勸發諸王要偈

To make clear the merit of the king

I seek no further wish for myself

The places where the Buddhas expound the Dharma

Adorned with what meaning therein

I briefly compile the hymns of the Sages and Worthies

That which the great king should hear

Just as one takes assorted pieces of wood

And fashions an image of the Tathāgata

The wise reverently bow in homage

Relying on the Buddha within that wood

I now make no disputation

But proclaim the treasury of truth

Those of wisdom should believe and rejoice

Relying on the Dharma, hear what is recounted

Though the great king has heard much

The Tathāgata speaks the Brahmā-voice

Great awakening comes from hearing much

Constantly hearing, one's faith deepens

Just as the heavens cast their light

How could it not increase and surpass?

The Three Jewels, giving, precepts, the heavens

The Supreme One speaks of the six recollections

Conforming to these manifold merits

Truly and well observe them

Body, speech, and mind ever practicing

Pure are the ten courses of karma

Abstaining from liquor, free of drunken confusion

Forsaking the three wrongs, cultivate right livelihood

Clearly know the five thieving portions

Impermanent and not firmly secure

Wisely give together with all the virtues

To the poor and suffering and to kinsfolk

Wherever born, these ever follow you

Giving is the highest of all

It is not severed and again not lost

It departs not, its fruit is not in vain

In this way the manifold pure precepts

One should clearly and well uphold and observe

This is the excellent reason

For the arising of merit indeed

Giving, precepts, patience, vigor

Meditative concentration, immeasurable wisdom

These are the Pāramitās

The wise should cultivate and practice them

That one may cross the three seas of suffering

And come to meet the World-Honored One

If a person is filial to father and mother

With utmost mind makes offerings to the full

This is called the gateway of ritual instruction

Pure and belonging to the heavenly realm

One's name is heard far and wide

Casting off the body, one is born in the heavens

Abstaining from killing, stealing, lust, and falsehood

From drinking liquor and the three branches

Accomplishing the eight lesser portions

Conforming to the learning of the Buddhas

Casting off the body, born in the Six Heavens

What one desires comes at once with rejoicing

Flattery, sycophancy, deceit, harshness, conceit

Indolence, greed, anger, and delusion

In a good family alone one finds propriety

The young who hear much rejoice

In this way the manifold delusions

Must be seen as foes and enemies

If one cultivates without negligence

Thereby one cannot die

Negligence is the cause of death

The World-Honored One has clearly spoken this

In order to increase wholesome dharmas

One should cultivate without heedlessness

If a person formerly did evil

And afterward is not negligent

Thereby he illumines the world

When clouds are spent, the bright moon shines

Patience is matchless and beyond compare

Following not greed and anger of mind

The Buddha says one can stay far apart

And shall attain non-retrogression

There is anger like a drawing on water

Or like a carving on stone

Or speech that gives rise to affliction

The first of these is the highest of all

Reforming evil, cultivating loving-kindness and patience

The third is the supreme

The Supreme One speaks of sentient beings

The three kinds of good, evil, and speech

The first leads the minds of people

Good words are like eating honey

The next is called true and honest speech

Just like a beautiful jeweled flower

The last is called untruthful

That arising is like filth and excrement

The wise can discern and distinguish

Abandon the last, cultivate the first two thereafter

From light, light to the very end

From dark, darkness to the ultimate

From that darkness entering into light

Or from light entering into darkness

The wise should clearly grasp this principle

Abandon the third, ascend to the first brightness

There is one born into ripeness

Or again the pure born into seed

Or both alike born and ripened

The bright one clearly discerns and distinguishes

Not gazing upon another's beautiful wife

Seeing her, think of her at once as a mother

In this way, born of seed or of delusion

One should cultivate the contemplation of impurity

When the mind and intention chase after disorder

One should diligently guard them well

Like a person who can listen attentively

Cherishing the treasure-store as one's own child

One should contemplate the pleasures of the five desires

Just like a fierce and venomous snake

Wrath will scorch and burn

By skillful means cultivate, stay far apart

The five desires give rise to what is contrary to meaning

Just like the bimba fruit

Its appearance concealed, fair yet deceitful and false

Binding people into birth and death

The wise should observe and examine

Cast them away, do not be defiled

The faculties are ever light and nimble

Chasing after and running with the six dusts

If one can well subdue and tame them

This indeed is true valor

This body is made for that purpose

The nine passages ever flow with filth

Flowing ceaselessly, hard to be filled

Thin skin filled with impurity

The fool takes it for delight

The wise should stay far apart

Like a person with sores and worm-eaten disease

Who would use fire to remove the danger

