Engaging in Bodhisattva Behavior
(sPyod-'jug, Bodhisattvacharyavatara)
by Shantideva
Translated from the Tibetan, as clarified by the Sanskrit by Alexander Berzin, 2004
2. Openly Admitting Previous Negative Acts
(1) To gain hold of that precious mind,
I offer sincerely to you, the Thusly Gone (Buddhas),
To the stainless Rare Gem of the hallowed Dharma,
And to you, the offspring of the Buddhas, with oceans of good qualities:
(2) Whatever flowers and fruits there are
And whatever manners of medicine there are,
Whatever jewels there are in this world
And whatever pure pleasing waters there are,
(3) Mountains of precious minerals and likewise
Forests and secluded delightful places,
Trees adorned and bedecked with blossoms,
And trees whose branches are laden with all sorts of excellent fruit;
(4) And from the realms of divine beings and others, fragrances,
Incense, wish-granting trees, jewel shrubs,
An assortment of wild-growing crops,
And ornamentals as well, fit to be offered,
(5) Lakes and pools adorned with lotus
And with swans possessing a bewitching cry,
Everything that's without an owner
To the far reaches of the infinite sphere of space --
(6) Taking them to mind, I offer them fully
To you, the Sages, Foremost of Beings,
together with your s'piritual offspring.
Hallowed objects for offerings, having great compassion,
Think kindly of me and accept these (tokens) of mine.
(7) Lacking in positive karmic force, I'm extremely impoverished
And have nothing else that is precious to offer.
Therefore, Guardians whose thoughts are for the welfare of others,
Accept them by the power of your concern for my sake.
(8) All my bodies I offer for eternity
To you, the Triumphant and to your s'piritual offspring.
Supreme Beings, please fully accept me.
Respectfully, I shall serve as your attendant.
(9) Completely under your care and thus unafraid
Of compulsive existence, I shall benefit limited beings.
I shall perfectly transcend my previous negative karmic force
And henceforth, never commit further negative acts.
(10) To bathing chambers, exquisitely sweet scented,
With crystal floors, transparent and polished to a shine,
Having beautiful pillars, glowing with gems,
And crowned with canopies, radiant with pearls,
(11) I invite you, Thusly Gone (Buddhas) and your s'piritual offspring,
And shower your bodies, over and again, from many jeweled vases
Filled to the brim with scented water and delightful things,
To the accompaniment of song and music.
(12) I (now) dry your bodies with incomparable cloths,
Clean and well-anointed with scent,
And then present you hallowed beings
With most fragrant robes correctly dyed to color.
(13) I adorn with excellent garments, fine and smooth,
And with hundreds of the choicest pieces of jewelry, this and that,
You, the Aryas Samantabhadra, Manjushri,
Lokeshvara and all the rest.
(14) With the best colognes whose fragrant vapors
Rise to all the myriad worlds, I anoint the bodies
Of all you Kings of the Sages, who shine with light,
Like sluiced, refined, and polished gold.
(15) To you, the Kings of the Sages, foremost objects for offerings,
I present lovely flowers, such as mandarava, lotus, and water lily,
With sweet fragrance, each of them (loose) and also
Delicately strung together and exquisite in garlands.
(16) I offer you, as well, masses of clouds from the burning of
The choicest incense, stealing the mind,
whose fragrant aroma pervades (everywhere).
I offer you also a celestial feast
With a wide array of dishes, delicacies, and nectars to drink.
(17) I offer you lamps of precious metals as well,
Arranged in rows on lotuses of gold.
On swept ground, sprinkled with scented water,
I scatter beautiful flower petals
(18) And offer to you, with a nature of compassion,
Immeasurable palaces, enchanting with arias of praise,
Draped with dangling ornaments of pearls and gems,
beautiful and sparkling,
Beyond fathom, becoming an adornment of space.
(19) Eternally, I offer to you Kings of the Sages
Stunning jeweled parasols with golden handles,
Their rims adorned with exquisite types of decoration,
With an elegant shape, erect and gorgeous to behold.
(20) And, in addition to this, may clouds bursting with the music
Of a symphony of offering (instruments)
And beautiful celestial musicians each take their place,
Alleviating the suffering of limited beings.
(21) May they shower, without interruption,
A rain of jewels, flowers, and so forth
On all you Rare Supreme Gems of the hallowed Dharma,
And on your stupa monuments and Buddha images.
(22) Just as Manjushri and others
Have made offerings to you, the Triumphant,
So do I, too, make offerings to you, my Thusly Gone Guardians,
And to your s'piritual offspring.
(23) I offer praises to you Oceans of Good Qualities,
With melodious eulogies and a sea of tongues.
May clouds of harmonies of melodious
Eulogies to you amass with certainty all around.
(24) I prostrate to all you Buddhas who have graced the three times,
To the Dharma and to you, the Highest Assembly,
Bowing down with bodies as numerous
As all the atoms of the world.
(25) I prostrate to you bases for the bodhichitta aim
And to your stupa monuments.
I prostrate to you abbots and likewise to you (ordaining) masters,
And to you supreme (upholders of) tamed behavior.
(26) Till I reach the heart of a purified state,
I take safe direction from you Buddhas.
Likewise, I take safe direction from the Dharma
And from you, the Assembly of bodhisattvas.
(27) With palms pressed together, I beseech
You Buddhas and bodhisattvas
Residing in every direction,
Possessing great compassion:
(28) Throughout my beginningless samsaric existence,
In this and other lives,
I've unwittingly committed negative acts
Or caused others to commit (them), and further,
(29) Op'pressed by the confusion of naivety,
I've rejoiced (in them) -- whatever I've done,
I see them as mistakes and openly admit (them)
To you, my Guardians, from the depths of my heart.
