The Flower Ornament Scripture

by Thomas Cleary

  “With these thoughts in mind I roam this city on the edge of the ocean. Thus committed to the welfare and happiness of the world, I know all the treasure islands in the ocean. I know all the deposits of precious substances, all the types of precious substances, and all the sources of precious substances. I know how to refine, bore out, extract, and produce all precious substances, and I know all precious vessels, tools, and objects, and the light of all precious substances. I know the abodes of all water spirits, the agitations of all water spirits, the abodes of all sprites, the agitations of all sprites, the abodes of all goblins, how to alleviate the danger of goblins, the abodes of all ghosts, and how to put an end to obstacles caused by ghosts. I know how to avoid all the whirlpools and billows, and I know the colors and depths of all the waters. I know the cycles of the sun, moon, stars, and planets, and the lengths of the days and nights. I know when to travel and when not to; I know when it is safe and when it is dangerous. I know the performance and soundness of the hull and rigging of ships. I know how to control and steer ships, I know how to catch the wind, I know where the winds rise from, I know how to direct the ship and how to turn it around, I know when to anchor and when to sail.

  “With this knowledge, always engaged in working for the benefit of beings, with a sturdy ship, safe, peaceful, without anxiety, I convey merchants to the treasure islands of their choice, pleasing them with spiritual conversation. Having enriched them with all kinds of jewels, I bring them back to this continent. And I have never lost a single ship. All who see me or hear my spiritual instruction are freed from all fears of sinking in the ocean of the mundane whirl; they become aware of the knowledge of how to go into the ocean of omniscience, they learn how to evaporate the ocean of craving, they are illumined with knowledge of the ocean of past, present, and future, they become capable of annihilating the ocean of suffering of all sentient beings, they undertake to clear the turbidity of the ocean of minds of all sentient beings, they begin the heroic effort to purify the ocean of all lands, they never turn back from going throughout the ocean of all places, they penetrate the variety in the ocean of faculties of all sentient beings, they adapt to the ocean of actions of all sentient beings, and they appear in the ocean of the world intentionally according to the mental set.

  “I have attained this enlightening liberation which is characterized by great compassion and the sound of flowing water, and it is beneficial to see me, hear me, live with me, and remember my name; but how can I know the practice or tell of the virtues of the enlightening beings who traverse all the oceans of the mundane whirl, who are unaffected by the ocean of afflictions, who are free from the danger of being engulfed by the ocean of views, who travel the water of inherent nature of the ocean of all phenomena, who travel the ground of inherent nature of the ocean of all beings, who hold the net of means of salvation of all creatures from the oceans of the mundane, who abide in the ocean of omniscience, who pull all sentient beings out of the ocean of attachments, who remain continuously through the ocean of all times, who have true higher knowledge to perfect the ocean of all sentient beings, who do not miss the right occasions to guide the ocean of all sentient beings?

  “South of here is a city called Nandihara. An eminent man named Jayottama lives there. Go ask him how to learn and carry out the practice of enlightening beings.”

  Then Sudhana paid his respects and reluctantly left the mariner Vaira.

  Jayottama

  His mind filled with great love for the infinite realm of life, overflowing with great compassion, having amassed immense stores of virtue and knowledge, freed from the defilement of ignorance, passion, and all afflictions, realizing the equality of all things, proceeding equanimously on the path of omniscience, having eradicated the entryways into countless bad tendencies, proceeding heroically by the power of steadfast energy immune to all evils, filled with great calm by the inconceivable concentrations of an enlightening being, having thoroughly dispelled the darkness of ignorance by the light of the sun of wisdom, adorned with flowers of knowledge vivified by the moon of bliss and the breeze of means, according with the principles of knowledge of liberation through the ocean of great vows, imbued with knowledge pervading the reality realm unimpeded, facing the entrance of the imperishable city of omniscience, seeking the path of enlightening beings, Sudhana made his way to the city of Nandihara and sought out the eminent Jayottama, whom he saw in a grove at the eastern edge of the city, surrounded by thousands of elders, giving instructions regarding the various affairs of the city, in the course of which he was also talking about spirituality in order to get rid of all egoism, possessiveness, acquisitiveness, clinging to material things, dependency, binding cravings, impeding views, obscuring doubts, beclouding deceit and guile, defiling envy and jealousy, in order to clear and purify everyone’s minds, in order to inspire them to delight in the vision of buddhas by fostering the power of pure faith in them, in order to get them to accept the buddha-teachings by bringing forth the powers of enlightening beings in turn, in order to generate the power of concentration of enlightening beings by revealing to them the practices of enlightening beings, in order to purify enlightening beings’ power of recollection by showing them the power of wisdom of enlightening beings. Thus he was expounding the Teaching, to inspire them to seek enlightenment.