A little pleasure, afterward greater suffering

Sensual desire is likewise so

When one well discerns those desires

From this one departs from all suffering

Desire to see the foremost meaning

The Buddha speaks of contemplating dependent arising

One should therefore diligently cultivate it

In the end it is no wasted effort

A family with bodily dignity

Learned and with lofty towers and halls

If one cultivates not precepts and wisdom

This indeed is not surpassing

One who can fully possess merit

Not the three, well guarded and kept

Gain and decline, blame and praise

Acclaim and reproach, suffering and joy

By these eight dharmas unmoved and untilted

This indeed is the Holy King

Together with all the heavenly cities

Śramaṇas and Brāhmaṇas

Clansmen and guests alike

To harm life and create evil karma

At life's end one enters the hells

The contact and feeling—it cannot be exchanged

If a person creates evil karma

He does not at once suffer poison and harm

At life's end he receives the suffering retribution

To repent afterward—what use is it?

Faith, precepts, giving, learning much

Wisdom together with shame and conscience

The Buddha says these are not material wealth

Beyond money all things are shared

Trading greatly at the places of meeting

The lazy meet with evil misfortune

Drinking liquor, deluded, and dissolute

Wandering by night, without shame

These six are the kinds of defilement

The wise should stay far apart

Contentment is great wealth

The World-Honored One has spoken thus

If one can cultivate contentment

Though one craves little, one is greatly rich

Just like a dragon with many heads

The more heads, the more suffering again

By her own nature she binds deep enmity

This is named the foe-and-enemy woman

Arrogant and not compliant

She is called the one who slights her husband

Squandering the husband's wealth as her own

This is called the wife who plunders

Be skillful, O great man

One should stay far from these three women

Conforming like an elder or younger sister

In love and joy a good companion

Comforting just like a mother

Following one's wishes like a servant

This is the worthy wife, the fourth kind

She is indeed kin of the heavens

Take food and drink as medicine

Without greed, anger, delusion subdued

Only to halt the body's suffering

Not out of laziness and heedlessness

By day diligently cultivate vigor

The first and last watches of the night likewise

In the middle of the night again right mindfulness

That there be no evil dreams

Loving-kindness, compassion, the wholesome mind of equanimity

Day and night ever cultivate and practice

So as to go forth from the world

Matching the blessings of Brahmā

Departing from desire, clearly know joy

In suffering and joy cultivate the four dhyānas

The radiance of Brahmā, the fair fruit thereof

Receiving joy among the heavenly beings

If a person does little evil

And broadly cultivates immeasurable good

It is like taking a single handful of salt

And casting it into the waters of the Ganges

If a person does much evil

And cultivates little wholesome merit

It is like using much fierce poison

And placing it in a small portion of food

The five aggregates, all dark and obscure

A human lifetime, wholesome and precious

Faith and the five faculties, strong and vigorous

This is what must be guarded and kept

The suffering of birth, aging, sickness, and death

Parting from those one loves

Drifting and floating, one cannot pass beyond

Joy is created by one's own karma

Seeking birth in the heavens, and liberation

One should diligently cultivate right view

Wrong views are taken as good

All of them are fruits of suffering

Impermanent, suffering, and impure

One should therefore well observe and examine

If one does not rightly contemplate

The four inversions blind the eye of wisdom

The upright and proper form—it is non-self

The self's form again has no master

The four aggregates are likewise so

Wholly emptiness, an accumulation of suffering

Not by time, not without cause

And not existing by its own nature

Not born of heaven by a self-existent power

From ignorance, craving, and karma it arises

View of self, precepts, grasping, and doubt

These three are obstacles to liberation

The wisdom of the Sages opens that gate

By oneself, not depending on another

Pure precepts, learning, meditative concentration

With diligence cultivate the four dhyānas

Higher precepts, the mind, and wisdom

One should ever cultivate and learn

All the precepts, the wisdom of samādhi

All enter into the three trainings

The body, the stations of mindfulness, the great power

The Buddha calls it the path of the One Vehicle

One should ever bind the mind's mindfulness

By skillful means well guard and keep it

If one loses one's right mindfulness

One then loses the wholesome dharmas

Body and life truly float and drift

Like the wind blowing on the water's surface

When the dream is over, hard to hold fast

The breath does not return

In but a moment it becomes fine dust

One should know it is not firm and secure

The great earth and the sea of Sumeru

Burned by seven suns

Empty and void, nothing remaining

How much more the perilous and frail body

Impermanent, it cannot be relied upon

And again it cannot shelter or protect

This body cannot be kept

Why then does one not give rise to weariness?

