The Flower Ornament Scripture
Page 158
Transcender of all worldly states, lead me to the door of liberation.
I am stuck to the notions of permanence, self, and pleasure, blocked by falsehood and grasping—
With the sharp eye of truth, knowledge, and power, quickly open the door of liberation for me.
Knower of the paths of truth and falsehood, fearless in the varied knowledge of the Way,
Certain of the guidance of all paths, show me the Way to enlightenment.
Tree of right insight standing firm on the ground, nourished by the water of the virtues of all buddhas,
Showing flowers of virtues of buddha-teaching, show me the Way to enlightenment.
O teacher of the Way, show me the buddhas of the past, future, and present,
Makers of light, best of beings, gone to bliss.
Familiar with the various mechanics of action, expert in the mechanics of the vehicle of religion,
Sure of the various vehicles of knowledge, show me the vehicle of enlightenment.
Put me on the vehicle of enlightenment, driven by faith, studded with jewels of virtue,
A globe with wheels of prayer and vows, steeled by forbearance, resting on the axle of compassion.
Orb of all memory, purified, with a roof of kindness, well adorned,
And a beautiful bell-garland of analytic powers—put me in this supreme vehicle.
Adorned with a couch of pure conduct, filled with millions of concentration-ladies,
With the drum of truth resounding—bring me to this royal vehicle.
With an infinite chamber of the four integrative methods, adorned with jewels of knowledge and pearls of virtue,
Harnessed with the finest rope of modesty—show me the chief of vehicles.
It has the radiance of the pure sphere of light of relinquishment, the sandalwood of morality, the perfume of compassion,
With the lance of forbearance, and is held together by firmness—place me on the supreme vehicle.
It guides all beings, never turning back; its frame of meditation is set up on concentration,
It is drawn by the team of wisdom and means—place me on that eminent vehicle of truth.
Vows set the course and alignment of its wheels; it holds the truth steadfastly, having great power;
It is well made by the dynamics of knowledge, expertly—lift me onto the vehicle of truth.
It is refined by Universally Good action, proceeding slowly with concern for beings:
Bring me to that vehicle of knowledge, of valor in pure conduct everywhere.
Put me on that vehicle which cuts through all obstructions,
Steady and firm as the finest steel, adorned with garlands of knowledge.
It is spacious, clean, impartial toward people, a refuge for all beings, bringing happiness:
Put me on that vehicle of enlightenment, which sheds light throughout the cosmos.
Its advance cuts through the mass of suffering, clears the sphere of dust of afflictions of action,
And subdues all demons and challengers—put me on that vehicle of truth.
Its scope is universal knowledge, it arrays the sky of the reality realm;
Bring me to that vehicle of truth, which fulfills the aspiration of all beings.
Put me on that spiritual vehicle, pure and infinite as space,
Unstained by the ignorance and obscurity of views, serving all sentient beings.
Put me on that spiritual vehicle, swift as the wind,
Sustaining the world by the wind-power of vows, establishing the ground of all citadels of peace.
Put me on the supreme vehicle, unshakable as the earth, carrying its cargo
By the intense power of compassion, full of knowledge, beneficial to the world.
It is like the sun, giving life to the world, a concentrated orb of great lights,
Radiant with supreme purity of mental command; show me the sun of knowledge.
Give me that mighty thunderbolt of knowledge, O Noble One, which is learned over many eons,
Knows the reasons and grounds of all causes, and smashes the fortress of conditioning.
As you have learned a vast ocean of knowledge, an unequaled ocean of awareness,
Imbued with all qualities of buddhas, tell me what it is like.
As you have highly developed vision and are graced with the crown of the king of knowledge,
Your head wrapped in the turban of truth, look into the city of the spiritual sovereign.
Then Manjushri, gazing like an elephant, said to Sudhana, “It is good that you follow spiritual benefactors, having set your mind on supreme enlightenment, that you think you should inquire into the practice of enlightening beings, wishing to fulfill the path of enlightening beings. Attending and serving spiritual friends is the beginning, the logical course, for the accomplishment of omniscience. Therefore you should tirelessly attend spiritual benefactors.”
