The Flower Ornament Scripture

 

A Translation of the Avatamsaka Sutra

Thomas Cleary

BOOK FIFTEEN

 

15. The Ten Abodes

 

 

THEN THE ENLIGHTENING BEING Truth Wisdom, empowered  by the Buddha, entered into the concentration of in finite techniques of enlight­ ening beings; by the power of concentration there appeared before him Buddhas as numerous as atoms in a thousand buddha-fields  from each of the ten directions beyond as many worlds as atoms in a thousand buddha-fields:  all of those Buddhas had the same name,  Truth  Wisdom. They said to the enlightening being Truth Wisdom, "Excellent! Excellent, good man, that you arc able to enter this  enlightening being's concentration of infinite techniques. Good man, in each of the ten directions as many  Buddhas as atoms in a thousand buddha-fields all together empower you with their spiritual force, and this is also the spiritual power of the force of Vairocana  Buddha's  ancient  vows,  as well as the power of the roots of goodness you have cultivated, whereby you enter this concentration, allowing you to expound the teaching, for growth in enlightened knowledge, to enter deeply into the realm of reality, to comprehend well the worlds of sentient beings, to be unhin­ dered in whatever is entered into, to be unobstructed in all activities,  to attain incomparable skill in means,  to enter the essence of omniscience, to be aware of all things, to know all faculties, to be able to hold and expound all the teachings; that is to say, bringing forth the ten abodes of enlightening beings. Good man, you  should  receive the spiritual power of the Buddhas and expound this teaching. "

Then the Buddhas gave the enlightening being Truth Wisdom unhin­ dered knowledge, unattached knowledge, unbroken knowledge, knowl­ edge free from ignorance, unvarying knowledge,  knowledge without loss, immeasurable knowledge, unexcelled knowledge, unremitting knowledge, and knowledge that cannot be taken away.  Why? Because the power of this concentration is naturally this way in principle.

Now the Buddhas all extended their right hands and rubbed Truth Wisdom's head; then the enlightening  being Truth Wisdom emerged from concentration and declared to the enlightening beings,  "Children of Buddhas, the abode of enlightening  beings is vast, as vast as the space of the cosmos. Enlightening beings dwell in the house of the

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Buddhas of past, present,  and future. The abodes of enlightening beings I shall now explain. Buddha-children, there arc ten kinds of abodes of enlightening beings, which the past, future, and present Buddhas have explained, will explain, and do explain. What are the ten? They arc the abode of initial determination; the abode of preparing the ground; the abode of practice action; the abode of noble birth;  the abode of fulfill­ ment of skill in means; the abode of the correct state of mind; the abode of nonrcgression; the abode of youthful nature;  the abode  of prince  of the teaching; the abode of coronation. These arc called the ten abodes of enlightening beings, expounded by the Buddhas of past, future, and present.

"What is the enlightening beings' abode of initial determination? The enlightening beings, seeing the magnificence of the Buddhas, which people like to sec, rarely encountered, having great power; or seeing their spiritual powers, or hearing predictions of enlightenment, or listening to their teachings and instructions, or seeing sentient beings suffering severe pains, or hearing the far-reaching teaching of enlighten­ ment of the Buddhas,  develop the determination for enlightenment,  to seck omniscience.  The enlightening  beings arouse determination  with ten difficult-to-attain objectives : the knowledge of what is so and what is not; knowledge of consequences of good and bad actions; knowledge of superiority  and  inferiority of faculties; knowledge of the differences of various understandings; knowledge of the differences of various realms; knowledge of where all paths lead; knowledge of all meditations, liberations, and concentrations; knowledge of past lives; clairvoyance; knowledge of the universal end of indulgence for all time. Here the enlightening  beings  should  encourage  and  study  ten  things:  diligently making o fferings to the Buddhas; gladly remaining in the world; guid­ ing worldly people to reject evil deeds; always carrying on instruction by means of the most sublime teaching; praising the unexcelled teaching; learning the virtues of buddhahood; being born in the presence of Buddhas and always being received into their company; expediently expounding tranquil concentration; extolling detachment from the cycle of birth and death; being a refuge for suffering beings.  What is the reason? To cause enlightening beings' minds to broaden in the Buddha's teaching and to be able to understand whatever teaching they hear without depending on another's instruction.

