I Would Gladly Bear This Suffering
The prince puts his vow into verse; the maiden's reply does not ask to be spared its cost but to share in it, offering to endure hell-fire and be ground to dust before revealing a dream that has already told her where all of this leads.
The Prince Restates His Vow
Where Part 1216 gave the prince's vow in prose, he now speaks it again in verse — the same tests, named one by one, with instructions for how she should meet each of them.
「爾時，太子即為妙德而說頌言：「『哀愍眾生故，
我發菩提心，
當於無量劫，
習行一切智。
無量大劫中，
淨修諸願海，
入地及治障，
悉經無量劫。
三世諸佛所，
學六波羅蜜，
具足方便行，
成就菩提道。
十方垢穢剎，
我當悉嚴淨；
一切惡道難，
我當令永出。
我當以方便，
廣度諸群生，
令滅愚癡暗，
住於佛智道。
當供一切佛，
當淨一切地，
起大慈悲心，
悉捨內外物。
汝見來乞者，
或生慳吝心；
我心常樂施，
汝勿違於我。
若見我施頭，
慎勿生憂惱；
我今先語汝，
令汝心堅固。
乃至截手足，
汝勿嫌乞者；
汝今聞我語，
應可諦思惟。
男女所愛物，
一切我皆捨；
汝能順我心，
我當成汝意。』
At that time, the prince spoke a hymn for Wondrous Virtue's sake, saying: "Out of compassion and pity for every being,
I have given rise to the mind of bodhi;
throughout measureless kalpas,
I shall practice and cultivate all-knowing wisdom.
Throughout measureless great kalpas,
I shall purely cultivate the ocean of every vow;
entering the grounds and overcoming every obstruction —
all of this I shall pass through across measureless kalpas.
At the feet of every buddha across the three periods of time,
I shall study the six pāramitās;
fully endowed with skillful practice,
I shall accomplish the path of bodhi.
Every defiled and impure land throughout the ten directions,
I shall entirely adorn and purify;
every hardship of the evil destinies,
I shall cause to be forever escaped.
I shall, through skillful means,
widely cross over every multitude of beings,
causing the darkness of ignorance and delusion to be extinguished,
and setting them upon the path of buddha-wisdom.
I shall make offerings to every buddha,
I shall purify every ground;
giving rise to a mind of great loving-kindness and compassion,
I shall entirely relinquish everything, within me and belonging to me.
Should you see one who comes to beg,
and perhaps give rise to a stingy heart —
my own heart forever delights in giving;
do not, then, go against me.
If you should see me give away even my own head,
be careful not to give rise to grief or distress;
I tell you this now beforehand,
so that your heart may grow firm and steadfast.
Even when I cut away my own hands and feet,
do not resent the one who begs them of me;
now that you have heard my words,
you ought to reflect on them carefully.
Every cherished thing, son or daughter,
I shall relinquish, every one of them;
if you are able to accord with my own heart,
I shall in turn fulfill your own wish."
乃至截手足，汝勿嫌乞者 — even when I cut away my own hands and feet, do not resent the one who begs them of me. The prince now restates in verse the very same tests named in prose only one Part ago — his own head, his own hands and feet, and "every cherished thing, son or daughter." But where the prose only warned that these might make her an obstacle, the verse tells her, line by line, exactly how not to react when each one comes.
I Would Gladly Bear This Suffering
The maiden's answer does not weigh the cost the prince has just named — it raises it, offering hell-fire and a body ground to dust before she names the dream that already told her this moment was coming.
「爾時，童女白太子言：『敬奉來教。』即說頌言：「『無量劫海中，
地獄火焚身；
若能眷納我，
甘心受此苦。
無量受生處，
碎身如微塵；
若能眷納我，
甘心受此苦。
無量劫頂戴，
廣大金剛山；
若能眷納我，
甘心受此苦。
無量生死海，
以我身肉施；
汝得法王處，
願令我亦然！
若能眷納我，
與我為主者，
生生行施處，
願常以我施！
為愍眾生苦，
而發菩提心；
既已攝眾生，
亦當攝受我。
我不求豪富，
不貪五欲樂，
但為共行法，
願以仁為主！
紺青修廣眼，
慈愍觀世間，
不起染著心，
必成菩薩道。
太子所行處，
地出眾寶華，
必作轉輪王，
願能眷納我！
我曾夢見此，
妙法菩提場，
如來樹下坐，
無量眾圍遶。
我夢彼如來，
身如真金山，
以手摩我頂，
寤已心歡喜。
往昔眷屬天，
名曰喜光明；
彼天為我說，
道場佛興世。
我曾生是念：
願見太子身。
彼天報我言：
汝今當得見。
我昔所志願，
於今悉成滿；
唯願俱往詣，
供養彼如來！』
At that time, the maiden said to the prince: "I respectfully receive your teaching." She then spoke a verse, saying: "Throughout an ocean of measureless kalpas,
though the fires of hell should burn my body —
if only you would take me in and care for me,
I would gladly bear even this suffering.
Throughout measureless places of rebirth,
though my body should be ground to dust as fine as a mote —
if only you would take me in and care for me,
I would gladly bear even this suffering.
Throughout measureless kalpas,
though I should bear upon my very crown a vast and mighty vajra mountain —
if only you would take me in and care for me,
I would gladly bear even this suffering.
Throughout the ocean of measureless birth-and-death,
I would give my own flesh and body in offering;
when you attain the place of the Dharma King,
I pray that you would cause me to attain it too!
If only you would take me in and care for me,
becoming my very lord —
then in birth after birth, wherever giving is practiced,
I pray that you would always give me too!
Because you pity the suffering of every being,
you have given rise to the mind of bodhi;
since you have already gathered in every being,
you ought to gather me in too.
I do not seek wealth or grandeur,
nor do I covet the pleasures of the five desires;
I wish only to practice the Dharma together with you —
I pray that you, in your benevolence, would become my lord!
With your deep indigo-blue eyes, elongated and broad,
you gaze upon the world with compassion and pity;
giving rise to no mind of attachment at all,
you shall surely accomplish the path of a bodhisattva.
Wherever the prince may walk,
the earth brings forth every kind of jeweled flower;
you shall surely become a wheel-turning king —
I pray that you would take me in and care for me!
I once, in a dream, beheld this very
wondrous Dharma awakening-site,
a tathāgata seated beneath a tree,
surrounded on every side by a measureless assembly.
In my dream, that tathāgata's body
was like a mountain of true gold;
he stretched out his hand and stroked the crown of my head,
and when I awoke, my heart was filled with joy.
Long ago, a deva of my household,
named Joyful Light,
told me of an awakening-site
where a buddha had appeared in the world.
I once gave rise to this very thought:
"I wish to see the prince's own body."
That deva replied to me, saying:
"You shall now get to see him."
Every aspiration and vow I made in the past
has now been entirely fulfilled;
I wish only that we might go there together,
to make offerings to that very tathāgata!"
生生行施處，願常以我施 — wherever giving is practiced, I pray that you would always give me too. The prince's own vow, only two stanzas earlier, promised to relinquish "every cherished thing, son or daughter." The maiden's answer does not ask to be spared from that vow — it asks to be counted inside it: life after life, wherever he practices giving, she asks to be one of the things he gives away.
Part 1217 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle seventy-five. Part 1218 turns to the buddha the maiden's dream foretold, as the prince learns his name and sets out with her to see him.