Every Buddha Within a Single Hair's Tip
The hymn moves through the buddha's own consecration and a mind vast as the ocean, guarding the treasury of the Dharma like Sumeru, understanding every language and script without discrimination, and beholding immeasurable buddhas within a single hair's tip throughout the entire Dharma-realm — before closing on the resolute one who observes every living being and yet never sees a single one.
The Treasury of the Dharma, and Buddhas Within a Hair's Tip
The hymn's imagery grows ever more vast and ever more minute at once — a mind like Sumeru guarding the treasury of the Dharma, and then immeasurable buddhas beheld with entire clarity within a single hair's tip, the same throughout the whole Dharma-realm. It closes this stretch on the sūtra's own signature teaching of emptiness: observing the entire realm of living beings throughout endless kalpas, and never once seeing there to be a single living being.
諸佛灌頂第一法，已得此法灌其頂，
心恒安住正法門，彼廣大心行此道。
一切眾生無量別，了達其心悉周遍，
決定護持佛法藏，彼如須彌行此道。
能於一一語言中，普為示現無量音，
令彼眾生隨類解，此無礙見行斯道。
一切文字語言法，智皆善入不分別，
住於真實境界中，此見性者所行道。
The foremost Dharma of every buddha's own consecration — having already attained this Dharma, their crown is consecrated by it, their mind forever abiding securely in the true Dharma-gate — that one of vast and expansive mind practices this path. Every living being differs immeasurably, and yet their minds are understood entirely and completely, resolutely upholding and guarding the treasury of the buddha's own Dharma — that one like Sumeru practices this path.
Able, within each and every language, to universally manifest immeasurable sounds, causing living beings, each according to their own kind, to understand — this one of unobstructed vision practices this path. Every script and language and its own Dharma, their wisdom skillfully enters all of it without any discrimination, abiding within the true and real domain itself — this is the path such a one who sees the true nature practices.
安住甚深大法海，善能印定一切法，
了法無相真實門，此見實者所行道。
一一佛土皆往詣，盡於無量無邊劫，
觀察思惟靡暫停，此匪懈者所行道。
無量無數諸如來，種種名號各不同，
於一毛端悉明見，此淨福者所行道。
一毛端處見諸佛，其數無量不可說，
一切法界悉亦然，彼諸佛子行斯道。
Abiding securely in the profound great ocean of the Dharma, skillfully able to seal and settle every dharma, understanding the Dharma's own signless and true gateway — this is the path such a one who sees reality practices. Going in person to every single buddha-land, throughout immeasurable and boundless kalpas, observing and reflecting without a moment's pause — this is the path such an untiring one practices.
Every Tathāgata, immeasurable and countless, each bearing their own distinct name, beheld with entire clarity within a single hair's tip — this is the path such a one of pure merit practices. Within the place of a single hair's tip, beholding every buddha, their number immeasurable and beyond all telling, and it is exactly the same throughout the entire Dharma-realm — every son of the buddha practices this path.
無量無邊無數劫，於一念中悉明見，
知其修促無定相，此解脫行所行道。
能令見者無空過，皆於佛法種因緣，
而於所作心無著，彼諸最勝所行道。
那由他劫常遇佛，終不一念生疲厭，
其心歡喜轉更增，此不空見所行道。
盡於無量無邊劫，觀察一切眾生界，
未曾見有一眾生，此堅固士所行道。
Immeasurable, boundless, and countless kalpas, all beheld with entire clarity within a single thought, knowing that their length, whether long or short, has no fixed characteristic at all — this is the path such liberated practice follows. Able to cause everyone who beholds them to pass by nothing in vain, every one of them planting the causes and conditions of the buddha's own Dharma, and yet, toward whatever they have done, their mind clings to none of it — this is the path such supreme ones practice.
Throughout nayutas of kalpas forever encountering buddhas, never once, in a single thought, giving rise to weariness, their mind's own joy only increasing all the more — this is the path such a one of unfailing vision practices. Throughout immeasurable and boundless kalpas, observing the entire realm of living beings, never once seeing there to be a single living being — this is the path such a resolute one practices.
The final couplet here restates, in the space of fourteen characters, the sūtra's deepest teaching on emptiness: a bodhisattva observes the entire realm of living beings throughout boundless kalpas, and yet never once perceives there to be a single living being — not because beings are unreal or unworthy of compassion, but because the very notion of a fixed, separate self dissolves under close observation. The "resolute one" of the refrain is resolute precisely because this insight does not weaken the vow to save them; if anything, as the previous stanza said, it makes the joy of encountering buddhas "increase all the more."
Part 157 Complete
This closes Part 157. Merit Grove's closing hymn continues in Part 158.