Subduing the Dragon of Affliction
Five more stanzas: diving deep into the ocean of birth and death to subdue the dragon of affliction and gather the buddha's own wisdom-jewels; beholding the ocean and drawing forth beings like a garuḍa; moving through the dharma-realm's own empty space like the sun and moon; and bearing every being's own suffering throughout every kalpa yet to come, with vajra-like diligence.
Five More Stanzas
「深入生死海， 摧滅煩惱龍，
採佛智寶者， 安住此法堂。
願地慈悲眼， 觀海出眾生，
如金翅鳥者， 安住此法堂。
法界空中行， 猶如淨日月，
慧光普照者， 安住此法堂。
為一一眾生， 盡未來際劫，
荷負諸苦者， 安住此法堂。
一一諸剎中， 盡來劫修行，
金剛精進者， 安住此法堂。
"Diving deep into the ocean of birth and death, subduing the dragon of affliction,
One who gathers the buddha's own wisdom-jewels abides in this Dharma-hall.
With the eye of compassion upon the ground of his own vow, beholding the ocean and drawing forth sentient beings,
Like a garuḍa, he abides in this Dharma-hall.
Moving through the dharma-realm's own empty space, like the pure sun and moon,
One whose wisdom-light universally illumines abides in this Dharma-hall.
For each and every sentient being, throughout every kalpa of the boundary of the future,
One who bears every one of their sufferings abides in this Dharma-hall.
In each and every land, cultivating practice throughout every kalpa to come,
One of vajra-like diligence abides in this Dharma-hall."
The garuḍa, a mythic bird of prey upon serpents, appears here surveying the ocean not to hunt but to draw sentient beings out of it — a deliberate inversion of the creature's own ordinary nature, matching the same pattern as the dragon of affliction subdued rather than destroyed outright in the stanza before it. Fazang reads "bears every one of their sufferings" as this hymn's own most literal statement yet of vicarious compassion — not merely rescuing beings from suffering but taking on the weight of it directly, across a span of time the text names as without any future limit at all.
Part 292 In Progress
Twenty stanzas are now given. Part 293 continues with Maitreya hearing and upholding every buddha's own teaching without weariness, and traveling every ocean of worlds to make offerings.
Continue to Part 293 →