Having last month considered the Buddha’s manifestation in this saha world, we consider the attributes of the Buddha and conclude the first chapter of the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings.
Your Brahma voice—that rolls like thunder, that has eight virtues,
That is pure, deeply resonant, sublime, and far-reaching—
Conveys the Four Noble Truths, the perfection of the six spiritual
attitudes, and the twelve-linked chain of dependent origination
To living beings according to their mindsets and their karmic actions.
The minds and hearts of those who hear you will invariably open;
They will not fail to sever themselves from the cycle of countless births and deaths (samsara).
Those who hear you will variously attain the fruit of entering
the stream (srota-āpanna),
The fruit of one remaining return (sakṛdāgāmin), the fruit of
non-returning (anāgāmin), the fruit of arhatship;
Or freedom from delusion and desire, and transcendence of cause and condition, in the status of a pratyekabuddha;
Or the bodhisattva stage in which phenomena are grasped as being without origination or cessation.
Or they will obtain countless Dharma-grasping empowerments;
Or the ability to expound pleasingly with unrestrained great eloquence—
To orate in verses profound and sublime
While bathing and reveling in the pure pond of Dharma.
Or they will manifest wondrous abilities to reach any place, to leap and to soar,
And to move at will into and out of water and fire. Such are the signs of a wheel of the Dharma;
Thus is it pure and limitless, and hard to give form to in thought
or in word.
Together, all of us will bow again
And take refuge in a Dharma wheel whenever it is turned.
We will bow again and take refuge in the sound of your Brahma voice.
We will bow again and take refuge in the Four Noble Truths, the perfection of the spiritual attitudes, and dependent origination.
World-honored One! Ever since innumerable kalpas ago,
You have cultivated and practiced all beneficial works devotedly
For our sake—human beings, heavenly beings, nāga kings— Extending universally to all manner of living beings.
You were able to give up everything that is difficult to forgo—
Your wife, your child, all of your wealth, and your palaces and lands. As selfless with regard to inner matters as you are with material things,
You give your mind, your perceptions, and the essence of your being completely for the sake of all people.
You will reverently uphold the principles of pure behavior of all buddhas
With unbroken resolve until the end of your life.
Should someone bearing sword or staff come to do you harm,
Or to disparage or denounce you, you will be without anger
to the end.
Through kalpa after kalpa of all-out endeavor, your intensity
has never waned.
Night and day you govern your mind, keeping it constantly focused. You have completely mastered all ways to grasp the Dharma,
And your insight penetrates deeply into the core of living beings: Thus, you have come to achieve unhindered capabilities.
In total command of the Dharma, you are as its king. Together we all bow to and take refuge in the one
So steadfast in purpose toward all that is difficult to overcome.