The Flower Ornament Scripture

by Thomas Cleary

  If they see a capital,

  They should wish that all beings

  Collect all virtuous qualities

  And always be joyful and blissful.

  Seeing someone in a forest,

  They should wish that all beings

  Be worthy of praise and honor

  Of celestials and humans

  Entering a village to beg,

  They should wish that all beings

  Enter the profound realm of truth,

  Their minds without impediment.

  Coming to someone’s door,

  They should wish that all beings

  Enter into all

  Doors of Buddha’s teaching.

  Having entered a house,

  They should wish that all beings

  Might enter the vehicle of buddhahood

  Which is equal in all times.

  Seeing someone who doesn’t give

  They should wish that all beings

  Never ever give up

  Supremely virtuous ways.

  Seeing those who give

  They should wish that all beings

  Forever abandon

  The three evil paths and their miseries.

  If they see an empty bowl,

  They should wish that all beings

  Be pure of heart

  And empty of afflictions.

  If they see a full bowl,

  They should wish that all beings

  Completely fulfill

  All virtuous ways.

  If they receive respect,

  They should wish that all beings

  Respectfully practice

  All the Buddha’s teachings.

  If they get no respect,

  They should wish that all beings

  Not act in any ways

  That are not good.

  Seeing people with conscience

  They should wish that all beings

  Act with discretion

  And cover their organs.

  Seeing the shameless

  They should wish that all beings

  Give up shamelessness

  And abide in the way of kindness.

  If they get fine food,

  They should wish that all beings

  Should fulfill their aspirations

  And be free from envy and longing.

  If they get poor food,

  They should wish that all beings

  Should not fail to obtain

  The taste of all meditations.

  Getting soft food

  They should wish that all beings

  Be imbued with compassion,

  Their minds becoming gentle.

  Getting coarse, dry food

  They should wish that all beings

  Have no attachments

  And cut off mundane craving.

  When they eat,

  They should wish that all beings

  Feed on the joy of meditation

  And be sated by delight in truth.

  When tasting flavor,

  They should wish that all beings

  Attain the supreme savor of buddhahood

  And be filled with the elixir of immortality.

  When the meal is finished,

  They should wish that all beings

  Accomplish all their tasks

  And fulfill the Buddha’s teachings.

  When they explain the teaching,

  They should wish that all beings

  Attain inexhaustible eloquence

  And widely expound the essentials of the teaching.

  When they leave a place,

  They should wish that all beings

  Deeply enter enlightened knowledge,

  Forever leaving the triple world.

  When they enter a bath,

  They should wish that all beings

  Enter omniscient knowledge,

  Knowing past, present, and future are equal.

  While washing their bodies,

  They should wish that all beings

  Be undefiled in body and mind,

  Radiantly pure inside and out.

  In the blistering heat of the day

  They should wish that all beings

  Cast off myriad afflictions,

  Putting an end to them all.

  When the heat subsides and begins to cool,

  They should wish that all beings

  Experience the highest truth

  And be ultimately cool.

  When reciting scripture,

  They should wish that all beings

  Accord with the Buddha’s teachings,

  Remembering without forgetting.

  If they get to see a Buddha,

  They should wish that all beings

  Be all like Universally Good,

  Handsome and well adorned.

  When seeing a Buddha’s tomb,

  They should wish that all beings

  Be honored as the shrine

  And receive the offerings of celestials and humans.

  Reverently gazing at the shrine,

  They should wish that all beings

  Be looked up to by all

  Celestials and humans.

  Bowing their heads to the shrine,

  They should wish that all beings

  Be exalted beyond the view

  Of gods and men.

  Circumabulating the shrine,

  They should wish that all beings

  Act without offense

  And develop omniscience.

  Circling the shrine thrice,

  They should wish that all beings

  Diligently see the Buddha’s path

  Without indolence of mind.

  Praising the Buddha’s virtues,

  They should wish that all beings

  Fulfill all virtues

  Extolled endlessly.

  Praising the Buddha’s distinguishing marks,

  They should wish that all beings

  Develop the buddha-body

  And realize formless truth.

  When washing their feet,

  They should wish that all beings

  Fulfill the bases of spiritual powers,

  Unhindered wherever they go.

  When going to sleep at night,

  They should wish that all beings

  Attain physical ease

  And undisturbed minds.

  Awakening from sleep,

  They should wish that all beings

  Awaken omniscience,

  Perceiving in all directions.

  “Child of Buddha, if enlightening beings use their minds in this way, they will attain all supremely wonderful qualities, which cannot be dislodged by any gods, demons, monks, brahmins, gandharvas, titans, etc., or by any Buddhist followers or self-enlightened ones.”

