Good Spirits, Good Birds, Glowing Herbs
The night-spirit's account of her work keeps descending into particulars. Stranded in the hills, a person needs company, a reassuring noise, and something that glows — so that is what she becomes. Then she names the vow attached to each rescue.
Six Things People Are Afraid to Lose
Before the travellers, the ordinary fears of people who are not lost at all — life, name, money, rank, children, spouse — and the same remedy is applied.
一切眾生，有惜壽命，有愛名聞，有貪財寶，有重官位，有著男女，有戀妻妾，未稱所求，多生憂怖；我皆救濟，令其離苦。
Among all beings, some cherish their own lifespan, some love their reputation, some covet wealth and jewels, some set store by official rank, some are attached to sons and daughters, some are bound to wife and concubine; and when what they seek is not met, sorrow and fear arise in them abundantly. All of them I rescue and deliver, causing them to be free of suffering.
未稱所求，多生憂怖 — when what they seek is not met, sorrow and fear arise in them abundantly. The clause locates the fear precisely: not in losing the thing, but in the gap between what is wanted and what is had. Her list runs from lifespan down to a concubine without changing tone, and the remedy — 我皆救濟, all of them I rescue — is stated in the same words she uses for people drowning.
Three Things to Become on a Mountain
A spirit that comes close, a bird that makes a pleasant noise, a herb that gives off light. Then four things she points at, all of them practical.
「為行山險而留難者，為作善神，現形親近；為作好鳥，發音慰悅；為作靈藥，舒光照耀；示其果樹，示其泉井，示正直道，示平坦地，令其免離一切憂厄。
"For those held up by peril while travelling in the mountains, I become a good spirit and appear in a form that draws near to them; I become a fine bird and give forth sounds that console and gladden them; I become a numinous herb and stretch out light to shine upon them; I show them the fruit trees, I show them the springs and wells, I show them the straight road, I show them the level ground, so that they escape and are free of every distress and calamity.
「為行曠野、稠林、險道，藤蘿所羂、雲霧所暗而恐怖者，示其正道，令得出離。作是念言：『願一切眾生，伐見稠林，截愛羅網，出生死野，滅煩惱暗，入一切智平坦正道，到無畏處畢竟安樂。』
"For those who are terrified while travelling in open wilderness, in dense thickets, and on perilous roads, snared by creepers and vines and darkened by cloud and fog, I show them the right road so that they get out. And I think this: 'May every being cut down the thicket of views, sever the net of craving, come out of the wilderness of birth and death, extinguish the darkness of affliction, enter the level and straight road of all-knowing wisdom, and arrive at the place without fear, in bliss that has no end.'
為作好鳥，發音慰悅 — I become a fine bird and give forth sounds that console and gladden them. Of everything in this passage this is the smallest intervention: a bird call in the dark, for no purpose except that the person hearing it should feel better. The sūtra ranks it alongside stilling the waves of the ocean.
伐見稠林，截愛羅網，出生死野 — cut down the thicket of views, sever the net of craving, come out of the wilderness of birth and death. Her vow takes the landscape she has just been describing and makes every feature of it doctrinal: the thicket that snares travellers becomes the thicket of 見, views; the vines become the net of craving; the wilderness becomes birth and death. The physical rescue and its meaning are stated in a single vocabulary.
Country, Village, House
Two cases of a different kind: people who are not lost but too settled. The remedy is 厭離, weariness and detachment — and she wishes it on them.
「善男子！若有眾生，樂著國土而憂苦者；我以方便，令生厭離。作是念言：『願一切眾生不著諸蘊，住一切佛薩婆若境。』
"Good son, if there are beings who delight and cling to their own country and are made wretched by it, by skillful means I cause weariness and detachment to arise in them. And I think this: 'May every being be unattached to the aggregates, and abide in every buddha's own domain of all-knowing wisdom.'
「善男子！若有眾生，樂著聚落，貪愛宅舍，常處黑暗，受諸苦者；我為說法，令生厭離，令法滿足，令依法住。作是念言：『願一切眾生，悉不貪樂六處聚落，速得出離生死境界，究竟安住一切智城。』
"Good son, if there are beings who delight and cling to their village, who covet and love their house, who dwell constantly in darkness and undergo every suffering, I teach them the dharma, causing weariness and detachment to arise in them, causing the dharma to fill them, causing them to abide in reliance on the dharma. And I think this: 'May every being cease to covet and delight in the village of the six sense-fields, swiftly get free of the domain of birth and death, and abide at last in the city of all-knowing wisdom.'
悉不貪樂六處聚落 — may they cease to covet and delight in the village of the six sense-fields. 六處聚落 is the standard image from the chain of dependent origination, where name-and-form gives rise to the village of the six senses. The move is deft: she has just been speaking of people who love their actual villages and houses, and the vow reveals which village she means.
Taking High for Low
The last case is the one closest to her own liberation's name — not danger but disorientation, in which the safe road feels deadly and the deadly one feels safe.
「善男子！若有眾生行暗夜中，迷惑十方，於平坦路生險難想，於險難道起平坦想，以高為下，以下為高，其心迷惑，生大苦惱。
"Good son, if there are beings walking in the dark of night who grow confused about the ten directions — so that on a level road the notion of peril and hardship arises in them, and on a perilous road the notion of levelness arises; taking the high for low and the low for high, their minds confused and great suffering and distress arising in them —
我以方便舒光照及，若欲出者，示其門戶；若欲行者，示其道路；欲度溝洫，示其橋梁；欲涉河海，與其船筏；樂觀方者，示其險易安危之處；欲休息者，示其城邑、水、樹之所。
— then by skillful means I stretch out light to reach and shine upon them. If they wish to go out, I show them the gate; if they wish to travel, I show them the road; if they would cross ditches and channels, I show them the bridge; if they would ford rivers and seas, I give them a boat or a raft; for those who would survey the lie of the land, I show them where it is perilous and where easy, where safe and where not; and for those who wish to rest, I show them the towns, the water, and the trees.
於平坦路生險難想，於險難道起平坦想，以高為下，以下為高 — on a level road the notion of peril arises, and on a perilous road the notion of levelness; taking high for low and low for high. This is 癡暗, the darkness of delusion, in its most exact form: not an absence of information but an inversion of it. The person is not blind; they are confidently wrong, which is worse.
欲度溝洫，示其橋梁；欲涉河海，與其船筏 — if they would cross ditches, I show them the bridge; if they would ford rivers and seas, I give them a boat or a raft. Note the change of verb: a bridge is 示, shown, because it is already there; a boat is 與, given. She provides only what the place does not already have.
Part 1076 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle sixty-eight. Part 1077 turns her vow from the literal night to the long night of birth and death — a catalogue of the inverted views and the grave acts that carry beings toward the three evil destinies, and her wish to break that darkness with the light of great wisdom.