Verses
Before the lions among men throughout the
worlds of the ten directions and the three periods of time,
With a pure body, speech, and thought,
I worship them all, omitting none.
With the awesome spiritual power of Samantabhadra's practices and vows,
I appear everywhere before all Tathagatas.
One body manifests bodies as many as particles in a
kshetra-land.
Each one worships Buddhas as many as particles in a
kshetra-land.
In each particle there are Buddhas as numerous as particles,
And in each of these places there is an assembly of Bodhisattvas.
Each particle throughout the infinite Dharma Realm is the same.
I deeply believe they are all filled with Buddhas.
Each body using the ocean of all sounds
Everywhere gives voice to infinite and wonderful words.
That throughout all kalpas of the future
Praise the deep ocean of the Buddhas' merit and virtue.
Using the most supreme and wonderful flower garlands,
Songs and music, incense pastes, parasols, and canopies,
And other most supreme adornments such as these,
I make offerings to all Tathagatas.
With the most supreme clothing and superior incense, Powdered and burning incense, lamps, and candles,
Each one heaped as high as Wonderful High Mountain,
I make offerings to all Tathagatas.
With a vast, great mind of supreme understanding,
I have deep faith in all Buddhas of the three periods of time. With the power of Samantabhadra's practices and vows,
I make offerings to all Tathagatas everywhere.
All the evil karma I have created in the past,
Caused by beginningless greed, hatred, and delusion, Produced by my body, speech, and thought,
I now repent and reform of it all.
All living beings in the ten directions,
Learners and Those Beyond Learning in the Two Vehicles,
And all Tathagatas and Bodhisattvas,
I follow and rejoice in all their merit and virtue.
All the Lamps of the World throughout the ten directions,
Those who first realized Bodhi,
I now request and beseech them all
To turn the wheel of the unsurpassed, wonderful Dharma.
If there are Buddhas who wish to enter Parinirvana,
I beseech them with utmost sincerity,
Wishing that they long remain in the world, for as many
kalpas as there are particles in kshetra-lands.
To benefit and bring happiness to all living beings.
All of the blessings from worshipping, praising, and making offerings,
From beseeching the Buddhas to remain in the world and
turn the Wheel of Dharma;
And from all the roots of goodness gained from following
and rejoicing, and repentance and reform,
I transfer to living beings and to becoming a Buddha.
I follow and learn from all the Tathagatas
And cultivate the perfect practices of Samantabhadra.
I make offerings to all the Tathagatas of the past,
The Buddhas of the present throughout the ten directions,
And to all the Teachers of Gods and Humans of the future.
May all my aspirations be fulfilled.
I wish to learn from all the Buddhas of the three periods of time And quickly attain great Bodhi.
In all the kshetra-lands throughout the ten directions,
Vast, pure, and wonderfully adorned,
The assemblies surround the Tathagatas,
As they sit beneath their royal Bodhi trees.
May all living beings in the ten directions
Be without worry and always have peace and happiness, Obtain the Proper Dharma's profound benefit,
And may their afflictions be eradicated without remainder.
When I cultivate for the sake of Bodhi,
In all destinies I will gain the knowledge of past lives.
I will always renounce the householder's life and cultivate
the pure moral precepts,
Unbroken, undefiled, and without outflows.
Gods, dragons, yakshas, kumbhandas,
Including humans, non-humans, and others,
In the languages of all living beings,
With every voice I will speak the Dharma.
I will diligently cultivate the pure paramitas,
And never forget the Bodhi-mind.
I will extinguish obstructions and defilements without remainder,
And will accomplish all the wondrous practices.
From all delusions, karma, and demonic states
Within the worldly paths, I will attain liberation.
This is like the lotus flower that is not sullied by the water,
Or like the sun and moon that do not stay fixed in the sky.
Completely eradicating all the suffering of the evil paths,
And equally bringing happiness to all living beings,
In this way passing through kalpas as numerous as particles in a kshetra-land
Always benefiting those in the ten directions without end.
I always conform with all living beings,
Exhausting all kalpas of the future.
Always cultivating the vast practices of Samantabhadra Bringing to perfection the unsurpassed great Bodhi.
May all who practice the same way as myself,
In every place where we gather together,
Our karma of body, mouth, and mind the same,
Together we learn and cultivate all the same practices and vows.
All of the Good Teachers who benefit me,
Who elucidate for me the practices of Samantabhadra,
I wish that we will always gather together,
And that they will always be happy with me.
