Seated Beneath Every Tree at Once
Good-Wealth finally sees the teacher, and she is not in one place. Lion's Roar occupies every lion seat in the garden simultaneously, and the sūtra runs through eleven images for what she is like — then begins listing, seat by seat, who is sitting in front of her and what she is saying to them.
Eleven Images for One Woman
Eleven similes, each attached to a specific quality rather than offered as general praise — and the last of them is about farming.
爾時，善財見師子頻申比丘尼遍坐一切諸寶樹下大師子座，身相端嚴，威儀寂靜，諸根調順，如大象王；心無垢濁，如清淨池；普濟所求，如如意寶；不染世法，猶如蓮華；心無所畏，如師子王；護持淨戒不可傾動，如須彌山；能令見者心得清涼，如妙香王；能除眾生諸煩惱熱，如雪山中妙栴檀香；眾生見者，諸苦消滅，如善見藥王；見者不空，如婆樓那天；能長一切眾善根芽，如良沃田。
At that time, Good-Wealth saw the bhikṣuṇī Lion's Roar seated everywhere upon the great lion seats beneath all the jewelled trees. Her bodily form was upright and dignified, her bearing was quiet and still, and her every faculty was trained and compliant, like a great elephant king. Her mind was without defilement or turbidity, like a clear pool. She relieved universally whatever was sought of her, like a wish-fulfilling jewel. She was unstained by worldly dharmas, just as a lotus is. Her mind was without any fear, like a lion king. She guarded the pure precepts and could not be toppled, like Mount Sumeru. She could bring coolness and clarity to the mind of anyone who saw her, like a king of wondrous fragrances. She could remove the fever of every affliction in beings, like the wondrous sandalwood fragrance of the Snow Mountains. Beings who saw her had their every suffering extinguished, like the medicine-king Well-Seen. Whoever saw her did not see in vain, like Varuṇa-Deva. And she could grow the sprouts of every root of goodness in all, like a rich and fertile field.
諸根調順，如大象王 — her every faculty trained and compliant, like a great elephant king. 調順 is the vocabulary of animal training, and applying it to the senses makes the elephant simile exact rather than decorative: a war elephant's greatness is not its size but the fact that it has been brought under instruction. The first thing said about this teacher is that she is disciplined, not that she is powerful.
能長一切眾善根芽，如良沃田 — she could grow the sprouts of every root of goodness in all, like a rich and fertile field. After a lion king, Mount Sumeru, and a medicine-king, the run of images ends on ordinary farmland. A field does nothing to a seed except be good ground; the comparison gives her no agency at all, which is precisely its force.
Seat by Seat, a Different Assembly
Since she sits on every seat, each seat can hold a different audience — and the sūtra makes the point by naming the dharma-gate given to each, beginning at the top of the form realm and working downward.
在一一座，眾會不同，所說法門亦各差別；或見處座，淨居天眾所共圍遶，大自在天子而為上首；此比丘尼為說法門，名：無盡解脫。或見處座，諸梵天眾所共圍遶，愛樂梵王而為上首；此比丘尼為說法門，名：普門差別清淨言音輪。或見處座，他化自在天天子、天女所共圍遶，自在天王而為上首；此比丘尼為說法門，名：菩薩清淨心。或見處座，善變化天天子、天女所共圍遶，善化天王而為上首；此比丘尼為說法門，名：一切法善莊嚴。
On each single seat the assembly was different, and the dharma-gate she taught differed in each case as well. On one seat he saw her surrounded together by the assembled gods of the Pure Abodes, with the god Maheśvara as their leader; for them this bhikṣuṇī taught a dharma-gate named Inexhaustible Liberation. On one seat he saw her surrounded together by the assembled Brahmā gods, with the Brahmā king Loving Delight as their leader; for them this bhikṣuṇī taught a dharma-gate named the Wheel of Pure Speech-Sounds Differentiated Through the Universal Gate. On one seat he saw her surrounded together by the gods and goddesses of the Paranirmita-vaśavartin heaven, with the Paranirmita-vaśavartin heavenly king as their leader; for them this bhikṣuṇī taught a dharma-gate named the Bodhisattva's Pure Mind. On one seat he saw her surrounded together by the gods and goddesses of the Nirmāṇarati heaven, with the Nirmāṇarati heavenly king as their leader; for them this bhikṣuṇī taught a dharma-gate named the Good Adornment of All Dharmas.
或見處座，兜率陀天天子、天女所共圍遶，兜率天王而為上首；此比丘尼為說法門，名：心藏旋。或見處座，須夜摩天天子、天女所共圍遶，夜摩天王而為上首；此比丘尼為說法門，名：無邊莊嚴。或見處座，三十三天天子、天女所共圍遶，釋提桓因而為上首；此比丘尼為說法門，名：厭離門。
On one seat he saw her surrounded together by the gods and goddesses of the Tuṣita heaven, with the Tuṣita heavenly king as their leader; for them this bhikṣuṇī taught a dharma-gate named the Whirl of the Mind-Treasury. On one seat he saw her surrounded together by the gods and goddesses of the Suyāma heaven, with the Suyāma heavenly king as their leader; for them this bhikṣuṇī taught a dharma-gate named Boundless Adornment. On one seat he saw her surrounded together by the gods and goddesses of the Trāyastriṃśa heaven, with Śakra Devānām Indra as their leader; for them this bhikṣuṇī taught a dharma-gate named the Gate of Weariness and Detachment.
厭離門 — the Gate of Weariness and Detachment. Of the seven dharma-gates in this passage, six have expansive names — liberation, purity, adornment, boundlessness. The seventh, given to the gods of the Trāyastriṃśa heaven, is the one about having had enough. It is also the lowest of the seven heavens listed, and the one whose pleasures are nearest to human ones; the teaching matched to it is the teaching of turning away.
Part 1056 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle sixty-seven. Part 1057 carries the same list out of the heavens and into the other realms — the nāga kings with Sāgara at their head, the yakṣas under Vaiśravaṇa, the gandharvas, the asuras, the garuḍas, the kinnaras — each assembly on its own seat, each given its own dharma-gate.