The Ten Vows in Verse
以偈重頌十大願王
Samantabhadra sets the prose aside and restates every one of the ten vows in verse — thirty-eight compact, four-line stanzas, moving from bowing before every buddha in the universe through a bodhisattva's power to compress every eon into a single thought.
- This part covers
- The first thirty-eight of this chapter's closing verses, restating all ten vows: homage, praise, and offering; confession, rejoicing, and the two requests; following the Buddha's learning and according with all beings; and the opening movement of the tenth vow's extended verse on dedication, ending in a catalogue of a bodhisattva's boundless powers.
- Why it matters
- This verse does not simply repeat the prose in a different meter — its own internal structure, as Chengguan's commentary shows, treats only seven of the ten vows as independent topics before folding the last three into a single extended meditation on dedication, confirming in verse form the very structure his prose commentary had already proposed.
1. Homage, Praise, and Offering in Verse
所有十方世界中， 三世一切人師子， 我以清淨身語意， 一切遍禮盡無餘。 普賢行願威神力， 普現一切如來前， 一身復現剎塵身， 一一遍禮剎塵佛。 於一塵中塵數佛， 各處菩薩眾會中， 無盡法界塵亦然， 深信諸佛皆充滿。 各以一切音聲海， 普出無盡妙言辭， 盡於未來一切劫， 讚佛甚深功德海。 以諸最勝妙華鬘， 伎樂塗香及傘蓋， 如是最勝莊嚴具， 我以供養諸如來。 最勝衣服最勝香， 末香燒香與燈燭， 一一皆如妙高聚， 我悉供養諸如來。 我以廣大勝解心， 深信一切三世佛， 悉以普賢行願力， 普遍供養諸如來。
Throughout all the worlds of the ten directions, to every lion among humankind in all three times, with body, speech, and mind made wholly pure, I bow before them all, leaving none out. By the majestic power of Samantabhadra's vows, I appear before every tathāgata at once; from a single body I manifest bodies as numerous as motes of dust in every land, and with every one of them I bow before buddhas as numerous as those motes of dust. Within a single mote of dust are buddhas as many as motes of dust, each dwelling amid an assembly of bodhisattvas; and so it is in every mote of dust throughout the boundless Dharma realm — my deep faith holds them all, filling every one. With oceans of every kind of voice, I send forth oceans of wondrous, inexhaustible words, continuing through every eon yet to come, praising the ocean of the buddhas' profound merit. With every finest flower and garland, with music, ointment incense, and parasols — with adornments of this supreme kind, I make my offering to every tathāgata. With the finest robes and the finest incense, with powdered incense, burning incense, and lamps, each one as vast as Sumeru's peak, I offer all of these to every tathāgata. With a mind of vast and excellent understanding, believing deeply in every buddha of the three times, through the very power of Samantabhadra's vows, I make offerings everywhere, to every tathāgata.
Chengguan opens the verse section by explaining, in terms handed down from earlier commentators, why a sūtra so often restates its own prose teaching in verse immediately afterward rather than simply moving on. He gives four traditional reasons: first, for the benefit of those not present to hear the prose the first time; second, for those who did hear it but did not yet understand, giving the teaching a second chance to land; third, because prose necessarily compresses what verse is free to unfold at greater length; and fourth, because verse is simply easier to memorize and carry forward, and a teaching meant to be upheld and recited benefits from a form built for exactly that.
He also flags, right at the start, that this verse's own structure does not map cleanly onto the ten vows announced in the prose: it gives independent treatment to only seven of them — the seven translated across this part — before folding the remaining three, following the Buddha's learning, according with sentient beings, and dedication, into a single extended meditation on dedication that runs for the rest of this chapter's verse. This confirms, in the verse's own architecture, exactly what his prose commentary on the tenth vow had already proposed: the eighth and ninth vows are dedication's two directions, outward toward awakening and outward toward beings, opened out for the sake of reaching the number ten.
