尔时，普贤菩萨复告大众言：诸佛子！乃往古世，过世界海微尘数劫，复倍是数，有世界海，名胜音。彼世界海中有世界，名最胜灯光明境界，其劫名为须弥音。诸佛子！彼劫中有大莲华出现，名种种光明蕊香幢，有大神力，能于其中，现一切大莲华庄严世界。时有国王，名大威光。见此华已，心生渴仰，即自忆念：此华何因而得出现？
逐句解释
乃往古世，过世界海微尘数劫……有世界海，名胜音
普贤开始讲述毗卢遮那（Vairocana）的前世因缘——时间之遥远，超出所有可计数的范畴：「过世界海微尘数劫，复倍是数」。这是《华严经》对时间的惯常表达：不是「很久以前」，而是远在任何「很久」之前的彻底不可数的时间。在那个叫做「胜音」的世界海中，故事开始了。
In the ancient past, beyond a number of eons equal to the dust-motes of an ocean of worlds, and then doubled again, there was an ocean of worlds called "Victorious Sound."
Chapter 6 shifts from cosmological description to narrative: it tells the story of how Vairocana — the cosmic Buddha of the Avatamsaka — came to be a Buddha. The time scale is characteristically impossible: beyond the furthest imaginable past, doubled. This radical temporal depth serves a purpose: it shows that Buddhahood is not an accident of a single lifetime but the fruit of vows and practice maintained across a duration that defies all ordinary reckoning. The story that follows is a model of the bodhisattva path — told not as a biography but as an inspiration.
有大莲华出现，名种种光明蕊香幢……时有国王，名大威光，见此华已，心生渴仰
在那个遥远的劫中，天地间突然出现一朵巨大莲华，名为「种种光明蕊香幢」，散发神异的光明和香气。当时有一位国王，名叫「大威光」，见到这朵莲华，心中生起深切的渴望与向往。「心生渴仰」四个字是关键——修行的起点，往往不是知识或义务，而是这种纯粹的向往与敬仰，对光明与美的本能回应。
A great lotus flower appeared, named "Manifold Light Stamen Fragrance Banner"… At that time there was a king named Great Majestic Light; upon seeing this flower, his heart was filled with longing and reverence.
The appearance of a miraculous lotus is the trigger for the king's spiritual awakening — or rather, the trigger for his recognising an awakening that was always latent within him. "His heart was filled with longing and reverence" (心生渴仰) is a remarkable phrase. The Avatamsaka does not say the king intellectually understood the lotus or that he performed a ritual response. He felt a deep pull — an instinctive recognition of something profoundly important. This is described in the Huayan tradition as the moment of "turning toward Buddhahood" (回向): the first movement of a mind that will eventually, across vast time, become a Buddha.
（大威光王遇诸佛，依次发愿受法，历经无数佛所修行）
第六品的核心叙事是大威光王（即毗卢遮那的前身）依次亲近无数佛陀，在每一位佛陀处接受教法、发起大愿、深化修行。每遇一位佛，他的智慧与悲心就扩大一圈。这不是单一的「开悟事件」，而是无数次相遇、无数次深化、无数次扩展的累积过程。觉悟是一个无量时劫的展开，而非某一瞬间的突破。
[King Great Majestic Light draws near to successive Buddhas, receiving teachings and making vows under each one, practising across innumerable Buddha-lifetimes.]
The narrative of Chapter 6 models the Mahayana bodhisattva path as a process of successive deepening through relationship with teachers. Each Buddha that the future Vairocana meets opens a new dimension of practice. This is not the story of a single dramatic awakening but of a vast, patient, relational cultivation — centuries in each teacher's presence, each encounter expanding the capacity for compassion and insight. The Huayan school drew from this a key teaching: progress on the path is not linear but cumulative and relational. You become what you practise, in the presence of those who have already become it.
（经文末，揭示大威光王即是毗卢遮那如来的前身）
整个故事的结尾，普贤菩萨揭示：那位在无量劫前对一朵莲华生起渴仰的大威光王，就是现在圆满成道的毗卢遮那如来。华藏世界是由他的愿力庄严的；我们此刻所在的宇宙，是那个遥远的初心所结的果。这是《华严经》第一大部分的收尾：一切庄严，皆源于一念向道的心。
[At the chapter's close, it is revealed that King Great Majestic Light is none other than Vairocana Tathagata in a former life.]
The reveal at the end of Chapter 6 connects the narrative back to the cosmology of Chapters 4 and 5. The Flower Treasury World, with all its jewelled magnificence, is the final fruit of the vows that a young king made when he saw a miraculous lotus and felt his heart turn toward the light. The entire cosmos is the grown expression of that first moment of longing. This is perhaps the Avatamsaka's most intimate teaching: the universe begins with a single heart that opens. Vairocana's path is not a legend about a distant being — it is the template for every sentient being's ultimate journey. Your own first moment of turning toward truth is, in this framework, the seed of a Buddha-land.
总结 · Summary
第六品是整部《华严经》开篇部分的压轴之作。普贤菩萨讲述了毗卢遮那佛的前世因缘：一位名叫大威光的国王，在无量劫前见到一朵神奇莲华，心生渴仰，从此开始亲近无数诸佛，发无量大愿，修无量妙行，最终成就了宇宙大佛毗卢遮那。华藏世界的一切庄严，皆是那颗初心的果实。《华严经》对每一位读者说：你内心对光明的那一念渴仰，就是你成佛之路的起点。
Chapter 6 closes the Avatamsaka's opening cosmological movement with a story: the biography of Vairocana's bodhisattva path, from the moment a king's heart opened to a miraculous lotus, through incalculable eons of practice under successive Buddhas, to the full enlightenment that produced the Flower Treasury World. The teaching is both cosmic and intimate: the entire universe, in its jewelled magnificence, is the fruit of a single heart's longing for truth. And that heart was, once, like yours — drawn toward light, uncertain, beginning. The Avatamsaka does not ask you to be Vairocana. It asks you to notice the longing that is already there, and to trust it.