Part 80 of the collection · Fascicle 16 of 80 · 十住品第十五(續) · T279

The Great Hymn Begins, Every Reason for the Resolve

Dharma Wisdom Bodhisattva now opens a vast hymn of two hundred lines, surveying the ten directions and the whole of the Dharma-realm, restating everything already taught in prose. Its first and longest movement returns to the very first abode, the Initial Resolve — but where the prose gave ten reasons the awakening-mind is born, the verse offers dozens, each couplet closing on the same refrain: "the bodhisattva, by this, gives rise to his initial resolve."

Translator: Ru-Yi Meditation Center Status: Part 80 — the great hymn begins, first movement (1 of 4) Source: Taishō T279 (Śikṣānanda, Tang, 695–699 CE)

Every Reason the Resolve Is Born

Beholding the Buddha's own form, hearing of his spiritual power, understanding cause and effect, grasping every living being's own suffering and delusion, wishing to hold whole world-systems in the palm of a hand or upon the tip of a single hair — each of these, in turn, is named as a reason the awakening-mind is first born.

Chinese Source

「見最勝智微妙身,相好端嚴皆具足,
如是尊重甚難遇,菩薩勇猛初發心。
見無等比大神通,聞說記心及教誡,
諸趣眾生無量苦,菩薩以此初發心。

聞諸如來普勝尊,一切功德皆成就,
譬如虛空不分別,菩薩以此初發心。
三世因果名為處,我等自性為非處,
欲悉了知真實義,菩薩以此初發心。

過去未來現在世,所有一切善惡業,
欲悉了知無不盡,菩薩以此初發心。
諸禪解脫及三昧,雜染清淨無量種,
欲悉了知入住出,菩薩以此初發心。

隨諸眾生根利鈍,如是種種精進力,
欲悉了達分別知,菩薩以此初發心。
一切眾生種種解,心所好樂各差別,
如是無量欲悉知,菩薩以此初發心。

眾生諸界各差別,一切世間無有量,
欲悉了知其體性,菩薩以此初發心。
一切有為諸行道,一一皆有所至處,
悉欲了知其實性,菩薩以此初發心。

一切世界諸眾生,隨業漂流無暫息,
欲得天眼皆明見,菩薩以此初發心。
過去世中曾所有,如是體性如是相,
欲悉了知其宿住,菩薩以此初發心。

一切眾生諸結惑,相續現起及習氣,
欲悉了知究竟盡,菩薩以此初發心。
隨諸眾生所安立,種種談論語言道,
如其世諦悉欲知,菩薩以此初發心。

一切諸法離言說,性空寂滅無所作,
欲悉明達此真義,菩薩以此初發心。
欲悉震動十方國,傾覆一切諸大海,
具足諸佛大神通,菩薩以此初發心。

欲一毛孔放光明,普照十方無量土,
一一光中覺一切,菩薩以此初發心。
欲以難思諸佛剎,悉置掌中而不動,
了知一切如幻化,菩薩以此初發心。

欲以無量剎眾生,置一毛端不迫隘,
悉知無人無有我,菩薩以此初發心。
欲以一毛滴海水,一切大海悉令竭,
而悉分別知其數,菩薩以此初發心。

不可思議諸國土,盡抹為塵無遺者,
欲悉分別知其數,菩薩以此初發心。
過去未來無量劫,一切世間成壞相,
欲悉了達窮其際,菩薩以此初發心。

三世所有諸如來,一切獨覺及聲聞,
欲知其法盡無餘,菩薩以此初發心。
無量無邊諸世界,欲以一毛悉稱舉,
如其體相悉了知,菩薩以此初發心。

無量無數輪圍山,欲令悉入毛孔中,
如其大小皆得知,菩薩以此初發心。
欲以寂靜一妙音,普應十方隨類演,
如是皆令淨明了,菩薩以此初發心。

一切眾生語言法,一言演說無不盡,
悉欲了知其自性,菩薩以此初發心。
世間言音靡不作,悉令其解證寂滅,
欲得如是妙舌根,菩薩以此初發心。

欲使十方諸世界,有成壞相皆得見,
而悉知從分別生,菩薩以此初發心。」

Ru-Yi Translation

"Beholding the most supreme wisdom's own subtle and wondrous body, its every mark and feature upright, dignified, and fully complete, so venerable a presence exceedingly hard to encounter — the bodhisattva, valiant, thereby gives rise to his initial resolve.
Beholding his unequaled and incomparable great spiritual power, hearing a mind-reading prophecy given and his own admonishing instruction, and the immeasurable suffering of living beings across every destiny — the bodhisattva, by this, gives rise to his initial resolve.

Hearing of every Tathāgata, the universally supreme and honored one, every merit entirely accomplished, like empty space itself, making no discrimination at all — the bodhisattva, by this, gives rise to his initial resolve.
The cause and effect of the three periods of time is named "the case"; our own self-nature is "not the case" — wishing to understand entirely this true and real meaning, the bodhisattva, by this, gives rise to his initial resolve.

Throughout the past, the future, and the present, every wholesome and unwholesome karma there is — wishing to understand it entirely, leaving nothing at all unexhausted, the bodhisattva, by this, gives rise to his initial resolve.
Every meditative absorption, liberation, and samādhi, defiled and pure, of immeasurable kinds — wishing to understand entirely their entering, their abiding, and their emerging, the bodhisattva, by this, gives rise to his initial resolve.

