Revealing the Eightfold True Path
Maitreya's hymn continues: Sudhana wishes to hear every Dharma, dispelling every doubt, endowed with wondrous merit, seeking only a good friend; subduing the māras of affliction, dissolving the impurity of wrong craving, causing every being to attain liberation, seeking only one of wisdom. Abiding in the path of merit, he brings the three evil destinies to their end, opening the way to every good realm, causing beings to be endowed with the path to nirvāṇa; he reveals the eightfold true path, dispelling every wrong view, breaking apart the net of the afflictions, and drying up the ocean of craving and desire. As a pure, bright sun, Sudhana universally illuminates every class of sprouting being, able to become a tamer, rescuing the multitudes of the three states of existence; awakening all to the truth, forever emerging from the mire of the five desires, dispelling every false and empty notion, and opening the gate of liberation for them.
Drying Up the Ocean of Craving and Desire
「欲聞一切法， 除滅諸疑惑，
具足妙功德， 專求善知識。
摧滅煩惱魔， 消滅邪愛垢，
悉令得解脫， 專求智慧者。
安住功德道， 究竟滅三塗，
開示諸善趣， 令具涅槃道。
顯現八正路， 除滅諸邪見，
壞裂煩惱網， 消竭愛欲海。
善財明淨日， 普照群萌類，
能為調御士， 拯濟三有眾。
覺悟於一切， 永出五欲泥，
除滅虛妄想， 為開解脫門。」
"Wishing to hear every Dharma, dispelling every doubt,
Endowed with wondrous merit, seeking only a good friend.
Subduing and destroying the māras of affliction, dissolving the impurity of wrong craving,
Causing every being to attain liberation, seeking only one of wisdom.
Abiding in the path of merit, bringing the three evil destinies to their utter end,
Opening the way to every good realm, causing beings to be endowed with the path to nirvāṇa.
Revealing the eightfold true path, dispelling every wrong view,
Breaking apart the net of the afflictions, drying up the ocean of craving and desire.
Sudhana, a pure, bright sun, universally illuminating every class of sprouting being,
Able to become a tamer, rescuing the multitudes of the three states of existence.
Awakening all to the truth, forever emerging from the mire of the five desires,
Dispelling every false and empty notion, opening for them the gate of liberation."
"The three evil destinies" (三塗, the hell-realms, the realm of hungry ghosts, and the animal realm) and "the eightfold true path" name, respectively, what is escaped and what leads to the escape — Fazang reads the pairing of these two standard doctrinal categories within a single stanza as compressing the entire fourth noble truth (the path) and the consequence of failing it (rebirth in the three evil destinies) into four lines, a technique this hymn uses throughout to embed formal Buddhist categories inside its praise of Sudhana without pausing to explain them, trusting its audience already knows the doctrine well.
Part 331 In Progress
Maitreya's hymn approaches its close. Part 332 turns to Sudhana's discernment of the Dharma-realm and his adornment of every buddha-land, together with his approaching vision of the buddhas and his coming attainment of bodhi.
Continue to Part 332 →