The Flower Ornament Scripture

by Thomas Cleary

  From the next ten teachers Sudhana learns the ten dedications, extensively described in the massive twenty-fifth book of The Flower Ornament Scripture. The first is called dedication to saving all beings without clinging to any image of beings. Practitioners of this dedication cultivate transcendent generosity, discipline, patience, energy, meditation, and wisdom; and they dwell in great compassion, kindness, joy, and equanimity. They dedicate these virtues to the benefit of all people to enable everyone to be purified, to reach the ultimate realization of enlightenment, and to be forever freed from the suffering and affliction of miserable states.

  The second is called indestructible dedication. Practitioners of this dedication attain indestructible faith in buddhas and bodhisattvas, in the qualities and teachings of buddhas, in pure ways of life, in the path of dedication to enlightenment, in teachers of ways of enlightenment, in spiritual powers of buddhas, and in the practice of expedient means of enlightenment. Practitioners amass virtues, develop them, concentrate on them, contemplate and analyze them, find joy in them, and live by them; they set their minds on dedication in accord with the essential nature of things, dedication entering into uncreated truth yet perfecting created expedients, dedication of techniques discarding attachments to concepts of phenomena, and dedication of expedient application of practices without clinging to forms.

  Third is dedication equal to all buddhas. Practitioners of this dedication do not conceive either like or dislike for any perceived objects; their minds are free, pure, joyful, flexible, and without sorrow or trouble. They vow to increase the bliss of the enlightened, the bliss of the unconceivable abode of buddhas, the bliss of the matchless concentration of buddhas, the bliss of unlimited compassion, the bliss of liberation, the bliss of immeasurable power, and the bliss of tranquillity detached from cognition. Practitioners dedicate their virtues to enabling others to fulfill their vows, perfect transcendent practices, stabilize an indestructible determination for enlightenment, give up conceit, and attain the clear, sharp senses of the enlightened.

  Fourth is dedication reaching all places. Practitioners of this dedication intend the power of their virtues to reach all places, all things, all worlds, all beings, all lands, all space, all time, and all speech; they pray that their virtues may include all truths, all enlightening practices, all enlightened spiritual powers, all enlightening methods of meditation, all educational activities, and all ways of adaptive response to others. Practitioners are able to develop people to maturity; beautify and purify lands; avoid spoiling works; understand all things; comprehend ultimate reality apart from desire; achieve pure faith; and have clear, sharp faculties. They are able to appear responsively in all worlds, expound truth in all places, travel psychically in response to others’ minds, attain comprehensive recollective and explanatory powers, and attain instantaneous universal perception reaching all places.

  Fifth is dedication of infinite stores of virtue. The infinite stores, or treasuries, of virtue dedicated by the practitioners are attained by repentance and removal of obstructions caused by past actions, by paying respect to all the enlightened, by requesting the enlightened to teach, by listening to the teachings and putting them into practice, and by rejoicing at the virtues of all buddhas and all people in all times. These practitioners are aware that all things are like phantoms and illusions, yet they cultivate the pure deeds characteristic of the enlightened; they enter into inconceivable freedom yet employ skill in expedient means to perform the work of the enlightened and illumine the world. They dedicate all their virtues to all fields of enlightenment, to all those working for enlightenment, to all the enlightened, to enlightenment itself, to all universal vows, to all essential ways of emancipation, to purifying all realms of being, to seeing the enlightened appear in all worlds, to seeing the life of the enlightened as infinite, to seeing the enlightened teaching throughout the cosmos, and to assuring the development of all people.

  Sixth is dedication that stabilizes all roots of goodness, causing them to endure. Practitioners exercise all manner of generosity, including the giving of right teachings and the giving of protection. As they exercise this generosity, the practitioners develop mental control by which they practice dedication, controlling the body and controlling sensation, conception, action, and consciousness. When they give material things to people, they pray that people may attain corresponding qualities: for example, when they give clothing, they pray that people may develop a sense of shame and conscience; when they give flowers, they pray that people may become pleasing to all they meet; when they give perfumes, they pray that people may become generous; when they give bedding, they pray that people may become wise; when they give shelter, they pray that people may become peaceful; when they give lamps, they pray that people may become illuminated; when they give medicines, they pray that people may become mentally as well as physically healthy.

