菩薩本生鬘論

Supreme powers of wisdom are loved and sought. They teach sentient beings to reach the sublime shore of awakening. Consciousness—the sixth consciousness—is capable of cultivating the path of wisdom.

Giving accords with the truth and attains the fundamental practice. It is the ultimate domain of discipline and rules. Cultivating the Dharma of giving, one penetrates the principle of “relinquishing characteristics.” The skandhas are purified, and the power of wisdom is sublime.

Sentient beings awaken, and their supernormal powers are unobstructed. Practice and understanding are complete, and their power and function are perfected. Meritorious conditions accord with the path and constitute the highest excellent practice.

The giving of Dharma is perfected, quiescent, and thoroughly understood. Violent forces bind the realm of sentient beings. Aspiration gives rise to the four classes of pure conduct.

The causes and conditions of the various species bring every bondage to an end. Having produced causes of affliction, actions follow accordingly. Exemplary teachers reveal the pure path.

Having realized the precepts, they teach and transmit them to others. The four classes of teachers exercise their powers freely. They cannot be destroyed.

When human life ends, the “sevenfold precepts” are relinquished. Cultivation is then resumed, with sublime wisdom and understanding. The karmic causes are clearly understood, and quiescence pervades everywhere.

Defiled activities and bondage are all extinguished in an instant. In stillness, one leaves every cause and condition of poisonous suffering. All dharmas of self-conceit are purified and eliminated.

This is the domain in which bodhisattvas guide and teach. Penetrating benefit and meaning, they reveal reality. They cultivate in aspiration to attain all quiescent practices.

Producing pure and wondrous causes, they give rise to accord with the truth. Their cognition penetrates the model of goodness and purity. The torrent of afflictions sweeps with pervasive force.

The non-retrogression of ultimate meaning consists in understanding and abandoning afflictions. The pure and wondrous source is liberation in the true sense. The hosts of devas and Shakra appear accordingly.

Abiding in stillness, they end defilement and dwell in purity and bliss. Afflictions no longer arise; this means that the production of karma has ceased. Eliminating agitation means ending conceptual proliferation.

Restraining body and mind is tranquility. Sentient beings have no reality; they are provisional compounds of the four great elements. Illusory and difficult to fathom, they cannot be adequately compared: like floating foam gathered together, an illusion, an echo, the moon in water, an image in a mirror, or gossamer drifting before the wind.

These are the Buddha’s instructions. It is easy to depart and difficult to remain; what goes out survives, while what enters is lost. Abiding in stillness, one earnestly cultivates the Dharmas of liberation.

With solemn integrity, one is quiet and pure. Such virtue appears serenely and distinctly.

“Good man, the most sublime giving consists in giving cities, kingdoms, wife and children, and even one’s own body. Its essence is suchness, ‘not possible’ or ‘not not possible.’” It is further taught: “Ultimate meaning arises, and the mind realizes it in this way.” Understanding conditioned dharmas, one cultivates inexhaustible practices. Wisdom penetrates the supreme Dharma of suchness.

When one clings to self in this way, wisdom becomes stained and obstructed. Only when self-nature is extinguished is wisdom freed from defilement. The discrimination that arises with karma is also extinguished in its self-nature.

The remaining associated characteristics of mental factors are likewise extinguished. Penetrating the true Dharma, one’s nature ends dull delusion. The practice of the path is impartial, and its strength is sufficient to bear the burden.

The wondrous principles of the teaching are pure and sublime. Its pure and wholesome practice, understanding, and wondrous function are difficult to fathom. Serenely gathered together, one attains purity such as this.

What is the direct realization of suchness by true fundamental wisdom?

Such wisdom accords with its object. It transcends every thought, word, and concept. Its self-nature is thus and attains “nothing whatsoever.” Its practice attains security, delight, and freedom. The realm of mind is undefiled, and body and mind are at ease. It is truly limpid, untouched by even a mote of dust. It arises and proceeds toward great compassion, ever quiescent.

The Bodhisattva’s Giving Pervades in Power and Function: The Honored Protector of the Realm Jataka,

Meaning Thirty-One.

The king’s appearance was rare and outstanding. He taught all beings to preserve the root of the path. His mind was unattached to the things desired by the world.

This is to accord with and penetrate the bodhisattva’s fundamental reality, the form and characteristics of the World-Honored One. Illness, aging, and death are mutually bound up with suffering; how are bondage, hostile inversion, anguish, and mental sorrow said to correspond? How can they be abandoned?

Sentient beings in the world cling deeply to self. Yet the power of the great compassionate vow never abandons them. Conceptual proliferation and afflictions are the root of every fear.

Alas, sentient beings delight in craving and will not relinquish it. The afflictions of hunger and thirst bring extreme suffering from which escape is difficult. When will the world possess true happiness?

Where can peace and bliss be found in this realm of learning and change? Arising, accumulation, decay, and destruction follow one another. Stinginess, hunger, poverty, and illness are difficult to end.

Self-conceit and arrogance disdain all things. Guiding all impartially, one brings them together to the place of peace. Great merit brings families and clans into harmony.