  Sudhana went up to the grandee Jayottama, bowed to him, and with respect for the Teaching said, “I am Sudhana, O noble one, and I seek the practice of enlightening beings. Please tell me how to learn the practice of enlightening beings, how to orient myself to the disciplines that will perfect all sentient beings while I am learning, how to see all buddhas, how to hear the teaching of all buddhas, how to remember the multitudes of teachings of all buddhas, how to carry out the principles of the teachings of all buddhas, how to perform the practice of enlightening beings in all worlds, how to be indefatigable living in all ages by the practice of enlightening beings, how to perceive the transformation of all who have gone to Thusness, how to receive the empowerment of all buddhas, how to attain knowledge of the powers of all buddhas.”

  Jayottama said to Sudhana, “It is good that you aspire to supreme perfect enlightenment. I am purifying the method of enlightening practice that goes everywhere, by the power of attainment of nondoing based on nonbeing. By this method of purification of enlightening practice going everywhere, I expound the Teaching in all realms of being in the universe, I oppose untruth, I stop controversy, conflict, strife, combat, and hostility. I cut through bonds and break prisons apart. I eliminate fears. I put an end to evildoing, I turn people away from killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, falsehood, slander, harshness, divisive talk, longing, malice, and false views. I get them to stop all compulsive activity and to pursue all right and good actions. I teach everyone all arts and crafts that bring benefit to the world. I elucidate, articulate, explain, and promote all sciences for the happiness of the world. I go along with all false doctrines in order to develop the people involved in them. In order to show the excellence of higher knowledge, to put a stop to all views, to inspire interest in the teaching of all buddhas, I approach all the celestial beings in the realm of form all the way up to the world of Brahma and expound the Teaching to them. And as I teach in this universe, so also do I teach in as many worlds as atoms in ten unspeakable numbers of decillions of buddha-lands. I teach the ways of buddhas, the ways of enlightening beings, the ways of Buddhist disciples, and the ways of individual illuminates. I teach about the hells, what leads to hell, and the motives and actions of beings in hell. I teach about animality, the types who tend toward animality, what leads to animality, and the misery of animalistic life. I teach about the underworld, what leads to the underworld, and the misery of the underworld. I teach about heavens, what leads to heaven, and the enjoyments of heaven. I teach about the human world, what leads to the human world, and the variety of pleasant and unpleasant experiences in the human world.

  “Thus I teach about the law of the world, the formation of
the world, the decline of the world, the pain of the world, and emancipation from the world; I expound the Teaching in order to explain the path of practice of enlightening beings, to remove the ills of the mundane world, to show the virtues of omniscience, to extinguish the pain of infatuation with states of being, to elucidate the unimpeded nature of reality, to clarify the ordinary conduct of the world, to point out the happiness and misery of the conduct of all beings in the world, to show the notions on which all worlds are based, to elucidate the independent state of those who realize Thusness, to fend off all active afflictions, and to show the progress of the wheel of teaching of the enlightened.

  “I know this method of purification of enlightening practice that goes everywhere, an undefiled manifestation of nondoing based on illumination. How can I know the practice or tell of the virtues of enlightening beings who have all mystic knowledges, who go throughout all lands with the body of knowledge of illusoriness, who have attained the stage of knowledge of the universal eye, who hear all utterances, who have attained control of the light of the way to truth that pervades past, present, and future, who are heroic masters of knowledge comprehending all things, who speak with the voice of totality communicating to infinite sentient beings according to their mentalities, who have phantom bodies the same as all enlightening beings pleasing to the masses of sentient beings with their various wishes, who are intent upon one and the same inconceivable body of all buddhas, whose body of knowledge pervades past, present, and future, whose sphere is as vast and measureless as the sky?

  “South of here, in the land of Shronaparanta, is a city called Kalingavana, where a nun named Sinhavijurmbhita lives. Go ask her how to learn and carry out the practice of enlightening beings.”

  Then Sudhana paid his respects to Jayottama and left.

  Sinhavijurmbhita

  Then Sudhana made his way to the city called Kalingavana in the land of Shronaparanta, where he asked everyone he met the whereabouts of the nun Sinhavijurmbhita. As he was looking for the nun, everywhere he went hundreds of boys and girls came together from the streets and intersections and blocked the way. There were also hundreds of men and women, who told him, “the nun Sinhavijurmbhita is in this city, staying in Sunlight Park, which was donated by Jayaprabha, where she is expounding the Teaching for the benefit of countless beings.”

