Author: Erick Tsiknopoulos

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Chapter 28: The Praise to All Tathāgatas

Then the Bodhisattva Ruciraketu rose from his seat, placed his upper robe over one shoulder, planted his right knee on the ground, bowed toward the Bhagavān with folded palms; and thereupon praised the Bhagavān deeply with these verses:

Lord of Sages, you are adorned by hundreds of meritorious characteristics,
And thousands of glorious beautiful qualities.
Of exquisite appearance, you manifest supreme peace;
And your light is like a thousand suns, streaming forth in all directions.

Blazing with brilliant beams of light,

You are pervaded by light,
And replete with a variety of colors like a gemstone;
With blue, white, gleaming gold, blue sapphire, copper, and dawn-crystal colored light.

You pulverize Sumeru, the Vajra King of Mountains,
Illuminate many billions of realms,
Soothe intense sufferings hard to bear;
And satisfy sentient beings with supreme bliss.

Your physical appearance and intellectual capacities are radiant; and beautiful to observe.
One never tires of seeing your form; and all beings who behold it are filled with joy.
Your hair is as utterly lovely, as the colors of the peacock;
Like light aswarm with bees.

You are adorned with the qualities of authentically pure great compassion,
And have established transcendent love, meditative concentration, and positive potential.
Endowed with a variety of excellent attributes and colors,
Adorned with the qualities of profound concentration, and the factors of Awakening;
It is you who perfectly satisfies and brings aid to one and all.

Bringer of joy, you who manifest as the source of all joy,
Adorned with a multitude of profound qualities,
Gloriously manifesting in billions of realms;
Like bright firelight are you beautiful, with your gleaming rays of light.

In this way, you are like the full solar orb in the sky,
Imbued with all good qualities, like Sumeru,
And bringing perfect joy to all worlds,

Throughout the universe.

Like the curd of a cow, a white water lily, and the moon,
Your garland of teeth, brilliant white like the color of snow,
Beautifies your mouth,
Just like Hamsarāja, the king of geese, soaring through the airs.

Your serene face is like the waxing moon,
With your clockwise-curling urna as transcendent symbol of perfect mastery;
White radiance streams from your body, like sapphire:
You are beautiful like the sun in the center of the sky.”

FROM THE SOVEREIGN KING OF SŪTRA TEACHINGS, THE TRANSCENDENT GOLDEN LIGHT, THIS WAS THE TWENTY-EIGHTH CHAPTER: ‘THE PRAISE TO ALL TATHĀGATAS’. 

You can find the text at The Sūtra of Golden Light: The 29 Chapter Version, Chapter 28 – The Praise to All Tathāgatas

Chapter 27: The Praise Made by All the Bodhisattvas

Then those many hundreds of thousands of Bodhisattvas went to where the Tathāgata Suvarṇaratnakaracchatrakuta was; and having gone there, they bowed their heads at the feet of the Tathāgata Suvarṇaratnakaracchatrakuta, and sat down to one side.

Then, having sat down to one side, those many hundreds of thousands of Bodhisattvas folded their palms, and deeply praised the Tathāgata Suvarṇaratnakaracchatrakuta with these verses:

“The supreme body of the Conqueror resembles refined gold;
An exalted form totally imbued with the color of gold.
A golden hue like the golden king of mountains:
The White Lotus Sage is endowed with the color of gold.

With the major marks of excellence, your body is fully adorned;
With the various excellent minor marks, your body is embellished.
Your beauty, like golden light, blazing brightly:
You are utterly without blemish, serene as the king of mountains.

With the voice and pleasing tones of Brahmā, the melody of Brahmā;
The lion’s roar, and thunder, melody of the dragon’s resounding call.
Your sixty-fold melody is a pristine sound:
With the song of victory, the songs of the peacock and cuckoo.

Totally without stain, spotless, lovely with brilliant light;
Conqueror, you are adorned by the marks of a hundred positive potentials.
Your ocean of transcendent knowledge flawless and unmarred:
Conqueror, like Sumeru you are endowed with all good qualities.

