The Poetic Sonnet by the Bodhisattva Samantabhadra

The 62 stanzas Summarizing the Inconceivable Benefits of the Practice of the Ten Great Vows

When the Ten Great Vows are expounded, the Bodhisattva Samantabhadra summed up this teaching with poetic sonnet to encourage all beings to embrace these great vows into daily practice and be mindful of the Buddha. Any being who vow and seriously embrace them will be reborn in the Sukhavati, the Pure Land of Amitabha Buddha.

Mindfulness of the Buddha

Here goes the poetic sonnet excerpted from the sutra:

O Noble-minded Man, whosoever of the multitude has awakened faith on hearing this Great King of Vows, observes, reads, recites, and widely preaches it to others, the merits produced thereby, none but the Buddhas can estimate. Therefore, you should allow no doubts to cloud your minds on hearing this King of Vows, but carefully accept, read, recite, and put the teaching into actual practice, and publish it to others.

Such people will attain the fulfillment of this vow by a single thought, and their accumulation of bliss, acquired therefrom, is boundless. It can deliver all beings from the great ocean of pain and sorrow, and ensure their re-birth in the Western Paradise of Buddha Amitabha.

Thereupon, the Bodhisattva Mahasattva Samantabhadra in confirmation of this Truth, turning around to the ten directions, uttered the following stanzas:

