Worlds Within a Single Mote of Dust
Having reached the buddhas' own consecration, the hymn now shifts register — from the linked chain of causation to a flowing series of images describing what the consecrated bodhisattva does. He appears wherever a buddha or the Dharma is unknown, takes on whatever form each being can receive, and, through the ocean-seal and flower-adornment samādhis, manifests inconceivable lands whole within a single, unenlarged mote of dust.
Manifesting Without Limit, Wherever Needed
The bodhisattva now newly consecrated does not remain apart from the world; he appears within it, in whatever form and wherever will serve — a buddha where none has yet appeared, a teacher where the Dharma is still unknown, and, through the ocean-seal samādhi, every possible form a living being might take delight in seeing.
「菩薩勤修大悲行，願度一切無不果，
見聞聽受若供養，靡不皆令獲安樂。
彼諸大士威神力，法眼常全無缺減，
十善妙行等諸道，無上勝寶皆令現。
譬如大海金剛聚，以彼威力生眾寶，
無減無增亦無盡，菩薩功德聚亦然。
或有剎土無有佛，於彼示現成正覺，
或有國土不知法，於彼為說妙法藏。
無有分別無功用，於一念頃遍十方，
如月光影靡不周，無量方便化群生。
於彼十方世界中，念念示現成佛道，
轉正法輪入寂滅，乃至舍利廣分布。
或現聲聞獨覺道，或現成佛普莊嚴，
如是開闡三乘教，廣度眾生無量劫。
或現童男童女形，天龍及以阿脩羅，
乃至摩睺羅伽等，隨其所樂悉令見。
眾生形相各不同，行業音聲亦無量，
如是一切皆能現，海印三昧威神力。
嚴淨不可思議剎，供養一切諸如來，
放大光明無有邊，度脫眾生亦無限。
"The bodhisattva diligently cultivates the practice of great compassion, vowing to ferry across every being without a single vow left unfulfilled; whoever sees, hears, listens to, receives, or makes offering to him, there is none at all whom he does not cause to obtain peace and happiness.
That great being's own awesome spiritual power, his Dharma-eye forever whole and without any deficiency — the wondrous practice of the ten wholesome deeds and every such path, and every unsurpassed and supreme treasure, he causes all of them to be manifested.
Just as the great ocean's own mass of diamond, by its own awesome power, gives rise to a multitude of treasures, without decreasing, without increasing, and never exhausted — so too is the bodhisattva's own mass of merit.
In some lands where there is no buddha at all, he manifests there and accomplishes true and complete awakening; in some lands that do not know the Dharma, he there proclaims the wondrous treasury of the Dharma.
Without any discrimination at all and without any exertion at all, within the space of a single thought he pervades the ten directions; like the moon's own light and reflection, leaving nothing at all uncovered, he transforms the multitude of beings through immeasurable skillful means.
Throughout every world of the ten directions, moment by moment he manifests the accomplishment of the buddha-path, turning the wheel of the true Dharma and entering into tranquil cessation, even down to the vast distribution of his own relics.
Sometimes he manifests the path of the śrāvaka, sometimes the path of the solitary awakened one, sometimes he manifests the accomplishment of buddhahood with universal adornment; thus opening and expounding the teaching of the three vehicles, he vastly ferries living beings across throughout immeasurable kalpas.
Sometimes he manifests the form of a young boy or a young girl, of a deva, a nāga, or an asura, even down to a mahoraga and the rest — according to whatever each being takes delight in, he causes every one of them to see him thus.
Living beings' own forms and appearances each differ from one another, and their conduct, karma, and voices are likewise immeasurable; all of this, without exception, he is able to manifest — such is the awesome spiritual power of the ocean-seal samādhi.
He adorns and purifies inconceivable lands, makes offering to every single Tathāgata, radiates a great light without any boundary at all, and ferries living beings across to liberation likewise without any limit."
The Flower-Adornment Samādhi: A World Within a Mote of Dust
The hymn now reaches one of the sūtra's own signature images. Through the flower-adornment samādhi — the very samādhi that gives the sūtra its name — the bodhisattva enters concentration within a single fine mote of dust, and within that unenlarged mote, inconceivable lands appear whole: some with a buddha, some without; some forming, some decaying; and this is not true of one mote alone, but of every mote of dust there is.
「智慧自在不思議，說法言辭無有礙，
施戒忍進及禪定，智慧方便神通等。
如是一切皆自在，以佛華嚴三昧力，
一微塵中入三昧，成就一切微塵定，
而彼微塵亦不增，於一普現難思剎。
彼一塵內眾多剎，或有有佛或無佛，
或有雜染或清淨，或有廣大或狹小，
或復有成或有壞，或有正住或傍住，
或如曠野熱時焰，或如天上因陀網。
如一塵中所示現，一切微塵悉亦然。」
"His wisdom, sovereign and unhindered, is inconceivable; the words with which he teaches the Dharma are free of every obstruction; giving, precepts, forbearance, diligence, meditative concentration, wisdom, skillful means, spiritual powers, and the rest — in all of these, without exception, he is sovereign and unhindered, by the power of the Buddha's own flower-adornment samādhi; within a single fine mote of dust he enters into samādhi, accomplishing a state of concentration within every single mote of dust, and yet that very mote of dust does not increase in size at all, while within that single mote, inconceivable lands are universally manifested.
Within that single mote of dust, there are many, many lands — some with a buddha present, some without; some defiled, some pure; some vast and expansive, some narrow and small; some in the process of forming, some in the process of decaying; some standing upright, some standing at an angle; some like the shimmering heat-haze of a vast wilderness, some like Indra's own net stretched across the heavens. Just as it is manifested within that single mote of dust, so too is it, without exception, within every single mote of dust there is."
"Flower-adornment" (華嚴) is the very name of the sūtra itself, and this samādhi's appearance here is no coincidence: it names the principle the whole text has been demonstrating since fascicle one, from the world-seed oceans to the light's expansion across every world without limit — that scale is not a barrier to presence. A mote of dust need not grow larger to hold a land; a land need not shrink to fit inside it. Fazang's own philosophy of "mutual non-obstruction between things" (事事無礙) takes this very passage as one of its scriptural anchors: the mote and the land it contains are not one thing pretending to be another, nor is the containment a trick of scale — both remain exactly what they are, entirely present within and to each other. The image of Indra's net, each jewel reflecting every other jewel without limit, appears here for the first time on this site, though it will recur throughout Huayan literature as the classical figure for this same relationship.
Part 51 Complete
This closes Part 51. Foremost in Virtue's hymn continues in Part 52 with another of the sūtra's characteristic images — offerings without end pouring from the bodhisattva's own open hand, flowers, incense, music, and praise, given to every buddha throughout the ten directions.