Practices and Vows of
Samantabhadra Bodhisattva

Chapter Forty, New Edition

 

To Transfer All Merit and Virtue

SUTRA: 

Moreover, Good Man, to transfer all merit and virtue is explained like this. All of the merit from the first vow, to worship all Buddhas, up to and including the vow to conform with living beings, I transfer to all living beings throughout the dharma-realm and the limits of space. I vow to cause all living beings to always attain peace and happiness, and to be without any sickness or suffering. I wish that they will not succeed in doing any evil and that all the good karma that they would like to do will quickly be achieved. I will close the doors to the evil destinies and make known the right road to becoming a human, a god, or realizing Nirvana.

Suppose there are living beings who, because they accumulated a lot of evil karma, have evoked the retribution of all kinds of extreme suffering. I will undergo all this suffering on their behalf. I will enable all of these living beings to attain liberation and to ultimately realize unsurpassed Bodhi. The Bodhisattva cultivates transference in this way.

So it is that even if the reaches of space, the realms of living beings, the karma of living beings, or the afflictions of living beings come to an end, my transference of merit and virtue is without end. It continues in thought after thought without cease. I never tire of this karma in body, speech, and thought.

COMMENTARY: 

This is Samantabhadra Bodhisattva’s tenth vow, to transfer all merit and virtue. Moreover, Good Man, I will explain this again for you. To transfer all merit and virtue is explained like this. What is the meaning of transferring all merit?

All of the merit and virtue from the first vow, to worship all Buddhas. The first vow is to worship all Buddhas; the second is to praise the Tathagatas; the third is to extensively cultivate making offerings; the fourth is to repent of karmic obstacles and reform; the fifth is to follow and rejoice in merit and virtue; the sixth is to request the turning of the wheel of Dharma; the seventh is to beseech the Buddhas to remain in the world; the eighth is to always and learn from the Buddhas, up to and including the ninth, the vow to conform with living beings. “All of the merit and virtue” means cultivating all the king of vows generates much merit and virtue. Is it the case that I should keep and use all this merit and virtue for myself? No.

Samantabhadra Bodhisattva said to the youth Sudhana, “I transfer all of the merit and virtue.”

“To transfer” means “to give away.” I don’t want any of the merit and virtue that belongs to me. I will give it to others instead. Who is it given to? Samantabhadra Bodhisattva says he wishes to give it to all living beings throughout the dharma-realm and the limits of space. I will give all of my merit and virtue to all living beings. I don’t want it for myself. So I will give it to all living beings in the dharma-realm.

I vow to cause all living beings to always attain peace and happiness. My wish is that all living beings are peaceful, happy, and obtain benefit at all times. And I vow that they will be without any sickness or suffering so that they will be without any sickness or suffering whatsoever.

I wish that they will not succeed in doing any evil and that all the good karma that they would like to do will quickly be achieved. If there are those who plan to engage in evil activities, my wish is that they will not succeed. However, I wish that they quickly accomplish all the good karma and wholesome things they would like to do. I will close the doors to the evil destinies, that is, the doors to the hells, the realm of hungry ghosts, the realm of animals, and the realm of the asuras, so that living beings do not fall into any of these realms. I vow to transfer my merit and virtue to living beings so that the doors to the evil paths of the hells, hungry ghosts, animals, and asuras are closed. And make known the right road to becoming a human, a god, or realizing Nirvana. This means to show them the right path to humans and gods. This is to clearly tell and explain to others how to become human beings, how to be born in the heavens, and how to attain Nirvana.

To be a person, you must receive and maintain the Five Moral Precepts. If you wish to ascend to the heavens, you must, in addition to cultivating the Five Moral Precepts, practice the Ten Good Karmas. If you wish to attain Nirvana, you must cultivate the Four Noble Truths, the Twelve Links of Conditioned Origination, the Six Paramitas, the myriad practices, and the Bodhisattva path, and then you can obtain permanence, happiness, true self, and purity, that is, the bliss of Nirvana.

Suppose there are living beings who, because they accumulated a lot of evil karma, have evoked the retribution of all kinds of extreme suffering. Living beings have created a mass of evil karma, that is they accumulate many different kinds of bad karma, and as a result, they must undergo the most severe suffering and pain. However I, Samantabhadra Bodhisattva, who have made this king of vows, will undergo all this suffering on their behalf. I will undergo suffering on living beings’ behalf so that they will not have to undergo the retribution from their accumulated evil karma.

