The Ten Vows Announced, and the First Four
總標十願；禮敬諸佛、稱讚如來、廣修供養、懺悔業障
Samantabhadra names the ten great vows that crown the entire Flower Garland Sūtra, then unfolds the first four in full: bowing before every buddha in the universe, praising them with a voice more eloquent than a goddess's, offering clouds of incense that yield entirely to a single act of practicing as taught, and confessing evil deeds that, given physical form, could not be contained by the whole of space.
- This part covers
- Samantabhadra's announcement of the ten vows that will structure the rest of this chapter, and the first four of them unfolded in full: paying homage to all buddhas, praising the Tathāgatas, making offerings extensively, and repenting of karmic hindrances.
- Why it matters
- These ten vows are the entire reason this chapter is read on its own, apart from the rest of the Flower Garland Sūtra — a compact summary of the whole bodhisattva path, still recited daily in Chinese monasteries, whose fruit, as later parts of this chapter make explicit, is rebirth in Amitābha's Sukhāvatī at the moment of death.
1. The Ten Vows Announced
爾時，普賢菩薩摩訶薩稱歎如來勝功德已，告諸菩薩及善財言：「善男子！如來功德，假使十方一切諸佛，經不可說不可說佛剎極微塵數劫，相續演說，不可窮盡。若欲成就此功德門，應修十種廣大行願。何等為十？一者、禮敬諸佛，二者、稱讚如來，三者、廣修供養，四者、懺悔業障，五者、隨喜功德，六者、請轉法輪，七者、請佛住世，八者、常隨佛學，九者、恒順眾生，十者、普皆迴向。」善財白言：「大聖！云何禮敬，乃至迴向？」
At that time, the Bodhisattva-Mahāsattva Samantabhadra, having finished praising the Tathāgata's supreme merit, said to the assembled bodhisattvas and to Sudhana: "Good son, the merit of the Tathāgata is such that even if all the buddhas of the ten directions proclaimed it without pause, for as many eons as there are fine motes of dust in buddha-lands beyond number, and beyond number again, it could never be exhausted. If you wish to accomplish this gate of merit, you should cultivate ten kinds of vast and great vows. What are the ten? First, to pay homage to all buddhas. Second, to praise the Tathāgatas. Third, to make offerings extensively. Fourth, to repent of karmic hindrances. Fifth, to rejoice in merit. Sixth, to request the turning of the Dharma wheel. Seventh, to request the buddhas to remain in the world. Eighth, to follow the Buddha's learning always. Ninth, to accord constantly with all sentient beings. Tenth, to dedicate all merit universally." Sudhana said: "Great sage — what do homage, and each vow up to dedication, actually mean?"
Chengguan opens by noting that this tenfold list is not this tradition's only way of counting its own liturgy of confession and aspiration. The Sūtra Requested by Vimalaśraddhā Bodhisattva gives eight items (offering, praise, homage, confession, entreaty, rejoicing, dedication, and vow); the treatise Daśabhūmika-vibhāṣā gives five; the *Mahāprajñāpāramitā Śāstra* reduces the same content to three — homage, praise, and offering being folded together, dedication and vow being treated as one. Chengguan is explicit that this text expands the same underlying content to exactly ten "in order to signify inexhaustibility" (以表無盡): the sixth and seventh vows, requesting the turning of the wheel and requesting the buddhas to remain, are really two forms of a single act of entreaty; the eighth and ninth, following the Buddha's learning and according with beings, are dedication opened outward into its two directions — toward awakening and toward beings. Nothing new is added; an already-complete structure is unfolded into ten, because in Huayan numerology ten is the number that stands for totality itself, the same number used in the Ten Inexhaustible Realms of the Daśabhūmika Sūtra that this text's own closing formula for each vow directly echoes.