One understands accumulation and its application in the world. One recognizes its illusoriness and absence of the slightest reality. Ancestral clans exist through succession.

Poverty and illness on one side and peace and bliss on the other are unequal. Well-being arises, and ultimate meaning is perfectly fulfilled. Goodness and purity accord with the fearless source.

The wondrous function of awakening is revealed in radiance. Existing originally since beginningless time, where need it be sought? Its standards develop until utterly perfected.

The source of its power and function is the freedom of suchness. The power and function of giving eliminate the bondage of defilement. Practice and understanding are complete, and their form is revealed.

Cultivating the fundamental practice, one abides purely without retrogression, quiet and quiescent, genuinely teaching and transforming beings. Clouds of loving-kindness cover all; where can self-conceit remain? The power of self-nature utterly extinguishes bondage.

The source of suchness transforms everywhere. Dull delusion, inversion, and attachment to self bind beings. By earnestly cultivating purity, one ends inverted defilement.

Great cities are abundant in produce. Pure and sublime, they are free of conceptual proliferation. Earnestly following the practice of giving increases the welfare of the world.

Auspicious excellence abounds in all its aspects. The fundamental form accords with cultivated practice. Host and guest accord, and things arise in due sequence.

This is liberation in the true sense, in which all components of meaning are extinguished. Reality, being and nonbeing, shifts without fixity. From the fundamental attachment to self, all forms of conceit arise.

Genuine transformation brings inexhaustible benefit and meaning. One earnestly cultivates awakening and articles of offering. Powerful bonds make the ocean of suffering difficult to leave.

Upon attaining the “path of seeing,” all discrimination is extinguished. Cultivating wisdom, one ends the course of samsara. The five skandhas of name and form are also liberated.

In the ultimate fruit of Buddhahood, all causal factors are fulfilled. The Supremely Awakened One perfects the teaching and transformation of beings. Wholesome karma is cultivated throughout three incalculable eons.

Every trace of fault is removed, and not a fragment of goodness is discarded. Such is the fundamental advancement of a bodhisattva. Free in essence and nature, the bodhisattva possesses sublime merit.

The root of the supreme cause is genuine power and function. Ending all greed and anger, one accords with the practices of humans and devas. Diligently cultivating giving is the cause of merit and bliss.

One complete in moral conduct is noble. One’s appearance and powers are fully developed, yet one remains humble. Peaceful and composed, one is untainted by dust or impurity.

Noble in virtue and deeds, one is a refuge for all beings, like a cloud covering all realms of devas and humans. Quiescent and wordless, one is supremely pure. The pure Dharma is accomplished, profound, wondrous, and real.

Following desire, one seeks to attain the supreme fruit. Clearly understanding self-nature and its true power and function, one attains “the impossible to attain” and “the not impossible to attain.” One clearly comprehends the pure source of delight. The purity of the supreme cause means that it does not diminish.

“Being that cannot be attained” clearly reveals the course of “imagined nature.” Conditioned dharmas that do not depend upon conditions and time are called “being that cannot be attained.” When conditions and time are appropriate, this is “nonbeing that cannot be attained.” The noble one whose merit encompasses all is a great bodhisattva. The poison of inversion gathers and becomes manifest. Cultivating true causes, one eliminates self-conceit.

Relying on the power of knowing the good, one freely advances in cultivation and abides peacefully in stillness. One leaves far behind all coarse and subtle afflictions and defilements. The torrent of inversion brings successive calamities and suffering.

All corresponding dharmas are ultimately abundant. Wisdom and understanding penetrate and accord with change. Successive supreme matters are rooted in non-contention.

The transformations and activities of all dharmas are impartial. Advancing in the cultivation of outward forms is the practice of craving. Cultivating self-nature is the pure characteristic of causality.

The force that binds everywhere is the root of sorrow and suffering. Giving brings aid to the poor and sick. The cause of stinginess brings the calamity inherent in its own nature.

Poisonous harm flares up and ends pure conduct. Restraint and bondage are attained according to their domain. Consciousness—the sixth consciousness—seeks reality.

Producing successive causes, one resolves to end sensual desire. The ten kinds of evil conduct draw in everything. One earnestly cultivates all practices of giving to their culmination.

The eye faculty understands clearly and produces sublime karma. Advancing in merit, one aids many beings. Wholesome dharmas develop in harmony and without self.

Genuine action breaks through every obstruction. True understanding is the path of the truth of the origin of suffering.

Forms bind and conceal, and obstructive defilements arise. The realm of mind stirs delusively in accordance with defiled dharmas. The essential self-nature of dharmas transforms to perfection.

Recollection of the past follows the causes of action. Every inversion is created from the faults of conceptual proliferation. The domains of sentient beings are fundamentally filled with impurity.

Through ultimate giving, one strives to eliminate evil karma. Such is the power and function of the pure realm of nature. Following the proper standard brings sublime well-being.

Such a rule is a domain of purity. The quiescence of self-nature is the practice of the path of all dharmas. Understanding pervasively, one accords with benefit and meaning.