"What is the enlightening beings'  abode of preparing the ground? Here the enlightening beings develop ten attitudes toward all living beings: altruism; compassion ; wish to give happiness; wish to give security;  pity; care; protecting;  identification;  considering  them  as  teachers; considering them as guides. Here the enlightening beings should encour­ age and study ten things: study and learning; uncluttered tranquility; association with the wise; gentle, pleasing speech; speech appropriate to

the occasion; fearlessness; understanding; acting in accord with the teaching; avoiding folly and delusion; stability. What is the reason? To

 

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cause enlightening beings to increase great compassion toward sentient beings, and to immediately understand whatever teachings they hear without relying on the instruction of another.

" What is the enlightening beings' abode of practice? Here enlighten­ ing beings contemplate all things through ten practices: observing that all things are impermanent, all things are painful, all things arc empty, all things are selfless, all things have no creation, all things arc flavorless, all things do not correspond to the names, all things have no locus, all things arc apart from discrimination, all things lack stable solidity. Here the enlightening beings should encourage and study ten things: observ­ ing the realms of sentient beings, the realms of phenomena and principles, and the realms of the world;  observing the elements of earth,  water, fire, and air; observing the realms of desire,  form, and formlessness. What is the reason? To cause enlightening beings ' knowledge to be perfectly clear, so they can immediately understand any teaching they hear without depending on the instruction of another.

"What is the enlightening beings' abode of noble birth? Here the enlightening beings arc born from the wise  teaching and perfect ten things : never regressing from the presence of the Buddhas; profoundly engendering pure faith; carefully examining things; thoroughly know­ ing living beings, lands, worlds, actions, consequences, birth and death, and nirvana.  Here the enlightening beings should encourage and study ten things : knowing all past, future , and present Buddhas' teachings; practicing and accumulating all past, future, and present Buddhas' teachings; fulfilling all past,  future, and  present Buddhas'  teachings; and knowing that all Buddhas arc equal . What is the reason? To cause p rogress in equanimity in respect to past, present, and future, and to be able to understand any teaching heard without relying on the instruction of another.

" What is the enlightening beings' abode of ful filling skill in means? Here the roots of goodness cultivated by the enlightening beings arc all to save all sentient beings, to benefit all sentient beings, to cause all sentient  beings  to be free from   calamities  and  difficulties,   to   cause all sentient beings to leave the miseries of birth and death, to cause all sentient beings to develop pure faith, to cause all sentient beings to be harmonized and pacified, to cause all sentient beings to experience nirvana. Here the enlightening beings should encourage and learn ten things : to know sentient beings are boundless, to know sentient beings arc infinite, to know sentient beings are countless,  to know sentient beings are inconceivable, to know sentient beings' in finite forms, to know sentient beings are immeasurable, to know sentient beings  arc empty, to know sentient beings create nothing, to know sentient beings possess nothing, to know sentient beings have no identity. What is the reason? To cause the mind to increase in mastery and have no attachments, and to immediately  understand  any teaching heard without  depending on the instruction of another.

 

 

"What is the enlightening beings' abode of the correct state of mind? Here the enlightening being's  mind is steady  and unwavering  even when hearing these ten things:  hearing the Buddha praised or reviled, the mind is steady and unwavering in regard to the Buddha's teaching; hearing the teaching praised or reviled,  the mind is steady and unwaver­ ing in regard to the Buddha's teaching; hearing enlightening beings praised or reviled, the mind is steady and unwavering in regard to the Buddha's teaching; hearing the practices of enlightening beings praised or reviled, the mind is steady and unwavering in regard to the Buddha's teaching; hearing it said that living beings are finite or infinite, the mind is steady and unwavering in regard to the Buddha's teaching; hearing it said that sentient beings arc defiled or undefiled, the mind is steady and unwavering in regard to the Buddha's teaching; hearing it said that sentient beings arc easy to liberate or difficult to liberate, the mind is steady and unwavering in regard to the Buddha's teaching; hearing it said that there is becoming or disintegration of the universe, the mind is steady and unwavering in regard to the Buddha's teaching; hearing it said that the universe exists or docs not exist, the mind is steady and unwavering in regard to the Buddha's teaching. Here the enlightening being should study and encourage the study of ten things : that all things arc signlcss; all things arc insubstantial; all things cannot be cultivated; all things have no existence;  all things have no true reality; all things arc empty; all things lack inherent nature; all things arc like illusions; all things arc like dreams; all things have no discrimination. What is the reason? To cause the mind to progress further to attain nonregressing acceptance of the nonorigination of things, and immediately understand whatever teaching is heard, without depending on the instruction of another.

