Understanding This Meaning
Wisdom Grove Bodhisattva's hymn praises the Buddha as an unsurpassed lamp lit by giving, precepts, patience, diligence, meditation, and wisdom — then turns to a warning repeated three times: without understanding a certain meaning, no offering however vast, and no practice however long, can ever reach buddhahood.
Wisdom Grove Bodhisattva's Hymn
爾時，慧林菩薩承佛威力，普觀十方而說頌言：
At that time, relying upon the Buddha's own awesome power, Wisdom Grove Bodhisattva universally surveyed the ten directions and then spoke a verse, saying:
「世間大導師，離垢無上尊，
不可思議劫，難可得值遇。
佛放大光明，世間靡不見，
為眾廣開演，饒益諸群生。
如來出世間，為世除癡冥，
如是世間燈，希有難可見。
已修施戒忍，精進及禪定，
般若波羅蜜，以此照世間。
如來無與等，求比不可得，
不了法真實，無有能得見。
佛身及神通，自在難思議，
無去亦無來，說法度眾生。
若有得見聞，清淨天人師，
永出諸惡趣，捨離一切苦。
無量無數劫，修習菩提行，
不能知此義，不可得成佛。
不可思議劫，供養無量佛，
若能知此義，功德超於彼。
無量剎珍寶，滿中施於佛，
不能知此義，終不成菩提。」
"The great guide of the world, the unsurpassed, honored one free of every stain — through inconceivable kalpas, it is difficult indeed to ever encounter him. The Buddha emits a great light, and there is no one in the world who fails to see it; for the sake of the assembly he broadly opens it up and expounds it, benefiting the multitudes of beings.
The Tathāgata appears within the world in order to remove the world's own dark delusion; such a lamp of the world as this is rare and difficult indeed to see. He has already cultivated giving, moral discipline, and patience, diligence and meditative absorption, and the perfection of wisdom, and through these he illumines the world.
The Tathāgata has no equal at all; seeking anything to compare him to, none can be found. Whoever fails to understand the true reality of dharmas has no way at all to attain the sight of him. The Buddha's own body and spiritual powers are sovereign and inconceivable; going nowhere and coming from nowhere, he teaches the Dharma and crosses living beings over.
If there is one who attains the sight or the hearing of this pure teacher of gods and humans, they forever emerge from every evil destiny, and leave behind every suffering entirely. Through immeasurable, countless kalpas, one may cultivate and practice the conduct of bodhi, and yet, without understanding this very meaning, one cannot attain buddhahood.
Through inconceivable kalpas, one may make offerings to immeasurable buddhas — and yet, if one is able to understand this very meaning, that merit surpasses even that offering. Were one to fill immeasurable lands with rare treasures and bestow them all upon the buddhas, without understanding this very meaning, one would never, in the end, accomplish bodhi."
"This meaning" (此義) is left deliberately unnamed here — the hymn repeats the warning three times without ever stating outright what the meaning is, building suspense across the chapter's remaining hymns. Given what the tenth hymn in this very chapter goes on to reveal — the famous teaching that "the mind is like a skilled painter" — this unnamed meaning is very likely the mind-only insight the chapter is building toward: that the true reality of dharmas the third stanza names is inseparable from how the mind itself constructs experience.
Part 120 Complete
This closes Part 120. Chapter 20 continues in Part 121 with Supreme Grove Bodhisattva's hymn.