菩薩本生鬘論

The seeker of truth attains it without cultivation. Utter inversion creates evil karma. Lacking wholesome causes, arrogance grows ever thicker. Contemplate the selflessness of dharmas and relinquish everything.

This is the gateway to meditative absorption, quiescence, and freedom. Though giving may be abundant, in the end it is directed toward ending conceptual proliferation. Purity pervades the worlds of sentient beings.

Even the shravakas must turn toward the Mahayana before they can abide completely. Supreme wisdom is vast as space. Subtle and profound, its causal practices accord with it.

Penetrating it completely, its wondrous function is boundless. Its nature is nonexistent like space, and myriad things accord with it. Craving and inversion cause the intrinsic nature to incline and overturn.

When that intrinsic nature again becomes clear, penetrating realization becomes genuine, as when a king bestows favors and devotes himself to pure cultivation. Boundless jewels are the pure and wondrous state of non-retrogression. In genuine serenity, how could conceptual proliferation remain?

Practice and understanding follow supreme causes, and purity becomes manifest. The king clearly understands the harmonious union of goodness and wonder. His kingdom is peaceful and impartial, like a loving mother who is joyful and perfectly harmonious.

This is the realm in which bodhisattvas cultivate signlessness. Acting thus, they aspire to attain excellence without suffering any loss.

Ease and freedom are the meaning of the Tathagata-nature. The king takes refuge in it, and the Tathagata-nature is settled, still, and silent. The forms of the teaching increase everywhere. All evil karma, defilement, obscuring bonds, and conceptual proliferation are completely abandoned. Countless maras cannot destroy it.

Penetrating and gathering together is the meaning of equality. Through self-created evil karma, illness and calamity increase. Not understanding cause and effect, one abandons oneself to craving and desire.

One displays one’s powers without understanding their source. The impurities of the three poisons intrude upon and disturb freedom. Failing to understand inversion brings fear.

Leave behind every kind of pride and rely upon the realm of equality. Through skillful means in giving, afflictions cease. By abandoning heedlessness, one attains quiescence and freedom.

The growth of awakening to the Dharma is the abode of peace and joy. Thoroughly understand the harm caused by dullness and self-conceit. The source of the Dharma-nature, Suchness, is inexhaustible.

When true nature is perfected, that ultimate Suchness is attained. Here one recognizes self-conceit and heedlessness as false. Understand the words of exhortation and devote yourself to giving.

Genuine acts of giving are directed toward the three weak and unfortunate destinies. Purity and separation are attained in form. The household is peaceful.

The multitudes of beings become manifest. Wholesome causes are not lost. Cultivation is purified.

Inversion is left far behind.

How is evil karma eliminated through cultivation?

Recognizing it in this way, abide in non-retrogression. With all causal practices complete, awaken in accordance with reality. Aspire to reach the ultimate root of appearances.

The great bodhisattva gives rise to these words. The king’s statutes are vast and genuine. Stabilizing and governing the entire realm is the principal matter.

Eliminate illness and calamity, and give to those suffering hunger and thirst. Words clearly reveal that hunger and sickness are wholesome and pure when left behind. The land is relieved of defiling bonds.

The wondrous function of the sages abandons every form of pride. The power of giving is purified to the utmost. These wholesome and pure aspects of giving dispel hunger and thirst.

At all times and everywhere, this cause should be cultivated. The greater the suffering from hunger, the more appropriately one should give. Words arise that abandon deluded thought.

Devote yourself to cultivating the model, whose purity is inexhaustible. Delight in the Ten Wholesome Actions, and quiescence will arise. Such a pure and wondrous realm pervades everywhere.

Aspire to attain the truth, complete in freedom. Sentient beings create causes and reverently cultivate skillful means.

How do sentient beings practice and understand freedom?

The king possesses great and supreme causes and clearly understands the path of practice. His intrinsic nature is freed from bonds; it is genuine in this way. He increases skillful means and clearly understands harmonious speech.

