The Flower Ornament Scripture

by Thomas Cleary

  The meaning of what you ask

  Is deep and hard to fathom.

  The wise are able to know it,

  Always delighting in Buddha’s virtues.

  Just as the nature of earth is one

  While beings each live separately,

  And the earth has no thought of oneness or difference,

  So is the truth of all Buddhas.

  Just as the nature of fire is one,

  While able to burn all things

  And the flames make no distinction,

  So is the truth of all Buddhas.

  Just as the ocean is one

  With millions of different waves

  Yet the water is no different:

  So is the truth of all Buddhas.

  And as the nature of wind is one

  While able to blow on all things

  And wind has no thought of oneness or difference:

  So is the truth of all Buddhas.

  Also like great thunderheads

  Raining all over the earth,

  The raindrops make no distinctions:

  So is the truth of all Buddhas.

  Just as the element earth, while one,

  Can produce various sprouts,

  Yet it’s not that the earth is diverse:

  So is the truth of all Buddhas.

  Just as the sun without clouds overcast

  Shines throughout the ten directions,

  Its light beams having no difference:

  So is the truth of all Buddhas.

  And just as the moon in the sky

  Is seen by all in the world

  Yet the moon doesn’t go to them:

  So is the truth of all Buddhas.

  Just as the king of the gods

  Appears throughout the universe

  Yet his body has no change:

  So is the truth of all Buddhas.

  Then Manjushri asked the enlightening being Chef in Vision, “Buddhas as fields of blessings are one and the same to all—how is it that when sentient beings give alms to them, the resulting rewards are not the same—various forms, various families, various faculties, various property, various masters, various followers, various official positions, various virtuous qualities, various kinds of knowledge—and yet the Buddhas are impartial toward them, not thinking of them as different?” Chief in Vision answered in verse:

  Just as the earth is one

  Yet produces sprouts according to the seeds

  Without partiality toward any of them,

  So is the Buddhas’ field of blessings.

  And just as water is uniform

  Yet differs in shape according to the vessel,

  So is the Buddhas’ field of blessings:

  It differs only due to beings’ minds.

  And just as a skilled magician

  Can make people happy,

  So can the Buddhas’ field of blessings

  Cause sentient beings joy.

  As a king with wealth and knowledge

  Can bring gladness to the masses,

  So can Buddhas’ field of blessings

  Bring peace and happiness to all.

  Like a clear mirror

  Reflecting images according to the forms,

  So from Buddhas’ field of blessings

  Rewards are obtained according to one’s heart.

  Like a panacea

  Which can cure all poisoning,

  So does Buddhas’ field of blessings

  Annihilate all afflictions.

  And just as when the sun comes up

  It illuminates the world,

  Thus does Buddhas’ field of blessings

  Clear away all darkness.

  Like the clear full moon

  Shining over the earth,

  So is Buddhas’ field of blessings

  Equal in all places.

  Just as a great conflagration

  Can burn up all things,

  So does Buddhas’ field of blessings

  Burn up all fabrication.

  Just as a violent wind

  Can cause the earth to tremble,

  So does Buddhas’ field of blessings

  Move all living beings.

  Then Manjushri asked Chief in Effort, “The Buddhas’ teaching is one, which all beings can see—why don’t they all immediately cut off all the bonds of afflictions and win emancipation? Furthermore, in their clusters of material form, clusters of sensation, conception, coordination-activity, and consciousness, the realms of desire, form, and formlessness, as well as ignorance and craving, they are no different—this is the Buddha’s teaching; why is it of benefit to some and not to others?” chief in Effort answered in verse:

  Listen well and clearly

  And I will answer truly.

  Some are quickly freed,

  And some can hardly escape.

  If one wishes to eliminate

  The countless faults and ills,

  One should work with diligence

  On the Buddha-teaching.

  For example, a little bit of fire

  Moisture in the kindling will extinguish;

  So it is with those who’re lazy

  About the Buddha-teaching.

  Just as when you drill for fire

  And stop before the fire appears

  The heat will immediately disappear:

  So it is with the indolent.

  When a man with a magnifying glass

  Doesn’t focus the sun’s rays on anything,

  Fire can never be obtained:

  So it is with the lazy.

  Like when the dazzling sun shines

  A child shuts its eyes

  And complains “Why can’t I see?”:

  So too are the lazy like this.

  Like a man lacking hands and feet

  Wanting to shoot all over the earth

  With arrows made of reeds:

  So too are the lazy ones.

  Like using a single hair

  To take the ocean water

  Trying to drain the ocean:

  So also are the slothful.

  Like when the eon fire flares

  Trying to put it out with a little water:

  So are those who are lazy

  About the Buddha’s teaching.

  Like someone who sees space

  While sitting still, unmoving,

  And says he is traveling through it:

  So is the lazy one.

