H o n g? Y i n
The Grand Verses
(English Translation Version A)
Li Hongzhi
?
Table
of Contents
Who Dares
Renounce Human Attachments?
Cultivating
Amidst the Delusion
Breaking
Free of the Three Realms
Visiting
the Hanging Monastery
In Command
of Heaven and Earth
The
Difference Between Mortal and Divine
Human Work and Buddha Cultivation
Destined Return for the Holy Fruition
A Tour of Mount Xiangtang Temple
A Tour of the Qing East Imperial Tombs
To consummate yourself, reaping Buddhahood,
Let joy be
found in hardship.
Physical pains count little as suffering,
Indeed, cultivating mind is hardest.
Each and every barrier must be broken through,
And everywhere does evil lurk.
Abundant troubles rain down together,
All to see: Can you pull through?
The world?s miseries endured,
One departs the earth a Buddha.
December 17, 1976
He who acts for his name
????? a life of anger and hate is
his
He who acts for profit
????? cold is he, knowing not his
kin
He who acts for emotion
????? many are the troubles he
brings himself
Bitter,
fighting away,
he makes karma all his life.
Not seeking a name
????? life is carefree and
content
Not set on profit
????? one is known as humane and
righteous
Not stirred by emotion
????? the mind is quiet, desires
few
Kind,
cultivating
himself,
he builds up virtue all his years.
July 13, 1986
February 2, 1987
Note: This was written before I spread the Fa
and at a time when I cultivated in solitude.
While the ordinary man might
long for Immortaldom,[1]
Behind the unbelievable wonders
lies wrenching
sorrow;
It takes cultivating the mind,
severing
desires,
casting off
attachments,
Lest man be lost in his ordeals
and gripped with deep regret.
August 9, 1988
Heaven and Earth, so vast, look small to my
eye,
For who created the limitless Firmament?
Beyond the Cosmos ?tis yet more boundless,
To fulfill my grand hope I spread the Great
Way.
January 1, 1990
In life, nothing sought,
In death, regretting naught;
Washing away all wrong thought,
Buddhahood, with less
adversity, is wrought.
October 20, 1991
Cultivating gong has a path
????? mind
is the way
On the boundless sea of Dafa
????? hardship
is your ferry
July 24, 1992
Broadly shines a Buddha?s light,
Justly setting all things right.
Advance together, ever diligent,
To a glorious future.
December 27, 1992
Truth??
????? ????? Mysteries??
????????????????? ????? Cultivation??
Alas, uncertainty?
????? Alas, confusion?
????????????????? ????? Realization?!
January 17, 1993
The Three Religions[2] stress cultivating with non-action,
But at first improper intention ?tis
with-action;
A focus on charitable works is still action,
Remove all attachments for true non-action.
January 17, 1993
Innate base is cultivation?s foundation,
From righteous understanding stems
a superior man?s
wisdom.
Cherish Zhen Shan Ren,
keep the Way in heart,
And Falun Dafa can bring Consummation.
February 18, 1993
With Zhen Shan Ren nestled in the heart,
Cultivating oneself, in turn, betters a
society.
With Dafa never off the mind,
Surely you will transcend others in time.
February 28, 1994
Supernatural skills are but petty means,
The Great Fa must be the basis of everything.
April 2, 1994
Cultivate Dafa with all your heart,
Nothing could be more important.
Become one with Dafa,
And Consummation is, in time, certain.
July 7, 1994
Clearer is the Awakened One?s mind,
The Fa gained, he travels the secular world,
Long, drawn-out millennia have now passed,
When the predestined time arrives,
the Fa will be fulfilled.
August 27, 1994
With shared purpose did you come to the earth,
And in gaining the Fa you took the lead.
One day shall you ascend to the heavens,
Then free, unfettered,
with the immeasurable power of Fa.
August 27, 1994
You resolved to save sentient beings,
And assist Master as he
journeys this human world;
Come now, and help me turn the Falun,
When the Fa is fulfilled,
Heaven and Earth
will be yours to travel.
August 28, 1994
?
?Tis not that the journey of cultivation is
painful,
Karma from generation upon generation is
blocking you.
