勸發諸王要偈

To make clearer the merit of the king

I seek not to surpass through mere conjecture

What the Buddhas have proclaimed as Dharma—

For what meaning is it adorned?

Briefly I compose the praises of the Sages and Saints;

This the Great King should hear.

Just as one takes assorted pieces of wood

And fashions an image of the Tathāgata,

The wise reverently bow and pay homage,

Relying on the Buddha within that wood—

So now I do not argue or dispute,

But proclaim the treasury of the truly real.

Let the wise rejoice in faith,

Relying on the Dharma to hear what is here related.

Though the Great King has heard much,

The Tathāgata speaks the Brahma-voice;

Great awakening arises from hearing much,

And hearing constantly, faith grows deep.

Just as the heavens cast forth their light—

How could it not increase and surpass?

The Three Jewels, giving, precepts, and the heavens—

The Most Victorious One taught the six recollections.

Conforming to these various merits,

Truly and rightly observe them.

Body, speech, and mind ever practicing,

Pure in the ten paths of action;

Abstaining from liquor, without drunken confusion,

Free of the three wrong paths, cultivating right livelihood.

Clearly know the five portions of the household

Are impermanent, not firm or solid.

Through wisdom give, together with the various virtues,

To the poor, the suffering, and one's kin;

Wherever one is born, these ever follow.

Giving is the highest of all—

It is not cut off, nor again is it lost,

Not abandoned, nor its fruit in vain.

In this manner are the various pure precepts;

One should clearly and well uphold them.

This indeed is the good reason

That gives birth to merit.

Giving, precepts, patience, diligence,

Meditative absorption, and immeasurable wisdom—

These are the Pāramitās;

The wise should cultivate and practice them.

Thus may one cross the three seas of suffering

And come to meet the World-Honored One.

If a person is filial to father and mother,

Wholeheartedly serving them with full devotion,

This is called the gateway of reverence and instruction,

Pure, belonging to the realms of the heavens.

One's name is heard far and wide,

And casting off the body, one is born in the heavens.

Forsaking killing, stealing, lust, and falsehood,

Drinking liquor, and the three branches—

Accomplishing the eight lesser portions,

Conforming to the study of all the Buddhas,

Casting off the body, one is born in the Six Heavens;

Whatever one desires, one rejoices in accordingly.

Flattery, fawning, illusion, imprisonment, and conceit;

Indolence, greed, anger, and delusion—

A good family, fitting and proper,

The young rejoicing to hear much:

These various delusions, such as these,

One must regard as enemies and foes.

If one cultivates without negligence,

By this one cannot truly die.

Negligence is the cause of death—

The World-Honored One has clearly declared it.

In order to increase wholesome dharmas,

One should cultivate without heedlessness.

If a person formerly committed evil,

But afterward is not negligent,

By this one illumines the world,

As when the clouds clear and the bright moon shines.

Patience and forbearance—nothing compares to this;

Do not follow the mind of greed and anger.

The Buddha taught that one can become far removed from them,

And shall attain that which does not regress.

There are those whose anger is like writing on water,

Or like writing upon stone,

Or who speak and rouse affliction—

The first kind is foremost of all.

Reforming evil and cultivating loving-kindness and patience—

The third is supreme above all.

The Most Victorious One spoke of sentient beings

And the three kinds of speech: good, evil, and neutral.

The first named draws and guides people's minds—

Good words are like sweet food to eat;

Next is called true and real speech,

Like a precious and beautiful flower;

The last is called the untruthful—

That arises like filth and impurity.

The wise are able to discern:

Forsake the last, then cultivate the first and second.

From brightness, brightness reaches to the end;

From darkness, darkness to the very culmination;

From that darkness one enters into brightness,

Or from brightness one enters into darkness.

The wise should clearly understand this principle:

Forsake the three, and ascend to the first brightness.

There are those born already ripened,

Or again purely of a single seed,

Or both alike are born and ripened—

The clear-sighted clearly discern this.

Do not gaze upon another's beautiful wife;

Seeing her, at once think of her as a mother.

