Finding Rest in the Nature of the Mind
Page 12
With these adornments of the world’s four continents,
Make offerings to them.
24. All the riches of delightful things
In surrounding regions and encircling mountains,
All a hundred-millionfold,
And all the buddhafields located in the ten directions,
As numerous as drops of water in the ocean—
Take them all in your imagination,
And to the mighty buddhas and their offspring offer them.
25. The perfect vase, the wishing-tree, and the abundant cow;
The seven attributes of sovereignty,64
The eight auspicious substances,65
And the seven subsidiary precious objects66—
With all these in prodigious quantity,
Make offerings to the holy and compassionate field of worship.
26. With concentrated mind make yet more offerings
Outer, inner, secret, and in vast and endless clouds
That fill the whole of space.
With beauteous clouds of blossom,
Exquisite bright pavilions,
With massing clouds of incense, healing nectar,
Great quantities of splendid lamps, of food, and melody,
With choruses of praise with tunes of infinite variety,
Make offerings to them.
27. Endless are these clouds of mind-imagined offerings.
Now add to them the offering clouds spread forth
By various goddesses of offering
Of charm, of garlands, and of precious song and dance.
May all the buddhas and their bodhisattva heirs be pleased.
28. Evil actions and defilements,
All the wrongs that you have done
Through habits gained from time without beginning—
Confess them all and cleanse them,
For they are causes of your wandering in existence.
29. Let the boundless mass of merit
That wandering beings gather
Be your constant object of rejoicing.
And to liberate all beings, leaving none aside,
Request the buddhas and their heirs
To turn the wheel of Dharma unsurpassed.
30. And till the ocean of saṃsāra has been emptied,
Pray that they will stay forever
And not pass beyond all sorrow.
Through the merit of this prayer,
Request that you and every being
Come, all without exception, to the state of buddhahood.
31. Just as when a sheet of cloth is cleansed and later dyed,
Its colors will be bright and clear,
Likewise when the mind is cleansed
Through such a preparation,
The supreme attitude is clearly born.
The wholesome strength accruing
From this prayer in seven branches
Is unlimited and, like the dharmadhātu,
Permeates the vast abyss of space.
32. Take refuge three times in the Triple Gem
Of Buddha, Dharma, and Supreme Assembly,
And then proclaim:
“O Protectors, you and all your offspring, think of me!
Just as all the buddhas of the past, together with their heirs,
Have brought forth the awakened mind,
And in the precepts of the bodhisattvas lived and trained,
Likewise, for the benefit of beings,
I will bring to birth the awakened mind,
And in those precepts I will live and train myself.
I will carry over those who have not fully crossed,
And liberate all those who are not free,
I will bring relief to those not yet relieved:67
All beings will I place in buddhahood.”
33. Thrice by day and thrice by night,
Strive thus to cultivate the twofold bodhichitta.
Engender with the first enunciation
Bodhichitta in intention,
Then with the second, active bodhichitta.
And with the third one make the two both pure and firm.
34. “From this day forward, I will be
The ground of sustenance for every being.
I assume the name of bodhisattva,
Heir and offspring of the Conqueror.
And in saṃsāra fearlessly,
I will secure the good of wandering beings.
Constantly, with diligence, I will bring them only benefit
And thus make meaningful this human life of mine.”
35. In the earth of such a pure and virtuous mind,
The shoots of twofold bodhichitta
Are perfectly engendered.
Strive by every means to hold them,
Keep them pure, and make them grow.
36. “All the sufferings of beings I will take upon myself;
My happiness I give to them to bring them joy.
Until they gain enlightenment, may they never lose such bliss.”
With such thoughts train yourself, and turn by turn,
Give them all your happiness, their sorrows take upon yourself.
These are the precepts of bodhichitta in intention.
Likewise train in the four boundless attitudes.
Eradicate whatever acts against them;
Place a guard upon your mind.
The precepts, then, of active bodhichitta
Are the practice of the six transcendent virtues.
Strive therein, removing all opposing forces.
At all times, mindfully, with watchful introspection,
And with attentive care remove your negativities
And gather stores of merit ocean-vast.
37. Train in the two bodhichittas without spoiling them.
Beginning with wrong view,
There are the deeds that constitute the downfalls of a king.68
Beginning with the laying waste of towns,
There are the five deeds that are downfalls of a minister.69
Eight downfalls are then linked with common people;70
Then there are the two that all may perpetrate.71
All together, therefore, there are twenty downfalls.
