The Flower Ornament Scripture

by Thomas Cleary

  Following the three modes of conduct,

  They expound the three liberations,

  Define the paths of the Three Vehicles,

  And accomplish omniscience.

  They comprehend what is so and what is not,

  All actions and all faculties,

  Realms, understandings, meditations,

  Where all paths lead,

  Recollection of past lives, clairvoyance,

  And annihilating all delusion.

  They know the ten powers of buddhas,

  But cannot yet fully achieve them;

  They realize all things are void,

  Yet always seek the sublime Teaching;

  They are not mixed up in afflictions,

  Yet still do not annihilate contamination.

  With extensive knowledge of ways of emancipation

  They liberate sentient beings;

  In this they attain fearlessness

  And do not give up cultivating their practices.

  Unerring, not deviating from the Path,

  They do not lose right mindfulness.

  Their vigor, determination, concentration,

  And meditative wisdom are undiminishing.

  Pure in conduct, meditation, and altruism,

  They clearly understand all times;

  With great compassion for sentient beings,

  They are totally unimpeded.

  By entering these gates of truth

  They accomplish such practices:

  I now tell a little

  Of the sense of their arrays of virtue.

  Even if one told of their practices for countless eons

  One would never exhaust them;

  Now I tell a little bit,

  Like a mote of dust of the earth.

  Resting on buddha-knowledge,

  They generate extraordinary thoughts,

  Cultivate the best of actions,

  And embody great benevolence and compassion.

  Heroically striving, inwardly at peace,

  They teach and enlighten conscious beings;

  Abiding by pure precepts,

  They fulfill practices leading to enlightenment.

  Able to comprehend buddhas’ virtues,

  Sentient beings, actions, and lands,

  They also know all ages

  With never a thought of weariness.

  With total command of differentiating knowledge,

  They arrive at the meaning of truth;

  They contemplate and explain the incomparable,

  Peaceful, and calm true awareness.

  They generate the mind of Universal Good

  And cultivate the actions and vows;

  With the causal power of compassion,

  They proceed on the Path pure in mind.

  Practicing the transcendent ways,

  They perfect conscious knowledge;

  Realizing power and freedom,

  They attain unexcelled enlightenment.

  Achieving impartial knowledge,

  They expound the supreme truth;

  Able to preserve it, endowed with sublime intelligence,

  They arrive at the position of the supreme teacher.

  Avoiding all attachments,

  They expound impartiality of mind;

  Generating knowledge and wisdom,

  They produce miracles and attain enlightenment.

  Preserving the truth through all ages,

  The knowers are most joyful;

  Deeply penetrating it and relying on it,

  They have no fear or confusion.

  They realize the inconceivable,

  Unravel artful mysteries;

  They skillfully enter concentrations

  And see all spheres of knowledge.

  Consummating the liberations,

  They exercise spiritual insights;

  Forever free from veils and bonds,

  They roam freely in gardens and groves.

  Virtuous ways are their mansions,

  All their deeds are admirable;

  They cause boundless adornments to appear,

  Their minds unmoved by the world.

  Observing well, profoundly intent,

  They can elucidate with wonderful eloquence

  The pure marks of enlightenment,

  The light of knowledge illumining all.

  Their dwelling place is peerless,

  Their minds are indomitable;

  Their will is like a high mountain,

  Their virtues like a deep ocean.

  They rest in truth like treasure,

  Wear the armor of vows,

  Undertake great works,

  Ultimately invulnerable.

  They gain the destiny of enlightenment,

  And are steadily broad-minded;

  Their hidden resources are inexhaustible,

  They awaken to all truths.

  Masters of worldly knowledge,

  They function subtly, without obstruction:

  Sentient beings, all lands,

  And all kinds of phenomena,

  Embodiments, vows, and realms,

  Knowledge, spiritual capacities, and so on,

  They manifest in the world,

  Countless hundreds of billions.

  Their spiritual powers and states

  Are free—none can inhibit them;

  They are adorned with all works

  Of powers, fearlessnesses, and unique buddha-qualities.

  Their bodies and physical deeds,

  Their words and purified speech,

  Are under protection,

  So they can accomplish ten things.

