Sanbutsuge: Dharmakara’s Song of Praise to His Teacher,
Lokesvararaja Buddha …

by Rev. Shoji Matsumoto and Ruth Tabrah Honolulu, 1984

(A translation of the essential meaning of Shinran Shonin’s interpretation of this gatha from the Larger Pure Land Sutra)

From the beginningless beginning
Of time itself, Dharma – the true reality of suchness –
Has constantly been evolving
In its infinite way.

Our ancestor, Dharmakara Bodhisattva,
He who is the treasure house of Dharma,
Took this name
Upon realizing his true identity
After having heard from Lokesvararaja Buddha
The teachings that pierce all illusions.

At his first encounter
With the wisdom and reality
That is our fundamental nature
And the nature of all that exists,
Dharmakara Bodhisattva experienced such happiness,
Such joy,
That he abandoned his former way of life and thought.
With his whole body,
His total being,
All energy, complete determination –
He concentrated on the ultimate state
Of becoming a Buddha,
One fully awakened to the truth
Of the reality that is the same
Throughout the universe.

Again seeking out his great teacher
Lokesvararaja Buddha,
The Buddha who is always
Emancipating the world,
Dharmakara first respectfully bowed,
Placed his forehead on the Buddha’s feet
And then,
Rising to walk around the Buddha three times
While he gazed in awe from all directions
At this Buddha whom he wished to become,
Feeling the Buddha’s inconceivable power,
Dharmakara put his palms together in gassho
And sang in praise.

“You, like whom I wish to become,
Have a countenance radiant with a light
Of utter sincerity, a light of boundless wisdom
Which shines on all beings
Transforming vices into virtues!
Your light is the light of compassion,
The ever-burning light-source
Of peace and happiness,
Penetrating me with its warmth.

When compared to your never-failing light
That of the most precious jewels,
That of the fiercest flames,
That of the sun and brightest stars
Are like tie black holes of the universe.

Your shinny countenance,
Your most excellent features,
Your color – which embraces all colors –
Are beyond compare.
Your voice, emerging from the depths
Of your boundless compassion,
Resounds like a lion’s roar throughout the universe
Proclaiming that Buddha-ness
Is my true self,
The true self of each and every being everywhere!

That sublime, most rare compassion
Arising from the wisdom-flow
Of your ceaseless activity in perfecting
Mindfulness and awareness:
Your ceaseless activity in perfecting patience,
Strength,
And reflection;
Take you beyond this world of birth-and-death
To the stage of joy and bliss
At having become the dharma.

How inconceivable that this last stage,
The fulfillment of Buddha-hood,
You, a perfected Buddha, made the choice –
Out of Great Compassion –
To return to this world as a bodhisattva
Whose dedication and yearning
Is to awaken and free each and every one of us.

In your samadhi,
So deep, so total and yet so subtle,
Having become one
With the dharma-ocean of all the Buddhas,
You fathomed its fathomless depths,
You measured its inmeasurability,
You perceived its most profound truths.

In you Abhijna, the wisdom of a Buddha
Has for all time replaced the darkness of ignorance.
In you, Mahakaruna, the compassion of a Buddha,
Has for all time replaced the darkness of lust.
In you, through selflessness, Maha-atman, the Great Self of a Buddha
Has for all time replaced the darkness
Of Self-centeredness.

Indeed, you are Bhagavat!
The Tathagata!
The world-honored one whose cosmic virtues,
Whose profound and subtle wisdom radiates
Throughout the immeasurable reaches
Of all the galaxies,
Touching the inconceivable depths of all that exists.

The impact of your enlightenment, like lightning
Striking throughout the universe,
With neither exception nor distinction transforms
All that exists in every world with Bodhi,
The innate nature of Buddha-ness,
The potential to realize what is true and real.

I, Dharmakara, yearn to experience the samadhi
Which you are experiencing.
In it, I shall open the gate of the six perfections,
The gate which includes all dharmas”
Dana-Awareness,
And the resolve to open this awareness to all:

Sila-Restraint practiced with
Ksanti, patience,
Virya, strongest effort,
Dhyana, contemplation that opens the eye of samadhi
To Prajna, the wisdom that frees and emancipates,
The wisdom of things-as-they-are.
Endlessly, without ceasing,
I shall yearn to attain
Anuttara samyak sambodhi –
The unparalleled Great Awakening
That transforms the universe
With immeasurable light and life.

This I shall carry out through my practice.
I will endure whatever must be endured
To attain this for everyone everywhere.

To all who are in need of help and guidance,
For all who are lost and confused,
Hopelessly wandering in these worlds of illusion,
I vow
They will become enabled to restore their confidence,
To awaken to their true identity,
Their great and total Buddha-ness,
Their oneness
With the Dharma that includes all dharmas,
Their oneness with me.

In every land,
Offerings to gods and buddhas are assumed
To insure the highest benefit to a devotee,
But I now establish this superior way
Of becoming a Buddha,
Which I shall follow firmly and forthrightly,
Though it is the most difficult of all difficulties.
It is a way which cannot be rivaled
Even by making offerings to gods and Buddhas
More numerous than the sand grains
In the River Ganges.