  BOOK TWELVE

  Chief in Goodness

  THEN THE ENLIGHTENING BEING Manjushri, having explained the great virtues of unpolluted, undistorted pure activity, wanted to bring out the virtues of the aspiration for enlightenment, so he asked the enlightening being Chief in Goodness,

  Now I have, for the sake of the enlightening beings,

  Explained the purifying practices cultivated by Buddhas in the past;

  Benevolent One, you too, in this assembly should

  Expound the supreme virtues of practical application.

  Then Chief in Goodness responded in verse:

  Very good, Benevolent One—you should listen clearly.

  Those virtues and merits cannot be measured:

  I will now tell a little, as well as I can,

  But it will be but as a drop of the ocean.

  When an enlightening being first determines on the Way,

  Vowing to seek and realize Buddhas’ enlightenment,

  The virtues therein are boundless,

  Immeasurable, beyond compare.

  How much the more so, through countless, boundless eons,

  To fully practice the virtues of the stages and transcendent
ways;

  Even all the Buddhas of the ten directions

  Together could not fully expound them all.

  Of such boundless great virtues

  I will now tell a little bit,

  Like the space trod by a bird’s feet,

  Or like a mote of dust of the earth.

  When enlightening beings determine to seek enlightenment,

  This is not without cause, not without conditions;

  Engendering pure faith in the Buddha, Teaching, and Community,

  By this they produce a broad, magnanimous mind.

  Not seeking objects of desire or positions of authority,

  Wealth, personal enjoyment, or fame,

  It is only to forever annihilate creatures’ miseries

  And to benefit the world that they rouse their will.

  Always wanting to profit and gladden all beings,

  They adorn lands and make offerings to Buddhas.

  Accepting the right teaching, they cultivate its knowledges;

  To realize enlightenment they arouse their minds.

  Deep faith, belief, and resolution always pure,

  They honor and respect all Buddhas,

  As well as their Teachings and Communities;

  Making offerings with ultimate sincerity, they rouse their will.

  Deeply believing in the Buddha and the Buddha’s teaching,

  They also believe in the Way traversed by buddhas-to-be,

  And believe in unexcelled great enlightenment:

  Thereby do enlightening beings first rouse their will.

  Faith is the basis of the Path, the mother of virtues,

  Nourishing and growing all good ways,

  Cutting away the net of doubt, freeing from the torrent of passion,

  Revealing the unsurpassed road of ultimate peace.

  When faith is undefiled, the mind is pure;

  Obliterating pride, it is the root of reverence,

  And the foremost wealth in the treasury of religion,

  Being a pure hand to receive the practices.

  Faith is generous, the mind not begrudging;

  Faith can joyfully enter the Buddha’s teaching;

  Faith can increase knowledge and virtue;

  Faith can assure arrival at enlightenment.

  Faith makes the faculties pure, clear and sharp;

  The power of faith is strong and indestructible.

  Faith can annihilate the root of affliction,

  Faith can turn one wholly to the virtues of buddhahood.

  Faith has no attachment to objects:

  Transcending difficulties, it reaches freedom from trouble.

  Faith can go beyond the pathways of demons,

  And reveal the unsurpassed road of liberation.

  Faith is the unspoiled seed of virtue,

  Faith can grow the seed of enlightenment.

  Faith can increase supreme knowledge,

  Faith can reveal all Buddhas.

  Therefore I’ll explain in steps practicing in accord:

  Faith is most powerful, very difficult to have;

  It’s like in all worlds having

  The wondrous wish-fulfilling pearl.

  If one can always faithfully serve the Buddhas,

  Then one can keep the precepts and cultivate studies;

  If one always keeps the precepts and practices what one learns,

  Then one can embody all virtuous qualities.

  Self-control can develop the basis of enlightenment,

  Study the foundation of cultivating virtues;

  Always acting in accord with discipline and study,

  One will be praised for excellence by all enlightened ones.

  If one always faithfully serves the Buddhas,

  Then one can assemble great offerings.

  If one can assemble great offerings,

  One’s faith in Buddha is beyond conception.

  If one always faithfully serves the honorable Teaching,

  Then one will tirelessly listen to the Buddha’s teaching.

  If one hears the Buddha’s teaching without tiring of it,

  One’s faith in the Teaching is inconceivable.

  If one always faithfully serves the pure Community,

  Then one’s faith will never regress.

  If one’s faith never regresses,

  One’s power of faith is unshakable.

  If nothing can shake one’s power of faith,

  Then one gains purity, clarity, and sharpness of sense.

  If one has purity, clarity, and sharpness of sense,

  One can avoid bad associates.

  If one can avoid bad associates,

  Then one can approach good associates.

