That Buddha has come into this palace,
Hence this place is most auspicious.
As in this world the king of the thirty-threefold heaven, Indra, by the spiritual power of the Buddha, extolled the virtues of ten Buddhas, so did all the Indras in the worlds of the ten directions also praise the Buddhas’ virtues. Then the World Honored One entered the Hall of Surpassing Wonder and sat crosslegged: this hall suddenly became vastly spacious, like the dwelling places of all the celestial hosts. The same thing happened in all worlds in the ten directions.
BOOK FOURTEEN
Eulogies on Mount Sumeru
THEN, DUE TO THE SPIRITUAL POWER of the Buddha, there came and gathered great enlightening beings from each of the ten directions, each accompanied by as many enlightening beings as atoms in a buddha-land, coming from worlds far away, beyond lands as numerous as atoms in a hundred buddha-lands. Their names were Wisdom of Truth, Total Wisdom, Supreme Wisdom, Virtuous Wisdom, Vigorous Wisdom, Good Wisdom, Knowing Wisdom, True Wisdom, Unexcelled Wisdom, and Stable Wisdom. The worlds they came from were called Indra Flower, Red Lotus, Jewel Flower, Blue Lotus, Diamond Flower, Fragrant Flower, Delightful Flower, Rosy Dawn Flower, Adorning Flower, and Space Flower. They had each cultivated pure practice with Buddhas; the Buddhas were called Extraordinary Moon, Infinite Moon, Imperturbable Moon, Wind Moon, Water Moon, Liberation Moon, Unexcelled Moon, Constellation Moon, Pure Moon, Comprehending Moon. When the enlightening beings had reached the Buddha, they prostrated themselves at the Buddha’s feet, and then magically produced luminous lion seats in the direction from which they had come. In the same way as the enlightening beings gathered atop Mount Sumeru in this world, so it was in all worlds; their names, worlds, and the names of their Buddhas were all like this.
At that juncture the Buddha emitted a hundred thousand billion light beams of sublime hue from the toes of his feet, illumining all the worlds in the ten directions, so that the Buddhas and congregations in the palaces of the Indras atop Mt. Sumerus were all revealed. Then the enlightening being Wisdom of Truth, infused with spiritual power from the Buddha, looked over the ten directions and said in verse,
Buddha emits a pure light
Showing all the Guides of the worlds
Sojourning in the Halls of Wonder
On the peaks of Mt. Sumerus.
All of the kings of gods
Invited the Buddhas into the palace,
All with ten beautiful verses
Praising the enlightened ones.
Among those great assemblies
The groups of enlightening beings
Have come from the ten directions
And sit calmly on the seats they made.
The enlightening beings in those congregations
All have the same names as we
And the names of the lands they come from
Are also the same as ours.
The Buddhas of their own lands
Also have the same names as ours;
Each one has, with a Buddha,
Purely cultivated unexcelled practices.
Buddha-children, you should observe
The Buddha’s power of freedom:
In all the Jambudvipas
All think the Buddha’s there.
We now see the Buddha
On top of Sumeru:
It’s the same in the ten directions,
By the Buddha’s power of freedom.
In each world
They determine to seek the Buddha-way,
And based on such a vow
Practice enlightening deeds.
Buddha, with various bodies,
Travels throughout the worlds,
Unhindered in the cosmos,
Beyond the ken of anyone.
The light of his wisdom always shines everywhere,
Removing all the darkness of the world;
It has no compare at all:
How can it be comprehended?
Then the enlightening being Total Wisdom, infused with the power of the Buddha, looked over the ten directions and said in verse,
Even if one always looked at Buddha
For a hundred thousand eons,
Not according to the absolute truth
But looking at the savior of the world,
Such a person is grasping appearances
And increasing the web of ignorance and delusion,
Bound in the prison of birth and death,
Blind, unable to see the Buddha.
Observing all things
To be without inherent existence,
Whatever their appearances of origin and disappearance,
Being just provisional descriptions,
All things are unborn,
All things are imperishable:
To one who can understand this
The Buddha will always be manifest.
The nature of things is fundamentally empty and null,
With no grasping and no vision.
The emptiness of inherent nature is Buddha;
It cannot be assessed in thought.
If one knows the inherent nature
Of all things is like this,
This person will not be affected
By any afflictions.
Ordinary people seeing things
Just pursue the forms
And don’t realize things are formless:
Because of this they don’t see Buddha.
