The Ten Kinds of Spiritual Freedom Possessed by the Buddhas

Let's look to the Avatamsaka Sūtra, the "Chapter on Inconceivable Dharma," in its thirty-third fascicle. Some of our fellow practitioners are currently reciting the Avatamsaka Sūtra, and in this passage we learn that the Buddhas, the World-Honored Ones, possess ten kinds of spiritual freedom, which they bring to full completion:

The first is sovereignty over all dharmas. "All dharmas" covers both mind and matter. The Buddha can act as he wishes, with an eloquence that is vast and unobstructed.

The second is the teaching and transformation of sentient beings. The Buddha enters the world with the salvation of beings as his fundamental purpose. Throughout the six periods of day and night, he watches over the capacities of beings, waiting for them to ripen. The moment a being is ready, he steps in to teach and rescue—never too early, never too late. This, too, is his freedom.

Third, all the Tathāgatas can cause measureless and boundless lands and the six kinds of vibration to shake throughout the entire expanse of space. They can adorn the empty dharma-realm in countless ways. They can move one world to another, and make the large small. As the Vimalakīrti Sūtra tells, they can lift up a three-thousand great-thousand world system and hurl it far away, yet the beings within remain completely unaware. Such is the Tathāgata's freedom.

Fourth, the Tathāgatas possess great spiritual power, able to adorn and purify all worlds. The Buddha-lands they adorn, numbering as many as motes of dust, can equally be gathered back into a single Buddha-land. The many and the one interpen