  Seventh is dedication according to all sentient beings. Practitioners of this dedication cultivate virtues by the power of pure determination for enlightenment and give people what they need without any psychological artifice, without expectation, without desire for reputation, without regret, without irritation; they extend compassion and mercy to all unremittingly, not letting conditions stop their generosity and never growing weary of it. Through this generosity they develop an unattached mind, an unfettered mind, a liberated mind, a strong mind, a profound mind, a concentrated mind, a nonsubjective mind, a controlled mind, an undistracted mind, an understanding mind, a dedicated mind, a penetrating mind. In dedicating their virtues, they pray that people may lack nothing material or moral, experience peace and happiness, get rid of confusion and delusion, attain pure impartial minds, and attain all knowledge without difficulty.

  Eighth is dedication characteristic of true Thusness. Practitioners of this dedication attain clear and perfect recollection and get beyond confusion and disturbance. They vow to attain freedom of thought, word, and deed so as to carry out enlightening practices; they vow to develop infinite generosity, to cultivate all enlightening practices, to master all the teachings, to arrive at the realm of universal knowledge, to remember the buddhas of all times, to live in the world unwearied to edify others, and to activate countless liberative techniques of thought and wisdom. Practitioners dedicate these virtues without clinging to the world or to people, not relying on anything, free from discriminatory views, in accord with all impartial truths.

  Ninth is dedication without bondage or attachment. Practitioners of this dedication honor and respect emancipation from compulsive routines, embodiment of all virtues, repentance of past acts, moral support of virtues, and expressions of respect for the enlightened. They dedicate their virtues with an unbound, unattached, liberated mind, to accomplish universally good thought, word, and deed without forming arbitrary notions of worlds or worldly things, of enlightenment or enlightened beings, of enlightening practices or ways of emancipation, of buddhas or their teachings, of training or not training people, of virtue or dedication, of self or others, of gifts or recipients, or of truth or knowledge. They do not become proud or conceited, yet they are not self-demeaning either; the virtues they cultivate are for the benefit of all conscious creatures, dedicated to the most honorable human state, the state of buddhahood.

  Tenth is infinite dedication equal to the cosmos. For practitioners of this dedication, the giving of teaching is paramount, establishing the will for enlightenment in others. They are impartial, tireless in practicing good works, pure of heart, independent in knowledge. They vow to develop the ability to perfect all perspectives of universal freedom; the ability to absorb, retain, and expound true teachings; and to cultivate enlightening practice for the benefit of one and all. They also vow to fulfill the practice of unalloyed morality, nonreliance, nonacquisitiveness, nonattachment, noncontention, stabilization of good will, incomparable compassion, immutable joy, and undisturbed equanimity.

  The next ten teachers represent to Sudhana the ten stages, which are expou
nded in the twenty-sixth book of The Flower Ornament Scripture. The first stage, the stage of joy, is characterized by calmness, happiness, ebullience, exaltation, delight, vigor, geniality, and freedom from anger. The practitioners of this stage become extremely joyful thinking of the enlightened ones and their teachings, of those working for enlightenment and their practices, of the ways of transcendence, and of the ability to help people. They become free from all fear by transcending the very idea of self, so they cannot be coerced by fear of ill repute, fear of death, fear of misery, or intimidation by crowds. Practitioners in this stage also make a preparatory study of the indications of all the stages, becoming versed in the problems and solutions of the stages, the attainments and cultivation of the stages, and the step-by-step progression through the stages. No longer interested in mundane satisfactions, practitioners attain a special power that fosters in them the elements that purify the stages: faith, compassion, kindness, relinquishment, indefatigability, knowledge of the teachings, knowledge of the world and humanity, modesty and conscience, stability, and association with the enlightened.

