Akshayamatinirdesha [english]

65,220 words

The English translation of the Akshayamatinirdesha: an ancient Mahayana Sutra devoted to the Bodhisattva Akshayamati, recognized as one of the sixteen bodhisattvas of the Bhadrakalpa (fortunate aeon). The text expounds the practices and ethics of the Bodhisatva way of life. Original titles: Akṣayamatinirdeśa (अक्षयमतिनिर्देश), Akṣayamatinirdeśasūt...

32nd Imperishable, Accumulation of Merit

[Sanskrit text for this chapter is available]


What then is the bodhisattvas’ imperishable accumulation of merit?

The item of meritorious action consisting in generosity; the item of meritorious action consisting in morality and [the item of meritorious action consisting in] meditational self-cultivation; the state of concentration on friendly thoughts; the practice of great compassion; undertaking all good; confessing one’s own sins and making others do the same; the item of meritorious action caused by joy in the merit accumulated in the three times by all those to be trained and those who have completed their training, the isolated buddhas and the bodhisattvas who have produced the thought of awakening for the first time, those never to turn back and those hindered by only one birth; the item of meritorious action caused by joy in the production of the thought of awakening in all those to be trained and those who have completed their training, the isolated buddhas and the bodhisattvas who have produced the thought of awakening for the first time, those never to turn back and those hindered by only one birth; the item of meritorious action caused by joy in all the roots of good of all the Awakened Lords in the past, future and present; the item of meritorious action caused by prayers for the gift of religion, prayers for prolonging the life of all Buddhas [so that they will not enter extinction (nirvāṇa), but turn the wheel of religion], all bodhisattvas, all holy persons, both those to be trained and those who have completed their training; the item of meritorious action caused by the transformation into awakening of the roots of good accumulated through that joy, those requests and prayers concerned with all the roots of the good; (p. 120) making beings who have not done so produce the thought of awakening; teaching the way of the perfections to those who have produced the thought of awakening; providing food for the poor; giving medicine and treatment to the sick without fraud [but giving help from one’s innermost being (majjāgatasahakārin) ]; showing tolerance to the weak; not concealing one’s own mistakes [admitting it to others when one has broken rules in the moral code]; confessing sins; paying honour to and serving the Awakened Lords, both those staying in the world and those extinguished; love for teachers and preceptors as for the Teacher [helping you out of existence (saṃsāra) ]; exertion in seeking religious teachings as if they were an invaluable gem; love for preachers of religion as for the Buddhas; never having enough of the hearing of true religion even after having gone a hundred yojanas; (p. 121) no secrecy of teachers concerning religion; giving the gift of religion without a view to profit; love for religion like love for a great, invaluable gem; honouring one’s father and mother; gratitude [by returning any good service rendered]; thankfulness [by acknowledging and not forgetting a service rendered]; no regret after having acted [thinking it is a mistake after returning a favour]; never having enough of piling up merit; no hypocrisy with a basis in the body [claiming to have qualities one does not have] through having constrained the body with vows; no hypocrisy with a basis in speech through having constrained speech with vows; no hypocrisy with a basis in mind through having constrained the mind with vows; attaining merit like Brahmā [and thus getting born in his heaven after death, attaining merit to attain extinction (nirvāṇa) ] by erecting shrines dedicated to the Tathāgatas; fulfilling the characteristics of a great man through endless offerings; fulfilling the marks of beauty by piling up the accumulation of various roots of good; adorning the body with the absence of conceit [because of being great or because of being small, etc.]; adorning speech with the elimination of the imperfections of speech; adorning thought with the absence of violent thought towards any being; turning into an adornment of the buddha-field because of miracles through supernormal knowledge; turning into an adornment of religion through a state of no cupidity; turning into an adornment of the congregation through the absence of slanderous, harsh or wicked speech; becoming the acceptance of religion through having no envy for what is taught; [the merit that stems from the utterances of] giving compliments, rejoicing because of the unfailing teaching of religion; getting rid of the [five] hindrances through understanding the well-spoken words [of the Tathāgatas]; listening to religious teachings after honouring them since they are the religious teachings that lead one out of the world; turning into an adornment of the tree of awakening by giving groves for religious practice to the Awakened Lords; turning into an adornment of the place of awakening since all the roots of good of the Awakened Lords go before it; purity of death and birth by not being made impure by any action or vice; attaining [the wheel of power of a universal monarch adorned with the seven kinds of] riches in the hand by giving with no regard for wealth or what is dear to oneself; imperishable pleasure [in lives to come] through giving from imperishable treasures [in this life]; being loved instantly by all beings through having a smiling and unfrowning face; attaining the adornment of sameness by emitting rays of light similarly on all beings [that is, having intentions of friendliness (maitrī) and compassion (karuṇā) similarly towards all]; emitting the splendour of light by not despising the untrained; purity of birth by accumulating the merit of morality; purity of womb [being born spontaneously (upapāduka) ] by not blaming sins [but curing one’s own and others’ sins according to religion]; birth among gods and men by purification through the ten ways of good actions; unfailing courage because of the absence of thought-constructions concerning the teaching; power over all moments of existence by no teachers’ secrecy concerning any moment of existence; power over all the world by true intentions; purity of one’s own buddhafield by purifying beings; purity of determination through relying on the maturation of actions [knowing that any good and bad that arise come from the maturation of one’s own action, so that one has pure determination in showing friendliness (maitrī) and no ill-will towards others]; confidence in the exalted religion of the Buddhas through having no wish for limited practices [like those of the disciples and isolated buddhas which are practised only for the sake of oneself]; embracing all merit through never giving up the thought of omniscience; fulfilment of the seven riches through being impelled by faith; embracing the religion of the Buddhas through having no regard for body or life; not breaking one’s word in any world by fulfilling one’s earlier promises [that is, one’s thought of awakening intending to liberate all beings to complete awakening]; fulfilling the teachings of a Buddha by fulfilling all the good moments of existence. Thus he accumulates the causes by which all the qualities of the Buddhas are fulfilled. This, in short, reverend Śāradvatīputra, is what is known as the bodhisattvas’ imperishable accumulation of merit, which would take a world-age or more to expound in full.

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