The Prayer of Ways High and Sublime

O lions amongst humans,

Buddhas past, present and future,

To as many of you as exist in the ten directions

I bow down with my body, speech and mind

On waves of strength of this king

Of prayers for exalted sublime ways,

With bodies numerous as atoms of the world,

I bow to the Buddhas pervading space

On every atom is found a Buddha

Sitting amongst countless Buddhas' spiritual children,

I look with eyes of faith of the victorious ones,

Thus filling the entire sphere of phenomena

Of these with endless oceans of excellence

Endowed with an ocean of wondrous speech

I sing praises of the greatness of all Buddhas,

A eulogy to those gone to bliss

Garlands of flowers I offer them,

And beautiful sounds, supreme perfumes,

Butter lamps and sacred incense

I offer to all the victorious ones

Excellent food, supreme fragrances

And a mound of medicinal substances as high as Mount Meru

I arrange in a special formation

And offer to those who have conquered themselves

All peerless offerings I hold up

In admiration of those gone to bliss

With the strength of faith in sublime ways,

I prostrate and make offerings to the conquerors

Long overpowered by attachment, aversion and ignorance,

Countless evils I have committed

With acts of body, speech and mind.

Each and every one of these I now confess

In the perfections of the Buddhas and bodhisattvas,

The arhats, training and beyond,,

And in the latent goodness of every living being,

I lift up my heart and rejoice

O lights into the ten directions,

Buddhas who have found the passionless stage of enlightenment,

To all of you I direct this request:

Turn the incomparable wheel of Dharma

O masters wishing to show parinirvana,

Stay with us and teach, I pray,

For as many eons as there are specks of dust,

In order to bring goodness and joy to all beings

May any small merits that may have amassed

By thus prostrating, making offerings, confessing, rejoicing

And asking the Buddhas to remain and teach the Dharma,

Be dedicated now to supreme and perfect enlightenment

May my offerings be received by all past Buddhas

And by all those now abiding in the ten directions.

May all the Buddhas who have not yet come

Quickly perfect their minds and reach Buddhahood, the state of supreme full awakening

May all the Buddha realms of the ten directions

Remain forever vast and completely pure.

May the world be completely filled with Buddhas who have attained illumination under sacred trees,

And may they all be surrounded by bodhisattvas

May all living beings in the ten directions

Always abide in health and joy.

May they live in accord with the way of Dharma

And may their every wish be fulfilled

By my living in the ways of enlightenment,

May I remember my past lives in all my reincarnations;

And in all cycles of death, migration and rebirth,

May a sensitivity for truth be ever strong in me

By my following in the footsteps of the Buddhas,

May I utterly perfect the sublime ways of the bodhisattvas,

And may I practice the faultless, undegenerating, stainless

And pure ways of self-control

May I master all languages that exist,

Including those of the gods, yakshas, spirits and varieties of humans,

As well as all forms of communication of living beings,

That I may be able to show the Dharma in every way

Striving thus and in the transcending perfections,

May I never forget the bodhi mind,

And may I totally cleanse from within my mindstream

All negativities and mental veils

May I gain freedom from karma, delusion and karmic maras

To be able to live in the world unaffected by its stains,

Like an unstained lotus grows in the mud,

And like the sun and the moon shine without obstruction in the sky

For as long as there are Buddha fields and directions

May I strive to quell the misery of the lower realms,

May I place all living beings only in happiness

And bring them A only happiness and joy

May I strive to complete the ways of enlightenment

And to abide in ways harmonious with the world.

May I expose to others the ways most sublime

And myself abide in them throughout all future eons

May my ways and the ways of a bodhisattva

Always go together hand in hand

In body, speech and mind

May I attune to their sublime ways

May I never be separated from the good friends

Who reveal the path of the sublime ways

And who wish only to benefit me;

May I never disappoint them even for a moment

May I constantly envision the perfect Buddhas,

The protectors who are surrounded by bodhisattvas,

And in the future may I never weary

Of devoting myself to them with all my strength

May I forever uphold the holy Dharma of the Buddhas

And illumine the sublime way of enlightenment,

May I practice throughout all future ages

The ways and deeds of the sublime path

Circling in the various realms of existence

May I amass inexhaustible goodness and wisdom,

And may I become an unending treasure of qualities

Such as methods, wisdom, samadhi and the experience of a bodhisattva

In every atom are Buddha fields numberless as atoms,

Each field is filled with Buddhas beyond conception

And each Buddha is surrounded by a myriad bodhisattvas,

To all these dwellers in sublime ways I turn my attention

Thus all atoms within the directions

Abide within the space of a single hair

An ocean of Buddhas within an ocean of Buddha fields

Performing enlightened activities for an ocean of eons

Each Buddha, with perfect speech, releases

An ocean of sounds with every word that is said

To satisfy the infinitely diverse tendencies of beings,

Thus does the speech of a Buddha constantly flow

All these conquerors past, present and future

Continually turn the methods of Dharma wheels;