"What is the enlightening beings' abode of nonrcgrcssion? Here the enlightening being remains firm and doesn't regress even when hearing these ten things: hearing that Buddhas do or do not exist,  the mind docs not regress in the Buddha's teaching;  hearing that truth exists  or docs not exist, the mind docs not regress in the Buddha's teaching; hearing that enlightening beings do or do not exist,  the mind  docs  not regress in the Buddha's teaching; hearing that enlightening beings' practices do or do not exist, the mind docs not regress in the Buddha's teaching; hearing that enlightening beings do or do not attain  emancipation through their practices, the mind does not regress in the Buddha's teaching; hearing that there were or were not Buddhas in the past,  the mind does not regress in the Buddha's teaching; hearing that there will or will not be Buddhas in the future, the mind docs not regress in the Buddha's teaching; hearing there arc or arc not Buddhas in the present, the mind docs not regress in the Buddha's teaching; hearing that a Buddha's knowledge is fi nite or infinite, the mind docs not regress in the B uddha's teaching; hearing that past, present, and future are uniform or not uni form, the mind docs not regress in the Buddha's teaching.

 

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Here the enlightening being should encourage and study ten far-reaching principles: explaining one is many; explaining many arc one; literary expression according with meaning; meaning according with literary expression; nonexistence is existence; existence is nonexistence; form­ less is form; form is formlessness; nature is natureless; naturclessncss is nature. What is the reason? To progress further, to be able to gain emancipation from all things, to understand any teaching without rely­ ing on another's instruction.

" What is the enlightening beings' abode of youthful nature? Here the enlightening being abides in ten kinds of activity: physically acting without error; verbally acting without error; mentally acting without error; being born at will; knowing the various desires of sentient beings; knowing the various understandings of sentient beings; knowing the various realms of sentient beings; knowing the various activities of sentient beings; knowing the becoming and decay of the world; going anywhere freel y by psychic projection. Here the enlightening being should encourage and study ten kinds of things: knowing all buddha­ lands; activating all buddha-lands, maintaining all buddha-lands; observ­ ing all buddha-lands; visiting all buddha-lands; traveling in countless worlds; receiving innumerable teachings of Buddhas; manifes ting a body with freedom to metamorphose; producing a far-reaching, univer­ sal voice; serving and providing for countless  Buddhas  in a single instant. What is the reason? To advance in skillfulness in applying teachings, to be able to understand any teaching without depending on another's instructions.

" What is the enlightening beings' abode as the prince of the teaching? Here enlightening beings know ten things well: they know how  sen­ tient beings arc born; they know the origin of affli ctions; they know the continuation of habit energy; they know what techniques arc to be employed; they know innumerable teachings; they understand all modes of dignified behavior; they know the differentiations of the world; they know past and future events; they know how to explain conventional truth; they know how to explain ultimate truth. Here the enlightening beings should study and encourage the study of ten things: the skills proper to a  king of the teaching; the regulations and manners proper to a king of the teaching; the abode of a king of the teaching; th at which a king of the teaching enters into; the contemplations proper to a king of the teaching; the coronation of a king of the teaching;  the power and sustenance  of a king of the teaching;  the fearlessness of a king of the teaching; the repose of a king of the teaching; the praise of a king of the teaching. What is the reason ? To promote progress in nonobstruction of mind, to understand any teaching spontaneously without relying on the instruction of another.

" What is the enlightening beings' abode of coronation? Here the enlightening being perfects ten kinds of knowledge: shaking countless worlds; ill uminating countless worlds; supporting countless worlds; trav-

 

cling to countless worlds; purifying countless worlds; teaching count­ less sentient beings; observing countless sentient beings; knowing the faculties of countless  sentient beings;  causing countless  sentient beings to strive to enter enlightenment; causing countless sentient beings to be harmonized and pacified. This enlightening being's body and physical activities, various manifestations of spiritual powers, past, future, and present knowledge, development of a buddha-land, state of mind, and realm of knowledge arc all unknowable:  even an enlightening being in the station of prince of the teaching cannot know them. Here the enlightening being should promote and study ten kinds  of knowledge proper to Buddhas: knowledge of past,  present,  and future; knowledge of enlightening teachings; knowledge of the harmony of the universe; knowledge of the boundlessness of the universe; knowledge filling all worlds; knowledge illumining all worlds; knowledge supporting all worlds; knowledge of all sentient beings; knowledge of all things; knovvledgc of the infinite Buddhas. What is the reason ? To increase in knowledge of all particulars and all means of liberation and spontane­ ously understand any teaching without depending on the instruction of another. "

