The Heavenly Drum That Warns Against Heedlessness
The chain of analogies continues through the heavens themselves: Śakra's thousand-eyed, flame-wreathed form that routs the asuras, a formless drum in the Trāyastriṃśa Heaven that spontaneously warns the gods against heedlessness with a teaching on impermanence, Śakra's own attentiveness to ninety-two nayutas of celestial maidens at once, and further lords of the desire and form realms — each still marked by affliction, each still asking how much more a bodhisattva could do.
Śakra's Wrathful Form, and the Drum That Speaks
Śakra manifests a thousand-eyed, vajra-wielding form terrible enough to rout the asuras by sight alone; and in the Trāyastriṃśa Heaven, a drum born from the gods' own karma speaks without any voice or visible form, warning them against the very heedlessness that leads to ruin — its teaching a full meditation on impermanence in the gods' own moment of forgetting it.
「諸阿脩羅發是念：『釋提桓因來向我，
必取我身五種縛。』由是彼眾悉憂悴。
帝釋現身有千眼，手持金剛出火焰，
被甲持杖極威嚴，脩羅望見咸退伏。
彼以微小福德力，猶能摧破大怨敵，
何況救度一切者，具足功德不自在！
忉利天中有天鼓，從天業報而生得，
知諸天眾放逸時，空中自然出此音。
一切五欲悉無常，如水聚沫性虛偽，
諸有如夢如陽焰，亦如浮雲水中月。
放逸為怨為苦惱，非甘露道生死徑，
若有作諸放逸行，入於死滅大魚口。
世間所有眾苦本，一切聖人皆厭患，
五欲功德滅壞性，汝應愛樂真實法。
三十三天聞此音，悉共來昇善法堂，
帝釋為說微妙法，咸令順寂除貪愛。
彼音無形不可見，猶能利益諸天眾，
況隨心樂現色身，而不濟度諸群生！
"Every asura gives rise to this very thought: 'Śakra, Lord of the Gods, is coming toward me; he is certain to bind my own body with the five kinds of bonds.' Because of this, that very multitude is entirely filled with sorrow and distress.
Śakra then manifests a body with a thousand eyes, his hand holding a vajra from which flames issue forth, clad in armor and bearing his own staff, of the utmost awesome majesty; the asuras, beholding him, all retreat and submit.
He, by a power of blessed merit that is but slight, is nonetheless able to crush and destroy his great enemies — how much more so, then, one who saves and delivers every being, fully endowed with merit, unable to be sovereign and unhindered!
Within the Trāyastriṃśa Heaven there is a heavenly drum, brought into being through the very karmic recompense of the gods; whenever it knows that the multitude of gods have become heedless, it spontaneously gives forth this very sound, there in the sky: 'Every one of the five desires is entirely impermanent, like foam gathered upon water, its nature false and unreal; every state of existence is like a dream, like a shimmering mirage, and likewise like a drifting cloud or the moon reflected in water. Heedlessness is itself an enemy, itself an affliction; it is not the path of ambrosia, but the road of birth-and-death; if there are those who engage in every kind of heedless deed, they enter into the mouth of the great fish of death and destruction. It is the very root of every suffering there is throughout the world, and every sage detests and is wearied by it; the merit of the five desires has, by its very nature, the nature of destruction — you ought to love and delight in the true and real Dharma instead.'
The gods of the Thirty-Three Heavens, hearing this sound, all together come and ascend to the Hall of the True Dharma, where Śakra proclaims the subtle and wondrous Dharma for them, causing every one of them to accord with tranquility and remove their own greed and craving.
That sound, formless and invisible, is nonetheless able to benefit the multitude of gods — how much more so, then, one who, according to each mind's own delight, manifests a form-body, unable to ferry across the multitude of beings!"
Lords of the Desire and Form Realms
The same drum reassures the gods in battle and terrifies the asuras into flight; Śakra attends to ninety-two nayutas of celestial maidens as though present to each one alone; the sixth heaven's own lord holds sway over the entire desire realm through karma and affliction; and the great Brahmā king manifests his own body within every single Brahmā heaven at once.
