Rescuing the Three Realms' Own Prisoners
The boundless list continues: rescuing sentient beings from the mire of craving within the three realms' own prison, establishing them in the eightfold noble path, severing every māra's own hooks and bait, and purely cultivating a bodhisattva's own boundless mind, faculties, conduct, and power.
From the Three Realms' Prison to Boundless Bodhisattva Power
「……拯拔無量愛欲淤泥，於三界獄，免濟苦難；悉令安立八聖道支，普令滅除三毒熾然；斷絕無量諸魔鉤餌；遠離無量諸惡魔業；淨修無量菩薩直心；長養菩薩無量方便；出生菩薩無量諸根；淨修菩薩無量欲性；深入菩薩無量等法；修行菩薩無量勝行；清淨菩薩無量功德；淨修菩薩無量威儀；示現菩薩無量隨順世間；發起無量不壞信心；發起無量大精進力；淨修無量諸正念力；成滿無量諸三昧力；……」
"… rescue and pull out boundless sentient beings from the mire of craving and desire, granting them deliverance from suffering and hardship within the prison of the three realms; cause them all to be firmly established in the eightfold noble path, universally extinguishing the blazing fire of the three poisons; sever boundless hooks and bait set by every māra; be far removed from boundless evil deeds of every māra; purely cultivate the bodhisattva's own boundless upright mind; nurture the bodhisattva's own boundless skillful means; give rise to the bodhisattva's own boundless faculties; purely cultivate the bodhisattva's own boundless natures of desire; penetrate deeply into the bodhisattva's own boundless equal dharmas; practice the bodhisattva's own boundless supreme conduct; purify the bodhisattva's own boundless merit; purely cultivate the bodhisattva's own boundless dignified bearing; manifest the bodhisattva's own boundless accord with the world; raise boundless unbreakable faith; raise boundless power of great diligence; purely cultivate boundless power of right mindfulness; perfectly fulfill boundless power of samādhi … [the list continues]"
The three realms named a "prison" (獄) and craving named a "mire" (淤泥) return this list briefly to concrete, almost visceral imagery before it resumes its more abstract catalogue of bodhisattva qualities — mind, faculties, conduct, dignity, faith, diligence, mindfulness, samādhi — each modified by the same insistent 無量. Fazang reads the shift between vivid rescue-imagery and abstract enumeration as intentional variation within a single sustained teaching, keeping the list's own urgency alive across its considerable length.
Part 252 In Progress
The list continues to build. Part 253 continues with boundless powers of wisdom, boundless Dharma-gates, and the healing of sentient beings' own afflictive diseases.
Continue to Part 253 →