1. Before the Lions among Men, throughout the worlds of the ten directions, ​
   In the past, in the present, and also in the future, with body, speech, and mind entirely pure, I bow before them all, omitting none.
2. With the awesome spiritual power of Samantabhadra’s vows, I appear at the same time before every Tathagatas,
   And in transformed bodies as numerous as motes of dust in all lands,​bow to the Buddhas as numerous as motes of dust in all lands.
3. In every mote of dust are Buddhas as numerous as mote of dust, each dwelling amid a host of Bodhisattvas.
   Throughout the motes of dust, in endless dharma Realm it is the same: I deeply believe they all are filled with Buddhas.
4. With oceans of sound I everywhere let fall words and phrases, wonderful and endless,
   ​Which now and through all the aeons of the future, praise the wide, deep sea of Buddhas’ merits and virtues.
5. Flower garlands, supreme and wonderful, music, perfumes, parasols, and canopies,
   And other decorations rich and rare, I offer up to every Tathagatas.
6. Fine clothing, superior incense, powdered and burning incense, lamps and candles,
   Each one heaped as high as Mount Sumeru, I offer completely to all the Tathagatas.
7. With a vast great supremely, liberated mind, I believe in all the Buddhas of the three periods of time;
   With the strength of Samantabhadra’s conduct and vows, I make offerings to all the Tathagatas everywhere.
8. For all the evil deeds I have done in the past, Created by my body, mouth, and mind,
   From beginningless greed, anger, and delusion, I now know shame and repent them all.
9. I rejoice in the merits and virtues of all beings in the ten directions,
   From the most humble to the Arhats, Pratyeka-Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and all the Tathagatas.
10. Before the Lamps of the Worlds of the ten directions, who have just accomplished Supreme Bodhi,
    I now request and beseech them all to turn the foremost, wondrous Dharma wheel.
11. If there are Buddhas who wish for Nirvana, I request with deep sincerity that they dwell in the world for a long time to bring benefits and bliss to every being.
12. I worship those with blessings, praise them and make offerings; I request that the Buddhas remain in the world and turn the Dharma wheel;
    The good roots gained from following and rejoicing, in the merit and virtue and from repentance and reform, I transfer to living beings and the Buddha Way.
13. I study with the Buddhas and practice the perfect conduct of Samantabhadra;
    I make offerings to all the Tathagatas of the past, and to all present Buddhas throughout the ten directions.
14. All future Teachers of Gods and Men whose aspirations and vows have been completed. I will follow in study throughout the three periods of time and quickly attain Great Bodhi.
15. In all lands of the ten directions, vast, great, pure, and wonderfully adorned,
    All the Tathagatas sit beneath regal Bodhi trees, while assemblies circumambulate them.
16. I vow that every being in all directions will be peaceful, happy, and without worry,
    May they obtain the proper Dharma’s profound aid, and may all their sufferings be wiped away, without exception.
17. While striving to attain Bodhi, I will gain the knowledge of past lives in all destinies.
    I will always leave the home-life and cultivate pure precept without outflows, never broken, and without stain.
18. Be they devas, nagas, yakshas, or kumbhandas, Humans, non-humans, and the rest,
    ​In the many languages of all such living beings, with every sound I will speak the Dharma.
19. I will cultivate the pure paramitas with vigor, and never abandon the Bodhi Mind.
    I will banish all obstructions and defilements, and fulfill all wondrous practices.
20. From all delusions, karma, and demon-states, amid all worldly paths, I will be freed,
    As the lotus does not touch the water, as the sun and moon do not stop in space.
21. Ending the sufferings of the paths of evil, and to everyone equally bringing joy,
    May I for aeons like the motes of dust in all lands, ever benefit all in the ten directions.
22. Always in accord with living beings, cultivating through all future aeons,
    The vast conduct of Samantabhadra, the unsurpassed Great Bodhi will I perfect.
23. May all who cultivate with me, assemble with me in one place,
    Our karmas of body, mouth, and mind the same, as we cultivate and study all practices and vows.
24. With all advisors good and wise who aid me by explaining Samantabhadra’s deeds,
    I vow always to congregate together: may they never be displeased with me.
25. I vow always to meet the Tathagatas face to face and the hosts of disciples who gather around them.
    ​I will raise offerings, which are vast and great, untiring to the end of future aeons.
26. I will hold high the subtly wondrous Buddha-dharma and illuminate all the practices of Bodhi;
    I will be ultimately pure in Samantabhadra’s way, practicing until the end of time.
27. Inexhaustible blessings and wisdom, I cultivate throughout all worlds;
    By concentration, wisdom, skillful means, and liberation, I will gain an endless store of merits and virtues.
28. In one mote of dust are lands as numerous as motes of dust; in each land are incalculable numbers of Buddhas.
    In every place where the Buddhas dwell I see the host assembled, endlessly proclaiming all the practices of Bodhi.
29. In ten directions everywhere, throughout the sea of lands, every hair-tip encompasses oceans of past, present, and future.
    So, too, there is a sea of Buddhas, a sea of Buddha lands; pervading them all I cultivate for seas of endless time.
30. The speech of all Tathagatas is pure; each word contains an ocean of sounds.
    According with what beings like to hear, the Buddhas’ sea of eloquence flows forth.
31. All the Tathagatas of the three periods of time, forever turn the wonderful Dharma wheel, with these inexhaustible seas of words and languages. I understand all with my deep wisdom.
32. I can penetrate the future and exhaust all aeons in a single thought.
    In a single thought I completely enter all aeons of the three periods of time.
33. In one thought I see all Lions of Men of the past, present, and future;