2. First Vow — Paying Homage to All Buddhas
普賢菩薩告善財言：「善男子！言禮敬諸佛者：所有盡法界、虛空界十方三世一切佛剎極微塵數諸佛世尊，我以普賢行願力故，起深信解，如對目前，悉以清淨身、語、意業，常修禮敬；一一佛所，皆現不可說不可說佛剎極微塵數身，一一身遍禮不可說不可說佛剎極微塵數佛；虛空界盡，我禮乃盡，而虛空界不可盡故，我此禮敬，無有窮盡。如是乃至眾生界盡、眾生業盡、眾生煩惱盡，我禮乃盡。而眾生界乃至煩惱無有盡故，我此禮敬無有窮盡，念念相續，無有間斷，身、語、意業無有疲厭。」
Samantabhadra Bodhisattva said to Sudhana: "Good son, as for paying homage to all buddhas: toward all the buddhas, the World-Honored Ones, as many as there are fine motes of dust in all buddha-lands of the ten directions and three time periods, filling the whole Dharma realm and the realm of space, I give rise, through the power of Samantabhadra's vows, to deep faith and understanding, as though each one stood before my very eyes; and with body, speech, and mind wholly purified, I constantly pay them homage. Before each and every buddha I manifest bodies beyond number, and beyond number again, and with each and every body I bow before buddhas beyond number, and beyond number again. Only when the realm of space itself is exhausted would my homage be exhausted — but since the realm of space can never be exhausted, this homage of mine can never be exhausted either. And so it continues until the realm of sentient beings is exhausted, their karma is exhausted, and their afflictions are exhausted — only then would my homage be exhausted. But since these, too, can never be exhausted, this homage of mine can never be exhausted either — thought after thought continuing without a break, my deeds of body, speech, and mind never growing weary."
Chengguan devotes unusual care to this first vow, building on a sevenfold classification of bowing set out earlier by the Tang translator-monk Ratnamati and expanding it into ten. The first two are named only to be rejected as no bow at all: the "arrogant bow" (我慢禮), moving up and down like a pestle pounding rice with no reverence behind it, and the "chanting-in-unison bow," loud, disordered, its words slurred together in the crowd. Real bowing begins at the third: the "reverent bow," all five limbs — knees, hands, and head — touching the ground, cradling the feet of the one bowed to. From there the ten kinds climb through increasingly refined understandings of what a bow actually is: the "markless bow," penetrating the empty nature of phenomena until no notion of a bower or a bowed-to remains; the bow that "rises into function," body and mind moving everywhere like a reflection, bowing to what strictly cannot be bowed to; the "inward-contemplation bow," which stops looking outward altogether and bows only to the true buddha within one's own dharma-body; the "bow of true reality," in which inner and outer collapse into a single reality; the "great-compassion bow," in which a single bow is understood to be offered, at the same instant, on behalf of every sentient being at once, since self and other share one body of compassion; the "all-gathering bow," fusing every refinement above into one contemplation; and finally the "inexhaustible bow" — bowing that enters Indra's Net, where each buddha and each bow reflects every other buddha and every other bow, without end. Chengguan reads this vow's own language of endless bodies bowing before endless buddhas as a direct description of exactly this tenth and highest kind.
3. Second Vow — Praising the Tathāgatas
「復次，善男子！言稱讚如來者：所有盡法界、虛空界十方三世一切剎土所有極微一一塵中，皆有一切世界極微塵數佛，一一佛所皆有菩薩海會圍遶，我當悉以甚深勝解，現前知見；各以出過辯才天女微妙舌根，一一舌根出無盡音聲海，一一音聲出一切言辭海，稱揚讚歎一切如來諸功德海，窮未來際相續不斷，盡於法界無不周遍。如是虛空界盡、眾生界盡、眾生業盡、眾生煩惱盡，我讚乃盡。而虛空界乃至煩惱無有盡故，我此讚歎無有窮盡，念念相續，無有間斷，身、語、意業無有疲厭。」
"Furthermore, good son, as for praising the Tathāgatas: within every single fine mote of dust that fills the whole Dharma realm and the realm of space, throughout every land of the ten directions and three time periods, there are buddhas as numerous as the fine motes of dust in all worlds, and before each and every buddha there is a vast, ocean-like assembly of bodhisattvas gathered round. With the deepest and most excellent understanding I bring them all before my direct knowledge and vision; and with a tongue more wondrous than that of the very goddess of eloquence, from each and every tongue I send forth an inexhaustible ocean of voices, and from each and every voice I send forth an ocean of every kind of word, extolling and praising the ocean of merit of every Tathāgata, continuing without a break to the very end of future time, filling the whole Dharma realm without exception. And so it continues until the realm of space is exhausted, the realm of sentient beings is exhausted, their karma is exhausted, and their afflictions are exhausted — only then would my praise be exhausted. But since these can never be exhausted, this praise of mine can never be exhausted either — thought after thought continuing without a break, my deeds of body, speech, and mind never growing weary."
