He Saw Him Coming From Far Off
Good-Wealth reaches Potalaka and finds Avalokiteśvara in a valley on the western side, on a boulder, mid-teaching. He stops to think ten things about what a teacher is — and then, for the only time in this pilgrimage, the teacher speaks first.
What He Carried Away From the Stūpa
The previous teacher's gift travels with him, itemized: seven ways of holding on to what he was shown, all of them about sequence and order.
爾時，善財童子一心思惟彼居士教，入彼菩薩解脫之藏，得彼菩薩能隨念力，憶彼諸佛出現次第，念彼諸佛相續次第，持彼諸佛名號次第，觀彼諸佛所說妙法，知彼諸佛具足莊嚴，見彼諸佛成正等覺，了彼諸佛不思議業。
At that time, Good-Wealth single-mindedly contemplated that householder's teaching, entered that bodhisattva's own treasury of liberation, and attained that bodhisattva's power of recollection at will — recalling the sequence in which those buddhas appeared, holding in mind the sequence in which those buddhas followed one another, retaining the sequence of those buddhas' names, contemplating the wondrous dharma those buddhas taught, knowing those buddhas' complete adornment, seeing those buddhas attain perfect awakening, and fully understanding those buddhas' inconceivable deeds.
The Valley on the Western Side
The sūtra gives the mountain a geography precise enough to walk — a western face, a rocky valley, water, trees, and grass that lies down in one direction.
漸次遊行，至於彼山，處處求覓此大菩薩。見其西面巖谷之中，泉流縈映，樹林蓊欝，香草柔軟，右旋布地。觀自在菩薩於金剛寶石上結跏趺坐，無量菩薩皆坐寶石恭敬圍遶，而為宣說大慈悲法，令其攝受一切眾生。
Journeying onward by stages, he arrived at that mountain and searched everywhere for this great bodhisattva. He saw, in a rocky valley on the mountain's western face, springs and streams winding and glinting, groves of trees dense and luxuriant, and fragrant grasses soft underfoot, spread across the ground curling to the right. Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva was seated in the full lotus posture upon a boulder of vajra jewel, with measureless bodhisattvas all seated upon jewelled stones, reverently encircling him, while he proclaimed for them the dharma of great loving-kindness and compassion, causing them to gather in and take up every being.
香草柔軟，右旋布地 — fragrant grasses soft underfoot, spread across the ground curling to the right. 右旋, curling rightward, is the auspicious direction — the same direction in which one circumambulates a teacher, and the direction of the whorls on a buddha's hair. The ground itself is described as already performing the gesture of reverence Good-Wealth is about to perform.
於金剛寶石上結跏趺坐 — seated in the full lotus posture upon a boulder of vajra jewel. After a house walled ten layers deep and a garden of nine named trees, this teacher is found sitting on a rock outdoors. The setting is the plainest of any teacher in these two fascicles, and the sūtra spends its detail on the water, the trees, and the grass instead.
Ten Things a Teacher Is
Before approaching, he stands still and runs through ten definitions — each opening with the same two characters, 善知識, and none of them repeating.
善財見已，歡喜踊躍，合掌諦觀，目不暫瞬，作如是念：「善知識者，則是如來；善知識者，一切法雲；善知識者，諸功德藏；善知識者，難可值遇；善知識者，十力寶因；善知識者，無盡智炬；善知識者，福德根芽；善知識者，一切智門；善知識者，智海導師；善知識者，至一切智助道之具。」便即往詣大菩薩所。
Having seen this, Good-Wealth leapt up in delight and gazed intently with palms joined, his eyes not blinking for a moment, and this thought arose in him: "A good spiritual friend — this is a tathāgata. A good spiritual friend is a cloud of every dharma. A good spiritual friend is a treasury of every merit. A good spiritual friend is hard to meet with. A good spiritual friend is the jewelled cause of the ten powers. A good spiritual friend is an inexhaustible torch of wisdom. A good spiritual friend is the root and sprout of merit. A good spiritual friend is the gate of all-knowing wisdom. A good spiritual friend is a guide upon the ocean of wisdom. A good spiritual friend is the very equipment that aids the path to all-knowing wisdom." And he then went straight to where the great bodhisattva was.
善知識者，則是如來 — a good spiritual friend: this is a tathāgata. The first of the ten is also the strongest, and 則是, this simply is, leaves no room for analogy. The list then descends from that identification through images of abundance (a dharma-cloud, a merit-treasury), of rarity (難可值遇, hard to meet with), of causation, illumination, and growth, and ends on something almost utilitarian — 助道之具, the equipment that aids the path, the word 具 being ordinary vocabulary for gear or implements.
Welcome
Every other teacher in this pilgrimage has waited to be asked. This one sees him at a distance and describes him to himself, at length, before a question is put.
爾時，觀自在菩薩遙見善財，告言：「善來！汝發大乘意普攝眾生，起正直心專求佛法，大悲深重救護一切，普賢妙行相續現前，大願深心圓滿清淨，勤求佛法悉能領受，積集善根恒無厭足，順善知識不違其教；從文殊師利功德智慧大海所生，其心成熟，得佛勢力；已獲廣大三昧光明，專意希求甚深妙法，常見諸佛生大歡喜，智慧清淨猶如虛空，既自明了復為他說，安住如來智慧光明。」
At that time, Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva, seeing Good-Wealth from far off, said to him: "Welcome! You have given rise to the intention of the Great Vehicle, to gather in beings universally; you have raised an upright mind, single-mindedly seeking the buddha-dharma; your great compassion is deep and weighty, rescuing and protecting all; Samantabhadra's wondrous practices appear before you one after another without a break; your great vows and profound mind are perfect and pure; you seek the buddha-dharma diligently and are able to receive it all; you accumulate roots of goodness and are never satisfied with them; and you follow your good spiritual friends without going against their teaching. You were born out of the great ocean of Mañjuśrī's merit and wisdom; your mind has ripened, and you have gained the buddhas' own force. You have already obtained the light of vast samādhi and single-mindedly aspire to the most profound and wondrous dharma; you constantly behold the buddhas and give rise to great delight; your wisdom is pure, like empty space; and having understood for yourself, you further teach others, abiding in the light of the tathāgata's wisdom."
遙見善財，告言：「善來！」 — seeing Good-Wealth from far off, he said to him: Welcome! 善來 is the formula reserved in this translation for greeting a tathāgata, and here a bodhisattva gives it to a boy still walking up a hill. It is worth setting the two speeches of this part side by side: Good-Wealth has just thought ten times over that a good spiritual friend is a tathāgata, and the teacher's first act is to greet him as one would greet a buddha.
從文殊師利功德智慧大海所生 — you were born out of the great ocean of Mañjuśrī's merit and wisdom. Mañjuśrī, who sent Good-Wealth out at the beginning of this chapter, has now been named twice within two parts — once as the teacher of Vasumitrā in a past life, and once here as the source of Good-Wealth himself. The pilgrimage keeps quietly returning to the bodhisattva who started it.
Part 1066 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle sixty-eight. Part 1067 has Good-Wealth ask his question and Avalokiteśvara answer with the liberation-gate of the practice of great compassion — how he gathers beings in through giving, kind speech, beneficial conduct, working alongside them, and by taking on their own shape and living among them.