Thus, when the seed of confusion arises,

One should cultivate the contemplation of impurity.

The mind and intention—wholesomely dispel their disturbance;

One should diligently and well guard and maintain them,

Like a person able to listen attentively,

Treasuring the precious store, cherishing it like a child.

One should contemplate the pleasures of the five desires

As being like a vicious and venomous snake;

Its rage will burn and scorch—

By skillful means, cultivate to become far removed.

The five desires give rise to what is contrary to meaning,

Like the fruit of the Bimba tree—

Their appearance is veiling, deceptive and false,

Binding people into birth and death.

The wise should observe this,

Cast it away and let no defilement stain.

The faculties are ever light and restless,

Chasing and running after the six dusts.

If one is able to subdue them well,

This indeed is true valor.

This body is made for their sake—

Through nine passages it ever flows with filth,

Flowing ceaselessly, hardly able to be filled,

Its thin skin full of impurity.

The foolish take it as a delight;

The wise should keep far away from it,

Like a person with festering worm-ridden sores

Who would use fire to remove the peril—

Little pleasure, but afterward greater suffering;

Craving and desire are likewise so.

The good one clearly understands that desire;

From this he departs from all suffering.

To see desire's foremost meaning—

The Buddha taught the contemplation of dependent origination;

One should therefore diligently cultivate and practice it,

So that in the end one's effort is not in vain.

A noble family, a body upright and dignified,

Wide learning, and lofty halls and towers—

If one does not cultivate precepts and wisdom,

These then are not excellent.

One who can fully possess merit—

Not the three—guards it like a seed.

Gain and loss, slander and praise,

Acclaim and blame, suffering and pleasure—

By these eight dharmas one is not swayed nor moved;

This indeed is the Holy King.

Together with the various heavenly cities,

Śramaṇas and Brāhmaṇas,

Clansmen and kinfolk, and guests—

Harming life and creating evil deeds,

At the end of life one enters the hells;

The contact and feeling there cannot be exchanged.

If a person creates evil deeds,

He does not at once receive the poisonous harm,

But at life's end receives the bitter retribution.

Repenting afterward—what use is it?

Faith, precepts, giving, and wide learning,

Wisdom, and conscience and shame—

The Buddha said there is no wealth like these;

Beyond money, all is held in common.

A great exchange at the place of meeting—

Laziness meets with evil limits;

Drinking liquor in delusion, dissolute and unrestrained,

Roaming by night, without shame—

These are the six kinds of defilement;

The wise should keep far from them.

Contentment is the great wealth—

The World-Honored One spoke thus.

If one is able to cultivate contentment,

Though craving, yet one is greatly rich.

Like a dragon with many heads,

The more heads, the more suffering again.

Of self-nature binding deep resentment—

This is called the enemy-wife.

Arrogant and not following along—

She is called one who slights her husband.

Squandering her husband's wealth as the chief deed—

This is called the wife who robs.

Be skillful, O noble man,

And keep far from these three kinds of women.

Conforming as with an elder or younger sister,

Loving and joyful as a good companion,

Comforting like a mother,

Serving willingly as a servant—

This is the worthy wife, the fourth kind;

She is indeed kin of the heavens.

Food and drink are taken as medicine,

Without greed, anger, delusion, or attachment,

Only to relieve the body's suffering,

Not out of laziness and negligence.

By day diligently cultivate vigor;

The beginning and later part of the night, likewise;

In the middle of the night, again right mindfulness,

So that there are no evil dreams.

Loving-kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity—

Day and night ever cultivate and practice them,

So as to go beyond the world

And rival the merit of the Brahma Heaven.

Leaving desire, clearly understanding joy,

Through suffering and pleasure cultivate the four dhyānas—

Brahma's radiance, the beautiful fruit thereof,

Receiving the joys among the heavenly beings.

If a person does little evil

And widely 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 into a small portion of food.

The five aggregates are all dark and obscure;

A human life is precious and rare.

Faith and the five faculties, strong and vigorous—

This is what one should guard and maintain.

