勝軍化世百瑜伽他經

In the past there was a sage named Vai Ba who, without relying on scriptures or chapters and verses, spoke thus:

I now sing to myself, delighting in my own folly,

Briefly reciting the Gatha together with the hundred verses.

Practicing kindness, practicing righteousness, practicing virtuous conduct,

Without self, without pride, without weakness.

Truly compassionate, one should honor the Teacher,

Able to act as one above, leaving behind the deed once done.

There is only greed, with resolute will;

The body itself noble and fair, yet gentle and harmonious.

If one meets a strong foe, one can be valiant and brave;

This body is called the mark of a Great Person.

A youth who practices wholesome deeds is truly rare,

Those who seek and those who beseech are all filled with joy.

If others praise me, I feel ashamed;

People such as these are also hard to find.

If you wish to seek what is good and fair, first seek the Dharma;

When the Dharma exalts and the mind is pure, virtue arises of itself.

All the precepts and conduct are upheld with strictness;

Such a person is truly rare in this world.

Naturally good in nature, this is called good;

The virtuous and the wicked alike clearly know.

Whether that one, or this one, also harbors it within,

This which a person understands, the world finds hard to attain.

The nature of fire is warmth, its root is heat;

The nature of the moon is clear brightness, and so it is likewise.

The Kshatriya clan is called the highest;

Beneath it, why should the other clans be feared?

When kin meet with peril, one should rescue and aid them;

When others meet with calamity, it is likewise.

Exhausting one's strength for others, with feeling that is not divided—

Herein this way of living is called right livelihood.

Giving, patience, together with the power of light,

Subduing the senses—this is called wholesome.

This is the Holy One, truly adorned.

Gold and jewels as adornment are like a heavy burden;

In the world there has never been a single thing

That is not destroyed by impermanence into nothingness.

Only the unconditioned, with virtue tranquil and still,

Passing through all freely, abides ever enduring.

Excellent indeed the form and appearance, the body upright and correct;

Fully cultivating, the virtue shines radiant,

Like the bright moon amid the clear sky,

Pure and white and clear, shining upon every house.

The wealthy give to all people;

The mind accomplishes very many dharmas.

Strong, one rescues and aids the weak and feeble.

Excellent! This virtue is truly good and fair.

That virtue many times moves those without virtue;

The fool slights virtue and so loses it.

The wise are bright as the crimson sun;

The fool is like a bright star covered and blinded.

The virtuous can guard the body in all affairs;

In all things they cultivate lofty Virtue.

If, with an unrestrained mind, one commits a fault,

Diligently cultivate much Virtue and be again as before.

The wicked keep far from the place of moral virtue,

Ever wishing to draw near to those who are not wholesome,

Like forsaking the pure pool of merit

And entering waters muddy as filthy mire.

One smears oil upon the body to remove dirt;

Removing the dirt, one must then wash away that oil—

Just like undertaking a task hoping for success,

Yet if one wishes for success, one abandons the work.

The wicked are evil and ugly as a black serpent;

The wicked are deluded and confused as a drunken elephant.

The good fear that their minds may be harmed;

The wicked, perverse, take delight in their feelings.

A great fire in hot weather is hard to extinguish at once;

An abyss bottomless and deep is not yet known.

Using wholesome wisdom to view the wicked and perilous,

Deeply one can believe firmly without doubt.

To fall into the abyss, to enter the fire, is truly dangerous;

Some may have a body remaining that barely stands,

Some may have a body remaining that barely walks.

If a person falls into a place of evil beasts,

The evil beasts and deep springs—it is hard to come out.

Great waters surging in waves are hard to flow through;

A great fire blazing is hard to be burned within;

The harm done by wicked men cannot be struck down.

This indeed is the precious wealth of the world.

The weak who have possessions strive to guard them;

The middling also cannot keep their wealth.

The middling, seeing money, their minds are truly glad;

The weak rely on money, and in their life it is important.

All clans and races, colors, and virtues,

Companions, kin, and friends—

Each one knows not from where it came;

Yet only the fool greedily delights in wealth.

The rich tell lies; the giver tells the truth.

The greedy speak truly yet say there is nothing.

Flattering when it suits them, they do not act rightly;

That good and worthy one feels no shame.

Having money and being rich, yet without virtue—

But if one has virtue, people praise one.

Without talent, greedy, and virtue insufficient,

The fool without wisdom is apt to disparage.

Valiant in virtuous conduct, present as if absent—

This indeed is the one of true awakened contemplation.

