Turning the wheel of teaching,
Natureless, with nothing turned,
The Guide expounds expedients.
Having no doubt as to truth,
Forever ending mental fabrication,
Not producing a discriminating mind:
This is awareness of enlightenment.
Comprehending different things,
Not sticking to verbal explanations,
With no “one” or “manifold”:
This is following Buddha’s teaching.
In many there’s no oneness;
Neither has one plurality:
Abandoning both of these,
Comprehensively enter the qualities of buddhahood.
Sentient beings and their lands
Are all completely null;
With no reliance or discrimination
One can enter Buddha’s enlightenment.
Of sentient beings and lands
Unity or difference cannot be found;
Insightfully seeing like this
Is called knowing the meaning of Buddha’s teaching.
Then the light beams passed a million worlds and illuminated a billion worlds in each of the ten directions. In all of those worlds were a hundred billion continents called Jambudvipa, and so on, including a hundred billion heavens of the ultimate of form—everything in all those realms was clearly revealed. In each of the Jambudvipa continents the Buddha was seen sitting on a lotus bank lion throne surrounded by as many enlightening beings as atoms in ten buddha-lands; and in each one, due to the spiritual force of the Buddha, a great enlightening being from each of the ten directions, each accompanied by as many enlightening beings as atoms in ten buddha-lands, came to the Buddha; those great enlightening beings were called Manjushri, etc., the lands they came from were called Golden, etc., and the Buddhas they served were called Immutable Knowledge, etc. Then the Manjushris in all those places, each in the presence of the Buddha in that place, all simultaneously spoke out, saying these verses:
Wisdom peerless, teaching boundless,
Gone beyond the sea of existences, reaching the other shore,
Life span and radiance without compare:
This is the power of the Virtuous One’s skill.
Clearly understanding all the Buddhas’ teachings,
Always observing all times tirelessly,
Even when perceiving objects, not discriminating:
This is the power of the Inconceivable One’s skill.
Contemplating sentient beings without any concept thereof,
Observing all existences without such ideas,
Always abiding in meditative stillness yet not binding the mind:
This is the power of skill of unhindered wisdom.
Skillfully comprehending all things,
With right mindfulness diligently cultivating the path of nirvana,
Enjoying liberation, divorcing partiality:
This is the power of skill of the peaceful, dispassionate one.
If any can exhort to complete enlightenment,
Heading for all-knowledge of the cosmos,
And influence beings to enter into truth:
This is the power of skill of dwelling in the Buddha-mind.
Able to enter into all truths the Buddhas teach
With vast knowledge and wisdom unobstructed,
Able to arrive at every destination:
This is the power of skill of cultivation of freedom.
Always abiding in nirvana, like empty space,
Able to transform and appear anywhere at will:
This is creating form based on the formless,
The power of skill of the one who reaches the hard to reach.
Day and night, day and month, year and era,
The signs of the beginning and end, formation and disintegration of the worlds:
Remembering and thoroughly knowing these
Is the power of skill of knowledge of measures of time.
All living beings have birth and death;
Material and immaterial, thinking or unthinking:
Knowing all the various names
Is the power of skill of abiding in the inconceivable.
Of past, present, and future times,
Understanding all that’s said,
Yet knowing all times are equal:
This is the power of skill of incomparable understanding.
Then the light beams passed a billion worlds and illuminated ten billion worlds in each of the ten directions. In all of those worlds were a hundred billion continents called Jambudvipa, and so on, including a hundred billion heavens of the ultimate of form—everything in all those realms was clearly revealed. In each of the Jambudvipa continents the Buddha was seen sitting on a lotus bank lion throne surrounded by as many enlightening beings as atoms in ten buddha-lands; and in each one, due to the spiritual force of the Buddha, ten great enlightening beings from the ten directions, each accompanied by as many enlightening beings as atoms in ten buddha-lands, came to the Buddha; those great enlightening beings were called Manjushri, etc., the lands they came from were called Golden, etc., and the Buddhas they served were called Immutable Knowledge, etc. Then the Manjushris in all those places, each in the presence of the Buddha in that place, all simultaneously spoke out, saying these verses:
Having cultivated extensive difficult practices,
Diligently working day and night,
Having crossed the hard to cross, with a lion’s roar,
Teaching all beings—this is the practice.
Sentient beings whirl in the sea of craving and greed,
Shrouded by the web of ignorance, terribly oppressed;
The Most Benevolent bravely cuts it all away,
We vow to also do so—this is the practice.
Worldlings have no control, attached to sense desires;
Falsely discriminating, they suffer myriad pains.
Practicing the Buddhas’ teaching, always control the mind,
Vowing to cross over this—this is the practice.
Sentient beings, attached to self, enter birth and death;
Looking for a limit to this, none can be found.
