菩薩從兜術天降神母胎說廣普經 5.52

5.52

"Just like a farmer cultivating a field, / Who selects rich, fertile soil,
Sows the seeds without missing the season, / And irrigates them at proper times;
Nurturing the sprouts to completion, / Free from frost, insects, and locust plagues,
He ultimately reaps the harvest, / Storing it away without sorrow or fear.
The true Dharma of the bodhisattva / Is the field of the boundless six perfections;
Eliminating the mind of stinginess and greed, / He irrigates it with the water of ambrosia.
The path of skillful means / Clearly understands the methods of departure and approach,
Guiding all classes of sentient beings / To reach the place of unceasing [peace].
Birth, old age, sickness, and defilements / Burn the good roots of the mind;
Skillful means protects them, / Fully understanding the methods of departure and approach.
When a person wishes to leave the household life, / The prohibitive precepts are foremost;
Without clinging to ornamental dharmas, / Practicing the skillful bodhisattva path,
He does not spare his body to the end of his life, / Never violating [a precept] by a hair's breadth.
The body is like grass, dirt, and dung, / Handled and cut as people please;
Patience is like Mount Meru, / Firm and indestructible.
Through the expedient path of guarding the precepts, / Praise and blame neither add nor detract;
Emerging from darkness into a place of light / Is the bodhisattva's path of skillful means.
He manifests his body among human beings, / Because of his compassion for all;
Or he manifests a subtle, minute form, / Moving in and out without hindrance.
Sitting at the site of awakening, the Buddhas / Extinguish the fetters so they arise no more;
Those who arrive at the site of awakening / Have exhausted the fetters forever without remainder.
It is also like a great caravan leader / Who leads merchants and others
Into the ocean to gather rare treasures: / Coral, amber beads,
Bright-moon pearls, and wish-fulfilling gems, / Returning peacefully to their native country.
Parents, brothers, / Relatives, slaves, and servants
Are joyful, pleased, and happy in mind, / Just as entering meditative absorption removes conceptions.
The bodhisattvas who practice skillful means / Search for the inexhaustible treasury;
Distinguishing the wondrous rare treasures, / They use them themselves to adorn their bodies.
The leader skilled in means / Takes the six perfections as his wife and children;
The mind of the four immeasurables shelters them, / And worldly defilements do not cling to his mind.
In the world there are many foolish people / Who guard their stinginess and do not give;
Accumulating hundreds of millions in wealth, / They claim, 'This is mine!'
When their lifespans are near the end, / Their eyes behold evil ghosts and spirits;
The knife-winds sever their forms, / And there is no longer breathing in or out.
The greedy consciousness follows evil deeds / And undergoes extremely bitter retribution;
Led to the place of punishment, / Remorse comes too late.
The Buddha uses skillful wisdom to deliver them, / Approaching them to preach the Dharma;
Those of sharp faculties examine their own misdeeds, / And their repentant hearts do not conceal them;
Hearing the Dharma, they gain deliverance: / Such is the bodhisattva's path of skillful means.
Like a person blind from birth, / Who does not recognize black or yellow colors;
He encounters a sagely, skilled physician, / Who treats him with the medicine of the Dharma;
He formerly heard that there are five colors— / Blue, yellow, red, white, and black—
Yet once he gains the clear consciousness of the eye, / He does not distinguish blue, yellow, or red.
The bodhisattva's path of skillful means / Makes distinctions reaching the ultimate;
Sweeping away the states of the eight difficulties, / It neither arises nor ceases."