Leaving wealth, at peace with the Way, in the place of pure poverty,

For kin to slight poverty is truly wrong.

Killing one's child, being rich—give the true reality;

The lofty one, without talent, is not weak.

Kin and friends conform to the world,

Knowing only wine and drink, not understanding sin.

One must understand the evil realms, perilous, sunk in misery;

There one receives punishment, truly full of suffering.

The beggar comes and goes hoping for things given;

Wholly lacking wisdom, his feelings and intentions astray.

When the beggar's wish is not granted, going against this feeling,

His mind, full of anger, laments over his place of hatred.

This person, mean of mind, his words are false;

He cannot forsake gain, much less forsake his life.

This person is stingy, with heavy delusion;

Of rescuing and giving he has never known.

He hoards money and cloth until at last none remains;

In austerity, wise giving is ever firm.

A person such as this aids with much wealth;

The deluded grow ever more, not reflecting.

Receiving suffering, not understanding falsehood, stingy—

Many people aiding alike in equal suffering.

He neither directs it, nor uses it, nor shares with others;

The one without wisdom toward this wholesome matter.

Gold and silver hoarded fill the chambers and rooms;

Buried deep and unclean—what use is it?

To greedily share, then to give, is most precious;

He is called a Superior Person.

The wealthy and noble who relinquish a little money and cloth—

Like a river of few drops, who would call it worry?

If a person relies on the Dharma, in conduct he is not poor;

Diligently giving is like delighting in a beautiful person.

If one gives much money, it lessens the hoard;

The fruit of suffering felt is likewise.

A pure mind-field—this is the king of dharmas.

A youth of moral virtue is like fragrant flowers;

A mind of loving-kindness, soft and supple, like a beautiful person.

Refined and adorned, with deeds well done,

Bowing in worship at sacred sites and able to give,

Vigorous, widely learned, undertaking austerities—

If the rules are lessened, there is no moral conduct.

Having earlier cultivated much good together with diminished merit,

Now one is again called a person who understands.

In the next life, born in the heavens, all people submit;

Blessings and lifespan, far and long, ever joyful—

All from upholding the precepts is success attained.

Ever hearing of the bitter suffering of the three evil prisons,

Constantly keeping dignified bearing, complete in moral virtue,

Receiving to the end of this kalpa, finishing this life,

Of Yama and the evil beasts I have no fear.

Walled cities, hamlets, together with dense forests—

Some may be deluded; some have wisdom.

Suppose one understands the Dharma, or understands it not—

If one seeks the Sugata, cultivate and uphold the precepts.

Firmly upholding the prohibitive precepts, making them pure,

Ever one should draw near to good spiritual friends.

Cultivating diligently according to the Dharma, wholesome karma is full;

All merit and virtue gather together.

Upholding the precepts, profiting in the Dharma, one attains peace and joy.

If the mind, foolish and deluded, has decay and harm,

Virtue and life, in an instant, are at once destroyed.

For what reason would the wise drink wine?

That one who drinks wine is obstructed, foolish, and inferior.

Ultimately it cannot be called wholesome;

Suddenly heaven and earth again are impermanent.

Defilement fills the body, an impure vessel;

Yet kin together drink in delight.

Once drunk, together they then take life;

Thus it is only within an instant.

It is said that wine is more poisonous than poison.

The cause of incurring sin is the practice of carnal desire;

Truly forsaking life, it ever entangles the mind.

All desirous feelings bring no benefit,

Yet still, with delusion, one chooses women.

If one delights in one's own wife, seeking to satisfy the will,

Through constant craving and attachment one wishes for more,

In that concubine one falsely seeks and craves,

Sorrowfully feeling alone, the mind full of fear.

Blood, flesh, sinew, bone, skin, snot and slobber—

Inner and outer all coming forth, the body is impure.

If one cannot unite with one's own wife and children,

How then could it be fitting to unite with another's woman?

If a person is of pure resolve, without carnal desire,

Clearly understanding that union is like a dream-illusion,

Therefore he keeps far from this woman

And attains a mind at peace, free of delusion.

A woman can truly bring delight;

Being rich and beautiful is likewise.

Kin together give rise to loving attachment,

Yet this life is not firm, and again impermanent.

The fool clings carelessly, increasing craving and attachment;

The wise one reflects that in the end it returns to nothing.

If one turns toward the dust of love to dwell in delight,

When will one come forth and arrive at bodhi?