Throughout one yojana, he devotes himself to cultivating supreme merit. A pure, wondrous, and genuine cause will certainly be attained. That pure cause is luminous, warm, utterly quiescent.

The place of action creates supreme, wholesome, and wondrous causes. Its lovely form is genuine and boundless. Its intrinsic nature is at ease, free, and supreme.

It is the place where the king rescues those suffering hunger and thirst. Truthful words of praise accord with what is fitting. Evil and white karma are ended, and the excellent marks are not lost.

The ultimate end of sensual pleasure is penetrating the realm of nature. Following supreme and wondrous causes, complete power brings transformation. Perfect accord consists in the forms of giving.

Far removed from calamity, devoted cultivation is quickly accomplished. Bearing responsibility everywhere, one’s speech is harmonious. By cultivating quiescence, one attains the blessed reward of ultimate meaning.

Such pure speech can eliminate every cause of suffering from hunger. The truth becomes manifest, giving rise to guidance and instruction. The lord of the devas, Shakra, speaks truthfully.

The Ten Wholesome Actions are thus the supreme and ultimate cause. The sixth consciousness—mental consciousness—is separated from defiling evil. Through giving, one aspires to attain sublime and wondrous speech.

The fundamental supreme cause of essential nature is non-retrogression. What is “absence of intrinsic nature”? It is the ultimate reality.

Genuine wholesome dharmas are neither produced nor destroyed. Seek the noble path, whose fundamental truth is quiescent.

What skillful means enable one to recognize and penetrate it?

The king’s vast domain is quiescent. His commands and governance are thus accomplished. Manifesting and transforming, he rescues beings without end. His supreme discourse skillfully ends hunger and thirst.

What is essential in the worldly realm?

The borders are established and the people dwell in peace. The true Dharma is firmly transmitted, the Three Jewels abide, and the foundation of activity is thus settled. Awaken to the cause of nature and leave every fear behind.

Bonds of attachment and delight cause places to change. Ultimate freedom is penetrating causal practice. It is the realm of nature in which awakened wisdom penetrates without obstruction.

Ultimate truth appears, and craving and desire are cleansed. The causal nature transforms, bringing hunger and thirst completely to an end. The intrinsic nature abides in stillness and subdues violence.

The disciplinary rules are properly observed, and the virtue of morality is pure. One should rely upon its power and joyfully understand its meaning. A celebrated king cannot obtain what he desires.

The culmination of self-conceit is that sentient beings continue to drift along the ten unwholesome paths. Such giving extends throughout the realm for a yojana. Sentient beings penetrate and abandon self-conceit.

Those who seek learning leave fear and give rise to joy. Teach the Dharma throughout the realm and guide sentient beings. The minds of sentient beings clearly understand its meaningful benefit.

Desiring to attain its power, they strive to eliminate craving. Seeking accord, the nature of self is freed from craving. Supreme virtue is the refuge of sentient beings.

The mind is free from rage and resentment; such is silent quiescence. Give sentient beings the dharmas of virtuous conduct. A nature free from anger is the practice of freedom.

In the place of cultivation, inversion no longer remains. The root of calamity is precisely contention and conceptual proliferation. The Buddha-Dharma is pure, accords in every respect, and clearly reveals meaningful benefit.

Ultimate meaning is peaceful and supremely pure. Aspire to eliminate deluded thoughts and evil karma completely. Such is the wondrous virtue attained.

Through the power of contemplation, penetrate reality. Preserve meaningful benefit, and falsity will not arise. Harmony increases in the realm of freedom.

Giving grows, and the realm of mind is purified. Illness and calamity are left far behind, and harmony appears. All those heavenly realms provide protection.

Relying upon and preserving purity and wonder, selflessness becomes manifest. Virtue is harmonious, and the nature of awakening penetrates clearly. In a realm whose nature is craving and attachment, how could liberation be attained?

Without a cause of deluded thought, cyclic flow is not produced. Genuine purity becomes clearly manifest in this way. Recognize that the gift of Dharma is the cause of excellence.