Steel your will,
eliminate karma,
cultivate xinxing,
And become a Buddha who keeps forever the
human body.
September 15, 1994
Ordinary people do not understand the pain of
cultivation,
Happiness to them is vying and competing;
Cultivate, my disciples, ?til no single
omission is found,
And with the passing of all adversity,
??????????? will
come the sweetness of true joy.
September 15, 1994
Study the Fa and gain the Fa,
Focus on how you study and cultivate,
Let each and every thing
be measured
against the Fa.
Only then, with that,
????? is
it actually cultivation.
October 7, 1994
Far and wide do I spread the Dafa,
Saving people, beyond the Five Elements they
go.
Those who persevere at cultivation,
Will transcend the Three Realms upon
Consummation.
October 15, 1994
Unceasingly turns the Law Wheel, saving sentient beings,
Learn the Fa, gain the Fa, cultivate your xinxing;
For in the Age of Fa?s End the Wheel turns
again,
Illuminating with Fa, the hearts of the
predestined.
December 27, 1994
Cherish Zhen, Shan, Ren,
And in Falun Dafa shall you succeed;
Cultivate your xinxing without
a moment?s pause,
To taste the wonder,
so immeasurable,
at Consummation.
December 27, 1994
From the Cosmos so boundless and vast,
Radiated an arc of golden light.
Unto the world descended an Awakened One,
And Heaven and Earth did align.
Bright does the whole universe glow,
Melding into the light of Fa.
With Consummation, in flight you will ascend,
Together returning to Paradise.
December 31, 1994
All the affairs, countless, over long,
drawn-out years
????? pass
like a wisp of smoke.
And though they leave the common man confused,
For what were the vast heavens and earth
created?
?Tis baffling, this question, to the sentient
beings.
January 27, 1995
He who regards not
?
ordinary sorrows and joys
A cultivator is he
He who has not attachment
? to
worldly loss and gain
An Arhat is he
In May, 1995
In the middle of a thousand-foot cliff,
????? there
it hangs, a monastery,
Spreading Dafa far and wide,
leaves little
time for leisure;
In this life, I visit again
the ancient
monastery on a precipice,
One day, the Fa mended,
????? to
every monastery it shall spread.
June 11, 1995
Where is the Dao in these timeless
mountains and
cloud-shrouded peaks?
Ages has the ancient monastery stood,
yet now to it
tourists flock;
Oblivious to the beauty of mystery,
the ordinary
people,
For vile profits
exploit the
ancient monastery.
June 11, 1995
A Buddha came to walk the earth,
But too lost was the ordinary man to wake;
Malevolent ones even did Him harm,
Making Good and Evil ever so clear.
July 26, 1995
So hard is serenity to find
????? here,
in Buddhism?s ?pure land,?
Sinister things and evil thoughts
????? thrive
in this troubled time;
The more repute a place enjoys,
????? the
more do fiends abound,
Amidst the din and throng of selling,
????? firecrackers
even sound.
August 15, 1995
Though the Dafa spreads near and far
How many people can gain the Way?
With petty worldly matters, so many, weighing
down
You?d do well to cultivate in that hard-earned
leisure time
Then, one day, when the mist and smoke have
all passed
Will you discover: ?twas the True Dao you did
gain
October 6, 1995
In the leisure of serene cultivation,
those Immortals
I observe,
Each through the ages
did show his
special powers;
Today the world is different,
ghastly is the
change in man?s heart,
No longer do the many gods save,
as they wait for
the calamity to end.
October 16, 1995
Infinitely distant is Heaven?s vault,
But with just one thought
????? ?tis
right before the eye;
Immeasurably huge is the Cosmos,
Falun turns between
????? ?
Heaven and Earth.
November 9, 1995
So huge is the sky
? there
lies even more of it beyond,
Each with a sun and moon,
?
layers upon layers, they fill the Firmament;
So broad is the earth
? it
has both sky and ground,
Each breeding all things,
in turn, they
populate the whole Cosmos.
November 10, 1995
What is a human?
Full is he of
emotion and desire.
What is a God?
????? Human
thoughts are nowhere found.
What is a Buddha?
????? Benevolent
virtue is amply endowed.
What is a Dao?