2. Confession, Rejoicing, and Two Requests in Verse
我昔所造諸惡業， 皆由無始貪恚癡， 從身語意之所生， 一切我今皆懺悔。 十方一切諸眾生， 二乘有學及無學， 一切如來與菩薩， 所有功德皆隨喜。 十方所有世間燈， 最初成就菩提者， 我今一切皆勸請， 轉於無上妙法輪。 諸佛若欲示涅槃， 我悉至誠而勸請， 唯願久住剎塵劫， 利樂一切諸眾生。 所有禮讚供養福， 請佛住世轉法輪， 隨喜懺悔諸善根， 迴向眾生及佛道。
Every evil deed I have committed in ages past, born of beginningless greed, hatred, and delusion, arising through body, speech, and mind — all of it, I now confess and repent in full. Toward every sentient being of the ten directions, toward the two vehicles, those still learning and those beyond it, toward every tathāgata and every bodhisattva — toward all their merit, I rejoice completely. Toward every lamp of the world in the ten directions, each the very first to accomplish awakening, I now entreat every one of them to turn the unsurpassed and wondrous wheel of the Dharma. Should any buddha wish to manifest entry into nirvana, I entreat them with utmost sincerity: may they remain for eons as many as the motes of dust in a buddha-land, to benefit and bring joy to every sentient being. All the merit of homage, praise, and offering, of requesting the buddhas to remain and to turn the wheel of the Dharma, of rejoicing and of repentance — every root of goodness — I dedicate to sentient beings, and to the path of awakening.
Chengguan's line-by-line commentary on these stanzas shows how much doctrinal structure a single four-line unit is built to carry. He reads the confession verse's first line as naming what is being confessed, the second as identifying its cause (greed, hatred, and delusion, reaching back to beginningless time), the third as naming the actual means by which it was carried out (body, speech, and mind), and only the fourth line as the act of confession itself — four lines of seven characters each parsed as four distinct doctrinal moves: object, cause, instrument, and act. He reads the rejoicing and two-request verses the same way, each line assigned a specific grammatical and doctrinal function in turn. The final stanza here, dedicating the merit of everything so far to "sentient beings and the path of awakening," is Chengguan's own marker for the structural turn noted in the previous section: from this point on, the verse stops treating each vow as a separate topic and folds everything remaining into one continuous meditation on dedication.
3. Following the Buddha and According with Beings in Verse
我隨一切如來學， 修習普賢圓滿行， 供養過去諸如來， 及與現在十方佛。 未來一切天人師， 一切意樂皆圓滿， 我願普隨三世學， 速得成就大菩提。 所有十方一切剎， 廣大清淨妙莊嚴， 眾會圍遶諸如來， 悉在菩提樹王下。 十方所有諸眾生， 願離憂患常安樂， 獲得甚深正法利， 滅除煩惱盡無餘。 我為菩提修行時， 一切趣中成宿命， 常得出家修淨戒， 無垢無破無穿漏。 天龍夜叉鳩槃荼， 乃至人與非人等， 所有一切眾生語， 悉以諸音而說法。 勤修清淨波羅蜜， 恒不忘失菩提心， 滅除障垢無有餘， 一切妙行皆成就。 於諸惑業及魔境， 世間道中得解脫， 猶如蓮華不著水， 亦如日月不住空。 悉除一切惡道苦， 等與一切群生樂， 如是經於剎塵劫， 十方利益恒無盡。 我常隨順諸眾生， 盡於未來一切劫， 恒修普賢廣大行， 圓滿無上大菩提。
I follow the learning of every tathāgata, cultivating Samantabhadra's practice to its very fullness, making offerings to every buddha of the past and to every buddha now present in the ten directions. Toward every future teacher of humans and heavenly beings, whose every aspiration will come to complete fulfillment, I vow to follow the learning of the three times entirely, and swiftly accomplish great awakening. In every buddha-land throughout the ten directions, vast, pure, and wondrously adorned, assemblies gather around every tathāgata, all beneath the king of bodhi trees. For all sentient beings of the ten directions, I wish them free of sorrow and affliction, forever at peace, gaining the deep benefit of the true Dharma, their afflictions extinguished entirely, without remainder. As I practice for the sake of awakening, in every realm of rebirth I will recall my past lives, always able to go forth and keep pure precepts, without stain, without breach, without any flaw at all. To the heavenly beings, dragons, yakṣas, and kumbhāṇḍas, and to humans and non-humans alike, in every language spoken by every sentient being, I will teach the Dharma, in every one of their own voices. Diligently cultivating the pure perfections, never forgetting the mind of awakening, extinguishing every defiling hindrance without remainder, I will bring every excellent practice to accomplishment. From every affliction, every karmic deed, and every demonic realm, I will find liberation in the very path of this world — like a lotus flower untouched by the water it grows in, like the sun and moon that never linger in the sky. Removing entirely the suffering of every lower realm, granting equally to every being its happiness, and so continuing through eons as many as the motes of dust in a buddha-land, I will bring benefit to the ten directions, without end. I will forever accord with every sentient being, to the very end of every eon yet to come, always cultivating Samantabhadra's vast and great practice, until unsurpassed, great awakening is brought to its fullness.
