The embellishing features of each particular state
No sentient beings can comprehend.
Diamond is the ground, indestructible—
Vast, pure, level, and even.
Nets of pearls hang in the sky,
All around the enlightenment tree.
The infinite colors of the ground are all distinct;
Gold dust is spread all around,
Flowers and jewels strewn about,
All beautifying Buddha’s throne.
Earth spirits dance with joy,
With infinite manifestations in an instant,
Creating clouds of adornments everywhere,
While remaining reverently gazing at Buddha.
Jewel lamps, immensely large, shining extremely bright,
Fragrant flames and swirling light never ending,
These manifestations differ according to the time;
Earth spirits make offerings of these.
All the adornments existing
In every single land
Appear at this enlightenment scene
By the mystic power of Buddha.
Then the great enlightening being Jewel Light Topknot, empowered by the Buddha, surveyed the oceanic masses at the site of enlightenment and said,
When the Buddha was cultivating practice in the past,
He saw the various buddha-lands, all fully complete.
The lands he saw this way were endless:
All of them appear at this enlightenment scene.
The Buddha’s enormous spiritual power
Sheds light showering gems everywhere:
This treasury of jewels is scattered over the site,
Beautifying the ground all around.
Buddha’s blessings and mystical powers
Adorn everywhere with precious gemstones;
The ground and the enlightenment tree
Alternately emit light and sound expressing the truth.
Precious lamps, infinite, rain from the sky,
Studded with regal sapphires,
All emitting subtle sounds speaking truth:
This the earth spirits cause to appear.
The jewel ground manifests ubiquitous clouds of light,
Jewel lamps blaze bright as lightning,
Jewel nets hung afar cover above,
Jewel boughs variously draped make decorations.
Look over the entire ground—
Adorned with various beautiful jewels,
It shows beings the ocean of actions,
Causing them to comprehend the real nature of things.
The enlightenment trees in all the spheres
Of all the Buddhas everywhere
All appear at the enlightenment site,
Expounding the Buddha’s pure teaching.
In accord with the inclinations of beings’ minds
The ground produces wonderful sounds,
Conforming to what the Buddha would preach at his seat,
Each of the teachings fully explained.
The ground constantly produces subtle, fragrant light;
In the light are chanted pure clear sounds:
If any beings are able to receive the teaching,
It causes them to hear, and their afflictions vanish.
Each adornment is fully complete
And could not be described in a million years.
The Buddha’s mystic power extends everywhere:
That’s why the ground is beautifully pure.
Then the great enlightening being Bold Intelligence of the Sun of Knowledge, empowered by the Buddha, looked over all the multitudes assembled on the scene and said in verse,
Buddha sits in the hall of truth with steady gaze,
Brilliantly lighting up the palace.
In accordance with the dispositions of all beings
His body appears throughout all lands.
The Buddha’s palace is beyond conception,
Adorned with stores of precious jewels,
Each decoration shining with light;
Sitting there, the Buddha is most conspicuous of all.
With pillars of jewels of various hues,
Chimes of real gold hanging like clouds,
Jewel stairways in rows on four sides,
The gates open in every direction.
Arrays of banners of flowery silk,
Jewel trees with decorated branches and boughs,
Garlands of pearls draped on all sides;
The Ocean of Wisdom sits calmly therein.
Nets of jewels, exquisite fragrant banners,
Brilliant lamps hung like clouds;
Covered with various decorations,
The world-transcending true knower sits within.
Everywhere he manifests clouds of mystic displays,
Those clouds teaching throughout the world,
Harmonizing and calming down all sentient beings:
All this appears from the Buddha’s palace.
Trees of gems bloom with fine flowers
Having no peer in all the world;
The embellishments of the lands of all times
Reveal their reflections therein.
Everywhere there are heaps of jewels;
Their light blazes in countless hues.
Gates and doors open at intervals all around;
The beams and ceiling are especially beautiful.
The Buddha’s palace is inconceivable;
Its pure radiance contains every form—
In it appear all palaces,
A Buddha sitting in each.
The Buddha’s palace is boundless;
The Naturally Awakened One abides therein.
All the masses from all ten directions
Come gather around the Buddha.
Then the great enlightening being Seal of Knowledge Made of Jewels of Inconceivable Qualities, empowered by the Buddha, looked over all the oceans of beings gathered at the scene of enlightenment and said in verse,
The Buddha cultivated an ocean of blessings,
Many as the atoms in all lands;
Produced by the powers of his mind and will,
The enlightenment site is pure, without any taint.