Its essential nature is wholesome and wondrous; the Dharma is originally still. Sublime delight has its roots in the three wholesome qualities. Clearly understanding peaceful meaning is quiescence pervading everywhere.

Observe which sentient beings suffer hunger, thirst, and calamity. This is the king’s realm, where he devotes his powers to cultivation. Genuine and free from pride, he nurtures beings completely.

Because afflictions do not arise, one remains very far removed from them. This is the root of famine. Clearly understand that it destroys one’s nature.

This is the place where bodhisattvas cleanse defilement at its root. Aspire to attain the wondrous source of the three wholesome qualities. Leave utterly behind every shadow of hunger and thirst.

The root of accord is genuine refinement. Through the supreme cause of the Ten Wholesome Actions, the devas become complete: recognizing the flood of afflictions, they eliminate it. When creating forms, turbid craving is not lost.

Cultivate the practice of giving, the foundation of the teaching. Completely extinguish inversion and single-mindedly cultivate. The root of the devas is to create the cause of giving; using it genuinely and fully is growth.

One’s countenance is radiant, befitting a great person. Abide in strict discipline and harmony in this way. Quiescence is attained, steadfast and unmoving.

A wondrous and pure cause gives rise to selflessness. The countenance of a spiritual friend is thus complete. The power of action accomplishes meaningful benefit.

The blessed rewards of many lives reach the farthest regions. Create the cause of the Ten Wholesome Actions and cultivate devotedly in this way. A gentle countenance is the conduct of a bodhisattva.

The realm of mind attains perfect purity. The wondrous function of a bodhisattva is adorned by giving. Every boundary is crossed, and all defilements are cleansed.

Ever-abiding, eternally existent, reality pervades everywhere. As long as a person remains entangled in conceptual proliferation, craving still arises. The root of karma-making—craving—leads to a place filled with evil karma.

The wisdom of sentient beings penetrates and eliminates it. This is indeed what bodhisattvas abandon.

How is the form of ease perfected?

Observe the distinctions among places in this way. Clearly understand the many defiling bonds and fears in the world. Penetrate these places and abandon their causes.

Penetrate the words of instruction and completely sever the causes of bondage. Those still in training should leave behind the causes of the world. Intrinsic nature is pure, and wisdom realizes it.

Following the teacher’s exhortations and instructions, sentient beings increase in wisdom. The world devotes itself to cultivation and creates vast causes. The teachings of the Three Vehicles all return to Buddha-nature.

Changing shadows and forms are all unreal. Through attachment to afflictions, the cause of purity is lost. The community of renunciants regards such a person as lacking wisdom.

The Tathagata has forever ended afflictions and faults. Profound and wondrous virtue arises from pure, supreme causes. Practice and understanding accord with merit and virtue, separating from things as the occasion requires.

Sentient beings are inverted and attached to skillful means. When anger is utterly ended, they obtain the support of bodhisattvas. This is the place one should understand: worldly benefit and meaning create the citadel of attachment to self.

Clearly recognize places that transform in accord. When the king protects the country, calamities cease. Practice and understanding are complete, penetrating the entire realm.

Examine and penetrate genuine virtuous conduct. The king’s distant territories are difficult to reach. His countenance is excellent, and every calamity is absent.

The intrinsic nature of nirvana clearly manifests liberation. Genuine giving is the esoteric practice free from delusion. In fitting places, cultivate what is supreme.

Proceeding to the ultimate is the purity of intrinsic nature. Do not cultivate wrong conduct, and harmony will be perfected. Rely upon purity and approach the source.

The ultimate culmination of virtue is genuine equality. Attaining the root of supreme causes, the esoteric practice is harmonious. Pure delight remains quiescent and is never lost.

The bodhisattva’s freedom increases to the utmost. Creating the fundamental cause, one penetrates giving.

How does the peaceful noble path increase?

Penetrate supreme practice, and self-conceit will not arise. Fine food is abundant, and nurturing care is boundless. In the end, appearances are empty; ultimately, they are thus.

How is giving pure and exemplary in its accord?

