大聖文殊師利菩薩讚佛法身禮

The Emperor, with profound benevolence and compassion, governs all four quarters, like the sun illuminating all things, sprinkling Amṛta (Sweet Dew) everywhere to wash all people clean.

I (Amoghavajra) have received exceedingly much grace from the Sagely Compassion, and so I undertook this translation. In particular, receiving the Imperial Command, I respectfully assembled a group of the Erudite Śramaṇas of the Upper Capital, with LIANG BI, sixteen persons in all, and in the Inner Bodhimaṇḍa translated the Sūtra of the Benevolent King Who Protects the Country with Prajñā together with the Mahāyāna Mysterious Adornment (Mahā-vairocana-guhya-alaṃkāra) … and completed it. Wishing to extol and praise, thereafter at Zhijue Jijie Fu within the Sagely Palace, I separately saw the Sūtra of the Great Sage Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī Praising the Dharma-Body of the Buddha.

+According to that Sanskrit text, there are 41 Veneration Verses. The path practiced formerly had only 10 Veneration Verses, which were insufficient with regard to the text, and incomplete in praising the Virtues, so that I feared this would run counter to the sincerity of the Sage, and would moreover be lacking in the supreme benefit of the multitude of beings.

Amoghavajra (Amogha-vajra) formerly possessed a Sanskrit text which he had upheld, and it was complete in every respect. Now I translate it to be transmitted and circulated, hoping to assist in conferring great benefit.

As for the group of Repentance Rituals and Liturgies, these are all as in the former text (the old version). Here I shall not repeat them.

In the time of the Great Tang, the first year of the Yongtai era, exactly in the fourth month of the Summer season.

The Sūtra states:

Thus have I heard. At one time the Buddha was dwelling on Mount Gṛdhrakūṭa (Vulture Peak) in the city of Rājagṛha, together with an assembly of great Bhikṣus (Mahā-bhikṣu), twenty-five thousand in number, who had come to attend, all of them Arhats (Arhat), and with seventy-two nayuta koṭi great Bodhisattva-Mahāsattvas, of whom Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī (Maṃjuśrī-bodhisatva) was the Foremost (Pramukha).

At that time Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī rose from his seat, arranged his robes, bared his right shoulder, bowed his head to the feet of the Buddha, joined his palms in reverence, praised the Tathāgata, and then spoke a Gāthā (Verse), saying:

1_ Without form (rūpa), without characteristic mark (Lakṣaṇa)

Without root (Mūla), without abode (no dwelling place)

Neither arising nor ceasing, therefore

I reverently venerate the One Without Anything to Contemplate (the principle of contemplating that the Dharmas have nothing that can be attained)

2_ Neither going nor abiding, neither grasping nor rejecting

3_ Not abiding in the Dharmas (Dharma), through being apart from existence (being) and apart from non-existence (non-being), practicing in equality (Sama), therefore I reverently venerate the One Without Anything to Contemplate

4_ Emerging from the Three Realms (the Form Realm, the Desire Realm, the Formless Realm), equal to and the same as empty space, undefiled by the desires, therefore I reverently venerate the One Without Anything to Contemplate

5_ Amid all the dignified deportments, going, standing, sleeping, and waking, always abiding in tranquility, therefore I reverently venerate the One Without Anything to Contemplate

6_ Going and coming are alike equal, abiding already in equality, not destroying equality, therefore I reverently venerate the One Without Anything to Contemplate

7_ Entering the various Markless Samādhis, seeing all Dharmas as tranquil, always abiding in Samādhi (Samādhi), therefore I reverently venerate the One Without Anything to Contemplate

8_ Without abiding, without anything to contemplate, attaining sovereign mastery over the Dharma, wisdom employing constant concentration, therefore I reverently venerate the One Without Anything to Contemplate

9_ Not abiding in the six Faculties, not attached to the six Objects, always abiding in the one Mark, therefore I reverently venerate the One Without Anything to Contemplate

10_ Entering into the Markless (Animitta), able to sever the various Defilements, far removed from Name (Nāma) and Form (Rūpa), therefore I reverently venerate the One Without Anything to Contemplate

11_ Not abiding in the marks of existence (the Marked), and also apart from all Marks, entering the Marks while dwelling in emptiness (non-being), I reverently venerate the One Without Anything to Contemplate

12_ Without discriminating thought,

the mind abiding in non-abiding (Without anything abided in), the various Thoughts not arising, therefore I reverently venerate the One Without Anything to Contemplate

13_ Without the Storehouse Consciousness (Ālaya-vijñāna), like emptiness (Śūnya: empty), without defilement, without frivolous discourse, far removed from the three times, therefore I reverently venerate the One Without Anything to Contemplate

14_ Empty Space has neither middle nor edge, the mind of the Buddhas is likewise so; the mind being the same as Empty Space, therefore I reverently venerate the One Without Anything to Contemplate

15_ The Buddhas have the mark of empty space, and empty space too is without Mark; being apart from all Causes (Hetu) and Effects (Phāla), therefore I reverently venerate the One Without Anything to Contemplate