I vow to always see in person all the Tathagatas
And the assembly of disciples of the Buddhas that encircle them.
I'll give vast and great offerings to all of them
To the end of future kalpas without ever becoming weary.
I vow to uphold the subtle and wonderful Dharma of all Buddhas
And illuminate and make known all the practices of Bodhi,
And attain the ultimately pure path of Samantabhadra,
Always practicing to the end of future kalpas.
Within all states of existence,
I cultivate blessings and wisdom constantly and without end.
By concentration, wisdom, skill-in-means, and liberation,
I will gain an endless treasury of merit and virtue.
In one particle are kshetra-lands as numerous as particles.
In each kshetra-land are inconceivable numbers of Buddhas. Every Buddha dwells in the midst of their assemblies,
I see them always performing the practices of Bodhi.
Everywhere throughout the ocean of kshetra-lands in the ten directions,
On the tip of every hair in the ocean of the three periods of time,
Throughout the ocean of Buddhas and ocean of lands,
I cultivate in all of them passing through an ocean of kalpas.
The speech of all Tathagatas is pure;
Each word contains an ocean of all sounds
That conforms to what living beings like to hear.
Each sound flows forth from the Buddha's ocean of eloquence.
All Tathagatas of the three periods of time
With their inexhaustible ocean of languages
Constantly turn the wonderful Dharma wheel of principles and their tendencies.
With the power of deep wisdom, I can enter them everywhere.
I can deeply enter the future
And completely pass through all kalpas in a single thought. Each and every kalpa of the three periods of time
In a single thought I enter them all.
In one thought I see in the three periods of time,
All the Lions Among Men,
And also constantly enter the states of the Buddhas
And their liberation like an illusion, and their awe-inspiring powers.
On the tip of an extremely fine hair,
Appear the adorned kshetra-lands of the three periods of time. On a hair tip are the kshetra-lands of the ten directions as numerous as particles,
I deeply enter, beautify, and purify them all.
All of the illuminating Lamps of the World of the future
Who accomplish the path, turn the Wheel of Dharma, and awaken living beings
I go to visit and draw near to them all
As they complete the Buddha's work and manifest Nirvana.
I quickly complete the spiritual powers,
The power of thoroughly entering the Mahayana through the Universal Door,
The power of cultivating all merit and virtue through wisdom and practice,
The power of the awe-inspiring spirit to shield all with great kindness.
The power of supreme blessings to purify and adorn everywhere,
The power of wisdom that is unattached and without reliance,
The awe-inspiring power of samadhi, wisdom, and skill-in means,
The power to universally accumulate Bodhi.
The power of purifying all good karma,
The power of eradicating all afflictions,
The power of subduing all demons,
The power to perfect all of Samantabhadra's practices.
I am able to adorn and purify everywhere the ocean of kshetra-lands,
And liberate the ocean of all living beings.
I'm well able to discern all Dharmas, like an ocean,
And can deeply enter into the ocean of wisdom.
I am able to purify everywhere the ocean of all practices,
And perfect the ocean of all vows.
I draw near and make offerings to the ocean of all Buddhas,
And cultivate without weariness for an ocean of kalpas.
All Tathagatas of the three periods of time,
And the practices and vows of most supreme Bodhi,
I make offerings to them all as I perfect and cultivate these practices.
Relying upon Samantabhadra's practices, I awaken to Bodhi.
All Tathagatas have an elder disciple
Whose name is the Venerated Samantabhadra.
I now transfer all my roots of goodness,
And I vow that all my wisdom and practices will be identical to his.
I vow that my body, mouth, and thought will always be pure
And that all of my practices and all kshetra-lands will also be the same.
Wisdom such as this is called Samantabhadra.
I vow in all ways to be the same as he is.
I will wholly purify Samantabhadra’s conduct,
And all the great vows of Manjushri.
I will complete all of these activities without remainder.
Throughout all kalpas of the future, I’ll never tire.
All of the practices I cultivate are without measure
And I attain measureless merit and virtue.
Amid measureless practices I peacefully dwell,
And thoroughly understand all spiritual powers.
Manjushri has courageous wisdom,
Samantabhadra’s practices and wisdom are also the same.
I now transfer all roots of goodness.
To constantly cultivate with and learn from them all.
All Buddhas of the three periods of time praise
Such supreme and great vows as these.