These evils and attendant faults should all be known.72
To keep oneself from all these things,
To be without these downfalls and these faults,
To train oneself in all concordant virtue:
All of these, it should be understood,
Are precepts of the bodhisattvas.
38. Four black actions are, in brief, to be rejected;
Four white actions should be carefully adopted.
To deceive those worthy of respect,
To cause regret for what is not to be regretted,
To speak to holy beings with surly and unpleasant words,
And to play others false with cunning and duplicity—
These are the four black actions that should be rejected.
39. To follow holy beings and extol their qualities,
Inciting others to authentic virtue,
To take the bodhisattvas as true buddhas,
And with a noble and superior attitude
To bring about the happiness and benefit of beings—
These are the four white actions that should be adopted.
40. Regarding then the precepts of those bodhisattvas,
For whom the good of others is of greater import than their own,
The seven nonvirtues of both deed and word are—
If performed for others’ good—allowed.
For they are virtuous in fact.
By contrast, the three sins of mind can never be permitted.
Virtues practiced for one’s own sake
As the means to gaining one’s own happiness and peace
Are downfalls for the bodhisattvas, Buddha’s heirs,
Whereas the Conqueror has clearly said
That all “nonvirtues” done for other
s’ benefit
Are things to be performed.
41. Of bodhisattvas there exist three kinds.
Those who seek to free themselves
And, having done so, other beings,
Are bodhisattvas in the manner of a king;
Those who wish to free themselves and others
In a single stroke are bodhisattvas
In the manner of a ferryman;
While those who seek their own peace
Only after others have been freed
Are bodhisattvas in the manner of a shepherd.
The first attain their freedom after thirty-three
Immeasurable kalpas, the second after seven,
And the third when three have run their course.
This distinction, so the sūtras have declared,
Reflects the different power of these bodhisattvas.
42. The children of the Buddha
Train themselves in every field
And chiefly in the six transcendent virtues.
43. When bodhisattvas see the wretched poverty of beings,
They give them countless things:
Food and clothing, horses, carts, and elephants.
Greater giving is the gift of their own sons and daughters.
And the greatest generosity is the gift
Of their own body: donating head or eyes or other parts.
They bring help to beings with material assistance
And with the gift of Dharma.
Destroying their attachments,
They produce the wealth of others.
44. Superior discipline harnesses the mind stream,
Bringing peace and virtue to the mind.
Through wisdom is the twofold goal perfected.
Avoiding evil, doing good,
And working for the benefit of beings:
These three disciplines are kept by bodhisattvas at all times.
Householders maintain the vows of upāsaka and upavāsa73
And train in bodhichitta in intention and in action.
For those who have gone forth to homelessness
There are the vows of bhikṣu, and of śrāmaṇera,74
And the vows of female novices,75
And, furthermore, the trainings of the twofold bodhichitta.
Thus is discipline maintained.
45. Three kinds of patience must the bodhisattvas practice:
Making light of various harms and pains from outside or within;
Endurance, through compassion and reflection on the teachings;
And patience that is “objectless,” that is, concerning emptiness.
46. There is no greater negativity than angry hate.
With patience no austerity or merit can compare.
Therefore strive persistently and by every means
To practice patience and to quench
The blazing conflagration of your angry hate.
47. Countless are the hostile causes of your injuries.
You cannot shift them all, save one or two.
And yet by taming of your mind alone,
All those harms are likewise tamed.
Earnestly maintain therefore
Your mind-subduing discipline.
48. It’s thanks to all your injuries
That patience you will perfectly achieve.
From all such hurts, compassion, love,
And other qualities are also born.
Your enemies are thus your friends
Who, like your teachers, help you to enlightenment.
Patiently rely on them with joy and with respect.
49. Your injuries do not arise without your being present.
The two, like cry and echo, are connected.
You once did harm, now harm has come to you:
The fruit of your past actions and attendant circumstance.
That it should befall you is entirely fitting.
It is the means whereby past action is exhausted.
So just forbear and tame your mind by every means.
50. When unwanted things befall you,
Rid yourself of your displeasure.
For if there is a remedy,
What need is there for it?
And if no change is possible,
What point is there in useless irritation?
Therefore simply bear with all that may befall you.
