The Flower Ornament Scripture
Page 149
“After enlightening beings in their final embodiment have appeared in a royal palace, they leave home. Great enlightening beings demonstrate leaving home for ten reasons: to reject living at home; to cause sentient beings attached to their homes to give up their attachment; to follow and appreciate the path of saints; to publicize and praise the virtues of leaving home; to demonstrate eternal detachment from extreme views; to cause sentient beings to detach from sensual and selfish pleasures; to show the appearance of transcending the world; to show independence, not being subject to another; to show that they are going to attain the ten powers and fearlessnesses of buddhas; and because it is natural that enlightening beings in their final life should do so. Enlightening beings use this manifestation of leaving home to pacify sentient beings.
“Great enlightening beings demonstrate the practice of austerities for ten reasons: to develop sentient beings with low understanding; to remove false views from sentient beings; to show the consequences of action to sentient beings who do not believe in consequences of action; because it is natural to do so in accordance with the adulterated and polluted world; to show the ability to endure toil and diligently work on the Way; to cause sentient beings to want to seek the truth; for the sake of sentient beings who are attached to sensual pleasures and selfish pleasure; in order to show that enlightening beings’ effort is supreme, continuing to the very last life; to induce sentient beings to enjoy the state of calm and tranquillity and increase roots of goodness; to wait until the time is ripe to develop people’s immature faculties. Enlightening beings use these expedient means to pacify all sentient beings.
“Ten things occur when great enlightening beings go to the site of enlightenment: they illumine all worlds; they cause all worlds to quake; they manifest their bodies in all worlds; they awaken all enlightening beings and all their colleagues of the past; they manifest all the adornments of the site of enlightenment; they manifest various kinds of deportment and all the adornments of the tree of enlightenment, showing them according to the inclinations of the minds of sentient beings; they see all the buddhas of the ten directions; they continually enter concentration with every step and become buddhas moment to moment, without interruption; the leaders of all creatures, unaware of each other, produce all kinds of wonderful offerings; with unobstructed knowledge they observe all the buddhas carrying out the deeds of enlightening beings in all worlds and fulfilling true enlightenment. By these ten things enlightening beings teach and influence sentient beings.
“Ten things occur when great enlightening beings sit on the site of enlightenment: they cause all worlds to quake in various ways; they equally illuminate all worlds; they remove all the sufferings of miserable states; they cause all worlds to be adamantine; they gaze on the lion thrones of all the buddhas; their minds are like space, without conceptualization; they manifest comportment as appropriate; they rest in adamantine concentration; they receive the pure, sublime place sustained by the spiritual power of all buddhas; they can strengthen all sentient beings with the power of their own roots of goodness.
“When great enlightening beings sit on the site of enlightenment, ten extraordinary, unprecedented events occur: all the buddhas of the worlds of the ten directions appear before them, raise their right hands, and praise them as unexcelled guides; all buddhas watch over them and give them power; the enlightening beings who were their colleagues in the past come and surround them and respectfully present various adornments; the plants and trees and all insentient things bend toward the site of enlightenment; the great enlightening beings enter a concentration called observing the cosmos, whose power can cause all enlightening practices to be fulfilled; they attain a spell called oceanic treasury of supreme pure light, and are able to receive the rain from the great clouds of teaching of all buddhas; by spiritual powers they produce superb offerings throughout all worlds which they present to the buddhas; they rest in highest knowledge and actually know the faculties and mental patterns of all sentient beings; they enter a concentration called ‘well aware,’ whose power enables their bodies to fill all worlds in all spaces in all times; they attain pure illumination and unobstructed great knowledge, enabling their physical actions to penetrate past, present, and future. These are the ten extraordinary things that happen when great enlightening beings sit on the site of enlightenment.
“When great enlightening beings are sitting on the site of enlightenment, they manifest the conquering of demons because of observing ten kinds of purpose: because the sentient beings in times of confusion are bellicose, enlightening beings want to show the spiritual power of enlightening beings; to cut off the doubts of people in celestial and mundane states who have doubts; to civilize and tame the armies of demons; to cause people who like the military to come and observe demon quelling, so their minds will be subdued; to show that no one in the world can oppose the powers of enlightening beings; to arouse the courage and strength of all sentient beings; out of pity for the sentient beings of degenerate times; to show that even up to the site of enlightenment there are still hordes of demons who come to create disturbance, and only after this does one finally manage to get beyond the reach of demons; to show that the force of afflictions is weak and inferior compared with the mighty power of great compassion and virtue; and to do what must be done in a polluted, evil world. These are the ten reasons why great enlightening beings manifest demon-conquering.
