What Could He Want With Her?
Fascicle sixty-eight opens with a scandal. Good-Wealth arrives in the city asking after a woman, and the townspeople who do not know who she really is find the request impossible to square with the youth standing in front of them.
Eight Things Gained on the Road
Nothing happens between teachers in this sūtra without something being gained. Eight attainments arrive while Good-Wealth is simply walking, and only then does the fascicle let him reach the city.
爾時，善財童子，大智光明照啟其心，思惟觀察見諸法性，得了知一切言音陀羅尼門，得受持一切法輪陀羅尼門，得與一切眾生作所歸依大悲力，得觀察一切法義理光明門，得充滿法界清淨願，得普照十方一切法智光明，得遍莊嚴一切世界自在力，得普發起一切菩薩業圓滿願。漸次遊行，至險難國寶莊嚴城，處處尋覓婆須蜜多女。
At that time, a great light of wisdom illuminated and opened Good-Wealth's mind; contemplating and examining, he saw the nature of dharmas, and he attained the dhāraṇī-gate of fully knowing every speech and sound, the dhāraṇī-gate of upholding every dharma-wheel, the power of great compassion that becomes a refuge for every being, the light-gate of examining the meaning and principle of every dharma, the pure vow that fills the dharma-realm, the light of wisdom that universally illuminates every dharma in the ten directions, the sovereign power to adorn every world throughout, and the perfect vow that universally gives rise to every bodhisattva deed. Journeying onward by stages, he reached the city of Jewel Adornment in the country of Perilous, and searched everywhere for the woman Vasumitrā.
A Youth Who Should Not Be Asking
The city's own description of Good-Wealth is a catalogue of monastic composure — and every item of it is offered as evidence against the question he is asking.
城中有人不知此女功德智慧，作如是念：「今此童子，諸根寂靜，智慧明了，不迷不亂，諦視一尋，無有疲懈，無所取著，目視不瞬，心無所動，甚深寬廣，猶如大海；不應於此婆須蜜女，有貪愛心，有顛倒心，生於淨想，生於欲想；不應為此女色所攝。
There were people in the city who did not know this woman's merit and wisdom, and this thought arose in them: "This youth here — his faculties are quiet and still, his wisdom is bright and clear, he is neither confused nor agitated, his gaze is fixed steadily one fathom ahead, he shows no fatigue or slackness, he grasps at nothing, his eyes look without blinking, his mind is unmoved, and he is profound and broad, like the great ocean. He ought not to have, toward this woman Vasumitrā, a mind of craving and attachment, or an inverted mind, or to give rise to notions of purity or notions of desire in her regard; he ought not to be seized by this woman's beauty.
「此童子者，不行魔行，不入魔境，不沒欲泥，不被魔縛，不應作處已能不作，有何等意而求此女？」
"This youth does not walk in Māra's ways, does not enter Māra's domain, is not sunk in the mire of desire, and is not bound by Māra's cords; where a thing ought not to be done, he is already able not to do it. What could he possibly have in mind, seeking out this woman?"
諦視一尋 — his gaze fixed steadily one fathom ahead. This is the discipline of a trained monastic: the eyes kept about eight feet in front of the feet, neither wandering nor searching. The townspeople are reading him accurately. Everything they observe is true, and their conclusion from it is wrong.
生於淨想，生於欲想 — giving rise to notions of purity, or notions of desire. The pairing is worth pausing over: 淨想, taking something to be pure or lovely, is named alongside 欲想, outright desire, as the same kind of error. The sūtra then has the knowledgeable townspeople use 淨想 again in the opposite direction, when they tell Good-Wealth that his errand is to 破一切眾生於女色中所有淨想, to shatter such notions in everyone.
有何等意而求此女 — what could he possibly have in mind, seeking out this woman? The whole episode with Vasumitrā turns on this question, and the sūtra puts it in the mouths of bystanders before Good-Wealth ever reaches her door. The narrative knows exactly how the scene looks from outside, and says so first.
Those Who Already Know Her
The correction comes from inside the same crowd. It does not defend her reputation; it tells Good-Wealth, in four decided verbs, what his own errand actually is.