  Second is the stage of purity, which is sought by way of ten dispositions of mind: honesty, gentleness, capability, docility, tranquillity, goodness, purity, nonattachment, broadmindedness, and magnanimity. In this stage practitioners naturally avoid killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, false speech, coarse speech, useless speech, covetousness, malevolence, and erroneous views.

  Third is the stage of refulgence. Practitioners enter this stage by consciously focusing their minds on purity, stability, freedom from illusion, dispassion, nonregression, steadfastness, ardor, tirelessness, high-mindedness, and magnanimity. In this stage they also examine the impermanence, painfulness, impurity, unreliability, destructibility, instability, and momentariness of all that is conditioned, thus causing their minds to become yet more liberated from conditioned things and directed towards enlightened knowledge. Practitioners cultivate nine levels of meditation, up to the stage of neither perception nor nonperception, and experience many kinds of miracles and extradimensional powers, such as clairvoyance, clairaudience, knowledge of the past, and ability to go in and out of extraordinary states without falling under the sway of those states.

  Fourth is the stage of blazing radiance. Practitioners attain this stage by entering into the radiance of the Teaching through ten ways of contemplation: contemplation of the realms of beings, of the realms of the world, of the realms of phenomena and principles, of the realm of space, of the realm of consciousness, of the realm of desire, of the realm of form, of the realm of the formless, of the realm of high-minded devotion, and of the realm of inclinations of the magnanimous mind. Practitioners at this stage examine inner and outer phenomena with precise awareness, getting rid of worldly desire and dejection; they strive for the development, enhancement, and preservation of good states and for the lessening, elimination, and prevention of bad states. They also develop the bases of spiritual powers, the elements of the path to liberation, and the various branches of enlightenment.

  Fifth is the stage difficult to conquer. Practitioners enter this stage by impartial attention to purity of the teachings of past, present, and future buddhas; to purity of conduct, to purity of mind; to purity of removal of opinion, doubt, uncertainty, and perplexity; to purity of knowledge of what to apply and what to relinquish; to purity of the final discernment and realization of all the elements of enlightenment; and to purity of perfecting all people. They attain unwavering attention and become familiar with both conventional and ultimate truths. As they meditate on all truths, practitioners also develop skills in practical arts and sciences, according to the needs of the people of the time.

  Sixth is the stage of presence. Practitioners enter this stage by observing phenomena in terms of their equality in having no ultimate definition, in having no fixed origin, in being apart from any concept or notion of things, in being primordially pure, in neither coming nor going, in being existent in some sense and nonexistent in another, and in being like dreams or reflected images. They observe the formation and disintegration of worlds, they realize that the origins of worldly ways are all rooted in attachment to self. This leads them to a thorough examination of the process of conditioning, followed by liberating absorption in emptiness, signlessness, and wishlessness. Practitioners in this stage furthermore develop unbreakable intent and become immune to delusive influences.

  Seventh is the stage of going far, in which practitioners are proficient in concentration on emptiness, wishlessness, and signlessness; enter into selflessness and transcend ideas of personality; yet still accumulate virtue and knowledge and do not give up practicing infinite kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity. They detach from the world yet work to beautify the world; whereas practitioners arrive at extinction in the sixth stage, in the seventh stage they plunge into extinction and emerge from it in each mental instant, without being overcome by extinction. They live in the world by willpower for the sake of others, without being stained by the ills of the world; they become calm and serene, yet they can be passionate as an expedient without, however, becoming inflamed by passion.

  Eighth is the stage of immovability. In this stage practitioners fully realize that all things are nonconceptual, accessible to nonconceptual knowledge. They become wholly detached from mind, intellect, consciousness, thought, and ideation and thus become free from all striving in thought, word, and deed; no actions based on views, passions, or intentions become manifest in them. Nevertheless, even though they have attained peace and liberation, practitioners in this stage who are supported by their past vows of complete enlightenment do not become complacent but are further inspired to seek infinite knowledge. By means of the knowledge they develop, they are able to distinguish many paths in the world, show all aspects of virtue, control their own resolution, know the past and future, repel deluding influences, and carry out enlightening activities in endless contexts without regression.

