Part 1013 of the collection · Fascicle 66 of 80 · 入法界品第三十九之七 · T279

Bathing, Adornment, and a Matched Teaching

Universal Eye's care for those he heals does not stop at curing the body — bathing, fine clothing, and full provision come next, followed by a teaching matched first to temperament, and then, pāramitā by pāramitā, to the ten different qualities of a buddha's own body.

Translator: Ru-Yi Meditation Center Status: Part 1013 — bathing, adornment, and a matched teaching Source: Taishō T279 (Śikṣānanda, Tang, 695–699 CE)

Bathing, Adornment, and Four Temperaments

Once healed, each visitor is bathed, clothed, and provided for in full — and only then does Universal Eye teach, choosing a different contemplation for greed, for anger, for delusion, and for a temperament evenly balanced among the three.

Chinese Source

「善男子!十方眾生諸有病者咸來我所,我皆療治,令其得差;復以香湯沐浴其身,香華、瓔珞、名衣、上服、種種莊嚴,施諸飲食及以財寶,悉令充足無所乏短。然後各為如應說法:為貪欲多者,教不淨觀;瞋恚多者,教慈悲觀;愚癡多者,教其分別種種法相;等分行者,為其顯示殊勝法門。

Ru-Yi Translation

"Good son, beings with any illness from the ten directions all come to my place, and I heal and treat every one of them, causing them to recover; I then bathe their bodies in fragrant water, and give them fragrant flowers, necklaces, fine clothing, superior garments, and every kind of adornment, and provide them with food and drink and wealth, causing them all to be entirely satisfied, lacking nothing. Afterward, I teach each of them the dharma exactly as is fitting: for those with much greed and desire, I teach the contemplation of impurity; for those with much anger and hatred, I teach the contemplation of loving-kindness and compassion; for those with much ignorance and delusion, I teach them to discern the characteristics of every dharma; for those whose temperament is evenly mixed, I reveal to them a supreme dharma-gate.

Ten Bodies, Ten Pāramitās

Universal Eye's second teaching moves beyond temperament altogether, matching each of the ten pāramitās to a different quality of a buddha's own body — excellent marks, purity, inconceivability, invincibility, and on through to the final leaving-behind of every unwholesome dharma.

Chinese Source

為欲令其發菩提心,稱揚一切諸佛功德;為欲令其起大悲意,顯示生死無量苦惱;為欲令其增長功德,讚歎修集無量福智;為欲令其發大誓願,稱讚調伏一切眾生;為欲令其修普賢行,說諸菩薩於一切剎、一切劫住,修諸行網;為欲令其具佛相好,稱揚讚歎檀波羅蜜;為欲令其得佛淨身,悉能遍至一切處故,稱揚讚歎尸波羅蜜;為欲令其得佛清淨不思議身,稱揚讚歎忍波羅蜜;為欲令其獲於如來無能勝身,稱揚讚歎精進波羅蜜;為欲令其得於清淨無與等身,稱揚讚歎禪波羅蜜;為欲令其顯現如來清淨法身,稱揚讚歎般若波羅蜜;為欲令其現佛世尊清淨色身,稱揚讚歎方便波羅蜜;為欲令其為諸眾生住一切劫,稱揚讚歎願波羅蜜;為欲令其現清淨身,悉過一切諸佛剎土,稱揚讚歎力波羅蜜;為欲令其現清淨身,隨眾生心悉使歡喜,稱揚讚歎智波羅蜜;為欲令其獲於究竟淨妙之身,稱揚讚歎永離一切諸不善法。如是施已,各令還去。

Ru-Yi Translation

Wishing to cause them to give rise to the mind of bodhi, I praise the merit and qualities of every buddha; wishing to cause them to give rise to a mind of great compassion, I reveal the measureless suffering and affliction of birth and death; wishing to cause them to increase their own merit, I praise the cultivation and accumulation of measureless merit and wisdom; wishing to cause them to give rise to great vows, I praise the taming of every being; wishing to cause them to cultivate the practices of Samantabhadra, I speak of how every bodhisattva abides in every land, throughout every kalpa, cultivating the net of every practice; wishing to cause them to be endowed with a buddha's own excellent marks, I praise and extol the pāramitā of giving; wishing to cause them to attain a buddha's own pure body, able to reach every place entirely, I praise and extol the pāramitā of moral discipline; wishing to cause them to attain a buddha's own pure and inconceivable body, I praise and extol the pāramitā of patience; wishing to cause them to obtain the tathāgata's own unsurpassable body, I praise and extol the pāramitā of diligence; wishing to cause them to attain a pure body without equal, I praise and extol the pāramitā of meditative absorption; wishing to cause them to manifest the tathāgata's own pure dharma-body, I praise and extol the pāramitā of wisdom; wishing to cause them to manifest the buddha-bhagavat's own pure form-body, I praise and extol the pāramitā of skillful means; wishing to cause them to abide throughout every kalpa for the sake of every being, I praise and extol the pāramitā of vows; wishing to cause them to manifest a pure body able to pass entirely through every buddha-land, I praise and extol the pāramitā of power; wishing to cause them to manifest a pure body that brings joy to every being according to their own mind, I praise and extol the pāramitā of knowledge; wishing to cause them to obtain an ultimately pure and wondrous body, I praise and extol the forever leaving behind of every unwholesome dharma. Having given all this, I send each one back on their way.

Reading note — Ru-Yi Meditation Center

稱揚讚歎檀波羅蜜 — I praise and extol the pāramitā of giving. Every one of the ten pāramitās named here is matched to a specific bodily quality of a buddha — giving to excellent marks, discipline to a body able to reach anywhere, patience to inconceivability, and so on. Where the Ten Grounds chapter matched each pāramitā to a stage of the path, Universal Eye matches each one instead to what a buddha's own body can do.

Part 1013 Complete

This continues chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle sixty-six. Part 1014 turns to Universal Eye's second skill — a mastery of blending fragrances so complete that a single offering of incense can fill every buddha's own assembly-hall throughout the dharma-realm.