The Sage is detached from the realms of time,
Replete with the marks of greatness,
Dwelling in nondwelling,
Omnipresent without moving.
I observe all things
And clearly understand them;
Now I see the Buddha
With certainty, free from doubt.
Wisdom of Truth has already explained
The real nature of the Enlightened;
From him I have understood
That enlightenment’s inconceivable.
Then the enlightening being Supreme Wisdom, receiving power from the Buddha, looked over the ten directions and said in verse,
The Enlightened One’s great wisdom
Is rare, beyond compare;
All beings in the worlds
Cannot reach it in their thoughts.
Ordinary people’s deluded views
Grasp forms and are not veritable.
Buddha is beyond all forms,
So not within their view.
The deluded and unknowing
Wrongly grasp the forms of the five clusters,
Not understanding their true nature;
Such people don’t see Buddha.
Knowing that all things
Have no inherent being of their own,
Understanding the nature of things this way
One will see Vairocana.
Caused by the preceding five clusters,
Succeeding clusters arise in continuum;
Comprehending this nature,
One sees Buddha, inconceivable.
Just like a jewel in the dark
Cannot be seen if there is no lamp,
With no one to explain Buddha’s teaching
Even the intelligent cannot comprehend it.
And like an eye with cataracts
Cannot see pure beautiful colors,
So too the impure mind
Cannot see the Buddha’s teaching.
And as the bright clear sun
Cannot be seen by the blind,
Those who have no wisdom
Can never see the Buddhas.
If one can remove the eye’s cataracts
And abandon the concept of form
And not see in terms of things,
Then one can see the Buddha.
Total Wisdom has explained
The enlightenment of the Buddhas;
I, having learned from him,
Have gotten to see Vairocana.
Then the enlightening being Virtuous Wisdom, imbued with power from t
he Buddha, looked over the ten directions and said in verse,
Things have no true reality;
Because of wrongly grasping them as real
Do ordinary people therefore
Revolve in the prison of birth and death.
Things expressed by words
Those of lesser wisdom wrongly discriminate
And therefore create barriers
And don’t comprehend their own minds.
If one doesn’t comprehend one’s own mind,
How can one know the right path?
Based on misconstrued intellect
They increase all evils.
Not seeing all things are empty,
Always suffering the pains of birth and death,
This is because such people
Cannot yet have the pure objective eye.
In the past I experienced suffering
Because I didn’t see Buddha.
So one should clarify the eye of reality
And see what is to be seen.
If one can see the Buddha,
One’s mind will have no grasping;
Such a person can then perceive
Truth as the Buddha knows it.
If one can see Buddha’s real teaching,
One is said to have great knowledge;
This person has pure eyes
And can see into the world.
No view is seeing
Which can see all things;
If one has any views about things,
This is not seeing anything.
The nature of all things
Has no origin and no end.
How wonderful the Great Guide:
Awakened himself, he can awaken others.
Supreme Wisdom has explained
The truth realized by the Buddhas;
We, having learned from him,
Can know the Buddha’s true nature.
Then the enlightening being Vigorous Wisdom, receiving power from the Buddha, looked over the ten directions and said in verse,
If one dwells on discrimination,
One ruins the eye of purity;
Ignorant, false views increase,
And one never sees the Buddha.
If one can understand falsehood
As it is, without delusion,
And know the basis of delusion is itself reality,
One’s perception of Buddha will be pure.
If there are views, this is defilement;
This is not yet to be considered seeing.
By dismissing all views
Can one thus see Buddha.
Things spoken of in conventional terms
People wrongly conceptualize;
Knowing the world is all birthless:
This is seeing the world.
If one sees seeing the world,
This seeing is a feature of the world;
In reality they’re equal, no different:
This is called true insight.
If one sees they’re equal, no different,
One won’t discriminate among things.
Such vision is free from delusions:
Without indulgence, it’s free.
All the different things
Pointed out by the Buddhas
Are impossible to apprehend
Because their nature’s pure.
The nature of things is fundamentally pure;
Like space, it has no marks.
Nothing at all can explain it:
This do the wise observe.
Divorcing the concept of things,
Not indulging in anything,
And not even cultivating this,
One can see the great Sage.
As Virtuous Wisdom explained,
This is called one who sees Buddha;
All the actions there be
Are all inherently nil.
Then the enlightening being Good Wisdom, infused with Buddha’s power, looked over the ten directions and said in verse,
Extraordinary, the great beings,
The countless enlightened ones
Are free from taint, their minds are free;
Self-liberated, they can liberate others.
