Toh 706 — The Hundred and Eight Names of Avalokiteśvara [2]

F.173.a Homage to all the buddhas and bodhisattvas.

Thus did I hear at one time. The Blessed One was residing at the noble Avalokiteśvara’s abode at the summit of Mount Potala, a place that was arrayed with many different fragrant flowers, shining like the excellent golden color of the Jambu River, and brilliant with a variety of jewels. F.173.b He was surrounded by many trillions of gods, nāgas, yakṣas, gandharvas, asuras, garuḍas, kinnaras, mahoragas, humans, and non-humans, who honored him, took him as their teacher, respected him, made offerings to him, and revered him. In front of this group, he taught the Dharma.

He perfectly taught the pure conduct—virtuous in the beginning, virtuous in the middle, and virtuous in the end, excellent in meaning, beautiful in expression, unmixed, complete, and completely refined. Thereafter, Brahmā and the others praised the bodhisattva great being, noble Avalokiteśvara, as follows.

“Ah, Blessed One! You have carried out your intention, done what is to be done, cast off the burden, achieved your own aims, and utterly cleared away the ties to existence; due to genuine wisdom, your mind is utterly free; you know everything; you are a great elephant; you have perfected the sublime power of all beings;^[1] you have completed the accumulation of wisdom; you have crossed the wilderness of existence; you benefit others; you have a mind suffused with compassion; you supremely please^[2] every being; you bestow bliss; you engage out of love; you are skilled in liberating countless beings; you are the son of the sugatas; you are the single friend of the three worlds; you have no desire; you have no anger; you have no delusion; you have abandoned the three stains; you are the perfection of the three knowledges; you have the six superknowledges; like the nyagrodha tree,^[3] you cover a vast area; you possess the thirty-two marks of a great being; you are adorned by the eighty minor marks; your skin is fine and golden; your body is tall and white; your body is fresh like a flowering tree; and you have a topknot like the rosy dawn;^[4] your crown is covered by many twisting locks; Amitābha shines light upon you; you are renowned for having a blazing aura a fathom in size, like a golden mountain;F.174.a you have great magnificence; you have an uṣṇīṣa like a mountain ridge at dawn; you wear a scarf blazing with gems as a sash across your body; you perfectly discern the bhūmis; you have the legs of the ten perfections; your moral conduct is uncorrupted; your moral conduct is unbroken; your breast is broad like a lion’s; your body is smooth and handsome; you glance and move like the ruler of chieftains; your cheeks swirl to the right; your forehead is large and like the half-moon with a bindu; your hands reach your knees; your eyebrows are unbroken; your nose is high; your throat is like the neck of a vase; the fingers and joints on your hands are long; your fingernails are smooth and copper colored; your fingers are webbed; you are adorned with wheels at the palms of your hands and at the soles of your feet; like an autumn lotus,

your body is smooth and vast; your voice is deep like Brahmā’s; you are pleasing to bring to mind, a pleasure to see, and bring delight; you are radiant like a lotus; you are born from a lotus; you have arisen from a lotus; you sit upon a lotus seat; you hold a lotus in your hand; you hold a round anointing vase in your hand; you wear the skin of a black deer; you hold a staff; you hold a jewel rosary; you are pure through purity;^[5] you speak sincerely; you shower down a rain of nectar; you are like a wish-fulfilling jewel; you are like a tree that is a delight to behold; you inspire all beings; you bring delight; you sustain all beings; you are an emanation of the buddhas; you possess the accoutrements of the sugatas; you bear the relics of the sugatas; with each bodily hair arisen, you are the essence of beings;^[6] you bring about merit; you carry out virtue; you engage with certainty; you blaze with diligence; you have gone far beyond saṃsāra; you were empowered into the True Dharma as a regent; Tārā is present at your feet; Bhṛkuṭī carries out your commands; the Victors are with you;F.174.b you have moral conduct; you have good recall; you have gained great power; you have excellent qualities; you have loving kindness; you are peaceful; you have moral conduct; you have good fortune; you are purposeful; you understand things; you cut off doubts; you speak the Dharma; you are the teacher of worldly beings; the maṇḍala of your face is broad; the area around your waist is adorned with every gem; you are like a golden sacrificial post; your form surpasses a thousand suns; Brahmā and so forth bow before you.”

Whoever accomplishes this praise of the one hundred and eight names of noble Avalokiteśvara will purify the karmic obscuration of the five actions of immediate consequence. They will enter into all maṇḍalas. Therein, they will accomplish all mantras. They will not go to the lower realms for many trillions of eons. They will not engage in the actions of immediate consequence.

Whoever rises at dawn and recites this, or reads this aloud, or chants it, will not have leprosy, foot sores, phlegm, or difficulty breathing, and will be freed from all illnesses. They will remember all of their previous lives. They will become like the children of the gods. At the time of death, they will be reborn in the realm of Sukhāvatī. In all of their lives, they will never be separated from noble Avalokiteśvara. If they recite this constantly, they will become intelligent. They will become heroic. They will become sweet voiced. They will become fortunate. They will become fearless with respect to all treatises. They will become someone who speaks nobly.

If one offers praise with this practice of praise, it will be just the same, not at all different, from making offerings to blessed buddhas equal in number to the grains of sand in sixty-two Ganges River. F.175.a