The place of quiescence penetrates every principle. It is the realm where signless wisdom is truly manifested. Cultivating quiescence ends every calamity.

The bodhisattva path is genuine wisdom. Sentient beings leave delusion, and every calamity is cleansed. Intrinsic nature is profound and wondrous; how could afflictions remain?

The practice of giving penetrates completely, and its power is harmonious. Virtue is complete, and defilement is transformed. Like a loving mother who nurtures with affection, it is perfectly clear.

Serene freedom is the ultimate power. The components of the teaching appear clear and still. As under the king’s governance, distant regions are settled in peace.

The bodhisattva’s fundamental cause solemnly abandons afflictions. The four fruits of the shravakas are perfected in ultimate meaning. The devas delight in it, and the teaching flourishes.

Their rare countenances are joyful and peaceful. Quiescent and without contention, they are pure as the moon. Abandon the causes of contention and firmly cultivate reality.

Harmonious aspiration combines merit with wisdom. The devas rely upon the fundamental teaching. Take pity on sentient beings drifting and drowning in cyclic existence.

This is the realm of utterly inverted craving and desire. When the noble Dharma is complete, all causes of defilement cease. With practice and understanding complete, earnestly seek the true Dharma.

To accord with giving is itself freedom. Supremely profound and wondrous, it cannot be destroyed by maras. The king cherishes it, and quiescence prevails everywhere.

Solemn activity transforms freely. Every source of evil karma is completely eradicated. This is the realm of wisdom, far removed from the flood: every kind of inversion, defiling bond, and pride.

The bodhisattva’s factors cultivate quiescence. The mind comes to rest, attaining causes that are never lost. The nature of emptiness is originally pure, peaceful, and free.

The human realm is borne up as by a loving mother. When afflictions are utterly extinguished, freedom is rightly named. This is the place where the king can govern craving, anger, ignorance, contempt, and every kind of pride.

All beings and their families are freed from hunger and thirst. The bodhisattva’s intrinsic nature is purified and made manifest. The bodies and minds of sentient beings attain reality.

The king reverently cultivates the root karma in this way. That evil karma is bound by deluded thought. These are the ten fundamental kinds within the flood of afflictions.

Impartial giving causes conduct to flourish. Genuine and without contention, its power is complete. The realm of nature is pure, beautifully adorned.

Penetrating the realm of nature is the cause of those still in training. The vast source of moral discipline is revealed. Accord, flourishing, transformation, and stability arise.

The fundamental nature of the Ten Wholesome Actions has always existed. Calamity and craving are transformed without obstruction. Devote yourself to the practice of giving, genuinely and appropriately.

Such conceptual proliferation is rooted in a lack of wisdom. Subdue calamity and enter deeply into stillness. Recognize and penetrate the root of heedlessness.

This is where bodhisattvas teach the unsurpassed Dharma.

Why are afflictions in the realm of mind difficult to eliminate?

Unreal desires produce action without end. Like a mother raising her child, always protecting and preserving it, help sentient beings penetrate the quiescence of all dharmas. The power of selflessness is the causal strength of spiritual friends.

Quiescence flourishes and ends every fear. Cultivation of the ten wholesome dharmas brings ultimate freedom. It blocks impure paths and makes speech abundant.

Devote yourself to cultivation everywhere. Boundless causes are created, yet what is desired cannot be seen. Intrinsic nature is genuine and clearly knows the karma of many lives.

Abandon arrogance, and attainment in accord becomes possible. Sentient beings are inverted; instruct them in purity, and wisdom penetrates clearly. Through immense effort, sentient beings penetrate and utterly end defilement.

The cause of attachment and delight follows the current of transformation. Sentient beings clearly recognize afflictions and faults. This is where the king bestows favors upon the people.

Abiding amid change, he aspires to attain quiescence. Wisdom penetrates clearly and seeks liberation. His countenance reveals devoted cultivation of meditative concentration and wisdom.

Thus the bodhisattva abandons bondage. He gives sentient beings genuine meaningful benefit. Practice and understanding are complete, and freedom appears.