  Then Manjushri asked Chief in Doctrine, “According to what the Buddha says, if any sentient beings accept and hold the true teaching, they can cut off all afflictions. Why then are there those who accept and hold the true teaching and yet do not cut off afflictions, who go along with anger and resentment, go along with jealousy and stinginess, go along with deception and flattery, compelled by the power of these things, having no will to detach from them? If they are able to accept and hold the true teaching, why then do they still produce afflictions in their mental actions?” Chief in Doctrine answered in verse:

  Listen well and clearly

  To the true meaning of what you ask.

  It is not only by much learning

  That one can enter the Buddhas’ teaching.

  Like a man floating in water

  Who dies of thirst, afraid of drowning:

  So are those who are learned

  Who do not apply the teaching.

  Like a person skilled in medicine

  Who can’t cure his own disease:

  So are those who are learned

  But do not apply the teaching.

  Like someone counting others’ treasures

  Without half a coin of his own:

  So is the one who is learned

  Who doesn’t practice the teaching.

  Like one who’s born in a royal palace

  Yet who freezes and starves:

  So are those who are learned

  But do not practice the teaching.

  Like a deaf musician

  Who ple
ases others, not hearing himself:

  So is the one who is learned

  Who does not apply the teaching.

  Like a blind embroiderer

  Who shows others but cannot see:

  So are those who are learned

  But do not practice the teaching.

  Like a ship’s captain

  Who dies at sea:

  So are those who are learned

  But do not apply the teaching.

  Like someone on a corner

  Saying all kinds of fine things,

  While having no real inner virtue:

  So are those who don’t practice.

  Then Manjushri asked Chief in Knowledge, “In the Buddha teaching, knowledge is chief—so why do the Buddhas, in dealing with people, sometimes praise generosity, sometimes praise self-control, sometimes praise tolerance, sometimes praise effort, sometimes praise meditation, sometimes praise wisdom, or again sometimes praise kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity, yet all the while there is ultimately but one truth whereby to attain emancipation and realize complete perfect enlightenment?” Chief in Knowledge answered in verse:

  Son of Buddha, most rare

  Is the ability to know beings’ minds.

  As for what you ask,

  Listen well and I’ll explain.

  Of the past, future,

  And present guides,

  None expounds just one method

  To become enlightened.

  Buddhas know beings’ minds,

  Their natures each different;

  According to what they need to be freed,

  Thus do the Buddhas teach.

  To the stingy they praise giving,

  To the immoral they praise ethics;

  To the angry they praise tolerance,

  To the lazy they praise effort.

  To those with scattered minds they praise meditative concentration,

  To the ignorant, they praise wisdom;

  To the inhuman, they praise kindness and sympathy,

  To the malicious, compassion.

  To the troubled they praise joy,

  To the devious they praise equanimity.

  Thus practicing step-by-step,

  One gradually fulfills all Buddha teachings.

  It’s like first setting up a foundation

  Then building the room:

  Generosity and self-control, like this,

  Are bases of enlightening beings’ practices.

  Just like building a castle

  To protect all the people:

  So are tolerance and effort

  Protecting enlightening beings.

  And just as a universal monarch

  Can bestow all felicities:

  So can kindness, compassion, joy and equanimity

  Give enlightening beings happiness.

  Then Manjushri asked Chief in Goodness, “The Buddhas, the World Honored Ones, attain emancipation by means of one path alone; why then are the things in the Buddha-lands we see now various and not the same? That is to say, the worlds, the realms of beings, the teaching and training, the life span and auras of light, the miracles, the congregations, the modes of teaching and doctrinal bases, each have differences, yet all include all the truths of the Buddhas, whereby complete perfect enlightement is attained.” Chief in Goodness answered in verse:

  Manjushri, truth is always thus:

  The Kings of Truth have just one truth.

  People unhindered by anything,

  They leave birth and death by one road.

  All the Buddha bodies

  Are just one reality-body:

  One in mind, one in wisdom,

  The same in power and fearlessness.

  According to their dedications

  When originally starting out for enlightenment,

  They developed such lands,

  Congregations, and teachings.

  The adornments of all buddha-lands

  Are totally complete;

  According to differences in beings’ actions

  They seem to be unalike.

  The buddha-lands and buddha-bodies,

  The congregations and explanations:

  Such Buddhist teachings as these

  No sentient beings can see.

  When their minds are purified

  And their vows fulfilled,

  Such illuminated people

  Then are able to see.

  According to beings’ mental inclinations

  And the force of the fruits of their deeds,

  There seem to them to be differences;

  This is due to Buddhas’ mystic powers.

  Buddha-lands have no discrimination,

  No hatred and no attachment:

  But according to beings’ minds

  They seem to have differences.

  Because of this, in the worlds

  What is seen is different:

  This is not the fault

  Of the enlightened sages.

  In all worlds

  Those who are fit to receive the teaching

  Always see the Hero of humanity:

  Such is the Buddhas’ teaching.