「天阿脩羅共鬪時，諸天福德殊勝力，
天鼓出音告其眾：『汝等宜應勿憂怖！』
諸天聞此所告音，悉除憂畏增益力。
時阿脩羅心震懼，所將兵眾咸退走。
甘露妙定如天鼓，恒出降魔寂靜音，
大悲哀愍救一切，普使眾生滅煩惱。
帝釋普應諸天女，九十有二那由他，
令彼各各心自謂：『天王獨與我娛樂。』
如天女中身普應，善法堂內亦如是，
能於一念現神通，悉至其前為說法。
帝釋具有貪恚癡，能令眷屬悉歡喜，
況大方便神通力，而不能令一切悅！
他化自在六天王，於欲界中得自在，
以業惑苦為罥網，繫縛一切諸凡夫。
彼有貪欲瞋恚癡，猶於眾生得自在，
況具十種自在力，而不能令眾同行！
三千世界大梵王，一切梵天所住處，
悉能現身於彼坐，演暢微妙梵音聲。
彼住世間梵道中，禪定神通尚如意，
況出世間無有上，於禪解脫不自在！
摩醯首羅智自在，大海龍王降雨時，
悉能分別數其滴，於一念中皆辨了。」
"When the gods and the asuras battle together, by the gods' own supremely excellent power of blessed merit, the heavenly drum gives forth a sound proclaiming to their own multitude: 'You should not, all of you, feel any sorrow or fear!' The gods, hearing this proclaimed sound, entirely remove their own sorrow and fear, and their strength is increased; at that time, the asuras' own minds tremble with fear, and the troops they lead all retreat and flee. The wondrous samādhi of ambrosia is just like this heavenly drum, forever giving forth a tranquil sound that subdues the māras, with great compassion and sorrowful love saving every being, universally causing living beings to extinguish their own afflictions.
Śakra universally responds to every one of his celestial maidens, ninety-two nayutas in number, causing each and every one of them to think in her own mind: 'The heavenly king sports and delights with me alone.' Just as he universally responds within the bodies of his celestial maidens, so too is it within the Hall of the True Dharma; within a single thought he is able to manifest spiritual power, arriving entirely before each one to teach the Dharma. Śakra is fully endowed with greed, hatred, and delusion, and yet is able to cause his own retinue to be entirely delighted — how much more so, then, the power of great skillful means and spiritual ability, unable to bring delight to everyone!
The king of the sixth heaven, Paranirmita-vaśavartin, attains sovereignty within the realm of desire, using karma, affliction, and suffering as a net, binding fast every single ordinary being. He has greed, hatred, and delusion, and yet is still able to attain sovereignty over living beings — how much more so, then, one endowed with the ten kinds of sovereign power, unable to cause the multitude to follow the very same path!
The great Brahmā king of the three-thousandfold world, within every single dwelling-place of every Brahmā heaven, is entirely able to manifest his own body, seated there, expounding the subtle and wondrous voice of Brahmā. He, abiding within the worldly path of Brahmā, still has meditative concentration and spiritual power entirely according to his own wish — how much more so, then, the unsurpassed one who has gone beyond the world, unable to be sovereign and unhindered within meditation and liberation!
Maheśvara's own wisdom is sovereign and unhindered; when the great sea's own dragon king sends down rain, he is entirely able to distinguish and count every single drop, discerning and understanding them all entirely within a single thought."
The heavenly drum is the most striking figure in this stretch of the hymn precisely because it has no body, no intention, and no listener it addresses individually — it is simply the automatic ripening of the gods' own past karma, sounding whenever their own heedlessness reaches a certain point, offering them the very teaching on impermanence they most need and least want to hear in that moment. Its message — that the five desires are like foam, like a dream, like the moon in water — is the sūtra's own core teaching on impermanence delivered by the least personal possible messenger, which is perhaps the point: the truth of impermanence does not require a teacher who cares about you to still be entirely true and, spoken at the right moment, entirely capable of turning a heart around.
Part 63 Complete
This closes Part 63. Foremost in Virtue's hymn continues in Part 64, carrying fascicle fifteen further toward its own conclusion.