  So then Sudhana went to this Sunlight Park and looked all around. In the park he saw trees called “moon-risen,” which were covered like pavilions, of flamelike color and blazing radiance, lighting up the space of a league all around. He also saw leafy trees called “completely covering,” which are shaped like parasols, their clustered leaves providing shade, shining like blue crystal clouds. He saw flowering trees called “treasury of flowers,” which had various pleasing forms like the Himalaya Mountains and showered endless streams of varicolored flowers, like the trees of paradise adorning the heavens. He also saw ever-ripe sweet fruit trees called “gathering of fruits of indescribable sweetness,” which had the appearance of golden polar mountains and were always bearing fruit. He also saw jewel trees called “treasury of radiance,” which looked like incomparable jewels and bore riches in buds producing garlands and ornaments of celestial jewels and wish-fulfilling gems, and were adorned by jewels of countless colors. He also saw trees of cloth called “soothing,” from which hung precious celestial cloths of various colors. He also saw trees of musical instruments called “pleasing,” which produced music more sweet and pleasant than that of the heavens. He also saw trees of fragrance called “gracing everywhere,” which pervaded everywhere with all kinds of pleasing fragrances. There were also cool lotus ponds, with steps made of bricks of seven precious substances arrayed on four sides, surrounded by benches of various jewels painted with sandalwood fragrance, set in ground made of blue lapis lazuli, the bottom covered with gold sand, the ponds filled with water pleasantly scented with celestial fragrance, the surface of the water covered with varicolored lotuses of heavenly scent and texture, the air around them filled with the songs of birds, more lovely than the heavens, all surrounded by rows of beautiful trees of various celestial treasures.

  At the foot of each of those treasure trees were arranged jewel lion seats of various pleasing forms, adorned with innumerable jewels of various kinds, spread with various precious celestial cloths, perfumed with incenses of all kinds of celestial fragrances, covered with canopies of various jewels hung with precious silks surpassing those of the heavens, enveloped in nets of gold adorned by various jewels, with circlets of bells giving forth pleasant sounds, surrounded by hundreds of thousands of celestial seats. At the foot of one precious tree he saw a lion seat in the calyx of a jewel lotus; at another, a lion seat in the calyx of a fragrant diamond lotus; at another, a lion seat in the calyx of a diamond lotus ornamented with dragons; at another, a lion seat in the calyx of a diamond lotus with clusters of jewel lions; at another, a lion seat in the calyx of a lotus of luminous jewels; at another, a lion seat in the calyx of a lotus of the finest diamonds; at another, a lion seat in the calyx of a lotus of world-illumining jewels; at another, a lion seat in the calyx of a lotus of jewels of white light.

  He saw that the ground of the whole park was scattered with various jewels, just as the ocean is scattered with jewel islands. The earth, studded with blue lapis lazuli and inlaid with all kinds of jewels, was soft and pleasant to the touch, and would give way and spring back as one walked on it. The grounds were covered with diamond lilies, of pleasant texture and lovely scent. The sweet sounds of the calls of various birds were heard, and the park was graced with well-arrayed stands of heavenly precious sandalwood trees. There were endless streams of jewel blossoms raining from clouds of various jewel flowers in a magnificent array surpassing the pleasure garden of Indra, chief of gods. There were well-spaced towers with various incomparably fragrant incenses always burning, more magnificent than Indra’s hall of justice, covered above with nets of various jewels surpassing those of the heavens, hung with garlands of pearl flowers spread all over with nets of shining gold arrayed with jewel bells. Trees of various musical instruments, jewel palm trees with nets of bells, played sweet music as they were stirred by the breeze, and the singing of goddesses was also heard. The park was splendidly adorned by rain from clouds of radiant celestial cloths, of infinite colors like the ocean, lovely to see. He saw Sunlight Park adorned with hundreds of thousands of towers arrayed with inconceivable, innumerable jewels, beautiful as the castle of the god Indra. It was adorned with arrays of all kinds of jewels, everywhere graced with arrays of beautifully formed parasols, always radiating pleasing light, like the abode of the god Brahma, shining with world-illumining light. It was as vast as a space that holds innumerable worlds. Sudhana saw this Sunlight Park by the strength of the mystic power of the nun Sinhavijurmbhita.

  Sudhana looked all over and saw these magnificent adornments of the park, replete with infinite, inconceivable qualities, perfected by the maturation of the work of the enlightening being, born of vast supramundane roots of good, deriving from making offerings to inconceivably many buddhas, unsurpassed by all worldly goodness, sprung forth from the illusory nature of phenomena, composed of the results of extensive pure good works, without contamination, produced by the power deriving from the past virtuous actions of the nun Sinhavijurmbhita, unique, beyond the individually liberated, immune to the destructive influence of false teachers, imperceptible to maniacs and ignoramuses.

