The Bodhisattva as Jewel and Garland
The verse quickens its pace here, moving through more than twenty images in rapid succession — treasure, diamond, necklace, maṇi jewel, flower, garland, fragrance, curtain, banner, silk, vehicle, elephant, horse, dragon, udumbara flower, general, lamp, river, and bridge — before closing on a single boat built jointly from great wisdom and the vast vow, carrying every sentient being to the shore of awakening.
A Boat Built from Wisdom and Vow
After more than twenty rapid images, the sequence settles on its final vessel: not wisdom alone, and not the vow alone, but the two working jointly to build a single firm and sturdy boat, drawing in every sentient being and setting them, together, upon the shore of awakening.
菩薩如珍寶，能濟貧窮厄；
菩薩如金剛，能摧顛倒見；
菩薩如瓔珞，莊嚴三有身；
菩薩如摩尼，增長一切行。
菩薩德如華，常發菩提分；
菩薩願如鬘，恒繫眾生首。
菩薩淨戒香，堅持無缺犯；
菩薩智塗香，普熏於三界。
菩薩力如帳，能遮煩惱塵；
菩薩智如幢，能摧我慢敵。
妙行為繒綵，莊嚴於智慧，
慚愧作衣服，普覆諸群生。
"The bodhisattva is like a rare treasure, able to rescue from poverty and hardship; the bodhisattva is like a diamond, able to crush every inverted view; the bodhisattva is like a necklace, adorning the body caught in the three states of existence; the bodhisattva is like a maṇi jewel, increasing every practice.
The bodhisattva's own virtue is like a flower, constantly opening into the factors of awakening; the bodhisattva's own vow is like a garland, forever wound about the heads of sentient beings. The bodhisattva's pure precepts are a fragrance, firmly upheld without flaw or violation; the bodhisattva's wisdom is an anointing incense, its scent spreading universally through the three realms.
The bodhisattva's own power is like a curtain, able to keep out the dust of affliction; the bodhisattva's own wisdom is like a banner, able to crush the enemy of self-conceit. Wondrous practice is fine silk, adorning wisdom itself; shame and conscientiousness are clothing, universally covering the multitude of beings.
菩薩無礙乘，巾之出三界；
菩薩大力象，其心善調伏；
菩薩神足馬，騰步超諸有；
菩薩說法龍，普雨眾生心；
菩薩優曇華，世間難值遇；
菩薩大勇將，眾魔悉降伏；
菩薩轉法輪，如佛之所轉；
菩薩燈破闇，眾生見正道；
菩薩功德河，恒順正道流；
菩薩精進橋，廣度諸群品。
大智與弘誓，共作堅牢船，
引接諸眾生，安置菩提岸。
The bodhisattva is an unobstructed vehicle, carrying beings by its own rein out of the three realms; the bodhisattva is a great and powerful elephant, his own mind well tamed; the bodhisattva is a horse of spiritual swiftness, its stride leaping over every state of existence; the bodhisattva is a dragon expounding the dharma, universally raining down upon the minds of sentient beings; the bodhisattva is an udumbara flower, difficult for the world to ever encounter; the bodhisattva is a great and courageous general, subduing every māra entirely; the bodhisattva turns the wheel of dharma, just as the buddha himself turns it; the bodhisattva is a lamp breaking through darkness, by which sentient beings see the right path; the bodhisattva is a river of merit, constantly flowing along the right path; the bodhisattva is a bridge of diligence, widely delivering every kind of being.
Great wisdom and the vast vow together build a firm and sturdy boat, drawing in and receiving every sentient being, and setting them safely upon the shore of awakening.
大智與弘誓，共作堅牢船 — great wisdom and the vast vow together build a firm and sturdy boat. After twenty images each standing alone, this final one requires two things working jointly — wisdom by itself, or vow by itself, builds nothing; the boat exists only where both are present together.
Part 808 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-eight, 離世間品, in fascicle fifty-nine. Part 809 continues the verse with the bodhisattva as a garden of true delight, a wondrous medicine curing affliction, and the striking claim that the bodhisattva's own coming into the world equals a buddha's, since a buddha's mind holds nothing that a fully awakened bodhisattva's mind does not.