Some See, Some Do Not
The hymn's great catalogue begins: some see the tathāgata seated, filling the worlds of the ten directions entire, while sentient beings, obstructed by their own past wrongs, though near, do not see him. Some see him newly raising the mind of bodhi, far removed from every heedlessness, cultivating the bodhisattva's own practice across boundless, countless kalpas. Some hear the most supreme ones proclaiming the Dharma in wondrous voice, while beings defiled by their own sin and transgression do not hear even the buddha's own name. Some see great bodhisattvas filling a trichiliocosm, consummating Samantabhadra's own practice, as the tathāgata teaches the Dharma for them.
Near, Yet Unable to See; Obstructed, Yet Unable to Hear
「或見如來坐， 充滿十方界，
眾生罪所障， 雖近而不見。
或見初發心， 遠離諸放逸，
無量無數劫， 修習菩薩行。
或聞諸最勝， 妙音演說法，
罪垢眾生等， 不聞佛名號。
或見大菩薩， 充滿三千界，
究竟普賢行， 如來為說法。」
"Some see the tathāgata seated, filling the worlds of the ten directions entire,
While sentient beings, obstructed by their own past wrongs, though near, do not see him.
Some see him newly raising the mind of bodhi, far removed from every heedlessness,
Cultivating the bodhisattva's own practice across boundless, countless kalpas.
Some hear the most supreme ones proclaiming the Dharma in wondrous voice,
While beings defiled by their own sin and transgression do not hear even the buddha's own name.
Some see great bodhisattvas filling a trichiliocosm,
Consummating Samantabhadra's own practice, as the tathāgata teaches the Dharma for them."
This opens what will prove an extended sequence of paired contrasts, each stanza's first half naming what one kind of being sees or hears and its second half naming what another, obstructed being does not — the recurring refrain "or see... or hear..." (或見...或聞...) structuring the whole catalogue that follows. Fazang reads the recurring phrase "obstructed by their own past wrongs" (罪所障) as this hymn's own doctrinal safeguard against a possible misreading of the divine vision throughout this entire episode: the buddhas and bodhisattvas are not selectively hidden by any deficiency of their own compassion or presence, but are, in truth, equally available everywhere at all times — what varies is solely the karmic capacity of the beholder to perceive what is already, always, right there.
Part 436 Complete
The opening stanzas of this great catalogue are now given in full. Part 437 turns to its first named buddhas: Vairocana himself, adorning and purifying this very world across boundless kalpas, and the buddha Bhadraśrī together with Samantabhadra, filling the land of Lotus-Wondrous-Merit.
Continue to Part 437 →