Every Buddha-Land Within a Single Pore
The hymn continues: some see the buddha Sūryagarbha and the great bodhisattva Jñānābhiṣeka — these two entirely fill the land of Pure Radiant Light. Some see, throughout the worlds of the ten directions, every buddha sending forth light, turning the Dharma-wheel for the sake of their assembly, dispelling the darkness of ignorance. Some, within a single pore, see unspeakable buddha-lands, the adorned body of every buddha there, surrounded by children of the Buddha, turning the true Dharma-wheel, delivering every multitude of beings. Some, within a single pore, universally see every child of the Buddha, across countless hundred-millions of kalpas, cultivating the bodhisattva's own practice.
The Named Lands Close; the Pore-Vision Resumes
「或見日藏佛， 智灌大菩薩，
斯等悉充滿， 清淨光明剎。
或見十方界， 諸佛放光明，
為眾轉法輪， 除滅愚癡暗。
或見一毛孔， 不可說佛剎，
諸佛莊嚴身， 佛子眾圍遶，
為轉正法輪， 度脫諸群生。
或於一毛孔， 普見諸佛子，
無數億劫中， 修習菩薩行。」
"Some see the buddha Sūryagarbha and the great bodhisattva Jñānābhiṣeka —
These two entirely fill the land of Pure Radiant Light.
Some see, throughout the worlds of the ten directions, every buddha sending forth light,
Turning the Dharma-wheel for the sake of their assembly, dispelling the darkness of ignorance.
Some, within a single pore, see unspeakable buddha-lands,
The adorned body of every buddha there, surrounded by children of the Buddha,
Turning the true Dharma-wheel, delivering every multitude of beings.
Some, within a single pore, universally see every child of the Buddha,
Across countless hundred-millions of kalpas, cultivating the bodhisattva's own practice."
This closes the named sequence of six buddha-and-bodhisattva pairings — Vairocana, Bhadraśrī with Samantabhadra, Amitābha with Avalokiteśvara, Akṣobhya with Gandhahastin, Candraprajñā with Kanakadhvaja, and now Sūryagarbha with Jñānābhiṣeka — each dwelling in its own distinctly named pure land, before the hymn shifts back to the unnamed, boundless register that has characterized most of this vision. Fazang reads the return here to "a single pore" containing unspeakable buddha-lands as a deliberate structural bracket, framing the six specific, named lands within the same boundless field of pore-emanation already established at length earlier in this episode — the named lands are not exceptions to the general rule of boundless multiplicity, but simply the handful this hymn chooses, among countless others, to name outright.
Part 438 Complete
The named buddha-lands and the return to the pore-vision are now given in full. Part 439 turns to what unfolds within every single mote of dust — boundless lands, some pure and some defiled, arising from the karma of every deed, with Vairocana himself seen turning the Dharma-wheel there before entering nirvāṇa through skillful means.
Continue to Part 439 →