16_ Not attached to the various Dharmas, like the moon in water (the moon beneath the water), grasping nothing, far removed from the Mark of Self, I reverently venerate the One Without Anything to Contemplate

17_ Not abiding in the various Aggregates (skandha), not attached to the Bases (Āyatana) and Elements (Dhātu), far removed from inverted views, therefore I reverently venerate the One Without Anything to Contemplate

18_ Always equal to the Dharma-Realm (Dharma-dhātu), the View of Self all severed, far removed from the two extremes, therefore I reverently venerate the One Without Anything to Contemplate

19_ Not abiding in the various Forms, neither grasping nor rejecting, far removed from what is not the Dharma, therefore I reverently venerate the One Without Anything to Contemplate

20_ Realizing the Dharma without obstruction, penetrating the various Dharmas, far removed from the Dharma of Māra, therefore I reverently venerate the One Without Anything to Contemplate

21_ Neither existent nor non-existent, existence and non-existence both unobtainable, apart from all verbal expressions, therefore I reverently venerate the One Without Anything to Contemplate

22_ Breaking the foolish Conceit of Self, neither one nor two, far removed from the one and the two, therefore I reverently venerate the One Without Anything to Contemplate

23_ Body, speech, and mind without loss, the Three Karmas always tranquil, far removed from analogy, therefore I reverently venerate the One Without Anything to Contemplate

24_ Omniscient Wisdom (Sarva-jñā) ever-abiding, responding and manifesting without effortful function, far removed from all faults, therefore I reverently venerate the One Without Anything to Contemplate

25_ Subtle and marvelous, the undefiled thought, without limit, without discrimination; the groups of the Sentient and the Insentient, therefore I reverently venerate the One Without Anything to Contemplate

26_ Because of using the Mind without obstruction, fully knowing all Minds, not abiding in Self and Others (self and other), therefore I reverently venerate the One Without Anything to Contemplate

27_ Without obstruction, without anything to contemplate, always abiding in the Dharma without obstruction, far removed from the various Minds, therefore I reverently venerate the One Without Anything to Contemplate

28_ The Mind always without anything as Object, its Self-Nature unobtainable, equal and hard to fathom, therefore I reverently venerate the One Without Anything to Contemplate

29_ Using the Mind without anything to rely on (without support), fully seeing all the lands and realms, knowing all sentient beings, therefore I reverently venerate the One Without Anything to Contemplate

30_ All Dharmas, Sarvajña (Sarva-jñā: Omniscient Wisdom), ultimately have nothing to possess; the Buddha's Mind is hard to measure, I reverently venerate the One Without Anything to Contemplate

31 The various Dharmas are like an Illusion, like an Illusion they are unobtainable, being apart from the various Dharmas of Illusion, therefore 32 The Buddha always dwells in the Worldly Realm, yet is not defiled by Worldly Dharmas; being undefiled by the Worldly Realm, therefore I reverently venerate the One Without Anything to Contemplate

33_ Omniscient Wisdom ever-abiding, its Nature empty (Śūnyatā: Emptiness), its sphere empty, its speech also empty, therefore I reverently venerate the One Without Anything to Contemplate

34_ Realizing the Samādhi of Non-Discrimination, attaining the Illusion-like Samādhi, sporting in Spiritual Powers, therefore I reverently venerate the One Without Anything to Contemplate

35_ Neither one nor different, neither near nor far, unmoving with regard to the Dharma, therefore I reverently venerate the One Without Anything to Contemplate

36_ In a single thought, the Vajra Samādhi; in an instant, accomplishing Right Enlightenment; realizing the absence of shadow and image, therefore I reverently venerate the One Without Anything to Contemplate

37_ In the Dharmas of the three times, accomplishing all the skillful means, unmoving in Nirvāṇa, therefore I reverently venerate the One Without Anything to Contemplate

38_ Nirvāṇa always unmoving, without this shore or the other shore, penetrating the skillful means, therefore I reverently venerate the One Without Anything to Contemplate

39_ Without mark, without anything to possess, without calamity, without frivolous discourse, not abiding in existence and non-existence, therefore I reverently venerate the One Without Anything to Contemplate

40_ The Wisdom and the Bases are all equal, tranquil and without discrimination, Self and Others (self and other) being of one Mark, therefore I reverently venerate the One Without Anything to Contemplate

41_ Venerating all with equality, without veneration and without non-veneration.

At that time the World-Honored One praised Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī, saying: "Excellent! Excellent! Now you have skillfully spoken the Merit and Virtue of the Tathāgata; all the Dharmas, from of old, are originally pure.

O Mañjuśrī! Suppose there were a person who taught and converted all sentient beings throughout the three-thousandfold Great Thousand World-System so that they all became Pratyekabuddhas (Pratyeka-buddha); even this would not equal a person who, hearing this Merit and Virtue, believes and understands it in a single thought, for such a one would surpass the former person by a hundred thousand myriad times. Unfolding thus in turn, it cannot be praised, illustrated, or compared."

Just as fully stated in the Original Sūtra (the root Sūtra)

THE GREAT SAGE BODHISATTVA MAÑJUŚRĪ PRAISING THE DHARMA-BODY OF THE BUDDHA, VENERATION The End