The Flower Ornament Scripture

by Thomas Cleary

  “These great enlightening beings awaken ten kinds of boundless will: they awaken the boundless will to liberate all sentient beings, the boundless will to attend all buddhas, the boundless will to provide for all buddhas, the boundless will to see all buddhas, the boundless will to receive and hold all Buddha teachings without forgetting any, the boundless will to manifest the infinite spiritual metamorphoses of all buddhas, the boundless will not to abandon any enlightening practices to attain enlightened power, the boundless will to enter into the subtle realm of all-knowledge and explain all Buddha teachings, the boundless will to enter into the inconceivable vast realm of buddhahood, the boundless will to develop profound aspiration for the buddhas’ powers of elucidation and receive all Buddha teachings, the boundless will to manifest all kinds of free bodies and enter the circles of all enlightened ones.

  “These enlightening beings have ten kinds of knowledge of differentiation of entry into concentration: entering into concentration in the east and emerging in the west, entering in the west and emerging in the east, entering in the south and emerging in the north, entering in the north and emerging in the south, entering in the northeast and emerging in the southwest, entering in the southwest and emerging in the northwest, entering in the southwest and emerging in the northeast, entering in the northwest and emerging in the southeast, entering in the southeast and emerging in the northwest, entering in the nadir and emerging in the zenith, entering in the zenith and emerging in the nadir.

  “These enlightening beings have ten kinds of knowledge of skills in entry into great concentration: they make a billion-world universe a single lotus blossom and appear sitting cross-legged on this lotus blossom, covering it entirely, and in the body manifest another billion-world universe, wherein there are ten billion quadruplex earths, in each of which they manifest ten billion bodies, each body entering into one hundred sextillion billion-world universes, in each of the quadruplex worlds of which they manifest one hundred sextillion enlightening beings engaged in practice, the practice of each enlightening being producing one hundred sextillion certain understandings, each certain understanding causing one hundred sextillion potentials to be fulfilled, each potential developing into the nonregressive work of one hundred sextillion enlightening ways: yet the physical manifestations are neither one nor many, and not mixed up in entry into concentration or emergence from concentration. It is like the case of the titan king Rahula, whose original body is seven hundred leagues tall, while his transformed body is 168,000 leagues tall; the half of his body emerging from the ocean is just level with the polar mountain Sumeru. Though that titan king transforms his body into a colossus, that does not destroy his original form—all the psychophysical elements are the same, his mind is not disturbed, he does not think of his transformed body as other or of his original body as not himself. The body he was born with is always blissful, and his transformed body is always manifesting all kinds of miraculous powers. The titan king has greed, ill-will, and delusion, and is full of pride and conceit, and yet is able to transform his body in this way—how much the more so the enlightening beings who profoundly realize that mental states are like illusions, that all beings are like dreams, that the appearance in the world of all buddhas is like reflected images, that all worlds are like magical productions, that all speech is like echoes: they see reality as is and have reality as their body, knowing all things are inherently pure, realizing that the body and mind have no real substance; their bodies are omnipresent in infinite realms and by the great light of buddha-knowledge purify and practice all the deeds of enlightening beings.

  “Enlightening beings in this concentration transcend the world and are detached from the world; nothing can disturb them or overpower them. Just as when a monk contemplates inside the body and dwells in the view of impurity, seeing the body as impure, so do enlightening beings in this concentration observe the reality body, seeing all worlds enter the body, therein seeing all mundane realms and phenomena without any attachment to them. This is called the great enlightening beings’ practical knowledge of the first great concentration, of universal light.

  “What is the great enlightening beings’ concentration of subtle light? Here enlightening beings can enter as many billion-world universes as there are atoms in a billion-world universe, and in each world manifest as many bodies as atoms in a billion-world universe, each body emitting as many lights as atoms in a billion-world universe, each light revealing as many colors as atoms in a billion-world universe, each color lighting as many worlds as atoms in a billion-world universe, in each world pacifying as many beings as atoms in a billion-world universe. The enlightening beings know all the various dissimilarities of these worlds: that is, the clutter and pollution of worlds, the purity and cleanness of worlds, the causes of worlds, the structures of worlds, the concomitants of worlds, the colors of lights of worlds, the comings and goings of worlds—the enlightening beings know all these and enter all these, and these worlds also enter the bodies of the enlightening beings, yet the worlds have no mixup or confusion and the various phenomena do not disintegrate or vanish either.

  “It is like when the sun comes out and circles the polar mountain, illumining the mountains made of seven precious substances: on those mountains of seven precious substances and in the valleys in between them are light beams clearly shining—the sunbeams on the jewel mountains all appear in the lights of the valleys, and the sunbeams in the valleys all appear in the lights of the mountains: in this way they mutually reflect back and forth. Sometimes it is said that the sunbeams emerge from the mountains of seven precious substances, sometimes it is said that the sunbeams emerge from the valleys between the mountains; sometimes it is said that the sunlight enters the mountains, sometimes it is said that the sunlight enters the valleys—but the sunbeams reflect back and forth boundlessly; their nature is not existent, not nonexistent, not abiding in the mountains, not apart from the mountains, not dwelling in the water, not apart from the water. So it is also with enlightening beings in this vast concentration of subtle light: they do not dissolve the features of the structure of the world, do not annihilate the natures of the phenomena of the world, do not dwell within the world or outside the world; they do not discriminate anything in any world, yet do not destroy the features of worlds, they see all things as one form which is formless, and yet do not destroy the identities of things—they abide in real Thusness, never leaving it.

