菩薩本生鬘論

The wellspring of self-nature is wisdom penetrating and clear. Its form grows ever more distinct, abiding in stillness without affliction. In silent clarity, in peace and joy, the meaning of liberation is made plain.

The evil realms are filled to overflowing with perversion and clinging to self. Sorrow and suffering spread far and wide; the afflictions are hard to remove. The roots of calamity, the form hard to fix.

The torrent of afflictions the Tathāgata forever severs. From that self-nature He manifests throughout every place. Conforming to the meaning of benefit, the fundamentals are complete.

The power of His functioning to transform and deliver aspires to attain the inexhaustible. All of it increases, advancing toward benefit. The realm of mind penetrating and clear, all idle speculation ended; affliction and perversion are cast off according to their measure.

Through wholesome causes the Three Vehicles guide all the multitudes of beings. The Dharma-nature of all Buddhas is silent, clear, and pure. True knowing and seeing—no conceits arise.

In tranquil stillness He penetrates all paths of obstruction. The very source of the realm of conceit, by teaching and transforming, is severed. The bonds are of many kinds; by exhortation and instruction they are subdued.

Within the realm of sentient beings, conforming, He arises. Diligently contemplating the mind, He attains the pure supernormal powers. Repenting transgressions, body and mind grow light and at ease.

The wisdom of the Buddha-path penetrates the three natures clearly. The ultimate truth is the wisdom of enlightenment and awakening. The supreme meaning of Suchness, marvelous awakening, is perfectly complete.

To penetrate true purity is Mahā-prajñā. The Buddha, the Great Hero, subdues all the multitudes of beings. In tranquil stillness He is the refuge, responsive and clear in meaning.

The Buddha-path is pure; its utmost is the Tathāgata-nature. Wisdom penetrating and clear exhausts every principle. In the evil paths there is accumulation—how good it is to strive to depart!

When the supreme meaning is in accord, pure karma is perfected. Departing from bondage, the causes of suffering are cleansed. This indeed—the cleansing of the causes of suffering—is what is aspired to, and the fruit of retribution is unentangled.

The Great Hero recognizes clearly the roots of perversion. To release and follow perversion is the utmost of wrong conduct; to cling fast to the root of the wholesome is the true cultivation and study. When bondage is exhausted, one regards it as house and field (as possessions).

This is the place where sentient beings ought to practice giving. The fruit of retribution from evil karma must be reversed against the stream before it ceases. The ten fetters of the five realms veil and obstruct; one cultivates pure conduct to depart from them.

Practice and understanding spread everywhere—this is the power of self-nature. Departing from evil karma, one attains form most sublime. The mind without material substance, Nirvāṇa without form; the bondage of idle speculation and conceit, through hearing and cultivation, is severed.

The true portion of the body, its fragrance carries far. Penetrating and clear, it increases throughout every place. All circumstantial retribution likewise is clearly thus.

These ten wholesome paths—pure wisdom penetrating and clear. The conduct and form of the human realm, a place most excellent. The substance of form at its utmost cannot be destroyed.

Skillfully He teaches sentient beings to perfect the practice of giving. The realm of mind in accord, excellent and unretreating. Affliction, deluded conceit, enmity, and opposition arise.

Together with all bondage, they are subdued and departed from. This is the place where one reverently follows the sovereign. The root of cultivating the supreme conduct, departing from the evil realms.

Teaching and transforming are perfected to the utmost of every place. The nine grounds are without form; according to what is realized, He expounds. The ten paths of karma, wisdom penetrates them through.

The realm-nature, true and impartial, reaching to the utmost. The supreme meaning, most honored, is the unconditioned Dharma. Far departing from delusion and conceit, action is brought to fruition.

Enmity, opposition, and perversion number in the hundreds. The torrents arise, the seeds manifesting in action without end.

What is it for sentient beings to depart from the fruit of retribution as hungry ghosts?

Perversion and arrogant pride bind one endlessly on and on. The root of tranquil stillness unites and departs according to the time. Giving without form aspires to attain the truth. Conforming to impartiality, the reward of merit grows. Born among the kinds of the human realm, the sovereign is highest of all.

What is the root of the various kinds of arrogant pride?

