菩薩本生鬘論

The thirtieth account of the former birth of the Venerable Adornment, Protector of the Realm, concerning the bodhisattva’s practice of giving.

Through the supreme cause of bodhi, the meaning of giving arises. Wisdom and awakening are pure, closely joined with serene silence. The root cultivation is pure, and the practice of patience is exemplary. Brahma-conduct brings restraint. It delivers beings from the three calamities. It is connected with the Ten Wholesome Deeds. Supreme concentration advances toward attainment, and well-being arises. Villages receive their proper share, and equality is clearly understood. Excellent places are thoroughly penetrated and comprehended. This is true penetration of the bodhisattva’s teaching.

The source of merit is the ultimate characteristic. The function of ultimate truth proceeds from the root of “non-arising.” It reveals perfectly fulfilled, pure virtue. Attachment to self creates karma, and craving consequently arises.

Equal wisdom peacefully delivers all beings. Evil does not arise; purity brings liberation. By truly practicing the Way, all fear is ended.

The roots of defilement, contention, and craving are difficult to abandon. Body, speech, and mind follow the ten courses of karma. Serene stillness is developed, completely removing defilement and delusion.

Thus the clear full moon shines. Every form of self-conceit reaches the end of its function. Practice and understanding are both complete, and wholesome stillness appears.

From the faculty of the eye in ultimate truth arises the “function of seeing.” The characteristics of the world are by nature unstable. All the root causes of conceit are unreal. Ultimate truth arises and destroys all hunger and suffering.

Illness and affliction arise through conditions associated with frightening appearances. Strange changes likewise are merely compounded. The precepts are pure, and truth is penetrated.

The various conceits arise in mutual dependence. Calamities arise from transmitted defilements. These are the roots of all activity, and only the Supreme Vehicle can end them.

Giving increases, while practice and understanding strive toward attainment. Inverted bondage comes from the disturbing power of defilement. Pervasive purity and peacefulness are difficult to attain.

The full moon in the sky illuminates all darkness. Free from dust and impurity, freedom appears. The ultimate worldly state is illusory and unstable.

The Dharma of the noble sages guides sentient beings. The place of arising is truly peaceful. The slope of bondage undergoes change and transformation.

The self-nature free from contention is the highest joy. Reverence and admiration do not defile or harm the nature. Excellence increases, arises, and provides guidance.

What is the domain of self and the continuation of self?

The self-nature combines, while mental dharmas bind and obscure. True characteristics and their functions all cease. In the realm of mind devoid of wisdom, the supreme cause does not arise; delusive thoughts and defilements cause fierce flames to blaze.

The mixed and defiled self-nature is rooted in conceptual proliferation. The fulfillment of desire is the mark of calamity. Amid change, acceptance, and rejection, the disposition is unsettled.

Pursuing bait while guarding the Dharma, one gains an object but loses one’s life. Fear binds causes and leads to inversion. Peace and happiness appear, excellently abundant.

In the purified mental realm, delusive defilements do not arise. The bonds of affliction are skillfully cultivated and subdued. The power of instruction increases throughout all paths.

The causes and conditions of attachment to self can be removed by the Buddha’s Way. Earnest cultivation ends defilement and brings pure, wondrous benefit. Giving is brought to completion through sincere and true cultivation.

Intention gives rise to the supreme cause, the root of every burden-bearing task.... Restraint pervades everywhere, and practice accords with understanding. In excellent mental dharmas, craving does not appear.

Evil karma is created, calamities and obstacles accumulate, and defiling hindrances as numerous as grains of sand are subtle and difficult to sever. The ninth realm, Neither Perception nor Non-Perception, is close to the noble state. At the ultimate place, only a noble cause can bring cessation.

When characteristics change, their powers are all lost. Those characteristics of name-and-form are instruments for diligent cultivation. Where fear abounds, freedom cannot exist.

Turmoil and stillness throughout the realms are eliminated by Brahma-conduct. The transformation of afflictions leads to the creation of karma. The torrent of evil defilement arises together with inversion.

Truly bound, one longs to be freed. Great beings accordingly advance in cultivation. The merit of ultimate truth arises and accords.

Evil karma is created with attachment to self as its cause. In the mental realm, various forms of conceit increase and arise. In this proper measure, Brahma-conduct eliminates them.

By accomplishing penetration, the resulting benefit is pure. The true supreme cause gives rise to freedom. Afflictions obscure the self-nature of ultimate truth.

One accurately comprehends the domain of the cause of ultimate truth. One fully recognizes heedlessness and abandon. One understands the poison that destroys appearances.