Birth, aging, sickness, death, and suffering;

Separation from what one loves—

Drifting and floating, one cannot pass beyond.

Pleasure is created by one's own karma.

Seeking birth in the heavens, or liberation,

One should diligently cultivate right view.

Wrong view, taken as if good,

All becomes the fruit of suffering.

Impermanent, suffering, impure—

One should therefore well observe them.

If one does not rightly contemplate,

The four inversions blind the eye of wisdom.

The upright form is not the self;

The self's form again has no master;

The four aggregates are likewise so,

Wholly emptiness, an accumulation of suffering.

Not from time, nor from a causeless cause,

Nor again from self-nature existing,

Nor from a self-sufficient lord arising in heaven—

It is ignorance, craving, and karma that arise.

The view of self, precept-grasping, and doubt—

These three obstruct liberation.

Holy wisdom opens that gate;

It is by oneself, not by another.

Pure precepts, learning, and meditative absorption—

Diligently and exclusively cultivate the four dhyānas.

The higher precepts, the mind, and wisdom—

One must ever cultivate and study them.

All the precepts and the wisdom of samādhi

Are wholly contained within the three trainings.

The body, the abodes of mindfulness, of great power—

The Buddha taught the One-Vehicle path.

One should always bind the mind in mindfulness;

By skillful means, well guard and maintain it.

If one forgets right mindfulness,

Then at once one loses the wholesome dharmas.

Body and life truly drift and float

Like wind blowing across the water's surface.

Once the dream ends, it can hardly be held;

The breath does not return again.

In but a moment it becomes fine dust—

Know then that it is not firm or secure.

The great earth and the sea of Sumeru—

When the seven suns scorch and burn,

They become void and nothing remains.

How much more this body, beset with peril!

Impermanent, it cannot be relied upon,

Nor again can it shelter or protect.

This body cannot be kept;

Why then does weariness not arise?

Like a blind turtle in the ocean

That meets a floating, hollow log—

An animal's body and a human's body,

So hard to attain, are even more so than this.

A human being in the midst of the world

Who does not cultivate, transcending the fruits of karma,

Is a fine vessel holding filthy things—

This indeed is the fool.

Having attained this precious human body,

Yet creating evil deeds—

One should know that such a person

Is exceedingly foolish, even more so than that.

To be born in another land,

Where one will meet a good and virtuous friend,

Accomplish right view and a sincere mind,

Have past-life recollection and merit;

With the carriage of four jewels complete,

To escape the road of birth and death,

Drawing near to good and virtuous friends,

Fully cultivating the holy life—

The Buddha calls such a person one

Whose mind ever attains tranquil cessation.

Wrong view, the three evil paths;

Not hearing the sound of the Dharma being spoken;

Border lands, places of darkness;

Mutes, and the Long-Lived Heaven—

The king is free from these eight calamities

And has attained this unobstructed body.

One must therefore cultivate wholesome dharmas

And by skillful means seek Nirvāṇa.

Birth and death, in the long night,

Hold immeasurable kinds of suffering.

Turning round and round, creating the six kinds of kin;

High and low, the place of impermanence,

Forever within birth and death,

It has never yet been brought to an end.

Reckon the mother's milk one has drunk

And compare it to the waters of the four seas—

The ordinary person, undergoing birth,

Has drunk again much more than that.

A single person, from before until after,

Has heaped up bones higher than Sumeru;

Passing through the realms of heavens and humans,

The great earth is as much as dust.

At first one is a Wheel-Turning King,

Afterward again becomes a slave;

Or above one is Śakra, the lord,

Served by all the heavenly beings;

Below one is born into filthy places—

Coming and going, countless times.

Or at times one is born in the heavens,

A courtesan of utmost delight and pleasure,

With beautiful eyes and lovely form;

The ears hearing ten thousand songs of praise,

The body touching what is soft and tender—

The bliss can hardly be told in full.

