The Flower Ornament Scripture

by Thomas Cleary

  “Furthermore, once the billion-world universe has formed, it benefits countless various sentient beings—the water creatures receive the benefits of the water, the land creatures receive the benefit of the land, the sky creatures receive the benefit of the sky. In the same way the manifestation of Buddha variously benefits all kinds of beings—those who become joyful on seeing Buddha gain the benefit of joy, those who abide by the pure precepts gain the benefit of pure conduct, those who abide in the meditations, concentrations, and immeasurable minds gain the benefit of transmundane spiritual powers of saints, those who abide in the lights of the ways of entry into the Teaching gain the benefit of the nondissolution of cause and effect, those who abide in the light of nonexistence gain the benefit of nondissolution of all truths. Therefore we say the manifestation of Buddha benefits all sentient beings. This is the tenth characteristic of the manifestation of Buddha—great enlightening beings should know it as such.

  “When great enlightening beings know the manifestation of Buddha, they know it is infinite because they know it consummates infinite practices; then they know it is immensely vast because they know it pervades the ten directions; then they know it has no coming or going because they know it is apart from birth, subsistence, and extinction, then they know it has no action and nothing acted upon because they know it is beyond mind, intellect, and consciousness; then they know it is impartial because they know all sentient beings have no self; then they know it is endless because they know it pervades all lands without end, then they know it is unreceding because they know it will never be stopped in the future; then they know it has no decay because the Buddha’s knowledge has no counterpart; then they know it is nondual because they know Buddha equally observes the conditional and the unconditional; then they know all sentient beings gain benefit because the dedication of Buddha’s original vows are freely fulfilled.”

  Then the great enlightening being Universally Good, wishing to restate his point, spoke these verses:

  The Ten-Powered Great Hero is supreme,

  Incomparable as space,

  With a sphere so vast it cannot be measured,

  Virtues most eminent, beyond the world.

  The virtues of the ten powers are boundless,

  Unreachable by thought:

  A single teaching of the human lion

  No sentient beings can know in a hundred million eons.

  If the lands of the ten directions were reduced to dust,

  Those motes of dust might be counted,

  But the virtues in a single hair of Buddha

  Could not be told in a trillion eons.

  If someone took a ruler to measure space

  And someone followed to keep the account,

  The bounds of space could not be found—

  So it is with the realm of Buddha.

  If someone could know in an instant

  The minds of the beings of all times,

  Even over eons as many as beings,

  Such a one could know the essence of one thought of Buddha.

  Just as the reality realm pervades all

  Yet cannot be perceived as being all,

  So also is the realm of the Ten-Powered:

  It pervades all yet is not all.

  True Thusness, free of falsehood, is ever silent;

  Birthless, deathless, it is all-pervasive.

  The realm of the buddhas is also thus;

  Essentially equal, not increasing or decreasing.

  Just as ultimate reality has no limit.

  Is in all times yet is not therein,

  So is the realm of the Guide,

  Pervading all times without obstruction.

  The nature of things is uncreate, unchanging,

  Fundamentally pure, like space:

  So also is the purity of nature of buddhas—

  Their fundamental nature is not a nature, is beyond being and nonbeing.

  The nature of things is not in discussion,

  It is speechless, beyond speech, eternally quiescent.

  The nature of the realm of the Ten-Powered is also thus;

  No words can explain it.

  Buddha knows the nature of things is null,

  Like birds flying through the sky without a trace;

  By the power of past vows he manifests a body,

  Showing the great spiritual transfiguration of Buddha.

  Any who wish to know the realm of Buddha

  Should make their minds clean as space,

  Getting rid of false notions and graspings,

  Making the mind unhindered wherever it turns.

  Therefore offspring of Buddha should listen well

  As I illustrate the realm of Buddha with a few examples;

  The virtues of the Ten-Powered cannot be measured,

  But to enlighten all beings I summarize them.

  The vistas exposed by the Guide

  In acts of body, speech, and mind,

  Their teaching and final extinction,

  All roots of goodness I now will tell.

  Just as the establishment of worlds

  Cannot be achieved by one cause or condition,

  And countless appropriate causes and conditions

  Form this billion-world universe,

  The manifestation of Buddha is also like this,

  Only accomplished through infinite virtues;

  The atoms of lands and thoughts of minds may be known,

  But the productive causes of the Ten-Powered none can measure.

  Just as clouds pour rain at the start of one eon

  And create four great atmospheres,

  And the roots of goodness of sentient beings and the power of enlightening beings

  Establish the billion worlds securely,

  So do the clouds of teaching of the Ten-Powered

  Produce atmospheres of knowledge, pure minds,

  Guiding beings to which they were previously dedicated

  To fulfillment of the highest reward.