At the culmination of serene stillness, wisdom arises. Free from mixed defilements, giving is pure. Villages and places change through many generations; they are places where every painful poison is abandoned.

Four skandhas belong to name, and name embraces both defilement and purity. Their functions increase and develop as one seeks attainment. In heavenly realms and among beings who attain birth there, pure and wondrous giving is cultivated.

Free from defiling hindrances, the ultimate is true. Evil actions cause conceptual proliferation to increase. Through pure giving, progressive cultivation is perfected.

Wisdom and understanding increase, and their functions follow accordingly. Diligent giving creates the strength to bear burdens. Regarding merit as the ultimate diminishes the meaning of instruction.

At this culmination, one stops there. One advances in cultivation, subduing bondage and fear. The profound and wondrous is accorded with, and the seal becomes complete.

The domain is not hidden, and its development is boundless. Freedom from fear increases the power of wholesome characteristics. In due measure over a long time, one attains the blessed reward of a heavenly realm.

The self-nature is pure, and its functions reach completion. This is the place where the torrent rises, increases, destroys, and perishes. By compliant restraint, the ultimate is accomplished.

What does it mean to seek the pure and wondrous heavenly realm?

In places where giving increases, bondage also increases. Through true instruction, defilement cannot arise. The self-nature accords with abundant practice and understanding.

The domain is pure, secure, and peaceful. Sentient beings exercise their functions in harmony. The source is unified—excellent indeed is the bodhisattva.

Endowed with purity and wonder, it is equal and unchanging. Pure giving is harmonious, and the bodhisattva’s causes are abundant. Sentient beings by nature increasingly cultivate giving.

Such a nature restrains inversion and fear. By cultivating ultimate truth, serene stillness becomes abundant. Evil defilement, painful poison, and dull delusion are eliminated.

Such giving and assistance are impartial. Sentient beings in the human realm undergo transformations of their self-nature. Countless beings bear burdens without cease.

This is the ultimate realm of peaceful stability. Evil people should principally devote themselves to cultivating the Supreme Vehicle. In exercising freedom, the four skandhas are difficult to fathom.

Purity arises and its functions increase. Through earnest cultivation in proper measure, the resulting benefit is not lost. The most excellent king is peaceful and true.

Wisdom arises, while practice and understanding deliver beings. Accordant causes are created, restraining what one seeks to attain. The exalted sovereign possesses excellent merit.

When afflictions are exhausted, humans and devas alike abandon them. Beings and heavenly realms are thus penetrated. With a pure self-nature, the bodhisattva comforts beings.

The precepts are purified through many lives in this way. In places of affliction, compassion arises. Increasing restraint overturns binding causes.

All conceits are eliminated, and wisdom and understanding become pure. Changing shadows and imaginings add to fear. Pure giving thus increases joy.

The truth of stillness ends inverted conduct. Words arise to teach the myriad species. The bonds of defilement are transformed through instruction.

Failure to cultivate conduct and giving creates causes of self-conceit. The characteristics of self-nature produce fear concerning persons and dharmas.

How are defiling hindrances ended through the practice of serene stillness?

The functions of conceptual proliferation create attachment to self. Thus profound, wondrous stillness no longer remains. This is the place where sentient beings cultivate pure conduct.

The excellent karmic cause accords with reverence. Sentient beings follow purity to its culmination. Harmonious freedom gives rise to cultivation.

Arrogant speech increases deceitful conduct. The self-nature advances toward freedom from the stream of transmigration. This creates the causes of pure conduct.

In this way, the fearful self-nature is bound by defilement. Truly abandoning arrogant speech causes growth. Painful poison, dull delusion, and inversion are completely ended.

Abandoning the defilement of self, one gains abundant excellent characteristics. Nurturing the Buddha’s Way eliminates defiling hindrances. True purity and wonder are formed over many kalpas.

Conceptual proliferation arises and spreads everywhere. Practice and understanding are complete, and sentient beings are free. Disciplinary rules restrain and can end obscuring bonds.

Universal accord is perfectly fulfilled. In that domain, the aspiration toward ultimate truth arises. Maintaining peacefulness, its characteristics appear.

Destructive karma is created, and its function does not arise. The defiled realm of dull delusion continually binds the substance. When truth arises, its meaning is liberation.

The excellent root is ultimate peaceful abiding. The function of self-nature is the profound, wondrous source. This is the place where one seeks to end the cause of attachment to self.

Ultimate bondage is rooted in distinctions between this and that.

How does inverted conceptual proliferation arise? What are the factors of equality and serene stillness?

