Beholding Every Buddha with Great Joy
This stretch of teaching closes: cultivating the pāramitās, abiding in the bodhisattva grounds, attaining profound Dharma-forbearance, bestowing every merit on others, beholding every buddha with a mind of great joy, and abiding fully in every buddha's own Dharma.
Bestowing Merit Upon Others, Abiding in Every Buddha's Own Dharma
「……修波羅蜜，住菩薩地，得深法忍；淨一切善根，積集一切菩薩功德，施與一切菩薩功德；見一切佛，心大歡喜，護持淨戒，解真實義；出正法門，離諸邪道，現明法門，普照一切，聞持無量諸佛法雲；滅一切煩惱，增益一切智，住一切佛法。」
"… cultivating the pāramitās, abiding in the bodhisattva grounds, attaining profound Dharma-forbearance; purifying every root of goodness, accumulating every bodhisattva merit, and bestowing every bodhisattva merit upon others; beholding every buddha with a mind of great joy, upholding pure precepts, and comprehending the true meaning; bringing forth the gate of the true Dharma, departing from every deviant path, manifesting the bright Dharma-gate, universally illumining all, hearing and upholding boundless clouds of every buddha's own Dharma; extinguishing every affliction, increasing every wisdom, and abiding in every buddha's own Dharma."
"Accumulating every bodhisattva merit, and bestowing every bodhisattva merit upon others" names, in miniature, the dedication of merit (迴向) this collection has referenced throughout — merit is gathered not to be kept but to be given away, a movement Fazang reads as inseparable from the good friend's own function: whatever a good friend helps one accumulate is immediately structured for further giving, never treated as private possession.
Part 260 Complete
This extended teaching on what a good friend accomplishes is now complete. Part 261 turns to a celebrated set of ten similes for the good friend — beginning with a kind mother, through whom one is born into the buddha's own family.
Continue to Part 261 →