Praise the Tathāgatas: The Name Itself Is Praise

7.3 Praise the Tathāgatas: The Name Itself Is Praise

The body has bowed down. The second vow turns to the mouth — praising the Tathāgatas.

Further, good son! To praise the Tathāgatas is this: in every single dust-mote of all the lands, throughout the realm of dharma and the realm of empty space, in the ten directions and the three times, there are Buddhas as numerous as the dust of all worlds, and before each Buddha is an ocean-like assembly of bodhisattvas encircling Him. With deepest, surpassing understanding I bring them before my knowing and seeing; and with a subtle, wondrous tongue surpassing that of the goddess of eloquence — each tongue pouring forth an inexhaustible ocean of sounds, each sound pouring forth an ocean of every word — I praise and extol the ocean of all the Tathāgatas' merits, continuing unbroken to the end of future time, pervading the whole dharma-realm without exception.

Again it begins with "bring them before my knowing and seeing" — with deepest understanding, the Buddhas of every dust-mote and every land are brought before the eyes. This step, as in the first vow, is recollection: first recollect the Buddha into presence, and only then is there an object to praise.

Praise Is the Overflow That Cannot Be Held Back After One Has Truly Seen

Note the order: Samantabhadra "brings them before knowing and seeing" first, and praises after. First seeing, then praise. This sequence cannot be reversed.

To praise the Tathāgatas is not flattery across a distance, not the oiled courtesy of the lips. Praise is what overflows — the stir in the heart after one has truly, vividly seen the Buddha's merits, brimming over and turning into words in the mouth. Praise without prior seeing, forced out, is fawning; praise that comes of its own once one has seen the Buddha's goodness, that is true. So Samantabhadra's lavish words — "a tongue surpassing that of the goddess of eloquence," finer than the most eloquent goddess in the heavens; each tongue welling up an inexhaustible ocean of sounds; each sound welling up an ocean of every word — are no show of eloquence. They say: the ocean of the Buddha's merits is too deep, too vast — so deep that though you had a goddess's tongue and inexhaustible sound, you could not praise it to the end. "Continuing unbroken to the end of future time" — to the very end of time, never stopping for an instant, and even that is only the beginning.

To Recite the Name Is to Praise

This vow holds, for one who recites the Buddha's name, a most intimate piece of news.

The recitation of buddha-recollection — one "Namo Amitābha Buddha," one call of "Namo Original Teacher Śākyamuni Buddha" — is itself praise.

"Namo" is taking refuge, casting one's whole body and mind toward Him; and the Name is not a few empty sounds but the gathered whole of the Buddha's measureless merits — the cool of His afflictions all extinguished, the dignity of His blessings and wisdom made full, all drawn into these few syllables. So to voice this one line is, in the shortest of utterances, to praise the ocean of the Buddha's merits once over. The very thing Samantabhadra praises with inexhaustible tongues and inexhaustible sounds, an ordinary person reciting the Buddha's name does too, with a single Name.

The only difference is breadth: Samantabhadra spreads this praise toward all Buddhas of dust upon dust, land upon land; the reciter first gathers it onto one Name. But the act of "praising and extolling" is one and the same. You need no goddess's tongue — you need only be willing to voice this one line, and within it is already the extolling of all the Buddha's merits. An old man, the not-quite-articulate Buddha-name on his lips, is, in the eyes of this vow, offering the very same praise as Samantabhadra's inexhaustible ocean of sounds.

Praising On and On, the Heart Leans That Way

Praise has a deeper good still: it does not only send reverence to the Buddha; turning back, it perfumes oneself.

Reciting the Buddha's virtues on and on with one's mouth — purity, compassion, wisdom, fearlessness — over long practice these virtues seep, bit by bit, into one's own heart. A person leans toward what he names day after day: curse others daily, the heart grows fierce; praise the Buddha daily, and the heart turns, little by little, toward purity and compassion too. So praising the Tathāgatas, on the surface praise of the Buddha, is at the root a borrowing of the praise of the Buddha to print the Buddha's likeness, pass after pass, onto one's own heart — and this is precisely the hidden road by which buddha-recollection transforms a person.

This Vow, the Verse Sings It Thus

Each with all the oceans of sound, putting forth inexhaustible wondrous words, to the end of all kalpas to come, I praise the ocean of the Buddha's profound merits.

With all the oceans of sound, welling up inexhaustible subtle words, to the end of all the kalpas to come, praising the ocean of the Buddha's profound merits. The verse gathers that whole long passage of prose into four lines — and the bone of those four lines is still this: praising on "to the end of the future," without rest.

This One of the Three Karmas

Link the first two vows and it grows clear: buddha-recollection was never a matter of the heart alone.

The karma of mind — recollecting the Buddha in the heart, recollecting until He stands as if before the eyes; the karma of body — bowing down in reverence; the karma of mouth — voicing, praising, the recited Name being itself praise. Body, speech, and mind, the three karmas firing together toward the Buddha. These first two vows of Samantabhadra are exactly the supplying of "body" and "mouth" to the "mind" of buddha-recollection: the bow is the body's recollection; the praise is the mouth's recollection. The three karmas recollecting together — only then is the recollection whole-bodied, not the recollection of one half.

And this praise, too, closes on those eight words: "moment by moment continuous, without interruption; my actions of body, speech, and mind without weariness." One Buddha-name joining the next, mouth unstopping, heart unbroken — praise, too, is a buddha-recollection.

The mouth has praised. And the hands? The third vow, making offerings extensively: those two hands are to bring something out and offer it before the Buddha — and at its very height, Samantabhadra will speak a word that overturns everything.