Chengguan pauses on a phrase easy to read past: the tongue "more wondrous" than that of the goddess of eloquence (辯才天女, Sarasvatī), whom the Sūtra of Golden Light already describes as able to grant Buddha-level eloquence to anyone who asks. He raises the objection himself: if her eloquence is already at the furthest possible extreme, with nothing beyond it, how can this vow speak of "surpassing" her at all? His answer is that the line is not a literal metaphysical claim ranking one being's speech above another's — it is Samantabhadra's own skillful device, worded exactly this way to provoke the practitioner into forming the single most excellent aspiration imaginable, refusing to let the mind settle for any lesser image of eloquence, even one already described in scripture as unsurpassed. The extravagance of the language is the point: it is aimed at the aspiration it produces in the one who recites it, not at a comparison that could be settled either way.
4. Third Vow — Making Offerings Extensively
「復次，善男子！言廣修供養者：所有盡法界、虛空界十方三世一切佛剎極微塵中，一一各有一切世界極微塵數佛，一一佛所種種菩薩海會圍遶，我以普賢行願力故，起深信解，現前知見，悉以上妙諸供養具而為供養。所謂：華雲、鬘雲、天音樂雲、天傘蓋雲、天衣服雲、天種種香、塗香、燒香、末香，如是等雲，一一量如須彌山王；然種種燈，酥燈、油燈、諸香油燈，一一燈炷如須彌山，一一燈油如大海水，以如是等諸供養具常為供養。善男子！諸供養中，法供養最。所謂：如說修行供養、利益眾生供養、攝受眾生供養、代眾生苦供養、勤修善根供養、不捨菩薩業供養、不離菩提心供養。善男子！如前供養無量功德，比法供養一念功德百分不及一，千分不及一，百千俱胝那由他分、迦羅分、算分、數分、諭分、優婆尼沙陀分亦不及一。何以故？以諸如來尊重法故，以如說修行出生諸佛故。若諸菩薩行法供養，則得成就供養如來，如是修行是真供養故。此廣大最勝供養虛空界盡、眾生界盡、眾生業盡、眾生煩惱盡，我供乃盡。而虛空界乃至煩惱不可盡故，我此供養亦無有盡，念念相續，無有間斷，身、語、意業無有疲厭。」
"Furthermore, good son, as for making offerings extensively: within every fine mote of dust of every buddha-land that fills the whole Dharma realm and the realm of space, throughout the ten directions and three time periods, there are, in each and every one, buddhas as numerous as the fine motes of dust in all worlds, and before each and every buddha there are many kinds of ocean-like assemblies of bodhisattvas gathered round. Through the power of Samantabhadra's vows I give rise to deep faith and understanding, bring them all before my direct knowledge and vision, and make offerings to them all with the finest and most excellent offerings of every kind — clouds of flowers, clouds of garlands, clouds of heavenly music, clouds of heavenly parasols, clouds of heavenly garments, every kind of heavenly incense, ointment incense, burning incense, and powdered incense — clouds of these, each one as vast as Sumeru, king of mountains; and lighting every kind of lamp, ghee lamps, oil lamps, lamps of every fragrant oil, each wick as tall as Mount Sumeru, each lamp's oil as vast as the great ocean — I constantly make offerings of this kind. "Good son, among all offerings, the offering of the Dharma is foremost: the offering of practicing exactly as taught, the offering of benefiting sentient beings, the offering of gathering in sentient beings, the offering of bearing sentient beings' suffering in their place, the offering of diligently cultivating roots of goodness, the offering of never abandoning the bodhisattva's task, and the offering of never straying from the mind of awakening. Good son, the immeasurable merit of the offerings described above does not equal even a hundredth part — not a thousandth part, not one part in a hundred thousand koṭi-nayutas, not one part reckoned by any fraction or calculation — of the merit of a single thought of the offering of the Dharma. Why is this? Because all Tathāgatas hold the Dharma in reverence, and because it is by practicing exactly as taught that buddhas themselves come into being. If bodhisattvas carry out the offering of the Dharma, they thereby accomplish the true offering to the Tathāgatas — for practice of this kind is the genuine offering. This vast and supreme offering, too, would only be exhausted when the realm of space is exhausted, the realm of sentient beings is exhausted, their karma is exhausted, and their afflictions are exhausted. But since these can never be exhausted, this offering of mine can never be exhausted either — thought after thought continuing without a break, my deeds of body, speech, and mind never growing weary."