Chengguan notices that the verse on according with sentient beings opens, unexpectedly, with a stanza about buddha-lands and buddha-assemblies before it ever mentions a sentient being at all — and he raises the objection this invites: if this vow is supposed to be about beings, why does it begin by praising buddhas? His answer repeats, in one line, the teaching his prose commentary had already developed at length: "to accord with sentient beings is itself to accord with the buddhas" — the same claim grounded earlier in the image of the ocean that mirrors the whole world within itself without the reflected world ever being separate from the water holding it. Placing the buddhas first, on this reading, is not a change of subject but a reminder of what the vow is actually about to say: that honoring beings was never a lesser, secondary devotion running alongside honoring buddhas, but the same devotion, seen from the only angle where the two could ever look different.
4. Dedication in Verse: The Bodhisattva's Boundless Powers
所有與我同行者， 於一切處同集會， 身口意業皆同等， 一切行願同修學。 所有益我善知識， 為我顯示普賢行， 常願與我同集會， 於我常生歡喜心。 願常面見諸如來， 及諸佛子眾圍遶， 於彼皆興廣大供， 盡未來劫無疲厭。 願持諸佛微妙法， 光顯一切菩提行， 究竟清淨普賢道， 盡未來劫常修習。 我於一切諸有中， 所修福智恒無盡， 定慧方便及解脫， 獲諸無盡功德藏。 一塵中有塵數剎， 一一剎有難思佛， 一一佛處眾會中， 我見恒演菩提行。 普盡十方諸剎海， 一一毛端三世海， 佛海及與國土海， 我遍修行經劫海。 一切如來語清淨， 一言具眾音聲海， 隨諸眾生意樂音， 一一流佛辯才海。 三世一切諸如來， 於彼無盡語言海， 恒轉理趣妙法輪， 我深智力普能入。 我能深入於未來， 盡一切劫為一念， 三世所有一切劫， 為一念際我皆入。 我於一念見三世， 所有一切人師子， 亦常入佛境界中， 如幻解脫及威力。 於一毛端極微中， 出現三世莊嚴剎， 十方塵剎諸毛端， 我皆深入而嚴淨。 所有未來照世燈， 成道轉法悟群有， 究竟佛事示涅槃， 我皆往詣而親近。 速疾周遍神通力， 普門遍入大乘力， 智行普修功德力， 威神普覆大慈力， 遍淨莊嚴勝福力， 無著無依智慧力， 定慧方便諸威力， 普能積集菩提力， 清淨一切善業力， 摧滅一切煩惱力， 降伏一切諸魔力， 圓滿普賢諸行力。 普能嚴淨諸剎海， 解脫一切眾生海， 善能分別諸法海， 能甚深入智慧海， 普能清淨諸行海， 圓滿一切諸願海， 親近供養諸佛海， 修行無倦經劫海。 三世一切諸如來， 最勝菩提諸行願， 我皆供養圓滿修， 以普賢行悟菩提。
May all who practice together with me gather together with me in every place; may our deeds of body, speech, and mind be equal in every way, and every practice and vow be learned and cultivated together. May every good and wise friend who benefits me, who shows me Samantabhadra's practice, always wish to gather together with me, and always feel joy in my presence. May I forever behold every tathāgata, surrounded by the assemblies of all the buddhas' children; toward them all, I will raise up vast offerings, to the very end of future eons, never growing weary. May I uphold every buddha's subtle and wondrous Dharma, and bring every practice of awakening to light; to the very end of future eons, I will always cultivate the utterly pure path of Samantabhadra. Amid every kind of existence, the merit and wisdom I cultivate will never be exhausted; through meditative stability, wisdom, skillful means, and liberation, I will obtain every inexhaustible treasury of merit. Within a single mote of dust are lands as numerous as motes of dust, and in every one of those lands are buddhas beyond conception; before every buddha, amid the assembly, I see them forever proclaiming the practice of awakening. Throughout every ocean of lands in all ten directions, upon the very tip of every single hair, are oceans of the three times; oceans of buddhas and oceans of buddha-lands — through all of them I practice, passing through oceans of eons. The speech of every tathāgata is utterly pure; a single word contains within it an ocean of every kind of voice, and according to the pleasure and inclination of every sentient being, from each one flows an ocean of the buddhas' own eloquence. Every tathāgata of the three times, within that inexhaustible ocean of speech, forever turns the wondrous wheel of the Dharma's own principle, and I, through the power of my deepest wisdom, am able to enter it fully. I am able to enter deeply into all time yet to come, compressing every eon into a single thought; and every