Excellent is the practice of relinquishment! Cultivate it and remain far removed. The great bodhisattva instructs and guides.

At that time, the king and his people joyfully give and devote themselves to cultivation. Jewels and treasuries are relinquished all at once. Such is the realm of arrogant and heedless sentient beings.

In the interval of quiescence, there is no cause of affliction. They abide ultimately. Clearly recognizing giving, they do not seek appearances.

Still and unwavering, they are like the luminous moon. A wholesome mind remains far from the flood of afflictions. Evil karma and every kind of pride cannot increase.

Contemplating deluded thought reveals that its root has never arisen. The place of quiescence is the genuine intrinsic nature. Defiling evil and bondage possess every form.

Thus sentient beings assume material forms. Leaving the causes of defilement far behind, purity becomes manifest. The form of joyous meaningful benefit is clearly revealed.

Worldly retribution should be perfected by eliminating karma. Such retributions include hunger in one’s livelihood, inversion, and arrogance. Aspire to leave them all far behind, and calamity will also cease.

Inversion’s corresponding factors arise from actions performed throughout many lives. The forms of bondage are transformed and completely ended.

Through supreme giving, aspire to attain purity. Cultivate loving-kindness, and wholesome causes become harmonious. Guard everywhere against calamity and dust-like impurity.

Advance in cultivation and learning to eradicate afflictions completely. If dust is not swept away, how can purity be attained? Suppose evil karma were again to arise to its utmost extent.

Its vast root would be the cause of exhaustion. Delight in cultivating giving and seek purity. Instruct sentient beings and preserve them in accord.

The king cultivates steadfastly throughout his vast domain. The worldly sentient being is fundamentally guided by the three wholesome qualities: non-greed, non-hatred, and non-delusion. These are the wholesome roots of an easeful intrinsic nature.

Wrong views and evil karma genuinely cease. Compassionately guide all beings out of faults and inversion. Such is accordance with vast silent quiescence.

The Three Jewels abide, and conduct accords with them. Those lacking wisdom persist in cultivation while seeking anger. In the regions, cities, and towns are villages of sages and familiar hamlets.

Create pure causes, and their forms become manifest. In the monastery, meditative concentration is peaceful and still. The intrinsic nature of sentient beings is transformed and settled.

Through the four fundamental dhyanas, the five desires are ended. Equality is accomplished, the root of peace and joy. Ultimate reality is the transformation of evil karma.

Every form of hunger, thirst, dust, and impurity is ended. Where the Ten Wholesome Actions flourish, hunger, thirst, and afflictions no longer remain. Conduct becomes appropriate, and delusion and pride cease.

The profound and wondrous state, free from fear, is revealed in quiescence. Aspire to stability and clearly see the fundamental cause. The function of the Ten Wholesome Actions removes bondage.

How are genuine forms never lost?

Pure giving is the karmic cause of action. Genuine ultimate meaning is an appropriate resource. The profound and wondrous is accomplished, and freedom accords with it. Karma created through conceptual proliferation overturns intrinsic nature. With the mind directed toward bodhi, ultimate meaning is perfected. Practice giving appropriately, aspiring to attain quiescence. Abiding still at the foundation, transformation is attained of itself. By cultivating giving completely, those still in training attain purity. With wholehearted devotion, fashion and erect painted images. Fundamentally, all should cultivate giving to its utmost extent. Previous peace and joy increase stability. Within the pure state, the causes of evil karma cease. Practice and understanding become one.

What is the ultimate form of self-conceit?

Since time immemorial, many kinds of beings have penetrated intrinsic nature. All seek the peace and joy arising from past karma. Separated from hunger and thirst, their merit and virtue accord.

The roots are undivided, though the branches differ. Giving ends craving and the inverted bonds. Thus the flood of afflictions becomes active.

Cultivating giving freely eliminates conceptual proliferation. Wholesome karma is attained, and supreme benefit is perfected. The power of diligence ends pride and dullness.

