Twenty-One Stanzas Before the Story
Before she tells a single word of Vairocana's actual history, the night-spirit sings the whole of what her prose has just said — who is shut out, whose domain this is, what six kinds of liberation look like, and finally, a few lines addressed to Good-Wealth alone.
Who Cannot, and Who Can, Know It
The verse opens by ruling people out three separate ways before it says, for the first time, what actually lets someone in.
爾時，開敷一切樹華夜神，欲重明其義，觀察三世如來境界而說頌言：「佛子汝所問，
甚深佛境界，
難思剎塵劫，
說之不可盡。
非是貪恚癡，
憍慢惑所覆，
如是眾生等，
能知佛妙法。
非是住慳嫉，
諂誑諸濁意，
煩惱業所覆，
能知佛境界。
非著蘊界處，
及計於有身，
見倒想倒人，
能知佛所覺。
佛境界寂靜，
性淨離分別，
非著諸有者，
能知此法性。
生於諸佛家，
為佛所守護，
持佛法藏者，
智眼之境界。
親近善知識，
愛樂白淨法，
勤求諸佛力，
聞此法歡喜。
At that time, the night-spirit She Who Opens Every Tree's Flowers, wishing to illuminate this meaning further, contemplated the domain of the tathāgatas of the three times, and spoke in verse, saying: "Buddha's child, what you have asked
is the buddha's own profound domain —
for kalpas as many as the fine motes of dust of a buddha-land, inconceivable,
to speak of it could never exhaust it.
Not those covered by greed, hatred, and delusion,
by arrogance, conceit, and confusion —
beings such as these
can ever know the buddha's wondrous dharma.
Not those who dwell in miserliness and envy,
in flattery, deceit, and every defiled intention,
covered over by afflictions and karma —
can know the buddha's own domain.
Not those attached to the aggregates, elements, and sense-fields,
and who calculate a self within the body,
people whose views are inverted and whose perceptions are inverted —
can know what the buddha has awakened to.
The buddha's domain is tranquil and still,
its nature pure, free of discrimination;
not those attached to any state of existence
can know this nature of dharmas.
Born into the family of every buddha,
guarded and protected by the buddhas,
one who upholds the treasury of the buddha-dharma —
this is the domain of the eye of wisdom.
Drawing near to a good spiritual friend,
delighting in every pure and wholesome dharma,
diligently seeking the power of every buddha —
one who hears this dharma rejoices.
非是⋯⋯能知 — not those who ⋯⋯ can know. Three stanzas running, each opens with 非是, "it is not," and each closes with a variation on 能知, "able to know" — greed, hatred, delusion, arrogance, and confusion in the first; miserliness, envy, flattery, and deceit in the second; clinging to the aggregates, elements, and sense-fields, and a calculated self within the body, in the third. Only after ruling out three distinct kinds of person does the verse finally say, in its fourth stanza, what the domain itself actually is — tranquil, still, its nature pure. The positive definition comes last, and only after the negations have cleared the ground for it.
Six Marks of Her Own Domain
The refrain changes, and six stanzas run through six qualities of mind, each one closing on the same four characters: this is that one's own domain.
心淨無分別，
猶如大虛空，
慧燈破諸闇，
是彼之境界。
以大慈悲意，
普覆諸世間，
一切皆平等，
是彼之境界。
歡喜心無著，
一切皆能捨，
平等施眾生，
是彼之境界。
心淨離諸惡，
究竟無所悔，
順行諸佛教，
是彼之境界。
了知法自性，
及以諸業種，
其心無動亂，
是彼之境界。
勇猛勤精進，
安住心不退，
勤修一切智，
是彼之境界。
A mind pure and free of discrimination,
like the great emptiness of space;
a lamp of wisdom that shatters every darkness —
this is that one's own domain.
With a mind of great loving-kindness and compassion,
universally covering every world;
regarding all as entirely equal —
this is that one's own domain.
A joyful mind free of attachment,
able to give up everything entirely;
giving to beings with perfect equality —
this is that one's own domain.
A mind pure and free of every evil,
ultimately without any regret;
following and practising every buddha's teaching —
this is that one's own domain.
Fully knowing the own-nature of dharmas,
and every seed of karmic action;
a mind never disturbed or thrown into confusion —
this is that one's own domain.
Courageous and diligent in vigour,
abiding securely, the mind never retreating;
diligently cultivating all-knowing wisdom —
this is that one's own domain.