With all the powers of my mind I listen

For the inexhaustible sound of their words

All future eons that could possibly be

Manifest within me in a single instant,

And I myself in a fraction of a moment

Enter into all these eons of the three times

All past, present and future lions among humans

I envision with the instantaneous wisdom

And by the power of the bodhisattvas' examples

I focus upon the objects of their experience

I manifest Buddha fields past, present and future

Upon one single atom of existence

And then I transform every single atom

Of existence into a Buddha field

By this, when the future lights of the worlds

Eventually gain bodhi, turn the Dharma wheels

And reveal the passing to nirvana's supreme peace,

May I take rebirth in their very presence

Then may I attain the ten powers:

The power of instant magical emanation,

The power which is a vehicle with every door,

The power of excellent activity,

The power of all pervading love,

The power of constantly positive energy,

The power of passionless wisdom,

The powers of knowledge, method and samadhi,

And the power of enlightenment itself

May I purify the power of karma,

May I crush the power of delusion,

May I render powerless the powerful negative forces

And may I perfect the powers of sublime ways

May I purify an ocean of realms,

May I liberate an ocean of sentient beings,

May I see an ocean of truths,

And may I realise an ocean of wisdom

May I perform an ocean of perfect deeds,

May I perfect an ocean of prayers,

May I revere an ocean of Buddhas,

And may I practice untiringly for an ocean of eons

Through my practice of the sublime bodhisattva ways,

May I gain the enlightenment of Buddhahood

And then fulfil the enlightened and sublime aspirations

Of the Buddhas, past, present and future

In order to match the ways of the sage

Called Samantabhadra, the always sublime one,

Chief amongst the awakened ones' spiritual children,

I now dedicate all virtues that I possess

Just as the sublime sage Samantabhadra,

Dedicated all pure practices of body, speech and mind

To the attainment of a pure state and pure realms,

So do I now dedicate the fruit of all my efforts

In order to engage in all sublime virtues

I offer the prayer of Manjushri;

In the future may I never become faint

In striving to perfect the exalted bodhisattvas' way

May my deeds never reach a limit,

May my qualities of excellence become boundless

And by abiding in immeasurable activity,

May I find Buddhahood, the state of limitless manifestation

Limitless is the extent of space,

Limitless is the number of sentient beings

And limitless is the karma and delusions of beings,

Such are the limits of my aspirations

One may offer supreme ornaments of the Buddha fields

Of the ten directions to the conquerors

And also offer the highest joys of humans and gods

For eons numerous as atoms of the world

But to read or hear the King of Prayers

With eyes looking towards supreme illumination

And faith shining in one's heart for even an instant

Gives birth to far more superior merit

Should anyone recite this aspiration of sublime ways,

They will pass beyond all states of sorrow,

Will rise above all inferior beings and gain

A vision of Amitabha, Buddha of Infinite Light

Even in this very lifetime,

All sublime joys will be theirs,

The experiences of the all sublime Samantabhadra

Without obstructions, will quickly be theirs

Merely by giving voice to these aspirations

Of the sublime ways of a bodhisattva,

The effects can only be known by an omniscient Buddha;

Therefore doubt not that it leads to enlightenment

In order to follow the excellent examples set

By the wisdom of the bodhisattva Manjushri,

And the always sublime Samantabhadra,

All virtues I dedicate to their peerless ideals

All conquerors passed into the three times

Have praised as supreme this peerless dedication;

Therefore I also surrender all roots of my activities

To the sublime goals of a bodhisattva

When the moment of my death arrives,

May I remain free from the spiritual obscurations;

May I perceive the face of Amitabha

And transmigrate to Sukhavati, the pure land of joy

Having arrived there, may I fulfil

All aims of this prayer of aspirations

And benefit the countless living beings

Residing throughout the ten directions

In the joyous Mandala of Amitabha, Buddha,

May I be reborn from a beautiful lotus

And may I there have the pleasure of gaining

A pure prophecy from Amitabha, himself

Having won this word of prophecy

By the power of mind, may I fill all directions

With many millions of mystical emanations

And bring limitless benefits to the world

If by reciting this prayer of the sublime ways,

I have amassed a tiny fragment of goodness,

May it work immediately to fulfil

All Dharmic hopes of the living beings