Look at the vow made by this Bodhisattva! He is so kind and compassionate! Having heard about Samantabhadra’s vow, if we still do not cultivate, we are really foolish to the extreme. Samantabhadra Bodhisattva has vowed to undergo suffering on our behalf, so that now we do not have to bear so much suffering. But he never tells us how much suffering he has undergone on our behalf. He never says, “I’ve stood in for you and taken one day’s worth of suffering, one year’s worth of suffering, or one life’s worth of suffering. I’ve suffered so much for you. You should at least invite me for a meal or for a cup of tea.” He is not like this. He does not ask for thanks, nor does he ask you to invite him over to get something back for what he has done for you. When we read this passage of the Sutra, we should weep bitter tears and show our gratitude to Samantabhadra Bodhisattva.

I will enable all of these living beings to attain liberation so that they are unfettered and without any obstacles. None of these kinds of retributions of suffering will hinder them. I will enable them to obtain liberation and to ultimately realize unsurpassed Bodhi. They will finally achieve the Proper and Equal Bodhi, Right and Equal, Proper Enlightenment.

The Bodhisattva cultivates transference in this way. He transfers all of his merit and virtue to all living beings because that is what Bodhisattvas are supposed to do. Bodhisattvas benefit other people, and they do not just exclusively benefit themselves. Therefore, they do not want any of their merit and virtue, but wish to transfer and give it away to all living beings in the dharma-realm.

So it is that even if the reaches of space, if the limits of space could be exhausted, if the realms of living beings, if the karma of living beings, or the afflictions of living beings come to an end, my transference of merit and virtue is without end. Suppose these came to an end, my vow to transfer all merit and virtue would still never come to an end. Basically, the limits of space, living beings, the karma of living beings,

and the afflictions of living beings cannot be exhausted. However, even if these things did no longer exist, my vow to transfer all merit and virtue would never be exhausted. It continues in thought after thought without cease. It would go on like the stream of thoughts that people have. I never tire of this karma in body, speech, and thought. I will cultivate these ten vows in my actions, in my speech, and in my thoughts, and I will never tire. I will never feel that it’s too toilsome or that I’m too tired and wish to rest. I will never rest. Night and day I will be vigorous in cultivating the Dharma of these ten king of vows.

Now we understand the ten king of vows of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva. When we compare their measure to the size of the reaches of space, we find that although the reaches of space may no longer exist, these vows can never end. Samantabhadra Bodhisattva would continue to cultivate according to these vows.

These ten king of vows are not only cultivated by Samantabhadra Bodhisattva. If he were the only one who cultivated them, it would not be necessary to make them known in the Flower Adornment Sutra. He wishes to enable all of us living beings to follow them and put these ten king of vows into practice. And he wishes that we will bring forth vast and great minds that are equal in measure to all of space and the dharma-realm. Then we can transfer all of our own merit and virtue to all living beings in the dharma-realm. How big would you say is the body of these vows?

All living beings and the vows of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva combine to become one. Therefore, all living beings are Samantabhadra Bodhisattva. And all these Samantabhadra Bodhisattvas also teach and transform living beings. It is not the case that only Samantabhadra Bodhisattva is Samantabhadra Bodhisattva. Anyone who relies on these ten great king of vows of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva and cultivates them is Samantabhadra Bodhisattva. “Samanta” means “everywhere,” and “Bhadra” means “a worthy sage.” That is, all living beings everywhere throughout the dharma-realm become worthy sages.

These King of vows of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva were not just prepared for Samantabhadra Bodhisattva, but they are methods that are taught for all of us living beings. This is because it is to be feared that we living beings might not understand how to cultivate. Samantabhadra brings forth the heart of great compassion and introduces us to these ten king of vows for the express purpose of teaching us how to cultivate, that is to tell us to rely on these ten great vows of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva in our cultivation. Therefore, after you have read this Sutra, you should not think that it concerns only Samantabhadra Bodhisattva and not yourself. This is a mistake. After hearing about these ten great king of vows, these methods of cultivation, we too, should make vows like these and practice according to them.

previous   next   Contents

Chapter 40 pages:  1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9    10    11    12    13    14    15    16    17    18    19    20    21    22    23    24    25    26    27    28    29    30

return to top