Afterward one falls into the hells,

Where bitter poison cannot be escaped;

Or one is born into the sword-forest,

Body and head following the rhythm of the blades;

Or one ascends the summit of Sumeru,

Rising and descending according to one's thoughts,

Together with the heavenly maidens and all,

Bathing in the Mandā pool,

Where precious flowers are everywhere lovely,

Cool and refreshing, and full of delight.

Then again one enters the hot river,

Burned and scorched, at once becoming charcoal.

The six entrances, the five desires lament;

In the Brahma World one leaves desire's pleasure,

Then again enters the Avīci hell,

There to receive the various poisonous sufferings.

Or one becomes the sun and the moon and such,

Their light shining upon the four continents;

Or one is born in the dark and gloomy hell,

Unable even to see this very form.

The king, naturally possessing wisdom,

Should not fall forever into darkness,

Entering into that great hell,

Burned and scorched, truly in misery,

With added kinds of poisonous suffering,

Immeasurable and beyond comparison.

If a person follows delusion and confusion,

Creating all manner of evil deeds—

Before the breath has returned again,

Hearing of these sufferings,

If this mind feels no fear and dread,

That one is indeed a person of wood and stone.

The eyes seeing the forms of retribution,

And again hearing the wise speak

Of how those who passed beyond the Buddha's scriptures,

With the inner mind in right contemplation,

Then at once feel overwhelming fear and dread—

How much more for one who passes through it in person!

Among all the sufferings,

Avīci is the most painful.

Among all the joys received,

When craving ends, this is the foremost joy.

Day and night, at each of the three periods,

Three hundred times pierced and run through the body—

Should one wish to compare it to Avīci's suffering,

It is a hundred thousand times beyond likening.

Immeasurable are the poisonous harms;

Seeking death, one cannot even attain it,

Undergoing the punishment a hundred thousand years.

When the evil karma is at last exhausted,

The impure fruit-retribution of suffering—

The various kinds of karma of body and mouth—

If not planted, then it does not exist.

The king wishes to cut off this suffering.

If one falls into the animal realm,

There is the suffering of bondage and slaughter;

Greedy harming and frenzied, deluded minds,

Rage binding them to devour one another's flesh.

Or again one's precious things are seized—

Fur, tail, hide, flesh, and bone—

By this the body and life are made to suffer,

Flayed and cut, truly in agony.

Beneath the feet there are great blades

That stab and pierce—what agony!

The hardship does not come to an end;

Driven and pressed, the suffering increases.

The hungry ghosts long to drink and eat,

Remembering and thinking of what they have never had.

Hunger, thirst, cold, and excessive heat,

Through the long night without rest or repose.

Or the body is like a great dog,

The mouth and throat pricked with needles;

Hungry and thirsty, amid burning fire,

Wishing to eat, yet unable to eat.

Or one sees dung, pus, and spittle,

Surrounding and running all about;

Arriving, it of itself vanishes,

And despair increases the anguish and distress.

Hungry and thirsty for this pit of flesh,

Flowing with pus, giving off a foul stench,

They at once fall to fighting one another,

Buck-teeth biting at the filthy blood.

Festering sores ulcerate to the bone;

Naked, with long, disheveled hair,

The body long like a length of wood,

Flames bursting forth from the mouth,

Again burning this very body,

Scorching and consuming the Tāla trees.

In summer one longs for cool nights,

But the moon's shining only increases the heat;

In winter one longs for warm days,

But when the sun rises, the cold gathers again.

When one desires, the fruit at once vanishes;

The river's waters again dry up.

Passing through fifteen thousand years,

The evil karma's lifespan does not cease;

Long undergoing immeasurable suffering,

The pleasure due to former wrongdoing.

All the various kinds of suffering and oppression

Are wholly suffering without interruption.

Greedily hoarding, with much regret and longing—

The Buddha spoke of the cause of hungry ghosts.

Born in the heavens, though it be joyful and pleasant,

When the merit is exhausted, it is truly bitter.

Pleasure that is not the fruit of the Holy Sages,

The wise do not rely upon.