I now transfer all roots of goodness,
In order to attain the preeminent practices of Samantabhadra.
I vow that when my life approaches its end,
All obstacles will be completely dispelled,
I will personally see Amitabha Buddha,
And be immediately reborn in his Land of Peace and Bliss.
After I'm reborn in that land,
I will then accomplish these great vows.
All of them will be completely perfected without remainder Bringing benefit and happiness to the realms of all beings.
All in that Buddha's assembly are pure,
At that time I will be born from a supreme lotus flower,
I'll personally behold Measureless Light Tathagata
Who will appear and bestow upon me a prediction of Bodhi.
After receiving this prediction from the Tathagata,
With countless hundreds of kotis of transformation bodies,
My vast wisdom power that pervades the ten directions
Brings benefit everywhere to the realms of living beings.
To the ends of space or world-systems,
To the ends of living beings, their karma, or their afflictions,
But all things such as these have no end,
So too my vows ultimately will never end.
Suppose in all the boundless kshetra-lands of the ten directions,
One uses their multitude of jewels as adornments and offerings to the Tathagatas,
And gives the most supreme peace and happiness to gods and humans
Throughout kalpas as many as the smallest atomic particles in all kshetra-lands.
Suppose another person hears this king of supreme vows,
And as they pass by his ear but a single time is able to give rise to faith,
And his mind thirstily seeks supreme Bodhi,
The merit and virtue he gains will surpass that of the first person.
Always separating far from bad teachers,
And leaving forever all unwholesome paths,
Quickly seeing the Tathagata Measureless Light,
And perfecting Samantabhadra's most supreme vows.
This person well obtains a superior lifespan,
And is well able to attain rebirth in the human realm.
Before long this person will accomplish
These practices of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva.
In the past, owing to a lack of wisdom power,
I have done the five Avici offenses of extreme evil.
By reciting the great king of vows of Samantabhadra In one thought they will all be wiped away.
His clan, family, race, or skin color,
His appearance and wisdom are all perfect.
All demons and those of heterodox paths cannot destroy him,
And for those in the three realms, he can become worthy of offerings.
He will quickly advance to the great Bodhi-tree king,
And seated there subdue the horde of demons,
Realize Equal and Right Enlightenment and turn the Wheel of Dharma,
And benefit all living beings everywhere.
If a person with respect to these vows of Samantabhadra,
Reads, recites, receives, upholds, and explains them,
One's reward can only be known by the Buddha,
And one will certainly attain the path of supreme Bodhi.
If a person recites these vows of Samantabhadra,
I'm only speaking about a small portion of one's roots of goodness,
In a single thought, everything will be perfected,
And one can accomplish the pure vows of living beings.
I practice the supreme conduct of Samantabhadra
And transfer all of its boundless and superior blessings,
Vowing that all living beings everywhere, who are sinking and drowning,
Will quickly go to the kshetra-land of Measureless Light Buddha!
Epilogue
At that time, after Samantabhadra Bodhisattva, Mahasattva, had finished speaking before the Tathagata these pure verses on the great king of vows of Samantabhadra, the youth Sudhana was overwhelmed with boundless joy. All the Bodhisattvas were extremely happy as well. And the Tathagata praised him, saying, “Very good! Very good!”
At that time, this supreme Dharma of the inconceivable state of liberation was spoken in the presence of the World Honored One and the Sagely Bodhisattvas, Mahasattvas with Manjushri Bodhisattva as their leader.
Also present were all the great Bodhisattvas and the six thousand Bhikshus who had matured in their practice, with Maitreya Bodhisattva as their leader, and all the great Bodhisattvas of the Worthy Kalpa who were led by Immaculate Samantabhadra Bodhisattva.
Assembled together were also all the great Bodhisattvas who will succeed to the position of a Buddha in one life and who were at the position of Anointment of the Crown, as well as all the remaining Bodhisattvas, Mahasattvas from the various different worlds of the ten directions, who were as numerous as the smallest atomic particles in an ocean of kshetra-lands.
All the great Shravakas were headed by the greatly wise Shariputra, Mahamaudgalyayana, and others. Also present were all the people, gods, and all the rulers of the worlds, as well as heavenly dragons, yakshas, gandharvas, asuras, garudas, kinnaras, mahoragas, humans, non-humans, and so forth. Upon hearing what the Buddha had said, all in the entire great assembly were extremely happy, faithfully accepted it, and put it into practice.
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