Samantabhadra's Closing Verse Begins
Samantabhadra opens the great closing verse of this entire chapter with a declaration of his own limits: across measureless koṭis of kalpas one could expound this bodhisattva's own virtue, and it would still be no more than a single drop drawn from the ocean. What follows, he says plainly, is spoken only in brief, through the buddha's own awesome power.
A Single Drop from the Ocean
Before the verse turns to its long sequence of metaphors, Samantabhadra states outright what kind of speech is about to follow: not an exhaustive account, but a fraction offered under the buddha's own power — merit that could be expounded across measureless koṭis of kalpas and still amount to no more than one drop taken from the ocean.
於無量劫修苦行，從無量佛正法生，
令無量眾住菩提，彼無等行聽我說。
供無量佛而捨著，廣度群生不作想，
求佛功德心無依，彼勝妙行我今說。
離三界魔煩惱業，具聖功德最勝行，
滅諸癡惑心寂然，我今說彼所行道。
永離世間諸誑幻，種種變化示眾生，
心生住滅現眾事，說彼所能令眾喜。
"Across measureless kalpas he has cultivated austere practice; from measureless buddhas his true dharma is born; he causes measureless multitudes to abide in awakening — listen now as I speak of his unequaled practice.
He makes offerings to measureless buddhas, yet is free of any attachment; he widely delivers the multitude of beings, without forming any notion of doing so; he seeks the buddha's own merit with a mind that rests on nothing — I now speak of his supremely excellent practice.
He is free of the māra and afflictive karma of the three realms; he is complete in the noble merit of the most excellent practice; he extinguishes every delusion, his mind entirely still — I now speak of the path he has walked.
He is forever free of every deception and illusion of the world; he manifests every kind of transformation for sentient beings; he shows the arising, abiding, and ceasing of every affair — I speak of what he can do, to bring joy to the multitude.
見諸眾生生老死，煩惱憂橫所纏迫，
欲令解脫教發心，彼功德行應聽受。
施戒忍進禪智慧，方便慈悲喜捨等，
百千萬劫常修行，彼人功德仁應聽。
千萬億劫求菩提，所有身命皆無吝，
願益群生不為己，彼慈愍行我今說。
無量億劫演其德，如海一滴未為少，
功德無比不可諭，以佛威神今略說。」
Seeing every sentient being caught in birth, old age, and death, bound and pressed by affliction and unforeseen sorrow, wishing to cause their liberation, he teaches them to arouse the mind of awakening — his own meritorious practice should be heard and received.
Giving, precepts, patience, diligence, meditative absorption, wisdom, skillful means, loving-kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity — across hundreds of thousands of myriads of kalpas he has constantly cultivated them; you should listen to this person's own merit.
Across thousands, myriads, and koṭis of kalpas he has sought awakening; he has never once been stingy with his own body or life; he vows to benefit the multitude of beings, never for his own sake — I now speak of his own compassionate practice.
Across measureless koṭis of kalpas one could expound his own virtue, and it would still be no less than a single drop drawn from the ocean; his merit is beyond compare and cannot be conveyed by any analogy — through the buddha's own awesome power, I now speak of it only in brief."
無量億劫演其德，如海一滴未為少 — across measureless koṭis of kalpas one could expound his own virtue, and it would still be no less than a single drop drawn from the ocean. Samantabhadra states this before a single metaphor of the coming sequence has been spoken, framing everything that follows — the lotus, the tree, the lion, the ship's captain — as already a compression, not an account.
Part 803 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-eight, 離世間品, in fascicle fifty-nine. Part 804 opens the verse's long sequence of metaphors, beginning with a bodhisattva's own mind that holds no height or lowness, and wisdom that benefits all like a tree, a river spring, and the great earth itself.