The unfailing mark of purity is the instrument of explanation. It is precisely the root cause and characteristic of serene stillness. When wisdom arises, the roots of defiling hindrances immediately perish.

The source of karmic action is the ten kinds of evil conduct. The bodhisattva restrains every inversion. Thus the evil karma of sentient beings arises.

The supreme cause, in proper measure, brings activity to an end. Pure Suchness is not an accumulation. The rising torrent binds material forms.

Sentient beings, wanton with desire, merely indulge their dispositions. Unruined characteristics truly increase. The king’s majestic power prevents conceptual proliferation from recurring.

Causes formed by the three natures can change their functions. In the realm of learning, what is sought accords with desire. United delusive defilement thus arises.

The increasing torrent abandons benefit. Giving gives rise to the strength to bear burdens. The function of equality appears and develops.

The character of “fearlessness” is fully possessed by the noble person. Increasing evil defilement has immeasurable consequences. That characteristic of ultimate truth arises everywhere.

The cause of giving produces universal instruction. The self-nature utterly removes defilement. It is difficult to attain the complete ending of inverted appearances.

Free from defilement, characteristics become perfect. Attachment to this and that is a lifelong calamity. Accordant benefit appears in peace.

The bodhisattva subdues through the power of equality. Ultimate truth arises, and conceits do not. The truth of Suchness completely ends calamities.

This is the place where the bodhisattva guides with wholesome words. Profundity increases, and instruction becomes pure. The “fearless” Brahma-conduct is truly peaceful.

The roots and functions of calamity all perish. Instruction and giving accord with right mindfulness. Eliminating delusion and conceit, one reaches the true source.

Skillful words of guidance are silent, pure, and wondrous. Through the excellent pure cause, equality is penetrated.

What is the sphere of activity, like a pure cloud covering all species?

Through study and cultivation, inverted defilement and the hindrance of conceptual proliferation are eliminated. The self-nature restrains the roots of inversion and advances toward serene stillness. Thus the characteristics of sentient beings are transformed.

Evil karma, sorrow, suffering, and burning affliction are abandoned. Their countenances become upright and beautiful, and they comprehend harmonious accord. This is the place where the practice and understanding of giving accord.

The bodhisattva guides sentient beings toward further growth. Through instructive words, calamities are ended. Afflictions of confusion and obstruction are thus heavy and coarse.

Merit increases according to its causes, bringing greater freedom. This is the place where sentient beings are completely united. Delusion and conceit arise and spread like space.

Benefit accords with the arising of practice and understanding. Causes of practice increase, and so does self-confidence. In places of joy are inversion and conceptual proliferation.

Extreme hunger and thirst destroy the self-nature. Through restraint that accords with purity, there is serene stillness. Attachment to joy is ultimate inversion.

Attaining peaceful abiding, one remains mindful of sentient beings. Thus the Bodhisattva Mahasattva teaches skillfully. He ends inverted dharmas and removes the paths of conceptual proliferation.

Purely subdued, one abides freely. The self-nature of practice and understanding is clearly remembered. Pure and wondrous stillness is the root of every rule.

Peaceful sentient beings receive the teaching. The supreme cause of giving is remembrance of the welfare of beings. The root of attachment to self initiates mixed defilement.

Through the supreme power of giving, peacefulness is accomplished. Creating a sublime cause, equality arises. With all constituent factors complete, cultivation is perfected.

Confident speech reduces mixed defilement. When ultimate truth is accorded with, conceptual proliferation does not arise. When the factors reach completion, the torrent arises.

That pure and wondrous cause has a nature free from contention and defilement. In undivided purity, all calamities cease. Cultivating irreversible conduct, one rests in the peacefulness of Suchness.

Arrogant characteristics function in troublesome complexity. With a pure causal nature, transmigration accords. Sentient beings understand, increase, and become detached.

Words of instruction lead sentient beings to practice. They cultivate still more earnestly, seeking purity.

How does the benefit of selflessness arise?

Words transmit the teaching, and practice is fundamental. Ultimate growth is the arising of serene stillness. Evil karma is abandoned, and the place is peaceful and joyful. The self-nature of wisdom seeks to attain well-being.

How does rigorous purity end defilement?

Amid boundless inversions, the bodhisattva guides and teaches.

How can such great giving produce abundant merit?

Supreme functions are exercised, and villages become peaceful. The myriad species are gradually guided toward the fruit of Buddhahood. Such fearful conduct has boundaries like space.

Through comprehending deliverance, peace and happiness increase. Harmonious joy gives rise to various characteristics. Conceptual proliferation is eliminated, and truth is practiced.