  “It is like a magician, expert in magical arts, standing at a crossroads performing magic tricks: in one day, in the space of a moment, he may manifest a day or a night, or he may make it appear to be seven days and nights, or a fortnight, a month, a year, a century; according to desire, he can manifest the appearance of cities, towns, villages, springs, streams, rivers, seas, sun, moon, clouds, rain, palaces, mansions, houses, all of this complete. Yet he does not destroy the original one day or one hour by making it appear that years have passed, and the brevity of the actual time does not destroy the appearance of the passage of days, months, or years. The illusory appearances clearly show, yet the actual time is not extinguished. In the same way great enlightening beings, entering this vast concentration of subtle light, manifest countless worlds entering into one world, each of those countless worlds having earth, water, fire, and air, oceans and mountains, cities and towns, groves and houses, abodes of various kinds of beings complete with all kinds of adornments; they have realms of desire, of form, and of formlessness, solar systems and galaxies, acts and consequences, death in one place and rebirth in another, all the times and seasons of all worlds—moments, days, nights, fortnights, months, years, centuries, eons of becoming and eons of decay, polluted lands, clean lands, big lands, small lands, buddhas appearing therein, in buddha-lands that are pure, with circles of enlightening beings and autonomous spiritual powers teaching sentient beings; every place in those lands is filled with countless people and various beings of different forms and conditions, immeasurable, boundless, inconceivable, past, f
uture, and present, the power of pure deeds producing infinite jewels of supreme refinement. They show all such things in one world, wherein the enlightening beings all see clearly, entering into all, observing all, contemplating all, comprehending all, knowing all truly by means of inexhaustible knowledge. The multiplicity of the worlds does not destroy this one world, and the singleness of this world does not destroy the multiplicity of those worlds. Why? Because enlightening beings know all phenomena are selfless, they are said to have penetrated the principle of lifelessness and noncreation. Because enlightening beings diligently cultivate noncontention in all worlds, they are said to abide in the principle of selflessness. Because enlightening beings see all bodies as they really are, all deriving from conditions, they are said to abide in the principle of nonexistence of beings. Because enlightening beings know that everything which is born and passes away comes from causes, they are said to abide in the principle of nonexistence of persons. Because enlightening beings know the fundamental nature of all things is equal, they are said to abide in the principle of nonexistence of mental productions or the human being. Because enlightening beings know the fundamental nature of all things is still, they are said to abide in the principle of stillness. Because enlightening beings know that all things are uniform, they are said to abide in the principle of nondiscrimination. Because enlightening beings know the realm of reality does not have various differentiated phenomena, they are said to abide in the principle of inconceivability. Because enlightening beings diligently cultivate all liberative means and skillfully pacify beings, they are said to abide in the principle of great compassion.

  “In this way enlightening beings can put countless worlds into one world, know the various differences of countless beings, see the individual procedures of countless enlightening beings, and observe countless buddhas appearing here and there, able to absorb the teachings expounded by those buddhas, also seeing themselves there practicing them; without leaving here, they appear to be there, and without leaving there, they appear to be here, this body and that body being undifferentiable, because they are in the realm of reality. They always practice contemplation earnestly, unceasingly, never abandoning wisdom, because they do not regress.

  “It is like a magician in a given place practicing the arts of illusion: he does not destroy his actual place by the illusory place, and does not destroy the actual day by the illusory day. In the same way, enlightening beings manifest the existence of a land where there is no land, and manifest the nonexistence of a land where there is a land; where there are sentient beings they manifest nonexistence of sentient beings, and where there are no sentient beings they manifest the existence of sentient beings; where there is no form they manifest form, and where there is form they manifest formlessness—the beginning does not disarray the after-math, and the aftermath does not disarray the beginning. The enlightening beings know that all the things of the world are like this, the same as illusions: knowing phenomena are illusory, they know knowledge is illusory; because they know knowledge is illusory, they know action is illusory. Once they know that knowledge is illusion and action is illusion, they develop illusion knowledge, observing all actions. Just as the illusions of the world do not manifest their illusions outside of their place, and do not have a place outside of illusion, in the same way great enlightening beings do not enter the world outside of emptiness and also do not enter emptiness outside of the world. Why? Because emptiness and the world have no difference. Living in the world is also living in emptiness. Great enlightening beings are able to perceive and cultivate the various different adorning activities of all worlds within emptiness. In a single instant they are able to know countless worlds, becoming or decaying, and also know the continuity and succession of all ages. They are able to manifest countless ages in a single instant without enlarging the instant.