eon that exists across the three times, I enter completely, within that single thought-moment. Within a single thought I see the three times, and every lion among humankind who dwells in them; and I constantly enter the very state of the buddhas, with their illusion-like liberation and majestic power. Within the very tip of a single hair, the finest of the fine, appear the adorned lands of the three times; and into the tip of every hair in every land of the ten directions, I enter deeply, and purify them all. Toward every lamp who will illuminate the world in ages to come, who will accomplish the path, turn the Dharma, and awaken every being, and who, having completed the buddhas' work, will manifest nirvana, I will go, and draw near to every one. Through the power of swift and all-pervading spiritual mastery, through the power of the Great Vehicle entering every gate everywhere, through the power of wisdom and practice cultivated universally, through the power of majestic might that shelters all with great compassion, through the power of merit that adorns and purifies all things completely, through the power of wisdom that clings to nothing and depends on nothing, through every power of meditative stability, wisdom, and skillful means, through the power to gather boundless awakening completely, through the power that purifies every wholesome deed, through the power that destroys every affliction utterly, through the power that subdues every army of Māra completely — I bring every power of Samantabhadra's practice to its fullness. Through the power to purify perfectly every ocean of lands, to liberate every ocean of sentient beings, to skillfully discern every ocean of Dharma teachings, and to enter deeply every ocean of wisdom; to purify perfectly every ocean of practice, to bring to fulfillment every ocean of vows, to draw near and make offerings to every ocean of buddhas, and to practice without weariness through every ocean of eons. Toward every tathāgata of the three times, and their most excellent practices and vows of awakening, I make offerings to every one and cultivate them to completion, and through Samantabhadra's practice, awaken to bodhi.
Chengguan traces this whole extended verse — by this point thirty stanzas restating what the prose covered as the eighth, ninth, and tenth vows together — back to a different, older "ten vows" elsewhere in the Avataṃsaka: the ten great vows of a bodhisattva's First Ground, the Ground of Joy, taught in this sūtra's own chapter on the ten bodhisattva grounds (十地品). That earlier list runs: to make offerings, to uphold the Dharma, to request the turning of the wheel, to cultivate the twofold benefit of self and others, to ripen sentient beings, to serve the buddhas, to purify buddha-lands, never to be separated from the buddhas, to bring benefit to all beings, and to accomplish perfect awakening. Chengguan maps this vow-king's own remaining stanzas onto that older sequence one by one — the stanza on always meeting one's fellow practitioners and good teachers, for instance, corresponds to that list's vow "never to be separated from the buddhas," and the closing catalogue of a bodhisattva's boundless powers corresponds to its vow of ripening sentient beings through every possible skillful means.
The point, on his reading, is not merely a cross-reference for its own sake: it shows that the tenfold shape of this entire chapter is not an isolated invention of the "vow-king," but a deliberate echo of a numerological pattern already fixed elsewhere in the Avataṃsaka's own architecture — one more instance of this sūtra using the number ten, across its many layers, as its own settled sign for a totality that leaves nothing out.