Wish-fulfilling jewels are the roots of the trees,
Diamond are their trunks;
Nets of jewels cover them
And a rich fragrance surrounds.
The tree branches are adorned by all kinds of gems,
The limbs are of precious stone, soaring high;
The branches and twigs hang thickly, like heavy clouds:
Underneath sits Buddha on the enlightenment site.
The site of enlightenment is unthinkably vast:
The trees surround it, covering all;
The dense foliage and luxurious flowers mutually cover and reflect,
While in the flowers grow gemstone fruits.
From among all the branches emanate beautiful lights
Illuminating the whole enlightenment scene;
Pure, bright, inexhaustible,
This appears by the power of Buddha’s vows.
Banks of precious stones are the flowers,
Reflections shining like patterned clouds;
The encircling trees perfume all around:
The enlightenment site’s adorned everywhere.
See in the site of the Buddha’s enlightenment
Lotuses and jewel nets, all pure;
Flames of light in whorls appear from here,
Music of bells and chimes comes from the clouds.
All the wonderfully adorned trees
Existing in all lands
Appear in the enlightenment tree;
Buddha, beneath it, sheds all defilement.
The site of enlightenment is made of vast blessings;
The tree branches rain jewels without end.
In the jewels appear enlightening beings,
Going everywhere to serve the Buddhas.
The realm of the
Buddhas is inconceivable;
They cause all the trees there to produce music—
In accord with the enlightened way developed by Buddha,
The hosts of beings, hearing the music, can see it all.
Then the great enlightening being Hundred Eyes Lotus Topknot, empowered by the Buddha, surveyed all the assemblies at the scene of enlightenment and said,
All the jewels emit wondrous sounds
Extolling the names of Buddhas of all times.
The deeds of those Buddhas’ mystical powers
Can all be viewed in this enlightenment scene.
Flowers bloom in profusion, like parti-colored cloth;
Clouds of light flow in all directions:
The spirits of enlightenment trees bring these to the Buddha,
With single-minded devotion making offerings of them.
Flames of jewel light all form banners;
From the banners burst forth sublime fragrances,
The fragrances perfuming all the congregations—
Therefore the place is all beautifully pure.
Lotuses hang down, with light of golden hue,
The light intoning clouds of Buddha’s wondrous voice,
Covering all the lands in all directions,
Extinguishing the fires of sentient beings’ torments.
The independent power of Enlightenment Tree King
Constantly radiates light extremely pure;
The assembled masses in the ten directions have no bounds,
Yet all of them appear reflected in the enlightenment scene.
The light flames of the jewel branches are like bright lamps;
Their light emanates sound declaring the great vow—
What the Buddha practiced of yore in all states of being
Is fully expounded therein.
Under the tree are spirits, as many as atoms in the land,
All staying together at this enlightenment site,
Each before the Buddha’s enlightenment tree
Continuously expounding the liberation doors.
Buddha practiced many deeds of yore,
Making offerings to all the enlightened:
His practices as well as his fame
All appear within the jewels.
Everything in the scene produces wonderful sound—
The sound is vast, pervading the ten directions;
If any beings can hear the teaching,
It civilizes them and makes them pure.
The Buddha in the past cultivated
Infinite embellishments, all;
All the adornments, innumerable kinds,
Of every enlightenment tree.
Then the great enlightening being Light Spheres of Golden Flames, empowered by the Buddha, looked over all the assemblies at the scene of enlightenment and said,
Buddha cultivated enlightening practices,
Comprehending all things,
Clarifying the true and the false;
This is the Buddha’s first power of knowledge.
As in the past he observed the nature of all things equally,
He clarified the ocean of all doings:
Thus now in the nets of light
He can tell it all, throughout all quarters.
In past eons he developed great techniques
For guiding beings according to their faculties,
Causing all their minds to be pure;
Thus was Buddha able to perfect the knowledge of potentials.
As the understanding of sentient beings is not the same,
And their inclinations and actions are different,
He teaches them according to their needs:
Buddha can do this by his powers of knowledge.
Comprehending the oceans of lands in all directions,
All the worlds of beings they contain,
Buddha’s knowledge is equanimous, like space:
All he can show within a pore.
Buddha knows the outcome of all acts,
Comprehending past, present, and future instantly;
The lands, ages, beings, and times of all regions:
All he can reveal and make clear.
Meditation states, liberations, and powers are boundless,
And so are trances and other techniques:
Buddha shows them all to beings, gladdening them,
Causing all to wash away the darkness of afflictions.