Attaining the nature of Suchness means being unchanging. Ultimate fear is the root of every bond. Body and mind comprise the five skandhas, with the form skandha accumulating material form.

Feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness are immaterial and difficult to fathom. The root bonds serve as causes, giving rise to the belief that things are real. Through serene restraint, giving is practiced everywhere.

Abiding purely and freely, one completely ends all conceit. Practice and understanding are both complete, and the source appears clearly. Free from the three poisons, all defilements cease.

What is the ultimate foundation of activity?

Thus the substance and the ultimate are taught. In the presence of genuine hunger and suffering, compassionate vows bring universal aid. The function of the mental realm is the root of progressive cultivation. Creating the supreme cause ends evil karma and defilement. The torrent causes dull delusion and conceptual proliferation to arise. Thus the instruction of sentient beings is fulfilled. The true mark of birth is the appearance of karmic recompense. The growth of the supreme cause is the place of peaceful abiding.

What is the fundamental self-nature of the constituent factors?

The place is like a perilous and frightening mountain. It is the realm where the bodhisattva truly practices giving. Deluded sentient beings are beyond reckoning. The functions of the constituent factors are true to the end.

What is the serene stillness of the Dharma-nature in ultimate truth?

Giving in accord is the Dharma of peace and happiness.

What is the pure function of progressive cultivation?

There are no inverted dharmas, nor the hindrances of delusion and conceit. Through diligent offerings, the Ten Wholesome Deeds increase a hundredfold. The royal lineage prospers, revering and trusting in good deeds.

Mental dharmas are pure, and wisdom and understanding are true. The bodhisattva teaches about the roots of calamity. The causes of conduct are transformed, and distinctions between this and that become free.

The pure teaching and wisdom bring restraint. The profound self-nature of sentient beings arises. When the pure mind is harmonized, liberation is pure.

This is the place where the bodhisattva receives and delivers sentient beings. Realizing the self-nature, one penetrates detachment. Understanding all conceits, one increasingly enters serene stillness.

Brahma-conduct is developed, and fear becomes harmonious. As delusion and conceit increase, serene stillness subdues them. Sentient beings practice and increase wholesome words, creating the supreme cause of conduct and the function of joy.

Following causal restraint, they create the cause of ultimate truth. For learned sentient beings, benefit increases. Harmonious Brahma-conduct initiates offerings.

This is the place where true self-nature accords. Pure and wondrous cultivation of giving is the root of all wisdom. Following it, one completely ends inverted defilements.

Guidance increasingly produces serene stillness and fearlessness. Excellent is the cream of Dharma, surpassing every flavor. The constituent factors of wisdom are vast and complete.

Excellent are the sublime characteristics throughout all realms. Through boundless offerings, one seeks serene stillness. Excellent, pure, and wondrous speech appears.

When fear arises, one should calmly repent. Pure and at ease, one subdues the root. The source of self-nature cannot be found by seeking.

Equal benefit is true serene stillness. When progressive cultivation is completed, the self-nature appears. Seeking purity, one gains excellent peacefulness.

All causes of calamity and inversion are completely ended. One seeks to end every destructive karmic result. The bodhisattva guides beings to end every calamity.

All activities of evil defilement and conceptual proliferation are stilled. The aspiration increasingly bears burdens and brings detachment. Poverty, illness, and defilement all disappear.

Fearlessness removes every deed born of dull delusion. The functions of sentient beings penetrate excellence. In accordance with truth, purity is displayed everywhere.

Vast purity pervades every path. The self-nature of true Suchness has “non-arising” as its source. Pure and wondrous activity accords with freedom.

Creating excellent causes is the indestructible domain. Pure giving is the cultivation of accordant causes. Peaceful and at ease, one ends all afflictions.

Wholesome purity is harmonized, and practice and understanding are complete. The foundation of ultimate truth is free from all delusion. Through the causes and conditions of spiritual friends, one cultivates earnestly without change.

Functions become universal, and defiling hindrances do not arise. Excellent serene stillness is the pure and wondrous source. True functioning guides the myriad species.

Excellent wisdom and understanding are the supreme power capable of transforming greed, hatred, and delusion into wholesome purity. True wisdom is ultimately free. One seeks attainment and practices everywhere.

Freely adapting, one reaches perfection. Characteristics accord with causes, and practice accords with understanding. The substance is like space, free from the bonds of defilement.

The self-nature abides peacefully, teaching beings to cultivate earnestly. Sentient beings create causes, and giving is the root. Through thorough inquiry, wisdom becomes purer.

The formations skandha changes, clearly revealing impermanence. Delusive thought truly produces the grave hindrance of affliction, together with all evil karma, which flares without cease. Flowing onward according to causes, it naturally ends when the mind is clear.

