The Night-Spirit Who Woke the Queen
A buddha awakens in a grove outside the capital, and a night-spirit walks into the palace and rattles the sleeping queen's jewellery until she opens her eyes. Vāsantī then says who the queen was — and the same spirit will come back for her a second time, eons later.
Shaking Her Necklaces
The news is enormous and the method of delivering it is entirely domestic: someone comes into the room and makes a noise with the jewellery.
「爾時，有佛名：一切法雷音王，於此樹下成等正覺，放無量色廣大光明，遍照出生妙寶世界。
"At that time there was a buddha named All-Dharma Thunder-Voice King, who attained perfect awakening beneath this tree and released a vast radiance of measureless colors that universally illuminated the world Producing Wondrous Jewels.
蓮華光城內有主夜神，名為：淨月，詣王夫人法慧月所，動身瓔珞以覺夫人，而告之言：『夫人當知，一切法雷音王如來，於寂住林成無上覺，及廣為說諸佛功德自在神力、普賢菩薩所有行願。』
Within the city of Lotus Light there was a night-spirit named Pure Moon, who went to where the king's consort Dharma-Wisdom Moon was and shook the necklaces on her body to wake her, saying to her: 'Consort, you should know that the Tathāgata All-Dharma Thunder-Voice King has attained unsurpassed awakening in the grove Tranquil Dwelling, and is expounding at length the merit of the buddhas, their sovereign spiritual power, and all the practices and vows of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva.'
令王夫人發阿耨多羅三藐三菩提意，供養彼佛及諸菩薩、聲聞、僧眾。
And she caused the king's consort to give rise to the intention of anuttara-samyak-sambodhi and to make offerings to that buddha and to the bodhisattvas, the śrāvakas, and the assembly of the saṅgha.
動身瓔珞以覺夫人 — she shook the necklaces on her body to wake the consort. 覺 here is simply to wake someone from sleep, and it is the same character the sūtra uses for awakening in the highest sense — 成無上覺, attained unsurpassed awakening, in the very next clause. The passage puts the two senses one after the other without comment, and the mechanism of the first is a sound made by jewellery.
蓮華光城內有主夜神，名為：淨月 — within the city of Lotus Light there was a night-spirit named Pure Moon. A night-spirit is telling Good-Wealth about a night-spirit. The one being described does exactly what the one describing her now does: goes to a person in the dark and brings word that changes everything.
It Was Myself
The reveal is a rhetorical question and an exclamation, and then the account of what that one act of aspiration bought — followed by the admission that it was not enough.
「善男子！時王夫人法慧月者，豈異人乎？我身是也！
"Good son, that king's consort, Dharma-Wisdom Moon — was she some other person? It was myself!
「我於彼佛所發菩提心種善根故，於須彌山微塵數劫，不生地獄、餓鬼、畜生諸惡趣中，亦不生於下賤之家，諸根具足，無有眾苦，於天人中福德殊勝，不生惡世，恒不離佛及諸菩薩、大善知識，常於其所種植善根，經八十須彌山微塵數劫常受安樂，而未滿足菩薩諸根。
"Because at that buddha's place I gave rise to the mind of awakening and planted roots of goodness, for eons as numerous as the motes of dust in Mount Sumeru I was not born in the hells, among the hungry ghosts, among animals, or in any of the evil destinies, nor was I born into a lowly family; my faculties were complete and I had no manifold suffering; among gods and humans my merit was surpassing; I was not born in an evil age; I was constantly never apart from the buddhas, the bodhisattvas, and great good spiritual friends, and constantly planted roots of goodness in their presence; and for eighty times the motes of dust in Mount Sumeru in eons I constantly enjoyed ease and happiness — and yet the bodhisattva faculties were still not complete in me.
豈異人乎？我身是也 — was she some other person? It was myself! The sūtra's standard formula for a past-life reveal, and this translation has met it before; what is striking here is what it identifies. The teacher who now works the night roads of Kapila was once a queen who had to be woken up.
