A Beauty No Affliction Can Survive
Immovable's own beauty is described in terms this pilgrimage has not used before — not simply unequaled, but incapable of provoking desire in anyone who beholds her, extinguishing affliction on contact the way a Brahmā king's own purity leaves no room for the desire realm's cravings.
A Beauty That Extinguishes Affliction
Immovable's own appearance is described in a way no other figure in this pilgrimage has been — not merely beautiful, but a beauty that no being can behold without their own defilement dissolving, as reliably as a Brahmā king remains untouched by the desire realm's own cravings.
善財童子前詣其所，恭敬合掌，一心觀察，見其形色端正殊妙，十方世界一切女人無有能及，況其過者！唯除如來及以一切灌頂菩薩。口出妙香，宮殿莊嚴，并其眷屬悉無與等，況復過者！十方世界一切眾生，無有於此優婆夷所起染著心；若得暫見，所有煩惱悉自消滅。譬如百萬大梵天王，決定不生欲界煩惱；其有見此優婆夷者，所有煩惱應知亦然。十方眾生觀此女人皆無厭足，唯除具足大智慧者。
Good-Wealth went before her, reverently joined his palms, and observed her with a single-pointed mind, seeing that her form and appearance were upright and surpassingly fine, such that no woman in any world throughout the ten directions could equal her, let alone surpass her — excepting only tathāgatas and every consecrated bodhisattva. A wondrous fragrance issued from her mouth, her palace was magnificently adorned, and her retinue too was entirely without equal, let alone surpassed! Not a single being in any world throughout the ten directions could give rise to a mind of defiled attachment toward this laywoman; if they should even briefly see her, every affliction of theirs would be extinguished of itself. It is just as a million great Brahmā kings would certainly never give rise to the afflictions of the desire realm; one should understand that whoever sees this laywoman experiences the very same thing. Beings throughout the ten directions who behold this woman are never sated with looking at her, excepting only those fully endowed with great wisdom.
無有於此優婆夷所起染著心 — no being could give rise to a mind of defiled attachment toward this laywoman. Every prior description of a beautiful figure in this pilgrimage has emphasized surpassing loveliness; this one goes a step further, explicitly ruling out the very response that loveliness might normally provoke — her beauty functions as a kind of purification, not an attraction.
A Four-Line Verse, and a Question
Good-Wealth's own praise, when it comes, is brief — four lines naming precept, patience, diligence, and light — before he asks the question that has carried him through nineteen teachers already.
爾時，善財童子曲躬合掌，正念觀察，見此女人，其身自在不可思議，色相顏容世無與等，光明洞徹物無能障，普為眾生而作利益，其身毛孔恒出妙香，眷屬無邊，宮殿第一，功德深廣莫知涯際；心生歡喜，以頌讚曰：「守護清淨戒，修行廣大忍，精進不退轉，光明照世間。」爾時，善財童子說此頌已，白言：「聖者！我已先發阿耨多羅三藐三菩提心，而未知菩薩云何學菩薩行？云何修菩薩道？我聞聖者善能誘誨，願為我說！」
At that time, Good-Wealth bowed with his palms joined, and rightly recollected as he observed her, seeing that this woman's own body was sovereign and inconceivable, her form and countenance without equal in the world, her light penetrating through all things so that nothing could obstruct it, universally acting for the benefit of beings, the pores of her own body constantly emitting wondrous fragrance, her retinue boundless, her palace supreme, her merit so deep and vast that its limit could not be known; his heart gave rise to joy, and he offered a verse of praise, saying: "You guard and protect pure precepts, you cultivate vast and expansive patience, your diligence never regresses, and your light illuminates the world." At that time, having spoken this verse, Good-Wealth said: "Noble one, I have already given rise to the mind of anuttara-samyak-sambodhi, but I do not yet know how a bodhisattva learns the bodhisattva practices, or cultivates the bodhisattva path. I have heard that the noble one is skillfully able to guide and instruct — please, explain it to me!"
Part 1030 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle sixty-six. Part 1031 opens Immovable's own answer, as she names five liberation-gates by title alone, before Good-Wealth asks her to explain them and she begins the story of a night, long ago, when she stood alone beneath the stars.