Noble Fudō Sutra – gloss and translation

At one time there was a great assembly with a wisdom king, indeed a great wisdom king!
Having great power and compassion, he manifests a blue-black body.
Having great meditative concentration, he sits upon a diamond¹ throne.
Having great wisdom, he emanates a great flame.
Holding his sword of awareness, he maims the [Three Poisons] of greed, aversion, and delusion.²
Holding his noose of samadhi,³ he binds difficult attachments.
Having no characteristics as the Dharma-body,⁴ voidlike, he dwells nowhere in particular, but resides in the heart-mind⁵ of sentient beings. Though each being is different, he bestows benefits according to their inclinations towards complete enlightenment.

At that time, having heard the correct and true teaching, the assembly rejoiced and vowed to practice it.⁶

佛	說	聖	不	動	経
Buddha	say	saint	NEG	move	sutra

爾	時	 	大	会
this	time		great	group

有	一	明	王
POSS	one	bright	king

是	大	明	王
indeed	great	bright	king

有	大	威力
POSS	great	power

大	悲德			故		
great 	compassion		therefore

現		青	黒	形
manifest	blue	black	body

大	定德		故
great	meditation	therefore

坐	金剛石
sit	diamond

大	智慧		故
great	wisdom		therefore

現		大	火焰
manifest	great	flame

執	大	智			劍
hold	great	awareness		double.sword

害	貪	瞋		癡
maim	greed	aversion	delusion

持	三昧	索
hold	samadhi	rope

縛	難伏		着
bind	hard.to.subdue	attachment? snare?

無相			法身
devoid.of.marks		dharma-body
虛空	同	體
space	similar	body

無	其	住	處
NEG	POSS	dwell	place

但	住	衆生
but	reside	sentient beings

心	相		之	中
heart	together	POSS.	center

衆生		意	相
sentient.beings	thought	together

各各	不	同
each	NEG	same

随	衆生			意
listen	sentient.beings		thought

而	作	利益
CON	rise	blessings

所求		圓滿	
enlightenment complete

爾時			大	會
at that time 		great	unite	

聞	說		是	經
hear	explain		right	sutra

信	受奉		行
faith	receive 	moral.conduct

1. 石 is a jewel (hence ‘diamond’), but note that 金剛 ‘adamantine, diamond’ is also the vajra. ↩︎
2. 三毒(literally ‘three 三 poisons 毒’) does not appear in the text ↩︎
3. I have refrained from using Sanskrit terms here, but samadhi here is a transliteration of the word (Rōmaji: sanmai) ↩︎
4. Sanskrit Dharmakāya. ↩︎
5. 心 is often translated as either ‘heart’ or ‘mind’ but refers to the traditional Chinese heart of both emotions and thought, that is, the heart — therefore sharing a semantic field with the Western concepts of both heart and mind, hence heart-mind. ↩︎
6. The traditional ending formula for sutras. ↩︎