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English rendition by Richard St. Clair
I take refuge in the Buddha of Infinite Life,
The Tathagata of inconceivable Light.
Bodhisattva Dharmakara sat
with Buddha Lokeshvararaja.
Many Buddha-lands he saw and how they came to be,
humans and devas good and evil therein;
He made an unsurpassable vow
and stirred the rare, great Universal Vow.
Five kalpas did he contemplate this,
vowed that in the ten directions his name would be heard,
everywhere emitting boundless light,
regal, unimpedable, majestic light,
Pure Light, Joyful Light, Light all-wise,
ceaseless, inconceivable ineffable Light,
brighter than the sun or moon, it brightens all worlds,
all the multitudes receive this bright light.
Primal Vow, the Name, the Act of Right Assurance,
Vow that by sincere mind and joyful faith,
Great Nirvana equal to the Buddha
We have attained by the fulfillment of the Vow.
Why did the World-honored One come into this world?
To expound the ocean of Amida's Primal Vow;
In this evil world of five defilements
We should believe the Buddha's true words.
We, by a single thought of Joy in the Vow,
passions though unsevered, will attain Nirvana.
Whether wicked, good or in-between, all are the same,
as of one taste are all rivers entering the sea.
Light of compassion ever shining protects us,
Darkest ignorance it has already overcome;
still, the clouds and mist of greed, delusion and rage
always cover the sky of shinjin;
Yet, as the clouds and mist obscure the sun's light,
under them is Light and no darkness at all;
when receiving faith with greatest joy and reverence,
we at once transcend the five evil realms.
Whether good or evil, if ordinary folk
hear and trust the Buddha's Universal Vow,
great and highest is their understanding, He said:
White Lotus Flowers they are called.
Buddha Amida's Primal Vow, the Nembutsu,
is, for haughty, evil people of wrong views,
difficult indeed to receive in joyful faith,
of all difficulties, the most difficult of all.
Discourse writers of the western land of India
and the noble masters of China and Japan
showed the foremost purpose Shakyamuni came to us:
Making clear Amida's Primal Vow to fill our needs.
Shakyamuni Buddha on Mount Lanka foretold
to the assembly that in Southern India
One called Nagarjuna would come to crush
all wrong views on being and non-being,
And proclaim the unsurpassed Mahayana Way
to the stage of joy and birth in Sukhavati;
while self-power ways are like trudging over land,
Other-Power Faith is like a pleasant ocean trip.
When Amida Buddha's Primal Vow comes to mind,
all at once we reach the Stage of Right Assurance;
just by firmly saying the Tathagata's Name,
we repay our debt to His compassion and Great Vow.
Master Vasubandhu wrote that he took
refuge in the Buddha of Unhindered Light:
by the Larger Sutra he explained the Great Vow
by which we can leap over samsara crosswise
By the Power of the Primal Vow the One Mind
shows itself in its resolve to save the multitudes,
when on entry to the treasure-sea of merit great,
without fail will join the Great Assemblage.
And upon reaching the world of lotus-store,
We will see true suchness, attain the Dharma-body,
playing in the evil woods with mystic powers,
taking any form to save samsaric beings.
King Wu Ti knew Donran was a bodhisattva,
venerating him and facing his direction;
Bodhiruci gave Donran a Pure Land Sutra, and
Donran burned his Taoist books to seek the Land of Bliss.
Commenting on Vasubandhu's text, he made it clear,
Certain cause of Pureland Birth is from Amida's Vow:
Other-Power saves us, then returns us to this world,
Stage of Right Assurance comes alone from shinjin.
When, in evil and deluded beings, faith arise,
it makes them see birth-and-death as Nirvana;
failing not to reach the Land of Infinite Light,
everywhere they all will save all sentient beings.
Tao-ch'o determined that the Path of Sages fails,
but the Pure Land Path alone will clearly save us.
thousands of self-power acts of merit he dismissed,
urging us just to chant the Name of Perfect Good,
Kindly showed the threefold faiths, both perfect and flawed,
help in time of Semblance, Dying, and Extincted Law;
If, whatever we have done, we meet the Great Vow,
we shall reach the Land of Peace, attain the fruit supreme.
Shan-tao alone made clear the Buddha's true intent:
Pity both for those who practice good or do the gravest evils,
that the Light and Name are both cause and condition
for their entry to the Wisdom-Ocean of the Vow,
Where they receive faith of diamond strength
with a happy thought of oneness with Amida,
and to have the three great insights of Queen Vaidehi,
then to find Eternal Bliss in Dharma Nature.
Genshin widely spread the One Great Teaching with one thought:
Refuge in the
Land of Peace and Provision,
by deep faith alone and not in deeds of merit,
toward the Land of Recompense and not the Transformed Land.
Those of heavy sin should say the Buddha's Name alone,
just as I do, for I too am in His embrace.
Though my evil passions block my sight from seeing it,
ceaselessly shines on me his Compassionate Great Light
Our Master Honen in the Dharma was well-versed,
pitying both good and wicked ordinary folk.
In Japan he taught the True Way to Enlightenment,
spreading in this evil world the chosen Primal Vow.
Birth-and-death cycles in samsara's house
happen surely when we harbor doubt in our hearts;
Rapid entry to the City of Unmade Peace
Necessarily is realized by faith.
Bodhisattvas, teachers, others who have spread this teaching
rescue countless evil beings, totally defiled;
Priest or lay, we living should of one mind be,
and believe in the words of these illumined masters.