Buddha’s knowledge is unhindered, comprehending all times;
All he shows in an instant, in his hair pores:
The Buddhas’ teachings, lands, and sentient beings:
All these appear from his recollective power.
Buddha’s eye is as vast as space;
He sees the entire cosmos.
In the unimpeded state, with unequalled function,
All Buddhas can tell of this eye.
All sentient beings are totally bound;
All their intoxications and habits
Buddha causes to be removed by his methods,
Appearing throughout the world.
Then the great enlightening being Universal Sound of the Cosmos, empowered by the Buddha, looked over the assembled beings at the site of enlightenment and said,
The Buddha’s awesome spiritual powers pervade the ten directions,
Their grandiose displays making no discrimination;
The transcendent means, enlightening practices
Fulfilled in the past—all they show.
Of old he conceived compassion for beings
And practiced transcendent generosity,
Wherefore his body is most sublime,
Gladdening all who see.
In boundless eons past
He cultivated transcendent self-control,
So acquired a pure body all-pervading,
Extinguishing the various torments of the world.
He cultivated patience and tolerance, pure,
Faithful to truth, without discrimination;
So his physical form is perfect,
Shedding light in all directions.
He strove for boundless eons past,
Able to overthrow the barriers of sentient beings;
Therefore he can emanate bodies in all directions,
All appearing under enlightenment trees.
Buddha practiced, for long, long eons,
Oceans of meditations, all of them pure:
Thus he delights his beholders,
Removing all taint of afflictions.
Buddha mastered the ocean of practices,
Fulfilling transcendent wisdom;
Therefore he sheds light illumining all,
Destroying the darkness of ignorance.
Edifying beings by various means,
He causes their practice to succeed;
Traveling everywhere in the ten directions
For endless eons, he never rests.
Buddha practiced for boundless eons
Purifying and mastering transcendent vows;
Therefore he appears throughout the world
Saving beings forever and ever.
Buddha cultivated extensively for countless eons
Transcendent power to deal with all truths;
Thus he has perfected natural power,
Appearing throughout all lands.
Buddha cultivated all-sided knowledge;
The nature of his omniscience is like space:
Therefore he has unhindered power
Illuminating all lands in the ten directions.
Then the great enlightening being Cloud Sound Pure Moon, empowered by the Buddha, looked over all the beings gathered at the enlightenment site and said,
The realm of his spiritual powers is equal to space—
No beings do not perceive them.
The stages he perfected in his past practice
Are fully explained in the jewels.
Striving purely for countless eons,
He entered the first sta
ge, that of extreme joy;
Producing the vast knowledge of the cosmos,
He saw countless Buddhas of the ten directions.
In the stage of purity amidst all things
He observed standards of purity numerous as beings;
Having practiced extensively for many eons,
He served the boundless ocean of Buddhas.
Accumulating virtue in the stage of radiance,
His store of calm was firm and enduring;
The vast cloud of teachings he had already learned:
So it is told in the gemstone fruits.
The incomparable stage of clear intellect like an ocean of flames—
Comprehending situations, he gave rise to compassion,
With an equal physical presence in all lands:
These accomplishments of the Buddha are all expounded.
Universal store of equanimity—the difficult to conquer stage;
According with action and stillness, without contradiction,
The realm of the Buddhist teaching is completely impartial;
How the Buddha purified it, the jewels can tell.
Far-reaching practice—the stage of oceanic wisdom,
Totally comprehending all aspects of the teachings,
Appearing in all lands like space:
The voice of these teachings comes from the trees.
The body of space, pervading the cosmos,
The lamp of wisdom, shining on all beings,
All practical methods completely purified:
His past long journey he causes to be told.
Adorned by execution of all vows,
Infinite oceans of lands are all pure;
Undisturbed by any discrimination,
This peerless stage is fully explained.
Mystic powers of infinite scope
Enter the illumining power of the teachings;
This pure stage of beneficent wisdom
And its eons of practice are fully revealed.
The far-reaching tenth stage of clouds of teaching
Engulfs everything, pervading all space;
The realm of the Buddha is told in the voice,
This voice is the Buddha’s spiritual power.
Then the great enlightening being Banner of Light of Benevolent Courage, empowered by the Buddha, surveyed the ten directions and said,
Innumerable sentient beings are in the congregation;
Their various minds of faith are all pure;
All can enter into understanding of Buddha’s wisdom,
And understand all states which adorn it.
Each initiates pure vows and puts them into practice;
All have made offerings to innumerable beings.
They are able to see the real true body of Buddha
As well as all his mystical displays.
Some can see the Buddha’s reality-body,
The Flower Ornament Scripture Page 20