讚法界頌

I take refuge in the Buddhas of the ten directions,

The Dharmakāya and the Saṃbhogakāya.

I vow together with all sentient beings

To swiftly accomplish the nature of the Dharmadhātu.

The cycle of saṃsāra in the three evil paths—

The principle of the Dharmadhātu brings it to rest.

Originally and ever pure,

The marks cannot be parted from it.

Quiescent like empty space,

It is everywhere, pervading all.

Its essence is free of "that" and "this,"

Neither deep nor shallow.

When it has not yet become curds,

In the ghee no sight is found.

When the afflictions are not yet wholly ended,

The Dharmadhātu does not flow forth.

Like the sourness within milk,

The root of sourness becomes something fine.

The Dharmadhātu is veiled by afflictions,

Yet complete in its pure essence.

Like a lamp that is obstructed,

It cannot shine upon outer things.

Ignorance ever veils the mind,

And the Dharmadhātu is not clearly known.

Like a lamp freed from obstruction,

Everywhere things are made bright.

When the afflictions are destroyed,

True Suchness is forever made manifest.

In beginning, middle, and final end,

The two obscurations cannot disturb it.

Pure like a vaiḍūrya jewel,

It ever shines forth bright and fair.

When the light of an object is veiled,

Covered in darkness, the brightness is unseen.

The Dharmadhātu is veiled by afflictions,

And the principle of True Suchness is hard to manifest.

The perfectly quiescent essence, luminous and clear,

Saṃsāra cannot defile it.

Diligently seek within the Dharmadhātu—

Saṃsāra cannot veil it.

Like rice grains concealed by husk and chaff,

The substance of the rice is not absent.

The afflictions veil True Suchness,

Yet True Suchness has its afflictions.

Like rice already cleansed of chaff,

The substance of the rice is naturally seen.

If one parts from the husk of afflictions,

The principle of the Dharmadhātu at once appears.

The deluded grasping of the world

Is like the plantain tree—ultimately unreal.

The Dharmadhātu is not the world,

And again no falseness is found in it.

Like a person who drinks sweet water,

All feverish torment is cleansed and dissolved.

If one realizes the nature of the Dharmadhātu,

The fever of afflictions is wholly cast off.

When the afflictions are extinguished,

The sweet dew of the Dharmadhātu appears.

Within all sentient beings,

High and low are equal alike.

The true essence—its fruit is not born;

Where grasping is sown, no fruit exists.

When wisdom arises,

The conditioned is not the Dharmadhātu.

The Dharmadhātu has originally no place,

Yet ultimately it can be realized.

Pure, ever luminous and clear,

Sun and moon both shine forth distinct.

The Dharmadhātu is neither defiled nor pure,

Like a dragon raining dust by night.

How much more the face of Rāhula—

Bright and clear, it ever shines forth.

It is like fire that soaks a cloth:

In the fire it can part from defilement;

The filth is gone, yet the cloth remains,

And its radiance turns to brightness.

Craving and desire defile the mind,

And through falseness comes saṃsāra.

Again, like fire that soaks a cloth—

In the truly empty, no falseness exists.

The three poisons are the root of birth and death;

The fire of wisdom can burn them away.

The essence of the Dharmadhātu is ever-abiding,

And of course ever shines forth wondrously.

The defilement of afflictions is called filth,

As the World-Honored One ever taught.

When the impurity is removed, True Suchness appears,

Like a spring within the earth.

The essence of the Dharmadhātu is undefiled;

The root accordingly gathers and accumulates.

If one removes the afflictions,

Its purity and beauty are beyond reckoning.

The Dharmadhātu is rooted in no-self,

Beyond the two forms and male and female.

Its essence is empty, and grasping is false;

In whatever place, then ponder this.

The Dharmadhātu is free of anger and love;

Faculties, objects, and realms are originally empty.

False grasping is taken as the cause,

And from this distinctions arise.

In the truly empty there is no suffering or torment;

Craving is the cause of suffering and torment.

Attachment and defilement come from false thought,

The three realms, and saṃsāra.

While the embryo dwells within the womb,

The child cannot yet be spoken of as seen.

The two obscurations veil True Suchness,

And the Dharmadhātu cannot be realized.

All manner of doubts arise—

Wrong views of self, and hatred.

False natures returned to truth and reality,

Yet in truth and reality nothing exists.

A rabbit's horn is fundamentally unreal,

Yet false grasping takes it for the real.

The Dharmadhātu is free of false grasping;

In false grasping nothing real exists.