(30) Whatever harmful actions of body, speech and mind
I've committed out of disturbing emotion
Toward you Three Supreme Gems, my fathers, my mothers,
My s'piritual mentors or others,
(31) And whatever extremely unbearable base actions I've done --
I, who am full of negative force
That gives rise to faults through many wrong actions --
I openly admit all of them to you S'piritual Leaders.
(32) But, I may be snatched from my life
Before cleansing myself of my negative forces of karma.
Just as (then I may fall to a horrible reb'irth),
I beseech you for safe direction
To free myself definitely from that, with the swiftest of means.
(33) Whether or not I've done (purification),
Since this Lord of Death, who can't be trusted, never will wait,
Everyone, whether sick or not, (dies) all of a sudden.
My life can't be trusted.
(34) Leaving all behind, I'll depart.
But not having realized this,
I've committed all sorts of negative acts
For the sake of my friends and my foes.
(35) My foes will vanish;
My friends also will vanish;
I too shall vanish;
Likewise, all will vanish.
(36) Just like the experiences in a dream,
Anything I enjoy
Will become an object of memory;
Everything that's passed, I won't see (again).
(37) Even within this brief lifetime itself,
Many friends and foes have passed.
But whatever unbearable (fruits) there are
From the negative acts I've committed for their sake (still) lie ahead.
(38) Through not having realized
That, all of a sudden, I (can die) like this,
I've committed negative acts of so many sorts
Out of naivety, desire, and anger.
(39) Day and night, without a stop,
This life is always getting shorter --
No extension ever comes from the side;
Why should someone like me not die?
(40) While lying in bed,
Even if I'm surrounded by all my relatives and friends,
I alone shall experience
The feelings of my life being severed.
(41) When seized by the messengers of the Lord of Death,
What help are relatives? What help are friends?
Only my positive karmic force will provide me a safe direction then,
But I've never relied on just that.
(42) O Guardians! Not (really) caring, I didn't know
(There'd be) such ter'ror as this,
And so, for the sake of this impermanent life,
I've caused so much negative karmic force to build up.
(43) If someone even just being led to where
His limbs will be lopped off today is so terrified that,
With dry mouth, sunken eyes, and worse,
He appears transfigured from before,
(44) What need to mention the tremendous torment
When grabbed by the macabre physical forms
Of the sinister messengers of the Lord of Death
And fallen into a fit of great panic.
(45) "Who can show me a safe and sound direction
Out of this monstrous horror?"
Staring with terrified, bulging eyes
I'll search the four quarters for anyone (who can show me)
safe direction out.
(46) (And then,) seeing no one in the four quarters
who can give safe direction,
I'll become filled with total despair from that.
If no one having safe direction is there in that place,
What can I do at that time?
(47) Therefore, from this very day, I take safe direction
From you, the Triumphant, you Guardians of those who wander,
Who strove to become safe directions for wandering beings
And who can remove all my fears with your stupendous forces.
(48) Likewise, I purely take safe direction
From the Dharma you've realized,
Which abolishes the fears of recurring samsara,
And also from you, the Assembly of bodhisattvas.
(49) Totally panicked with anguish,
To you, Samantabhadra, I offer myself;
And, of my own accord, I make to you,
Manjughosha, an offering of my body.
(50) To you as well, Guardian Avaloki-teshvara,
Who are undeceiving in acting with compassion,
I cry out for help in a wail of torment:
"Pray, give safe direction to me who has
(such) a negative karmic force!"
(51) From Akashagarbha, Kshitigarbha,
And all you Guardians with great compassion,
I seek safe direction and, from my heart,
Cry out for help.
(52) I take safe direction from you, the One with a Vajra:
Upon your sight, all malevolent beings,
Such as the messengers of the Lord of Death,
Flee in panic to the four quarters (of the world).
(53) Previously, I've transgressed your advice,
But seeing now these horribly frightening things,
I take safe direction from you, and by this,
May I purge myself quickly of these fearful things.
(54) If even when scared by a common illness,
I have to act in accord with a doctor's advice,
What need to mention when perpetually afflicted
By diseases, like desire, (that produce) hundreds of injuries.
(55) If just one of these can bring all the people
Living in this Southern Continent to ruin,
And if no other medicine to cure them
Is to be found in any direction,
(56) Then the urge not to act in accord with the advice
Of the Omniscient Physicians concerning that,
Which can remove every painful disease,
Is something to be rebuked as extremely naive.
(57) If I need to be careful
At a small and ordinary cliff,
What need to mention at the cliff over which I can fall
For thousands of leagues for a long duration (in the joyless realms).
(58) It's incorrect (for me) to sit at ease,
Thinking, "I won't die just today,"
For without a doubt that time will come
When I shall be no more.
(59) Who can give me a state of no fear?
How can I be freed with certainty from this?
If I shall doubtlessly vanish,
How can I sit with my mind at ease?
(60) What I've experienced in the past has disappeared,
And because of my clinging
To whatever extra I have beyond that,
I've been acting contrary to my mentors' advice.
(61) Having abandoned this lifetime
And likewise my relatives and friends,
If alone I must wander in an uncertain direction,
What use with all of my friends and foes?
(62) "From destructive actions comes (nothing but) suffering;
How can I be liberated definitely from that?"
It's proper for me to think, day and night,
Constantly only about that.
(63) Out of naivety or (simply) not knowing,
Whatever I've done that fits into being
Either naturally disgraceful
Or a negative act proscribed (by you Buddhas),
(64) I openly admit all of them
Directly before the eyes of you Guardians,
Prostrating over and again, with palms pressed together
And a mind dreading suffering.
(65) S'piritual Leaders, in (light of my) taking my negative acts
As having been misdeeds, I beseech you:
Since this was not wholesome,
I shall never do them again.
<< Prev Table of Contents Next >>