  If one can be with good associates,

  Then one can cultivate great goodness.

  If one can cultivate great goodness,

  One can perfect great causal power.

  If one perfects great causal power,

  Then one can attain supremely certain understanding.

  If one attains supremely certain understanding,

  Then one will be protected by the Buddhas.

  If one is protected by the Buddhas,

  Then one can arouse the will for enlightenment.

  If one can arouse the will for enlightenment,

  Then one can diligently cultivate the virtues of buddhahood.

  If one can diligently cultivate the virtues of buddhahood,

  Then he can be born in the family of the enlightened.

  If one gets to be born in the family of the enlightened,

  Then one can practice skillful liberative techniques.

  If one can develop skill in means of liberation well,

  Then one can reach purity of the faithful mind.

  If one gains purity of the faithful mind,

  Then one can increase supreme will.

  If one can increase supreme will,

  Then one can always practice the transcendent ways,

  If one always practices the transcendent ways,

  Then one can fulfill the Great Vehicle.

  If one can fulfill the Great Vehicle,

  Then one can give offerings to Buddhas in the right way.

  If one can make offerings to Buddhas in the right way,

  Then one can remember Buddha with unwavering mind.

  If one can remember Buddha with unwavering mind,

  Then one can always see infinite Buddhas.

  If one always sees infinite Buddhas,

  Then one sees the essence of the enlightened is eternal.

  If one sees the essence of the enlightened is eternal,

  Then one can know the truth never dies.

  If one can know the truth never dies,

  Then one attains unhindered powers of elucidation.

  If one attains unhindered powers of elucidation,

  Then one can expound boundless teachings.

  If one can expound boundless teachings,

  Then one can compassionately liberate beings.

  If one can compassionately liberate beings,

  Then one can attain a mind of unshakable compassion.

  If one can attain a mind of unshakable compassion,

  Then one can appreciate the most profound truth.

  If one can appreciate the most profound truth,

  Then one can abandon the errors of fabrication.

  If one can abandon the errors of fabrication,

  Then one can divorce conceit and indulgence.

  If one can get rid of conceit and indulgence,

  Then one can benefit all beings together.

  If one can benefit all beings,

  Then one can be in birth-and-death unwearied.

  If one can be in birth-and-death unwearied,

  Then one can be invincibly brave and strong.

  If one can be invincibly brave and strong,

  Then one can bring forth great spiritual powers.

  If one can bring forth great spiritual
powers,

  One will know the activities of all sentient beings.

  If one knows the activities of all sentient beings,

  Then one can mature and perfect living beings.

  If one can mature and perfect living beings,

  One will attain the knowledge to save all beings.

  If one attains the knowledge to save all beings,

  Then one can perfect the means of salvation.

  If one can perfect the means of salvation,

  One then will give beings unlimited benefit.

  If one gives beings unlimited benefit,

  One will fulfill the techniques of supreme knowledge.

  If one fulfills the techniques of supreme knowledge,

  One will remain on the heroic unexcelled path.

  If one remains on the heroic unexcelled path,

  One can crush the power of all demons.

  If one can crush the power of all demons,

  One can get beyond the realm of the four demons.

  If one can get beyond the realm of the four demons,

  Then one can reach the stage of nonregression.

  If one can reach the stage of nonregression,

  One attains profound acceptance of the nonorigination of things.

  If one attains deep acceptance of the nonorigination of things,

  One will receive the Buddhas’ prediction of enlightenment.

  If one’s enlightenment is foretold by the Buddhas,

  Then all the Buddhas will appear in one’s presence.

  If all the Buddhas appear in one’s presence,

  One will comprehend the profound, mystic use of spiritual powers.

  If one comprehends the deep mystic function of spiritual powers,

  One will be remembered by all the Buddhas.

  If one is remembered by the Buddhas,

  Then one will adorn oneself with the qualities of buddhahood.

  If one adorns oneself with the qualities of buddhahood,

  One will attain a splendid body of felicity.

  If one attains a splendid body of felicity,

  One’s body will be radiant as a mountain of gold.

  If one’s body is radiant as a mountain of gold,

  It will be adorned with the thirty-two marks of distinction.

  If one is adorned with the thirty-two marks,

  One will be adorned with accompanying refinements.

  If one is adorned with the accompanying refinements,

  The light of one’s aura will be unlimited.

  If one’s aura light is infinite,

  One will be adorned with inconceivable light.

  If one is adorned with inconceivable light,

  That light will produce lotus blossoms.

  If the light produces lotus blossoms,

  Innumerable Buddhas will sit on the blossoms,

  Appearing everywhere in the ten directions,

  Able to pacify all sentient beings.

  If able to harmonize beings this way,