Chapter XXX

The Perfection of Vigour (Continued)

The Bodhisattva who intends to wander about in birth-and-death for [a] long [time],
A Yogin devoted to the purification of the [Buddha-] field for the welfare of beings,
And who does not produce the least thought of fatigue,
He is endowed with the perfection of vigour, and undaunted.

If the unwise Bodhisattva counts the kotis of aeons,
And has the notion that it is long until the full attainment of enlightenment, he is bound to suffer,
And for a long time he will be suffering while moving unto Dharma.
Therefore he is inferior in the perfection of vigour, and essentially indolent.

Beginning with the production of the first thought of the foremost enlightenment,
Until in the end he reaches the unsurpassed Bliss,
If night and day he would persevere single-mindedly,
The wise and learned should be known as one who has put forth vigour.

If someone would say, 'On condition that you have shattered Mount Sumeru,
You will be one who will attain to the foremost enlightenment,'
And if he [then] effects a thought of fatigue or limitation [to his efforts],
Then that Bodhisattva is affected by indolence.

But when there arises to him the mindful thought, 'That is nothing difficult.
In a mere moment Sumeru [will] break up into dust,'
Then the wise Bodhisattva becomes one who puts forth vigour.
Before long he will attain the foremost enlightenment of the Leaders.

If he would exert himself with body, thought and speech, [thinking]
'Having matured [it] I will work the weal of the world,'
Then, established in the notion of a self, he is affected by indolence.
He is as far distant from the meditational development of not-self as the sky is from the ground.

When one has no notion of either body, or thought, or a being,
Standing rid of perception, coursing in the non-dual Dharma,
That has been called by Him who bestows benefits the perfection of vigour
Of those who desire the blissful, imperishable, foremost enlightenment.

The Perfection of Patience

When he hears someone else speaking to him harshly and offensively
The wise Bodhisattva remains quite at ease and contented.
[He thinks: I 'Who speaks? Who hears? How, to whom, by whom?'
The discerning is [then] devoted to the foremost perfection of patience.

If a Bodhisattva, devoted to the precious Dharma, remains patient, -
And if someone else would give the trichiliocosm filled with precious things
To the Buddhas, Knowers of the world, and to the Arhats and Pratyekabuddhas, -
Infinitesimal only will be [by comparison] the merit from that heap of gifts.

The personality of one who is established in patience is completely purified,
Exalted by the thirty-two marks, [it becomes] boundless.
He preaches the best empty Dharma to beings.
Dear to the entire world do the patient and discerning become.

If someone had taken a basket containing sandalwood power,
And, with respect and affection, strewed it over the Bodhisattva;
And if a second one were to throw live coals over his head, -
He should produce a mind equal to both of them.

Having thus been patient, the wise and learned Bodhisattva
Dedicates that production of thought to the foremost enlightenment.
The hero who remains patient in all the worlds, surpasses
Whatever Arhats and Pratyekabuddhas there may be in the world of beings.

Again, one who is patient should produce a thought [thus]
'In the hells, in the world of animals and in the Yama world there are many ills.
With the sense-pleasures as cause one must experience much that causes displeasure.
Better, for the sake of enlightenment, to be patient today!'

'Whip, stick, sword, murder, imprisonment, and blows,
Decapitation, and amputation of ears, hands and feet, and of nose,
As many ills as there are in the world, [all] that I [will] endure,'
[When he thinks thus, then] the Bodhisattva stands in the perfection of patience.