The land is transformed, and activity increases further. The world is peaceful, joyful, and truly settled. Awareness is lucid; such is accord.

Practice and understanding are complete and supremely excellent. The genuine factors are responsive and harmonious. The foundation of the Buddha-Dharma is precisely signlessness.

When the king governs the country, the root of the Dharma is genuine. Cultivation accords, and an exemplary model appears. Penetrating purity, discipline becomes primary.

Proceed toward eliminating inversion and evil karma. The flood of afflictions does not lie beyond the root and derivative afflictions. Wisdom arises from perfect harmony.

Leave afflictions far behind, aspiring to attain stillness and accord. The king’s territory is utterly quiescent. Understand activity and leave every calamity behind.

This is the realm that bodhisattvas penetrate and with which they accord. It blocks all impure dharmas. Sentient beings see clearly, and peace and joy increase.

The king’s craving is truly boundless. That inverted cause suddenly comes entirely to an end. Nurture all beings, aspiring to noble virtue.

Within and without, remain quiescent and understand according to the occasion. Activity flourishes, rooted in the exemplary model. This is the place where bodhisattvas practice like loving mothers.

Penetrate what is appropriate and abandon inversion. Increase observation and subdue everything. Practice and understanding advance toward pure ultimate meaning.

Body and mind are without causes, and the foundation accords with principle. Subdue inversion, and intrinsic nature appears. Stability is rooted in giving.

Merit and virtue are ultimate, free, and serene. Selflessness and purity increase delight. Intrinsic nature penetrates the root of the flood, together with hunger, thirst, calamity, and the forms of conceptual proliferation.

Dullness and every kind of pride are truly ended in ultimate quiescence. Like the lion king, nurture beings completely. Forms are complete, and fear ends everywhere.

Intrinsic nature acts appropriately, creating wondrous causes. Through reverent offerings, goodness and wonder are transformed.

How does the supreme cause genuinely increase?

Pure and wondrous wisdom subdues afflictions in quiescence. Leave verbal expression behind and accord with every place.

How does ultimate meaning transform in accord?

Attaining the pure supreme cause, the nature of affliction does not arise. Such is purity and wonder. The bodhisattva instructs, and freedom becomes manifest.

His words accord, and he teaches the Dharma to liberate beings everywhere. How does the king govern the entire realm? His intrinsic nature contemplates wholesome dharmas without contention.

The wondrous and pure cause clearly reveals the meaning of nurturing. The truth accords, and the foundation is complete. Intrinsic nature is harmonious, and body and mind are peaceful and joyful.

The abode in which peace and joy are nurtured is boundless cultivation. Through penetrating understanding, seek reality. The wisdom of awakening attained is ultimately supreme.

The pure noble Dharma ends bondage in this way. Though the source possesses conceptual proliferation, it does not disturb. Intrinsic nature is pure, and afflictions are forever ended.

The dharmas of intrinsic nature are the root of every cyclic flow leading to dullness, every kind of pride, arrogance, and rampant heedlessness. The root of every calamity is originally still. Sentient beings pursue unreal shadows and forms.

Bodhisattvas must devote themselves to teaching the supreme principle, helping intrinsic nature recognize evil karma and the suffering of hunger, and recognize this as the place where afflictions have accumulated from before. Vast meaningful benefit consists in purifying sentient beings. Creating the cause of giving, one attains wholesome and wondrous stillness.

Sentient beings awaken by following the causes cultivated by bodhisattvas. The Ten Wholesome Actions arise and abide without wavering. The teaching possesses virtue, yet is originally empty.

Intrinsic nature accords, though its manifestations differ. The profound and wondrous flourishes; such is the supreme cause. It is steadfast and settled.

How are body and mind perfectly quiescent?

Through genuine cultivation, fearlessness is accomplished. Ultimate freedom is the ultimate meaning of non-arising. Thus the bodhisattva attains the pure and unmoving fruit of arhatship. He reverses the flood of inversion and affliction. The causes of deluded agitation cease, and calamities also stop. Observing sentient beings, he practices pure giving. The wondrous function of liberation is the ultimate meaning of quiescence. This is the time to exhort others to devote themselves to cultivating freedom.