Investigating and clinging to self reaches its final domain. Producing pure causes, one unifies the source. The circulation of ultimate meaning is the aspiration to attain accord.

Pure and wondrous powers pervade cause and effect. The fearful aspect of mind produces anxious thoughts and sorrow. The pure conduct of devas pervades and is perfected.

Fear of destruction afflicts the bodily aspects of sentient beings. Like clouds covering all, it moistens what is parched. In places of peaceful dwelling, every species flourishes.

Cultivating impartial practice, one gives pervasively. One eliminates every poisonous harm and affliction of sentient beings. One obtains true and wondrous meritorious reward.

One leaves every obstructive defilement, inversion, and hostile entanglement. Through increasing guidance and instruction, pure and wondrous merit arises. Sentient beings cultivate the pure supreme cause.

Cultivating giving removes the obstruction of stinginess. Its form is like a cloud extinguishing the fire of affliction. Leaving inversion is true purity and wonder.

The standard of self-nature is fearless peace and bliss. Meritorious rewards are abundant and sublime in every aspect. Actions that aspire to attainment abandon conceptual proliferation.

One earnestly cultivates stillness, with a serene countenance. Having ended afflictions, violence does not arise, and action ultimately reaches true completion. In accord, one eliminates inverted sensual desire.

Leaving obstructive defilements, one is liberated from birth and death. Forms transform, and every moment is purified. One clearly understands the domain in which causes are produced, and responses are inexhaustible.

Selfless, peaceful, profound, and perfect, one aspires to attain ultimate purity and freedom. Quiescence ends defilement, and mind accords with Dharma. Self-nature eliminates the benefits and meanings of the conditioned and contaminated.

Among all beings of the world, such a one is rare. Hidden favors are not understood and are suddenly forgotten altogether. Following attachment to self, one cherishes and begrudges without letting go.

Bondage has many layers, profound and difficult to undo. Once poison has sunk deep, a hundred undertakings are abandoned. In such quiescence, afflictions do not arise.

The purified subject possesses penetrating wisdom. Defilement is eliminated in the domain of quiescence. Genuine activity proceeds from the fundamental form.

Haughty indulgence surges, and cognition follows it. Afflictions cover the mind and give rise to bondage. When self-conceit arises in the mind, ultimate meaning disappears.

When wisdom and understanding accord, all inversion ends. Sentient beings find it truly difficult to abandon that shadow of inversion. The rewards of good and evil likewise follow them.

Such practice and understanding are rooted in purity. Pure giving gives rise to profound and wondrous dharmas. Though possessing much wealth, one refuses to give.

The mental realm of avarice accumulates and is difficult to end. Love and reverence are not shown; the acting subject creates karma. With true practice and understanding, power and function arise.

The true cause is free and removes every bond and covering. Discord among relatives causes disturbance for selfish gain. Giving to sentient beings brings delight, wisdom, and equanimity.

What is the cultivation of causes that provides timely aid?

When sorrow and anxiety are encountered, the mind finds it difficult to rest. The rewards received come from causes in former lives. One clearly recognizes that the effects of good and evil are never false. By what means can such vexation be ended? All adversity is eliminated through complete penetration. That “dominant cause” ends poverty and illness. In genuine quiescence, where could faults remain? The bodhisattva teaches and offers words of instruction. Thus, hunger and thirst ultimately disappear.

What is the self-nature that does not delight in conceptual proliferation?

Self and other are equal, and benefit and meaning pervade all. In the indestructible domain, every current of becoming ends. Pure conduct in accord is the source of ultimate meaning.

The supreme cause of suchness is the root of every self-confidence. The three natures are impermanent. Wisdom is not fixed.

The link of “existence” arises fundamentally from craving. In such darkness, the deviant and the right are difficult to distinguish. The power and function of goodness and purity are clearly manifest.

Purity in accord leaves fear far behind. Ultimate meaning ends fear, and the nature of suchness reaches completion. The form skandha is easily recognized, but the other four skandhas are difficult to distinguish.

The domain of reality is the fundamental attainment. Afflictions, defilement, and conceptual proliferation reach their end. The supreme source is the perfection of giving.

Penetrating the teaching, one spreads benefit and meaning throughout the realms. The forms of evil karma cannot destroy it. Cultivating giving freely, one accords with quiescence.

One leaves far behind the source of all inverted dharmas. Ultimate meaning accords wondrously and is utterly fulfilled. The wondrous power of the Buddha-Dharma penetrates sentient beings.

Its abundant foundation guides all beings. Giving is the root of cultivated practice; one earnestly cultivates quiescence. Free activity gives rise to supreme practice.

Ultimate purity and wonder are far removed from poisonous harm. Its powers eliminate the bonds of enmity. The self-nature of generosity and relinquishment is a pure and wondrous standard.

True cultivation is utterly supreme. Self-nature appears through movement and cessation. Merit brings responses in name and form, the five skandhas.

Afflictions, hunger, and suffering are difficult to abandon. Poisonous suffering arises and binds without end. Mental factors accord with the mind and carry out aid for countless poor beings.