????? A
realized being, serene and clear.
November 10, 1995
Foxes, weasels, ghosts, snakes?
bringing chaos
to the world,
Fouling up the air, making a mess,
with their
shamanic dance;
Lacking a teacher, lacking cultivation,
they still call
themselves masters,
Two decades has it been like this,
such folly and
madness.
November 11, 1995
Handling
human affairs of every sort,
Burdened
with all of heaven?s troubles.
To
whom can I turn to exchange a few words?
In
higher places it is only colder.
November
11, 1995
Every
form of travail has he weathered,
Countless
the fiends trampled under his feet;
His
palm erected, the whole Cosmos shakes,
A
grand Buddha stands between Heaven and Earth.
November
12, 1995
Some
2,500 years, the Buddhist precepts
have been bequeathed,
Name
and gain, they tell, first must go,
then the grueling cultivation begins;
Alas,
the monks of our day take salaries,
And
workplace dress is even provided.
December
25, 1995
In
realms ultra-finite, ultra-vast,
????? all declined matter is subdued,
Stretching
the Ten Directions, tiny to vast,
????? the Firmament meets the eye;
The
heavens clear,
the cosmic body transparent,
the universe rectified,
With
the ultimate catastrophe now past,
????? lucent is the whole Cosmos.
January
2, 1996
Multitudinous
are the lives that fill the Firmament,
Layer
upon layer, each with its Heaven and Earth.
So
incredible and wonderful the spectacle,
But
the common man is too lost, caught in delusion.
How
easy to say, it is, yet so hard to really see,
For
cultivation is like climbing steps.
Only
up high does the mist of delusion clear,
There
the magnificent sight appears?
miraculous,
indescribable!
January
3, 1996
So
great the shifts in celestial phenomena,
The
common man now lacks good thoughts.
His
mind, absent control,
gives way to the
demonic,
Disasters
follow, natural and man-made,
??????????????????????? ????? sorrowful anguish.
Everyone
sees one another as enemy,
Everything
proves short of expectation.
Could
the common man know why?
Only
a cultivator can unlock the puzzle.
January
4, 1996
Present,
but the heart elsewhere?
????? Perfectly reconciled with the world.
Looking,
but caring not to see?
????? Free of delusion and doubt.
Listening,
but caring not to hear?
????? A mind so hard to disturb.
Eating,
but caring not to taste?
????? The palate?s attachments severed.
Doing,
but without pursuit?
????? So constant, abiding in the Dao.
Calm,
but without strain of thought?
????? The truly wondrous can be seen.
January
4, 1996
Dafa
is what you carry everywhere,
Zhen
Shan Ren, rooted in the mind;
A
great Arhat walks the earth,
Gods
and demons fear with awe.
January
6, 1996
Who
could fathom the measure of Heaven and Earth?
Yet
the Milky Way lies beneath his feet.
Who
could grasp the reach of the Cosmos?
Yet
the turning Wheel is right in his palm.
January
6, 1996
Words
cannot describe its beauty and wonder,
Its
every hue and color, so glorious, dazzle the eye;
Fortune
and longevity fill this Buddhist Holy Land,
At
a higher place sits the Falun World.
January
23, 1996
?
Oh
how many the years, looking for the master,
Finally
the day has arrived to meet him.
Cultivate
and return, the Fa now gained,
And
follow your master to return, consummated.
January
23, 1996
Sun
and moon circle in turn,
Cosmos
is the wheel that turns,
So
easily, another two hundred years gone by,
Nothing
remains of the old Xiangtang.
March
6, 1996
I
climb the steep steps, stretching miles ahead,
Winding
upward and steep, this road,
even to set off is hard;
Glancing
back, ?tis just like cultivating Righteous Fa,
Pausing
half way makes salvation hard.
So
steel the will, and lift thy leaden leg,
Endure
the pain, diligent, and cast off attachments;
Dafa
disciples, the tens of millions?
A
place still higher awaits you at Consummation.
April
15, 1996
Fame,
gain, emotion?cultivate each away,
And
ascend to the Firmament at Consummation,
See
the human world with eyes of compassion,
Then
are you freed from the spell of delusion.
