One City, Seen a Thousand Ways
The king's own treasury stands open to anyone in need, asking nothing but an end to evil in return — and Wondrous Light city itself, he reveals, is not one city at all but as many cities as there are minds to see it, from bare earth and rubble to jewels smooth as the palm of a hand.
An Open Treasury, and a Single Condition
King Great Light's own generosity asks for nothing in return but the one thing that matters most — that whoever takes from his treasury commit no further evil.
「善男子！我國土中一切眾生，皆於我所無有恐怖。善男子！若有眾生貧窮困乏，來至我所而有求索。我開庫藏恣其所取，而語之言：『莫造諸惡，莫害眾生，莫起諸見，莫生執著。汝等貧乏，若有所須，當來我所及四衢道，一切諸物種種具足，隨意而取勿生疑難。』
"Good son, every being within my own land holds no fear of me at all. Good son, if there are beings who are poor and destitute, they come to me and make their requests, and I open my treasury and let them take freely whatever they wish, saying to them only: 'Do not commit any evil, do not harm any being, do not give rise to wrong views, and do not give rise to attachment. If you yourselves are in need of anything, you should come to me or to the crossroads, where every kind of thing is fully provided — take whatever you wish, and have no doubt or hesitation about it.'
As Many Cities as There Are Minds
Wondrous Light city, the king reveals, is not a single fixed place at all — its size, its walls, its ground, and even its buildings appear differently to every being according to their own mind, from bare rubble to jewels laid smooth as a palm.
「善男子！此妙光城所住眾生，皆是菩薩發大乘意，隨心所欲，所見不同，或見此城其量狹小，或見此城其量廣大；或見土沙以為其地，或見眾寶而以莊嚴；或見聚土以為垣牆，或見寶牆周匝圍遶；或見其地多諸瓦石高下不平，或見無量大摩尼寶間錯莊嚴平坦如掌；或見屋宅土木所成，或見殿堂及諸樓閣、階墀、窓闥、軒檻、戶牖——如是一切無非妙寶。「善男子！若有眾生其心清淨，曾種善根供養諸佛，發心趣向一切智道，以一切智為究竟處，及我昔時修菩薩行曾所攝受，則見此城眾寶嚴淨；餘皆見穢。
"Good son, the beings who dwell in this Wondrous Light city are all bodhisattvas who have given rise to the intention of the Great Vehicle, and according to each one's own mind and wish, what they see differs — some see this city as narrow and small in size, others see this city as vast in size; some see its ground as made of earth and sand, others see it adorned with every kind of jewel; some see its walls made of heaped earth, others see jeweled walls surrounding it on every side; some see its ground full of rubble and tiles, uneven and rough, others see it inlaid throughout with measureless great maṇi-jewels, level and smooth as the palm of a hand; some see its houses made of earth and wood, others see its halls, towers, stairways, windows, balustrades, and doors — all of it, without exception, made of nothing but wondrous jewels. Good son, if a being's own mind is pure, having in the past planted wholesome roots and made offerings to buddhas, having given rise to the intention to head toward the path of all-knowing wisdom, taking all-knowing wisdom as their ultimate destination, and having in the past been embraced by me during my own cultivation of the bodhisattva practices — then they see this city adorned entirely with jewels and utterly pure; all the rest see it as defiled.
隨心所欲，所見不同 — according to each one's own mind and wish, what they see differs. This same principle appeared already in this pilgrimage's account of the six pure abodes and elsewhere in the sūtra's cosmology, but rarely applied so plainly to an ordinary city street — the same rubble and the same jewels occupying the same ground, depending only on who is looking.
Part 1024 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle sixty-six. Part 1025 turns to King Great Light's compassion for beings still caught in the five turbidities, and the samādhi he enters in order to still their fear, hatred, enmity, and quarreling all at once.