I Now Speak Only a Small Portion
The hymn continues: within every single mote of dust, some see boundless lands, some pure and some defiled, all arising from the karma of every deed. Some see Vairocana there, turning the Dharma-wheel, manifesting sovereign power, and, through skillful means, entering nirvāṇa. Observing every class of sentient being, every one of their karmas and afflictions, he manifests sovereign power, transforming them so that they attain liberation. Such Dharma-kings as these, throughout the worlds of the ten directions, manifest sovereign power — and I now speak only the smallest portion of it.
Pure and Defiled Alike, Arising From Karma's Own Deeds
「或於一一塵， 悉見無量剎，
或淨或垢穢， 諸行業所起，
或見盧舍那， 於彼轉法輪，
顯現自在力， 方便入涅槃。
觀察眾生類， 一切業煩惱，
顯現自在力， 化之令解脫。
如是諸法王， 十方世界中，
顯現自在力， 我今說少分。」
"Within every single mote of dust, some see boundless lands,
Some pure and some defiled, all arising from the karma of every deed;
Some see Vairocana there, turning the Dharma-wheel,
Manifesting sovereign power, and, through skillful means, entering nirvāṇa.
Observing every class of sentient being, every one of their karmas and afflictions,
He manifests sovereign power, transforming them so that they attain liberation.
Such Dharma-kings as these, throughout the worlds of the ten directions,
Manifest sovereign power — and I now speak only the smallest portion of it."
Samantabhadra's own closing admission here — "I now speak only the smallest portion of it" — is a striking rhetorical gesture occurring in the very midst of what already reads as one of the most expansive catalogues in the entire sūtra: having just named six specific buddha-lands and described boundless pore-emanations, he explicitly disclaims any completeness even now. Fazang reads this disclaimer as the hymn's own honest acknowledgment of a limit inherent to language itself rather than false modesty — no verse, however vast, could exhaustively describe what is by its own nature boundless, and the hymn's continuing length that follows should be understood as illustrative sampling rather than any attempt at a complete inventory.
Part 439 Complete
This stretch of the hymn is now given in full. Part 440 turns to a new focus: the hymn's own extended retelling of Śākyamuni's complete life story, from his very first attainment of correct awakening through every stage of the bodhisattva path that led to it.
Continue to Part 440 →