With exemplary function, practice and understanding are perfected. Excellent benefit harmonizes this and that. Dull delusion and defiling hindrances create discriminating speech.

The characteristics of activity bind and obscure, but the Buddha’s teaching eliminates them. In accord with excellent characteristics, purity is the root. Shadows change and are recognized as unreal.

The fearless path seeks penetration. The cause of purity and wonder reaches perfection. At the end of function, peacefulness is like a mountain.

Harmonious power seeks attainment through offerings. Accordance with the teaching has the practice of giving as its root. Evil karma, defilement, and delusive thought arise.

By creating pure and wondrous causes, the mind of transmigration is ended. The virtuous karma of the self-nature transforms into stability. Through compliance and advancement, defilement does not arise.

Instructive causes and conditions initiate accord. Speech free from faults attains all things. The true nature of Suchness transcends both emptiness and existence.

The strength to bear burdens gives rise to freedom. Through such retreat and advance, the three realms arise again. At the culmination of purity and wonder, dull delusion is completely ended.

This is the accordant domain and the root from which wisdom arises. The torrent of afflictions ultimately also perishes. Through universal earnest cultivation, the supernormal powers are not lost.

The supreme cause of constant stillness is the practice of “giving fearlessness.” Inversion no longer remains, and freedom is perfected. By honoring teachers and elders, benefit becomes peaceful. This vast domain is clearly so.

Seeking to end conceptual proliferation, purity and wonder remain indestructible. This is the place where many forms of desire appear. All roots of obscuring bondage are completely ended.

Wisdom and understanding pervade everywhere, and defiling bonds are cleansed. True cultivation of giving is the characteristic of purity and wonder. Benefit accords, peaceful as a mountain.

The root for attaining function is the cultivation of Brahma-conduct. Ending all dull delusion, one attains the fundamental practice. Harmonious wholesome stillness is the source of wisdom’s function.

Wisdom realizes true Suchness, while principle accords with supernormal power. Sentient beings practice giving, and clear meaning arises. The self-nature understands, and speech becomes refined.

The bodily constituents are pure, and name-and-form are excellent. This is the Great Person who ends all karmic activity. By cultivating equality, wisdom and understanding become universal.

Function is perfected, harmonizing throughout all realms. Ending every obscuring bond, merit becomes free. Free from defiling hindrances, conceits do not arise.

Wisdom and understanding penetrate, and their functions seek attainment. The cultivation of goodness appears, and supernormal powers bring transformation. The Bodhisattva Mahasattva guides with wholesome words.

At the culmination of ultimate truth, the devas pay reverence. Hunger and suffering are forever ended, and afflictions are thoroughly cleansed. Creating superior causes, one clearly discerns.

Benefit is excellent; practice and understanding are both complete. Skillfully ending defiling hindrances, one cultivates in accord. Truly a Great Person!

The “two kinds” pervade everywhere. Originally undefiled, purity and wonder arise. Free from appearances, one cultivates to the ultimate liberation.

Wholesome purity increases, and one cultivates wholesome abiding. Free from the torrent, one abandons conceptual proliferation and creates the karma of liberation. The true heavenly realm has an adorned and beautiful bodily form.

The supreme cause is pure, and its functions are abundant. Thus all causes of evil realms are ended. Vast knowledge and vision accord in this way.

They can remove the roots of afflictive hindrances and bonds. Following their functions, one understands every principle. The bodily characteristics sought have pervasive functions.

Yielding to worldly ways is the root of every calamity. Beneficial giving seeks no blessed reward. One seeks to end every resentment and opposition.

To create the causes of a heavenly realm, first practice giving. One endowed with penetrating wisdom is a great being. When self-conceit blazes, Brahma-conduct destroys it.

Cultivating wholesome purity, one awakens to signlessness. Layer upon layer of mental activity attains the goal even without aspiration. Earnestly cultivating in harmony, serene stillness becomes clear.

The self-nature reveals that attachment to self depends upon defilement. When sentient beings practice, that characteristic is not lost. Through the self-nature, one recognizes the binding torrent.

Excellent indeed is the truth! In the domain of constituent factors, purity is boundless. True giving appears in peace.

Benefit is harmonized, ending contention in this way. This is the place where the bodhisattva is freely equal and universally saves beings. Understanding the self-nature, he teaches equality.

Before and after there is one path, ending all attachment and aversion. Excellence appears, and offerings are supreme. The myriad species are delivered without ever being abandoned.