According to whether living beings' own faculties are sharp or dull, and every such kind of diligent power — wishing to understand and discern entirely, the bodhisattva, by this, gives rise to his initial resolve.
Every living being's own manifold understanding, each mind's own delight each differing — wishing to know entirely such immeasurable things as these, the bodhisattva, by this, gives rise to his initial resolve.

Living beings' every realm each differing, every world throughout the world without measure — wishing to understand entirely their own substance and nature, the bodhisattva, by this, gives rise to his initial resolve.
Every conditioned path of practice there is, each and every one having its own destination — wishing to understand entirely their true nature, the bodhisattva, by this, gives rise to his initial resolve.

Every living being throughout every world, drifting and flowing according to their own karma without a moment's rest — wishing to attain the heavenly eye and behold them all clearly, the bodhisattva, by this, gives rise to his initial resolve.
Whatever once existed within ages past, such a substance and nature, such a mark — wishing to understand entirely their own past dwellings, the bodhisattva, by this, gives rise to his initial resolve.

Every living being's every bond and confusion, their continuous arising and their habitual tendencies — wishing to understand entirely their ultimate exhaustion, the bodhisattva, by this, gives rise to his initial resolve.
According to whatever living beings themselves establish, every kind of discourse and path of language — wishing to know entirely, exactly as the worldly truth itself gives it, the bodhisattva, by this, gives rise to his initial resolve.

Every dharma, free of all speech and language, its nature empty, tranquilly extinguished, without anything at all being done — wishing to understand entirely and penetrate this true meaning, the bodhisattva, by this, gives rise to his initial resolve.
Wishing to shake entirely every land of the ten directions, and to overturn every great ocean there is, fully endowed with every buddha's own great spiritual power, the bodhisattva, by this, gives rise to his initial resolve.

Wishing that a single pore might radiate light, universally illumining the immeasurable lands of the ten directions, and that within each and every ray of that light every being might be awakened, the bodhisattva, by this, gives rise to his initial resolve.
Wishing to take every inconceivable buddha-land, and place them all entirely within the palm of his own hand without disturbing them at all, understanding entirely that all of them are like illusory transformations, the bodhisattva, by this, gives rise to his initial resolve.

Wishing to take the living beings of immeasurable lands, and place them upon the very tip of a single hair without any crowding or constriction at all, understanding entirely that there is no person and no self at all, the bodhisattva, by this, gives rise to his initial resolve.
Wishing, with a single drop of water upon a hair, to cause every great ocean to be entirely exhausted, and yet to distinguish and know entirely their every number, the bodhisattva, by this, gives rise to his initial resolve.

Wishing to grind every inconceivable land entirely into dust, with nothing at all left over, and yet to distinguish and know entirely their every number, the bodhisattva, by this, gives rise to his initial resolve.
Throughout the immeasurable kalpas of the past and the future, every mark of forming and destruction throughout the world — wishing to understand and penetrate entirely, exhausting their every limit, the bodhisattva, by this, gives rise to his initial resolve.

Every Tathāgata there is throughout the three periods of time, and every pratyekabuddha and śrāvaka — wishing to know their own Dharma entirely, with nothing at all left over, the bodhisattva, by this, gives rise to his initial resolve.
Wishing, with a single hair, to lift up entirely the immeasurable, boundless worlds there are, and to understand entirely their own substance and mark exactly as they are, the bodhisattva, by this, gives rise to his initial resolve.

Wishing to cause the immeasurable, countless encircling mountains to all enter entirely within a single pore, and to know entirely their own size, whether great or small, the bodhisattva, by this, gives rise to his initial resolve.
Wishing, with a single tranquil and wondrous voice, to universally respond throughout the ten directions, expounding according to each kind, and to cause every one of them to become entirely pure and clear, the bodhisattva, by this, gives rise to his initial resolve.

Every living being's own language and speech, expounded entirely within a single word, with nothing at all left unexhausted — wishing to understand entirely their own nature, the bodhisattva, by this, gives rise to his initial resolve.
There is no worldly speech or sound at all that he does not produce, causing every one of them to understand and realize tranquil extinction — wishing to attain such a wondrous tongue-faculty as this, the bodhisattva, by this, gives rise to his initial resolve.

Wishing to cause every world of the ten directions, with every mark of forming and destruction, to be entirely seen, and yet to know entirely that they arise from discrimination, the bodhisattva, by this, gives rise to his initial resolve."

Reading note — Ru-Yi Meditation Center

This first movement of the great hymn — a single unbroken refrain repeated across dozens of couplets — is deliberately excessive in a way the prose teaching was not. Where the prose gave ten discrete reasons for the awakening-mind, the verse piles motive upon motive without any apparent limit: cosmological ambitions (shaking every land, holding buddha-lands in a palm) sit beside plain compassion for suffering beings, philosophical insight into emptiness sits beside a wish for a wondrous tongue-faculty. The effect is less a list than an accumulation, as if no single reason, however vast, could exhaust why the awakening-mind is worth giving rise to — and the couplet-form itself, returning every two lines to the same four words, enacts a kind of vow being taken over and over, from every possible angle at once.

Part 80 Complete

This closes Part 80. The great hymn's first movement, on the Abode of the Initial Resolve, continues in Part 81 with its remaining verses before turning to the second abode.