    I constantly fathom the Buddhas’ states, their magical liberations and their awesome strength.
34. On the tip of an extremely fine hair, appear jeweled lands of past, present, and future;
    Lands on hair-tips as numerous as dust-motes, in all lands of the ten directions, I deeply enter, adorn, and purify.
35. All Lamps of the Future that light the world, complete the way, turn the Dharma wheel, and rescue living beings,
    As they perfect the Buddhas’ work and manifest Nirvana, I draw near and attend to each one and obtain.
36. The spiritual power to go everywhere swiftly; the power to enter the Mahayana universally through the Universal Door;
    The power of wisdom and conduct to cultivate merits and Virtues universally; the subtle spiritual power to shield all with Great Compassion.
37. The power to purify and adorn (all) with supreme blessings everywhere; the power of wisdom which is unattached and independent;
    The awesome spiritual powers and the powers of concentration, wisdom, and skill-in-means; the power of universally accumulating Bodhi.
38. The power of good karma which purifies all things; the power to eradicate all afflictions;
    The power to subdue all demons; the power to perfect Samantabhadra’s conduct.
39. The sea of lands I everywhere adorn and purify, and I liberate all living beings, without exception.
    With skill I make selections from among the sea of Dharmas and enter deeply into the wisdom sea.
40. I cultivate the ocean of practices to purify, perfect and complete a sea of vows.
    ​I draw near to a sea of Buddhas and make offerings, and cultivate without fatigue for a sea of time.
41. To all the Tathagatas of the three periods of time, with Bodhi, conduct, and vows most supreme,
    I completely offer up my perfect cultivation; with Samantabhadra’s practices, I awaken to Bodhi.
42. Each Tatagata has an elder disciple named Samantabhadra, Honoured One.
    I now transfer all good roots, and I vow to perform deeds of wisdom identical to His.
43. I vow that my body, mouth, and mind will be forever pure and that all practices and lands will be also.
    I vow in every way to be identical to the wisdom of Samantabhadra.
44. I will wholly purify Samantabhadra’s conduct, and the great vows of Manjusri as well.
    All their deeds I will fulfill, leaving nothing undone, till the end of the future I will never tire.
45. Infinite and measureless in my cultivation; boundless merit and virtue I obtain.
    Amid limitless practices I will dwell in peace, and penetrate the strength of spiritual powers.
46. Manjusri has wisdom, courage and bravery; Samantabhadra’s conduct and wisdom are the same.
    I now transfer all good roots, in order to follow them in practice and in study.
47. In the three periods of time, all Buddhas praise such vows as these, lofty and great.
    I now transfer all good roots wishing to perfect the supreme practices of Samantabhadra.
48. I vow that when my life approaches its end, all obstructions will be swept away;
    I will see Amitabha Buddha and be born in His Land of Ultimate Bliss and Peace.
49. When reborn in the Western Paradise, I will perfect and completely fulfill,
    ​without exception, these Great Vows, to delight and benefit all beings.
50. The Assembly of Amitabha Buddha is completely pure; when from a matchless lotus I am born,
    I will behold the Tathagata’s Measureless Light as He appears before me to bestow a prediction of Buddhahood.
51. Receiving a prediction from the Tathagata, I will take countless appearances and forms,
    And with wisdom power vast and great, pervade ten directions to benefit all the realms of living beings.
52. Realms of worlds in empty space might reach an end, and living beings, karma and afflictions be extinguished;
    ​But they will never be exhausted, and neither will my vows.
53. With myriad jewels in boundless lands in all directions, I will make decorations and offerings to the Tathagatas.
    For aeons as numerous as the motes of dust in all lands, I bring the foremost peace and joy to gods and humans.
54. Yet, if anyone believes in these Great Vows, as they pass by the ear but a single time,
    And in search of Bodhi thirstily craves these vows, the merits and virtues gained will surpass these offering.
55. With bad advisors forever left behind, from paths of evil he departs for eternity,
    Soon to see the Buddha of Limitless Light and perfect Samantabhadra’s Supreme Vows.
56. Easily obtaining the blessing of long life, assured of a noble rebirth in the human realm,
    Before long he will perfect and complete the practices of Samantabhadra.
57. In the past, owing to a lack of wisdom power, the five offences of extreme evil he has committed;
    In one thought they can all be wiped away by reciting the Great Vows of Samantabhadra.
58. His clan, race, and color, marks and characteristics with his wisdom are all perfected and complete;
    Demons and externalisms will have no way to harm him, and he will be a field of merits in the Three Realms.
59. To the regal Bodhi tree he will quickly go, and seated there subdue hordes of demons.
    Supremely and perfectly enlightened, he will turn the Dharma wheel to benefit the host of living beings.
60. If anyone can read, recite, receive, and hold high Samantabhadra’s Vows and proclaim them,
    His reward only the Buddhas will know, and he will obtain Bodhi’s highest path.
61. If anyone recites Samantabhadra’s Vows, I will speak of a portion of his good roots:
    ​In one single thought he can fulfill the pure vows of sentient beings.
62. The supreme and endless blessing from Samantabhadra’s conduct, I now universally transfer.
    May every living being, drowning and adrift, soon return to the Land of Limitless Light.

Bodhisattva Samantabhadra encourages all beings to accept, read, recite, and put this teaching into actual daily practice, and also circulate this teaching to many more who’d like to liberate themselves from cycles of pain and sufferings, and to seek rebirth in the Land of Ultimate Bliss.

Resources:

The Practices & Vows of Bodhisattva Samantabhadra, Chapter 40, Avatamsaka Sutra

Amitabha Mindful Chanting Music Collection