  “Great enlightening beings attain the illusion knowledge of inconceivable liberation, arrive at the other shore, abide in the realm of illusion, and enter the illusions of the world. They think of all things as like illusions, do not oppose the illusory world, have perfect knowledge of illusion, comprehend that past, present, and future are not apart from illusion, and definitively realize the boundlessness of mind. Like the enlightened ones, they abide in knowledge of illusoriness, their minds equanimous; they know all worlds are like illusions, and they have no attachments anywhere, having no self or possessions. Just as the magician creates illusory phenomena, though he does not live with those illusory phenomena, yet has no confusion about illusory phenomena, in the same way the great enlightening beings know all things reach the other shore, and in their minds they do not imagine that they are able to enter into things, and they have no confusion about things. This is the knowledge of the skill of the enlightening beings’ second great concentration, of subtle light.

  “What is great enlightening beings’ concentration of spiritual power successively journeying to the buddha-lands? Here the great enlightening beings pass countless worlds to the east, and also pass as many worlds as atoms in that many worlds: in those worlds they enter this concentration, maybe entering for an instant, or for a moment, or entering continuously, or entering in the morning, or at midday, or in the afternoon, or in the evening, or at night, or after midnight, or entering for one day, or for five days, or for a fortnight, or for a month, or for a year, or for a century, or for a millennium, or for a hundred millennia, or for a hundred million years, or for ten trillion years, or for an octillion years, or for one eon, or for a hundred eons, or for a hundred thousand eons, or for an octillion eons, or for countless eons, or for measureless eons, or for boundless eons, or for incomparable eons, or for innumerable eons, or for unaccountable eons, or for unthinkable eons, or for immeasurable eons, or for unspeakable eons, or for untold eons. As for the various dissimilarities—of far and near, of phenomena or time, and so on—the enlightening beings do not create discriminations in regard to them; their minds are not obsessed with them; they do not take them to be dual or nondual, universal or particular. Though they are aloof from these discriminations, yet by expedient techniques of spiritual powers, when they arise from concentration they remember everything and reach the ultimate end. It is like, for example, the sun going around giving light, never stopping day or night; the emergence of the sun is called day and the disappearance of the sun is called night—it is not born with the day and does not perish at night. In the same way the great enlightening being enters concentration of spiritual power in countless worlds, and having entered concentration, clearly sees those countless worlds. This is called the technical knowledge of the third great concentration of great enlightening being, the great concentration of spiritual power successively traveling to buddha-lands.

  “What is great enlightening beings’ concentration of action of the pure profound mind? Here the enlightening beings know that embodiments of Buddha are as numerous as all beings, and see innumerable buddhas, more than the number of atoms in countless worlds. To all those buddhas they offer all kinds of fine fragrances, all kinds of beautiful flowers, all kinds of canopies, vast as countless buddha-lands, all kinds of exquisite adornments surpassing those of all worlds, all kinds of precious substances, parks arrayed with all kinds of embellishments, treasuries of countless jewels, food and drink produced by enlightened spiritual power, surpassing that of all the heavens in flavor, and all the various superb offerings in all buddha-lands, which they are able to gather by spiritual power. To each of those buddhas they pay utmost respect and honor, prostrating themselves on the ground and asking for the Buddha’s teaching, praising the impartiality of Buddha, extolling the magnificent virtues of the buddhas. They enter the great compassion that all buddhas enter, attain the unhindered power that is equal in all buddhas, and in a single instant seek the wondrous teaching from all buddhas. Yet they do not apprehend, in regard to those buddhas, such signs as appearance in the world or entry into ultimate nirvana. Just as the scattered, stirring mind, distinguishing objects,
does not know what the conditions of mind’s arousal and quiescence are, in the same way, these great enlightening beings do not discriminate the characteristics of the appearance and nirvana of buddhas.

  “It is like a mirage in the daytime—it does not come from clouds or lakes, it does not rest on land or water, neither exists nor does not exist, is not good or bad, not pure or polluted, it cannot be drunk, cannot be polluted, it neither has nor does not have substance, neither has nor does not have taste. Through causes and conditions it manifests the appearance of water, as perceived by the consciousness. When one looks at it from afar it resembles water, and so one imagines there is water, but when one approaches there is none, so the image of water naturally disappears. Similarly the great enlightening beings do not apprehend forms of the buddhas emerging in the world or entering nirvana: the characteristics of existence or nonexistence of buddhas are discriminations of the conceiving mind.

  “This concentration is called the action of pure, profound mind. The great enlightening being, after having entered this concentration, emerges without forgetting, like someone awakening from sleep remembering what he has dreamed—even though when one is awake the dream scenes are not there, still one can remember them. In the same way the great enlightening beings enter this concentration, see buddhas and hear teachings, then arise from concentration, yet remember it all and use these teachings to enlighten all communities at enlightenment sites, and adorn all buddha-lands; they clearly comprehend all the immeasurable meanings and intentions, and all the means of teaching are also purified. They light the torch of great wisdom and perpetuate the seed of buddhahood. Their freedom from hesitation is complete, and their powers of elucidation are inexhaustible; they reveal and expound the treasury of the most profound Teaching. This is the technical knowledge of the fourth great concentration of great enlightening beings, the concentration of action of the pure, profound mind.