Whose
outstanding deeds give endless glory to beings
Whose mere remembrance banishes
the terror of the Lord of Death
Who considers every living being as his child
with constant love
I salute Amitayus, Boundless Life, the Teacher of Gods
and Humans!
Out of love, I will articulate as best I can
This prayer
for rebirth in the Sukhavati heaven
Supreme realm highly, excellently praised
Numerous times by the Lord of Sages.
The state of good and evil obscured
by the fog of nescience,
Life of ascendance deprived by the weapon of hatred,
Bound in the prison of samsara by chains of lust and craving,
Swept
into the ocean of existence by the rivers of evolution,
Tossed by the many
billows of miseries of sickness and decay,
Crushed by the burdens of unwanted
sufferings,
Mangled in the jaws of the intolerable sharks of the Lord of
Death,
This is my cry of torment, I who am unprotected.
If I reverently
invoke the Lord as witness to my prayer,
Amitabha, Boundless Light, Leader,
sole friend of the destitude,
And the Bodhisattvas, Avalokiteshvara
And Mahasthamaprapta, with their retinues,
Who have never failed the promise
of their conception of
the supreme spirit,
For our sakes, throughout
limitless aeons,
Like the king of birds swooping through the sky,
May
they come here by their love and their miraculous power!
Depending on the
power of the combined focusing of the oceans of
the two stores gathered by
myself and others in past, present, and
future, as I approach the time of
death, may I behold directly the
Leader Amitabha surrounded by His retinue
such as the two powerful
Sons, and may I feel intense faith directedto the
Victor with His
retinue!
May I be free of sufferings of torment and
being cut off, and may I
remember without forgetting my faith and its objects,
and so at the
moment after death, relying on the miraculous advent of the
eight
Bodhisattvas to show me the proper path to go to Sukhavati, may I
be reborn on a jeweled lotus in the Sukhavati universe just as a
person with
acute faculties in the Mahayana genealogy!
From the moment of rebirth there,
may I attain retentions, samadhis,
the unconditional spirit of enlightenment,
the inexhaustible eloquence,
and the limitless store of such excellences,
and, pleasing the Unexcelled
Teacher Amitabha and the other Buddhas and Bodhisattvas
of the ten directions,
may I truly be favored with the Holy Teachings of
the Mahayana!
May I understand their import correctly, and then in each instant
going without hindrance by magic power to the superlative Buddha
universes,
may I completely fulfill all the energetic deeds of the Bodhisattvas!
Then even though being born in a pure universe, still, motivated by
the most
intense love, may I mainly proceed to the impure universes
by means of unhindered
magical powers, and depending on teaching
each living being the Dharma according
to his special lot, may I be
able to establish him on the pure path praised
by the Victor!
And by quickly accomplishing those miraculous deeds, may I
easily attain the exaltation of Buddhahood for the sake of the infinite beings!
When the creative energy of life is released,
May I behold clearly before
my eyes,
Amitabha surrounded by His oceanic hosts,
And may my being
be filled with faith and compassion!
From the moment when the visions of
the Bardo arise,
May the eight Bodhisattvas show the unerring path,
And, being born in Sukhavati, thence by emanations,
May I lead all beings
of the impure worlds!
And in all lives before attaining such supreme exaltation,
may I
attain only that embodiment fit to practice the perfect learning,
thinking,
and meditating on the verbal and realizational Teachings of the
Victor!
May such embodiments not lack the ornaments of the seven excellences
of ascendant status!
And in all those situations, may I attain the memory
of lives that remembers accurately all former lives!
And in all those lives,
may I experience the hollowness in all
existences and be motivated by thoughts
captivated by the excellence
of liberation, and may I renounce the world
in the religious
discipline well taught by the Lord!
Having renounced,
may I discover the great spirit of enlightenment
by ultimately accomplishing
the deeds of morality,
untainted by even the smallest transgressions,
and may I become like an unshakable monk!
