Rare as the Udumbara Flower
At that time, the bodhisattva Samantabhadra, wishing to clarify this meaning once more, spoke in verse, saying: "You who are free of every affliction, with a pure mind, listen closely, as I proclaim every buddha's own practice, the true pāramitā. The unsurpassed tamer, transcending every world, is far removed from the defilement of every affliction, pure as space itself. The perfected sun of wisdom dispels the darkness of every affliction, universally illuminating every dharma, bringing peace and joy to every multitude of beings. A tathāgata, across boundless kalpas, only then arises in the world at last — exactly like the udumbara flower, hard to see, hard to encounter."
Samantabhadra's Final Hymn Opens
爾時，普賢菩薩欲重明此義，以偈頌曰：
「汝等離煩惱， 清淨心諦聽，
說佛一切行， 真實波羅蜜。
超出諸世間， 無上調御士，
遠離煩惱垢， 清淨如虛空。
圓滿智慧日， 除滅煩惱闇，
普照一切法， 安樂諸群生。
如來無量劫， 時乃出興世，
譬如優曇華， 難見難值遇。」
At that time, the bodhisattva Samantabhadra, wishing to clarify this meaning once more, spoke in verse, saying:
"You who are free of every affliction, with a pure mind, listen closely,
As I proclaim every buddha's own practice, the true pāramitā.
The unsurpassed tamer, transcending every world,
Is far removed from the defilement of every affliction, pure as space itself.
The perfected sun of wisdom dispels the darkness of every affliction,
Universally illuminating every dharma, bringing peace and joy to every multitude of beings.
A tathāgata, across boundless kalpas, only then arises in the world at last —
Exactly like the udumbara flower, hard to see, hard to encounter."
The udumbara flower (優曇華, Skt. udumbara, a fig tree traditionally said in Indian literature to bloom only once every three thousand years, or in some accounts not to bloom visibly at all) is one of the most widely used images throughout Buddhist literature for the extreme rarity of a buddha's own appearance in the world — its invocation here, at the very opening of this final hymn, sets the tone for everything that follows: a hymn about how precious, how nearly unrepeatable, and thus how urgently to be attended to is the very teaching now being given. Fazang reads Samantabhadra's opening address, "you who are free of every affliction," as addressed not only to the great assembly surrounding him within the vision but, through the text itself, to every future reader or hearer of this sūtra encountering the same teaching across the centuries.
Part 433 Complete
The opening stanzas of Samantabhadra's final hymn are now given in full. Part 434 continues with the great assembly of bodhisattvas listening in reverence, and with Samantabhadra's own praise as a true child of the Buddha whose every word the buddhas themselves have never once found false.
Continue to Part 434 →