In cultivation, do not be deterred by hardship and toil;

Afterward one attains a body of peace and joy.

This indeed is wholesome speech, truly beneficial;

Drunk down, it should be likened to truly excellent medicine.

All that one does, clearly understand;

What is wrong, perilous, and ruinous—understand it fully.

If this can be done, that too can be done;

How then could a wholesome deed have any concealment?

People who cultivate and create the deeds of before,

First remove the perverse and chaotic, with right contemplation;

Deciding afterward without error,

Naturally peaceful and secure, no fault arises.

If one cultivates wholesome karma and makes it grow,

With single mind, calm and still, leaving behind drifting and floating,

As if having a foe, an illness of affliction,

Naturally one removes and forsakes, utterly cutting off delusion.

Harsh speech, double-tongued speech, a mind base and inferior—

The fool lets go his intent and forsakes himself to feeling.

Does one even understand the beautifully colored sparrow,

Able to lure the monkey, the heron, the owl, and all?

Able to harbor delusion without right understanding,

Praising vigor and the gate of precept and giving—

I say there are people who do this deed:

Making merit, putting the body at peace, is supreme.

The self-mastering Dharma-sound is like music together;

Without a mind of delight, on what then does one rely?

If you who have feelings would forsake these realms—

And this beast-born one is precisely this person.

For gain, false words—none of it is awakened to;

What is real, what is unreal—none of it understood.

Thus, evidently, one cannot understand and discern;

Though fully in human form, like a beast.

Not understanding the wholesome and good, together with delusion,

How can one say the jackal differs from the lion?

Not discerning superior from inferior, seeing them as the same,

The wise understand and do not dwell together with them.

Neither saying one is a Saint, nor that one is foolish,

Neither creating double-tongued speech, nor self-pride.

Hard to understand the lofty principle, yet there is something known.

This is said to be the adornment of the Brahmin:

With single mind understanding the intent, cultivating true conduct.

When at times one errs and does not practice,

With self-pride, the wicked together strive and contend.

Such form and virtue I do not have;

Delusion within the mind worries and overturns it.

Loving-kindness and patience wholly absent, much ferocity—

These are matters very greatly mistaken.

Grasping that one's own virtue surpasses that of others,

Having left home on the great road, the mind is not deep.

Good friends one almost never reveres and befriends;

The teacher's instruction one has never offered in homage—

Drawing near only to contention, truly foolish.

The sky is vast, the moon round, truly without waning;

Below the mountain the flowers and grasses never wither.

Worldly people are impermanent—how does this differ?

So why contend over self and other—for what purpose?

A woman's basic nature is truly not wholesome,

Yet it does not hinder one who cultivates wholesome karma.

The Amala grass has this seed;

These are the three kinds of error in the world.

Honoring the Dharma master, visiting holy sites,

Newly practicing contentment, remembering compassion and wisdom—

Such are the five kinds of worldly affairs.

If one says they are hard to do, yet they are easy to do.

Understanding people, understanding the Dharma, ever doing good,

And able to seek out and inquire of good friends—

Just as within the sand there is true gold,

All sentient beings know to treasure it.

The foolish and inferior act together, not freely;

Naturally without virtue, and without wisdom.

To be one gone forth from home, yet violent and wicked—

Then indeed such a life is not called wholesome.

Why do you not trust in your friends?

Why do you not understand among gods and humans?

Why do you not practice skillful means?

Why, self-satisfied, do you consider it enough?

Where does the stingy person give?

In what place of heaped sand is there again water?

In what impure place is there again fragrance?

In the wicked person, what place has there gratitude and righteousness?

In the angry one, what virtue is there in love?

In the foe, what place has there a friend?

How does the one who indulges know fullness?

How could a long and lasting life be thus?

The proud and haughty harlot does not believe deeply;

The deluded and foolish do not discern.

Wealth, nobility, glory, and joy—who attains them long?

The cause of karma is fixed and hard to destroy.

The Brahmin who obtains food rejoices;

The sparrow hearing thunder again rejoices together.

The good rescue and protect, others rejoice;

The fool, destroying, then makes merry.

Folly, delusion, love, and pleasure create contention,

Like one who, obtaining wealth, is glad of mind.

The virtuous hearing that one speak fine words

Is like a bee drawn to the fragrance of sweet flowers.

The virtuous can draw near to virtue;

The one apt to err—that error becomes enmity.

The robber and plunderer—that plunder is suffering;

The contented person—that one again rejoices.

Why be disheartened when holding the alms bowl?

