Attending Bodhisattvas Since Dīpaṃkara
The earth-spirit's own account is a job description held for an unimaginable term. She has been watching bodhisattvas, guarding them, and remembering everything, since the buddha under whom Śākyamuni himself first made the vow.
Guarding, and Watching, and Remembering
Three verbs govern the whole account: following, guarding, and observing. Everything else in the sentence is the list of what there was to observe.
「善男子！我憶自從然燈佛來，常隨菩薩，恭敬守護，觀察菩薩所有心行、智慧境界、一切誓願、諸清淨行、一切三昧、廣大神通、大自在力、無能壞法，遍往一切諸佛國土，普授一切諸如來記，轉於一切諸佛法輪，廣說一切修多羅門，大法光明普皆照耀，教化調伏一切眾生，示現一切諸佛神變，我皆能領受、皆能憶持。
"Good son, I recall that ever since the time of the Buddha Dīpaṃkara I have constantly followed the bodhisattvas, reverently guarding and protecting them, and observing all of the bodhisattvas' own mental conduct, their domain of wisdom, their every vow, their pure practices, their every samādhi, their vast spiritual powers, their great sovereign strength, their indestructible dharma; how they go throughout every buddha-land, universally bestow the prophecy of every tathāgata, turn the dharma-wheel of every buddha, expound at length every gate of the sūtras, so that the light of the great dharma shines out universally, teaching, transforming and taming every being, and manifesting the spiritual transformations of every buddha — all of this I have been able to receive and able to hold in memory.
我憶自從然燈佛來，常隨菩薩，恭敬守護 — I recall that ever since the time of the Buddha Dīpaṃkara I have constantly followed the bodhisattvas, reverently guarding and protecting them. Dīpaṃkara is the buddha under whom, in the received account of Śākyamuni's own past lives, the future Buddha first received the prophecy of his awakening. Dating her service from that point makes her an attendant not of a buddha but of the whole long condition of being on the way to becoming one.
我皆能領受、皆能憶持 — all of this I have been able to receive and able to hold in memory. Her power is memory, which is the appropriate power for ground to have. Nothing she describes is an intervention; she witnesses and retains, and in the previous part what she produced for Good-Wealth was his own buried history.
An Eon Named Adornment, a World Named Moon-Banner
The provenance is given precisely: an eon, a world, a buddha. And then the stretch of time between receiving the gate and now, measured in buddhas met.
「善男子！乃往古世，過須彌山微塵數劫，有劫名：莊嚴，世界名：月幢，佛號：妙眼，於彼佛所得此法門。
"Good son, in an age long past, beyond eons as numerous as the motes of dust in Mount Sumeru, there was an eon named Adornment, and a world named Moon-Banner, and a buddha titled Wondrous Eye; and it was at that buddha's place that I attained this dharma-gate.
善男子！我於此法門，若入若出修習增長，常見諸佛未曾捨離，始從初得乃至賢劫，於其中間，值遇不可說不可說佛剎微塵數如來、應、正等覺，悉皆承事，恭敬供養；亦見彼佛詣菩提座，現大神力；亦見彼佛所有一切功德善根。
Good son, in this dharma-gate, whether entering it or coming out of it, I have cultivated and increased it, constantly beholding the buddhas and never once parting from them; and from the time I first attained it down to the Fortunate Eon, throughout that interval I have encountered tathāgatas, worthy ones, fully and perfectly awakened ones as numerous as the fine motes of dust in unspeakably unspeakable buddha-lands, and have served them all and reverently made offerings to them. I have also seen those buddhas go to the seat of awakening and manifest great spiritual power; and I have also seen all the merit and roots of goodness those buddhas possess.
始從初得乃至賢劫 — from the time I first attained it down to the Fortunate Eon. 賢劫 is the present cosmic age, the one in which a thousand buddhas appear; this translation has elsewhere rendered it as the fortunate kalpa. Her account therefore runs from an eon beyond Sumeru-dust-motes of eons ago right up to the age Good-Wealth is standing in.
亦見彼佛詣菩提座 — I have also seen those buddhas go to the seat of awakening. She is the spirit of the ground at the awakening site, so of every event in a buddha's career this is the one she would have witnessed from directly underneath.
To the City of Kapila, at Nightfall
Her confession, and then a destination that is not southward but a named city — and a teacher who can only be met after dark.
「善男子！我唯知此不可壞智慧藏法門。如諸菩薩摩訶薩常隨諸佛，能持一切諸佛所說，入一切佛甚深智慧，念念充遍一切法界，等如來身，生諸佛心，具諸佛法，作諸佛事；而我云何能知能說彼功德行？
"Good son, I know only this dharma-gate of the indestructible treasury of wisdom. But the bodhisattva-mahāsattvas constantly follow the buddhas; they are able to hold everything every buddha has spoken; they enter the profound wisdom of every buddha; thought after thought they fill the whole dharma-realm; they equal the tathāgata's body, give rise to the buddhas' mind, are complete in the buddhas' dharma, and do the buddhas' work. How, then, could I know or speak of their meritorious practice?
「善男子！此閻浮提摩竭提國迦毘羅城，有主夜神，名：婆珊婆演底。汝詣彼問：菩薩云何學菩薩行、修菩薩道？」時，善財童子禮地神足，遶無數匝，慇懃瞻仰，辭退而去。
"Good son, here in Jambudvīpa, in the city of Kapila in the country of Magadha, there is a night-spirit named Vāsantī. 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 the earth-spirit's feet, circled them countless times, gazed up at them with earnest devotion, took his leave, and departed.
爾時，善財童子一心思惟安住神教，憶持菩薩不可沮壞智藏解脫，修其三昧，學其軌則，觀其遊戲，入其微妙，得其智慧，達其平等，知其無邊，測其甚深。
At that time, Good-Wealth single-mindedly contemplated the spirit Firmly Abiding's teaching, held in memory the bodhisattva liberation of the indestructible treasury of wisdom, cultivated its samādhi, learned its rule, observed its play, entered its subtlety, attained its wisdom, reached its equality, knew its boundlessness, and sounded its depth.
有主夜神，名：婆珊婆演底 — there is a night-spirit named Vāsantī. 主夜神 is a spirit presiding over the night; the name itself is pure transliteration in the Chinese, and we restore it as Vāsantī, a form that carries the sense of spring. This is the first of the night-spirits among Good-Wealth's teachers, and it extends an unbroken run of non-monastic teachers reaching back to the bhikṣuṇī Lion's Roar — a laywoman, a householder, two bodhisattvas, a city spirit, an earth-spirit, and now a spirit of the night.
修其三昧，學其軌則，觀其遊戲，入其微妙 — cultivated its samādhi, learned its rule, observed its play, entered its subtlety. Eight clauses of this shape close the part, each taking the same liberation as object and a different verb. 遊戲, play, sits between 軌則, rule, and 微妙, subtlety, without apology — the sūtra's usual word for a bodhisattva's effortless exercise of power.
Part 1073 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle sixty-eight. Part 1074 brings Good-Wealth through the eastern gate of Kapila just as the sun sets, four things a good spiritual friend gives him, and his first sight of Vāsantī in the sky — gold-bodied, robed in red, crowned like Brahmā, with the constellations blazing across her body.