What He Planted in This Ground
A million earth-spirits are waiting where the sūtra began, and they talk about Good-Wealth before he arrives. Then the ground itself flowers, ripens, fills and roars — and the spirit who keeps it shows him something that was his all along.
A Million Spirits, Talking About Him
They do not address him. They discuss him among themselves, in the future tense, and every clause is a prediction.
爾時，善財童子漸次遊行，趣摩竭提國菩提場內安住神所，百萬地神同在其中，更相謂言：「此來童子即是佛藏，必當普為一切眾生作所依處，必當普壞一切眾生無明㲉藏。此人已生法王種中，當以離垢無礙法繒而冠其首，當開智慧大珍寶藏，摧伏一切邪論異道。」
At that time, Good-Wealth journeyed onward by stages and made for where the spirit Firmly Abiding was, in the awakening site in the country of Magadha. A million earth-spirits were together there, and they said to one another: "This youth who has come is himself a treasury of buddhas. He will surely become a place of reliance for every being universally, and will surely destroy universally the shell-treasury of ignorance in every being. This person has already been born into the lineage of the dharma-king; the stainless, unobstructed silk banner of the dharma will crown his head; he will open the great treasury of precious jewels that is wisdom, and crush and subdue every false doctrine and heterodox path."
此來童子即是佛藏 — this youth who has come is himself a treasury of buddhas. 即是, simply is, not will become. The predictions that follow are all 必當 and 當, surely will and will — but the first statement is present tense. What he will do is forecast; what he is, is already the case.
必當普壞一切眾生無明㲉藏 — will surely destroy universally the shell-treasury of ignorance in every being. 㲉 is the shell of an egg. Ignorance is not a darkness here but an enclosure that something living is still inside, and the promised act is breaking it open from without.
The Ground Answers
Nine things happen at once, and not one of them is symbolic. Trees grow, flowers open, fruit ripens, rivers pour, pools fill — the response to his arrival is the earth doing everything it does, immediately.
時，安住等百萬地神，放大光明，遍照三千大千世界，普令大地同時震吼，種種寶物處處莊嚴，影潔光流遞相鑒徹；一切葉樹俱時生長，一切華樹咸共開敷，一切果樹靡不成熟，一切河流遞相灌注，一切池沼悉皆盈滿；雨細香雨遍灑其地，風來吹華普散其上，無數音樂一時俱奏，天莊嚴具咸出美音；牛王、象王、師子王等，皆生歡喜，踊躍、哮吼，猶如大山相擊出聲；百千伏藏自然踊現。
At that time Firmly Abiding and the million earth-spirits released a great radiance that universally illuminated the great trichiliocosm, and caused the whole earth to quake and roar at once. Every kind of jewelled thing adorned the place everywhere, its shadows pure and its light flowing, each mirroring clear through the others. Every leaf-tree grew at the same moment, every flowering tree opened out together, and not one fruit-tree failed to ripen; every river poured into the next, and every pool and mere was filled to the brim. A fine rain of fragrance rained down and sprinkled the ground all over, a wind came and blew the flowers and scattered them universally upon it, countless musics sounded all at once, and the heavenly adornments all gave forth beautiful tones. Bull kings, elephant kings and lion kings all gave rise to delight, leaping up and roaring like great mountains striking one another and giving out sound; and a hundred thousand hidden treasuries surged up of themselves.
一切葉樹俱時生長，一切華樹咸共開敷，一切果樹靡不成熟 — every leaf-tree grew at the same moment, every flowering tree opened out together, not one fruit-tree failed to ripen. Three stages of a growing season happening in the same instant. Elsewhere in this pilgrimage a teacher's power is shown by light or by numbers; here it is shown by agriculture running at once through its whole cycle.
百千伏藏自然踊現 — a hundred thousand hidden treasuries surged up of themselves. 伏藏 is buried treasure, and 自然, of themselves, is the point — nothing is being given. What was already under the ground simply comes up, which is exactly what the spirit will say about it in a moment.
Do You Wish to See?
The teacher's first words are a greeting and then a question — not about the dharma, but about whether he would like to look at his own past.
時，安住地神告善財言：「善來童子！汝於此地曾種善根，我為汝現，汝欲見不？」
At that time the earth-spirit Firmly Abiding said to Good-Wealth: "Welcome, youth! In this ground you once planted roots of goodness. I shall manifest them for you — do you wish to see?"
爾時，善財禮地神足，遶無數匝，合掌而立，白言：「聖者！唯然！欲見。」
At that time, Good-Wealth bowed at the earth-spirit's feet, circled them countless times, and stood with his palms joined, saying: "Noble one — yes! I wish to see."
It Was Always Yours
A foot presses down, and the ground gives up what it has been holding. And then the crucial clause — the treasure is not a gift.
時，安住地神以足按地，百千億阿僧祇寶藏自然踊出，告言：「善男子！今此寶藏隨逐於汝，是汝往昔善根果報，是汝福力之所攝受，汝應隨意自在受用。
At that time the earth-spirit Firmly Abiding pressed a foot down upon the ground, and hundreds of thousands of millions of asaṃkhyeya treasuries surged up of themselves; and the spirit said to him: "Good son, these treasuries now follow after you. They are the fruit and recompense of your own roots of goodness in the past; they are what the power of your merit has gathered in. You should use and enjoy them freely, as you wish.
「善男子！我得菩薩解脫，名：不可壞智慧藏，常以此法成就眾生。
"Good son, I have attained a bodhisattva liberation named the Indestructible Treasury of Wisdom, and by means of this dharma I constantly bring beings to accomplishment.
是汝往昔善根果報，是汝福力之所攝受 — they are the fruit and recompense of your own roots of goodness in the past; they are what the power of your merit has gathered in. Compare the previous teacher, Great God, who conjured mountains of treasure in the street and told Good-Wealth to give it all away. This one produces treasure too, and says the opposite: it was already his, it has been waiting under this ground, and he may use it as he pleases. The two teachings are not in conflict — one concerns what to do with wealth, the other where wealth comes from — but the sūtra has set them side by side deliberately.
以足按地 — pressed a foot down upon the ground. The same gesture as Right Course Bodhisattva two teachers ago, whose footfall on the rim of the world shook it six ways. Here the foot belongs to the ground's own spirit, pressed on the ground itself, and what it raises is a man's history.
Part 1072 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle sixty-eight. Part 1073 gives the earth-spirit's own account — attendance on bodhisattvas since the time of the Buddha Dīpaṃkara, the eon called Adornment and the world called Moon-Banner where the dharma-gate was received, and a confession before bodhisattvas who fill the whole dharma-realm thought after thought.