其中有人先知此女有智慧者，告善財言：「善哉善哉！善男子！汝今乃能推求尋覓婆須蜜女，汝已獲得廣大善利。善男子！汝應決定求佛果位，決定欲為一切眾生作所依怙，決定欲拔一切眾生貪愛毒箭，決定欲破一切眾生於女色中所有淨想。
Among them there were some who already knew that this woman had wisdom, and they said to Good-Wealth: "Excellent, excellent! Good son, that you are now able to search and seek out the woman Vasumitrā means you have already gained a vast and good benefit. Good son, you must be decided in seeking the fruition-stage of a buddha, decided in wishing to become the one every being relies on, decided in wishing to pull out of every being the poisoned arrow of craving and attachment, and decided in wishing to shatter whatever notions of purity every being holds toward a woman's beauty.
「善男子！婆須蜜女於此城內市鄽之北自宅中住。」時，善財童子聞是語已，歡喜踊躍，往詣其門。
"Good son, the woman Vasumitrā dwells in her own house, north of the market shops within this city." At that time, having heard these words, Good-Wealth leapt up in delight and went to her gate.
決定 … 決定 … 決定 … 決定 — decided, and decided, and decided, and decided. Four clauses, each opening on the same word, moving from the fruition of buddhahood down to the very specific work of breaking a particular illusion about a particular kind of beauty. The last of the four is the one that answers the crowd's question, and it turns their suspicion inside out: he has come not to hold a notion of purity about her, but to destroy that notion in everyone.
市鄽之北自宅中住 — she dwells in her own house, north of the market shops. The address is commercial and ordinary, and the text gives it plainly. Of the twenty-six teachers so far, this is the first whose location is given by reference to a marketplace.
The House Behind the Gate
What is on the other side of the gate settles the question before she says a word. This is the architecture of the sūtra's great teachers — ten-layered walls, jewelled moats, beryl ground — and it belongs to her.
見其住宅廣博嚴麗，寶牆、寶樹及以寶塹，一一皆有十重圍遶；其寶塹中，香水盈滿，金沙布地，諸天寶華、優鉢羅華、波頭摩華、拘物頭華、芬陀利華遍覆水上；宮殿、樓閣處處分布，門闥、窓牖相望間列，咸施網鐸，悉置幡幢，無量珍奇以為嚴飾；瑠璃為地，眾寶間錯，燒諸沈水，塗以栴檀，懸眾寶鈴，風動成音，散諸天華遍布其地；種種嚴麗不可稱說，諸珍寶藏其數百千，十大園林以為莊嚴。
He saw that her dwelling was broad and vast, dignified and lovely, with jewelled walls, jewelled trees, and jewelled moats, each and every one of them encircling it in ten layers. Within those jewelled moats, fragrant water stood brimful, golden sand was spread over the ground, and heavenly jewelled flowers — utpala flowers, padma flowers, kumuda flowers, and puṇḍarīka flowers — covered the water throughout. Palaces and towers were distributed everywhere; gateways and windows stood ranked facing one another, all of them fitted with nets and bells and all of them set with pennants and banners, with measureless rare and precious things as their adornment. Beryl formed its ground, inlaid throughout with a multitude of jewels; aloeswood was burned there and sandalwood spread as paste; a multitude of jewelled bells hung there, sounding when the wind stirred them, and scattered heavenly flowers lay spread across the ground. Its every dignity and loveliness was beyond telling, its stores of rare jewels numbered in the hundreds of thousands, and ten great garden groves stood as its adornment.
一一皆有十重圍遶 — each and every one of them encircling it in ten layers. The tenfold enclosure, the jewelled moat brimming with fragrant water, the four lotuses, the beryl floor: all of it repeats the vocabulary this translation has used for the palaces of night-goddesses and the gardens of bhikṣuṇīs. The sūtra answers the town's insinuation architecturally, by giving her exactly the setting it gives its holiest figures, and by doing so before Good-Wealth so much as sees her.
Part 1061 Complete
This opens chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle sixty-eight. Part 1062 gives Good-Wealth's first sight of Vasumitrā herself — her body, her voice, her command of every language and craft — and then her own account of the liberation she has attained, named for the ultimate limit of freedom from desire.