“I do not know of a single thought in all those oceans of eons in which I neglected the instructions of the buddhas. I am not aware of having had a single malicious thought in all those eons, or an egotistic thought, or a selfish thought of possession, or a thought of difference between self and others, or a thought of parting from the path of enlightening beings, or a thought of weariness at staying in the world, or a thought of depression, or a thought deluded by hindrances, or any thought apart from the aspiration for enlightenment, the invulnerable asylum of invincible knowledge, directed toward preparations for omniscience.
“All oceans of eons would be exhausted in telling of my past efforts to purify buddha-lands, my compassionate efforts to save, develop, and purify all beings, my efforts to serve buddhas, my efforts in listening to teachers in quest of truth, my self-sacrifice for the sake of absorbing truth, my sacrifice of life to protect truth. Of all the oceans of teachings, there is not a single statement that I did not get by giving up rulership, that I did not get by giving up all that exists, by undertaking the salvation of all beings, by contemplating my own being, by undertaking to attain higher states ahead, by undertaking to produce the light of all worldly knowledge, by undertaking to produce the light of all transmundane knowledge, by undertaking to produce mundane happiness for all sentient beings, by undertaking to tell of the virtues of all buddhas. Thus it would take up as many eons as atoms in untold buddha-lands to tell of the accomplishment of my past endeavors.
“By such power of preparation, power of accomplishment of assemblage of root causes, power of lofty resolution, power of accomplishment of virtues, power of contemplation of all truths as they are, power of the eye of wisdom, power bestowed by buddha, power of great vows, power of great compassion, power of thoroughly purified mystic knowledge, power of the care of spiritual benefactors, I attained the ultimately pure body of reality, which is continuous and unfragmented throughout past, present, and future. I also purified an unexcelled physical body, beyond all worldlings, appearing to all beings according to their mentalities, omnipresent, in all buddha-lands, abiding everywhere, showing all kinds of mystical projections everywhere, visible in all worlds.
“Look at this body I have achieved, produced over endless multitudes of eons, hard to get to appear even in decillions of eons, hard to get to see. Beings who have not planted roots of goodness cannot even hear of me, much less see me. There are beings who become irreversible on the way to supreme perfect enlightenment just by hearing my name; there are those who become irreversible just by seeing me, those who become irreversible just by contact with me, those who become irreversible just by following me, those who become irreversible just by associating with me, those who become irreversible by seeing me in a dream, and those who become irreversible on the way to supreme perfect enlightenment by hearing my name in a dream.
“Some beings become mature by remembering me for a day and a night; some become mature remembering me for a fortnight, some a month, some a year, some a century, some an eon, some a hundred eons, and some up to as many eons as atoms in untold buddha-lands. Some become mature remembering me for one lifetime, some a hundred lifetimes, some up to as many lifetimes as atoms in untold buddha-lands. Some become mature by seeing my radiance, some by seeing emanation of light beams, some by feeling the earth quake, some by seeing my physical form, some by being encouraged. Thus beings become irreversible toward supreme perfect enlightenment through as many means as atoms in a buddha-land. Furthermore, whoever hears of the purity of my buddha-land shall be born in pure buddha-lands, and whoever sees the purity of my body will be born in my body. Behold the purity of this body of mine.
Then Sudhana, contemplating the body of the enlightening being Universally Good, saw in each and every pore untold multitudes of buddha-lands filled with buddhas. And in each buddha-land he saw the buddhas surrounded by assemblies of enlightening beings. And he saw that all those multitudes of lands had various bases, various forms, various arrays, various perimeters, various clouds covering the skies, various buddhas appearing, various enunciations of cycles of the Teaching. And just as he saw this in each pore, so also in all pores at once, in all the marks of greatness, all the embellishments, all the limbs and parts of the body; and in each he saw multitudes of lands, with as many multitudes of projected bodies of buddhas, as atoms in all buddha-lands, emerging and filling all worlds in the ten directions developing beings toward supreme perfect enlightenment.
