佛說解憂經

Bowing my head, I take refuge in the Fully Awakened One,

Who crosses the boundless ocean of suffering,

Ever sprinkling the sweet dew of amṛta upon all living beings,

Leading them to nirvāṇa — to him I bow down!

Bowing my head, I take refuge in the treasury of the True Dharma,

Which ends without remainder the boundless causes of suffering,

Revealing faults for the benefit of living beings,

Leading them to tranquil quiescence — to it I bow down!

Bowing my head, I take refuge in the great bhikṣus,

Who are able to be a field of merit for the world,

Arousing the practice of diligent cultivation, the cause of peace and bliss,

Skillfully severing the round of rebirth — to them I bow down!

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Of all sufferings, the parting from those we love is the greatest,

The fire of sorrow ever scorches and consumes.

If you wish to set your own mind at ease,

Then constantly, in ordinary times, contemplate thus:

Just as a flock of birds and beasts

Gathers for a while, then flies away,

So it is with the matter of birth and death —

Why should the heart grieve and suffer?

If only I alone were to die,

While everyone else lived long,

The pain of parting would be beyond measure,

And loved ones would have to weep and wail.

But within the three realms of saṃsāra,

No one escapes from this.

Since all alike must undergo impermanence,

Why should the heart be sorrowful and suffer?

When a person gives rise to craving and attachment,

How can they know that the fire of greed consumes them?

Like that yak

Which, cherishing its tail, is slain by men.

People of the world, deeply infatuated,

Wish to flee the perilous, evil road.

They devise every possible means,

Yet cannot escape from suffering.

Like those deer of the wild forest

Constantly pursued by lions,

In the end they cannot escape —

Why should the heart be sorrowful and suffer?

Beneath the earth and up in the heavens,

Throughout the three realms and the four kinds of birth,

Never has anyone been seen or heard of

Who was not subject to impermanence.

Like a fire in the mountains and wilds

When it burns up the grasses and trees,

It spares not the forests of flowers and fruit —

All are turned to ash and dust.

Those foolish and deluded living beings,

Inverted, give rise to false imaginings.

Their bodies are bound by the rope of impermanence,

And no one is able to loosen it.

The Brahma gods who dwell in the Realm of Form,

Whose flavor of dhyāna is peace and bliss,

Are like a tree upon the riverbank

Toppled by the rushing wind and water.

A hundred koṭis of Wheel-Turning Kings,

A thousand myriads of Śakra, Lord of Devas —

Thought after thought, they are impermanent,

Like a wind that blows upon a lamp's flame.

In ancient times there were ṛṣis of the Five Supernatural Powers,

Whose body and mind attained mastery,

Coming and going through empty space,

Yet still they were seized by impermanence.

Even the firm and solid adamantine body

Still manifests cessation and quiescence.

Ordinary consciousness is like a plantain tree —

Why would you wish it to abide for long?

The great earth and Mount Sumeru,

And even the four great oceans,

When the kalpa of destruction comes, also return to nothing —

How much more so living beings!

The dragons within the deep sea,

Ever surrounded by their kindred,

Are still devoured by the Garuḍa bird;

The suffering of parting is just like this.

Or one may go to another realm,

Wishing to escape the principle of impermanence —

It is like entering the mouth of a whale

In the hope of attaining safety and ease.

Thus in the realms of Desire and of Form,

And in that realm of Neither-Perception-nor-Non-Perception,

There has never been a single thing

Not swallowed up by impermanence.

Only the Perfectly Equal and Complete Awakening

Is a place worthy to be relied upon.

If you all hear this and accept it in faith,

Then you shall be freed from all sorrow and affliction.

Thus indeed have I heard: At one time, the Buddha was dwelling in the Jeta Grove, the Garden of Anāthapiṇḍika. At that time the World-Honored One taught the bhikṣus:

— Living beings are numberless, and the round of rebirth is boundless, like an ant crawling in a circle with no final end. Living beings, craving and attached, are covered over by ignorance, like one fallen into the mire, unable to get out. In the past, living beings have wandered back and forth in the round of rebirth more times than can be counted. O bhikṣus! Were one to gather all the soil of the great earth into a single place, mix it with mud, and roll it into pellets the size of beans, the number of fathers and mothers and of children and grandchildren of those living beings, from beginningless kalpas until now, would be even greater than the number of those mud pellets.

O bhikṣus! In this way living beings revolve through boundless rebirth, all because of craving and ignorance, which, through delusion, cause them to fall into the mire of love and desire, so that they revolve through birth and death incalculably many times. Knowing this, I therefore teach you to cultivate so as to bring the round of rebirth to an end.

