In the Great Night of Birth and Death
For the solitary she quiets the noise and teaches at the darkest hour. For the rest she works on what has not happened yet — stopping the deed that would have been done, starting the good that has not arisen. Then the next teacher turns out to be a few steps away.
Eleven Services for Someone Living Alone
Her method with a solitary practitioner begins with silence and ends with praise of teachers — and in between she simply makes the night navigable.
若有眾生住於空閑，我為止息諸惡音聲，於靜夜時為說深法，與順行緣，開出家門，示正道路，為作光明，除其闇障，滅其怖畏，讚出家業，歎佛、法、僧及善知識具諸功德，亦歎親近善知識行。
If there are beings dwelling in solitude, for them I still every evil sound; in the quiet of night I teach them the profound dharma; I give them conditions favorable to practice; I open the gate of leaving home; I show them the right road; I make a light for them; I remove their darkening obstructions; I extinguish their fear and dread; I praise the work of renunciation; I extol the merit that is complete in the Buddha, the dharma, the saṅgha and good spiritual friends; and I extol the practice of drawing near to good spiritual friends.
我為止息諸惡音聲，於靜夜時為說深法 — for them I still every evil sound; in the quiet of night I teach them the profound dharma. The first service is the removal of noise, and it comes before the teaching. 靜夜, the quiet of night, is both the hour she governs and the condition she has just created: the silence is her work, and the dharma is taught into it.
開出家門，示正道路 — I open the gate of leaving home, I show them the right road. Two parts ago she was urging householders into 非家, the not-home; here she is opening the gate for people already living in 空閑, solitude. The same teaching is offered at both ends — to those who need to leave and to those who have already left and need to know where to go.
Work on What Has Not Happened Yet
Almost everything in this passage is in a conditional or future tense. She is not correcting conduct; she is intervening before it exists.
「復次，善男子！我修解脫時，令諸眾生，不生非法貪，不起邪分別，不作諸罪業。若已作者，皆令止息；若未生善法，未修波羅蜜行，未求一切智，未起大慈悲，未造人天業，皆令其生；若已生者，令其增長。我與如是順道因緣，乃至令成一切智智。
"Furthermore, good son, when I cultivate this liberation, I cause beings not to give rise to unlawful greed, not to raise false discrimination, and not to commit deeds of wrongdoing. And if they have already done so, I cause them all to stop. If good dharmas have not yet arisen in them, if they have not yet cultivated the pāramitā practices, have not yet sought all-knowing wisdom, have not yet raised great loving-kindness and compassion, have not yet made the karma of gods and humans — I cause all of these to arise in them; and if these have already arisen, I cause them to increase. I give them such causes and conditions as accord with the path, on up to causing them to accomplish the wisdom of all-knowing wisdom.
若未生善法 … 皆令其生；若已生者，令其增長 — if good dharmas have not yet arisen, I cause them to arise; and if they have already arisen, I cause them to increase. The paired conditionals run in both directions: 若已作者，皆令止息, what has already been done is stopped, and what has not yet begun is started. Her intervention is timed to the moment before and the moment after, which is a fitting office for a spirit of the hours.
我與如是順道因緣 — I give them such causes and conditions as accord with the path. 因緣, causes and conditions, is what she supplies; she does not supply the result. The same word, 與順行緣, appeared in the previous passage among her services to the solitary. What she provides in both cases is circumstances.
A Teacher Just to the Right
Her confession ends on an image that gathers up this whole fascicle — and then the next destination requires no journey at all.
「善男子！我唯得此菩薩寂靜禪定樂普遊步解脫門。如諸菩薩摩訶薩，具足普賢所有行願，了達一切無邊法界，常能增長一切善根，照見一切如來十力，住於一切如來境界，恒處生死，心無障礙，疾能滿足一切智願，普能往詣一切世界，悉能觀見一切諸佛，遍能聽受一切佛法，能破一切眾生癡闇，能於生死大夜之中出生一切智慧光明；而我云何能知能說彼功德行？
"Good son, I have attained only this bodhisattva liberation-gate of the Universal Roaming Step in the Joy of Tranquil Meditation. But the bodhisattva-mahāsattvas are complete in all of Samantabhadra's practices and vows; they fully penetrate every boundless dharma-realm; they can constantly increase every root of goodness; they illuminate and see every tathāgata's ten powers; they abide in every tathāgata's domain; they dwell constantly in birth and death with minds that nothing obstructs; they can swiftly fulfill the vow of all-knowing wisdom; they can go universally to every world; they can behold every buddha; they can hear and receive every buddha-dharma throughout; they can break the delusion-darkness of every being; and in the great night of birth and death they can bring forth the light of all-knowing wisdom. How, then, could I know or speak of their meritorious practice?