Bound continuously, one undergoes suffering and affliction. Wisdom is delighted in; language sets it forth. Self-nature in tranquil stillness is like casting off poison.

The cause of the good friend is what one aspires to accord with. Loving and nurturing, in a place most excellent. Far departing from the making of karma, those many kinds of perversion.

Anger sets forth words; the fruit of retribution is complete. The good friend lends aid; in practice and understanding one strives with effort. Aspiring to sever affliction, one is sovereign and in accord.

Self-nature awakens clearly to the true root. Cultivating by means of friends, dullness and weakness are transformed. The cause being supreme and perfect, the original nature is thus.

The supreme meaning that arises is the root of teaching and transforming. Craving within affliction arises together with arrogant pride. The good friend skillfully helps; the pure cause arises.

In the places of coming and going, the dust is cleansed away. Giving spread everywhere attains the true purity. Bondage is removed; devotedly cultivating, one increases ever more.

The supreme conduct arises; peace and joy turn everywhere. The wondrous causes and conditions, virtue and karma accord with the mind. Loving joy abiding in stillness, departing from the causes of defilement.

The ten kinds of wholesome dharmas transform to the utmost. The friends of perversion, by self-nature, are all severed. Self-nature is accomplished; the true is wholly completed.

The Buddha-path of liberation realizes the nature of True Suchness. The supreme meaning of True Suchness is the perfecting of the true. (Like that) Heaven severs suffering, exhausting it as it truly is. Reaching the utmost, most excellent, is to transform and deliver the multitudes of beings.

The precept-dharmas are pure, perfected without end. The Tathāgata's power of wisdom is perfect and vast. Expounding the Dharma truly, its boundary-markers are without limit.

What is teaching and transforming?

The Buddha is the good friend. The wholesome, undefiled karma of ten kinds is perfected.

The Bodhisattva cultivates the practice of giving; the Venerable One, Adornment Protecting the Realm—Jātaka,

the twenty-fourth meaning.

United and increasing, the meaning of the nature of the Tathāgata. Such compassionate vows are cultivated devotedly without end. This is to penetrate the words the Bodhisattva taught. What is it to aspire to attain the form of tranquil stillness?

The supreme meaning of the human realm is the attaining of the true root. The realm-nature, layer upon layer, fundamentally follows the kinds. The three kinds of the subtle and marvelous subdue the three karmas.

Form of many kinds is like a forest's covering. Cultivating the pure cause, the body-portion is sovereign. The path of the Buddha is impartial, just like empty space.

The power of functioning creates and transforms without end. (Affliction is like) earth that gives birth to poison; the power of merit is well able to remove it. Sentient beings make the cause impartial and perfect. The members of action, sublime and tranquilly still.

The teaching of the Dharma, with compassion, rescues the multitudes of beings. Practice and understanding increase; the cultivating mind is pure. The three kinds of non-retreat are the root of all that is true. (Like) a kind mother teaching, He grants the casting off of idle speculation; wisdom penetrating and clear recognizes craving and desire.

Harmonized thus, the obstructions of affliction perish. In every place He cultivates the practice of taming and subduing. For sentient beings of the human realm, what the mind seeks is hard to attain.

Conforming to perversion, dullness binds them. To subdue and to guide—constantly He strives with effort. Recognizing idle speculation, layer upon layer entangled.

This is the place where giving is cultivated, that true thing; the poison of false imagining does not harm. The Buddha-nature of all is bright and clear, not two. Liberation in its right meaning, the meaning of benefit in accord.

The wholesome dharmas conform to purity; the practitioner should strive with effort. Arrogant pride, craving, bondage, the unwholesome that veils: body and mind, the five aggregates—self-nature is pure. The sages and worthies penetrate clearly, creating no perversion.

The body most excellent, the mind joyful and sovereign. The realm-land fresh and beautiful, adorned without end. The realm of sentient beings is vast, fresh and beautiful, like Heaven.

The supreme cause arises, attaining boundless sovereignty. Abiding in stillness, He subdues arrogant pride and dullness. The body-form ever larger, the clinging to self ever more attached.

The degrees of high and low divide into superior, middling, and inferior. This is the place where the Bodhisattva creates pure form. Cultivating in sovereignty.