  Then these enlightening beings said to Manjushri, “Son of Buddha, we have each spoken of our understanding. We ask you, benevolent one, to use your wonderful powers of elucidation to expound the realm of the enlightened—what is the sphere of the Buddhas, what are the causal bases of the sphere of the Buddhas, what are the methods of liberation in the sphere of the Buddhas, what are the entries into the states of the Buddhas, what is the wisdom in the realm of the Buddhas, what are the laws of the realm of the Buddhas, what are the explanations of the states of the Buddhas, what is the knowledge of the sphere of the Buddhas, what is the realization of the realm of the Buddhas, what are the manifestations of the states of the Buddhas, what is the extent of the sphere of the Buddhas?” Manjushri answered in verse:

  The profound realm of the Buddhas

  Is equal in extent to space;

  All beings enter it,

  Yet really nothing’s entered.

  The sublime causes

  Of the Buddhas’ profound states

  Could not be fully told

  In a billion eons of talk.

  According to beings’ minds and wisdom,

  Buddhas lead them on and aid them;

  This is the realm of the Buddhas,

  Liberating beings this way.

  Able to enter all lands

  In the world,

  The body of knowledge is formless

  And cannot be seen by others.

  The Buddhas’ knowledge is free,

  Unhindered in all times;

  This realm of wisdom

  Is equanimous as space.

  The realms of beings of the cosmos

  Ultimately have no distinction;

  Thoroughly knowing all of them

  Is the sphere of the enlightened ones.

  All languages and sounds

  There are in the worlds

  Buddhas’ knowledge can comprehend

  Without discrimination.

  Not perceptible to sense consciousness

  And not the sphere of mind,

  Its nature fundamentally pure,

  Buddhas’ knowledge teaches living beings.

  Not action, not affliction,

  With no thing and no abode,

  No looking and no object,

  Their realization’s equanimous throughout the world.

  The minds of all sentient beings

  In the past, present, and future,

  The enlightened, in one instant,

  Can thoroughly comprehend.

  Then all the differences in state, activity, realm, body, faculties, birth, results of keeping precepts, results of breaking precepts, and in resulting lands of all sentient beings in this world Endurance, by the Buddha’s spiritual power all became clearly manifest. In the same way all these various differences of all sentient beings in the infinite worlds throu
ghout the space of the cosmos in all directions were all clearly revealed by the Buddha’s mystic power.

  BOOK ELEVEN

  Purifying Practice

  THEN THE ENLIGHTENING BEING Chief in Knowledge asked the enlightening being Manjushri, “How can enlightening beings attain faultless physical, verbal, and mental action? How can they attain harmless physical, verbal, and mental action? How can they attain blameless physical, verbal, and mental action? How can they attain invulnerable physical, verbal, and mental action? How can they attain nonregressive physical, verbal, and mental action? How can they attain unshakable physical, verbal, and mental action? How can they attain excellent physical, verbal, and mental action? How can they attain pure physical, verbal, and mental action? How can they attain unpolluted physical, verbal, and mental action? How can they attain physical, verbal, and mental action that is guided by wisdom? How can they attain birth in appropriate places, among good people, physically complete, with full mindfulness, understanding, completeness in conduct, fearlessness, and awareness? How can they attain excellent discernment, foremost discernment, supreme discernment, immeasurable discernment, incalculable discernment, inconceivable discernment, incomparable discernment, unfathomable discernment, inexpressible discernment? How can they attain causal power, will power, skill power, the power of proper conditions and objects of attention, faculty power, powers of observation, the power to stop the mind, powers of analytic insight, and power of contemplative thought? How can they attain skill in analyzing the psychophysical elements and organs, skill in analyzing interdependent origination, skill in analyzing the realms of desire, form, and formlessness, and skill in understanding the past, present, and future? How can they cultivate well the branches of enlightenment—mindfulness, discernment, effort, joy, well-being, concentration, relinquishment? How can they attain emptiness, signlessness, wishlessness? How can they fulfill the means of transcendence—generosity, self-control, tolerance, effort, meditation, and wisdom? How can they fulfill kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity? How can they attain the power of knowledge of what is so and what is not, the power of knowledge of consequences of past, future, and present acts, the power of knowledge of superiority and inferiority of faculties, the power of knowledge of various realms, the power of knowledge of various understandings, the power of knowledge of where all paths lead, the power of knowledge of defilement or purity of meditations, liberations, and trances, the power of knowledge of past lives, the power of knowledge of unhindered clairvoyance, and the power of knowledge of having cut off all taints? How can they always gain the protection, respect, and support of celestial kings, dragon kings, yaksha kings, gandharva kings, titan kings, garuda kings, kinnara kings, mahoraga kings, human kings, and brahma kings? How can they be a reliance and savior, a refuge and resort, a lamp and a light, an illuminator and a guide, a supreme and universal leader for all sentient beings? How can they be foremost and greatest, excellent and supreme, sublime and most wonderful, highest and unexcelled, incomparable and peerless among all sentient beings?”