Daśabhūmikā was a Buddhist

Buddhism

Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...

 sect in China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

, based around Vasubandhu

Vasubandhu

Vasubandhu was an Indian Buddhist monk, and along with his half-brother Asanga, one of the main founders of the Indian Yogācāra school. However, some scholars consider Vasubandhu to be two distinct people. Vasubandhu is one of the most influential figures in the entire history of Buddhism...

's Sanskrit sutra of the same name (Chinese 十地經; pinyin shi di jing; ten stages sutra). It was later absorbed in to the Huayan school, which adopted this sutra as part of its own central text.

Along with the Gandavyuha Sutra, the Daśabhūmikā shastra

Ten Stages Sutra

The Ten Stages Sutra also known as the Daśabhūmika Sūtra, is an early, influential Mahayana Buddhist scripture...

 is one of the most important chapters of the compounded Avatamsaka Sutra

Avatamsaka Sutra

The is one of the most influential Mahayana sutras of East Asian Buddhism. The title is rendered in English as Flower Garland Sutra, Flower Adornment Sutra, or Flower Ornament Scripture....

. It describes the Bodhisattvayana

Mahayana

Mahāyāna is one of the two main existing branches of Buddhism and a term for classification of Buddhist philosophies and practice...

, that is the ten stages to Buddhahood

Bhumi (Buddhism)

The bodhisattva's path of awakening in the Mahayana tradition progresses through ten hierarchically arranged stages, referred to as the "bodhisattva bhūmis"...

, or rather the ten grounds on which a Bodhisattva

Bodhisattva

In Buddhism, a bodhisattva is either an enlightened existence or an enlightenment-being or, given the variant Sanskrit spelling satva rather than sattva, "heroic-minded one for enlightenment ." The Pali term has sometimes been translated as "wisdom-being," although in modern publications, and...

 marches on its path towards complete Enlightenment, or Bodhi

Bodhi

Bodhi is both a Pāli and Sanskrit word traditionally translated into English with the word "enlightenment", but which means awakened. In Buddhism it is the knowledge possessed by a Buddha into the nature of things...

.