The Buddha further taught:

— O bhikṣus! In this way the bones of sentient living beings, accumulated through the round of rebirth, pile up into a heap like Mount Sumeru, neither decaying nor perishing. Thus, the śrāvakas who are beyond training realize the Four Noble Truths, knowing clearly that this suffering is truly suffering, and that suffering ceases, thereby realizing the Noble Truth of Suffering.

Those living beings, seeing the bones, do not recognize them as suffering, and so they cannot extinguish the afflictions of suffering within the three realms. If one can extinguish the afflictions of suffering within the three realms and realize the non-empty Dharma of the stream-enterer (srotāpanna), then one will surely attain bodhi. Through seven returns of rebirth into the realms of devas and of humans, one brings the round of rebirth to an end and eradicates the defilements.

When the seven rebirths have passed, the Noble Truths appear before one; with wisdom and right view one extinguishes utterly the remaining contaminants, and reaches tranquil nirvāṇa — only then do those living beings attain liberation from the suffering of the round of rebirth.

The Buddha taught:

— O bhikṣus! Kindred always love one another. Because of craving and attachment, they create all manner of karma, and so they must undergo the round of birth and death, like an elephant sunk into a pit of mire, unable to escape.

Moreover, those kindred are as numerous as the sands of the Ganges River; fathers and mothers rear them all as their own children. Therefore, when one is born into a later life, in accordance with retribution, each undergoes the same suffering: some become servants who attend upon others; some become enemies who, in anger, deceive, humiliate, beat, and revile one another; some become animals who devour one another's flesh, or are killed.

In this way they revolve through rebirth across all the paths, like the band of seven ṛṣis, at one moment gathering, at another scattering; or like the bubbles produced by rainfall from the sky, which arise and at once perish.

Living beings are utterly foolish, deluded and inverted, not recognizing clearly the round of rebirth; toward their own kindred they falsely give rise to fondness, longing, and remembrance, creating every kind of karma, never once for a single moment abiding in purity. Furthermore, living beings, revolving in rebirth from the beginningless past, have fallen into the hells and drunk molten copper more than the waters of the great ocean; like those pigs and dogs, they have eaten filthy things as much as Mount Sumeru.

There are also living beings who have shed tears over the partings of birth and death in their attachments and loves, as much as the waters of the ocean. There are also living beings who have slain one another, their heads piled into a heap as high as the Brahma Heaven, while the worms and maggots that have fed upon their blood and pus are likewise as numerous as the waters of the ocean. Moreover, living beings in the realm of hungry ghosts (preta), because of their stinginess and greed in former lives, must undergo the suffering of hunger and thirst, so that when they encounter food and drink, all of it turns into red flames.

When the retribution of the hungry ghost is exhausted, they are born among humans, where they must still endure poverty and destitution, hunger and thirst and hardship beyond all telling.

Furthermore, those sentient beings, by virtue of cultivating merit and goodness, are born into surpassingly excellent realms such as the Trāyastriṃśa Heaven and the like, where they constantly enjoy delight and bliss, while craving and attachment blaze up fiercely like a fire burning dry grass. When the retribution they enjoy is exhausted, they straightway fall into the evil paths, like a bird flying along whose two wings are broken, so that in the blink of an eye it falls to the ground, undergoing every kind of suffering. Therefore, you must cultivate so as to bring the round of rebirth to an end, and swiftly seek liberation!

The Buddha taught:

— O bhikṣus! Just as the rivers and streams, the great earth, the sun, the moon, the stars and constellations, Mount Sumeru, and the villages and worlds — so long as they are not yet destroyed — endure for a long time in the world, so too is this scripture: so long as the world is not destroyed, the Dharma also endures for a long time. Why is this? Because this scripture enables all sentient beings to bring the round of rebirth to an end.

When the bhikṣus had heard the Buddha's teaching, they accepted it in faith and reverently put it into practice.

Notes:

[1] Faxian 法天 (?–1001): An eminent monk from the country of Magadha in Central India. The master originally resided at Nālandā Monastery. In the sixth year of the Kaibao era (973), the master came to China.

In the fifth year of the Taiping Xingguo era (980) under Emperor Taizong, the emperor summoned the master to the capital and decreed the building of a translation institute for scriptures. Two years later (982), the master, together with Tianxizai, Shihu, and others, was summoned by the emperor to reside within the Scripture Translation Institute. There, these masters together translated the Sanskrit scriptures they had brought with them.

In the seventh month of that year, the master completed the translation of the Mahāyāna Sacred Auspicious World-Upholding Dhāraṇī Sūtra, and was granted by the emperor the title of Great Master Who Transmits the Teaching (Chuanjiao Dashi). In the fourth year of the Xianping era (1001), the master entered final quiescence, and the emperor bestowed upon him the posthumous title of Great Master Mysterious Awakening (Xuanjue Dashi).