The meaning of benefit, the supreme vehicle. Pure and in accord.

Like a king with power enough to govern most excellently. Ever unchanging. Creating the cause of tranquil stillness, He shoulders the realms afar.

Aspiring to sever idle speculation, He extinguishes all defilement and mixture. In each place, one after another, the pure and marvelous arises. The mind joyful and delighted, settled firm and secure.

Sheltering all the people like clouds covering everywhere. The power of giving brings forth the form of harmony. This is the place of impartiality, all things equally apportioned.

The power of sovereignty pervades everywhere from a single source. Cleansing away dust and stain, the marvelous functioning penetrates and is clear. In the place of teaching and transforming, He aspires to sever fear and dread.

The form united, accomplished and solemn. Wisdom vast, nurturing all that is complete. This is the place of purity, practice and understanding sovereign.

Far departing from perversion, tranquil stillness increases. The torrent deep and perilous, its drawing force spread wide. He subdues the bondage and veiling, blocking and severing their increase and arising.

Loving joy according to measure, He aspires to attain tranquil stillness. When the mind raises arrogance and indulgence, the wholesome path grows dim and obscure. The four forms of affliction transform to utter exhaustion.

Like a king sovereign, his governance perfect. This is the realm of the Bodhisattva, like empty space, unobstructed.

What is it for forms great and small to veil and obstruct?

Pure giving. The sovereign who is true and honest. The mind of loving-kindness arises; the refined and the coarse are transformed. Tranquil stillness, the supreme meaning, is serenity and quiet calm. Body, speech, and mind create the ten kinds of good and evil. Discerning according to measure throughout every place. The three natures of awakening are like a kind mother nurturing her child. Skillfully knowing the nature and conduct, the food and clothing of the child. Just as a king skillfully governs the realm-land.

What is the source of mind that severs evil and idle speculation?

Form fresh and beautiful, harmonious and worthy of love. Calamity is not present; destruction does not arise. Like a root without form, the power of functioning is harmonious. Able to sever craving and desire, anger and hatred, dullness and delusion. Expounding the Dharma truly, conforming to cultivation and study. Clear about the paths of birth and death within the three realms and nine grounds. Changing and transforming, going back and forth, the superior and inferior not fixed. Impartial and tranquilly still, He severs all delusion and conceit.

What are the three contentions, the root of craving, anger, and delusion?

Creating the cause of contention, one undergoes the fruit of poverty and destitution. To make such language is what one ought to cultivate. Body and mind sovereign, He shoulders truly.

Pure wisdom clearly reveals the Great Vehicle. All dharmas in their ultimate, marvelous awakening, are perfected. According to measure over the long term, traversing three great kalpas.

The field of the mind cultivates giving; its dwelling is at peace and sovereign. Practice and understanding complete, He is clear about the obstructions of affliction. In each place that he carries out, tranquility is perfected.

The mind ever bestowing wisdom, the form intimate and familiar. Originally unborn, never once bound. Creating implements marvelous and worthy of value, He reveres the sages and worthies, sublime and perfect.

The Lord of Heaven, Śakra Devānām Indra, whose wisdom is most excellent. Clearly revealing all the kinds (of sentient beings), the mind-activities of all dharmas. The Tathāgata responds and manifests, marvelous functioning vast.

The supreme meaning, profound and marvelous, is purity in accord. Form perfect, lifespan stable. Affliction, desire and craving, sorrow and suffering do not cease.

Far departing from delusion and conceit, He devotedly cultivates the pure and marvelous. Idle speculation wholly completed creates bondage and veiling to the utmost. It causes the mind to be trapped in a deep pit.

Receiving the realm of suffering, scorched and burned without cease. The torrent of affliction besieges the realm of mind. The self-substance fresh and wholesome, form pure and marvelous.

All of it arises throughout every place. The power of functioning in accord, what is studied is perfect. Arising, He aspires to attain the "Forbearance of the Non-arising of Dharmas." Searching far and wide, most excellent to the utmost.

Transforming and delivering impartially, pure and complete. Casting off arrogant pride, He gives truly. Body, speech, and mind in action bring forth giving.