As when color is at once broken apart,

The fine motes can be discerned—

The Dharmadhātu cannot be broken apart,

In the three times it cannot be found.

What has birth has also cessation,

And glory and disgrace follow accordingly.

The Dharmadhātu neither arises nor ceases—

How then can one speak of a place to clearly know?

A rabbit's horn fundamentally has no existence,

Yet in the three times it can be discerned.

The truly empty is no rabbit's horn;

Pondering, it cannot be known.

The truly empty is called the Well-Gone One;

Form and marks are all lost.

Manifestation and transformation follow conditions;

Cultivate the cause, free of grasping at emptiness.

Perfect and pervading like sun and moon,

When water appears, the reflections are all alike.

Form and sound, both are lost;

What distinction could there be?

In the three times there is pondering;

The conditions of birth are then determined.

If one understands this body of Dharma,

How then could this body exist?

Like water in a hot place,

That heat—clearly it is empty.

In winter it is just the same;

Perfect pervasion is all like this.

The mind is ever veiled by afflictions,

Deluded and confused, unable to be clear.

If one parts from the bonds of affliction,

Even enlightenment too is absent.

As the eye sees colors,

Free of obstruction, it can shine bright—

The principle of the truly empty is likewise,

Shining bright, free of birth and cessation.

The ear-consciousness hears within sounds,

Free of falseness and discrimination.

The nature of the Dharmadhātu is likewise—

Discrimination is false, and nothing exists.

The nose can smell the various scents,

Yet in false grasping the nature does not exist.

Form and marks, both are empty,

And the truly empty is likewise.

The tongue-faculty is by self-nature empty,

And those scents are ever far removed.

Consciousness is empty, and the essence is likewise;

The principle of the Dharmadhātu is just so.

The body-faculty is by self-nature pure,

Cold and heat, touch—they do not exist.

The principle of the Dharmadhātu is likewise,

Forever far removed from touch.

When mind takes dharmas as conditions, they are called existent,

Yet their self-nature is ever far removed.

The nature of all dharmas is originally empty;

Perfect pervasion—the principle is just so.

Seeing, hearing, and clear knowing,

The corresponding dharmas too are absent.

Clearly knowing the various false thoughts,

Seeing and hearing—their principle too is absent.

From faculties and objects arises false grasping,

Yet the pure essence is originally empty.

In delusion one grasps at faculties and objects existing,

Yet in principle faculties and objects do not exist.

The worldly and the world-transcending—

In emptiness of nature, fundamentally not differing.

Self and dharmas arise from delusion;

Pervasive imagining itself revolves in saṃsāra.

The principle of the Dharmadhātu is pure;

Greed, hatred, and delusion are fundamentally empty.

Delusion and awakening arise from the mind;

The dharma of the three poisons is unreal.

Deluded grasping binds oneself;

Clearly knowing reality and false names—

Bodhi is neither near nor far,

And in the three times the principle has no existence.

Afflictions are erring deluded grasping,

As the World-Honored One has thus taught.

When wisdom arises, defilement is lost;

Let false grasping not bind you fast.

Coming and going pervade beyond all;

The essence is empty, yet can be pondered.

Bodhi is not false grasping;

Realization too is clearly empty.

Water and milk together in one place—

Drink at once, and the milk is unmixed.

In the emptiness of beings, afflictions depart;

The two obscurations too are unmixed.

False grasping—self is neither nor non-being;

When understood thoroughly, fundamentally nothing exists.

Nirvāṇa, the pure principle—

Neither of the two extremes is established.

The three vegetarian offerings, given freely;

The precepts are free of better and worse.

Patience—its cause is the fruit of uprightness;

Vigor, strong, is relied upon.

Meditative concentration brings the mind to peace;

Prajñā is clear and beyond doubt.

With vows and the strength of skillful means,

One dwells securely in the realm of Bodhi.

Bodhi is hard to repay falsely;

In the truly empty, there is no birth and cessation.

Understand thoroughly that the original nature is empty—

Not even a single mark exists.

Milk and sugar, parted from sweetness and honey—

Parted from sweetness, the sugar does not exist.

The three vehicles in the realm of Bodhi,

Parted from the root, the essence does not exist.

Guard well the seed-grain of rice,

And the sprout will surely arise through conditions.

Guard well the seed of Bodhi,

And Bodhi will arise from this.

Like a month without a moon,

Its light cannot yet be seen—

Sentient beings, bound by afflictions,

True Suchness is not yet clearly manifest.