April
21, 1996
Peerless
was the Immortal Zhang Sanfeng,[9]
Traveling
all domains, his Great Dao was unmatched,
Later
generations, for fame, bungled the boxing art,
Altering
my Tai-chi, sullying my name.
July
1, 1996
Steering
the Fa Vessel before disaster descends,
Millions
upon millions
the hardships and perils, blocking my path,
Carrying
the Cosmos, boat broken and torn,
At
last! I pull into shore?
a dream of ten thousand
years.
September
23, 1996
Yin
and Yang turned upside down,
The
minds of men have shifted,
Ghosts
and beasts are all about,
How
far man has strayed from the Dao.
September
26, 1996
Lay
down your human, mundane mind,
The
Fa gained, you now stand divine,
Break
free, and depart, these Three Realms,
And
ascend to Heaven with a Buddha Body.
October
16, 1996
I
spread the Fa, your Master, for salvation of all,
The
earth?s four corners I pilgrimage,
the Fa Vessel I board,
In
a world full of sin and venom I transmit Dafa,
Turning
the Falun, the Cosmos is set right.
October
16, 1996, in Atlanta
Transmitting
the True Fa,
Proves
harder than just hard.
Many
are the demons who impede,
Risks
piled atop risks.
December
22, 1996
Man
is no longer humane,
Gods,
no longer godly,
The
human realm is void of Dao,
Where
are right thoughts found?
December
22, 1996
Delusion
blinds the world?s people,
Each
attached to fame and gain,
But
honest and kind were the ancients,
Calm
and balanced,
fortune and longevity were their lot.
December
25, 1996
How
they busy themselves, building temples, worshiping,
Knowing
not their acts are all for naught;
Lost
in stupefying illusion,
they vainly dream of
journeying to the Western Paradise,
Groping
blindly, walking in darkness,
????? they try to scoop the moon?s reflection
from water.
March
28, 1997
The
rushing waters carried off his tragic heroism,
Yet
his great spirit, his loyal soul, still endures;
All
that remains of the age-old shrine is a place to grieve,
Now
only his loyalty remains to guide posterity.
September
11, 1997, in Shang Yin
On
and on, the autumn rain falls like tears,
Every
drop filling my heart with anguish;
I
look about, but no one do I know in the town,
Several
times has my village lain in ruin.
Here,
then gone, eight hundred years race by,
And
no one knows who I am;
I
lower my head as I light several sticks of incense,
Their
smoke drifts away, towards old acquaintances.
Turning
back, my wish fulfilled,
I
shall come again to help all return.
September
11, 1997
at
the hometown of Yue Fei
?
Three
hundred years flow past like water,
Old
palaces and desolate tombs fill the eyes with sorrow;
None
could foresee my return to the world today,
One
day the Fa, mended, will spread for eternity.
October
26, 1997
at the Tomb of Emperor
Kang Xi
Disasters,
one atop another, befall the sentient beings
who have changed in ghastly ways;
Yet
here in this chaotic world is Dafa to save them.
Confusing
Good and Evil as they malign Heaven?s Law,
The
doers of unpardonable evil will be
swept off by the chill of autumn?s wind.
November
15, 1997
A
pool of water crystal clear,
Reflecting
the splendor of smoke-like
clouds here and there,
Here
in this chaotic world,
It
has kept its rare beauty.
November
17, 1997
How
the landscape of Qinchuan[14] has changed,
Chang?an
now lies buried in the earth.
Gone
is the Celestial Empire, its glory and might,
In
the blink of an eye centuries have passed.
Where
now can Taizong be found?
Dafa
is here to save the people of Tang.[15]
November
22, 1997
The
destiny is tied,
And
Fa what you cultivate,
Study
the book a lot,
Consummation
draws near.
January
27, 1998
Stories over the long, drawn-out ages,
Have made of Man a deluded thing;
Those who claim abundant wisdom,
Do wield their skills so dexterously,
????? but all
is done in emotion.
February
19, 1998
Humans
lacking any kind thoughts?
????? Each becomes the other?s enemy.
Destruction
of the traditional?
????? Culture turns decadent.
Homosexuality
and licentious desires?
????? A dark mind, turned demonic.
Rampant
gambling and use of drugs?