  In all of those lion seats under the various precious trees he saw the nun Sinhavijurmbhita sitting, surrounded by a great company of followers, calm, composed, her senses and mind quiet, well controlled, her senses subdued, as restrained as an elephant, her mind pellucid and clear as a deep pool, granter of all desires like a wish-fulfilling jewel, unaffected by worldly things as a lotus is not clung to by water, fearless as a lion, with polished expertise, unshakable as a mountain, pure in conduct, soothing the minds of beings like intoxicating perfume, extinguishing the burning of afflictions like
sandalwood from the snowy mountains, alleviating the pains of all sentient beings like the medicine “good to see,” beneficial to all who behold her, producing the physical and mental bliss of quiescence like the light of a buddha free from the ills and delusions of passion, clearing the minds of sentient beings polluted by afflictions like the water-purifying crystal, promoting the growth of roots of virtue like a good field. He saw her sitting in those seats, with various audiences in the surrounding seats.

  In one setting he saw the nun surrounded by gods of the heaven of pure abodes, expounding a doctrine called unity with endless liberation; in another he saw her surrounded by gods of Brahma’s heaven, expounding a purity of the sphere of the voice called division of the universal ground; in another he saw her surrounded by gods and goddesses of the heaven of control of others’ emanations, expounding a doctrine called array of powers of purification of mind of enlightening beings; in another he saw her surrounded by gods and goddesses of the heaven of enjoyable emanations, expounding a doctrine called pure array of all phenomena; in another he saw her surrounded by gods and goddesses of the heaven of satisfaction, expounding a doctrine called resorting to the treasury of one’s own mind; in another he saw her surrounded by gods and goddesses of the heaven of timely portion, expounding a doctrine called endless array; in another he saw her surrounded by gods and goddesses of the thirty-three-fold heaven, expounding a doctrine called the method of rejecting; in another he saw her surrounded by water spirits, nymphs, and sprites, expounding a doctrine called array of lights of the sphere of buddhas; in another he saw her surrounded by demigods and demigoddesses and their children, expounding a doctrine called treasury of salvation of the world; in another he saw her surrounded by celestial musicians, expounding a doctrine called endless giving of delight; in another he saw her surrounded by titans, with their wives and children, expounding a doctrine called manifestation of power of reason in the knowledge of the reality realm; in another he saw her surrounded by fantastic birds, expounding a doctrine called the sphere of action concerned with alarming those in the ocean of existence; in another he saw her surrounded by centaurs expounding a doctrine called the range of manifestation of the action of Buddha; in another he saw her surrounded by great serpents, expounding a doctrine called production of the joy of the enlightened; in another he saw her surrounded by hundreds of thousands of women, men, boys and girls, expounding a doctrine called higher reaches of knowledge; in another he saw her surrounded by goblins, expounding a doctrine called production of compassion; in another he saw her surrounded by people devoted to the vehicle of listeners, expounding a doctrine called higher power of knowledge; in another he saw her surrounded by people devoted to the vehicle of individual illumination, expounding a doctrine called splendor of the illustrious virtues of buddhas; in another he saw her surrounded by people devoted to the Great Vehicle of universal enlightenment, expounding a medium of light of knowledge of concentration called door to totality; in another he saw her surrounded by enlightening beings who had just been inspired to seek enlightenment, expounding a medium of concentration called multitude of vows of all buddhas; in another he saw her surrounded by enlightening beings in the second stage, expounding a medium of concentration called sphere of dispassion; in another he saw her surrounded by enlightening beings in the third stage, expounding a medium of concentration called sphere of tranquillity; in another he saw her surrounded by enlightening beings in the fourth stage, expounding a medium of concentration called production of the field of action of the energy of omniscience; in another he saw her surrounded by enlightening beings of the fifth stage, expounding a medium of concentration called treasury of flowers of the tendrils of the mind; in another he saw her surrounded by enlightening beings in the sixth stage, expounding a medium of concentration called filled with light; in another he saw her surrounded by enlightening beings in the seventh stage, expounding a medium of concentration called adornment of the stage of totality; in another he saw her surrounded by enlightening beings in the eighth stage, expounding a medium of concentration called realm of the body distributed equally throughout the structure of the cosmos; in another he saw her surrounded by enlightening beings in the ninth stage, expounding a medium of concentration called array of the abode of the power of nonacquisition; in another he saw her surrounded by enlightening beings in the tenth stage, expounding a medium of concentration called sphere of nonobstruction; in another he saw her teaching an audience of thunderbolt bearers a doctrine called mighty array of thunderbolts of knowledge.