The light of the moon at its beginning

Gradually grows fully bright;

At the first ground one realizes Bodhi,

Yet Bodhi is not yet perfectly complete.

On the fifteenth day the moon is full,

And everywhere its light shines forth.

Liberation manifests the Dharmakāya;

The principle of the Dharmakāya lacks nothing.

When defilement corresponds with the mind,

The tight bonds all arise and are lost.

Liberated from every obstruction,

In the three times one awakens to being and non-being.

At the first, the great assembly is complete;

The three offerings, cultivated everywhere.

Cutting off the obscuration of discrimination—

The wisdom of joy is hard to attain.

When the three karmas err and transgress together,

Guard against the heavy and the light.

Śīla, complete in the precepts,

Freed from defilement, is called independent.

The two obscurations ever defile;

Both made empty, the blade of wisdom removes them.

Sending forth light, it can shine wondrously,

Destroying them utterly without remainder.

Far parted from the root of defilement,

The fire of wisdom gradually grows strong.

Bodhi is named the supreme;

Burning bright, it turns ever finer.

The true and the conventional are called the two wisdoms;

Corresponding, they arise together.

United, there is no place of obstruction—

Harder than what is ordinarily found.

The wisdom of the twelvefold conditioned arising

Circles round according to this principle.

Deep and far-reaching, it is called the supreme;

Prajñā appears before one.

The worldly conduct of the two vehicles,

Purely cultivating the path, will grow bright.

The marks, the effortless, the function complete—

The very last is called Far-Reaching.

The realm and wisdom without discrimination

Function continually in spontaneous motion.

The hosts of Māra make their comings and goings;

Unmoved, it is uniquely named the obstruction.

Good wisdom is rightly unobstructed;

In the ten directions, the teaching of the Dharma is rare.

The body rains the water of sweet dew,

On which all things rely and depend.

The host of virtues is like water,

And empty space is like the body.

Heavy and light each have their way;

The wisdom of the great Dharma is called the cloud.

Speaking clearly of the realm of saṃsāra,

Once purified, one is spared the prison's wardens.

Right wisdom is without suffering and torment;

In the Pure Land, let nothing bind you fast.

Taking refuge—truly a child of the Buddha,

At the lamp of the cloud of wisdom.

The subtle and fine are all cut off;

Passing beyond suffering, parting from every dust.

The light of consecration shines forth;

Faculties and objects pervade the whole body.

The Vajra quiescence, the great concentration—

Let all sufferings not draw near.

Upon the king-throne of the great jewel-flower,

A koṭi of them all become fine.

Adornments pervade everywhere;

The merit is truly beyond measure.

In the ten directions, without fear,

The three bodies and four wisdoms are complete.

The six powers are ever unhindered;

All things transform according to occasion and condition.

Shining wondrously like the full moon,

At every moment ever radiant,

Pervading all of the ten directions,

Blazing bright, turning ever brighter.

Cutting off the conditioned defilement of birth,

It can ever dwell in Nirvāṇa.

Bodhi is named the supreme,

Transformed into things pure and joyful.

The function of wisdom is deep as the sea;

According to conditions it manifests a responsive body.

In clear water the moon's reflection appears;

In every place one passes beyond delusion.

How much more like a precious vessel,

According with conditions it manifests like a reflection.

In things, the original fish responds;

Its pervasion is truly boundless.

Hungry ghosts are ever starving and thirsting,

Unable to see the water of the spring.

Sentient beings of little faith,

Bound fast by their former karma.

Manifesting bodies of various marks,

Their radiance all shines forth.

Though the Buddha dwells in the midst of the world,

He is not seen by those without prior conditions.

Brightly through realms as numberless as sand-grains,

The faculties, following defilement, last not long.

The twofold emptiness, the jewel of supreme wisdom,

Its wondrous function transforms the foolish and young.

Pure and utterly undefiled,

For self and other, the body of enjoyment.

Ever dwelling in the ultimate of form,

It benefits the beings of the Five Vehicles.

Rescuing and helping suffering sentient beings,

A koṭi in lifespan, long-enduring.

The twofold adornment is without end;

The merit is truly beyond measure.

The Buddha expounds the One-Vehicle Dharma;

According to occasion, awakening is shallow or deep.

The lotus flower is undefiled by filth,

And the root of jade is truly sublime.

Praising but a small portion of it,

I speak broadly of the wondrous principle.

I vow that together with all this merit,

It may bring universal benefit to gods and humans.

Verses in Praise of the Dharmadhātu

The End