Awakening Within a Single Thought
The hymn's own refrain returns: attaining correct awakening within a single thought, entering a boundless wisdom-activity that none can measure; unobstructed feet, unattached to anything, understanding every land as without duality; and contemplating every quiescent dharma as entirely like empty space, a domain wholly free of stain.
None Can Measure This Wisdom-Activity
「一念成正覺， 入無量智業，
莫能測量者， 安住此法堂。
無礙淨慧力， 遊行諸法界，
無垢智觀者， 安住此法堂。
成就無礙足， 一切無所著，
了剎無二者， 安住此法堂。
觀諸寂滅法， 皆悉如虛空，
離垢境界者， 安住此法堂。
大悲觀眾生， 諸苦所逼迫，
拔濟饒益者， 安住此法堂。
"In a single thought attaining correct awakening, entering boundless wisdom-activity,
One whom none can measure abides in this Dharma-hall.
The power of unobstructed, pure wisdom, journeying through every dharma-realm,
One whose stainless wisdom contemplates abides in this Dharma-hall.
Accomplishing unobstructed feet, unattached to anything,
One who understands every land as without duality abides in this Dharma-hall.
Contemplating every quiescent dharma as entirely like empty space,
One whose domain is free of stain abides in this Dharma-hall.
With great compassion beholding sentient beings pressed by every suffering,
One who pulls them out and benefits them abides in this Dharma-hall."
The refrain's own return after its single break in the previous part reads, in Fazang's reading, as a kind of settling — the wide-angle view of transformation-bodies filling the dharma-realm has now narrowed back to the tower itself, though what fills that narrower frame has only grown more extraordinary: awakening within a single thought, unobstructed feet, a domain wholly free of stain. "Unobstructed feet" (無礙足) recalls the traditional bases of spiritual power (ṛddhipāda) that grant a buddha or advanced bodhisattva the capacity to travel anywhere without hindrance.
Part 295 In Progress
Thirty-five stanzas are now given. Part 296 continues with the eightfold path, the aggregates, elements, and dependent origination — the classical framework of Buddhist analysis, each contemplated toward liberation from evil destinies.
Continue to Part 296 →