Practice and understanding in accord are the root of giving. Wholesome wonder removes poison, and mental conduct becomes secure. The essence and nature are pure; the nature of suchness ends contention.

Good, wondrous, and free, its power is that of a lion. Its sublime and abundant form is lovely. Advancing and retreating appropriately, one trains in accordance with the Dharma.

Through cultivation and penetration, the power of confidence arises. Practice and understanding of ultimate meaning give rise to genuine conduct. Giving in accord possesses a peaceful self-nature.

Pure form moves with sublime wonder. Such creative power is rare in the world. Vast, majestic, and beautiful, it is incomparably pure.

Enmity is difficult to end, but following the Buddha surely removes it. Powers in accord reveal ultimate meaning of themselves. The foundation proceeds toward perfect quiescence.

Self-conceit reaches its utmost, and mistaken principles are difficult to end. The supreme Dharma guides with surpassing power. The truth accords with pure self-nature.

The nature of rage arises and unwholesomeness blazes like a fire difficult to extinguish. Arranging offerings, one is quiescent and free. Dull delusion and self-conceit are domains of turbidity.

The intermediate accords, and the ultimate is attained. Activities are inexhaustible, and giving is free. Self-conceit arises everywhere.

Ultimate meaning is real. In clear freedom, one proceeds toward purity. Ultimate giving reaches every place.

Pure conduct eliminates poisonous harm and evil karma. Esoteric practice can extinguish the afflictions of dull delusion. Bearing the fundamental burden, one is protected by the Buddha’s power.

Defilement is washed utterly clean. The clans that cultivate giving cover all like clouds. The pure source is truly perfected.

Through that cause of ultimate meaning, one attains the power of “fearlessness.” Flourishing governance arises serenely from concealment. Following the limpid cause, it pervades every place. Subtle and profound, it is liberation itself.

The root from which all beings arise is self-nature. Firm as vajra, it can destroy afflictions. The pure source and its branches are unified, yet detached.

Supreme and free power means ending the current of becoming. Depending on the end of investigation, one attains stillness. Boundless giving brings every thought to rest.

Advancing appropriately, one accords with quiescence. Liberation from birth and death is the utter ending of afflictions. A king who protects the realm brings security to all beings.

The fulfillment of ultimate meaning is perfect quiescence. The root arising in accord ends every function. A star shines serenely, revealing the meaning of ending change.

Supreme matters are not lost but are accomplished and increased. The true foundation makes affairs more radiant. Departing from truth is the path of evil karma.

The practice of great wisdom dispels many layers of deception. Transformation is regarded as the ending of the fool’s sorrow. Vigorous action is the root of sentient beings.

Cultivating giving everywhere, one teaches those in darkness. Poisonous harm pervades sentient beings and is difficult to abandon. Profound speech accomplishes reality.

Advancing and retreating harmoniously, one is boundlessly reverent. Consciousness together with the five kinds makes karmic rewards clearly manifest. Wholesome and unwholesome karma makes no distinction between close and distant.

Inverted defilement arises and grows more severe. Earnestly following the luminous path, one lives in well-being. The wondrous function of transformation is real in self-nature.

Striving to cultivate goodness and purity, one dispels dull delusion. The fundamental instruction is to cause goodness to arise. Attaining stillness, one personally realizes the supreme Dharma.

The “stages of practice” pervade all, and gradually one attains the noble fruit. Self-nature shines clearly through layer upon layer of profundity and wonder. Its power and function are lovely, radiant, and sublime.

Attaining self-nature, one finds the fundamental cause of confidence. Original nature is perfected, and self and other are fulfilled. Purity in accord reveals the source.

Clearly seeing all provisional compounds, one’s nature ends attachment to self. Cultivating pure and wondrous practice is the cause of reality. The root abides constantly, revealing liberation.

Aspiring to pure conduct, one dwells peacefully in quiescence. Karmic enmity ended, one solemnly departs from it. One reveres the treasury of Dharma, mysterious and wondrous.

The sublime teaching transforms through wondrous function. The king’s command is a domain filled with majestic virtue. All the people throughout the realm return and take refuge.

The laws are strict and clear, and all beings are united as one. Governed by noble virtue, people and goods abound. Though enemies exist, ultimately there is no anxiety.

The transformation of all beings is complete, without omission. Everywhere, all rely upon and receive the teaching. Why is that country utterly quiescent?

The bodhisattva speaks profound and precious words.

What is the domain in which accord becomes manifest?

Dharmas suited to capacities bring aid everywhere. Ending every deception, one earnestly cultivates the path. Security prevails everywhere, and so it is with all the people.

Teaching and transformation flourish, and bliss is boundless. Ultimate meaning rests, peaceful as the heavens. Pure rewards encompass all and bring universal aid.

Impartial governance accords wholly with the Dharma. Its activities develop and grow more perfect each day. Every kind of hindrance and adversity is utterly eliminated.