  Just as there is a great deluge

  Which no place can contain

  Except the great wind force in pure space

  At the beginning of the universe,

  So also is the Buddha’s manifestation,

  Showering rain of truths filling the cosmos

  Which the weak-minded cannot bear,

  Only those of pure and broad minds.

  Just as the downpour of rain in the sky

  Comes from nowhere and goes nowhere,

  With no producer or receiver,

  Naturally filling all with moisture thus,

  The rain of teaching of Buddha is also thus,

  Without coming or going, uncreate;

  Based on past practice, with the power of enlightening beings,

  All the great-minded hear and accept it.

  As the clouds in the sky shower rain,

  And no one can count the drops,

  Except the lord of the universe

  Whose power is able to comprehend them,

  So also is the rain of teaching of the Felicitous;

  No sentient beings can measure it,

  Except people who are free in the world,

  Who see it as clearly as a jewel in the hand.

  Just as the rain pouring from the clouds in the sky

  Can extinguish, can produce, and can stop,

  Can make all jewels

  And distinguish all in the universe,

  The rain of Buddha’s teaching is also thus,

  Extinguishing delusion, producing good, stopping views,

  Making all jewels of knowledge,

  Distinguishing beings’ inclinations.

  The one flavor of the rain in the sky

  Is different according to the places it rains—

  It is not that the rain has any distinction,

  But it is naturally thus according to the differences in things.

  The rain of teaching of Buddha is not one or varied:

  Impartial, quiesce
nt, it is free from discrimination,

  Yet according to the various differences of those taught

  It naturally has unlimited aspects.

  When the world is first formed,

  First are formed the palaces of the form-realm heavens,

  Then the desire heavens, then human abodes,

  And last the gandharva palaces;

  The manifestation of Buddha is also like this,

  First producing boundless enlightening beings’ practices,

  Then teaching those aware of conditioning, who like tranquillity,

  Then the listeners, then finally sentient beings.

  When the gods first see the lotus blossom open

  They know buddhas will appear and are glad;

  Water, based on the power of wind, produces the world,

  Dwellings, mountains, and rivers are all set up.

  The great light of the developed goodness of Buddha

  Skillfully distinguishes enlightening beings and gives them predictions;

  The spheres of knowledge, all pure,

  Can each reveal the ways to buddhahood.

  The forest exists dependent on the earth,

  The earth remains solid based on water,

  Water depends on wind, wind on space,

  While space does not depend on anything.

  All Buddha teachings depend on compassion,

  And compassion is established depending on means;

  Means depend on knowledge, knowledge on wisdom,

  While the body of unimpeded wisdom does not depend on anything.

  Once the world comes to be,

  All beings receive its benefits—

  Living on the earth, in the water, in the sky,

  Two-legged, four-legged, all receive benefit.

  The manifestation of the spiritual sovereign is also thus—

  All beings gain its benefits;

  If any see, hear, or associate with Buddha,

  It will cause all confusions and afflictions to be removed.

  The elements of Buddha’s manifestation are boundless;

  The deluded of the world cannot know them.

  Out of desire to enlighten all conscious beings

  Similes are told where there is no comparison.

  “How should great enlightening beings see the body of Buddha? They should see the body of Buddha in infinite places. Why? They should not see Buddha in just one thing, one phenomenon, one body, one land, one being—they should see Buddha everywhere. Just as space is omnipresent, in all places, material or immaterial, yet without either arriving or not arriving there, because space is incorporeal, in the same way Buddha is omnipresent, in all places, in all beings, in all things, in all lands, yet neither arriving nor not arriving there, because Buddha’s body is incorporeal, manifesting a body for the sake of sentient beings. This is the first characteristic of the body of Buddha; great enlightening beings should see it thus.

  “Furthermore, just as space is wide open, is not a form yet can reveal all forms, yet space is without discrimination or false description, so also is the body of Buddha like this, causing all beings’ mundane and transmundane good works to be accomplished by illumining all with the light of knowledge, yet without discrimination or false descriptions, having originally terminated all attachments and false descriptions. This is the second characteristic of the body of Buddha—great enlightening beings should see it this way.

  “When the sun comes out, infinite living beings all receive its benefits—it disperses the darkness and gives light, dries up moisture, causes plants and trees to grow, matures crops, permeates the sky, causes lotuses to bloom, allows travelers to see the road, allows people to do their work—because the orb of the sun radiates infinite beams of light everywhere. The sun of knowledge of Buddha is also like this, benefiting sentient beings everywhere by infinite works—destroying evil and producing good, breaking down ignorance and creating knowledge, benevolently saving, compassionately liberating, causing growth of faculties, powers, and elements of enlightenment, causing beings to develop profound faith, enabling them to see inevitable cause and effect, fostering in them the celestial eye to see where beings die and are born, causing their minds to be unimpeded and not destroy roots of goodness, causing them to cultivate illumination by knowledge and open the flower of awakening, causing them to determine to fulfill their fundamental task. Why? Because Buddha’s immense sun-body of knowledge and wisdom radiates infinite light, illumining everywhere. This is the third characteristic of the body of Buddha; great enlightening beings should see it thus.