Sudhana said, “Noble One, please give me a full explanation of how an enlightening being is to study the practice of enlightening beings, how an enlightening being is to accomplish it. How is an enlightening being to initiate the practice of enlightening beings? How is an enlightening being to carry out the practice of enlightening beings? How is an enlightening being to fulfill the practice of enlightening beings? How is an enlightening being to purify the practice of enlightening beings? How is an enlightening being to comprehend the practice of enlightening beings? How is an enlightening being to effect the practice of enlightening beings? How is an enlightening being to follow the practice of enlightening beings? How is an enlightening being to keep to the practice of enlightening beings? How is an enlightening being to expand the practice of enlightening beings? How can an enlightening being fulfill the sphere of the universally good practice?”
Then Manjushri spoke to Sudhana in verse:
Bravo, ocean of pure virtues, who has come to me;
With a mind of vast compassion, you seek supreme enlightenment.
You are committed to the peerless course of conduct for the sake of the liberation of all beings;
You will become a savior of the world—this is the principle of enlightening beings’ practice.
Enlightening beings who are steadfast and indefatigable work within the mundane—
They attain universal good, invincible and unobstructed.
Light of virtue, star of virtue, mine of virtue, ocean of virtue, pure—
You are committed to universal good in practice, for the welfare of the world.
You will see infinite buddhas, in the worlds of the ten directions:
And you will hold their clouds of teachings by the power of memory.
As you see the buddhas in the buddha-lands of the ten directions,
You will clarify their ocean of vows in enlightenment practice.
Those who enter this ocean of principles and stand on the ground of buddhahood
Will become all-seers, learning from the Guides of the world.
Having practiced the conduct of universal good throughout all lands, for as many eons as there are atoms in the lands,
You will reach enlightenment, the abode of peace and bliss.
You should practice for boundless oceans of eons in all lands
And fulfill this undertaking of the conduct of universal higher good.
Behold the millions of beings who are happy to hear your vow,
Who seek enlightenment by the knowledge of universal good.
Then Manjushri, having uttered these verses, said to Sudhana, “It is good that you think, having set your heart on supreme enlightenment, that you should find out the practice of enlightening beings. It is hard to find beings who set their hearts on supreme enlightenment. It is even harder to find beings who, once they have set their minds on enlightenment, seek the practice of enlightening beings. An enlightening being is to attain certainty through true spiritual friends, spiritual benefactors, for the realization of omniscience. One should indefatigably seek spiritual benefactors and b
e tireless in seeing spiritual benefactors. One should respectfully follow the appropriate instructions of spiritual benefactors and should carry out the techniques skillfully devised by spiritual benefactors, without interruption. South of here is a country called Ramavaranta; there is a mountain there called Sugriva, where a monk named Meghashri lives. Go to him and ask how an enlightening being should learn the conduct of enlightening beings, and how to apply it; how one is to fulfill, purify, enter into, carry out, follow, keep to, and expand the practice of enlightening beings, and how an enlightening being is to fulfill the sphere of universally good action. That spiritual friend will tell you about the sphere of universally good conduct.”
Then Sudhana, pleased, enraptured, transported with joy, delighted, happy, and cheerful, laid his head at the feet of Manjushri in respect, circled Manjushri hundreds and thousands of times, and looked at him hundreds and thousands of times, with a mind full of love for the spiritual friend, unable to bear not seeing the spiritual friend, with tears streaming down his face as he wept, and left Manjushri.
Meghashri
Then Sudhana proceeded by stages to the country of Ramavaranta. Having reached Ramavaranta, reflecting on and tasting the mentally pleasing enjoyments based on higher action born of past roots of goodness, he went to Mount Sugriva, climbed the mountain, and looked in every direction for the monk Meghashri. Finally, after seven days, he saw the monk walking on the plateau of another peak. He went to Meghashri, paid his respects, and said, “O noble one, I have determined to seek supreme enlightenment, but I do not know how an enlightening being should learn the conduct of enlightening beings, or how one should accomplish it, or how to begin the practice of enlightening beings, how to carry it out, fulfill it, purify it, comprehend it, realize it, follow it, keep to it, and expand it, or how an enlightening being is to fulfill the sphere of universally good action. I hear that you give instruction for enlightening beings, so please tell me how enlightening beings proceed to supreme perfect enlightenment.”