Those ten paths of karma, sovereign to the utmost. In accord and complete, purity increases ever more. The sagely wisdom penetrating clearly, the boundary-markers of existence and non-existence.

Forms long and short, He is clear about the principle, unobstructed. Shouldering, giving, He severs perversion and conceit. Master and sovereign, He manifests throughout every place.

Consciousness in accord is complete with arrogant pride. That root (conceit) binds the substance; all conceits veil the nature. Replete with dullness and delusion, perversion of this and that.

Recalling and dwelling on the beloved and the hated never ceases for a moment. Suffering, affliction, and transgression are entangled, hard to depart from. They arise and transform, increasing throughout the realm.

The self-nature of the Tathāgata, wisdom clear and pure. Practice and understanding true, He guides and teaches the multitudes of beings. Giving pure and marvelous, boundless in its places.

Departing, He does not create the cause of the torrent of perversion. (Like) the realm-land of a king, vast, its rules strict, his countenance most excellent, pure and worthy of love. Thinking and acting like a mother nurturing her child. Awakening clearly to the true, subtle and marvelous, profound and far-reaching.

Humble and reverent, conforming to the conduct of the human realm. His dwelling sovereign, he creates the cause of pure conduct. Anger to its utmost is the place where the foolish are sunk and attached.

The three kinds of torrents—craving, anger, delusion—are the root. In the supreme sagely fruit, robe and bowl are never apart. Self-nature is manifested, the karma of the path most excellent.

The nature-as-such accomplished, marvelous power arises. The true to its utmost, a place in accord with the mind. The mind-dharmas turn toward attainment, awakening clearly by means of wisdom; this is the place where the sovereign's sagely virtue is settled and secure.

The realm-land at peace and quiet severs the cause of idle speculation. The meaning and principle fitting, the supreme cause brought to fruition. Destroying the places of conceit, defilement, and enmity.

Giving aspires to attain the supreme meaning of contemplation. Exhaustion and depletion is the name of the making of anger. The self and what belongs to self, cognition and seeking—all are perverted, and must be subdued and tamed by tranquil stillness.

What is it that, at the right time, the subject is astonished to recognize the rich, sharp, and weak features of the idle speculation created by arrogant pride?

The torrent in this way clearly shows the meaning of floating and sinking. That cause of giving rescues and aids the poor and suffering. Meditative concentration severs the defilement of perversion.

Taming arrogance and indulgence, despising the self, He is sovereign. The power of functioning pure, idle speculation cannot (arise). The supreme teaching pure severs all enmity and poison.

Cultivating and studying, advancing forward, He aspires to attain in this way. The nature of the Tathāgata penetrating clearly and perfect. Affliction and perversion veil and obstruct the self-nature (of sentient beings).

The root in this way is from beginningless many kalpas. The nature cleansed of affliction, true like empty space. Pure instruction, understanding subdues all conceit, arrogance, and indulgence.

The pure consciousness of "non-arising" is the transformation of self-nature. The evil realm, dull and benighted, ought not to be sought. Conforming to defilement and contention, the binding causes increase.

The human realm dull and stupid, the sagely wisdom hard to arise. Pure precept-conduct, teaching and transforming most excellent. Action in accord is the root of the practice of giving.

The true wholly complete, the power of functioning sovereign. Wisdom arises, severing fear, never lost. That realm of perversion, the precepts and disciplines subdue.

Supreme, never lost, He tames and carries out. The body-portion conforms to the meaning of great benefit. The natures of affliction that arise and increase are all severed.

The fundamental supreme cause, sovereign and in accord. Delighting in giving, the form is never lost. That cause of affliction creates clinging and attachment, like a great king governing the realm without clarity.

Fear truly is the root of defilement and false imagining. Sovereign, without self, replete with power, He carries it out. Cultivating the practice of tranquil stillness, the root cause of many lifetimes.

The body-portion clung to is truly hard to loosen and open. The true, the impartial, flows on without decay. The Dharma-realm takes form, binding and veiling sentient beings.

The defilement of idle speculation disturbs and covers the realm of birth, having no fixed place. Ignorance arises, transforming along many paths.