When views of self are set in proper measure, distinctions between this and that disappear. Recognizing arrogance, one rigorously eliminates it. This indeed is the Buddha’s teaching.

Seeking purity, one ends all appearances. Sentient beings in evil realms create only destruction. When the former body perishes, a later body arises again.

This was attained at the same time as by the Buddhas of old. The Bodhisattva Mahasattva clearly exhorts and teaches. Such activity brings true benefit.

Ending evil is foremost. Among the roots of all defiled dharmas, attachment to self comes first. When feelings accord, greed arises; when they oppose, hatred arises.

In between, delusion appears. Continued birth is “delusion,” comprising twenty-six kinds. Because of the causal nature, defiling hindrances exist, inverted actions are created, and delusive thoughts investigate and seek.

All kinds of afflictive defilement are present. The real pertains to the species, while the provisional is established for use; this is the place rooted in the function of giving.

How is transformation-birth explained and taught?

Through supremely wholesome karma, devas are “transformation-born.” Through extremely evil karma, beings are “transformation-born” in hell. They suddenly exist where previously there was nothing. In the realm of birth, the various types are alike.

At the root of the realm of death, the various types differ. The realms of birth and death are established in dependence upon the fundamental consciousness. Birth and death occur in a single thought, as the Buddha taught.

Dharmas have their principles, and domains have defilement and purity. Wisdom clearly advances toward attainment, while practice and understanding are complete. Attachment to self does not arise, and afflictions also cease.

Earnestly attaining the wholesome path, pure dharmas immediately arise. The excellent cause arises in an accordant place. Without the root intention to give, the resulting recompense is dreadful.

Peaceful unconditionedness is the source of ultimate truth. The fearless bodhisattva guides beings as a spiritual friend. The original self-nature constantly provides guidance.

Thus peace and happiness end conceit, and progressive cultivation proceeds. Rigorous discipline relies upon peaceful abiding. As conceits increase, all such speech ceases.

In equality and harmony, one advances toward peacefulness. The king’s instructions accord everywhere.

Because sentient beings act with greed, karmic paths are formed. The bodhisattva teaches pure wholesome karma. Acting freely, the mind remains unattached.

In the present and future lives, it always accords and masters karma. Thus the four modes of birth are named, and beings receive recompense in succession. The Three Vehicles deliver beings, all reaching the shore of awakening.

Even the stations attained by humans and devas are left behind. Though the Three Vehicles differ, all reach the ultimate. One who seeks with resolute determination will certainly succeed when the day is done.

The supreme ultimate is arrival at the shore of awakening. It transcends all arising, cessation, and transmigration. Yet it also initiates samsara.

This is the shore of awakening. Wholesome dharmas by nature are wholesome mental factors. Associated wholesome dharmas encompass both mind and mental factors.

The mutual increase of this and that is the ultimate cause. Wisdom and understanding clearly reveal the ultimate. The self-nature clearly penetrates joy.

The sovereign develops it, and sentient beings advance toward it. Through cultivation and penetration, one gains peaceful joy. Among the dharmas of sensual pleasure, craving is the root.

Wholesome dharmas arise together in harmony with diligence. Desire extends through the three natures and may be defiled or undefiled.

The Dharma taught by the Buddha says: Though virtues are of many kinds, none lies outside benefiting beings. The efficacy of penetration lies in wisdom. Adorned characteristics are supremely beautiful. Every self-nature truly undergoes transformation. Merit and wisdom are pure, wondrous, and delightful. They create a domain of pure, wondrous refinement.

How does liberation completely end afflictions?

When the Buddha’s Way flourishes, all darkness ends. Excellent serene stillness delivers and transforms. Afflictive defilements cannot destroy it.

It is the realm where wisdom appears and dark hindrances disperse. Purity accords, advancing toward the lofty and far-reaching. Evil karma, conceptual proliferation, and doctrines of vehicles all cease.

Every bond, impurity, and illness is destroyed. Greed, hatred, and delusion are the poisons at the root of inversion. True wisdom is difficult for sentient beings to attain.

Advancing toward serene stillness, one never wavers. The bodhisattva teaches everywhere. Through the functions of earnest cultivation, calamities do not arise.

Abiding equally, one is fearless. Benefit is perfected, and conduct is pure. Ending every inversion, one accomplishes the worldly task.

Diligently cultivating giving, one does not give rise to self-conceit. Supreme karma is pure, and the principles are abundant. Desire is eliminated.

The hungry and suffering in the world receive what they need without assistance. Even in heavenly realms there are poverty and illness. Devas of the Desire Realm still commit killing.

Indra and the asuras are overcome through anger. Desire, sorrow, and suffering are all present in the Desire Realm. All undergo death and life according to karma.