Vast attachment to self is boundless in this way: it is the root from which the flood of afflictions arises. One must act again to abandon it and leave it far behind. Observe the principles clearly and penetrate what is appropriate.

How do sentient beings subdue intrinsic nature?

Act with ease, appropriately, and for a long time. The fundamental intrinsic nature is quiescent like space. Observe self and others, purifying both and benefiting them together.

This is the place of accord, supreme to the utmost. With sufficient power to practice, fearlessness is made complete. This is the awakening and liberation of the Mahayana, creating causes for teaching and transformation, like a lotus arising from mud.

Pure ultimate meaning is the root of discipline. Create causes by cultivating giving and attain wholesome benefit. The fundamental mark of evil karma is unwillingness to bestow favors.

Awaken to impurity, and purity is not different from it. Increase discipline, and equality becomes complete. The intrinsic nature of ultimate meaning makes no distinction between self and others.

The root of calamity is clearly active. In accordance with pure wisdom, aspire to attain it in this way. Recognize that intrinsic nature is quiescent while afflictions defile and bind it.

Purify body and mind, ending every transformation. Through giving, aspire to attain appropriate power. Contemplate all sentient beings without end.

In accord, aspire to attain the supreme causal nature. Intrinsic nature is originally devoid of every kind of pride and dullness. Practice signless giving, completely ending pride and dullness, and cultivate single-mindedly.

Teach the true Dharma, which can eliminate excessive desire.

How is the speech of the devas truthful?

Following the fundamental supreme cause, cultivate in harmony. The boundless practice of giving is the fundamental Dharma assembly. Leave sensual pleasure far behind and further cultivate meaningful benefit.

Eliminate deluded thought; at the root there is no delusion or pride. Practice and understanding are complete, and cultivation is diligent. The supreme cause of non-retrogression is the root of humans and devas.

In accordance with ultimate meaning, further cultivate giving. The cause of reality is the root of every accomplishment. Create causes through giving, aspiring for purity to pervade everywhere.

The profound and wondrous dharmas guide sentient beings. Cultivate giving, and the esoteric words accord. Cause quiescence to flourish and end all craving.

With practice and understanding complete, attain the pure supreme cause. Mastering every cause is freedom. When activity flourishes, genuine ultimate meaning is attained.

Every calamity naturally becomes still. Leave behind all defilements and bonds, together with afflictions and dullness that transform throughout every place. This is the realm in which sentient beings are utterly quiescent.

The power of freedom accords with original nature. The causes of bondage and defilement are united and complete. Sentient beings awaken and abandon conceptual proliferation.

In places of calamity, cultivate virtuous and wholesome ultimate meaning. Genuine intrinsic nature and pure giving attain the ultimate power: free and silently quiescent! Sentient beings everywhere create inverted karma.

Drifting in birth and death clearly reveals the meaning of delusion. Only by leaving attachment to self can one penetrate completely. Root and derivative afflictions create karma, and evil karma becomes manifest.

The land is harmonized, unobstructed like space. Fine food and clothing are abandoned without concern. The path of Dharma is pure and contains the meaning of teaching and transformation.

Clearly explain the sources of anxiety, and intrinsic nature becomes manifest. All dharmas are quiescent; aspire to attain freedom. Cultivate pure giving, and generosity accords.

Leave the root of deluded thought, and harmony becomes complete. Through such quiescence, profound meaning is attained. Abundant food and clothing make the words of instruction still clearer.

Giving guides and increases quiescence. Awaken genuinely to forms as being like space.

This is the fundamental mode of practice of noble ones who have completed their training. Liberation in the true sense is equality such as this. The roots of defilement and conceptual proliferation are all ended. Ultimate meaning arises, and causal marks become appropriate. Karma created long ago is also purified completely. Pride, dullness, and their arising—whether new or already present—are ended. When swept along by the flood, how can quiescence remain? The karmic paths of the four kinds of beings presently follow past karma in an indeterminate way. Thus present freedom includes all actions created before. Creating the karma of giving, one attains ultimate purity, like encountering fire in the cold, complete with supreme meaning.