經八十須彌山微塵數劫常受安樂，而未滿足菩薩諸根 — for eighty times the motes of dust in Mount Sumeru in eons I constantly enjoyed ease and happiness — and yet the bodhisattva faculties were still not complete in me. The 而 turns the whole recital of good fortune into a report of insufficiency. Eighty Sumeru-dust-mote eons of never being born badly, never suffering, never losing sight of a buddha — and the account's verdict on all of it is 未滿足, not yet complete.
She Comes Back, and Wakes Her Again
A second world, a second buddha, a second sleeping woman — and the spirit who arrives is the same one, reborn on purpose.
「過此劫已，復過萬劫，於賢劫前，有劫名：無憂遍照，世界名：離垢妙光。其世界中淨穢相雜，有五百佛於中出現。其第一佛，名：須彌幢寂靜妙眼如來、應、正等覺；我為：名稱長者；女名：妙慧光明，端正殊妙。
"When those eons had passed, and a further ten thousand eons had passed, then before the Fortunate Eon there was an eon named Sorrowless Universal Illumination, and a world named Stainless Wondrous Light. In that world pure and defiled were mixed together, and five hundred buddhas appeared in it. The first of those buddhas was named Sumeru-Banner Tranquil Wondrous Eye, tathāgata, worthy one, fully and perfectly awakened; and I was then born to an elder named Renown, a daughter named Wondrous Wisdom Radiance, upright and surpassingly lovely.
彼淨月夜神，以願力故，於離垢世界一四天下妙幢王城中生，作主夜神，名：清淨眼。
That night-spirit Pure Moon, by the power of her own vow, was born in the city of King Wondrous Banner, in one of the four continents of the world Stainless, and became a night-spirit there named Pure Eye.
我於一時，在父母邊，夜久眠息。彼清淨眼來詣我所，震動我宅，放大光明，出現其身，讚佛功德言：『妙眼如來坐菩提座，始成正覺。』勸諭於我及以父母并諸眷屬，令速見佛；自為前導，引至佛所，廣興供養。
At one time I was beside my parents, deep asleep late at night. That Pure Eye came to where I was, shook my house, released a great radiance, manifested her own body, and praised the merit of the Buddha, saying: 'The Tathāgata Wondrous Eye is seated on the seat of awakening, and has just attained perfect awakening.' She urged and exhorted me, and my parents and all our household, to go and see the Buddha quickly; and she herself went ahead as our guide, and led us to where the Buddha was, where we made abundant offerings.
彼淨月夜神，以願力故 … 作主夜神，名：清淨眼 — that night-spirit Pure Moon, by the power of her own vow … became a night-spirit there named Pure Eye. She takes rebirth deliberately, keeps the same office, and finds the same person again. The episode is a small model of what a good spiritual friend is in this sūtra: not a teacher one meets once, but someone who arranges to be there the next time as well.
震動我宅，放大光明，出現其身 — she shook my house, released a great radiance, manifested her own body. Compare the first visit, where all she did was rattle a necklace. The method has escalated with the recipient: a queen in her chamber needed a sound, and a merchant's daughter asleep beside her parents got the house shaken and the room lit.
我為：名稱長者；女名：妙慧光明 — the punctuation of the received text sets these off as two separate phrases, an elder named Renown and a daughter named Wondrous Wisdom Radiance, and does not state the relation outright. The following sentence, in which she is asleep 在父母邊, beside her parents, settles it: she is the daughter, and Renown is her father.
其世界中淨穢相雜 — in that world pure and defiled were mixed together. The detail is dropped in without emphasis and is worth noticing: her decisive rebirth does not happen in a pure land. It happens in a mixed world, in a household, with her parents present.
Part 1080 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle sixty-eight. Part 1081 gives what she gained the moment she saw that buddha — a samādhi of threefold wisdom-light, and then the liberation itself, expanding thought after thought from one world to a hundred to unspeakably many, until it fills the dharma-realm.