Then , due to the spiritual power of the Buddha, in each of the ten directions as many worlds as atoms in ten thousand  buddha-lands quaked in six ways; there rained celestial flowers, celestial incense powder, celestial garlands, celestial perfumes, celestial jewel raiment, celestial jewel clouds, celestial ornaments; celestial music spontaneously played,  with radiant lights and exquisite sounds.  As in this world on the peak of Mt.  Sumeru, in the palace of King Indra,  the ten abodes were expounded and supernatural manifestations appeared,  so also did the same thing transpire in all worlds.  And due to the spiritual power of the Buddha,  in the ten directions,  past  as many  worlds  as atoms in ten thousand buddha-lands, there were  as  many  enlightening beings  as   atoms  in ten  buddha-lands  who  came  here,  filling  the ten directions,  and said these words:  "Excellent,  excellent!  0 Child of Buddha, you have explained  this  teaching  well.  We too all  have the same name, Truth Wisdom,  and the lands we come from arc all called Truth Cloud, and the Buddhas in those  lands  arc all  named Sublime Truth .  In the presence of our Buddhas we too expound the ten abodes, and the congregations and followings, the words  and phrases, the doctrines and principles, arc all like  this,  with no addition or omission.  Receiving  spiritual  power  from the  Buddha, we have come into this assembly to be witnesses for you. As i t is in this assembly, so it is in all the  worlds  there  arc in the  ten directions ."

Then the enlightening being Truth Wisdom,  imbued with the power of the Buddha,  looked over the ten directions,  throughout the cosmos, and spoke these verses:

 

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Seeing the subtle body of the Supremely Wise, Replete with adorning marks and refinements, So honorable and rare to meet,

Enlightening beings boldly make their resolve.

 

Seeing incomparable great spiritual powers,

Hearing tell of mind-reading and appropriate teaching, And the immeasurable sufferings of mundane beings, Enlightening beings thereby first become determined.

 

Hearing the Enlightened Ones , universally supremely honored, Have perfected all meritorious and virtuous qualities,

Like space, not discriminating,

Thereby do enlightening beings develop resolve.

 

The causes and effects of past, present, and future arc called what Is so;

The inherent nature of self and phenomena is called  what  is not so.

Wanting to know the genuine truth

Do enlightening beings therefore arouse their will.

 

All the good and evil deeds there be In past,  future, and present worlds Do they want to know completely;

Therefore enlightening beings arc determined.

 

All meditations, liberations, and concentrations, Defiled and pure, of countless kinds,

They  want  to  know  all-entry,  abiding,  and  exit;

Therefore do enlightening beings arouse their aspiration .

 

According to the sharpness or dullness of beings' facul ties, So arc their powers of e ffort also various;

Wanting to understand and know them all  distinctly, Do enlightening beings therefore arouse determination .

 

Sentient beings have various understandings And their mental inclinations arc each different:

Wanting to know all these innumerable inclinations Do enlightening beings therefore arouse their will.

 

The  realms  of sentient  beings  arc  each  differen t; There is no measure to all the worlds there arc:

Wanting to know completely their substance and nature Do enlightening beings rouse their aspiration.

 

The paths of all fabricated actions Each have a destination;

Wanting to know the true nature of all

Do enlightening beings rouse their determination.

 

The sentient beings of all worlds

Bob and flow according to their deeds, without cease; Wanting to attain the celestial eye to sec them all

Do enlightening beings rouse their will.

 

Such constitutions and such characteristics As there were in past ages

They want to know, as former lives,

So enlightening beings arouse aspiration.

 

The continuity, appearance, and habit energy Of the binding delusions of all sentient beings They  want to know thoroughly  and finally, So enlightening beings thus rouse their will.

 

Of all the various philosophies and theories Which sentient beings may set up

They want to know the worldly truth,

So enlightening beings thus rouse determination.

 

All things  are beyond speech-

Their nature is empty, null, and creates nothing: Wishing to clearly arrive at this truth

Do enlightening beings therefore rouse their will.

 

Wanting to shake the worlds of the ten directions And overturn all the oceans,

Fulfilling the great spiritual powers of the Buddhas, Do enlightening beings rouse determination.

