paramitas as their essence. The ten practices are ten paramitas for themselves. And the ten types of transferring merit also has the practice of the paramitas as their first transferring of merit, other types of transferring merit having it as their foundation. The ten grounds establishing the Bodhisattva path of ekayana upon the foundation of the convergence of three into one in the finest form, the practice of ten paramitas is none other than the practice of the Bodhisattva path appropriate to each status.
In the rank of the Bodhisattva, if there is one of the three minds of Jinggwan's Bodhisattva mind, such as straight mind, deep mind, and great compassion, the other two must be combined. Even in the three types of wisdom, there is mutual addition to each other. In the ekayana Bodhisattva path, in spite of the enumeration of the 40 ranks of the ten stays, ten practices, ten types of transferring merit, and ten grounds, as in the expression of the instant attaining of perfect enlightenment at the establishment of the first vow in the beginning of the ten stays, all the practices at each chapter does not deviate from the three minds, the increase of the great compassion progressing toward the fruit of the ten grounds by the practice of the paramitas. In that respect, considering the vast content in the chapter of transferring merit in ten types, we conclude that the chapter of the ten practices is supposed already upon the three types of transferring merit in bodhi, truth, and sentient beings. Also in the chapter of the ten grounds, the life of transferring merit in three types is lived. All the excellent capacities, the will to transfer merit to others, and the ten practices of paramitas in the chapter of transferring merit are seen as the foundational practices as the basic motivational power for progressing toward the fruit of the Buddhahood at the position of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva in the chapter of the ten grounds.
It can be seen that the relationship in the samadhi of the Bodhisattva path is observed in the gathering of the original powerful vows and great divine power of the Vairocana Buddha to save all living beings, with the great spiritual power of the Buddhas in the ten lands, within the excellent foundational power of the Bodhisattva as the speaking agent. In this way, the Bodhisattva Mahasattva practices by means of vows. So the practice and vow of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva lead necessarily toward saving sentient beings with countless transferring of merit in the chapter of transferring merit.