Transformation occurs in proper measure, and benefit is appropriate. Pure functions provide rigorous instruction. Giving is the foundational practice, ending every delusive defilement.

What is the factor of death, when the eighth consciousness is relinquished? What is the factor of birth, when the eighth consciousness arises?

Birth and death are established only in this consciousness. No factor’s substance is established from the other consciousnesses. Some call this the “gateway of pure conforming transformation.” Practice and understanding increase, forming the root of wholesome causes.

Truth and well-being make clear the source of sorrow and suffering. Peaceful progressive cultivation, with practice and understanding, is rare. Name-and-form and the five skandhas are truly transformed and delivered.

Selfless giving accords in this way. Peaceful virtue is adorned with a hundred blessings. Seeking wholesome wonder and serene stillness, one reaches “non-arising.” It cannot be destroyed or extinguished and never transmigrates.

Advancing toward “fearlessness,” one increasingly bears burdens. True giving functions through earnest cultivation. Ultimate truth is developed and formed through diligent effort.

Every path of resentment and opposition is penetrated and abandoned. The roots of arising and cessation are still; purity is Suchness. The factors transform, with thought following thought.

Dharmas in their self-nature never gain or lose. Thus the bodhisattva reveals, guides, and teaches. Peaceful meditative concentration transcends all thought.

Peaceful like space, it ends all anger. One recognizes that anger blazes like fire. Originally accordant, it is thus peacefully extinguished.

In the actions of ordinary beings, giving is foremost. Accordant cultivation is the cause of freedom from impurity. True purity and wonder end the marks of dull delusion.

Cultivation advances toward the functions of all characteristics. One strives in cultivation to remove afflictions and conceptual proliferation. Dullness and conceits bind and conspire together.

Diligence advances toward all causal characteristics. The excellent conduct of sentient beings benefits oneself and others. The accordant roots are revered by devas and humans.

Abiding in the self-nature, one cultivates and maintains accordant conduct. The Bodhisattva Mahasattva joyfully performs transformative activity. Among the dharmas of instruction, benefiting others is the principal task.

Functions are equal, and one reverently admires and cultivates. The source of the teaching is the purity of Suchness. Practice from the profound to the manifest is fundamental.

Peaceful ultimate truth relies only upon the Buddha-Dharma. Cultivating pure and wondrous conduct, one abides excellently. The arising of afflictions is rooted in evil karma.

The eye faculty receives forms but is originally unbound. Its pure function is serenely comprehended. The nature of Suchness is unborn and has existed since beginningless time.

When causes and conditions are clear and still, no dharma is separate from them. The principle cannot be conceived; how could it be sought? Dharmas do not transmigrate, and their substance is “nonexistent.” The true nature of nirvana is also “nonexistent.” Subtle, wondrous, and extremely profound, it is clear, still, and peaceful.

The Bodhisattva Mahasattva accordingly guards the mind. Smelted and blended, it remains unmoved, settled, clear, and still. Dharmas are originally eternally abiding; thus the teaching clearly declares.

When self and others diminish and disappear, the nature of affliction appears. The Great Bodhisattva receives and guides beings there. The highest dharmas transcend every increase and decrease.

When the desired fruition is attained, one arrives at the shore of awakening. Understanding the teaching and practice, one gives rise to the irreversible mind. Accordingly advancing in cultivation, one attains excellent and wondrous characteristics.

One teaches and guides sentient beings beset by calamities. One penetrates the wondrous principles of the excellent teaching. Ending every particle of impurity, one attains pure conduct.

Free from karmic recompense,

one advances toward the Three Vehicles. The bodhisattva thoroughly understands all the myriad species. This is the place where the bodhisattva cultivates the fundamental practice.

Wisdom contemplates and illuminates the principle of “non-arising.” Abandoning delusion, one joyfully attains liberation. Afflictions are gradually driven away according to gradual cultivation of the Dharma. The sprouts of the Way flourish, and defiling hindrances become still.

Conceptual proliferation no longer arises, and the true ultimate is attained. The Buddha clearly taught and transmitted the practice of giving. Penetrating the path of contentment, how could craving arise?

In the true domain, one cultivates goodness and attains realization. When the roots of defilement perish, one earnestly cultivates right conduct. This is the bodhisattva’s teaching: remain far from every defilement.

Conceptual proliferation floods the places of inversion. Wisdom investigates and abandons what is meaningless. The true Dharma reveals the ultimate truth.

In accordance with the pure mind, the entire source is developed. The cause of purity and wonder is the support of virtue. The noble ones clearly teach, and sentient beings follow together.