The monk Meghashri replied to Sudhana, “It is good that you ask about the practice of enlightening beings, having set your mind on supreme perfect enlightenment. It is difficult, most difficult, to seek the practice of enlightening beings, to seek the sphere of enlightening beings, to seek the purification of emancipation of enlightening beings, to seek the purification of the path of enlightening beings, to seek the far-ranging purification of the conduct of enlightening beings, to seek the purification of the accomplishment of mystic knowledge of enlightening beings, to show the liberation of enlightening beings, to show enlightening beings’ exercise of compassion for the world, to oblige people according to their mentalities in the manner of enlightening beings, to show enlightening beings’ mundane and transcendental faces, to seek the thought and action of enlightening beings undefiled by the ills and fears of the created and the uncreated. Son, by virtue of mastery of the power of devotion, purity of the eye of perceptive faith, illumination of the light of knowledge without aversion, purity of the universal eye looking in all directions with unobstructed universal perspective and unobstructed vision skillfully observing, skillfulness in obeisance, bowing in all directions in a state of physical purity, and the power of memory command perfectly holding the masses of teachings of all buddhas, I see the buddhas in all the lands of the ten directions. That is, in the east I see one buddha, two buddhas, three buddhas, a hundred buddhas, a thousand buddhas, a hundred thousand buddhas, a million buddhas, a hundred million buddhas, a billion buddhas, a hundred billion buddhas, a quintillion buddhas—I see incalculable, immeasurable, uncountable, inconceivable, incomparable, incomprehensible, unlimited, ungraspable, inestimable, unutterable numbers of buddhas. I see as many buddhas as atoms in this continent; I see as many buddhas as atoms in the land masses of the four continents; I see as many buddhas as atoms in thousand-world, million-world, and billion-world buddha-lands; I see as many buddhas as atoms in ten buddha-lands; I see as many buddhas as atoms in a hundred buddha-lands; I see as many buddhas as atoms in a thousand buddha-lands; I see as many buddhas as atoms in a hundred thousand buddha-lands; I see as many buddhas as atoms in a million buddha-lands; I see as many buddhas as atoms in a hundred million buddha-lands; I see as many buddhas as atoms in a billion buddha-lands; I see as many buddhas as atoms in a hundred billion buddha-lands; I see as many buddhas as atoms in a quintillion buddha-lands; I see as many buddhas as atoms in untold numbers of buddha-lands. As in the east, in the same way I see untold buddhas in all the other directions as well; looking in each direction, I see buddhas with various appearances, I see buddhas with various forms, various transfigurations, various exercises of power, various congregations, radiating light in networks of rays of many colors, with various arrays of states of purity in their buddha-lands, various life spans, showing magical projections of various ways of purification of enlightenment to beings according to their mentalities, roaring the mighty lion roar of buddhas.
