Take It All and Give It Away
The mountains of treasure were never an offer. They were a demonstration — and the demonstration is that the only thing to do with everything is hand it on. Then Great God describes his other method, which is fear.
What the Heap Was For
Two uses, in order: offer it to the buddhas, and then give the rest away to everyone. The point of producing the treasure was to have something to let go of.
而彼大天告善財言：「善男子！可取此物，供養如來，修諸福德，并施一切，攝取眾生，令其修學檀波羅蜜，能捨難捨。善男子！如我為汝，示現此物，教汝行施；為一切眾生悉亦如是，皆令以此善根熏習，於三寶所、善知識所，恭敬供養，增長善法，發於無上菩提之意。
And that Great God said to Good-Wealth: "Good son, you may take these things, make offerings to the tathāgatas with them, and cultivate every merit; and give them all away besides, gathering beings in, causing them to learn and cultivate the dāna-pāramitā and to become able to give up what is hard to give up. Good son, just as I have manifested these things for you and taught you to practice giving, so I do for every being as well, causing them all to be perfumed by this root of goodness, so that toward the Three Jewels and toward their good spiritual friends they may pay reverence and make offerings, increase good dharmas, and give rise to the intention of unsurpassed awakening.
令其修學檀波羅蜜，能捨難捨 — causing them to learn and cultivate the dāna-pāramitā and to become able to give up what is hard to give up. 能捨難捨 puts the same verb on both sides: able-to-give-up what-is-hard-to-give-up. The difficulty is not removed by the practice; the capacity is what changes. And the heap he has conjured is precisely calibrated to be hard — it ended, in the previous part, on the implements of the five desires and companies of maidens.
皆令以此善根熏習 — causing them all to be perfumed by this root of goodness. 熏習 is the vocabulary of incense saturating cloth, and it is the standard Buddhist term for how habits are laid down. Giving is taught here as something that soaks in rather than something understood.
Three Kinds of Fright
His other method is to show people something they do not want to see. The three cases are matched to three faults, and the third is the most ordinary of all.
「善男子！若有眾生貪著五欲，自放逸者，為其示現不淨境界；若有眾生瞋恚、憍慢、多諍競者，為其示現極可怖形，如羅剎等飲血噉肉；令其見已，驚恐惶懼，心意調柔，捨離怨結。若有眾生惛沈、懶惰，為其示現王、賊、水、火及諸重疾；令其見已，心生惶怖，知有憂苦而自勉策。以如是等種種方便，令捨一切諸不善行，修行善法；令除一切波羅蜜障，具波羅蜜；令超一切障礙險道，到無障處。
"Good son, if there are beings who covet and cling to the five desires and give themselves over to license, for them I manifest impure objects. If there are beings who are angry, arrogant, and much given to contention, for them I manifest utterly terrifying forms — like rākṣasas drinking blood and devouring flesh — so that having seen them they are startled and afraid, their minds and thoughts grow pliant, and they let go of the knots of enmity. If there are beings who are torpid and slothful, for them I manifest kings, bandits, water, fire, and grave diseases, so that having seen them, dread arises in their minds, and knowing that there is sorrow and suffering, they spur themselves on. By every such skillful means I cause them to abandon all unwholesome conduct and to cultivate good dharmas, to remove every obstruction to the pāramitās and become complete in the pāramitās, and to pass beyond every obstructing and perilous road and arrive where there is no obstruction at all.
為其示現極可怖形，如羅剎等飲血噉肉 — for them I manifest utterly terrifying forms, like rākṣasas drinking blood and devouring flesh. The remedy is matched to the fault with some precision: those already full of anger and contention are shown what anger looks like when it is given a body. What it produces is 心意調柔, minds and thoughts grown pliant — the same word, 調, used of a trained elephant in Part 1056.
若有眾生惛沈、懶惰，為其示現王、賊、水、火及諸重疾 — for the torpid and slothful, kings, bandits, water, fire, and grave diseases. No demons for this case; the four classical calamities of ordinary life and illness are enough. 而自勉策, and they spur themselves on — the verb is the one used of urging a horse, and what the fright produces is not repentance but effort.
Five Elemental Similes
His confession is built as five comparisons — a god, water, fire, wind, and vajra — each one destroying a different thing, and each one the opposite of gentle.
「善男子！我唯知此雲網解脫。如諸菩薩摩訶薩，猶如帝釋，已能摧伏一切煩惱阿脩羅軍；猶如大水，普能消滅一切眾生諸煩惱火；猶如猛火，普能乾竭一切眾生諸愛欲水；猶如大風，普能吹倒一切眾生諸見取幢；猶如金剛，悉能摧破一切眾生諸我見山。而我云何能知能說彼功德行？
"Good son, I know only this Cloud-Net liberation. But the bodhisattva-mahāsattvas are like Śakra, already able to crush and subdue every asura army of the afflictions; like great waters, universally able to extinguish every fire of affliction in every being; like a fierce fire, universally able to dry up every water of craving and desire in every being; like a great wind, universally able to blow down every banner of grasping at views in every being; like vajra, wholly able to shatter every mountain of self-view in every being. How, then, could I know or speak of their meritorious practice?
猶如大水 … 猶如猛火 — like great waters … like a fierce fire. The two sit side by side and do opposite work: water quenches the fire of affliction, and fire evaporates the water of craving. Neither image is subordinated to the other, and the sūtra makes no attempt to reconcile them; each element is simply whatever will destroy the thing named next to it.
Back to Where It Began
The next destination is not further south. It is the place under the tree where this whole sūtra opened.
「善男子！此閻浮提摩竭提國菩提場中，有主地神，其名：安住。汝詣彼問：菩薩云何學菩薩行、修菩薩道？」時，善財童子禮大天足，遶無數匝，辭退而去。
"Good son, here in Jambudvīpa, in the awakening site in the country of Magadha, there is an earth-spirit whose name is Firmly Abiding. You should go there and ask: how does a bodhisattva learn the bodhisattva practices, and cultivate the bodhisattva path?" At that time, Good-Wealth bowed at Great God's feet, circled him countless times, took his leave, and departed.
此閻浮提摩竭提國菩提場中 — here in Jambudvīpa, in the awakening site in the country of Magadha. This is the address given in the sūtra's very first line, where the Buddha sits in the awakening site in Magadha at the moment of his awakening. After thirty teachers and a journey of unspeakable length, Good-Wealth is sent back to the spot where the Avataṃsaka began — and the teacher waiting there is the ground itself, in the person of its own spirit.
主地神，其名：安住 — an earth-spirit whose name is Firmly Abiding. 安住 is plain Chinese and is one of this translation's commonest terms for abiding securely in a dharma; here it is a proper name, and it belongs to the ground. The Chinese gives no gender for this spirit, and we have not supplied one.
Part 1071 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle sixty-eight. Part 1072 brings Good-Wealth to the awakening site, where a million earth-spirits discuss him among themselves, flood the trichiliocosm with light, make the whole earth roar, and cause every leaf-tree to grow and every fruit-tree to ripen at once.