註華嚴法界觀門 1.18

1.18

Surname Du, personal name Fashun. In the early Tang he travelled and transformed beings, with extremely numerous spiritual wonders; there is evidence in his biography that proves he was a manifested body of the Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī. He is the first patriarch of both the old and new commentaries on the Avataṃsaka; the Venerable Yan is the second patriarch, and National Preceptor Kangzang is the third patriarch. Since this was an original work, in principle it should say "composed"; that it now says "compiled" is because the patriarch, based on his own wisdom, saw that all buddhas, all sentient beings, their bodies and minds, and their lands in the Avataṃsaka are each the substance and functioning of this dharmadhātu. Such realms of meaning being immeasurable and boundless, he thereupon gathered their categories of meaning from within these immeasurable realms, bundled them into three tiers, and wrote them directly on paper to generate people's contemplative wisdom. Because it is not like authoring and composing texts, it merely says "compiled". This is a compilation of meanings, not a compilation of texts.