How could one forsake the labor of that other?

Understand that not for the body's sake does one grasp at self;

So tame the mind to be good, gentle, and harmonious.

In the mind there is no love, no self and other;

The deer has no home, dwelling in the garden-forest.

Dwelling in the house of the rich, one is honored;

Not for trivial matters does one beg and seek.

Leaving behind false conditions and all the affairs of pleasure,

In the end without hesitation, truly free.

This life is like a swan

Dwelling forever long in clean water.

Royal cities, villages, and hamlets where people dwell—

The eight virtues, many or few, are no longer anything.

A mind of kindness, clear and bright, rebukes shame;

Understanding the Dharma of non-self is truly joyful.

Mountain ranges, spring waters flowing through caves,

Eating fruits, wearing leather garments to cover the body—

The stillness of mountains and forests is truly delightful;

What need is there for villages to seek and crave?

Dwelling in the mountains, one sees no houses at all;

Self-mastering, without dogs, glad to go forthwith.

In that mind one is apt to benefit and find ease;

Subduing the faculties and consciousness, living long.

I have now instructed you all;

With joined palms, reverent, listen with a settled mind.

The whole treasury of Dharma is truly peace and joy;

That one should rejoice in that joyful mind.

You know clearly the fruit and retribution among people;

If within an instant you have not yet attained it,

The body to come, foolish and dim—how will it make merit?

Following the former, retreating, one casts oneself into torment.

A drop of water on the ground does not stay long—

Likened to a person's life, not firm and lasting.

The three kinds of unobstructedness—who is able?

If one is a wise person, one can accomplish it.

In this way, if you follow that,

Directing the mind to the three kinds, understanding how much.

Just like a forest bird contemplating itself—

The sparrow is more beautiful, yet it is not oneself.

Impermanence, birth and death—what person loves them?

Wisdom has already contemplated the five faculties.

This body, though it exists, in the end does not last long;

I tell you clearly: the world is empty.

Thus Yama, the person sees clearly;

Sentient beings receiving suffering—how many people are freed?

Where aging and death do no harm is the realm of peace and joy;

Why then do you all turn and act otherwise?

Impermanence in every aspect is already understood,

Yet only greed for life again is not perceived.

The road ahead is dim and dark, far from light;

For what cause, at the towering height, do you not reflect?

Father, mother, wife, children, together with friends,

United in hollow illusion, awaiting their time.

The right Dharma is near—one should rely upon it,

Able to drive off impermanence and the suffering of birth and death.

Seeking much gives rise to much affliction;

Guarding the body gives rise to true fear.

When destroyed, it gives rise to true grief and sorrow;

If the wise seek it, what benefit is there?

If that one does not cultivate true conduct,

When will the cycle of birth and death ever cease?

The wise ever observe this world,

All becoming illusory transformation mixed with delusion.

False words and singing chants are not real;

Lust and craving pursued are like ulcers and sores.

Harming this life, not firm, like a dream-illusion—

How can it compare to using body and mind for the Buddha's Dharma?

Therefore one does not create sin.

All things equally crumble along with the body;

How can the world have such a foolish, dim mind?

Not understanding to reflect, the sin of evil arises.

Where there is no good nor evil in that mind,

Guarding the world, humans and gods should understand.

If the mind is unable to reflect upon this,

When will it ever be able to dissolve the sins?

According to conditions one sits and dwells, with things to use;

Grass and straw worn as clothing for a time.

This leisure, as a supporting condition, brings benefit;

The remaining furnishings afflict and trouble people.

Seeing only the adornments of the palace,

Though one's seat and bed are coarse and ugly,

With contentment naturally the mind is glad and joyful,

As if regarding the ugly as surpassing the gods and humans.

One should understand that in this world it is only for money

That water, fire, and theft all bring plunder.

Thus, wishing to seek the blessings of the next life,

One has not yet sought what is not money.

Discoursing, craftsmanship and trade, farming and scholarship—

Not relying on the rules of Dharma, one should not do them.

One should understand this matter must be fitting;

Apart from blessings, naturally there is no accomplishment.

If one is apt to do good, or does it not,

One should understand it is not for any one person alone.

Together with this body, the place where karma is created—

By this all sentient beings attain it.

Thus all the places where karma is created,

And again, able in the next life not to be born again,

Birth, aging, sickness, suffering, together with impermanence—

What follows is not yet known from where it comes.

The Sutra of King Victorious Transforming the World: A Hundred Treatises in Gatha Verse

The End