“Great enlightening beings have ten kinds of attainment of powers of the enlightened: they attain the powers of the enlightened because they transcend the afflictive activities of all demons; because they fulfill all enlightening practices and master all concentrations of enlightening beings; because they fully accomplish all the far-reaching meditations of enlightening beings; because they fulfill all the pure means of fostering enlightenment; because they attain illumination of knowledge of all things and can think and analyze well; because their bodies pervade all worlds; because they can support all by spiritual power; because their utterances are equal to the minds of all sentient beings; because they are physically, verbally, and mentally equal to the buddhas of all times, and can comprehend the things of all times in a single thought; because they attain concentration of precisely aware knowledge and are imbued with the ten powers of the enlightened, from knowledge of what is so and what is not so up to knowledge of extinction of contaminations. If enlightening beings acquire these ten powers, they are called buddhas, truly awake.
“There are ten aspects of the turning of the great wheel of teaching by truly awakened buddhas: they are imbued with the knowledge of the four pure fearlessnesses; they produce utterances consonant with the four intellectual powers; they are able to expound the characteristics of the four truths; they accord with the unobstructed liberation of all buddhas; they are able to provoke pure faith in the minds of all sentient beings; whatever they say is not in vain, being able to extract the poison arrows of suffering from sentient beings; they are supported by the power of great compassionate commitment; their utterances pervade all worlds; they teach endlessly for incalculable eons; the teachings they utter are all able to produce spiritual faculties and powers, ways of awakening, meditations, liberations, concentrations, and such phenomena. When buddhas teach, it involves infinite such phenomena.
“When truly awakened buddhas turn the wheel of teaching, by virtue of ten things they plant pure elements in the minds of sentient beings, which are not in vain: because of the power of their past vows; because of being sustained by great compassion; because of not abandoning sentient beings; because of freedom of knowledge able to teach according to the inclinations of sentient beings; because of unerring timing; because of according with suitability and not preaching arbitrarily; because of knowledge of past, present, and future; because buddhas are most excellent, without peer; because their sayings are free and unfathomable; because their knowledge is free and whatever they say is enlightening.
“When buddhas have done their buddha-work, they manifest fi
nal extinction because of ten considerations: to show that all activities are really impermanent; to show that all created things are unstable; to show that ultimate nirvana is the abode of peace, without fear; to show those attached to the physical body that the physical body is impermanent, so that they will aspire to dwell in the pure body of reality; to show that the power of impermanence cannot be overturned; to show that all created things do not remain as one wishes and are not under one’s control; to show that all existents are like magical productions and are not hard and fast; to show that the nature of nirvana is ultimately stable and indestructible; to show that all things have no birth or origin, yet have the appearance of assemblage and dissolution. Once the buddhas have finished their buddha-work, have fulfilled their vows, have turned the wheel of teaching, have enlightened and liberated those who could be enlightened and liberated, and have made the predictions of buddhahood of the enlightening beings who become honored ones, as a matter of course they enter unchanging, great, ultimate nirvana. These are the ten points of consideration because of which they manifest ultimate extinction in nirvana.
“This teaching is called the far-reaching pure practice of enlightening beings. It is expounded by all the infinite buddhas. It can enable the wise to comprehend innumerable matters and to all become joyful. It enables the great undertakings and deeds of all enlightening beings to continue, If any sentient beings hear this teaching, believe it, understand it, and put it into practice, they will surely be able to attain supreme complete perfect enlightenment quickly. Why? Because they apply the teachings in practice. If enlightening beings do not practice in accord with the teaching, they will be forever estranged from the enlightenment of buddhas. Therefore, enlightening beings should practice the teaching.
“This flower of definitive meaning of the points of virtuous practices of all enlightening beings enters into all the teachings, produces all knowledge, transcends all worlds, is beyond the paths of the two lesser vehicles, is not common to all sentient beings, can illumine all ways of entry into truth, and develops transcendental roots of goodness in sentient beings. This book of the teaching of detachment from the world should be honored, listened to and absorbed, recited and remembered, contemplated, appreciated, and put into practice. People who can do this will soon attain unexcelled complete perfect enlightenment.”
When this book was spoken, by the spiritual power of Buddha and by the nature of the teaching, infinite worlds in the ten directions quaked and great light shone everywhere. At that point, buddhas of the ten directions all appeared before the enlightening being Universally Good and said in praise, “It is very good, offspring of Buddha, how you can expound this book of transmundane principles of the flower of definitive meaning of points of virtuous practice of enlightening beings of the highest ranks, which enters into all Buddha teachings. You have learned this teaching well and expound this teaching well; you preserve this teaching by spiritual power. We buddhas all rejoice in this, and as we rejoice for you, so do all buddhas. We buddhas, all of the same mind, preserve this scripture, so that the enlightening beings of present and future who have not heard it may all get to hear it.”