  When enlightening beings are first inspired

  And when their minds pervade all,

  Their senses are undistracted

  And they attain higher faculties.

  With profound minds, overmastering minds,

  They get away from deception;

  With various sure understandings,

  They thoroughly penetrate the world.

  Abandoning afflictive habits,

  They take to the supreme Path;

  Skillfully practicing it, they fulfill it

  And arrive at omniscience.

  Avoiding regression, they enter the absolute

  And certainly realize silent extinction;

  Generating the Path of enlightening teaching,

  They embody epithets of virtue.

  The paths, the paths of infinity,

  Up to the paths of adornment—

  Successively they go by these

  Without attachment to any.

  Hands, feet, and guts,

  With hearts of adamant,

  Wearing the armor of sympathy,

  Equipped with many weapons,

  Heads of knowledge, eyes of understanding,

  Deeds of enlightenment their ears,

  Pure conduct their noses,

  They destroy darkness, unhindered.

  Intelligence is their tongue,

  Their bodies are omnipresent;

  Higher knowledge is their mind,

  They cultivate their practices in action and repose.

  They walk on the site of enlightenment,

  Sit on the lion throne,

  Recline in universal goodwill, compassion, joy, and equanimity,

  And rest in emptiness.

  Their spheres of action and contemplation

  Illumine the realm of enlightenment;

  Observing the acts of sentient beings,

  They spring forth and roar.

  Free from greed, they practice pure giving;

  Abandoning conceit, they preserve pure conduct.

  Never angered, always tolerant,

  Not lazy, always vigorous,

  Mastering meditation,

  Wisdom uncontrived,

  Kindly saving, tirelessly compassionate,

  They take joy in truth and abandon afflictions.

  In all realms

  They know meanings a
nd principles;

  Their virtues are fully developed,

  Their wisdom is like a sharp sword.

  Fully aware, they delight in learning

  And clearly understand how to proceed;

  They know demons and their ways

  And vow to get rid of them all.

  Seeing buddhas and buddha-works,

  They determine to embody them all;

  Free from pride, they cultivate knowledge,

  Not taken in by the power of demons;

  They are supported by the buddhas

  And also sustained by truth.

  They appear to live in the happy heaven

  And also appear to die there;

  They appear to abide in the mother’s womb

  And also show subtle processes.

  They appear to be born and smile,

  And appear to walk seven steps;

  They demonstrate study of arts

  And learning in the palace.

  They leave home and practice austerities,

  Go to the site of enlightenment,

  Sit straight and radiate light,

  Alerting living beings.

  Conquering demons, they attain true enlightenment

  And turn the wheel of the unexcelled teaching;

  When their manifestations are done,

  They enter great extinction.

  Those practices of enlightening beings

  Are cultivated over measureless eons;

  They are boundlessly extensive,

  And I now tell but a little.

  Though they enable numberless beings

  To become established in enlightened virtues,

  They ultimately grasp nothing

  Of sentient beings and religious principles.

  Imbued with such conduct,

  They freely exercise spiritual capacities:

  They place myriad lands on a hairtip

  And for trillions of eons,

  Holding innumerable lands in their palms,

  Go everywhere, without fatigue,

  Then return and place them in their former locations,

  Unbeknownst to the beings therein.

  Enlightening beings place all lands,

  Variously arrayed,

  In a single pore

  And show them as they really are.

  Also in one pore

  They contain all oceans

  Without increase or decrease in the oceans

  And without injuring sentient beings.

  Numberless iron mountains

  They pick up and crush to dust,

  Place each mote in one land,

  Using up every particle,

  Then take that number of lands

  And reduce them to particles too:

  The number of these particles might be known,

  But the knowledge of enlightening beings cannot be measured.

  Through one pore

  They radiate infinite light beams;

  The lights of sun, moon, and stars,

  Of jewels and fire,

  And the lights of the gods

  Are all eclipsed thereby.

  Annihilating the pains of miserable states,

  They teach beings there the unexcelled Way.