One penetrates the source of strife and defilement among the clans. The realm of mind is free, and all affairs are harmonious. Once evil karma has been accomplished, it is very difficult to transform, just as it is very difficult to leave a multitude of friends.

Afflictions and contentious disturbances possess an irresistible force. Abandoning the production of evil karma, one earnestly cultivates the supreme practice. Following the Buddha-Dharma, one practices “calm cessation.” Relying on the true and pure Dharma, one leaves obstacles and afflictions.

The form of self-nature has the essence of space. Vast space contains all things. The root of Dharma is selfless, pure, and quiescent.

As the teaching and its practice arise, profound sorrow extends without end. One undertakes cultivation and study in accordance with quiescent dharmas. Everywhere is peaceful and fearless in this way.

Earnest cultivation of forms alone attains only inversion, defilement, and contention. One should cultivate genuine purity. Penetrating harmony, one becomes like space.

Sublimity pervades all impartially and in accord. Actions conform to the three kinds of fundamental wisdom. Having harmed beings throughout one life, the king repents.

His mind reaches the proper realm and accords with sublime cultivation. Clearly understanding words of self and other, he leaves every inherent nature. The world nurtures dull delusion to its utmost.

Pure conduct is not lost in the world. The beloved king aspires to practice giving. Its profound meaning surpasses every shore.

Though what is good and real does not follow the world, it is tightly bound to it. Recalling the suffering of death, one should abandon it. Such quiescence proceeds toward wholesome affairs.

One should swiftly leave suffering and adversity. Remembering accordingly, the realm becomes rich and beautiful.

What is the arising of the practice of suchness?

Every domain of defilement is purified. Mindfulness eliminates all marks of dust and impurity. The quiescent source functions in this way. All noble persons abandon conceptual proliferation. All the people rejoice in harmony, and the world is at peace. At ease and blissful, they remain joined to the path. Such is the ultimate source of supreme meaning.

The Bodhisattva’s Practice of Giving: The Honored Adornment, Protector of the Realm Jataka,

Meaning Thirty-Two.

Truly bearing the burden, one is utterly sublime. Pure self-nature is the source of every form. Power and function follow causes, and many kinds of fruits are attained. This is to accord with and penetrate the modes of a bodhisattva’s practice.

Sublime accord pervades every place. The power that ends bondage arises in completeness. The source of activity is the practice that does not change.

When a pure cause does not arise, its form is difficult to attain. One should recollect and clearly recognize afflictions. Persons and dharmas arise, and the ultimate becomes manifest.

One leaves every obstacle. The teaching is pure, and the nature of consciousness accords with it. Penetrating self-nature is the power and function of wisdom.

At the root of every transformation, giving comes first. Mental conduct guided by compassion possesses a sublime self-nature. Producing pure karma is the power of freedom.

This is true power and function; the nature of suchness is “non-arising,” and one earnestly cultivates wholesome practices. Contemplating wholesome karma ends the bondage of afflictions. The Buddha clearly taught: karmic rewards continually increase.

One understands thoroughly. Self and other practice sublimely. Recollecting the Buddha-Dharma, one produces pure karma.

Realms and species clearly recognize the dharmas that bind them. Evil karma is truly mixed, and its bitter fruit never errs. Recalling the Buddha’s words, how could one fail to abandon it?

What is pure, wondrous, and real clearly knows every destination. Truth made manifest is the domain of “non-arising.” Its pure form is unmoving like a mountain. When the fruit of suffering arises, manas arises with it.

Its basis accords accordingly. One understands the meaning of mutual support. The torrent of defiled nature accords with consciousness.

Arising in sequence, it receives collective and individual rewards. From the fundamental cause, one aspires to activity that is empty and still. The ten distinct wholesome paths become a hundred kinds.

Teaching and cultivating giving continue through many long eons. The powers of goodness and purity leave defiled bondage far behind. The root of arising activity cannot be accomplished without causes.

As suchness becomes clearer, true reality is revealed. The wholesome and wondrous bodily form maintains vast mindfulness. Quiescence clearly appears; cessation and thought do not stop.

Pure meditative concentration manifests freely. The great sentient being earnestly puts it into practice. Self-nature is the root of cultivation, with sublime capacity.

The growth of freedom is the basis of form. Fearlessness in ultimate meaning is perfected tranquility. The wondrous function of the ear faculty is an unobstructed domain.

Vast stillness appears limpidly. Purity develops and ends every root of fear. The liberated path of Buddhahood utterly ends dull delusion.

The practice of giving is not lost, and its activity becomes ever firmer. Harmonious accord does not forget and possesses the power of recollection. The path arises, supremely pure.

The transformation of the supreme cause is a most sublime reflection. Teaching and transforming beings impartially, one remains ever pure and in accord. Pure and wondrous giving brings security everywhere.

The meritorious practice of the supreme cause is attained everywhere. One cultivates in accord with all bodhisattva practices. The boundless practice of giving pervades the realms of sentient beings.

Understanding sublime benefit, one becomes noble and fearless. In the domain of selflessness, one loves and reveres limpid purity. The power of self-nature carries out the practice of non-retrogression.