With unexcelled loving compassion that benefits sentient beings;
The supreme bestower of bliss in the universe throughout all world-systems.
Conqueror, revealing the transcendent meanings:
You are the excellent one who leads into the bliss of Nirvāṇa.

Granting the joy of deathlessness,
Revealing completely the deathless ambrosial Dharma of the Jinas,
Guiding to the city of the deathless;
You are the source of all bliss, the abode of bliss.

Conqueror, you liberate wandering beings from suffering,
You free living beings from the ocean of suffering,
You perfectly guide living beings to the path of peace;
You grant living beings all happiness.

No one can equal you,
The guide of all that exists, ocean of virtue and deep wisdom,
Your great compassion for all beings laden with life;
The power of your love, your expertise and resolve.

Even in many thousands of billions of eons,
There are none, including the gods, among all beings,
Who can fully describe even a single drop of the virtue:
From the ocean of your deep wisdom and good qualities.

Showing a single drop of your good qualities,
We have briefly expounded a mere fraction of them in this way;
Through whatever positive potential we have thus gathered,
May all sentient beings reach Supreme Awakening.”

FROM THE SOVEREIGN KING OF SŪTRA TEACHINGS, THE TRANSCENDENT GOLDEN LIGHT, THIS WAS THE TWENTY-SEVENTH CHAPTER: ‘THE PRAISE BY ALL BODHISATTVAS’.

You can find the text at The Sūtra of Golden Light: The 29 Chapter Version, Chapter 27 – The Praise Made by All the Bodhisattvas

Chapter 21: Excellent Manifestation
(legs par byung ba’i le’u)

(Volume Nine)

Then, at that moment, the Bhagavān gave teaching in these verses:

Whenever I became a world-turning king,
At those times I offered the earth with its oceans,
And even its four continents, filled with precious things,
To all Jinas of the past.

In all-encompassing search for the Dharmakāya,
There were no things, not previously dear and treasured,
Which I did not give away;
During numerous eons, I even gave away my treasured body.

Once I did this, inconceivably many eons in the past.

During the Teaching Dispensation of the Sugata Jeweled Crest;
After that Sugata had passed into Nirvāṇa,
There arose a king called Excellent Manifestation.

He was a world-turning king ruling with mastery over the four continents,
Reigning mightily with a reach as far as the oceans,
Therefore he was said to be a sovereign king:
And once, in his royal palace, that transcendent king fell asleep.

In his dream, he heard the qualities of the Buddha,
And dreamt of the Dharma teacher Jewel Abundance.
He saw him, distinctly lucid;
As he sat and expounded this King of Sūtra Teachings.

The king awoke from his sleep,
His whole body filled with joy.
Ecstatic, he excitedly came out of the royal quarters;
And went to the dwelling of the supreme Saṅgha of disciples.

There he made offerings to the disciples of the Jina,
Saying, “In this noble Saṅgha, is there one ‘Jewel Abundance’,
A monk imbued with good qualities?”;
He asked everywhere after the Dharma teacher called “Jewel Abundance”.

At that time, Jewel Abundance
Was staying in another hermitage,
Contemplating in detail this King of Sūtra Teachings;
While reciting it, and living in total happiness.

The monk Dharma teacher, Jewel Abundance,
Was powerfully blazing with brilliance, majesty and glory;
And as he sat there in that other hermitage,
At that time, he was shown to the king.

There the Dharma teacher Jewel Abundance,
Upheld the profound sphere of royal activity,
For he always taught what is known as Transcendent Golden Light:
The Sovereign King of Sūtra Teachings.

Bowing down to the feet of Jewel Abundance,
King Excellent Manifestation spoke these words:

“Transcendent Golden Light, the Sovereign King of Sūtra Teachings,
O one with a face like the full moon, I request you to explain.”
And thus, to King Excellent Manifestation himself;
Jewel Abundance agreed to teach.