This is the fundamental realm of reality that accords. Leave old karma far behind, and body and mind become harmonious. The fundamental path of karma is to cultivate supreme causes.

The devas attain stable, pure, and wondrous happiness. Causes of painful feeling temporarily do not arise. The devas’ freedom in sensual pleasure increases delusion and pride.

This is the abandonment of karmic functions from long ago. When sentient beings practice wholesome and pure giving in accord, afflictions cease of themselves. The realm of mind abandons karma created in previous lives.

The corresponding factors are boundless, and the skilled recognize them in advance. Thus those who have completed their training attain purity pervading everywhere and abide ultimately. All defiling bonds from the past are cleansed.

Without causes of anxiety, body and mind are pure. Guide sentient beings so that their minds delight in cultivating giving. The world penetrates purity and quiescence.

What are the kinds of self-conceit and delusion?

Desire among the mental factors aspires to end bondage. This is the pure support of the heavenly realms. The practice of giving is penetrating, wholly pure, and supreme. By hearing the noble path extensively, one penetrates harmonious accord. Cultivate solemnly, following appropriate rules. In ultimate peace and joy, high and low are equal. Such retribution accords with the teaching. By planting the cause of giving, one’s deportment is purified and virtue becomes complete, creating the karma of serenity. Subdue every kind of pride, and dullness does not arise. The world becomes capable of attaining the cause for abandoning pride and dullness. Supreme delight consists in genuine practice. Pure forms are incomparable even among the devas. Calamity is left far behind.

How does the supreme cause cleanse every defilement?

Cultivate the practice of giving, and every kind of pride ceases. Sentient beings ultimately seek the unsurpassed path. Wisdom arises and penetrates the teaching.

The pure corresponding factors are all genuine. Clearly understand meaningful benefit, and quiescence becomes complete. Following the supreme cause, abandon every kind of pride.

Intrinsic nature is wholesome and wondrous, and the place becomes beautiful. The supreme teaching is complete in practice and understanding. Awaken, become non-retrogressing, and give wholeheartedly.

Excellent is the supreme power of practice and understanding! When arrogance and heedlessness surge, all corresponding factors are lost. Recognize the difficult questions, and the rules become manifest.

Causal practice is harmonious, and giving is appropriate. Subdue and abandon every form of painful result. Sentient beings are purified, and hunger and thirst cease.

Leave fear far behind; such is reality. Evil karma has ended, and distinctions between self and others become still. The dharmas of the Three Vehicles are the supreme dharmas of the world. Increase giving, and delusion and pride will not appear.

How does one debate, investigate, and thoroughly understand nature and characteristics?

The accomplishment of truth is fundamental joy. Defilement and binding embodiment are rooted in attachment to self. The factor of inversion is the mind’s dullness.

Defilement there has no original dwelling place; how, then, could transformation exist? The Tathagata-nature is most honored and supreme, like ghee, the finest of flavors. The pure cause of giving accords with meaningful benefit.

The meaning of moral discipline is wholesome and pure speech. This is the time when the king’s powers operate freely. His domain is vast, and his beneficence extends everywhere.

He devotes himself to cultivating the model, following its rules solemnly. Such activity brings practical benefit. Original nature is empty, and speech is profound and wondrous.

All action and cyclic flow are impermanent by nature. A loving mother nurtures with kindness, and every factor is perfected. The ultimate meaning of quiescence disciplines speech.

Intrinsic nature is accomplished and manifests actively in the world. Excellent is wisdom! Unentangled in conceptual proliferation, it is clearly revealed by the king’s words.

Causes are not destroyed, and the extremes of eternalism and annihilationism are left far behind. The true Dharma is boundless and clearly conveys the meaning of teaching and transformation.

How is one free from pride and in perfect accord?

Extensive learning is complete, and fundamentally one sees the nature.