Penetrating to the utmost, one leaves every being and nonbeing. The fruit of suffering is not lost but truly arises. Forms are originally nonexistent, peaceful, and settled.

With limpid self-nature, the fruit is perfected. Impartial fundamental wisdom includes both phenomena and principle. Aspiring to nirvana, one is fulfilled in benefit and bliss.

When the ultimate is not lost, self-conceit does not arise. Quiescent fundamental wisdom accords with the original source. Activity is complete, and its power is pure.

The root of arising inversion becomes a domain of increase. Cultivating giving, neither existence nor nonexistence has any fixed part. The power of self-nature is pure, wondrous, and sublime.

The cause of cultivating pure conduct brings the meritorious reward of a heavenly realm. A powerful and pure host eliminates afflictions. Self-nature is not lost; like vajra, it can cut through all afflictions.

Cultivating pure giving, one aspires to eliminate dull delusion. Cultivating earnestly in this way, one’s practice reaches culmination. Truly ending defilement is the domain of impartiality.

With all powers complete, one increases goodness and leaves evil. Sublime cultivation is the ultimate self-nature.

What is the attainment of the true, pure, and wondrous root?

Its power and function become active, while the realm of self does not increase. Pure and free, it utterly ends defiled evil.

What is meant by not cultivating and constructing terraces and halls?

Karmic rewards are impure, and poverty and hunger are endured. The current of becoming is not

stable; it changes, falls, and decays. Striving to attain virtue, one accords with peace and bliss. The body and all its parts remain whole and are not lost.

Merit is not abandoned, and karmic rewards are fully accomplished. This is the domain in which bodhisattvas peacefully guide and teach. Truly free, their essence and nature are “without seeking.” The fearless subject is supremely excellent and inexhaustible.

Self-nature is not lost, and its power and function arise. Cultivating the practice of dana, one’s function is complete. All this accords with bodhisattva practice.

Abiding in pure conduct is the root of “non-cultivation.” Bonds, calamities, and adversity are utterly ended in tranquility. Advancing in sublime cultivation, one aspires to the fruit of Buddhahood. The mind flourishes with sufficient strength, and vigor is thus established.

Leaving defilement, one attains ultimate perfection. Far removed from bonds and coverings, virtue accords with the truth. Examining forms, one strives to cultivate supreme power.

When inversion is joined to one’s constituents, the practice of the path is absent. Delight accords with the truth; how could it be an empty display? Clearly revealing being and nonbeing is indeed a great rain of Dharma.

The supreme ultimate is to leave all dharmas. Supreme goodness ends contention and accords with what is sought. The root is not revealed; only branches and twigs are followed.

The noble one compassionately teaches, and what is presented accords with the truth. Afflictions that cover and bind constitute contaminated practice. Pervasive defilement cannot be attained.

The practice of a noble person belongs to a sublime lineage. Ever quiescent and settled, it transcends every word. Guard the constant mind like an indestructible jewel.

Its nature has always flowed onward, yet it ends every function. Wisdom and understanding awaken to the nature that has always been suchness. Cultivated causes influence karmic rewards in this way.

The compassionate bodhisattva earnestly gives instruction. Clearly recognizing reality, the bodhisattva guides along every path. With pure power and function, defilement cannot arise.

The bliss found everywhere is beyond comparison or analogy. The purity of ultimate meaning is self-nature made manifest. Repentance is completed, pure as the heavens.

Speech leaves every characteristic of ultimate meaning and defilement. The supreme source and function are “inexpressible.” The self-nature of self is also “inexpressible.” “Jataka,” in its constant meaning, signifies reality. All such activities are practices that attain accord.

Investigating the view of self is inverted conduct. The torrent of defilement appears, and discrimination arises with it. Quiescent language truly bears the burden.

Practicing purity, one understands the meaning of sentient beings. Teaching and transforming all beings, one carries them beyond birth and death. Excellent indeed is the practice that eliminates poverty and suffering.

Its profound power transcends words. All such delight is made clearer through speech. The domain of quiescence is sought without cessation.

With sublime mental function, giving extends everywhere. The body becomes beautiful, and every place accords. The serene power of a noble one is the “fearlessness” of ultimate meaning.

That pure nature is stainlessness. The power of practice and understanding consists in the pervasion of all dharmas. If self-nature diminishes, impartiality cannot be established.

The virtue of moral discipline can utterly eliminate every defilement. Virtue is truly prized by the heavens. The rewards of evil realms are likewise never false.

The powers of wholesome and unwholesome karma are the same. What is the practice of patience that does not retreat before hardship? Meeting adverse circumstances, steadfast wisdom does not yield.

Oppressed by heat and cold, one serenely endures. The practices of ordinary beings are openly revealed. The form of wisdom produces pure activity.

Evil realms appear again, and their rewards are received in full.

The Bodhisattva’s Practice of Giving: The Honored Adornment, Protector of the Realm Jataka,

Meaning Thirty-Three.

