The Great Lion's Roar
The hymn moves from the lion king's own great roar — proclaiming a lamp of wisdom that extinguishes the darkness of birth, death, and ignorance — to the seat of enlightenment itself, where the whole earth trembles, Māra's palaces shake, and every army of Māra rises to battle in vain against a gate of wisdom nothing can obstruct. It closes with the Buddha's own jeweled throne, adorned beyond thought, surrounded by every buddha's own children throughout the whole dharma-realm.
The Earth Trembles at the Seat of Enlightenment
The lion's roar names its own purpose directly — a lamp of wisdom kindled to extinguish the darkness of birth, death, and ignorance — before the hymn moves to the moment the Tathāgata first sits at the seat of enlightenment: the whole earth trembling, every land entering a single pore without exception, and even what no Tathāgata has ever spoken already fully comprehended.
大師子吼出妙音，我為世間第一尊，應然明淨智慧燈，滅彼生死愚癡闇。
人師子王出世時，普放無量大光明，令諸惡道皆休息，永滅世間眾苦難。
或時示現處王宮，或現捨家修學道，為欲饒益眾生故，示其如是自在力。
如來始坐道場時，一切大地皆動搖，十方世界悉蒙光，六趣眾生咸離苦。
震動一切魔宮殿，開悟十方眾生心，昔曾受化及修行，皆使了知真實義。
十方所有諸國土，悉入毛孔無有餘，一切毛孔剎無邊，於彼普現神通力。
一切諸佛所開演，無量方便皆隨悟，設諸如來所不說，亦能解了勤修習。
遍滿三千大千界，一切魔軍興鬪諍，所作無量種種惡，無礙智門能悉滅。
如來或在諸佛剎，或復現處諸天宮，或在梵宮而現身，菩薩悉見無障礙。
佛現無量種種身，轉於清淨妙法輪，乃至三世一切劫，求其邊際不可得。
The great lion's roar brings forth a wondrous sound: I am the foremost honored one throughout the world; I shall kindle the bright, pure lamp of wisdom, extinguishing the darkness of birth, death, and ignorance. When the lion king among humankind appears in the world, he universally emits immeasurable great light, causing every evil destiny to come to rest, forever extinguishing every suffering and hardship in the world. At times he manifests dwelling within a royal palace, at times he manifests leaving the household to cultivate the path; wishing to enrich and benefit sentient beings, he manifests his sovereign power in this way. When the Tathāgata first sits at the seat of enlightenment, the whole great earth trembles entirely; every world throughout the ten directions is entirely covered in light, and sentient beings of the six destinies all leave suffering behind. It shakes every one of Māra's palaces, awakening the minds of sentient beings throughout the ten directions; those who have long received his transformative teaching and cultivated practice are all caused to fully know the true meaning. Every land throughout the ten directions enters entirely into a single pore, without exception; every land within every pore is boundless, and there his spiritual power is universally manifested. Whatever every buddha expounds and reveals, he awakens to every immeasurable skillful means accordingly; even what no Tathāgata has spoken, he is also able to comprehend and diligently cultivate. Throughout the whole trichiliocosm, every army of Māra rises up to wage battle; whatever immeasurable, various evils they commit, the unobstructed gate of wisdom is entirely able to extinguish. The Tathāgata dwells at times within every buddha-land, and manifests at times within every heavenly palace; at times he manifests his body within a Brahmā palace, and the bodhisattva beholds it all, entirely without obstruction. The Buddha manifests immeasurable, various bodies, turning the pure and wondrous wheel of the Dharma; even throughout every kalpa of the three times, one who seeks its very limit cannot find it.
"Even what no Tathāgata has spoken, he is also able to comprehend" is a striking claim to make about a bodhisattva still on the path — comprehension here extends past every teaching actually given, into the unspoken as well. The verse treats silence itself as containing content available to sufficiently developed wisdom, not merely an absence of teaching.
The Jeweled Throne, and What Abiding in This Dedication Brings
The hymn turns to the Buddha's own jeweled throne — vast, unequaled, adorned beyond thought, surrounded by every buddha's own children throughout the whole dharma-realm — before circling back to the bodhisattva reciting this very verse, whose mind, cultivating this practice, is in the end never weary or indolent, and who knows every subtle practice of every buddha without exception.
寶座高廣最無等，遍滿十方無量界，種種妙相而莊嚴，佛處其上難思議。
諸佛子眾共圍遶，盡於法界悉周遍，開示菩提無量行，一切最勝所由道。
諸佛隨宜所作業，無量無邊等法界，智者能以一方便，一切了知無不盡。
諸佛自在神通力，示現一切種種身，或現諸趣無量生，或現采女眾圍遶。
或於無量諸世界，示現出家成佛道，乃至最後般涅槃，分布其身起塔廟。
如是種種無邊行，導師演說佛所住，世尊所有大功德，誓願修行悉令盡。
以彼善根迴向時，住於如是方便法，如是修習菩提行，其心畢竟無厭怠。
如來所有大神通，及以無邊勝功德，乃至世間諸智行，一切悉知無不盡。
如是一切人中主，隨其所有諸境界，於一念中皆了悟，而亦不捨菩提行。
諸佛所有微細行，及一切剎種種法，於彼悉能隨順知，究竟迴向到彼岸。
The jeweled throne, lofty and vast, is utterly without equal, pervading and filling the immeasurable worlds of the ten directions; adorned with every kind of wondrous mark, the Buddha dwells upon it, inconceivable. The whole assembly of every buddha's children surrounds him together, entirely pervading the whole dharma-realm; he opens up and reveals the immeasurable practices of enlightenment, the very path from which every supreme attainment comes. Whatever karma every buddha performs according to what is fitting is immeasurable and boundless, equal to the whole dharma-realm; the wise are able, through a single skillful means, to fully know it all, without exception. Every buddha's own sovereign spiritual power manifests every kind of body; at times manifesting immeasurable births throughout every destiny, at times manifesting surrounded by a multitude of palace maidens. At times, throughout immeasurable worlds, he manifests leaving the household and accomplishing the path of buddhahood, even to his final parinirvāṇa, distributing his own relics to raise stūpas and shrines. Every kind of boundless practice such as this, the guide expounds where the Buddha abides; every great merit the World-Honored One possesses, he vows to cultivate entirely, leaving nothing incomplete. When he dedicates those wholesome roots, he abides within skillful means such as these; cultivating the practice of enlightenment in this way, his mind is, in the end, never weary or indolent. Every great spiritual power the Tathāgata possesses, together with his boundless, supreme merit, even every worldly wisdom and practice — he fully knows it all, without exception. Every sovereign lord among humankind such as this, according with whatever domain he possesses, fully comprehends it within a single thought, and yet never abandons the practice of enlightenment. Every subtle practice every buddha possesses, together with every kind of dharma throughout every land, he is entirely able to know them all in accordance, dedicating them ultimately to reach the farther shore.
The verse moves without pause from a buddha's parinirvāṇa and the stūpas raised over his relics to the bodhisattva's own mind, "in the end never weary or indolent" — the great biography just recounted turns out to be describing the very practice the bodhisattva reciting this hymn is himself engaged in, not a distant, separate story.
Part 372 Complete
This continues the ninth dedication's verse recapitulation. Chapter 25 continues in Part 373 with the hymn's final ten quatrains, closing both the ninth dedication and fascicle thirty-one of the Avataṃsaka Sūtra — turning to a bodhisattva's comprehension of every mind, every world, and every kalpa within a single thought, before the concluding lines on what dedicating with this understanding accomplishes.