 

Wanting to emit lights from a single pore

That will illumine infinite lands in the ten directions, In each light awakening all,

Do enlightening beings therefore rouse aspiration.

 

Wanting to take inconceivably many buddha-lands And put them in their palms, without moving, Comprehending all is like magic illusions,

So enlightening beings rouse their determination.

 

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Wanting to take the beings of innumerable lands And put them on a hairtip without crowding, Knowing  all  have  no person  and  no  self,

Therefore do enlightening beings arouse their will.

 

Wanting to take drops from the ocean on a hair So as to dry up all the oceans

While specifically knowing the number of drops, Therefore do enlightening beings rouse their aspiration.

 

Reducing entirely to dust

Inconceivable numbers of worlds ,

Wanting to know distinctly the number of particles Do enlightening beings arouse their will.

 

Wanting to comprehend exhaustively

The signs of becoming and decay of all worlds In countless cons past and future

Do enlightening beings rouse their aspiration.

 

Wanting to know all the teachings Of all the Buddhas of all times,

All sel f-enlightened ones and Buddhas' disciples , Do enlightening beings rouse their determination.

 

Wanting to pick up with a single hair Countless, boundless worlds

And know their substances and forms as they arc, Do cnligh tcning beings rouse their will .

 

Wanting to put in a pore Countless mountain chains

And know their sizes as they arc

Do enlightening beings rouse their aspiration.

 

Wanting to preach appropriately to all kinds of beings everywhere With the single subtle voice of tranquility and peace

And cause them all to purely, clearly comprehend, Do enlightening bein gs rouse their determ ination .

 

To utter in a single word

What is spoken by all sentient beings: Wanting to know all their inherent natures Do enlightening beings rouse their will.

 

Producing all spoken sounds of the worlds To make all realize peaceful dispassion:

Wanting to attain such a marvelous  tongue Do enlightening beings rouse their aspiration.

 

Wanting to cause all to see

The signs of becoming and decay of all  worlds And know they are born of conceptions

Do enlightening beings rouse their determination.

 

All worlds in the ten directions

A rc filled with countless Buddhas;

Wanting to know all the teachings of those Buddhas Do enlightening beings arouse their will.

 

Countless bodies of various transformations , Numerous as atoms in all worlds:

Wanting to comprehend they all come from mind Do enlightening beings rouse this determination.

 

Wanting to know in a single thought The measureless, countless Buddhas Of past, future, and present worlds

Do enlightening beings rouse this aspiration.

 

Wanting to expound the one phrase teaching For incalculable eons without exhausting it

Yet have the expressions and nuances be each different Do enlightening beings therefore arouse this will.

 

Wanting to know in a single thought The signs  of cylic births and deaths Of all sentient beings everywhere

Do enlightening beings rouse their aspiration.

 

Wanting to go everywhere unhindered Through physical, verbal, and mental action And comprehend all times are empty and null Do enlightening beings rouse determination.

 

Having thus determined to become enlightened They should be made to go to all lands

To honor and provide for the Enlightened Ones, Whereby to cause them not to regress.

 

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Enlightening beings bravely seeking the Buddha-way Stay in birth and death unwearied

For others extolling what will make them follow the way And thus cause them never to regress.

 

Being honorable leaders in countless lands In the worlds of the ten directions,

Teach like this for the enlightening beings Whereby to cause them not to regress .

 

The supreme, the highest, the foremost, Profound and subtle purest teaching,

Urge enlightening beings to teach to people Whereby to cause them to be rid of a fflictions.

 

The unshakable realm of victory, Peerless in all the worlds,

Always extols for other enlightening beings To cause them not to regress.

 

Buddha is the great powerful leader of the world, Replete with all merits and virtues,

Causing enlightening beings to abide herein, Thereby teaching them to be superior people.

 

To countless, boundless Buddhas' places They can go and draw near,

Always taken in to the company of Buddhas, Thus causing them not to regress.

 

To destroy the wheels of birth and death

And turn the wheel of the pure wonderous teaching Without attachment to any world:

Such is the teaching for enlightening beings.

 

All sentient beings  fall into evil ways Bound and oppressed by measureless pains: To be saviors and reliances for them

Is the teaching for enlightening beings .

 

This  is  enlightening  beings '  abode  of initial  determination: With single-minded will seeking the unexcelled path;

As is the teaching of which I speak, So is the teaching of all the Buddhas.

