A Bodhisattva Arrives From the East
For the first time in this pilgrimage, Good-Wealth does not travel to the next teacher — the next teacher arrives, out of the sky, and puts his foot on the edge of the world. And when Good-Wealth asks his question, the answer is that the question is too hard to answer.
One Foot on the Rim of the World
He does not walk in. He comes down on the Cakravāḍa mountains at the edge of this world-system, and everything that follows happens before he has taken a second step.
爾時，東方有一菩薩，名曰：正趣，從空中來，至娑婆世界輪圍山頂，以足按地；其娑婆世界六種震動，一切皆以眾寶莊嚴。正趣菩薩放身光明，映蔽一切日、月、星、電，天龍八部、釋、梵、護世所有光明皆如聚墨；其光普照一切地獄、畜生、餓鬼、閻羅王處，令諸惡趣，眾苦皆滅，煩惱不起，憂悲悉離。又於一切諸佛國土，普雨一切華香、瓔珞、衣服、幢蓋；如是所有諸莊嚴具，供養於佛。復隨眾生心之所樂，普於一切諸宮殿中而現其身，令其見者皆悉歡喜，然後來詣觀自在所。
At that time, in the east there was a bodhisattva named Right Course, who came through the sky and reached the summit of the Cakravāḍa rim-mountain of the Sahā world, and pressed his foot down upon the ground; and this Sahā world shook in six ways, and the whole of it was adorned with a multitude of jewels. Right Course Bodhisattva released the radiance of his body, which outshone and eclipsed every sun, moon, star and flash of lightning, so that all the light belonging to the eight classes of gods and dragons, to Śakra, to Brahmā, and to the world-protectors was like heaps of black ink. His light universally illuminated every hell, the animal realm, the hungry ghosts, and King Yama's domain, causing in all those evil destinies the extinguishing of every suffering, so that afflictions did not arise and sorrow and grief departed entirely. And throughout every buddha-land he rained down universally every flower and fragrance, necklaces, garments, banners and canopies; every adornment such as these he offered to the buddhas. Then, in accordance with what beings delighted in, he manifested his body universally within every palace, causing all who saw it to rejoice — and only then did he come to where Avalokiteśvara was.
以足按地；其娑婆世界六種震動 — he pressed his foot down upon the ground, and this Sahā world shook in six ways. The same mechanism as the Tathāgata Lofty Practice two teachers ago, whose single step on a city threshold made the city grow: contact with the ground, and the ground answers. Here the ground is a whole world-system.
所有光明皆如聚墨 — all their light was like heaps of black ink. The image is already used in this translation of the fire of an ascetic's austerities outshining the palaces of māras; here it is applied to the sun, the moon, the stars, lightning, Śakra, Brahmā and the world-protectors at once. Ink is not merely dimmer than light — it is the blackest thing a scribe handles, which is why the comparison bites.
然後來詣觀自在所 — and only then did he come to where Avalokiteśvara was. 然後, only then, closes a sequence in which he has already quenched the sufferings of the hells, made offerings in every buddha-land, and appeared in every palace. The visit to Avalokiteśvara is the last item on the list, and it is the reason he came.
Do You See Him?
Avalokiteśvara does not send Good-Wealth south this time. He simply asks whether the boy has noticed who has just walked into the assembly.
時，觀自在菩薩告善財言：「善男子！汝見正趣菩薩來此會不？」白言：「已見。」告言：「善男子！汝可往問：菩薩云何學菩薩行、修菩薩道？」
At that time, Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva said to Good-Wealth: "Good son, do you see Right Course Bodhisattva, who has come to this assembly?" He replied: "I have seen him." Avalokiteśvara said: "Good son, you may go and ask him: how does a bodhisattva learn the bodhisattva practices, and cultivate the bodhisattva path?"
爾時，善財童子敬承其教，遽即往詣彼菩薩所，頂禮其足，合掌而立，白言：「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！」
At that time, Good-Wealth received that instruction respectfully and went at once to where that bodhisattva was, bowed his head at his feet, and stood with his 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 how a bodhisattva cultivates the bodhisattva path. I have heard that the noble one is skillfully able to teach and instruct — please, explain it to me!"
汝見正趣菩薩來此會不 — do you see Right Course Bodhisattva, who has come to this assembly? Every previous handover in this pilgrimage has named a distant country, a city and a road. This one is a question about what is in the room. The teacher is not somewhere Good-Wealth must go; he is standing there, and the only thing required is to notice.
Three Questions, and a Refusal
Good-Wealth asks more than usual — where, how far, how long — and is told, at length, that the answer is beyond nearly everyone. The list of who could bear it is also a list of what he must already be.
正趣菩薩言：「善男子！我得菩薩解脫，名：普門速疾行。」善財言：「聖者！於何佛所得此法門？所從來剎，去此幾何？發來久如？」
Right Course Bodhisattva said: "Good son, I have attained a bodhisattva liberation named the Swift Practice Through the Universal Gate." Good-Wealth said: "Noble one, at which buddha's place did you attain this dharma-gate? The buddha-land you came from — how far is it from here? And how long ago did you set out?"
告言：「善男子！此事難知，一切世間天、人、阿脩羅、沙門、婆羅門等所不能了；唯勇猛精進無退無怯諸菩薩眾，已為一切善友所攝、諸佛所念，善根具足，志樂清淨，得菩薩根，有智慧眼，能聞能持，能解能說。」
He said to him: "Good son, this matter is hard to know. No one in any world — not gods, humans, asuras, śramaṇas, or brāhmaṇas — is able to comprehend it. Only those assemblies of bodhisattvas who are valiant and vigorous, who never retreat and never quail, who have already been gathered in by every good friend and held in mind by every buddha, whose roots of goodness are complete, whose aspiration and delight are pure, who have attained the bodhisattva faculties and possess the eye of wisdom — only they are able to hear it and hold it, able to understand it and speak it."
善財言：「聖者！我承佛神力、善知識力，能信能受，願為我說！」
Good-Wealth said: "Noble one, sustained by the Buddha's spiritual power and by the power of my good spiritual friends, I am able to believe it and able to receive it. Please, explain it to me!"
於何佛所得此法門？所從來剎，去此幾何？發來久如？ — at which buddha's place did you attain this dharma-gate? How far is the land you came from? How long ago did you set out? Three questions in a row, which is unusual for Good-Wealth; he normally asks one. The arrival he has just witnessed has made him curious about distance and duration rather than about doctrine.
我承佛神力、善知識力，能信能受 — sustained by the Buddha's spiritual power and by the power of my good spiritual friends, I am able to believe it and able to receive it. He does not argue that he meets the qualifications listed. He claims the two supports instead, and the claim is accepted — which is itself the answer to the ten things he thought about good spiritual friends two parts ago.
Part 1068 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle sixty-eight. Part 1069 gives Right Course's answer — the world he came from, the buddha he received the gate from, and the arithmetic of his journey, in which every single step crosses more buddha-lands than can be counted.