When this occurred, in all the three thousand worlds,
All the gods became intensely joyous.
At that time, the ruler of humans, there upon that earthen ground,
Which was clean, eminently special and unusual,
Sprinkled gem water and incense water;
Spread down loose flowers, and set up a throne.

Then the king exquisitely adorned the throne with parasols and victory banners,
And thousands of tassels.
The king also thoroughly sprinkled upon that throne transcendent sandalwoods;
In all sorts of varieties.

Devas and nāgas, asuras and centaurs,
Yakṣas and great serpents too,
Brought down a rain of divine coral tree flowers;
Upon that throne, powerfully and expansively.

Those who had arrived, a thousand million billion gods wishing for the Dharma,
Beyond the reaches of thought,
As Jewel Abundance was appearing to leave;
Strewed sāl flowers with joy.

The Dharma teacher Jewel Abundance himself,
Washed thoroughly his body and dressed in clean clothes,
And proceeded to go close to that throne;
Pressed his palms together, and bowed down to it as well.

The god kings, gods and goddesses sat in the sky above,
And brought down a rain of coral tree flowers,
And hundreds of thousands of cymbals, beyond the reaches of thought;
Which resounded with power.

Then Jewel Abundance, the monk Dharma teacher,
Being mindful of the thousand million Buddhas in the ten directions,
Beyond the reaches of thought, ascended the throne with concentration;

And sat upon it.

He generated heartfelt love for all sentient beings,
And then also generated, authentically, the mind of compassion;
And then, to the king Excellent Manifestation,
At that time taught this Sūtra.

And as the king sat with joined palms,
He rejoiced in every single word.
Through the force of the Dharma, tears shed from his eyes;
And his body was filled with joy.

In order to venerate this Sūtra,
At that time, King Excellent Manifestation,
Picked up the Wish-Fulfilling Gem, the king of jewels;
And for the sake of sentient beings, made this prayer:

“May a rain of ornaments, endowed with the seven precious materials,
And precious jewels,

Which bring well-being to the sentient beings in this world,
Descend upon this Earth.”

At that time, the seven kinds of precious materials,
Armlets, necklaces and superb earrings,
And likewise food, clothing and drink also showered down,
Over the four continents comprehensively.

King Excellent Manifestation beheld this cascade of precious things,
Raining down upon the world,
And offered the gem-filled four continents;
For the Teachings of Jeweled Crest.

The Tathāgata Śākyamuni
Was the one known as King Excellent Manifestation.
It was I who, at that time, completely gave away the earth;
With its four continents, filled with precious things therein.

The one who to King Excellent Manifestation
At that time extensively taught this Sūtra,
Jewel Abundance, the Dharma teacher monk,
Became the Tathāgata Akṣobhya.

At the time I heard this Sūtra,
And rejoiced in every single word.
I, due to that very virtuous deed itself:
Listening to the Dharma and rejoicing,

Have permanently gained this body of golden hue and marks of hundredfold merits,
Lovely to behold and deeply beautiful to the eye,
Which gives strong delight to thousands of millions of gods;
And is joyful for living beings to behold.

During ninety-nine hundreds of thousands of millions of eons,
I became a world-turning king.
During many myriads of hundreds of thousands of eons,
I had the experience of being a regional king.

For eons beyond conception I was an Indra;
And likewise a lord Brahmā, the wish-fulfiller.
I have rendered service to that which never has limit:
The unfathomable Tenfold Power.

From my listening to and rejoicing in this Sūtra,
The mass of positive potential was thus most limitless;
For in accordance with my wish, I have attained Awakening:
And the transcendent Dharmakāya have I gained.

FROM THE SOVEREIGN KING OF SŪTRA TEACHINGS, THE TRANSCENDENT GOLDEN LIGHT, THIS WAS THE TWENTY-FIRST CHAPTER: ‘EXCELLENT MANIFESTATION’.

You can find the text at The Sūtra of Golden Light: The 29 Chapter Version, Chapter 21 – Excellent Manifestation