 

 

In the second abode, of preparing the ground, Enlightening beings should form this thought: "All sentient beings everywhere

I vow to induce  to  follow the Buddhas' teaching. "

 

With a mind to aid them, with compassion, to give them peace and ease,

To establish them securely, with sympathy and acceptance,

Protecting sentient beings, looking upon them as the same  as themselves,

As  teachers  and  as  guides-

Once abiding in these sublime states of mind Next they arc directed to study and learn,

To always enjoy peace and quiet and right meditation, And draw ncar to all good associates.

 

Speaking gently, with no roughness or harshness,

Always speaking appropriately to the situation, without fear, Comprehending the meaning of the teaching and acting in accord, Leaving ignorance and delusion behind,  the mind unmoving: This is the practice of beginning study for enlightenment;

Those who can do these things are true children of the Buddhas.

 

I now explain what they should practice;

Thus should Buddha-children diligently study:

In the third abode of enlightening beings, practice,

They should earnestly contemplate, according to Buddha's teaching, The impermanence, painfulness, and emptiness of all things,

The absence of self,  person, and activity. All things cannot be enjoyed,

None accord with their names, they have no location,

There's nothing of what is conceived, no true reality in them: Those who contemplate thus arc called enlightening beings.

 

Next they arc made to observe the realms of sentient beings And urged to contemplate the elemental cosmos:

All the various differentiations of the worlds

They all should be urged to contemplate and observe.

 

The worlds of the ten directions, and space, Their earth, water, fire, and air,

The realms of desire, form, and formlessness, They arc exhorted to investigate thoroughly.

 

Examining the individual distinctions of those realms, Their substances and natures, exhaustively,

 

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Receiving this teaching, diligently cultivating its practice, Is what is called being true Buddha-children.

 

Enlightening beings in the fourth abode, noble birth, Are born from the teachings of the sages; Comprehending that existents have no existence,

They transcend things and are born in the realm of reality.

 

Their faith in Buddha is firm and unbreakable,

Their dispassionate mind contemplating things is at peace. Whatever beings there be, they comprehend all

Arc essentially false, without true reality.

 

Worlds, lands, actions and rewards, Birth, death, and nirvana are all like this:

Buddha-children, contemplating things this way,

Are born from Buddha-parents and called Buddha-children.

 

To know the accumulation and ful fillment Of all the Buddhas' teachings

In past, present, and future worlds, Thus they study, to the ultimate end.

 

All the enlightened ones of past, present, and future They can contemplate, all equal,

In which various distinctions cannot be found:

Those who meditate thus comprehend the three time frames .

 

If any can practice diligently, according to the teaching, The virtues of this fourth abode

Such as I am now extolling,

They will soon accomplish unsurpassed enlightenment.

 

From here, enlightening beings of the fifth abode, Called the abode of fulfilling skill in means,

Enter deeply into infinite expedient skills, Developing ultimate virtuous action.

 

The virtues produced by enlightening beings A re all to rescue living beings:

Dedicated to aiding and comforting them,

They wholeheartedly pity them and liberate them.

 

Removing difficulties for all beings,

Drawing them out of existences, making them happy,

 

They pacify all, leaving none out,

Making them all turn to nirvana, full of virtue.

 

Sentient beings are boundless,

Incalculable, countless, inconceivably many, And cannot be told of or measured:

Enlightening beings accept this teaching of the Buddha.

 

These Buddha-children  in the fifth abode Develop skillful means to liberate sentient beings; The Saint of Great K nowledge, with all virtues, Enlightens them with teachings like this.

 

In the sixth abode, the ful fillment of right mindfulness, There is no confusion about the inherent nature of things;

Meditating with right mindfulness , detaching from discrimination, One cannot be moved by any god or man.

 

Hearing praise or slander of the Buddhas or their teachings, Of enlightening beings and the practices  they perform,

Or that sentient beings are finite or infinite, Defiled or undefiled, easy or hard to liberate,

Or that the cosmos is great or small, becomes or decays, Or exists or does not, the mind is unmoved:

Past, future, and present, Thinking clearly, always sure; All things are signless,

Insubstantial, without inherent nature, empty, unreal, Like illusions, ]ike dreams, beyond conception:

They always delight in hearing such doctrines.

