Vajra Banner Bodhisattva Speaks the Verse
With the ninth dedication's prose complete, Vajra Banner Bodhisattva rises, receives the Buddha's own spiritual power, beholds the ten directions, and speaks in verse — opening with reverence shown equally to every honored being, without a trace of arrogance or self-regard, before the hymn turns to the bodhisattva's own boundless comprehension of every world, every kind of body, and finally to the birth of the lion among humankind, who beholds sentient beings sunk in the ocean of desire and smiles, resolving to save them.
Reverence Without Arrogance
The verse opens where the dedication itself began: a bodhisattva who has never once given rise to a disrespectful thought toward any honored being, dedicating every merit not for himself or another but for the benefit of every sentient being, comprehending every kind of body and every worldly land down to what can be seen within a single pore.
「普於十方無等尊，未曾一起輕慢心，隨其所修功德業，亦復恭敬生尊重。
所修一切諸功德，不為自己及他人，恒以最上信解心，利益眾生故迴向。
未甞暫起高慢心，亦復不生下劣意，如來所有身等業，彼悉請問勤修習。
所修種種諸善根，悉為利益諸含識，安住深心廣大解，迴向人尊功德位。
世間所有無量別，種種善巧奇特事，麁細廣大及甚深，靡不修行皆了達。
世間所有種種身，以身平等入其中，於此修行得了悟，慧門成就無退轉。
世間國土無量種，微細廣大仰覆別，菩薩能以智慧門，一毛孔中無不見。
眾生心行無有量，能令平等入一心，以智慧門悉開悟，於所修行不退轉。
眾生諸根及欲樂，上中下品各不同，一切甚深難可知，隨其本性悉能了。
眾生所有種種業，上中下品各差別，菩薩深入如來力，以智慧門普明見。
"Universally toward the peerless honored ones throughout the ten directions, he has never once given rise to a disrespectful mind; according with whatever meritorious deeds they have cultivated, he too gives rise to reverence and respect. Every merit he cultivates is neither for himself nor for another; forever with a mind of supreme faith and understanding, he dedicates it for the benefit of sentient beings. He has never once given rise, even briefly, to a mind of arrogance, nor does he give rise to a feeling of inferiority; regarding every bodily and other karma the Tathāgata possesses, he diligently inquires after it and cultivates it. Every kind of wholesome root he cultivates is entirely for the benefit of every sentient being; abiding in a profound mind of vast understanding, he dedicates it toward the position of merit held by the honored one among humankind. Every immeasurable distinction the world possesses, every kind of skillful and extraordinary matter, whether coarse or subtle, vast or profound, there is none he does not practice and fully comprehend. Every kind of body the world possesses, he enters into with a body that is equal to it; cultivating this practice he attains full realization, and the gate of wisdom he accomplishes never regresses. Every immeasurable kind of worldly land, subtle or vast, upright or inverted, distinct from one another, the bodhisattva is able, through the gate of wisdom, to behold entirely within a single pore. The minds and conduct of sentient beings are without measure, yet he is able to bring them equally into a single mind; through the gate of wisdom he awakens them entirely, and in the practice he cultivates he never regresses. The faculties and desires of sentient beings, of superior, middling, and inferior grades, each different from the other, are altogether profound and difficult to know, yet according with their own original nature, he is entirely able to comprehend them. Every kind of karma sentient beings possess, of superior, middling, and inferior grades, each distinct from the other — the bodhisattva profoundly enters the Tathāgata's own power, and through the gate of wisdom universally and clearly beholds it.
The hymn opens with a single negative — "never once given rise to a disrespectful mind" — before its very next line insists just as firmly on the opposite extreme, arrogance. Reverence here is framed not as a feeling to cultivate but as a narrow path between two failures, disrespect on one side and self-regard on the other, that the bodhisattva walks without straying toward either.
The Lion Among Humankind Beholds the World
The hymn turns from the bodhisattva's own comprehension to the Buddha's own life — every buddha throughout the ten directions, birth in Tuṣita Heaven, the descent into the womb, and finally the newborn lion among humankind, surveying the world and beholding sentient beings sunk in the ocean of desire, covered by blindness and ignorance, before the smile that resolves to save them.
不可思議無量劫，能令平等入一念，如是見已遍十方，修行一切清淨業。
過去未來及現在，了知其相各不同，而亦不違平等理，是則大心明達行。
世間眾生行不同，或顯或隱無量種，菩薩悉知差別相，亦知其相皆無相。
十方世界一切佛，所現自在神通力，廣大難可得思議，菩薩悉能分別知。
一切世界兜率中，自然覺悟人師子，功德廣大淨無等，如其體相悉能見。
或現降神處母胎，無量自在大神變，成佛說法示滅度，普遍世間無暫已。
人中師子初生時，一切勝智悉承奉，諸天帝釋梵王等，靡不恭敬而瞻侍。
十方一切無有餘，無量無邊法界中，無始無末無遐邇，示現如來自在力。
人中尊導現生已，遊行諸方各七步，欲以妙法悟群生，是故如來普觀察。
見諸眾生沈欲海，盲暗愚癡之所覆，人中自在現微笑，念當救彼三有苦。
Inconceivable, immeasurable kalpas he is able to bring equally into a single thought; having beheld it in this way throughout the ten directions, he cultivates and practices every pure karma. The past, the future, and the present — he fully knows their marks as each different from the other, and yet does not contradict the principle of equality; this, then, is the practice of a great mind that has fully penetrated understanding. The conduct of worldly sentient beings differs, some manifest and some hidden, of immeasurable kinds; the bodhisattva entirely knows their distinguishing marks, and also knows that these very marks are all without any mark at all. Every buddha throughout the worlds of the ten directions, the sovereign spiritual power they manifest, vast and difficult to conceive — the bodhisattva is entirely able to discriminate and know. Throughout Tuṣita Heaven in every world, the lion among humankind who spontaneously awakens, his merit vast and pure beyond compare — the bodhisattva is entirely able to behold him exactly as his own essence and form truly are. Whether manifesting the descent of his spirit into the womb, immeasurable sovereign great spiritual transformations, becoming a buddha, expounding the Dharma, and manifesting final nirvāṇa — universally throughout the world, without ever pausing. When the lion among humankind is first born, every supreme wisdom entirely receives and upholds him; every deva, Śakra, Brahmā king, and the rest, there is none who does not reverently attend and wait upon him. Throughout the ten directions, entirely, without exception, within the immeasurable, boundless dharma-realm, without beginning, without end, without far or near, the Tathāgata's own sovereign power is manifested. The honored guide among humankind, having manifested his birth, walks in every direction, seven steps each way; wishing to awaken every living being with the wondrous Dharma, the Tathāgata therefore universally surveys them. Beholding every sentient being sunk in the ocean of desire, covered over by blindness, darkness, and ignorance, the sovereign one among humankind manifests a faint smile, reflecting that he will rescue them from the suffering of the three states of existence.
The verse moves without transition from a newborn's seven steps to a smile that already carries the resolve to save every being from suffering — birth and the vow to liberate the world are presented as a single, continuous gesture, not two separate moments in a life story. The smile is not sentiment; the text calls it a reflection, already the beginning of the rescue it describes.
Part 371 Complete
This continues the ninth dedication's verse recapitulation. Chapter 25 continues in Part 372 as the hymn turns to the great lion's roar — proclaiming the lamp of wisdom that dispels the darkness of birth and death — and to the trembling of Māra's palaces and the great earthquake at the moment the Buddha first sits at the seat of enlightenment.