Ten Reasons to Seek a Good Spiritual Friend
Watching the road itself as closely as he watches for danger, Good-Wealth reflects on ten distinct reasons a good spiritual friend is essential to the bodhisattva path, before arriving at Tower city to find the navigator Vaira already teaching a crowd of merchants on the shore.
Watching Every Road
Good-Wealth's own journey begins with an unusually literal kind of attentiveness — noticing the road's own height, danger, cleanliness, and straightness — before his mind turns to ten distinct reasons a good spiritual friend cannot be done without.
爾時，善財童子向樓閣城，觀察道路。所謂：觀道高卑，觀道夷險，觀道淨穢，觀道曲直。漸次遊行，作是思惟：「我當親近彼善知識。善知識者，是成就修行諸菩薩道因，是成就修行波羅蜜道因，是成就修行攝眾生道因，是成就修行普入法界無障礙道因，是成就修行令一切眾生除惡慧道因，是成就修行令一切眾生離憍慢道因，是成就修行令一切眾生滅煩惱道因，是成就修行令一切眾生捨諸見道因，是成就修行令一切眾生拔一切惡刺道因，是成就修行令一切眾生至一切智城道因。何以故？於善知識處，得一切善法故；依善知識力，得一切智道故。善知識者，難見難遇。」
At that time, Good-Wealth, heading toward Tower city, observed the road as he traveled. Namely: he observed whether the road was high or low, observed whether it was level or dangerous, observed whether it was clean or defiled, and observed whether it was straight or crooked. Journeying onward by stages, he reflected thus: "I should draw near to that good spiritual friend. A good spiritual friend is the cause of accomplishing the cultivation of every bodhisattva path, the cause of accomplishing the cultivation of the path of the pāramitās, the cause of accomplishing the cultivation of the path of gathering beings, the cause of accomplishing the cultivation of the unobstructed path of universally entering the dharma-realm, the cause of accomplishing the cultivation of the path that causes every being to remove wrong wisdom, the cause of accomplishing the cultivation of the path that causes every being to leave behind arrogance, the cause of accomplishing the cultivation of the path that causes every being to extinguish affliction, the cause of accomplishing the cultivation of the path that causes every being to abandon every wrong view, the cause of accomplishing the cultivation of the path that causes every being to pull out every evil thorn, and the cause of accomplishing the cultivation of the path that causes every being to reach the city of all-knowing wisdom. Why is this? Because in the presence of a good spiritual friend, one attains every wholesome dharma; and relying on a good spiritual friend's own strength, one attains the path of all-knowing wisdom. A good spiritual friend is difficult to see and difficult to encounter."
A Navigator, Already Teaching
Unlike so many teachers found alone or hidden, Vaira is discovered already at work — surrounded by hundreds of thousands of merchants on the shore, teaching the dharma of the great ocean through the ocean itself.
如是思惟。漸次遊行，既至彼城，見其船師在城門外海岸上住，百千商人及餘無量大眾圍遶，說大海法，方便開示佛功德海。善財見已，往詣其所，頂禮其足，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，而未知菩薩云何學菩薩行？云何修菩薩道？我聞聖者善能教誨，願為我說！」
Reflecting in this way, he journeyed onward by stages, and having arrived at that city, he saw the navigator dwelling on the seashore outside the city gate, surrounded by hundreds of thousands of merchants and other measureless crowds, teaching the dharma of the great ocean, skillfully revealing the ocean of the buddha's own merit. Having seen him, 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. I have heard that the noble one is skillfully able to teach and instruct — please, explain it to me!"
說大海法，方便開示佛功德海 — teaching the dharma of the great ocean, skillfully revealing the ocean of the buddha's own merit. Vaira's own teaching to the merchants uses the very ocean they are about to sail as its subject matter — a navigator's practical knowledge turned, without any strain, into a lesson about the buddha's own inexhaustible merit.
Part 1047 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle sixty-seven. Part 1048 follows Vaira's own answer, naming nine causes for generating great wisdom and reaching the great treasure-isle of all-knowing wisdom, before describing his own practice of great compassion along this very shore.