Then Sudhana, edified by the advice and instruction of the enlightening being Universally Good, entered into all the worlds within the body of Universally Good and developed the beings toward maturity. Furthermore, the light of knowledge and roots of goodness accumulated by Sudhana in going to, meeting, and attending as many spiritual benefactors as atoms in a buddha-land did not amount to even a minute fraction, not to any calculable fraction, of his accumulation of roots of goodness concomitant with seeing Universally Good. As many successive buddha-lands as he had entered from his first determination up to his seeing Universally Good, he entered more, successive oceans of buddha-lands, with attributes as numerous as atoms in untold buddha-lands, in a single pore of Universally Good in each moment of thought. And as in one pore, so in all pores; in each moment of thought passing as many worlds as atoms in untold buddha-lands, passing the worlds of endless eons at a step, he still did not come to the end—he did not come to the end of the successions of oceans of lands, of the matrices of oceans of lands, of the differentiations of oceans of lands, of the interpenetrations of oceans of lands, of the origins of untold oceans of buddha-lands, of the dissolutions of oceans of lands, of the arrays of oceans of lands, of the matrices of oceans of appearances of buddhas, of the interpenetrations of oceans of appearances of buddhas, of the origins of oceans of appearances of buddhas, of the dissolutions of oceans of appearances of buddhas, of the oceans of congregations of enlightening beings, of the successions of oceans of congregations of enlightening beings, the matrices of oceans of congregations of enlightening beings, the differentiations of oceans of congregations of enlightening beings, the unity of oceans of congregations of enlightening beings, the formations of oceans of congregations of enlightening beings, the dissolutions of oceans of congregations of enlightening beings, the entrances of realms of sentient beings, the entrances of instantaneous knowledge of faculties of sentient beings, the penetrations of knowledge of sentient beings’ faculties, the developmental guidance of sentient beings, the profound states of occult powers of enlightening beings, or the multitudes of enlightening beings’ accessions to and supercessions of the stages.
He traveled and contemplated in a land for an eon, in another for up to as many as eons as atoms in untold buddha-lands, without moving from that land. In each moment of consciousness he entered infinite oceans of lands and developed sentient beings toward supreme perfect enlightenment. This continued as he gradually attained equality with Universally Good in terms of the ocean of vows of practice of the universally good enlightening beings, equality with all buddhas, equality of pervasion of all lands, equality of fulfillment of practices, equality of manifestation of the miracle of attainment of enlightenment, equality of turning the wheel of teaching, equality of purity of intellect, equality of voice and articulation, equality of power and expertise, equality of the enlightened state, equality of universal love and compassion, equality of the spiritual metamorphoses of the inconceivable liberation of enlightening beings.
Then the great enlightening being Universally Good, thus explaining courses of eons, as many eons as atoms in the untold buddha-lands in the succession of worlds, went on to make a vow:
As many buddhas as there may be in any world
Throughout the ten directions, throughout past, present, and future,
I honor them all, without exception,
Pure in body, speech, and mind.
With as many bodies as atoms in all lands
I bow to all buddhas,
With a mind directed to all
buddhas,
By the power of the vow of the practice of good.
In a single atom, buddhas as many as atoms
Sit in the midst of enlightening beings;
So it is of all things in the cosmos—
I realize all are filled with buddhas.
I laud all the buddhas therein,
Expounding in all languages
The qualities of all buddhas,
With endless oceans of manifestations.
With the finest flowers, garlands,
Musical instruments, perfumes and parasols,
The finest lamps and incenses,
I make offerings to those buddhas.
With the finest clothes, fragrances,
And mountainous baskets of aromatic powders,
With the finest of all kinds of adornments
I make offerings to those buddhas.
Whatever be the best of offerings,
I produce them for all buddhas;
By the power of devotion to the practice of good,
I honor and serve all buddhas.
Whatever evil I may commit
Under the sway of passion, hatred, or folly,
Bodily, verbally, or mentally,
I confess it all.
And whatever the virtue of beings everywhere,
Hearers, saints, self-conquerors,
Enlightening beings and buddhas,
In all that I do rejoice.
And all the Lamps of the Worlds in the ten directions
Who have realized enlightenment and attain nonobstruction
I seek as guides, that they may turn
The supreme wheel of teaching.
And those who wish to manifest extinction
I petition respectfully to remain
For eons as many as atoms in the land
For the welfare and happiness of all beings.
By honor, service, and direction,
By appreciating, seeking, and requesting teachings,
Whatever good I have accumulated,
I dedicate it all to enlightenment.
May the buddhas of the past be honored,
As well as those now in the worlds of the ten directions,
And may those of the future be at ease,
Filled with joy, having realized enlightenment.
May all the lands of the ten directions
Be purified, supreme, and filled
With buddhas and enlightening beings
At the tree of enlightenment.
May all beings in the ten directions
By happy and well;
May all beings’ righteous aim be successful,
May their hope be realized.
As I am carrying out enlightenment practice,
May I recall my lives in all states;
In every lifetime, as I die and am reborn,
May I always transcend the mundane.
Learning from all buddhas,
Fulfilling the practice of good,
I will practice pure conduct,
Always free from defect.
I will expound the Teaching
In the languages of gods and dragons,
In the languages of demons and humans,
And of all living beings.
May those engaged in the ways of transcendence
Not stray from enlightenment;
And may all evils to be inhibited
Be thoroughly extinguished.