????? People do whatever they please.
Less
restrictions, promiscuity?
????? People head toward depravity.
Sinister
gangs and the deranged political party??????
Politicians and gangsters work together as one.
Acting
wantonly, lacking restraint?
????? People defy Heaven and betray the Dao.
Blindly
believing in science?
????? Mankind grows warped.
Promoting
and esteeming violence?
????? People are given to fierce fighting.
The
wicked metamorphosis of religion?
????? Money men and politicians are they.
July
7, 1998
As
I ascend by foot to Yanmen Pass,
A
faint churning stirs my heart.
The
ancient path of a thousand years remains,
But
gone is everything of the past.
From
here Yanzhao[17] left, commanding his
horse,
A
thousand stormy years have elapsed.
Now,
gazing down from the Pass,
I
see Dafa in the central plains.[18]
August
10, 1998, at Yanmen Pass
Scriptures
cultivate your mind,
Exercises
temper your body;
One
day, upon Consummation,
Zhen Shan Ren
will be with you to stay.
November
18, 1992
Revised
in August, 1998
As
the Righteous Fa spreads,
Untold
fiends try to impede,
Yet
sentient beings
????? do still gain salvation,
And
human notions change,
The
degenerate things purged,
Brightness
now shines forth.
????? sentient beings have awakened
I
smile?
????? Dafa now spreads
I
smile?
????? the ferryboat has set sail
I
smile?
????? for sentient beings there is hope
November
16, 1998
[1] ?Immortaldom? (shenxian) is
a common idea in Chinese culture, somewhat similar to Saintdom in the West,
whereby a being is endowed, by virtue of his or her spiritual achievement, with
magical, supernatural powers and an enduring bliss.
[2] ?Three Religions? is a term for Chinese
Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism.
[3] The term used in the Chinese text here, yinguo,
has the sense of preordained fate, or causality, stemming from conduct at an
earlier time or in a previous life.
[4] The Hanging Monastery (Xuan Kong Si), or
more literally, ?The Temple Suspended in Void,? is located in Shanxi Province
and was built on the sheer precipice of one of the Heng Mountains. The
structure was built some 1,400 years ago and consists of over 40 buildings as
well as caves.
[5] North Mount Heng, meaning ?Everlasting
Mountain,? is located in Shanxi Province. It is one of the five ?sacred
mountains? of China, all of which boast rich historical and spiritual legacies.
[6] Nanhua (or ?Southern China?) Temple is
located in Guangdong Province, and was home to the Sixth Zen Patriarch, Hui
Neng. The temple is over 1,500 years old.
[7] Mount Xiangtang Temple is located in
Hebei Province.
[8] Mount Tai is located in central Shandong
Province. For centuries it has been a vitally important part of Chinese
culture, and was the site of official rites performed by past emperors.
[9] Zhang Sanfeng is a well-known Daoist
figure who is said to have created Tai-chi chuan.
[10] Yue Fei is a much-celebrated hero of the
Southern Song Dynasty. He is known for his courage and patriotism, and credited
with defending China against northern invaders. He died a tragic death at the
hands of a court official named Qin Hui.
[11] These are tombs dating from the Qing
Dynasty and located in Hebei Province.
[12] Sun-Moon Lake is one of Taiwan?s best-known
tourist spots and the island?s largest freshwater lake.
[13] Located in what is today Xi?an city,
Chang?an (or ?Eternal Peace?) was the ancient capital of a dozen dynasties and
an important political, economic, and cultural center.
[14] Qinchuan was a valley in the ancient
Kingdom of Qin, and has long been associated with the origins of Chinese
civilization. Chang?an was located at its center. It lies in the plains of what
are today Gansu and Shanxi provinces.
[15] ?People of Tang? is often used as an
expression meaning ?the Chinese people.?
[16] Located in Shanxi Province, Yanmen Pass
was historically a point of strategic importance along the Great Wall and the
site of many battles.
[17] ?Yanzhao? is short for Yang Yanzhao, a
national hero and great general in the Northern Song Dynasty who died in a
battle against invaders from the north.
[18] The term ?central plains? refers usually
to the Yellow River valley, and can be understood to here mean China more
broadly.