Serving all the enlightened to obtain the wondrous teaching,
Explain it to others—this is the practice.
Living beings are helpless, wrapped up in sickness,
Forever sunk in evil ways, producing the three poisons,
The fierce flames of a great fire always burning them;
With a pure heart to rescue them, this is the practice.
Sentient beings, confused, have lost the right path;
Always going the wrong way, they enter the house of darkness.
For their sake lighting the lamp of truth,
To be a light forever—this is the practice.
Sentient beings bob and sink in the ocean of existences;
Their troubles are boundless, they have no place to rest.
To make for them an ark of truth
To ferry them over—this is the practice.
Sentient beings are ignorant and don’t see the fundamental;
Confused, foolish, crazed, in the midst of danger and difficulty.
Buddhas pity them and set up a bridge of teaching
With right awareness, to let them climb—this is the practice.
Seeing beings on perilous paths,
Oppressed by the pains of age, illness, and death,
Develop unlimited skill in means
And pledge to save them all—this is the practice.
Hearing the truth, believing without doubt,
Comprehending essential emptiness without shock or fear,
Appearing in all realms in appropriate forms,
Teach all the deluded—this is the practice.
Then the light beams passed ten billion worlds and illumined in all ten directions a hundred billion worlds, a trillion worlds, a hundred trillion worlds, a quadrillion worlds, a hundred quadrillion worlds,
a quintillion worlds, a hundred quintillion worlds; in this way countless, unquantifiable, boundless, imcomparable, uncountable, unaccountable, unthinkable, immeasurable, unspeakable numbers of worlds, to the utmost extent of the realm of space of the cosmos, in all ten directions, were likewise illumined. In all of those worlds were a hundred billion continents called Jambudvipa, and so on, including a hundred billion heavens of the ultimate of form—everything in all those realms was clearly revealed. In each of the Jambudvipa continents the Buddha was seen sitting on a lotus bank lion throne surrounded by as many enlightening beings as atoms in ten buddha-lands; and in each one, due to the spiritual force of the Buddha, a great enlightening being from each of the ten directions, each accompanied by as many enlightening beings as atoms in ten buddha-lands, came to the Buddha; those great enlightening beings were called Manjushri, etc., the lands they came from were called Golden, etc., and the Buddhas they served were called Immutable Knowledge, etc. Then the Manjushris in all those places, each in the presence of the Buddha in that place, all simultaneously spoke out, saying these verses:
In one instant observing measureless eons
Without going, coming, or dwelling,
Thus comprehending the events of past, present, and future,
Buddhas transcend expedients and fulfill ten powers.
With incomparable good repute in all quarters,
Forever out of trouble, always rejoicing,
They go to all lands
To explain such a teaching for all.
For the benefit of beings, they supported the enlightened,
Attaining a comparable result, according to their will;
Readily acknowledging all truths,
They reveal spiritual powers everywhere.
From their first offerings to the enlightened their minds were flexible and patient;
They entered deep meditative concentration and observed the nature of things.
Exhorting all beings to aspire to enlightenment,
Through this they speedily attained the unexcelled reward.
Who seeks truth everywhere with undivided mind
To cultivate virtues to full maturity,
Eliminating all duality of being and nonbeing:
Such people truly see the Buddha.
Going to all lands in all directions,
Expounding the sublime teaching for the welfare of the many,
Abiding in reality without any wavering:
Such people’s virtues are the same as Buddha.
The cycles of wondrous teaching turned by the Buddhas
Are all aspects of enlightenment;
If one, having heard, can realize the nature of things,
Such a person will always see Buddha.
If one does not see the Ten Powered as empty, phantomlike,
Though one sees one sees not, as though blind.
Discriminating and grasping forms one does not see Buddha;
Having finally divorced attachment, then can one see.
Sentient beings are variously different, according to their actions;
In the ten directions, inside and out, it’s hard to see them all:
The Buddha-body’s unhindered, pervading all directions,
And cannot be completely seen, in just the same way.
Like unto the infinite worlds in space,
Without coming or going, pervading the ten directions,
Becoming and disintegrating having no resting place,
So does Buddha pervade space in the same way.
BOOK TEN
An Enlightening Being Asks for Clarification
THEN THE ENLIGHTENING BEING Manjushri asked the enlightening being Chief of the Awakened, “Since the nature of mind is one, what is the reason for seeing the existence of various differences, such as going to good or bad tendencies, having complete or imperfect faculties, differences in birth, beauty and ugliness, pain and pleasure, suffering and happiness? Why is it that activity doesn’t know mind, mind doesn’t know activity, reception doesn’t know consequence, consequence doesn’t know reception, mind doesn’t know reception, reception doesn’t know mind, cause doesn’t know condition, condition doesn’t know cause, knowledge doesn’t know object, object doesn’t know knowledge?”
