A Mountain Glowing at Midnight
Fascicle sixty-seven opens with Good-Wealth searching an entire city at sundown, only to find his twenty-first teacher outside its walls entirely — an ascetic pacing a mountain summit whose grasses and stones shine at midnight as though the sun had just risen.
Searching a City, Then Leaving It
Good-Wealth's search for Universal Practice begins exactly as so many before it have — combing the shops, neighborhoods, and crossroads of a city — before a light on a mountain outside its walls redirects him entirely.
爾時，善財童子於不動優婆夷所得聞法已，專心憶念所有教誨，皆悉信受，思惟觀察。漸漸遊行，經歷國邑，至都薩羅城，於日沒時入彼城中，鄽店、隣里、四衢道側，處處尋覓遍行外道。城東有山，名曰：善得。善財童子於中夜時，見此山頂草樹巖巘，光明照耀如日初出；見此事已，生大歡喜，作是念言：「我必於此見善知識。」
At that time, having heard the dharma from the laywoman Immovable, Good-Wealth held single-mindedly in mind every teaching he had received, entirely believing and accepting it, reflecting upon it and contemplating it. Journeying onward by gradual stages, passing through lands and cities, he arrived at Tosala city, and as the sun was setting he entered within that city, searching everywhere — among the shops, the neighborhoods, and the sides of every crossroads — for the ascetic Universal Practice. To the east of the city there was a mountain named Well-Attained. At midnight, Good-Wealth saw that the grasses, trees, and crags at the summit of this mountain were shining with light as though the sun had just risen; and having seen this, he gave rise to great joy, and thought thus: "I shall surely find my good spiritual friend here."
An Ascetic Beyond Brahmā
Climbing the mountain in the middle of the night, Good-Wealth finds Universal Practice pacing a level stretch of ground, his own splendor described as surpassing even the great Brahmā king himself.
便從城出而登彼山，見此外道於其山上平坦之處徐步經行，色相圓滿，威光照耀，大梵天王所不能及，十千梵眾之所圍遶。往詣其所，頭頂禮足，遶無量匝，於前合掌而作是言：「聖者！我已先發阿耨多羅三藐三菩提心，而我未知菩薩云何學菩薩行？云何修菩薩道？
He then left the city and climbed that mountain, and saw this ascetic of another path walking slowly back and forth upon a level place on the mountain, his form and appearance perfectly complete, his majestic light shining forth, unmatched even by the great Brahmā king, surrounded by ten thousand Brahmā-hosts. Good-Wealth went to where he was, bowed his head at his feet, circumambulated him countless times, and stood before him with palms joined, saying: "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?
出家外道 — an ascetic of another path. Universal Practice is explicitly identified as a practitioner outside the buddha-dharma, yet described in terms that surpass even the Brahmā king's own splendor — a reminder that this pilgrimage has already found bodhisattva teachers in a king, a child, and now, for the first time, a renunciant of a different tradition entirely.
Part 1038 Complete
This opens chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle sixty-seven. Part 1039 follows Universal Practice's own answer to Good-Wealth, naming a practice of reaching every place and taking on every form, appearing throughout every destiny of existence — from devas and nāgas down to hell and the animal realm — to teach each kind of being according to what they need.