“Son, from this universal light in which is concentrated the information of all sense objects, I have attained mindfulness of the buddhas: but how can I know the practice, or tell of the virtues, of the enlightening beings who have purified the sphere of endless knowledge, who have attained the means of mindfulness of buddhas in the sphere of universal illumination, by seeing right before their eyes the pure arrays of abodes in all buddha-lands in the spheres of all buddhas; who have attained the means of mindfulness of buddhas in which the ten powers are developed, by following the infinite ten powers of the enlightened; who have attained the means of mindfulness of buddhas in which the truth is displayed, by observation of the clouds of bodies of all buddhas as sources from which the truth is heard; who have attained the means of mindfulness of buddhas which is the seed of illumination of all realms, by plunging into the undivided ocean of buddhas in all oceans of realms; who have attained the means of mindfulness of buddhas throughout the ten directions, by comprehending the majesty of projections of all buddhas in all microcosms; who have attained the means of mindfulness of buddhas in all ages, by communication of the inseparable vision of Buddha in all ages; who have attained the means of mindfulness of buddhas in all times, by seeing buddhas according to the time in all times and living with them inseparably; who have attained the means of mindfulness of buddhas in all fields, by communication of the vision of the transcendent, unsurpassed body of buddhas in all buddha-fields; who have attained the means of mindfulness of buddhas in all sense objects, by communication of vision of successive emergence of buddhas in all objects; who have attained the means of mindfulness of buddhas by which peace is developed, through revelation of the ultimate extinction of all buddhas in all worlds in a single instant; who have attained the means of mindfulness of buddhas by which detachment is developed, by revelation of all buddhas going forth from all abodes in one day; who have attained the means of mindfulness of buddhas in the past, by revelation of the bodies of buddhas, each buddha sitting cross-legged filling the cosmos; who have attained the means of mindfulness of buddhas in the minute, by entering into the service of untold buddhas appearing in a single point; who have attained the means of mindfulness of buddhas in supernal manifestations, by communication of visions of mystical displays of attainment of enlightenment in all worlds in one instant; who have attained the means of mindfulness of buddhas in religious actions, by attainment of the illumination of knowledge of the miracle of all buddhas coming forth and teaching; who have attained the means of projected mindfulness of buddhas, by apprehending appearances of all buddhas seen as they wish; who have attained the means of mindfulness of buddhas in deeds, by showing reflected images according to the deeds that all beings have done; who have attained the means of mindfulness of buddhas in mystic projections, by means of the ubiquitous manifestation of visions of tremendous projections of buddhas on lotus blossoms blooming in all phenomenal and noumenal realms; who have attained the means of mindfulness of buddhas in space, by vision of the space of the cosmos adorned by clouds of images of b
uddhas?
“Go, son—south of here is a place called Sagaramukha, where there lives a monk named Sagaramegha. Go to him and ask him how an enlightening being is to learn and accomplish the conduct of enlightening beings. He will reveal to you a spiritual benefactor; he will introduce you into the cause of accumulation of roots of goodness; he will get you to develop the vast ground of provisions for enlightenment; he will tell you of the immense, intense power of roots of goodness; he will inform you of the great cause of preparation of the determination for enlightenment; he will establish in you the great cause of the illumination of the vehicle of universal salvation; he will cause you to develop the great power of the set of transcendent ways; he will get you to purify extensive means of entry into the ocean of religious practice; he will get you to purify the vast sphere of vows; he will get you to develop extensive systems of all-sided emancipation; he will get you to develop the immense power of compassion.”
Then Sudhana paid his respects to the monk Meghashri and left.
Sagaramegha
Then Sudhana, reflecting on the instructions of that spiritual benefactor, pondering that enlightening liberation, polishing that enlightening method of concentration, peering into that conductor into the ocean of the essence of enlightenment, intent upon the sphere of buddhahood, seeking that direction to the vision of Buddha, thinking about that ocean of buddhas, remembering the succession of buddhas, following that approach to the means of enlightenment, looking throughout that sky of the enlightened, went gradually to the monk Sagaramegha in the region of Sagaramukha. When he got there, he paid his respects to Sagaramegha and said, “O noble one, I have set out for supreme perfect enlightenment and want to enter the supreme ocean of knowledge; but I do not know how enlightening beings get out of the host of worldlings and into the host of the enlightened, emerge from the ocean of the mundane whirl and enter the ocean of omniscience, die away from the state of ignorant sentient beings and are born in the family of buddhas, withdraw from the stream of the mundane whirl and follow the stream of enlightening practice, escape from the wheel of transmigration in the mundane whirl and turn to the wheel of practice and vows of enlightening beings, destroy the gang of all demons and make manifest the light of the host of all buddhas, evaporate the ocean of craving and increase the water of great compassion, close all doors of decadence and miserable states and evils which are inopportune for enlightenment and open the door of heaven and nirvana, break through the door of the city of the mundane and enter the door of the city of omniscience, give up craving for all luxuries and give rise to the determination to care for all being.”