Then the great enlightening being Universally Good, by the power of Buddha, looked over all the masses in the ten directions, throughout the cosmos, and said in verse:
Cultivating difficult practices for measureless eons,
Born of the true teachings of infinite buddhas,
Causing countless beings to dwell in enlightenment—
Listen as I tell of the peerless deeds of enlightening beings.
Serving infinite buddhas, abandoning attachment,
Widely liberating sentient beings, without forming such concepts,
Seeking enlightened virtue, minds independent,
Their sublime practices I now tell.
Free from afflicting actions of demons of the three worlds,
Imbued with higher conduct with holy virtues,
Destroying delusions, minds at peace—
I now tell the path they travel.
Forever free of the deceptive illusions of the world,
Showing sentient beings various transformations;
Mind arising, abiding, passing away—they manifest myriad phenomena:
I tell of their abilities to gladden all.
Seeing sentient beings born, aging, and dying,
Bound and oppressed by afflictions and troubles,
They want to liberate them, and so inspire them—
Listen to their virtuous practices.
Generosity, ethics, tolerance, vigor, meditation, wisdom,
Skill in means, benevolence, compassion, equanimity, and so on—
They practice these for billions of eons:
Hear the virtues of those people.
Seeking enlightenment for billions of eons,
They never begrudge their lives,
Vowing to benefit sentient beings, not doing it for themselves—
I now tell of their compassionate deeds.
To expound their virtues for countless eons
Would hardly amount to a drop in the sea;
Their virtues are peerless, incomparable—
By the power of Buddha I now summarize them.
In their minds, no high or low—
They tirelessly seek the Path,
As they go, causing sentient beings
To live in good, purifying ways.
Their wisdom benefits all
Like trees, rivers, and springs,
And also like the earth
Upon which everything rests.
Enlightening beings are like lotus flowers,
With roots of kindness, stems of peace,
Petals of wisdom,
Fragance of conduct.
Buddha emanates the light of truth,
Causing them to bloom;
The water of the created not sticking to them,
All who see them are delighted.
The tree of sublime ways of enlightening beings
Grows in the ground of the straightforward mind;
Faith is its seed, compassion its roots,
Wisdom its trunk;
Skillful means are its boughs,
Five transcendent ways its branches,
Concentration its leaves, spiritual powers its flowers,
And omniscience its fruit;
Supreme powers are like birds perched in it
As it gives shade to the triple world.
The lion of enlightening beings
Has pure good ways for a body,
The four truths are its legs,
Right mindfulness is its neck,
Benevolence its eyes, wisdom its head,
Wearing the turban of liberation;
In the valley of emptiness of ultimate reality
It roars this teaching and scares all demons.
Enlightening beings are caravan leaders;
They see living beings everywhere
In the wasteland of birth and death,
Afflicted, in dangerous places,
Caught by the bandits of manias,
Ignorant, blind, straying from the right road:
Enlightening beings direct them to the right, straight road
So they may enter the city of fearlessness.
Enlightening beings see sentient beings
Afflicted by the three poisons,
Suffering all kinds of pains,
Feverish, oppressed through the long night;
Arousing great compassion for them,
They explain many ways of curing,
Eighty-four thousand kinds,
To eliminate all afflictions.
Enlightening beings are spiritual sovereigns,
Civilizing beings by the right way,
Causing them to avoid evil and cultivate good,
And wholeheartedly seek enlightened virtue.
Crowned and given predictions of supreme enlightenment
By all buddhas,
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br /> They distribute the wealth of sagacity of people,
The jewels of the elements of enlightenment.
Enlightening beings turn the wheel of teaching
Just like what the buddhas turn;
Conduct is its hub, concentration the spokes;
Knowledge is their adornment, wisdom is their sword.
Having defeated the bandit afflictions
And slaughtered the enemy demons,
They put false teachers to flight
Whenever they see them.
Enlightening beings’ ocean of knowledge and wisdom
Is boundlessly deep and wide,
Suffused with the flavor of truth,
Filled with jewels of attributes of enlightenment.
A great mind is its boundless shore,
Omniscience is its tide:
No sentient beings can measure it,
It can never be fully explained.
Enlightening beings’ polar mountain
Goes beyond the world:
Concentration of spiritual capacity its peak,
The great mind rests immovable.
Any who approach it
Are imbued with its color of wisdom.
It is far beyond all realms of objects;
There is no one who does not see it.
Enlightening beings are like diamond,
Determined to find omniscience,
Their faith and austere practice