「善男子！去此不遠，於菩提場右邊，有一夜神，名：喜目觀察眾生。汝詣彼問：菩薩云何學菩薩行、修菩薩道？」
"Good son, not far from here, to the right of the awakening site, there is a night-spirit named Joyful Eye Observing Beings. You should go to her and ask: how does a bodhisattva learn the bodhisattva practices, and cultivate the bodhisattva path?"
能於生死大夜之中出生一切智慧光明 — and in the great night of birth and death they can bring forth the light of all-knowing wisdom. 生死大夜, the great night of birth and death, is the phrase the whole run of night-spirit teachers has been building toward. Vāsantī used 生死長夜, the long night, in Part 1077; here it is the great night, and the ability attributed to bodhisattvas in it is not to endure it but to produce light inside it.
去此不遠，於菩提場右邊 — not far from here, to the right of the awakening site. Every other handover in this pilgrimage has sent Good-Wealth to another city or another country. This one points a few paces away. The thirty-fourth teacher's name, 喜目觀察眾生, Joyful Eye Observing Beings, closely echoes a night-spirit named 喜眼觀世 in the sūtra's opening assembly in fascicle one — the characters are not identical, and we do not assume they are the same figure, but the resemblance is worth recording.
The Gāthā Begins With an Eye
She restates the liberation in verse, and the first stanza makes the whole thing conditional on one thing the listener either has or does not.
爾時，普德淨光夜神，欲重宣此解脫義，為善財童子而說頌曰：
At that time, the night-spirit Universal Virtue's Pure Light, wishing to restate the meaning of this liberation, spoke a verse for Good-Wealth, saying:
「若有信解心，盡見三世佛；
彼人眼清淨，能入諸佛海。
汝觀諸佛身，清淨相莊嚴，
一念神通力，法界悉充滿。
盧舍那如來，道場成正覺，
一切法界中，轉於淨法輪。
如來知法性，寂滅無有二，
清淨相嚴身，遍示諸世間。
佛身不思議，法界悉充滿，
普現一切剎，一切無不見。
If there is a mind of faith and understanding, one sees in full the buddhas of the three times; that person's eye is pure, and can enter the ocean of the buddhas.
Behold the bodies of the buddhas, adorned with pure marks; by the spiritual power of a single thought the dharma-realm is filled entirely.
Vairocana Tathāgata attained perfect awakening at the awakening site, and throughout the whole dharma-realm turns the pure wheel of the dharma.
The Tathāgata knows the nature of dharmas, quiescent and without duality; with a body adorned in pure marks he reveals himself throughout every world.
The Buddha's body is inconceivable, filling the dharma-realm entirely, manifesting universally in every buddha-land, and there is nothing at all that does not see it.
若有信解心，盡見三世佛；彼人眼清淨 — if there is a mind of faith and understanding, one sees in full the buddhas of the three times; that person's eye is pure. The verse opens on a condition, 若有, if there is — and what it requires is not merit or practice but 信解, faith together with understanding. In her prose she said she beholds every buddha 而無取著, without grasping; here she tells Good-Wealth what would let him do the same.
盧舍那如來，道場成正覺 — Vairocana Tathāgata attained perfect awakening at the awakening site. Spoken by a spirit standing at that very site. Vāsantī's own verse two parts ago ended on Vairocana seen in every dust-mote of the ten directions; this teacher, closer to the tree, names the single local fact instead.
Part 1085 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle sixty-nine. Part 1086 finishes the gāthā — a buddha's single pore releasing inconceivable light and inexhaustible transformations, a single wondrous sound understood by every kind of being, and two stanzas admitting what lies beyond her own knowing — and then sends Good-Wealth the few steps to the next teacher.