(A translation of the essential meaning of Shinran Shonin’s interpretation of this gatha from the Larger Pure Land Sutra)<\/em><\/p>\n From the beginningless beginning Our ancestor, Dharmakara Bodhisattva, At his first encounter Again seeking out his great teacher “You, like whom I wish to become, When compared to your never-failing light Your shinny countenance, That sublime, most rare compassion How inconceivable that this last stage, In your samadhi, In you Abhijna, the wisdom of a Buddha Indeed, you are Bhagavat! The impact of your enlightenment, like lightning I, Dharmakara, yearn to experience the samadhi Sila-Restraint practiced with This I shall carry out through my practice. To all who are in need of help and guidance, In every land, 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 …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":30,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-447","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bschawaii.org\/shindharmanet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bschawaii.org\/shindharmanet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bschawaii.org\/shindharmanet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bschawaii.org\/shindharmanet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bschawaii.org\/shindharmanet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bschawaii.org\/shindharmanet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/447\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bschawaii.org\/shindharmanet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nOf time itself, Dharma\u00a0\u2013 the true reality of suchness \u2013
\nHas constantly been evolving
\nIn its infinite way.<\/p>\n
\nHe who is the treasure house of Dharma,
\nTook this name
\nUpon realizing his true identity
\nAfter having heard from Lokesvararaja Buddha
\nThe teachings that pierce all illusions.<\/p>\n
\nWith the wisdom and reality
\nThat is our fundamental nature
\nAnd the nature of all that exists,
\nDharmakara Bodhisattva experienced such happiness,
\nSuch joy,
\nThat he abandoned his former way of life and thought.
\nWith his whole body,
\nHis total being,
\nAll energy, complete determination \u2013
\nHe concentrated on the ultimate state
\nOf becoming a Buddha,
\nOne fully awakened to the truth
\nOf the reality that is the same
\nThroughout the universe.<\/p>\n
\nLokesvararaja Buddha,
\nThe Buddha who is always
\nEmancipating the world,
\nDharmakara first respectfully bowed,
\nPlaced his forehead on the Buddha’s feet
\nAnd then,
\nRising to walk around the Buddha three times
\nWhile he gazed in awe from all directions
\nAt this Buddha whom he wished to become,
\nFeeling the Buddha’s inconceivable power,
\nDharmakara put his palms together in gassho
\nAnd sang in praise.<\/p>\n
\nHave a countenance radiant with a light
\nOf utter sincerity, a light of boundless wisdom
\nWhich shines on all beings
\nTransforming vices into virtues!
\nYour light is the light of compassion,
\nThe ever-burning light-source
\nOf peace and happiness,
\nPenetrating me with its warmth.<\/p>\n
\nThat of the most precious jewels,
\nThat of the fiercest flames,
\nThat of the sun and brightest stars
\nAre like tie black holes of the universe.<\/p>\n
\nYour most excellent features,
\nYour color\u00a0\u2013 which embraces all colors \u2013
\nAre beyond compare.
\nYour voice, emerging from the depths
\nOf your boundless compassion,
\nResounds like a lion’s roar throughout the universe
\nProclaiming that Buddha-ness
\nIs my true self,
\nThe true self of each and every being everywhere!<\/p>\n
\nArising from the wisdom-flow
\nOf your ceaseless activity in perfecting
\nMindfulness and awareness:
\nYour ceaseless activity in perfecting patience,
\nStrength,
\nAnd reflection;
\nTake you beyond this world of birth-and-death
\nTo the stage of joy and bliss
\nAt having become the dharma.<\/p>\n
\nThe fulfillment of Buddha-hood,
\nYou, a perfected Buddha, made the choice \u2013
\nOut of Great Compassion \u2013
\nTo return to this world as a bodhisattva
\nWhose dedication and yearning
\nIs to awaken and free each and every one of us.<\/p>\n
\nSo deep, so total and yet so subtle,
\nHaving become one
\nWith the dharma-ocean of all the Buddhas,
\nYou fathomed its fathomless depths,
\nYou measured its inmeasurability,
\nYou perceived its most profound truths.<\/p>\n
\nHas for all time replaced the darkness of ignorance.
\nIn you, Mahakaruna, the compassion of a Buddha,
\nHas for all time replaced the darkness of lust.
\nIn you, through selflessness, Maha-atman, the Great Self of a Buddha
\nHas for all time replaced the darkness
\nOf Self-centeredness.<\/p>\n
\nThe Tathagata!
\nThe world-honored one whose cosmic virtues,
\nWhose profound and subtle wisdom radiates
\nThroughout the immeasurable reaches
\nOf all the galaxies,
\nTouching the inconceivable depths of all that exists.<\/p>\n
\nStriking throughout the universe,
\nWith neither exception nor distinction transforms
\nAll that exists in every world with Bodhi,
\nThe innate nature of Buddha-ness,
\nThe potential to realize what is true and real.<\/p>\n
\nWhich you are experiencing.
\nIn it, I shall open the gate of the six perfections,
\nThe gate which includes all dharmas”
\nDana-Awareness,
\nAnd the resolve to open this awareness to all:<\/p>\n
\nKsanti, patience,
\nVirya, strongest effort,
\nDhyana, contemplation that opens the eye of samadhi
\nTo Prajna, the wisdom that frees and emancipates,
\nThe wisdom of things-as-they-are.
\nEndlessly, without ceasing,
\nI shall yearn to attain
\nAnuttara samyak sambodhi \u2013
\nThe unparalleled Great Awakening
\nThat transforms the universe
\nWith immeasurable light and life.<\/p>\n
\nI will endure whatever must be endured
\nTo attain this for everyone everywhere.<\/p>\n
\nFor all who are lost and confused,
\nHopelessly wandering in these worlds of illusion,
\nI vow
\nThey will become enabled to restore their confidence,
\nTo awaken to their true identity,
\nTheir great and total Buddha-ness,
\nTheir oneness
\nWith the Dharma that includes all dharmas,
\nTheir oneness with me.<\/p>\n
\nOfferings to gods and buddhas are assumed
\nTo insure the highest benefit to a devotee,
\nBut I now establish this superior way
\nOf becoming a Buddha,
\nWhich I shall follow firmly and forthrightly,
\nThough it is the most difficult of all difficulties.
\nIt is a way which cannot be rivaled
\nEven by making offerings to gods and Buddhas
\nMore numerous than the sand grains
\nIn the River Ganges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"