Further, in all those lives, understanding
the processes of defilement
and purification accurately, may I attain the
perfect retentions which
retain without forgetting all the words and meanimgs
of the Teachings,
the factors of perfection!
May I attain the unimpeded
pure eloquence that teaches others what
I have understood myself! Further,
in all those lives may I never
lack attainment of the doors of samadhis such
as the "Hero's March",
the eyes such as the physical eye, and the
superknowledges such as
the knowledge of feats of magic!
May I attain
the clear wisdom that can distinguish without confusion
precisely the subtlest
of the subtle facets of defilement and purification!
May I quickly attain
the wisdom that can completely cease at the
moment of arisal all non-understanding,
misunderstanding, and
doubting considerations!
May I attain the profound
wisdom that mysteriously penetrates the
words and meanings of the Scriptures
whose measure cannot be taken
by any other!
In short, may I become like
the Holy Manjughosha who consummates
all the deeds of the Bodhisattvas through
his wisdom of skill in
liberative technique which discerns the words and
meanings of the
teachings, a wisdom free of all the faults of pretended wisdom!
Thus having easily found the deep, swift, clear, and great wisdom,
may
I attain transcendent skill in explanation, argument and
composition concerning
all the Victor's teachings, which are,
respectively, the factors of sustaining
the fortunate, chastizing
the false philosophers, and gladdening the wise!
Further, in all lives stopping all attitudes that behold my own purposes
most important and all feelings of laziness and discouragement about the
energetic deeds of the Bodhisattvas, while reaching the ultimate of the
supreme powerful heart that undertakes the purposes of others, may I
become
like the Holy Avalokiteshvara, who consummates all Bodhisattva
deeds through
the spirit of enlightenment which is skill in liberative
technique!
Further, may I reach the ultimate in the deeds of the Bodhisattva by
competent
skill in liberative technique in conquering all demons,
fundamentalists,
and antagonists, while I am engaged in the purposes
of myself and others,
becoming like the Holy Lord of the Esoteric,
Vajrapani!
In all my lives,
may I find the great enlightenment through the massive
effort that never
deviates an instant from the moment of the spiritual
conception to perfect
the Bodhisattva deeds whose energy abandons all
laziness, and may I become
like the incomparable King of the Shakyas!
May I become in all my lives like
the Buddha Medicine-King, Bhaishajya
Guru, able to heal all pains of body,
speech, and mind, just by having
His name pronounced, by conquering all ills
of mind and body that
obstruct the achievement of enlightenment!
May
I become in all my lives like the Victor Amitayus able to overcome
all untimely
deaths just by having His name pronounced, having reached
the ultimate in
voluntary control of the lifespan!
When an obstacle to life is approaching,
may I behold my refuge
Amitayus' manifestation of the vision of His body
which conforms
to the Discipline by means of His four activities, and may
all
such obstacles be eradicated the moment I see that body!
As for
that manifestation of the vision of His body according to the
Discipline,
may I recognize it as the protector Amitayus and generate
a firm and non-artificial
faith, and by the power of that, may I never
fail to have the Victors Amitayus
work openly as my spiritual friend
in all my lives!
Furthermore, may
the full-fledged spiritual friends of the Mahayana,
the root of all mundane
and transcendent virtues, be pleased with me
and look after me throughout
all of my lives!
While he looks after me, may I attain unbreakable faith
in that
spiritual friend and may I only please him through all doors of
activity!
May I not bring about even an instant of his displeasure!
May I be not incompletely instructed by all the advice and instructions
of
the spiritual friend!
May I be able to understand correctly all the meanings
of those teachings
and to perfect them through practice!
May I not go
under the influence of the non-spiritual and sinful friends even for an instant!
In all my lives, may I realize faith of confidence in the effects of
evolution, the mind of renunciation, the spirit of enlightenment, and
the
perfected view, and may I enter uninterruptedly the experience of
effortlessness!
Whatever root of virtue I have made through my physical, verbal, and
mental actions throughout all my lives, may it all serve as the cause
of
only the purposes of others and the pure enlightenment!