是彼之境界 — this is that one's own domain. Counted directly, the refrain closes exactly six stanzas running, each naming a different quality — a mind like empty space, great loving-kindness, joy without attachment, purity without regret, understanding undisturbed, vigour that never retreats. The pronoun 彼, that one, is left unnamed throughout; nothing in these six stanzas specifies whose domain it is, only that whoever has cultivated each quality already owns it.
Six Kinds of Liberation
The metre shifts from five characters to seven mid-hymn, and with it the refrain changes again — six named liberations, each held by an unnamed "one" defined only by what they have realised.
其心寂靜住三昧，
究竟清涼無熱惱，
已修一切智海因，
此證悟者之解脫。
善知一切真實相，
深入無邊法界門，
普度群生靡有餘，
此慧燈者之解脫。
了達眾生真實性，
不著一切諸有海，
如影普現心水中，
此正道者之解脫。
從於一切三世佛，
方便願種而出生，
盡諸劫剎勤修行，
此普賢者之解脫。
普入一切法界門，
悉見十方諸剎海，
亦見其中劫成壞，
而心畢竟無分別。
法界所有微塵中，
悉見如來坐道樹，
成就菩提化群品，
此無礙眼之解脫。
Their mind tranquil and still, abiding in samādhi,
ultimately cool and free of every fevered affliction;
having already cultivated the cause of the ocean of all-knowing wisdom —
this is the liberation of one who has realised awakening.
Skilfully knowing the true mark of everything,
entering deeply into the boundless gate of the dharma-realm;
universally delivering the multitude of beings, leaving not one behind —
this is the liberation of the one who holds the lamp of wisdom.
Fully realising the true nature of beings,
unattached to the whole ocean of every state of existence;
appearing universally, like a reflection, in the water of every mind —
this is the liberation of the one who walks the true path.
From every buddha of the three times,
born from the seed of skilful means and vow;
diligently practising to the very end of every kalpa and land —
this is the liberation of the one who is Samantabhadra.
Universally entering every gate of the dharma-realm,
beholding entirely the oceans of lands in the ten directions;
and also seeing, within them, the kalpas of their forming and their dissolving —
and yet the mind is, in the end, entirely free of discrimination.
Within every fine mote of dust in the dharma-realm,
beholding entirely the tathāgata seated beneath the tree of awakening;
accomplishing bodhi and transforming the multitude of beings —
this is the liberation of the one whose eye is unobstructed.
此⋯⋯之解脫 — this is the liberation of. Six named liberations run through this metre change, held by six unnamed figures identified only by epithet — one who has realised awakening, the one who holds the lamp of wisdom, the one who walks the true path, the one who is Samantabhadra, and the one whose eye is unobstructed. The fifth stanza breaks the pattern: it neither names a figure nor closes on 解脫 at all, ending instead on 而心畢竟無分別, and yet the mind is, in the end, entirely free of discrimination — a plain description standing in the middle of five formal namings, as if the hymn paused its own naming convention for one line before resuming it.
A Word to Good-Wealth Himself
The hymn's final two stanzas stop describing an unnamed figure and turn to address the pilgrim directly, before naming the buddha whose domain this all along has been.
汝於無量大劫海，
親近供養善知識，
為利群生求正法，
聞已憶念無遺忘。
毘盧遮那廣大境，
無量無邊不可思，
我承佛力為汝說，
令汝深心轉清淨。
Throughout the measureless ocean of great kalpas,
you have drawn near to and made offerings to good spiritual friends;
for the benefit of the multitude of beings you have sought the true dharma —
and having heard it, you call it to mind, never once forgetting it.
Vairocana's own vast and great domain
is measureless, boundless, and inconceivable;
sustained by the Buddha's own power, I now speak of it for you,
so as to cause your profound mind to become ever more pure."
汝於無量大劫海 — throughout the measureless ocean of great kalpas, you. Nineteen stanzas describe an unnamed figure in the third person; only in the twentieth does 汝, you, appear, and it is aimed at Good-Wealth himself — the first time in this entire hymn that the pilgrim, rather than an abstract exemplar, is its subject. The last stanza then supplies the name that every earlier 彼, that one, had withheld: 毘盧遮那, Vairocana, whose domain this whole hymn has been describing without saying so until its final four lines.
Part 1149 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle seventy-two. Part 1150 opens the story itself — a world-ocean named for pure light and true gold, an eon of world-seeds beyond counting, and the buddha who once purified it, all named before Good-Wealth learns what any of it has to do with the night-spirit standing in front of him.