Brahma-conduct destroys every bond. The bodhisattva guides and teaches, explaining with affectionate speech. He delivers the myriad species, cultivating pure and wondrous conduct.

Vast giving is perfectly fulfilled without obstruction. The object to be used is formed beforehand through the power of the Lord of Devas. Cultivating the excellent Dharma, one increases and transforms.

This is the realm where causes are created and responsive manifestations appear. When binding powers arise, beings drift through birth and death. There the bodhisattva delivers them according to conditions.

With a pure mind and intention, one diligently cultivates. The peaceful characteristic is true giving. Guidance develops and spreads everywhere from emptiness.

Excellent karmic conduct brings responses from the four directions. The practice of giving increases and appears throughout all realms. This is the place where the bodhisattva freely performs transformative activity.

The root of attachment to self is disbelief in the teaching. Its application and transformation are believed to arise solely from one’s own power. Sentient beings preserve or abandon bodily parts according to their own strength.

Beings are bound because they follow erroneous paths. With resolute aspiration, they earnestly seek repentance. Without creating a transforming cause, they immediately attain it.

The mental realm completely ends every delusive thought. Through pure causes and conditions, one is always “mindfully protected.” The Buddha’s power can remove violence and evil omens. In pure places, calamities do not arise.

The bodhisattva guides and teaches, and wholesome roots continue. The characteristics remain indestructible through the power of blessed recompense. Ending conceptual proliferation, functions become free.

Understanding conduct and giving is the excellent cause. The self-nature is pure, the root of all ease. The Bodhisattva Mahasattva earnestly speaks words of guidance.

Ending the cause of fear, the karmic result is true. Relying upon causal power, one understands recompense. Influences harmonize, and one studies and cultivates more earnestly.

Freed in body and mind from bondage, one enters the path of the human realm. One seeks to fulfill the Five Precepts and the Three Refuges. Following the highest cause, present conduct accords.

The four present modes of birth receive indeterminate recompense. Benefits from previous lives create the four kinds of giving. As clearly stated, bondage is ultimately exhausted.

How should sentient beings cultivate to eliminate it?

Through the causes and conditions of pure Brahma-conduct, wholesome purity appears. The bodhisattva clearly teaches that one should practice giving and observe the precepts. The functions of the heavenly realm end every fear. This is the realm where the bodhisattva adaptively performs transformative activity. Accordant cultivation is the conduct of truth.

How does serene stillness end every affliction?

Through inverted activity, ultimate truth does not arise. A king among humans has merit like that of a deva. His words and commands are obeyed throughout the four directions.

His institutions and rules are rigorous and appropriate. He understands the noble meaning, which is wondrously and perfectly fulfilled. “Non-harming,” among the wholesome mental factors, takes compassion as its substance.

When right conduct collapses and anger arises, sentient beings are disturbed. Among hundreds of wholesome qualities, this is foremost in becoming defiled. The self-nature of this factor is the nature of alayavijnana.

That consciousness takes the three realms, five destinies, and four modes of birth as its substance. All dharmas depend upon it. The dharmas of that consciousness encompass both good and evil.

Its nature is “indeterminate,” and it does not receive a karmic result. The Great Bodhisattva should teach according to the doctrine. The four fruits of arhatship are received there.

Peaceful and joyful dharmas are attained through the cause of giving. The myriad species are delivered until they attain liberation.

What is the unreal and unstable quality of substance and nature? Giving in accord aids those suffering from hunger. It develops the mental realm.

The self-nature understands and is originally indestructible. What is “non-arising”? The substance of dharmas depends upon conditions and does not appear without causes.

The fruit of that giving attains excellent characteristics. Vast truth and selflessness are supreme. Earnestly and unceasingly practicing the highest principle, one certainly attains wholesome, pure form and observance of the precepts.

The body undergoes myriad changes and is destroyed by illness. One penetrates the factors and their unstable nature. Through peaceful causes and conditions, one understands temporary existence.

Undefiled dharmas transform without end. On the path of the human realm, the mind receives everything. Strange characteristics and great powers cause body and mind to decline and darken.

The destruction of name-and-form reveals the true self-nature. Abundant peace and happiness are like wind blowing upon a torch. The self-nature of nirvana is perfectly awakened to.

What opposition appears at the moment of approaching death?

When the causes of mind and intention end, from what could arising occur? The heavenly lord Indra clearly understands good and evil. The benefit of the teachings and vehicles is not an empty display. Activity seeks to attain the source of meaning and principle. The ultimate meaning of self-nature is the attainment of liberation. To accord with the world means that things are unstable.