Purifying Every Sense, the Sequence of Lights Concludes
The sequence of lights — begun in Part 55 with the samādhi of Peace and Happiness — reaches its own close. After several lights of adornment and material relief, it turns systematically through the six sense faculties and their six objects, purifying eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind in turn, before a final summary declares these lights without number, radiating from every single one of the bodhisattva's own pores.
Adornment and Relief
Six more lights, now given in a more compact form: adorning the ground and the stūpa itself, clothing the naked, feeding the hungry, and granting wealth to the destitute.
「又放光名雜莊嚴，寶幢幡蓋無央數，
焚香散華奏眾樂，城邑內外皆充滿。
本以微妙妓樂音，眾香妙華幢蓋等，
種種莊嚴供養佛，是故得成此光明。
又放光明名嚴潔，令地平坦猶如掌，
莊嚴佛塔及其處，是故得成此光明。
又放光明名大雲，能起香雲雨香水，
以水灑塔及庭院，是故得成此光明。
又放光明名嚴具，令裸形者得上服，
嚴身妙物而為施，是故得成此光明。
又放光明名上味，能令飢者獲美食，
種種珍饌而為施，是故得成此光明。
又放光明名大財，令貧乏者獲寶藏，
以無盡物施三寶，是故得成此光明。」
"He further radiates a light named 'Manifold Adornment'; jeweled banners, pennants, and canopies beyond number, burning incense, scattering flowers, and playing every kind of music, filling both within and outside every city and town.
It was originally through subtle and wondrous musical sounds, fragrant and wondrous flowers, banners and canopies and the rest, every kind of adornment offered to the Buddha — and it is for this reason that this light comes to be attained.
He further radiates a light named 'Adorned Purity,' making the ground level and smooth just like the palm of a hand, adorning the Buddha's stūpa and its own surroundings — and it is for this reason that this light comes to be attained.
He further radiates a light named 'Great Cloud,' able to raise up fragrant clouds and rain down fragrant water, sprinkling that water upon the stūpa and its own courtyard — and it is for this reason that this light comes to be attained.
He further radiates a light named 'Adorning Implements,' causing those who are naked to obtain fine clothing, giving them wondrous things to adorn their own bodies — and it is for this reason that this light comes to be attained.
He further radiates a light named 'Finest Flavor,' able to cause the hungry to obtain fine food, giving them every kind of precious delicacy — and it is for this reason that this light comes to be attained.
He further radiates a light named 'Great Wealth,' causing those who are poor and in want to obtain a treasury of jewels, giving inexhaustible things to the Three Jewels — and it is for this reason that this light comes to be attained."
The Twelve Gates: Every Faculty, Every Object, Made Pure
The sequence now turns systematic, moving in order through the six sense faculties — eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind — and then the six objects they perceive — form, sound, fragrance, taste, touch, and dharma itself — a light of purity named for each of the twelve.
「又放光名眼清淨，能令盲者見眾色，
以燈施佛及佛塔，是故得成此光明。
又放光名耳清淨，能令聾者悉善聽，
鼓樂娛佛及佛塔，是故得成此光明。
又放光名鼻清淨，昔未聞香皆得聞，
以香施佛及佛塔，是故得成此光明。
又放光名舌清淨，能以美音稱讚佛，
永除麁惡不善語，是故得成此光明。
又放光名身清淨，諸根缺者令具足，
以身禮佛及佛塔，是故得成此光明。
又放光名意清淨，令失心者得正念，
修行三昧悉自在，是故得成此光明。
又放光名色清淨，令見難思諸佛色，
以眾妙色莊嚴塔，是故得成此光明。
又放光名聲清淨，令知聲性本空寂，
觀聲緣起如谷響，是故得成此光明。
又放光名香清淨，令諸臭穢悉香潔，
香水洗塔菩提樹，是故得成此光明。
又放光名味清淨，能除一切味中毒，
恒供佛僧及父母，是故得成此光明。
又放光名觸清淨，能令惡觸皆柔軟，
戈鋋劍戟從空雨，皆令變作妙華鬘。
以昔曾於道路中，塗香散華布衣服，
迎送如來令蹈上，是故今獲光如是。
又放光名法清淨，能令一切諸毛孔，
悉演妙法不思議，眾生聽者咸欣悟。
因緣所生無有生，諸佛法身非是身，
法性常住如虛空，以說其義光如是。」
"He further radiates a light named 'Eye Purity,' able to cause the blind to see every form, giving lamps to the Buddha and to stūpas — and it is for this reason that this light comes to be attained.
