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The Extraordinary Aspiration
Of the
Practice of Samantabhadra
(The King of Prayers)
In Sanskrit: samantabhadracarya
pranidhana
In Tibetan: 'phags-pa bzang-po spyod-pa'i smon-lam-gyi
rgyal-po
I bow down to the youthful Arya
Manjushri.
You lions among humans,
Gone to freedom in
the present, past and future
In the worlds of ten
directions,
To all of you, with body, speech and sincere mind I
bow down.
With the energy of aspiration for the
bodhisattva way,
With a sense of deep respect,
And with as
many bodies as atoms of the world,
To all you Buddhas visualized
as real, I bow down.
On every atom are Buddhas numberless as
atoms,
Each amidst a host of bodhisattvas,
And I am confident
the sphere of all phenomena
Is entirely filled with Buddhas in
this way.
With infinite oceans of praise for you,
And
oceans of sound from the aspects of my voice,
I sing the
breathtaking excellence of Buddhas,
And celebrate all of you Gone
to Bliss.
Beautiful flowers and regal garlands,
Sweet
music, scented oils and parasols,
Sparkling lights and sublime
incense,
I offer to you Victorious Ones.
Fine dress and fragrant perfumes,
Sandalwood
powder heaped high as Mount Meru,
All wondrous offerings in
spectacular array,
I offer to you Victorious Ones.
With transcendent offerings peerless and
vast,
With profound admiration for all the Buddhas,
With
strength of conviction in the bodhisattva way,
I offer and bow
down to all Victorious Ones.
Every harmful action I have done
With my
body, speech and mind
Overwhelmed by attachment, anger and
confusion,
All these I openly lay bare before you.
I lift up my heart and rejoice in all positive
potential
Of the Buddhas and bodhisattvas in ten directions,
Of solitary realizers, hearers still training and those beyond,
And of all ordinary beings.
You who are the bright lights of worlds in ten
directions,
Who have attained a Buddha's omniscience through the
stages of awakening,
All you who are my guides,
Please turn
the supreme wheel of Dharma.
With palms together I earnestly request:
You
who may actualize parinirvana,
Please stay with us for eons
numberless as atoms of the world,
For the happiness and
well-being of all wanderers in samsara.
Whatever slight positive potential I may have
created,
By paying homage, offering, and acknowledging my
faults,
Rejoicing, and requesting that the Buddhas stay and
teach,
I now dedicate all this for full awakening.
May you Buddhas now living in the worlds of ten
directions,
And all you gone to freedom in the past, accept my
offerings.
May those not yet arisen quickly perfect their
minds,
Awakening as fully enlightened ones.
May all worlds in ten directions,
Be entirely
pure and vast.
May they be filled with bodhisattvas
Surrounding Buddhas gathered beneath a bodhi tree.
May as many beings as exist in ten
directions
Be always well and happy.
May all samsaric beings
live in accord with the Dharma,
And may their every Dharma wish
be fulfilled.
Remembering my past lives in all varieties of
existence,
May I practice the bodhisattva way,
And thus, in
each cycle of death, migration and birth,
May I always abandon
the householder's life.
Then, following in the footsteps of all the
Buddhas,
And perfecting the practice of a bodhisattva,
May I
always act without error or compromise,
With ethical discipline
faultless and pure.
May I teach the Dharma in the language of
gods,
In every language of spirits and nagas,
Of humans and of
demons,
And in the voice of every form of being.
May I be gentle-minded, cultivating the
six paramitas,
And never forget bodhicitta.
May I completely
cleanse without omission
Every negativity and all that obscures
this awakening mind.
May I traverse all my lives in the
world,
Free of karma, afflictions and interfering forces,
Just
as the lotus blossom is undisturbed by the water's wave,
Just as
the sun and moon move unhindered through the sky.
May I ease the suffering in the lower
realms
And in the many directions and dimensions of the
universe.
May I guide all wanderers in samsara to the pure bliss
of awakening
And be of worldly benefit to them as
well.
May I practice constantly for eons to
come,
Perfecting the activities of awakening,
Acting in
harmony with the various dispositions of beings,
Showing the ways
of a bodhisattva.
May I always have the friendship
Of those
whose path is like mine,
And with body, words and also
mind,
May we practice together the same aspirations and
activities.
May I always meet a spiritual mentor
And
never displease that excellent friend,
Who deeply wishes to help
me
And expertly teaches the bodhisattva way.
May I always directly see the
Buddhas,
Masters encircled by bodhisattvas,
And without pause
or discouragement for eons to come,
May I make extensive
offerings to them.
May I hold within me the Buddha's genuine
Dharma,
Illuminate everywhere the teachings that awaken,
Embody the realizations of a bodhisattva,
And practice
ardently in all future eons.
While circling through all states of existence,
May I become an endless treasure of good qualities -
Skillful
means, wisdom, samadhi and liberating stabilizations-
Gathering
limitless pristine wisdom and positive potential.
On one atom I shall see
Buddha fields
numberless as atoms,
Inconceivable Buddhas among bodhisattvas in
every field,
Practicing the activities of awakening.
Perceiving this in all directions,
I dive
into an ocean of Buddha fields,
Each an ocean of three times
Buddhas in the space of a wisp of hair.
So I, too, will practice
for an ocean of eons.
Thus I am continually immersed in the speech of
the Buddhas,
Expression that reveals an ocean of qualities in
one word,
The completely pure eloquence of all the
Buddhas,
Communication suited to the varied tendencies of
beings.
With strength of understanding I plunge
Into
the infinite enlightened speech of the Dharma
Of all Buddhas in
three times gone to freedom,
Who continually turn the wheel of
Dharma methods.