The torrent of inversion is the cause that gives rise to self-conceit. This is the fundamental aspect of consciousness—the sixth consciousness. How does the bodhisattva maintain all factors over a long period? If one wishes to realize a great fruit, few causes cannot accomplish it. By cultivating the causes of the myriad practices, one attains boundless fruit. Bodhi and nirvana are inconceivable. Cultivating vigorous practice, one perfects great compassion.

What does it mean to possess all factors?

Coarse and subtle obstructions, like space, are difficult to leave. Only the three kinds of “fundamental wisdom” and eight kinds of “subsequently attained wisdom” can eliminate them and attain the fruit of freedom. Practice and understanding of the Dharma-body, reward-body, and transformation-body are complete.

The pure teaching is the root of every power and function. The fruit-stage of a shravaka attains true ultimate meaning. The nature of concentration is “complete”; body and wisdom become quiescent.

The nature returns to mind and enters the body in transformation. Following the Mahayana, one attains the fruit-stage of Buddhahood. The Buddha-Dharma’s pure conduct perfects teaching and transformation.

Great sentient beings complete benefit for self and others. Within the bodies of sentient beings, Buddha-nature is fully present. Whether ordinary or noble, of superior wisdom or inferior faculties, all possess this common self-nature, which remains throughout myriad eons.

It is the realm of mind, a wholesome Dharma that cannot be lost. Therefore, all beings should accord with the Great Person, impartially bringing aid throughout every realm. Attaining vigorous practice, one bears the sublime burden.

The nature is covered and bound fundamentally by attachment to self. Villages and settlements are peaceful and harmonious. Without pure conduct, defilement spreads.

The compassionate vow to guide beings is the domain of impartiality. With a perfected mental realm, one wholeheartedly benefits beings. A king’s wholesome words guide a country.

The people throughout the realm follow like the wind. The powers of the ruler accord sublimely. True freedom is utterly pure.

The domain of activity is surpassingly majestic and beautiful. Practice and understanding are complete, and body and mind are light and tranquil. Self-nature becomes manifest, and the supreme cause is fulfilled.

Afflictions in heavenly realms produce killing. The power and function of spiritual friends guide through the Three Vehicles. The ultimate self-nature is true peace and bliss, like the lion king, majestic and confident.

Aspiring to receive and understand, one completes practice and understanding. Pure self-nature is the meaning of liberation. The power of fundamental nature produces abundant forms.

An unwavering, limpid mind is silent stillness without perception. Old enemies come into present contact. Earnestly cultivating supreme goodness, one abandons violent calamity.

Because of debts from previous lives, merit and wrongdoing are heavy or light. The factors of enmity arise from sentient beings themselves. Clearly understanding self-nature, one eliminates afflictions.

Yet one must rely upon the power of others. Conceptual proliferation arises recklessly and creates poisonous harm. Speech transforms from its root and increases its aspects.

Through wondrous and free power, one attains “the unattainable.” True suchness ends every production of karma. The bodhisattva’s transformative practice does not seek meritorious rewards. Its forms accord and develop impartially.

Cultivating the fundamental, one attains sublime quiescence. Vexatious conceptual proliferation binds everywhere. Freedom in its proper measure is a domain of peace.

Sublime forms are the root of every transformation. Proceeding toward quiescence is the covering domain of activity. All is true, and poisonous harm is utterly ended.

Conceptual proliferation arises fundamentally from dull delusion. The supreme cause increases merit, and all comes into accord. From a place of stillness, one acts everywhere.

Pure causes harmonize and flourish throughout every realm. Impartial accomplishment appears through clear understanding. Ending greed, anger, and delusion is the highest practice.

Painful feeling transforms, and wisdom increases. Self-nature is peaceful, and delight appears. In the field of giving, karmic rewards never err.

Penetrating the meaning of “suchness” is the selflessness of self-nature. Ultimate accord is pure like space. Quiescent meditative concentration extinguishes every suffering.

Clearly understanding self-nature, body and mind become settled. One aspires to create sublime karma and attain supreme delight. Practice and understanding rely upon purity, peace, and bliss.

The bodhisattva’s essence rejoices in warm harmony. Utmost impartiality is the tranquility of ultimate meaning. The wondrous function of esoteric speech and practice is difficult to conceive.

The nature of suchness accords with precious reality. This is the domain of earnest cultivation, where power and function increase. Sublimity arises.

What is the original nature that is infinitely revered?

Present in full from birth, all is complete. True nature pervades all, though capacities differ in superiority and inferiority. Penetrating reality, one who produces the cause will certainly attain the result.

The most sublime essence and nature abide in the excellent person. Retreat and advancement are determined, and all ten aspects become clear. Impartial application is the root of every practice of giving.

All practices give rise to ten kinds of morality and patience. The disposition delights in quiescence, and activity is genuine. Stillness is not revealed when delusive defilement arises.

Attaining “the unattainable” means ending every form. The realm of nature is attained, and bodily form accords with it. Relying on quiescence, one ends every disturbance.