  Ninth is the stage of good mind. Practitioners in this stage gain accurate knowledge of good, bad, neutral, mundane, and transmundane actions. They also know how people get entangled in afflictions, acts, senses, resolutions, dispositions, inclinations, propensities, and habits; and they know what is beneficial or not. Practitioners also know all about the compartmentalization of mind, the complexity of mind, how the mind becomes defiled, how the mind becomes bound and liberated, and how it creates illusions. Learning to become expert teachers, practitioners in this stage develop analytic knowledge of principles, meanings, expressions, and elocution; and they attain mental command of the teachings through concentration spells, learning to teach in accord with the dispositions, faculties, and inclinations of the people with whom they are working.

  Tenth is the stage of cloud of teaching, emblematic of the ability of practitioners to teach like clouds showering rain. In this stage—which is also called the stage of anointment or coronation, symbolizing anointment or coronation with the crown of all knowledge—practitioners attain incalculable numbers of special concentrations and gain access to the higher knowledges characteristic of the enlightened. They attain inconceivable liberation; infinite powers of recollection; and ability to receive, absorb, and hold the revelations of the mysteries of complete enlightenment.

  The next ten teachers after this represent the eleventh stage, the practice of Universal Good. Universally Good, the name of the supernal bodhisattva Samantabhadra, who represents the active manifestation of the totality of all enlightening practice, is the fifty-third and final benefactor visited by the pilgrim Sudhana in the tale of the Gandavyuha. These teachers of the eleventh stage transmit ten major aspects of this totality: producing knowledge from compassion, consistently remembering all truths through mastery of knowledge and compassion, teaching worldly principles everywhere, penetrating the mysteries of writing and higher knowledge of arts, helping people by both conventional and mystical arts and sciences, pure liberation by being in the world without clinging thoughts, illu
mination by pure knowledge working in the world, finding infinite forms in formlessness, speaking so as to reveal truth, and living in the world with complete knowledge and compassion.

  The fifty-first teacher is Maitreya, the Loving One, who is thought of as the Buddha of the Future. The Heaven of Satisfaction, where the higher personality of Maitreya awaits incarnation on earth, is extensively described in the twenty-third and twenty-fourth books of The Flower Ornament Scripture, and the encounter between the pilgrim Sudhana and an earthly personality of Maitreya is now described in similar grandeur and detail. Maitreya opens the door to a building of cosmic proportions, the inner dimensions of which Sudhana finds even greater, containing infinite numbers of buildings of equal size. In these buildings Sudhana sees the entire panorama of Maitreya’s career, feeling the passage of eons in a short period of time, learning the way to enlightenment in one lifetime.

  Maitreya finally sends Sudhana back to Manjushri, who first sent him on his journey for knowledge and who now becomes his fifty-second benefactor. Manjushri in turn, reaching out to Sudhana beyond time and space, illumines him with the light of infinite knowledge and leads him into endless mental command, presence of mind, concentration, and higher knowledge, plunging him into the sphere of practice of Universal Good.

  The vision of Samantabhadra, the Universally Good bodhisattva, finally ushers the pilgrim Sudhana into the ultimate range of the enlightenment experience. Samantabhadra is introduced as a prototype of the bodhisattva effort in the third book of The Flower Ornament Scripture, in terms similar to the Sufis’ global Assembly of Saints and the Taoists’ Celestial Government: “Universal Good always fills the universe with various bodies flowing everywhere, with concentration, psychic power, skill and strength, teaching widely without hindrance in a universal voice.” Then the final chapter of the final book of the scripture describes the cosmic vision of Universal Good and the merging of the pilgrim with the total being of Universal Good and the final realization of enlightenment.