  The various different kinds of speech

  Of all worldly creatures

  Enlightening beings can utter

  In one language:

  They can explain distinctly with certainty

  All the Buddha teachings,

  Causing the living who hear it

  To all be very joyful.

  All the ages of the past

  They place in future and present;

  The ages of future and present

  They place far in the past.

  They show infinite lands

  Burning, becoming, and subsisting,

  All the various worlds

  Being in a single pore.

  All buddhas of the ten directions,

  Past, future, and present,

  They clearly reveal

  In their own bodies.

  They know the methods of transfiguration

  And skillfully adapt to beings’ minds;

  They manifest various bodies

  Without attachment to any of them.

  They may manifest the bodies of all sentient beings

  In the six states of existence;

  Or the bodies of Brahma, Indra, or world guardians,

  Or the bodies of all other celestial beings,

  The bodies of listeners or individual illuminates,

  Or the bodies of realized buddhas;

  Or they may appear as enlightening beings

  Cultivating omniscience.

  They skillfully penetrate the web of beings’ thoughts,

  Weak, middling, and superior;

  And show the attainment of enlightenment,

  And the lands of buddhas.

  They comprehend the web of thoughts

  And gain mastery of thought;

  They show all the expedients

  Of enlightening practices.

  Far-ranging spiritual displays

  Such as these they show;

  Such realms of experience

  No worldlings can know.

  Though they produce manifestations,

  Nothing is manifested; ultimately this is supreme.

  They adapt to beings’ minds

  To get them to travel the way of truth.

  Their bodies, speech, and minds

  Are equanimous as space;

  Pure conduct is their perfume,

  Myriad practices are their clothes.

  With the turban of truth, the topknot of purity,

  The jewel of omniscience,

  Their virtues are all-pervasive,

  And they are crowned as sovereigns.

  The transcendent ways are their weapons,

  Spiritual capacities their elephants,

  Psychic travel their horses,

  Wisdom their bright jewels.

  Sublime deeds are their consorts,

  The four means of integration their treasures;

  Skill in means are their generals,

  Enlightening beings are the rulers.

  Concentration is their citadel,

  Empty silence is their palace.

  With the armor of benevolence, the sword of wisdom,

  The bow of mindfulness, the arrows of insight,

  They spread the canopy of spiritual power on high

  And raise the banner of knowledge.

  Their forbearance immutable,

  They break right through the devil’s troops.

  Mental command is the level ground,

  Spiritual practices are the rivers,

  Pure knowledge the wellsprings,

  Sublime wisdom the forests,

  Emptiness the clear lakes,

  The branches of enlightenment lotus blossoms.

  They adorn themselves with spiritual powers,

  Always enjoying concentration.

  Meditation is their consort,

  Nirvana is their food, the taste of liberation their drink.

  They freely employ the Three Vehicles;

  These practices of enlightening beings

  Subtly develop further as they cultivate them

  Tirelessly over measureless ages.

  They honor all buddhas,

  Purify all lands,

  And cause all sentient beings

  To abide in omniscience.

  Even if the number of atoms in all lands

  Could be known,

  And all realms of space

  Could be measured with a grain of sand,

  And every thought in the minds

  Of all sentient beings could be counted,

  Still the virtues of enlightening beings

  Could not be fully told.

  If you want to be endowed with these virtues

  And higher subtle qualities,

  And wish to enab
le living beings

  To be free from suffering and always peaceful and happy,

  And wish to make body, speech, and mind

  All equal to those of the buddhas,

  You should make an adamant resolution

  To learn these virtuous qualities.

