Overall Teaching

Samantabhadra aids Sudhana in completing the full practice of bodhisattvas, and then makes a great vow before all which embodies the essence of good bodhisattva practice.

Summary

1. Sudhana, attending countless spiritual benefactors, with his mind in harmony with them, and cultivating what they taught, having accomplished the virtues and qualities of the buddhas, stood contemplating the realm of Samantabhadra.

2. Sudhana sat on a lotus seat at the awakening site, with his mind pervading all directions and immersed in all the Dharma. As Sudhana thus meditated, ten signs prefiguring vision of Samantabhadra occurred to him, all of which were the purification of all buddha-lands by various good qualities of all buddhas. Similarly, countless lights emanated from all atoms in the cosmos with various transcendental qualities.

3. Prefigured in this way, Sudhana had the opportunity to see Samantabhadra out of a past vow to accompany him through all time, who appeared sitting on a lotus throne before Vairocana Buddha, and who arrived at equality of the three times and with all buddhas.

4. Emanating from Samantabhadra, were clouds of all kinds of adorning things, such as jewel trees, jewels, fragrant flames, incenses, and so forth, pervading the whole universe. Similarly, multitudes of beings of all kinds emerged from every pore, as well as bodhisattvas and perfect awakening itself emerging from every pore and showing it in all lands.

5. Sudhana, being joyful at having seen Samantabhadra, saw all worlds in all times and all directions in the one mark of the body of Samantabhadra, as well as all buddhas, buddhalands, and so forth, but all in perfect order and not mixed up in one another. Thus, he saw Samantabhadra displaying the same miracles in all lands in all directions and before all buddhas.

6. Thus, Sudhana attained ten consummations of knowledge about:

i. Pervading all buddha-lands in a moment of thought.

ii. Holistic knowledge going to the presence of all buddhas.

iii. Asking about the teaching and receiving answers from al buddhas.

iv. Meditation on the cycles of teaching of all buddhas.

v. Inconceivable cycles of teaching of all buddhas.

vi. To expound one expression of truth forever by means of inexhaustible specific knowledge of all truths.

vii. The ocean of all truths.

viii. All principles of the dharmadhātu.

ix. Living together with the thoughts of all beings.

x. Instantaneous direct witness of the practice of Samantabhadra.

7. Samantabhadra then placed his hand on Sudhana’s head and Sudhana entered into as many samādhis, attained as many vows, and had as many floods of omniscience and so forth as atoms in buddha-lands. Just as he did this on Sudhana’s head, in the same way, this happened in front of all buddhas in the universe, as facets of truths entered into Sudhana.^[1]

8. Sudhana said that he saw Samantabhadra’s mystical projection, but only a buddha could understand it.

a. Samantabhadra said that in as many aeons as atoms in buddha-lands he practiced for buddhahood and built up virtue through sacrifices of his body, kingship, companions, and so forth as many times as atoms in buddha-lands. He went forth under each buddha and holds their teaching.

b. He did not neglect the teachings of those buddhas in all those oceans of aeons, or had any thought departing from the aspiration for awakening. If he told of all those efforts, all oceans of aeons would be exhausted.

c. By such power of his accumulated powers, vows, practices, and so forth, he attained the ultimately pure and unfragmented Dharmakāya, and a purified physical body beyond all worldlings which is visible in all worlds. Those without roots of goodness cannot even hear about him. And those who see, hear him, or even hear of him in a dream, have become irreversible towards buddhahood. Similarly, some become mature by remembering him for a day and night, and others by remembering him for aeons, and in as many other methods as there are atoms in untold buddha-lands.

d. Sudhana, contemplating Samantabhadra’s body, saw in each pore as many buddhas and buddha-lands in the ten directions developing beings towards supreme awakening.

9. Sudhana then entered into all those worlds projected by Samantabhadra and developed the beings therein to maturity. The roots of goodness in him from going to all the previous bodhisattvas did not to amount to a fraction of those accumulated by even seeing Samantabhadra. He did not come to an end of the oceans of manifestations emerging from all of Samantabhadra’s pores, whereby he knew all buddhas and all beings and their entrance and succession to the stages.

a. He thus contemplated and travelled in each land for an aeon, for as many aeons as are grains of sand in the Ganges, without moving from that spot or without any time passing and attained the equality of all the qualities and attainments of buddhas.^[2]

10. Then Samantabhadra Bodhisattva, in verse, made the following vow:

• To honour all buddhas with body speech and mind.

