Even One Verse

One night without distraction,
I dreamed a vivid dream;
I saw a large and beautiful drum
Filling the world with golden light
And glowing like the sun.
Beaming brightly to all places,
It was seen from ten directions.

Everywhere Buddhas were seated,
On thrones of precious Lapis.
At the foot of jeweled trees,
Facing assemblies of hundreds of thousands.

I saw a form like that of a Brahmin
Fiercely beat upon the drum;
When he struck it,
These verses issued forth:
By the sound of this majestic drum of golden light,
may the suffering of lower migration,
Yama and the poverty of the three realms
Of the triple thousand worlds cease to be.

By the sound of this majestic drum,
May the ignorance of the world be dispelled.
With fears quelled, just as vanquishing sages are unafraid,
May sentient beings become fearless and brave.

Just as the Omniscient Vanquishing Sage in the world
Is possessed of every excellence of aryas,
May countless beings too possess oceans of qualities,
Concentration and the wings of enlightenment.

No, I didn’t write that, it’s six verses of the Golden Light Sutra.

In the introduction it says that there are many benefits to reading the whole text. In the Tibetan Buddhist system (the Buddhist system I’m most familiar with), books have great power and during the reading of a text you can actually receive life changing energy from the written words. Being as I am a Reiki Master, I can understand how this could possibly be true.

The introduction also says that the deva Hamachiwa Pala told Buddha that she will protect those “who read and try to understand even one verse, and will fulfill their wishes”. Those sentient beings who hear only one verse will never go to the lower realms. The Buddha told the earth goddess that “even if a person hears only one verse, the will be born in the deva realm”. Further the Buddha told the earth goddess “the non- virtuous karma of the person who hears even one verse will be eliminated and they will achieve enlightenment”.

There is no mention of what reading just six verses will do for you, but it’s got to be better than reading just one verse, wouldn’t you think?

So, now ya got that going for you.