All transformations cease, and being and nonbeing are both transcended. The true-word form of practice is “inconceivable.” The merit of keeping the precepts is the cause of nobility. The wondrous power of meditative concentration is the path into the fruit of Buddhahood.

Harmonious and impartial, one leaves the production of karma. Bondage is also eliminated. This is the domain the bodhisattva praises without reserve.

The pure practice of teaching and transformation penetrates the sublime. Source and branches, to their utmost, are all “unattainable.” The mode of wisdom penetrates reality. The powers of merit pervade every place.

The power of ultimate meaning is the work of Shakra, lord of the devas. This is the domain in which impartial reflections are cultivated. The gathered nature proceeds toward abundant merit and prosperity.

The pure realm of mind is the root of every pure conduct. Ultimate accord increases to perfection. With the mind practicing giving, ultimate meaning arises.

Its pure and wondrous form is praised by the world as rare. Cultivating bodhisattva practice, one is revered by all. The compassionate mother is free, and her form develops.

Giving is quiescent; its source and branches are like space. When evil karma arises, wondrous power can counteract it in such accord. The mind attains purity, and all becomes real.

Through correct cultivation, one attains the wisdom of liberation. This is the domain in which the bodhisattva utterly ends the fruit of suffering. It transcends every analogy.

All afflictions and the bonds of the five skandhas are extinguished. One cultivates pure conduct. Name and form, the five skandhas, encompass everything.

One ends the obstruction of afflictions together with the torrent of contention and defilement. From self-nature arises the cultivation of quiescent practice. This is the domain in which transformation and giving increase and wisdom arises.

The root is cleansed of defiled bondage and accords in proper measure. In the quiescent heavenly realm, activity is genuine. The fundamental power and function are pure, wondrous, and eliminate impurity, together with attachment to self, fundamental delusions, dull defilement, greed, and delusion.

Striving to extinguish bondage, one resolves to attain freedom. Through the power of giving, one aspires to attain its form. The meritorious reward of ultimate meaning is abundant and extraordinary.

Pure form is a domain of stillness. The true supreme cause clarifies the meaning of practice and understanding. This is the bodhisattva realm in which the karma of dull delusion ends.

Following birth and death, one guides all beings. Devas and sentient beings should establish corresponding causes. Noble ones act by earnestly practicing the ten wholesome kinds of karma.

Transformative practice that is “without characteristics” attains the meaning of harmony. Cultivating sublime practice, one ends the course of cyclic flow. Sublimity arises, and quiescence is fulfilled.

Sublime freedom transcends attachment to the characteristics of self and other. True self-nature ends every inversion that covers and binds. Buddha-nature is suchness, and fundamental wisdom accords with it.

“Subsequently attained wisdom” conditions suchness, and a “transformed image” is obtained. Cause and effect occupy different domains, whether embodied or not. Such is the perfect source and branches of Dharma-nature.

The conditioned is called the Treasury; the unconditioned is called the Dharma-body. In ultimate activity, one concentrates on attaining the “Dharma-essence.” In accord, it becomes manifest, reappears, and is relinquished. The practice of giving “fearlessness” gives rise to benefit and meaning.

Forms have always arisen to produce activity. Discriminative giving is not followed by the supreme mind. The true field of merit is sublime and without characteristics.

The original nature of giving utterly ends all characteristics. Its root is the absence of nature and cannot be sought by itself. Leaving sensual desire, one attains supreme purity.

The sublime practice of the path is utterly auspicious. The nature of suchness aspires to awaken to “the unattainable.” Entering the gate of reality means “nothing possible” and “nothing impossible.” Self-nature expounds words by relying on names, phrases, and syllables. Names, phrases, and syllables are provisional compounds; how could their verbal exposition be real?

The source is “non-arising,” which nurtures practice and understanding. It is the ever-quiescent realm, peaceful and indestructible. Devas and humans are purified, and every fear is ended.

Excellent indeed is self-nature, abundant and not false. Supreme reality appears in accord. Forms are harmonious, and the pure nature is perfected.

The power and function of giving are the root of every merit. The compassionate mother’s lineage is foremost among its causes. Aspiring to quiescence, one does not give rise to afflictions.

Self and other are sublime and become still more reverently harmonious. Such are the causes and conditions of merit in that heavenly realm. Excellent indeed is self-nature, harmoniously complete!

Penetrating the nature of the skandhas, true characteristics arise. Ultimate meaning arises, ending the characteristics of transformation. Repentance such as this extinguishes every fault.

Afflictions accumulate, and one is deludedly attached to phenomena and principle. Those of sharp and dull faculties clearly understand the highest categories and numbers. Thus the fundamental and derivative afflictions arise together with discrimination.

Domain, time, section, and discourse have been clearly explained. The sequential enumeration of dharmas proceeds toward supreme power. Goodness and virtue are perfected through genuine cultivation.

Cultivating goodness and virtue has such a source. Subtle and profound, it is the fundamental practice.

The Bodhisattva’s Practice of Giving: The Honored Adornment, Protector of the Realm Jataka,

Meaning Thirty-Four.

This is the bodhisattva’s cultivation of supreme practice.