51. When examined, there is only space-like emptiness.76
There’s no happiness or sadness and no loss or gain.
There is neither good nor bad—
What use is there in such dualistic grasping?
Strive to bring all things into the state of evenness.
52. For one who takes delight in virtuous deeds,
A joy that is of diligence the very essence,
Endless virtues gather like the clouds,
Like bees that throng a bed of fragrant lotuses.
53. Three kinds of laziness
Are contraries of diligence:
An inclination to unwholesome ways,
Discouragement, and self-contempt.
These prevent accomplishment of virtue
And are source of every fault:
All excellence declines; decay sets in.
54. The diligent are praised by all the world.
The diligent achieve their every wish.
The diligent increase their store of excellence.
The diligent will pass beyond all sorrow.
55. Perfectly abide by all the lofty virtues of the world
And by that path that leads beyond the world—
That is, by virtues both defiled and undefiled.
Strive with effort to abandon all nonvirtue,
To accomplish only good.
Increasingly exert yourself and go from strength to strength.
Work tirelessly until enlightenment is gained.
56. Those who wish for concentration
Must leave aside distraction and all busy entertainments.
The pleasure that you take in things is like the autumn clouds:
By nature it is transient, unstable like a lightning flash.
Possessions do not stay; they are like castles in the clouds.
Never put your trust in them; abandon them
And quickly go to peaceful forest groves.
57. Desires are the parents of all ruin:
The search for wealth, the gathering and preserving
Are themselves a source of suffering.
Arrogance, avidity, greed, and selfishness increase.
Cravings lead you to the lower realms
And bar the way to happy states.
So lessen your desires and cultivate contentment.
58. In proportion to the number of its wounds
The body is traversed by suffering.
In proportion to the quantity of wealth
So much suffering there is and even more.
Unbounded happiness keeps company with few possessions:
Victim of but small aggression,
You have no fear of enemies and thieves;
Praised by all, you dwell upon the noble path;
Little do you have to do, small labor is there for your mind.
Train constantly therefore to have but few desires.
59. Consorting with the childish77
Is the source of boundless defects.
Evil actions grow and sin will naturally defile you.
Virtue withers; strife and the afflictions grow.
They are ungrateful and are difficult to please.
Borne away by busy entertainments,
Much of their behavior is devoid of sense.
Like fire, like snakes, like packs of predators—
Such are childish folk; run far away from them!
60. Until you gain stability of mind,
You are completely led astray by outer things.
Joyfully remain therefore in forest solitudes.
Until, amid the sounds of tearful
sorrow,
Four men bear away your corpse,
Seek to live in peaceful solitude,
And vanquish the distractions of your mind and body.
61. In the forests, streams are pure,
And flowers and fruits are many.
Many cliffs and caves there are
And dwellings made of stone.
The trees bow low and in their shadow
Flocks of birds and beasts disport themselves,
And buzzing bees adorn the flowers on the riverbanks.
62. In such pleasant solitudes, sweetened with the scent
Of wholesome plants and frankincense,
Growth in concentration comes quite naturally.
In every season, places such as these
Are lovely like a lake of lotuses.
As fiery summer yields to autumn,
Autumn then to winter, winter then to spring,
There comes a knowledge of impermanence
And sadness with the world.
63. Seeing then the bones that lie about the charnel grounds,
You will know that your own body
Is the same in nature:
It will fall apart, disintegrate.
And with the understanding
That there is no essence in compounded things,
All pleasure in saṃsāra will desert you.
Released from strife and from defilement
Your mind will always be in peace and bliss
And apt to wholesome ways.
64. Such forest dwellings have been praised by all the buddhas.
To take but seven steps toward such solitudes
With a mind revolted with saṃsāra
Has such merit that its tiniest part
Exceeds comparison with all the offerings made
To all the buddhas many as the grains of sand
That in the Ganges lie, and for as many aeons.
Live therefore in peaceful forest groves.
65. With crossed legs take your seat in such a place.
Remain with concentrated mind,
Not stirring from the state of meditative equipoise.
Thus you will accomplish various concentrations:
The one that gives delight to childish beings,
Then the concentration clearly discerning,
And finally the sublime concentration of the Tathāgatas.
The names of these three concentrations
Should be understood. The first concerns
The four samādhis and four formless concentrations78
Pursued by those who have not entered on the Buddhist path.