Just like a blind sea-turtle

Coming upon a floating, hollowed log

Birth as an animal and birth as a human

The latter is hard to obtain, even more so

A person dwelling in the midst of the world

Cultivates not to transcend the fruits of karma

A fine vessel holding filthy things

This indeed is the fool

Having obtained the precious human body

Yet creating deeds of evil

One should clearly know this person

Is supremely foolish, even more so

Born into another land

One shall meet a good spiritual friend

Right view, the mind accomplished

Knowledge of past lives, possessing merit

The chariot of four jewels fully complete

Going forth from the road of birth and death

Drawing near to a good spiritual friend

Fully cultivating the pure conduct

The Buddha calls a person such as this

The mind ever attaining cessation and quietude

Wrong views, the three evil paths

Not hearing the sound of the spoken Dharma

Border lands, places dark and obscure

The dumb and mute, the Heaven of Long Life

The king departs from these eight difficulties

Obtaining this unobstructed body

One should therefore cultivate wholesome dharmas

By skillful means seek Nirvāṇa

In birth and death, through the long night

Immeasurable and manifold kinds of suffering

Turning round and round, creating the six kinfolk

High and low, in the place of impermanence

Forever within birth and death

It has never yet been brought to completion

Count the mother's milk one has drunk

Compared with the waters of the four seas

The worldling, in receiving birth

The drinking is again much more

A single person from before until after

The heap of bones rises high as Sumeru

Passing through the realms of heaven and human

The great earth as many as motes of dust

First made a Wheel-Turning King

Afterward made a slave and servant

Or above made Śakra

Whom the heavenly beings serve and attend

Below born into filthy places

Coming and going countless many times

Or at times born above in heaven

A courtesan in utmost joy and delight

Beautiful eyes together with loveliness

The ears hearing myriad songs of praise

The body touching upon the soft and tender

Pleasure beyond all telling

Afterward falling into the hells

The bitter poison cannot be escaped

Or born into the forest of swords

Body and head following the rhythm of the blades

Or ascending to the summit of Sumeru

Rising and falling according to one's thought

Together with the heavenly maidens all

Bathing in the Mandākinī pool

Jeweled flowers everywhere fair and beautiful

Cool and refreshing and delightful

Then entering into the scalding river

Burned and at once becoming charcoal

The six entrances, the five desires lament

Brahmā's world departs from the joy of desire

Then entering the Avīci hell

Suffering manifold poisonous torments

Or made into the Sun and Moon and such

Their light illumining the four realms

Or born into the dark and obscure hell

Unable even to see one's own form

The king is naturally one of wisdom

Do not fall forever into the dark

Entering into that great hell

The burning is truly bitter and grievous

Adding the manifold kinds of poisonous torment

Immeasurable, so many they cannot be likened

If a person follows delusion's confusions

And all create evil karmas

Before the breath has returned again

To hear of these sufferings

If this mind is not afraid

It is indeed a person of wood and stone

The eye seeing the forms of karmic retribution

And again hearing the words of the wise

These passing through the Buddha's sūtra teachings

Within the mind, right contemplation

One then becomes greatly afraid

How much more passing through it oneself in body

Among all things of suffering

Avīci is the most bitter

Among all the joys received

The ending of craving is the foremost joy

By day and night, each in three watches

Three hundred times pierced through the body

Wishing to compare it to the suffering of Avīci

A hundred thousandfold it cannot be likened

Immeasurable are the poisonous harms

Seeking death and again not attaining it

Receiving punishment for a hundred thousand years

When the evil karma is at last exhausted

The fruit of suffering not yet cleansed

The karmas of body and mouth of every kind

If not planted, then they do not exist

The king desires to end this suffering

If one falls into the realm of animals

The suffering of bondage and slaughter

Greed and harm, the wild and disordered mind

Knotted in rage, devouring one another's flesh

Or again taking the precious things

The fur, the tail, the skin, the flesh, the bone

Thereby suffering in body and life

Flayed and cut, truly painful

Beneath the feet are great blades

Stabbing through—how painful indeed

Distress and suffering without ceasing

Pressed and harried with added grief

The hungry ghosts wish to drink and eat

Recalling and longing for what has never been

Hungry and thirsty, cold and hot beyond measure

Through the long night without rest or repose

Or a body like a great dog

Mouth and throat pricked with needles

Hungry and thirsty, burning within

Wishing to eat, yet unable to eat

Or seeing excrement, pus, and spittle

Surrounding and running about all around

Arriving, it naturally vanishes away

Despair increases the suffering and affliction

Hungry and thirsty, this pit of flesh

Oozing pus and giving off a foul stench

They then together fight one another

Buck-teeth biting the filthy blood

Boils and sores festering to the bone

