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The Gandavyuha Sutra tells of the quest of the youth Sudhana, who undertakes a pilgrimage at the behest of the Bodhisattva Manjushri. Sudhana will converse with 52 masters in his search for enlightenment. The antepenultimate master of Sudhana\'s pilgrimage is the Bodhisattva Maitreya. It is here that Sudhana encounters The Tower of Maitreya, which along with Indra\'s net is one of the most startling metaphors for the infinite to emerge in the history of literature across cultures.<\/p>

In the middle of the great tower ... he saw the billion-world universe ... and everywhere there was Sudhana at his feet ... Thus Sudhana saw Maitreya\'s practices of ... transcendence over countless aeons, from each of the squares of the check board wall ... In the same way Sudhana ... saw the whole supernal manifestation, was perfectly aware it, understood it, contemplated it, used it as a means, beheld it, and saw himself there [from Thomas Cleary\'s translation of the Gandavyuha Sutra, Entry Into the Realm of Reality].<\/p>

The penultimate master that Sudhana visits is the Bodhisattva Manjushri. Thus, one of the grandest of pilgrimages approaches its conclusion by revisiting where it began. The Gandavyhua suggests that with a subtle shift of perspective we may come to see that the enlightenment that the pilgrim so fervently sought was not only with him at every stage of his journey, but before it began as well - that enlightenment is not something to be gained, but something the pilgrim never departed from.<\/p>

The final master that Sudhana visits is the Bodhisattva Samantabhadra, who teaches him that wisdom only exists for the sake of putting it into practice; that it is only good insofar as it benefits all living beings.<\/p>

When this done, the world of the Gandavyuha (ceases) to be a mystery, a realm devoid of form and corporeality, for now it overlaps this earthly world; no, it becomes that "Thou art it" and there is a perfect fusion of the two ... Samantabhadra\'s arms raised to save sentient beings become our own, which are now engaged in passing salt to a friend at the table and Maitreya\'s opening the Vairocana Tower for Sudhana is our ushering a caller into the parlor for a friendly chat.[from D.T. Suzuki, Essays in Zen Buddhism, Series 3]<\/p>

Text adapted from Wikipedia (retrieved, July 11th 2009)

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