Practice and Noble Birth, in Verse
Dharma Wisdom's hymn turns to the third abode's contemplation of every dharma as impermanent, empty, and without any fixed place, extended through every realm of existence — and then to the fourth abode, where a bodhisattva's faith becomes firm and unbreakable, born, as the verse puts it, directly from the Buddha himself.
The Third Abode: Cultivating Practice, in Verse
Every dharma contemplated as impermanent, empty, without self, without any name that truly fits it — extended through every element and every realm of existence, from earth and water to the formless realm itself.
「第三菩薩修行住，當依佛教勤觀察，
諸法無常苦及空，無有我人無動作。
一切諸法不可樂，無如名字無處所，
無所分別無真實，如是觀者名菩薩。
次令觀察眾生界，及以勸觀於法界，
世界差別盡無餘，於彼咸應勸觀察。
十方世界及虛空，所有地水與火風，
欲界色界無色界，悉勸觀察咸令盡。
觀察彼界各差別，及其體性咸究竟，
得如是教勤修行，此則名為真佛子。」
"The bodhisattva of the third abode, Cultivating Practice, should, in accordance with the Buddha's own teaching, diligently contemplate: that every dharma is impermanent, is suffering, and is empty; that there is no self and no person, and no doer of any deed. Every dharma offers nothing at all to delight in; none of them match their own name, and none of them have any fixed place; there is nothing at all to discriminate, and nothing at all that is truly real — one who contemplates in this way is called a bodhisattva.
He is next caused to contemplate the realm of living beings, and is likewise urged to contemplate the Dharma-realm, and the distinctions among worlds, entirely and without anything left over — toward all of these he should be urged to contemplate. The worlds of the ten directions and empty space itself, every element of earth, water, fire, and wind there is, the realm of desire, the realm of form, and the realm of formlessness — he is entirely urged to contemplate all of them, until every one is exhausted.
Contemplating the distinctions among each of those realms, and their own substance and nature entirely to their ultimate end — one who attains this teaching and diligently cultivates and practices it is then called a true son of the Buddha."
The Fourth Abode: Noble Birth, in Verse
Faith becomes firm and unbreakable, and the bodhisattva, contemplating every living being's own unreality alongside lands, karma, birth-and-death, and nirvāṇa itself, is described as born directly from the Buddha — every Tathāgata across the three periods of time understood as entirely equal, without any manifold distinction at all.
「第四生貴住菩薩，從諸聖教而出生，
了達諸有無所有，超過彼法生法界。
信佛堅固不可壞，觀法寂滅心安住，
隨諸眾生悉了知，體性虛妄無真實。
世間剎土業及報，生死涅槃悉如是，
佛子於法如是觀，從佛親生名佛子。
過去未來現在世，其中所有諸佛法，
了知積集及圓滿，如是修學令究竟。
三世一切諸如來，能隨觀察悉平等，
種種差別不可得，如是觀者達三世。
如我稱揚讚歎者，此是四住諸功德，
若能依法勤修行，速成無上佛菩提。」
"The bodhisattva of the fourth abode, Noble Birth, is born forth from the sagely teaching itself, understanding and penetrating that every state of existence has nothing at all to it, transcending those very dharmas and being born within the Dharma-realm. His faith in the Buddha is firm and cannot be destroyed; contemplating the Dharma's own tranquil extinction, his mind abides settled; according to each and every living being, he understands entirely that their own substance and nature is false and unreal, without any true reality.
Worldly lands, karma and its recompense, birth-and-death and nirvāṇa — all of these are likewise so; the Buddha's own child, contemplating the Dharma in this very way, is, being born directly from the Buddha himself, called a son of the Buddha. Throughout the past, the future, and the present, whatever buddha-dharma there is within them — understanding entirely its accumulation and its perfection, cultivating and studying it in this very way until it reaches its ultimate end.
Every single Tathāgata throughout the three periods of time, able to be contemplated as entirely equal, with no manifold distinction at all to be found — one who contemplates in this way penetrates the three periods of time. Just as I myself have extolled and praised — this is the merit of the fourth abode; if one is able, in accordance with the Dharma, to diligently cultivate and practice it, one swiftly accomplishes the unsurpassed bodhi of the Buddha."
Each abode's own verse now closes with an explicit, near-identical formula naming the abode and promising that diligent practice of it "swiftly accomplishes the unsurpassed bodhi of the Buddha" — a refrain that will recur through the remaining abodes still to come. Where the first abode's own verse built its case through sheer accumulation, these shorter movements work by compression: the third abode's entire contemplative program, covering every element and every realm of existence, fits into a dozen lines, trusting the reader to recall the fuller prose treatment already given two abodes back.
Part 82 Complete
This closes Part 82. The great hymn continues in Part 83 with the fifth, sixth, and seventh abodes.