The marvelous functioning of the Buddha-path, pure and sovereign, is the place where the sovereign's sagely virtue is brought to fruition. The self-nature of wisdom forever radiates and shines. Like bees making honey, together they aid in accomplishing the work. The sagely wisdom penetrating clearly, tranquil stillness perfect. Language arises peaceful, wholesome, and pure. Sentient beings in this way (are complete with both) tranquil stillness and defilement. The clinging to self deep and thick (causes) sentient beings to give rise to fear. The root of mind impartial, the practitioner the cause of giving. The ultimate to its utmost is to tame and subdue throughout every place.

What is the function whereby the form increases?

The means in accord with its part, the most excellent arises. The cause-nature boundless, the power of functioning unobstructed. The self-nature of the realm of mind surpasses language.

The countenance shifts and changes, joy and anger alternating one with another. The cause and practice that one aspires to attain are from of old just thus. The Bodhisattva sovereign, He acts according to the precepts and disciplines.

Guiding and teaching, He creates the cause, arising to the utmost. The members (of) the substance-nature comprise the five kinds of consciousness. The nature is conditioned by the near cause, not apart from the fruit of retribution.

The members are never lost; the cause-nature is in accord. Penetrating clearly the true, the self-nature is thus. Virtuous conduct embraces and contains; its meaning is the cause that conforms and follows.

The substance-nature dim and dark, its root is due to the defiled mind; the member that is pure is (of the nature) without obscuration, indeterminate. This is the summary concerning the realm of mind: self-nature, with the eight consciousnesses as substance, the twelve sense-fields ought to be tamed and subdued.

What are the various kinds of the meaning of benefit, worthy of value?

Self-nature arises in vigorous diligence to cultivate and study. Wisdom attained, penetrating and clear, is the root of transforming and delivering. When the mind raises dullness and delusion, it creates the torrent of bondage and veiling. Clinging to self, defilement, and pollution are clearly set forth. Cultivating giving, He penetrates the marks and features. When the mind raises arrogant pride, it binds sentient beings. The true root of clinging to self is the not cultivating of giving. The teaching and transforming of the Three Vehicles is sovereign and covers everywhere.

What is the goodness of penetrating clearly every principle?

The cause of the profound and marvelous cleanses away suffering and affliction. In accord with the supreme meaning, the root-nature is displayed. Anger covering everywhere, the awakening of wisdom is hard to arise. Pure conduct is able to depart; the binding cause is sickness and ailment.

What is it for calamity, obstruction, and perversion to manifest?

The world attains the self-nature most sublime. The blessed karma of the heavenly realm, the power of functioning wholesome and pure. Practice and understanding complete with the five aggregates, name and form.

Form most excellent, creating action without end. Pure taming, the meaning of benefit skillfully displayed. How good it is to awaken clearly to the most profound and subtle marvel.

Subduing fittingly the forms of clinging to self. The supreme cause accomplished, He attains the fruit-stage of Buddhahood. The merit and virtue of liberation, the transcendent highest of all.

The realm-nature pure and marvelous, fundamentally fearless. Cognition penetrating through, the Buddha-Dharma supreme and marvelous. Body and mind pure, practice and understanding replete with power.

The outer realm changing and shifting, flowing on without loss. Wisdom full and abundant, tranquilly still and non-arising. Repentance severs defilement; thus is the taming.

Those heavenly realms, pure and marvelous, are united. Solemn and beautiful, true, they increase in accord. Such compassionate vows are vast and without end.

That fundamental meaning is perfect and ever-abiding. The Tathāgata, subtle and marvelous, perfect and without end. The sagely fruit of the Śrāvaka, liberation from birth and death.

The realm of mind pure, the ten dharmas of cultivation and study (completed). The supreme meaning arises, turning toward the attainment of the ultimate. The conduct of the Bodhisattva, subtle and marvelous, profound and far-reaching.

Sentient beings still complete with all afflictions and obstructions. Dullness and delusion, arrogant pride, the conduct of the human realm. The power of functioning, truly awakening clearly, He departs from them.

Affliction veils the substance (-nature)—clear about the kinds of root and derivative (afflictions). The twenty-six dharmas, the Three Vehicles all sever.

The Bodhisattva cultivates the practice of giving; the Venerable One, Adornment Protecting the Realm—Jātaka,

the twenty-fifth meaning.