Self-Identified, and the Dharma-Gate's Own Power
Four stanzas identify the deva directly with the prince of the story just told, and describe her own unbroken cultivation of this Dharma-gate since. Eight further stanzas, each built on the same refrain, then describe what the Dharma-gate itself makes possible — ranging every world in a single thought, appearing before every buddha, and pouring light and transformation-bodies from every single pore of the body.
Four Stanzas: "Excellently Subdued Was None Other Than Myself"
「善伏我身是， 修習大悲心，
不惜身壽命， 救護彼苦人。
逮得此法門， 劫海常修習，
念念悉增長， 無量諸功德。
所見諸最勝， 方便為我說，
聞已即修習， 此寂滅法門。
無量劫修此， 不思議法門，
佛雨甘露海， 我已悉飲之。」
"Excellently Subdued was none other than myself; I cultivated the mind of great compassion, and, not sparing my own body or life, rescued and protected those suffering people.
Having attained this very Dharma-gate, I constantly cultivated it throughout an ocean of kalpas; within every single thought-moment, boundless merit, every kind of it, increased.
Whatever supreme ones I beheld expounded it for me through skillful means; and having heard it, I at once cultivated this very tranquil Dharma-gate.
Throughout boundless kalpas I cultivated this inconceivable Dharma-gate; the buddhas' own rain, an ocean of ambrosia, I have drunk in its entirety."
Fazang names this fifth movement: 次四頌結會得法 — "next, four stanzas concluding the identification and the attainment of the Dharma." This is the verse counterpart to the prose identification already given at the close of the previous teacher's account — the direct naming of the deva's own past self as the prince of the story — but the verse adds something the prose did not dwell on: an unbroken continuity of cultivation "throughout an ocean of kalpas," and a single striking image, "the buddhas' own rain, an ocean of ambrosia, I have drunk in its entirety," closing this movement on an image of a gift already fully received rather than a task still underway.
Eight Stanzas: "Relying on This Very Dharma-Gate"
「依止此法門， 普遊十方界，
一念悉分別， 三世諸佛剎。
依此法門故， 見三世佛海，
於諸最勝所， 現身如電光。
依此法門故， 遍詣十方佛，
各現大神力， 勝妙威儀法。
依此法門故， 能為問難海，
不思議諸佛， 所說聞受持。
依此法門故， 於十方世界，
諸佛大眾中， 自在顯神變。
依此法門故， 種種現色身，
能於一身中， 顯現諸佛身。
依此法門故， 一一毛孔中，
放大光明海， 除眾生煩惱。
依此法門故， 一一毛孔中，
出化無量身， 法雨濟眾生。」
"Relying upon this very Dharma-gate, I universally range through the worlds of the ten directions; within a single thought-moment, I discern in full the buddha-lands of the three times.
Because of this very Dharma-gate, I behold the ocean of buddhas of the three times; at the presence of every supreme one, I manifest my body like a flash of lightning.
Because of this very Dharma-gate, I go universally to the buddhas of the ten directions, manifesting before each, in turn, great spiritual power and sublime, dignified conduct.
Because of this very Dharma-gate, I am able to pose an ocean of questions and challenges; whatever the inconceivable buddhas expound, I hear and uphold it.
Because of this very Dharma-gate, within the great assemblies of buddhas throughout the worlds of the ten directions, I manifest spiritual transformations with sovereign mastery.
Because of this very Dharma-gate, I manifest every kind of material body; within a single body, I am able to display the bodies of every buddha.
Because of this very Dharma-gate, from every single pore, I send forth a great ocean of light, extinguishing the afflictions of sentient beings.
Because of this very Dharma-gate, from every single pore, I give forth boundless transformation-bodies, raining down the Dharma to relieve sentient beings."
Fazang names this sixth movement, the longest of the nine: 次八頌法門業用 — "next, eight stanzas on the Dharma-gate's own function and application." Seven of the eight stanzas open on the identical refrain, 依此法門故 — "because of this very Dharma-gate" — a repetition the translation preserves rather than varying for elegance, since the anaphora is itself the point: each stanza is not a new capacity so much as the same single gate opening onto a different vista each time, from ranging every world in a single thought to a light "extinguishing the afflictions of sentient beings" pouring from every pore of the body.
Part 120 In Progress
Eight stanzas on the Dharma-gate's own function are now complete. Part 121 carries the hymn's final three stanzas — benefiting beings across every kalpa yet to come — and then the deva's own closing words: naming the limit of her own attainment, and pointing Sudhana onward to the teacher who follows.
Continue to Part 121 →