Vows as Many as Every Drop of Water
Vows raised in number equal to every mote of dust in every land and every drop of water; boundless kalpas of cultivated practice, dhāraṇī, and meditative vow; every child of the Buddha giving rise to boundless virtue; and a closing stanza that departs from the hymn's own refrain — transformation-bodies filling the entire dharma-realm, manifesting sovereign power.
Five Stanzas, and a Refrain Broken
「一切剎微塵， 眾生水渧等，
生此等願者， 安住此法堂。
無量劫修行， 總持禪定願，
解脫法門者， 安住此法堂。
一切諸佛子， 出生無量德，
饒益眾生者， 安住此法堂。
成就無礙智， 通明巧方便，
隨應現生者， 安住此法堂。
從初發道心， 究竟一切行，
化身滿法界， 顯現自在力。
"Motes of dust in every land, drops of water equal in number to every sentient being —
One who has raised vows equal to these abides in this Dharma-hall.
Cultivating practice across boundless kalpas, dhāraṇī, meditative absorption, and vow,
One of the Dharma-gate of liberation abides in this Dharma-hall.
Every child of the Buddha, giving rise to boundless virtue,
One who benefits sentient beings abides in this Dharma-hall.
Accomplishing unobstructed wisdom, penetrating insight, and skillful means,
One who manifests rebirth according to what is fitting abides in this Dharma-hall.
From the very first raising of the mind set upon the path, consummating every practice —
His transformation-bodies fill the entire dharma-realm, manifesting his own sovereign power."
The fifth stanza here breaks a pattern this hymn has held without exception across twenty-nine prior stanzas: rather than closing "abides in this Dharma-hall," it closes on transformation-bodies filling the dharma-realm and manifesting sovereign power. Fazang reads this deviation as deliberate rather than accidental — the hymn's own refrain has, until now, kept returning attention to a fixed location, and this single break widens the frame at exactly the point where the verse turns from Maitreya's own qualities to his activity throughout the whole dharma-realm, before the refrain itself resumes in the stanzas that follow.
Part 294 In Progress
Thirty stanzas are now given. Part 295 continues with Maitreya's own attainment of correct awakening within a single thought, entering an inconceivable realm of wisdom-activity that none can measure.
Continue to Part 295 →