I see the Lamps of the Worlds
As they are, without delusion,
As one who has accumulated knowledge
Over eons can see.
The acts of ordinary people
All soon pass away;
Their nature is like space,
So said to be without end.
When the wise speak of endlessness,
This is still not saying anything;
Because inherent nature is endless,
It can have an inconceivable end.
In the endlessness spoken of
There are no beings to be found;
Knowing the nature of things is thus,
One will see the Honored One.
No view is called seeing,
The birthless is called beings;
Whether views or beings,
Knowing they’ve no substantial nature,
The seer dismisses entirely
The subject and object of seeing;
Not destroying reality,
This person knows the Buddha.
If one knows the Buddha
And the truth the Buddha tells,
One can illumine the world
Like Buddha Vairocana does.
The truly enlightened point out well
The pure road of one truth;
The great being Vigorous Wisdom
Expounds innumerable teachings:
Whether of existence or nonexistence,
His conceptions are all removed:
Thus he can see the Buddha
And abide in reality.
Then the enlightening being Knowing Wisdom, imbued with power from the Buddha, looked over the ten directions and said in verse,
Hearing the supreme teaching,
I produce the light of wisdom
Illumining all worlds everywhere,
Seeing all the Buddhas.
Herein there’s not the slightest thing:
Only provisional names;
Those who think there’s self and person
Enter a dangerous path due to this.
People who grasp and cling
Think the body really exists:
The Buddha is not something grasped,
So they never get to see.
These people lack the eye of wisdom
And cannot see the Buddha,
Circulating in the sea of birth and death
Through uncountable eons.
Contention is called birth-and-death,
Noncontention is nirvana:
Birth-and-death and nirvana
Both cannot be grasped.
If one pursues provisional names
And grasp these two things
One is not in accord with reality
And doesn’t know the Sage’s subtle path.
If one produces such conceptions—
“This is Buddha, this is supreme”—
One is deluded—this is not real truth;
Thus one cannot see true awakening.
If one can know this real body’s
Quiescent character of true thusness,
One can see the truly enlightened
Transcending the path of speech.
Things expressed in words
Cannot disclose the character of reality;
Only through equanimity can one see
Things, including the Buddha.
The Truly Enlightened in the past
The future, and the present,
Forever sever the root of discriminiation—
That’s why they’re called Buddha.
Then the enlightening being True Wisdom, empowered by the Buddha, looked over the ten directions and said in verse.
I’d rather suffer the pains of hell
While able to hear the name of Buddha
/> Than to experience boundless pleasure
Without hearing the name of Buddha.
The reason for suffering in the past
Over countless eons
Revolving within birth and death
Is due to not hearing the name of Buddha.
Not deluded about things,
Realizing them as they truly are,
Detached from all compounded forms:
This is called unsurpassed awakening.
The present is not compounded,
Nor are the past and future;
All things have no signs:
This is the real body of Buddha.
If one can see this way
The profound truth of things,
Then one can see all Buddhas’
Reality-body in its true aspect.
Seeing what’s true as true
And what’s not true as untrue:
Such ultimate understanding
Is the reason for the name of Buddha.
Buddha’s truth cannot be perceived;
Realizing this is called perceiving truth.
The Buddhas practice this way:
Nothing can be grasped.
Knowing they are many because one
And one because many,
Realize all things have no basis
And only arise from compounding.
There is no creator or created:
They only arise from habitual conceptions.
How can we know it is so?
Because other than this naught is.
All things have no abode:
No definite locus can be found;
The Buddhas abide in this,
Ultimately unwavering.
Then the enlightening being Unexcelled Wisdom, receiving Buddha’s power, looked over the ten directions and said in verse,
The unexcelled great beings
Dismiss the concept of creatures.
None can surpasss them,
That’s why they’re called unexcelled.
The sphere attained by the Buddhas
Has no fabrication and no discrimination;
The gross has no existence,
And neither does the fine.
The realms accessible to Buddhas
Are innumerable therein;
True awareness is detached from numbers:
This is the Buddhas’ true teaching.
Buddha’s light shines everywhere,
Destroying all darkness and gloom;
This light neither has radiance
Nor does not have radiance.
It has no attachment to things,
No thought and no defilement,
No abode and no location,
And does not destroy the nature of things.
Herein there is no dualism,
Yet neither is there oneness;
One who sees well with great knowledge
Skillfully abides according to truth.
The Flower Ornament Scripture Page 46