  “When the sun rises, first it lights up the highest mountains, then the lower mountains, then the high plateaus, and finally the whole land; but the sun does not think, ‘First I will illumine here, afterward I will illumine there’—it is just because of difference in height of the mountains and land that there is a succession in illumination. The Buddha, similarly, having developed the boundless orb of knowledge of the realm of reality, always radiating the light of unimpeded knowledge, first of all illumines the high mountains, which are the great enlightening beings, then illumines those who are awakened by understanding of conditioning, then illumines those who listen to the message, then illumines sentient beings whose foundations of goodness are sure and stable, revealing vast knowledge according to beings’ mental capacities, finally illumining all sentient beings, even reaching those who are fixated on error, to be a beneficial cause for the future, that they may develop to maturity. But the light of the sun of great knowledge of Buddha does not think, ‘I will first illumine the great deeds of enlightening beings and at the very last shine on the sentient beings who are fixated on error’—it just radiates the light, shining equally on all, without obstruction or impediment, without discrimination. Just as the sun and moon appear in their time and impersonally shine on the mountains and valleys, so also does the knowledge of Buddha shine on all without discrimination, while the light of knowledge has various differences according to the differences in faculties and inclinations of sentient beings. This is the fourth characteristic of the body of Buddha; great enlightening beings should see it thus.

  “When the sun comes out, those born blind cannot see it, because they have no faculty of vision; yet even though they do not see it, they are benefited by the light of the sun. Why? By this it is possible to know the times of day and night and to have access to food and clothing to comfort the body and free it from distress. The sun of knowledge of Buddha is also like this; the blind without faith or understanding, immoral and heedless, sustaining themselves by wrong means of livelihood, do not see the orb of the sun of knowledge of the Buddhas because they have no eye of faith, but even though they do not see it, they are still benefited by the sun of knowledge. Why? Because by the power of Buddha it makes the causes of future suffering of those beings—physical pains and psychological afflictions—all vanish.

  “Buddha has a light called accumulating all virtues, a light called total universal illumination, a light called pure, free illumination, a light called producing great wondrous sound, a light called understanding all languages and gladdening others, a light called the realm of freedom showing the eternal cancellation of all doubts, a light called independent universal illumination of nondwelling knowledge, a light called free knowledge forever terminating all false descriptions, a light called producing marvelous sayings according to need, a light called producing free utterances adorning lands and maturing sentient beings. Each pore of the Buddha emits a thousand kinds of light like these: five hundred lights beam downward, five hundred lights beam upward, illumining the congregations of enlightening beings at the various places of the buddhas in the various lands; when the enlightening beings see these lights, all at once they realize the realm of buddhahood, with ten heads, ten eyes, ten ears, ten noses, ten tongues, ten bodies, ten hands, ten feet, ten stages, and ten knowledges, all thoroughly pure. The states and stages previously accomplished by those enlightening beings become more pur
e upon seeing these lights; their roots of goodness mature, and they proceed toward omniscience. Those in the two lesser vehicles have all their defilements removed. Some other beings, who are blind, their bodies blissful, also become purified in mind, gentle and docile, able to cultivate mindfulness and knowledge. The sentient beings in the realms of hells, hungry ghosts, and animals all become blissful and are freed from pains, and when their lives end are reborn in heaven or the human world. Those sentient beings are not aware, do not know by what cause, by what spiritual power, they came to be born there. Those blind ones think, ‘We are Brahma gods, we are emanations of Brahma.’ Then Buddha, in the concentration of universal freedom, says to them, ‘You are not Brahma gods, not emanations of Brahma, nor were you created by the king-god Indra or the world-guardian gods: all this is the spiritual power of Buddha.’ Having heard this, those sentient beings, by the spiritual power of Buddha, all know their past life and become very happy. Because their hearts are joyful, they naturally produce clouds of udumbara flowers, clouds of fragrances, music, cloth, parasols, banners, pennants, aromatic powders, jewels, towers adorned with lion banners and crescents, clouds of songs of praise, clouds of all kinds of adornments, and respectfully offer them to the Buddha. Why? Because these sentient beings have gained clear eyes, and therefore the Buddha gives them the prophecy of unexcelled, complete perfect enlightenment. In this way Buddha’s sun of knowledge benefits sentient beings born blind, fostering the full development of basic goodness. This is the fifth characteristic of the body of Buddha; great enlightening beings should see it this way.