Chengguan reads the structure of this vow as deliberately lopsided: an enormous catalogue of material offerings — clouds of incense and flowers each the size of Mount Sumeru, lamp-oil measured by the ocean — set up only to be outweighed, entirely, by a single thought given to the sevenfold offering of the Dharma. He is careful to note that the text does not merely rank the Dharma offering higher; it states that the largest imaginable material offering does not equal one part in a hundred thousand koṭi-nayutas — a number chosen precisely because it exceeds ordinary reckoning — of a single mind-moment's Dharma offering. His explanation of why turns on the phrase "practicing exactly as taught gives rise to buddhas" (如說修行出生諸佛): material offerings honor buddhas who already exist, but practicing the teaching is the very causal process by which buddhahood itself comes to be, in the offerer's own life. A gift, however vast, honors an already-completed result; practice generates the result. This is also, on Chengguan's reading, why "offering" here quietly stops being a matter of objects handed to someone else at all — the seven items that make up the Dharma offering (right practice, benefiting beings, gathering them in, bearing their suffering, cultivating roots of goodness, not abandoning the bodhisattva's task, not straying from the mind of awakening) are simply the whole of bodhisattva conduct, described under the name "offering" because that is what a bodhisattva's own life becomes when there is nothing left in it apart from this practice.
5. Fourth Vow — Repenting of Karmic Hindrances
「復次，善男子！言懺悔業障者：菩薩自念：我於過去無始劫中，由貪、瞋、癡發身、口、意，作諸惡業無量無邊。若此惡業有體相者，盡虛空界不能容受。我今悉以清淨三業，遍於法界極微塵剎一切諸佛菩薩眾前，誠心懺悔，後不復造，恒住淨戒一切功德。如是虛空界盡、眾生界盡、眾生業盡、眾生煩惱盡，我懺乃盡。而虛空界乃至眾生煩惱不可盡故，我此懺悔無有窮盡，念念相續，無有間斷，身、語、意業無有疲厭。」
"Furthermore, good son, as for repenting of karmic hindrances: the bodhisattva reflects thus — 'In the beginningless eons of the past, driven by greed, hatred, and delusion, I have given rise, through body, speech, and mind, to evil deeds immeasurable and boundless. Were these evil deeds to take on physical form, the whole of space itself could not contain them.' Now, with my three deeds of body, speech, and mind wholly purified, before every buddha and bodhisattva throughout the fine motes of dust of every land in the Dharma realm, I confess and repent with a sincere heart, vowing never to commit them again, and abide forever in the merit of every pure precept. And so it continues until the realm of space is exhausted, the realm of sentient beings is exhausted, their karma is exhausted, and their afflictions are exhausted — only then would my repentance be exhausted. But since these can never be exhausted, this repentance of mine can never be exhausted either — thought after thought continuing without a break, my deeds of body, speech, and mind never growing weary."
Chengguan opens with the word itself: chan (懺) transliterates the Sanskrit kṣama, "please forgive" or "please bear with" — an entreaty addressed outward, to the three jewels, asking them to tolerate one's wrongdoing; hui (悔), by contrast, is native Chinese, meaning to regret and resolve not to repeat what is past. Compounded, the two halves of the word carry both directions at once: an appeal for forgiveness, and a genuine change of heart. He then distinguishes three kinds of repentance, of increasing depth: "suppressing" repentance (伏業懺), which prevents dormant karma from ripening at all; "redirecting" repentance (轉業懺), the vow that even karma already fixed to ripen will not be met with suffering in this body; and "extinguishing" repentance (滅業懺), which works directly on the root affliction itself. For this deepest kind he offers an image worth sitting with: karmic wrongdoing is like a room that has sat in darkness — repentance is the lamp brought into it, and a lamp does not need to negotiate with how long the room has been dark before it dispels that darkness completely, the instant it is lit. He also names the "three hindrances" this vow addresses, drawn from the Sūtra of Buddha-Names: affliction, karma, and the retribution that karma ripens into — and notes that all three are said to fall away together once genuine repentance of this kind is undertaken, down to the subtlest of the eighty-four thousand forms of mental defilement.