I shall experience in one moment
Such vast
activity of all future eons,
And I will enter into all eons of
the three times,
In but a fraction of a second.
In one instant I shall see all those awakened
beings,
Past, present and future lions among humans,
And with
the power of the illusion-like stabilization
I will constantly
engage in their inconceivable activity.
I shall manifest upon one single atom
The
array of pure lands present, past and future.
Likewise, I shall
enter the array of pure Buddha fields
In every direction without
exception.
I shall enter the very presence of all my
guides,
Those lights of this world who are yet to
appear,
Those sequentially turning the wheels of complete
awakening,
Those who reveal nirvana - final, perfect peace.
May I achieve the power of swift, magical
emanation,
The power to lead to the great vehicle through every
approach,
The power of always beneficial activity,
The power
of love pervading all realms,
The power of all surpassing
positive potential,
The power of supreme knowledge unobstructed
by discrimination,
And through the powers of wisdom, skillful
means and samadhi,
May I achieve the perfect power of
awakening.
Purifying the power of all contaminated
actions,
Crushing the power of disturbing emotions at their
root,
Defusing the power of interfering forces,
I shall
perfect the power of the bodhisattva practice.
May I purify an ocean of worlds,
May I free
an ocean of beings,
May I clearly see an ocean of Dharma,
May
I realize an ocean of pristine wisdom.
May I purify an ocean of activities,
May I
fulfill an ocean of aspirations,
May I make offerings to an ocean
of Buddhas,
May I practice without discouragement for an ocean of
eons.
To awaken fully through this bodhisattva
way,
I shall fulfill without exception
All the diverse
aspirations of the awakening practice
Of all Buddhas gone to
freedom in the three times everywhere.
In order to practice exactly as the wise
one
Called Samantabhadra, 'All Embracing Good',
The elder
brother of the sons and daughters of the Buddhas,
I completely
dedicate all this goodness.
Likewise may I dedicate
Just as the skillful
Samantabhadra,
With pure body, speech and mind,
Pure actions
and pure Buddha fields.
I shall give rise to the aspirations of
Manjushri
For this bodhisattva practice of all embracing
good,
To perfect these practices
Without discouragement or
pause in all future eons.
May my pure activities be endless,
My good
qualities boundless,
And through abiding in immeasurable
activity,
May I actualize infinite emanations.
Limitless is the end of space,
Likewise,
limitless are living beings,
Thus, limitless are karma and
afflictions.
May my aspiration's reach be limitless as well.
One may offer to the Buddhas
All wealth and
adornments of infinite worlds in ten directions,
And one may
offer during eons numberless as atoms of the world
Even the
greatest happiness of gods and humans;
But whoever hears this extraordinary aspiration,
And longing for highest awakening
Gives rise to faith just
once,
Creates far more precious positive potential.
Those who make this heartfelt aspiration for the
bodhisattva way
Will be free of all lower rebirths,
Free of
harmful companions,
And will quickly see Amitabha, Infinite
Light.
And even in this very human life,
They will
be nourished by happiness and have all conducive
circumstances.
Without waiting long,
They will become like
Samantabhadra himself.
Those who give voice to this extraordinary
aspiration
Will quickly and completely purify
The five
boundless harmful actions
Created under the power of
ignorance.
Blessed with supreme knowledge,
Excellent
body, family, attributes, and appearance,
They will be invincible
to vast interfering forces and misleading teachers,
And all the
three worlds will make offerings.
Going quickly to the noble bodhi tree,
And
sitting there to benefit sentient beings,
Subduing all
interfering forces,
They will fully awaken and turn the great
wheel of Dharma
Have no doubt that complete awakening
Is the
fully ripened result - comprehended only by a Buddha -
Of
holding in mind by teaching, reading or reciting
This aspiration
of the bodhisattva practice.
In order to train just like
The hero
Manjushri who knows reality as it is
And just like Samantabhadra
as well,
I completely dedicate all this goodness, just as they
did.
With that dedication which is praised as
greatest
By all the Buddhas gone to freedom in the three
times,
I, too, dedicate all my roots of goodness
For the
attainments of the bodhisattva practice.
When the moment of my death arrives,
By
eliminating all obscurations
And directly perceiving
Amitabha,
May I go immediately to Sukhavati, Pure Land of Great
Joy.
Having gone to Sukhavati,
May I actualize the
meaning of these aspirations,
Fulfilling them all without
exception,
For the benefit of beings for as long as this world
endures.
Born from an extremely beautiful, superlative
lotus
In this joyful land, the Buddha's magnificent
mandala,
May I receive a prediction of my awakening
Directly
from the Buddha Amitabha.
Having received a prediction there,
May I
create vast benefit
For beings throughout the ten
directions,
With a billion emanations by the power of wisdom.
Through even the small virtue I have
accumulated
By offering this prayer of the bodhisattva
practice,
May all the positive aspirations of beings
Be
fulfilled in an instant.
Through creating limitless positive
potential
By dedicating this prayer of Samantabhadra's
deeds,
May all beings drowning in this torrent of
suffering,
Enter the presence of Amitabha.
Through this king of aspirations, which is the
greatest of the sublime,
Helping infinite wanderers in
samsara,
Through the accomplishment of this scripture dazzling
with Samantabhadra's practice,
May suffering realms be utterly
emptied of all beings.
Thus, The Extraordinary Aspiration
of the Practice of Samantabhadra, also known as The King of
Prayers,
from the Gandavyuha chapter of the Avatamsaka sutra
(translated by Jinamitra, Surendrabodhi and Yeshes-sde circa
900c.e.), is complete.
The Tibetan was compared with the
Sanskrit and revised by lotsawa Vairocana.
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