The body and form grow no longer bright,

No longer joyful in their seat;

The flowered crown withers and falls away,

Filth and grime cling to the body,

Sweat flows, foul and unclean—

Know then that death has arrived.

When wholesome deeds are wholly exhausted,

One falls and descends into the three evil paths,

Or is born as an Asura,

Greedy and avaricious, ever distressed.

Though one has wisdom and intelligence,

In the end one does not see the truth.

Birth and death within the six realms

Revolve and turn, ever without ceasing.

The supreme Dharma does not undergo birth;

Those births are all suffering, every one.

Like being upon a heap of fire,

Let right intention not be negligent;

So as not to undergo the karma of future lives,

With single-minded mind diligently cultivate and practice.

The class of precepts, meditative absorption, and wisdom,

Quiescent and tranquil, kept unmoving;

Ever seek the realm of Nirvāṇa,

Ultimately departing from birth and death.

Mindfulness, discernment, and diligence,

Joy, samādhi, and equanimity—

These are the seven factors of awakening,

Pure, becoming the ambrosia of immortality.

Without wisdom there is no meditation;

Without meditation, again there is no wisdom.

These, when both are accomplished,

Are able to bring escape from birth and death.

The great sea of boundless suffering

Is seen as a cow beneath the water.

The fourteen matters of vain dispute—

The Buddha taught that one should not ponder them:

Existence and non-existence, the path of peace and ease;

Cessation, and the place that is not tranquil cessation.

Ignorance conditions formations;

This in turn conditions the arising of 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 various feelings;

The various feelings serve as the cause of craving;

From craving arise the four graspings;

The four graspings give rise to the three becomings;

Caused by becoming, craving arises thereafter;

From birth come aging and death,

Grief, sorrow, and suffering and distress—

These immeasurable sufferings.

When birth is ended, suffering at once ends.

What the Most Victorious One has revealed,

The profound and deep Dharma of dependent origination—

If one is able rightly to observe it

And see truly and clearly as above,

Thus to see the truly real

Is indeed to see the Buddha.

Right view, right thought,

Right speech, right action, right livelihood,

Right mindfulness, right effort,

And right concentration—

The eightfold path of the Sages and Saints,

Tranquil cessation, one should cultivate.

Birth is precisely the truth of suffering;

That love and affection are the origination;

The cessation of suffering is called liberation;

Reaching that is called the eightfold path.

In order to see that true reality,

One should diligently cultivate right knowledge.

Though dwelling amid desire's pleasures,

The wise should keep far removed.

One should realize the right Dharma—

All arise from the ordinary person;

It does not fall down from empty space,

Nor again rise up from the earth.

Wise and clear, the king without fear,

Grasping the essential, awaiting no vexation,

Should pass on to seek the right Dharma

And cross beyond the shore of birth and death.

As with the various wondrous dharmas above,

To leave the household life is truly hard;

How much more for the Lord of the World,

To make them complete and full.

According to the time, reduce and cultivate;

Do not let the days pass without meaning.

For all who cultivate the wholesome,

Ever give rise to the mind of sympathetic joy.

Performing oneself the three kinds of karma,

Rightly dedicate them to the Buddha's path.

Then for the sake of future ages

One shall receive this immeasurable blessing,

Ever born among heavens and humans,

Becoming the Sovereign King at ease.

Together with the Great Bodhisattvas,

Roaming and sporting with spiritual powers,

By skillful means delivering sentient beings,

Adorning and purifying the Buddha-lands.

Giving, precepts, and wisdom as the root,

Passing back and forth among heavens and humans,

The undefiled and pure—thus is the name—

Reaching widely throughout the ten directions.

The guide and leader of the world,

Born on high, delivering the kings of heaven,

Causing them to cast off the five desires' pleasures

And keep far from all negligence.

Not giving rise to delusion is the chief;

Drifting and floating along the four ways,

The immeasurable suffering of birth and death—

Pass beyond it and reach the other shore.

Relying on this, accomplish the Buddha's path,

The ultimate Great Nirvāṇa.

Essential Verses Exhorting the Kings

The End