I will traverse the paths of the world
Free from compulsion, affliction, and delusion,
Like a lotus unstained by water,
Like the sun and moon unattached in the sky.
Extinguishing all the miseries of bad states
And bringing all beings to happiness,
I will act for the welfare of all beings
In all lands everywhere.
According with the conduct of sentient beings
While fulfilling the practice of enlightenment,
And cultivating the practice of good,
Thus will I act throughout future eons.
May I always be in communion
With those who share my practice;
Physically, verbally, and mentally,
I will carry out vows as one practice.
And may I always be with my benefactors,
Who teach me the practice of good;
May I never displease them.
May I always see the buddhas face to face,
Surrounded by enlightening beings;
I will make fine offerings to them
Forever, unwearied.
Preserving the true teaching of buddhas,
Illumining the practice of enlightenment,
And purifying the practice of good,
I will practice for all future eons.
Migrating through all states of being,
Having acquired inexhaustible virtue and knowledge,
May I become an inexhaustible treasury of wisdom and means,
Concentration, liberation, and all virtues.
As I carry on the practice of enlightenment,
May I see the inconceivable buddhas sitting among enlightening beings
In the lands as numerous as atoms
That are in each atom.
Thus may I perceive the oceans
Of buddhas and lands of all times
In each point in the ten directions
As I practice for myriad eons.
May I ever penetrate the eloquence of buddhas,
The voices of all buddhas which adapt to mentalities,
The purity of articulation of all buddhas,
By the sounds of the ocean of tones in a single utterance.
Into those infinite voices
Of all buddhas of all times
May I enter by buddha-power,
Turning the wheel of teaching.
May I enter all eons
Of the future instantly,
And may I act in all eons
Of all times within an instant.
May I see all buddhas of all times
In one instant
And always enter their sphere
By the magical power of liberation.
May I produce the arrays of all lands
Of all times in an atom,
May I thus perceive all the arrays
Of buddha-lands in all the ten directions.
Learning the teachings of
The Lamps of the Worlds to come,
I visit all the Guides
Who have passed away to eternal rest.
By occult powers, swift in all ways,
By the power of knowledge, all-sided,
By the power of practice, with all virtues,
By the power of universal love,
By the power of goodness, all pure,
By the power of knowledge, unobstructed,
Gathering the power of enlightenment,
Clearing away the power of acts,
Destroying the power of afflictions,
Vitiating the power of demons,
May I fulfill all powers
Of the practice of good.
Purifying oceans of lands,
Liberating oceans of beings,
Observing oceans of truths,
Plumbing oceans of knowledge,
Perfecting oceans of practices,
Fulfilling oceans of vows,
Serving oceans of buddhas,
May I practice, untiring, for oceans of eons.
The lofty vows of enlightenment practice
Of the buddhas of past, present, and future
May I fulfill completely,
Practice what is good, and realize enlightenment.
All who share in the practice
Of the sage of Universal Good,
The foremost offspring of all buddhas,
I name them good.
Pure in body, speech, and mind,
Pure in conduct, with a pure land,
As the sage is nam
ed Good,
May I become thus equally.
May I carry out the vow of Manjushri
To totally purify the practice of good;
Tireless through all future ages,
May I fulfill all those tasks.
May there be no limits to practice,
And no limit to virtues;
Persisting in infinite practices,
I know all their miraculous creations.
As long as the earth exists,
As long as all beings exist,
As long as acts and afflictions exist,
So long will my vow remain.
Let me give the buddhas all worlds
In the ten directions adorned with jewels,
Let me give celestials and humans supreme happiness
For eons as many as atoms.
Those who develop respect and devotion
On hearing this supreme dedication,
Seeking supreme enlightenment,
Will be most blessed.
They will have abandoned all evils
And all bad associates
And will quickly see Infinite Light,
If they have this vow of enlightening practice.
Great is their gain, worthwhile their life,
Auspicious their birth as humans;
They will soon be like
The universally good enlightening being.
Those who have committed hellish crimes
Under the sway of ignorance
Will quickly put an end to them all
When this practice of good is expounded.
Endowed with knowledge, distinction, and nobility,
Invulnerable to false teachers and demons,
They will be honored
By all in the triple world.
They will quickly go to the
Tree of enlightenment
And sit there for the benefit
Of all living beings;
They will realize enlightenment,
Turn the wheel of teaching,
And conquer the devil
And all its cohorts.
Buddha knows those who hold this vow to practice good,
Who cause it to be told of and taught;
The fruit of this is supreme enlightenment—
Do not entertain any doubt.
As the hero Manjushri knows, so too does Universal Good;
As I learn from them I dedicate all this virtue.
The Flower Ornament Scripture Page 209