Naked with long disheveled hair

The body long like a length of wood

Fire bursting forth from the mouth

And again burning this very body

Scorching the Tāla tree

In summer wishing for a cool night

The moon shines, increasing the heat

In winter wishing for a warm day

The sun rises, again the frozen cold

Wishing, the fruit at once vanishes

The river's water again runs dry

Passing through fifteen thousand years

The evil karma, the life-span ends not

Long receiving immeasurable suffering

Joy from one's former offenses

The manifold kinds of suffering's torments

Wholly suffering without interruption

Greedily hoarding, much regret and remorse

The Buddha speaks of the cause of hungry ghosts

Birth in heaven, though joyful and pleasant

When the blessings are spent, truly suffering

Joy that is not the fruit of Sages and Worthies

Is what the wise do not rely upon

The body becomes no longer bright

No longer joyful upon the seat

The cap of flowers withers and falls

Filth and dirt cling to the body

Sweat flowing, foul and unclean

One must know that death has now arrived

The wholesome deeds are wholly spent

Falling into the three evil realms

Or born among the Asuras

Greedy and ever in suffering and affliction

Though they have intelligence and cleverness

In the end they do not see the truth

Birth and death in the six realms

Revolving ever without cease

The supreme Dharma is not received in birth

These births are all of suffering

Just as upon a heap of fire

With right intention be not negligent

Receive not the karma of the next life

With single-minded mind diligently cultivate

The grade of precepts, meditative concentration, wisdom

Tranquil and still, keeping unmoving

Ever seek the realm of Nirvāṇa

Ultimately departing from birth and death

Mindfulness, discernment, and vigor

Joy, samādhi, and equanimity

These are the seven factors of enlightenment

Pure, accomplishing the ambrosia

Without wisdom there is no dhyāna

Without dhyāna there is again no wisdom

These two, accomplished together

Can bring forth from birth and death

The boundless great sea of suffering

Seen like an ox beneath the water

The fourteen without idle speculation

The Buddha says they should not be pondered

Existence and non-existence, the path of peace and security

Cessation, and the place that is not quiescent cessation

Ignorance conditions formations

This conditions and gives rise to that consciousness

Name-and-form arises from consciousness

The six entrances are caused by name-and-form

The six entrances give rise to the six contacts

From contact arise the manifold feelings

The manifold feelings are the cause of craving

From craving arise the four graspings

The four graspings give rise to the three becomings

By the cause of becoming, craving arises thereafter

From birth on to aging and death

Grief, sorrow, and suffering and affliction

The immeasurable manifold sufferings

When birth is exhausted, suffering is at once exhausted

That which the Supreme One has revealed

The profound Dharma of dependent arising

If one can rightly observe and examine

Seeing it truly and clearly as above

Thus seeing the truth

This indeed is seeing the Buddha

Right view, right intention

Right speech, right action, and livelihood

Right mindfulness, right effort

And Right Samādhi

The eightfold path of the Sages and Worthies

Tranquil cessation—one should cultivate it

Birth is precisely the truth of suffering

Affectionate craving is the origination

The cessation of suffering is called liberation

Reaching that is called the eightfold path

In order to see that true truth

One should diligently cultivate right wisdom

Though dwelling in the midst of sensual joys

The wise should stay far apart

One should realize the right Dharma

All arise from the worldling

They do not fall from empty space

Nor again rise up from the earth

Clear-minded and wise, the fearless king

Grasping the essentials, awaiting no affliction

One should cross over to seek the right Dharma

And pass beyond the shore of birth and death

As above are the wondrous dharmas

To go forth into homelessness is truly hard

How much more for the Lord of the World

Yet to bring them to fulfillment

In due season diminish and cultivate

Do not let the days be without meaning

For all who cultivate good

Ever give rise to a mind of sympathetic joy

Doing oneself the three kinds of karma

Rightly dedicate them to the Buddha-path

That for the sake of the age to come

One may receive these immeasurable blessings

Ever born among the heavens and humans

Becoming a Sovereign King

Together with the Great Bodhisattvas

Sporting freely with spiritual powers

By skillful means delivering sentient beings

Adorning and purifying the Buddha-land

Giving, precepts, and wisdom as the root

Coming and going among the heavens and humans

Stainless and pure is the name one is called

Reaching broadly throughout the ten directions

The guide of the world

Born above, delivering the kings of the heavens

Causing them to cast off the joys of the five desires

To depart far from all heedlessness

Not giving rise to delusion is the true way

Drifting and floating along the four currents

The immeasurable suffering of birth and death

Crossing beyond to the other shore

Relying on this, accomplishing the Buddha-path

Ultimately the Great Nirvāṇa.

The Essential Verses Exhorting the Kings (Composed for the Departed)

The End