Chief of the Awakened answered in verse, saying,
Benevolent One, you ask the meaning of this
To awaken all the ignorant.
I will answer according to the essence:
Listen clearly, Benevolent One.
Phenomena have no function
And have no individual nature;
Therefore all of them
Do not know one another.
Like the waters in a river,
Their rushing flow races past,
Each unaware of the others:
So it is with all things.
It’s also like a mass of fire,
Blazing flames shoot up at once,
Each not knowing the others:
Phenomena are also thus.
Also like a continuous wind
Fanning and drumming whatever it hits,
Each unaware of the other:
So also are all things.
Also like the various levels of earth,
Each based on another,
Yet unaware of the others:
Thus are all phenomena.
Eye, ear, nose, tongue, body,
Mind, intellect, the faculties of sense:
By these one always revolves,
Yet there is no one, nothing that revolves.
The nature of things is fundamentally birthless,
Yet they appear to have birth;
Herein there is no revealer,
And nothing that’s revealed.
Eye, ear, nose, tongue, body,
Mind, intellect, the faculties of sense:
All are void and essenceless;
The deluded mind conceives them to exist.
Seen as they truly are,
All are without inherent nature.
The eye of reality is not conceptual:
This seeing is not false.
Real or unreal,
False or not false,
Mundane or transmundane:
There’s nothing but descriptions.
Then Manjushri asked Chief in Riches of Truth, “Since all sentient beings are not sentient beings, why does the Buddha appear in their midst for their sake and teach them according to the time, according to their lives, according to their species, according to their actions, according to their understandings, according to their philosophies, according to their inclinations, according to their expedients, according to their thoughts, according to their observations?” Chief in Riches answered him in verse:
This is the realm of the learned
Who delight in ultimate peace.
I will explain for you;
Now please listen clearly.
Analyze the body within:
Who herein is the “self”?
Who can understand this way
Will comprehend the existence or not of the self.
This body is a temporary set-up
And has no place of abode;
Who understands this body
Will have no attachment to it.
Considering the body carefully,
Everything will be clearly seen:
Knowing all the elements are unreal,
One will not create mental fabrications.
Based on whom does life arise,
And based on whom does it disappear?
Like a turning wheel of fire,
Its beginning and end can’t be known.
The wise can observe with insight
The impermanence of all existents;
All things are empty and selfless,
Forever apart from all signs.
All consequences are born from actions;
Like dreams, they’re not truly real.
From moment to moment they continually die aw
ay,
The same as before and after.
Of all things seen in the world
Only mind is the host;
By grasping forms according to interpretation
It becomes deluded, not true to reality.
All philosophies in the world
Are mental fabrications;
There has never been a single doctrine
By which one could enter the true essence of things.
By the power of perceiver and perceived
All kinds of things are born;
They soon pass away, not staying,
Dying out instant to instant.
Then Manjushri asked Chief of the Precious, “All sentient beings equally have four gross physical elements, with no self and nothing pertaining to self—how come there is the experience of pain and pleasure, beauty and ugliness, internal and external goodness, little sensation and much sensation? Why do some experience consequences in the present, and some in the future? And all this while there is no good or bad in the realm of reality.” Chief of the Precious answered in verse:
According to what deeds are done
Do their resulting consequences come to be;
Yet the doer has no existence:
This is the Buddha’s teaching.
Like a clear mirror,
According to what comes before it,
Reflecting forms, each different,
So is the nature of actions.
And like a skillful magician
Standing at a crossroads
Causing many forms to appear,
So is the nature of actions.
Like a mechanical robot
Able to utter various sounds,
Neither self nor not self:
So is the nature of actions.
And like different species of birds
All emerging from eggs,
Yet their voices not the same:
So is the nature of actions.
Just as in the womb
All organs are developed,
Their substance and features coming from nowhere:
So is the nature of actions.
Also like being in hell—
The various painful things
All come from nowhere:
So is the nature of actions.
Also like the sovereign king
With seven supreme treasures—
Their provenance cannot be found:
So is the nature of actions.
And as when the various worlds
Are burnt by a great conflagration,
This fire comes from nowhere:
So does the nature of actions.
Then Manjushri asked Chief of the Virtuous, “Since that which the Buddhas realize is but one truth, how is it that they expound countless teachings, manifest countless lands, edify countless beings, speak in countless languages, appear in countless bodies, know countless minds, demonstrate countless mystic powers, are able to shake countless worlds, display countless extraordinary adornments, reveal boundless different realms of objects, whereas in the essential nature of things these different characteristics cannot be found at all?” Chief of the Virtuous answered in verse:
The Flower Ornament Scripture Page 38