• To praise all the buddhas.

• To make universal offerings to all buddhas.

• To repent whatever evil has been committed.

• To rejoice in all good done by practitioners.

• To request buddhas to turn the Dharma wheel.

• To request buddhas who will pass to nirvāṇa to remain in this world.

• To dedicate all good accumulated to awakening.

• May all lands be filled with Buddhas.

• To always practice pure conduct and teach the Dharma.

• To traverse the world free from evil, acting for beings’ welfare.

• To always be in communion with those who share the practice.

• To always see buddhas face-to-face.

• To always illumine the Dharma and practice of good.

• To become an inexhaustible treasury of means and wisdom.

• To see buddhas throughout all directions in all atoms.

• To understand all buddhas’ teachings in a single utterance.

• To enter all teachings by the buddhas’ power.

• To see all buddhas in one instant.

• To produce arrays of all lands in one instant.

• To visit all guides in nirvāṇa by occult power.

• To fulfil all power and destroy afflictions through knowledge, practice, universal love, goodness, and knowledge.

• To practice untiringly for oceans of aeons.

• To practice what is good, and name those who practice this conduct good.

• To be equal to the sage named Good.

• To be equal to Mañjuśrī.

• To have unlimited practice, virtues, and knowledge.

• To have this vow remain as long as earth, beings, acts, and afflictions exist.

• That those who hear this will be blessed.

• That they have great gain if they follow this practice.

• That evils of hell be extinguished by this practice, and those in it may also attain buddhahood and overcome Māra.

• That one should have no doubt that buddhas know those who hold this vow.

• That Mañjuśrī and Samantabhadra know, and all buddhas praise, the dedication of this virtue.

• That in time all obstructions be removed, one sees Amitābha Buddha and goes to his land of bliss (Sukhāvatī), and there fulfil all vows and work for the weal of all beings.

• To abide in the circle of that buddha and receive the prophesy of awakening from Amitābha Buddha and thereafter work for beings’ welfare.

• That whatever virtue is accumulated may fulfil the pure aspiration of the world.

• That all beings may also be born in that realm of infinite light.

11. Then, the Buddha, who was in their presence, said that everyone present (Sudhana, Mañjuśrī and the monks taught by him, Maitreya, all the bodhisattvas headed by Samantabhadra, Śāriputra, Maudgalyayana and their disciples) all were elated and applauded what Samantabhadra had said.

[1] Samantabhadra touching Sudhana’s head “illustrates the eternal buddhahood of the real universe and its eternal practice of Samantabhadra; only upon reaching and according with these do you realise the buddhas are already awakened and Samantabhadra is already in action. It also illustrates how the fulfilment of practice is not apart from cause—time does not shift, knowledge does not alter.”

[2] By attaining equality to the buddhas’ qualities and attainments, “This means that the aftermath of the fruition of buddhahood is ultimately not apart from the subtle principle of awakening, the diamond mine of knowledge, in the first attitude of faith, yet it activates the cosmic network of perpetual practice.”

“With each step in the buddha-fields in the pores of Samantabhadra, Sudhana crossed untold worlds, but even traveling thus throughout the aeons of the future one could not know the limits of the order of succession of oceans of lands in a single pore of the matrices of oceans of lands, of the differences in oceans of lands, of the interpenetration of oceans of lands, or of the formation and disintegration of oceans of lands; one could not know the limits of the oceans of buddhas or the oceans of congregations of bodhisattvas. This is because such is the reality of the vast realm of infinite practice of Samantabhadra.”

The perfect equality of Sudhana to Samantabhadra and all buddhas “illustrates how the ocean of infinite practices is carried out by all buddhas of all times and places. This is the ultimate awakening in which there are no more ideas of attaining buddhahood or not attaining buddhahood.” (1626–1627)