  BOOK THIRTY-NINE

  Entry into the Realm of Reality

  THUS HAVE I HEARD. At one time the Blessed One was in Sravasti, in a magnificent pavilion in the garden of Anathapindada in the Jeta grove, together with five thousand enlightening beings, led by Samantabhadra, the universally good enlightening being, and Manjushri. The names were Endowed with Perspicacious Knowledge, Endowed with Essential Knowledge, Endowed with Unattached Knowledge, Endowed with Blossoming Knowledge, Endowed with Sunlike Knowledge, Endowed with Moonlike Knowledge, Endowed with Undefiled Knowledge, Endowed with Adamantine Knowledge, Endowed with Unemotional Knowledge, Endowed with Radiant Knowledge, Starlike, Mountainlike, Jewellike, Unattached, Flowerlike, Undefiled, Sunlike, Resplendent, Dispassionate, Radiant, Jewel Energy, Great Energy, Knowledge Thunderbolt Energy, Undefiled Energy, Energy of the Sun of Truth, Virtue Mountain Energy, Energy of the Light of Knowledge, Universal Glorious Energy, Universal Light Energy, Earth Matrix, Sky Matrix, Lotus Calyx, Jewel Matrix, Sun Matrix, Matrix of Virtues, Matrix of the Ocean of Truths, Matrix of Radiance, Matrix of Origination, Matrix of Lotus Splendor, Good Eye, Pure Eye, Undefiled Eye, Unobstructed Eye, All-Seeing Eye, Perceptive Eye, Observant Eye, Lotus Eye, Adamantine Eye, Jewel Eye, Space Eye, Universal Eye, Celestial Crown, Crown of Jewels Which Give Birth to All Buddhas, Crown Beyond All Worlds, All-Illumining Crown, Invincible Crown, Crown of Jewels Illuminating All Things in the Cosmos, Crown of the Essence of Enlightenment, Radiant Crown, Crown of Jewels Inset with the Lion Thrones of All Buddhas, Crown Illuminating the Space of the Whole Cosmos, Crest of Lord Brahma, Crest of the Lord of Dragons, Crest of Lights Emanated by All Buddhas, Crest of the Essence of Enlightenment, Crest of Most Excellent Jewels of the Sound of the Ocean of All Vows, Crest of a Spew of Jewels Emanating the Halos of All Buddhas, Crest Adorned with Jewels Showing the Nondifferentiation of All Surfaces of Space, Crest Covered with a Net of the Finest Jewels Representing the Lights Magically Produced by All Buddhas, Crest of Sounds of the Wheel of Teaching of All Buddhas, Crest Uttering the Names of Everything in Past, Present, and Future, Great Light, Undefiled Light, Light of Undefiled Energy, Jewel Light, Dispassionate Light, Star Light, Light of Truth, Light of Peace, Sun Light, Magical Light, Celestial Light, Torch of Virtue, Torch of Knowledge, Torch of Truth, Torch of Superknowledge, Torch of Light, Flower Torch, Torch of Enlightenment, Torch of Brahma, Torch of Universal Illumination, Jewel Torch, Brahma Sound, Ocean Sound, Earth Roaring Sound, Voice of a World Leader, Sound of Mountains Colliding, Voice Pervading All Universes, Sound Emitted by the Ocean of All Universes, Sound of Crushing All Armies of Demons, Sound Emitted by All Didactic Devices of Great Compassion, Sound of Stopping the Sufferings of All Worlds and Giving Comfort, Born of Truth, Born of Excellence, Born of Knowledge, Born of a Polar Mountain of Virtue, Born of Radiance of Virtues, Born of Splendor, Born of Universal Illumination, Born of Great Kindness, Born of a Store of Knowledge, Born of the Family of Buddhas, Glowing Splendor, Preeminent Splendor, Exalted Splendor, Radiant Splendor, Splendor of Truth, Splendor of the Moon, Splendor of the Sky, Jewel Splendor, Splendor of Brilliance, Splendor of Knowledge, Mountain Lord, Lord of Truth, Lord of the World, Lord Brahma, Lord of the Masses, Lord of Gods, Lord of Peace, Immutable Lord, Mighty Lord, Eminent Lord, Supremely Tranquil Voice, Unobstructed Voice, Voice of Earth, Voice of the Ocean, Voice of Thunder, Voice of the Light of Truth, Voice of Space, Voice of the Roots of Goodness of All Beings, Voice of Encouragement of All Past Vows, Jewel Awareness, Knowing Awareness, Spacelike Awareness, Unattached Awareness, Undefiled Awareness, Purified Awareness, Awareness of All Times, Powerful Awareness, All-Observing Awareness, Awareness of Ways to the Reality Realm.