 

Enlightening beings of the seventh abode of nonregression Never regress in spite of whatever they hear

About  Buddhas,  the  Teaching,  or enlightening  beings­ Whether or not they exist, whether or not they escape, Whether or not there are Buddhas

Past, present, and future,

Whether Buddha-knowledge is finite or infinite,

Whether the past, present, and future are uniform or various. One is many, many are one;

Expression follows meaning, meaning follows expression; Thus do all interdependently become:

This is what those who don't regress should explain. Whether things have signs or are signless,

Whether they have inherent nature or not;

 

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Various distinctions subsume each other:

These people, hearing this , attain the ultimate.

 

Enlightening beings in the eight abode, youthful nature, Fulfill  physical ,  verbal,  and  mental  actions

All pure,  without  mistakes; They are freel y born as they will

And know the inclination of sentient beings, Their various understandings, each different, And all the factors involved therein

And the signs of becoming and decay of all lands. Attaining to wondrous psychic powers of swiftness, They go any\vhere as soon as they think of it: Listening to the teachings from various Buddhas, They praise and practice unflagging.

They comprehend all Buddha-lands, Shaking, supportin g, and contemplating, Going beyond incalculable buddha-lands , They travel in worlds  without number, To ask about innumerable principles; Free to take on any physical form,

Their skill in speech pervades everywhere As they serve countless Buddhas.

 

Enlightening beings in the ninth abode, of the prince, Can sec the ditlcren cc in births of sentient beings; Knowing their afflictions and habits,

They understand which techniques to employ.

Individual differen ces in teachings and in modes of bearing, Dissimilarities of worlds, past and future times ,

In accord with their conventional and ultimate realities, All they know completely, leaving none out.

The skillful set-ups of kings of the teaching,

The doctrines they establish according to the situation, The palaces of kings of teaching and their entries

As well as what is seen therein,

The laws of coronation of the kings of teaching,

Their spiritual capacities, empowerments, and fca rlcssncsses, Their  rooms  of repose,  as  well  as  their  praises-

With th ese they instruct the princes of the teaching, Explaining all this for them, exhaustively,

And causing their minds to have no attachments;

As they comprehend this and cultivate right mindfulness, All the Buddhas appear before them.

 

True Buddha-kings of the tenth abode of coronation Fulfill the unexcelled, foremost teaching.

All the countless worlds in the ten directions

They can cause to quake, and illumine with their light, Maintaining and traveling to all without exception, Fully purifying and adorning them all.

They teach sentient beings without number,

Observing and knowing their faculties completely, Inspiring and training boundless beings too, Causing them all to turn to great enlightenment. Observing all phenomenal realms,

They travel to all lands in the ten directions:

Their embodiments and physical actions there,

Their spiritual powers and metamorphoses, arc unfathomable. The realms of lands of the Buddhas of all times

Even the princes of the teaching cannot understand: The knowledge of all times of the all-seeing, Knowledge understanding all Buddhas' teachings,

Unhindered, boundless knowledge of the realm of realities, Knowledge filling all worlds,

Supporting knowledge illumining the world,

Knowledge comprehending the states of all beings , And the boundless knowledge of true awakening

The Buddhas explain for them, so they will consummate them . Thus the enlightening beings of the ten abodes

Arc all born by transformation from the teachings of the enlightened; Their practices according to the virtues they have

No humans or gods arc able to fatho m.

 

In past, future, and present worlds, boundless arc those Who set their minds to attain buddhahood;

They fill all lands in the ten directions, All determined to become omniscient.

 

Boundless is the totality of all lands;

Boundless  too arc the states of worlds  and beings, Their delusions, actions, and inclinations each different:

Due to them enlightening beings aspire to enlightenment.

 

The very first thought to seck buddhahood Worldlings, or even those

Of the  two  vehicles  cannot  know­ Much less the other virtuous practices .

 

If one can lift with a single hair

All the worlds in the ten directions,

 

 

One can know these Buddha-children's

Progression toward the wisdom of the enlightened ones .

 

If one can drain by drops with a hair

The waters of all oceans in the ten directions, One can know the virtuous deeds

Practiced by these Buddha-children in a single instant.

 

If one can reduce all worlds to dust

And know the specific number of each mote, Such a person alone can see

The path traversed by these Buddha-children.

 

The Buddhas of all places and times,

All self-enlightened ones and Buddhas' disciples, All with various powers of elucidation

Illustrate the mind first bent on enlightenment.

 

The virtues of this aspiration cannot be measured: If all the knowledges filling all  realms  of beings Were to explain together, they could not exhaust it,

Much less the rest of the wondrous practices carried out.