<– Previous – Part 3: Amida Wasan Based on the Heart of Various Sutras
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4. Wasan on Benefits in the Present
Verses 96-110
Jōdo Wasan 96
Amida Tathagata came forth and guided beings,
Teaching the ‘Chapter on Life-span’
In the Sutra of Golden Splendour
In order to end calamities and ensure long life.
Jōdo Wasan 97
Out of compassionate concern for the people of the land,
Master Saicho of Mount Hiei said that
One should utter ‘Namu-Amida-Butsu’
As a spell for eliminating the seven calamities.
Jōdo Wasan 98
When we say ‘Namu-Amida-Butsu,’
Which surpasses all virtues,
Our heavy obstructions of evil – past, present, and future –
Are all unfailingly transformed, becoming light.
Jōdo Wasan 99
When we say ‘Namu-Amida-Butsu,’
The benefits we gain in the present are boundless;
The karmic evil of our transmigration in birth-and-death
disappears,
And determine karma and untimely death are eliminated.
Jōdo Wasan 100
When we say ‘Namu-Amida-Butsu,’
Brahma and Indra venerate us;
All the benevolent gods of the heavens
Protect us constantly, day and night.
Jōdo Wasan 101
When we say ‘Namu-Amida-Butsu,’
The four great deva-kings together
Protect us constantly, day and night,
And let no evil spirits come near.
Jōdo Wasan 102
When we say ‘Namu-Amida-Butsu’,
The earth-goddess called Firmness
Reveres and protects us constantly, day and night,
Accompanying us always just as shadows do things.
Jōdo Wasan 103
When we say ‘Namu-Amida-Butsu,’
Nanda, Upananda, and other great nagas,
Along with the countless Nāga-gods, revere
And protect us constantly, day and night.
Jōdo Wasan 104
When we say Namu-Amida-Butsu,
Yama, the King of the dead, reveres us,
And the officers who judge the beings of the five courses of
existence
All protect us constantly, day and night.
Jōdo Wasan 105
When we say ‘Namu-Amida-Butsu,’
We are protected by the great kind of māras,
Residing in the sixth heaven;
This he vowed to do in the presence of Shakyamuni Buddha.
Jōdo Wasan 106
The gods of the heavens and earth
Are all to be called good,
For together they protect
The person of the Nembutsu.
Jōdo Wasan 107
Shinjin that is the inconceivable working of the power of the Vow
Is none other than the mind aspiring for great Enlightenment;
The evil spirits that abound in heaven and earth
All hold in awe the person who has attained it.
Jōdo Wasan 108
When we say ‘Namu-Amida-Butsu,’
Avalokiteshvara and Mahāsthāmaprāpta,
Together with bodhisattvas countless as the Ganges’
sands or as particles,
Accompany us just as shadows do things.
Jōdo Wasan 109
Countless Amida Buddhas reside
In the light of the Buddha of Unhindered Light;
Each of these transformed Buddhas protects
The person of true and real shinjin.
Jōdo Wasan 110
When we say ‘Namu-Amida-Butsu,’
The countless Buddhas throughout the ten quarters,
Surrounding us a hundredfold, a thousand-fold,
Rejoice in and protect us.
Sentient beings who, with hindered understandings,
Doubt the Buddha’s unhindered wisdom,
Will sink for many kalpas in various forms of pain
In the hells of Śamvara and Piṇḍola.
–> Next – 5. Wasan in Praise of Mahāsthāmaprāpta BodhisattvaVerses 111-118
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Gassho.
Namo Amida Butsu!