Kind Father and Mother to All Beings
Maitreya's hymn continues: Sudhana is a kind father and mother to sentient beings, nurturing every merit, come here to consummate the path of bodhi; an unsurpassed physician-king for the sick of birth, old age, and death, a Śakra to sentient beings raining the ambrosial medicine of Dharma; a pure, bright sun to sentient beings, universally illuminating every true path; a pure moon to sentient beings, his merit fully perfected. Like Sumeru, his mind is unmoved before friend and foe; like the great ocean, he never increases or decreases; like a captain upon the sea, he liberates boundless multitudes, attached to nothing at all.
Unmoved Like Sumeru Before Friend and Foe
「眾生慈父母， 長養諸功德，
究竟菩提道， 故來至我所。
生老病死者， 無上良醫王，
眾生之釋天， 雨甘露法藥。
眾生明淨日， 普照諸正道，
眾生之淨月， 功德圓滿故。
譬如須彌山， 怨親心不動，
猶如大海水， 未曾有增減，
猶如海導師， 度脫無量眾，
一切無所著， 故來至我所。
勇健精進力， 拯救諸眾生，
悉令得安樂， 專求善知識。」
"A kind father and mother to sentient beings, nurturing every merit,
To consummate the path of bodhi — and so he has come to where I am.
For the sick of birth, old age, and death, an unsurpassed physician-king,
A Śakra to sentient beings, raining the ambrosial medicine of Dharma.
A pure, bright sun to sentient beings, universally illuminating every true path,
A pure moon to sentient beings, for his merit is fully perfected.
Like Sumeru, his mind is unmoved before friend and foe,
Like the waters of the great ocean, never once increasing or decreasing,
Like a captain upon the sea, liberating boundless multitudes,
Attached to nothing at all — and so he has come to where I am.
With the power of valiant, vigorous diligence, rescuing every sentient being,
Causing them all to attain peace and joy, seeking only a good friend."
This stretch of the hymn shifts from stanzas describing what Sudhana already is toward the mundane cosmological images — Sumeru, the great ocean, a sea-captain — that will recur, transposed onto bodhicitta itself, in the still longer teaching Maitreya is about to give once this hymn concludes. Fazang reads this recurrence as no accident: praising the disciple in the very language soon to be used for the teaching itself prepares the listener to recognize, once the abstract doctrine of bodhicitta arrives, that it was already being modeled concretely in the person standing before them.
Part 326 In Progress
Maitreya's hymn continues to unfold at length. Part 327 turns to Sudhana raising the banner of the true Dharma, seeking out every guide, and casting aside the pleasures of his heavenly household to seek a good friend in hardship.
Continue to Part 327 →