He further radiates a light named 'Ear Purity,' able to cause the deaf to hear entirely and well, delighting the Buddha and stūpas with drums and music — and it is for this reason that this light comes to be attained.
He further radiates a light named 'Nose Purity,' causing fragrances never before smelled to all be smelled, giving incense to the Buddha and to stūpas — and it is for this reason that this light comes to be attained.
He further radiates a light named 'Tongue Purity,' able, with a beautiful voice, to extol and praise the Buddha, forever removing every coarse, evil, and unwholesome word — and it is for this reason that this light comes to be attained.
He further radiates a light named 'Body Purity,' causing those whose faculties are deficient to become entirely complete, bowing with the body before the Buddha and stūpas — and it is for this reason that this light comes to be attained.
He further radiates a light named 'Mind Purity,' causing those who have lost their own mind to attain right mindfulness, cultivating and practicing samādhi entirely sovereign and unhindered — and it is for this reason that this light comes to be attained.
He further radiates a light named 'Form Purity,' causing beings to see the inconceivable forms of every buddha, adorning stūpas with every wondrous color — and it is for this reason that this light comes to be attained.
He further radiates a light named 'Sound Purity,' causing beings to know that the nature of sound is originally empty and tranquil, contemplating sound's own dependent arising as like an echo in a valley — and it is for this reason that this light comes to be attained.
He further radiates a light named 'Fragrance Purity,' causing every foul and unclean thing to become entirely fragrant and pure, washing the stūpa and the bodhi tree with fragrant water — and it is for this reason that this light comes to be attained.
He further radiates a light named 'Taste Purity,' able to remove every poison found within any flavor, forever making offering to the Buddha, the Sangha, and one's own parents — and it is for this reason that this light comes to be attained.
He further radiates a light named 'Touch Purity,' able to cause every harsh touch to become entirely soft and gentle; spears, halberds, swords, and blades raining down from the sky are all caused to transform into wondrous flower garlands. It is because, once, along the road he traveled, he anointed it with fragrance, scattered flowers upon it, and spread out garments there, welcoming and seeing off the Tathāgata and causing him to walk upon them — that he now obtains a light such as this.
He further radiates a light named 'Dharma Purity,' able to cause every single one of his own pores to expound the wondrous, inconceivable Dharma, so that every living being who hears it is entirely delighted and awakened. What arises from causes and conditions has, in truth, no arising at all; every buddha's own Dharma-body is not, in truth, any body at all; the nature of dharmas forever abides, just like empty space itself — it is by expounding this very meaning that such a light as this is obtained."
The Sequence Closes: Lights as Numerous as the Ganges' Sands
「如是等比光明門，如恒河沙無限數，
悉從大仙毛孔出，一一作業各差別。
如一毛孔所放光，無量無數如恒沙，
一切毛孔悉亦然，此是大仙三昧力。」
"Gates of light such as these and their like are as numerous and boundless as the sands of the Ganges, all of them emerging from the great sage's own pores, each and every one performing its own distinct work.
Just as from a single pore the light that is radiated is immeasurable and countless, like the sands of the Ganges, so too is it with every single pore there is — such is the great sage's own power of samādhi."
This closes the sequence of lights that opened Part 55 — dozens of them across four Parts, each a self-contained loop from practice to power to purpose. Its final movement through the twelve gates (six faculties, six objects) gives the whole sequence a quiet architecture in retrospect: what began as a series of separate virtues — faith, giving, forbearance, wisdom — ends by showing that the very organs of ordinary perception are themselves included in what practice transforms. And the closing couplets reframe everything that came before: these were never really "different" lights radiating from different places, but a single power of samādhi, appearing as though multiplied without limit, the same way one pore's radiance and the whole body's radiance turn out, on examination, to be exactly the same light.
Part 58 Complete
This closes Part 58 and the hymn's long sequence of lights. Foremost in Virtue's hymn continues in Part 59, first reflecting on who is able to perceive these lights at all — comparing it to a person born blind, who cannot see the sun though it still rises — before opening into a new vision of a lotus-flower samādhi filling the whole of the universe.