The Jewel-Woman Awake in a Sleeping Palace
A buddha appears in the world while an entire palace is asleep. Ten thousand night-spirits hover in the air and call one woman by name until she gets up — and the vow she makes afterwards is not to become a buddha but to become one of them.
Seventeen Stanzas of How It Began
The whole account is in verse — the palace falling asleep, a buddha arriving, a dream, a name called out of the sky, and a vow made in the small hours.
我時為寶女，具足梵音聲，
身出金色光，照及千由旬。
日光既已沒，音樂咸寂然，
大王及侍御，一切皆安寢。
彼時德海佛，出興於世間，
顯現神通力，充滿十方界；
放大光明海，一切剎塵數，
種種自在身，遍滿於十方。
地震出妙音，普告佛興世；
天人龍神眾，一切皆歡喜。
一一毛孔中，出佛化身海，
十方皆遍滿，隨應說妙法。
我時於夢中，見佛諸神變，
亦聞深妙法，心生大歡喜。
一萬主夜神，共在空中住，
讚歎佛興世，同時覺悟我：『賢慧汝應起，
佛已現汝國，劫海難值遇，
見者得清淨。』
我時便寐寤，即覩清淨光。
觀此從何來？見佛樹王下，諸相莊嚴體，
猶如寶山王；一切毛孔中，
放大光明海。
見已心歡喜，便生此念言：『願我得如佛，
廣大神通力。』
我時尋覺寤，大王并眷屬，
令見佛光明，一切皆欣慶。
我時與大王，騎從千萬億，
眾生亦無量，俱行詣佛所。
我於二萬歲，供養彼如來，
七寶四天下，一切皆奉施。
時彼如來說，功德普雲經，
普應群生心，莊嚴諸願海。
夜神覺悟我，令我得利益，
我願作是身，覺諸放逸者。
我從此初發，最上菩提願，
往來諸有中，其心無忘失。
從此後供養，十億那由佛，
恒受人天樂，饒益諸群生。
At that time I was a jewel-woman, complete in the voice of Brahmā; from my body issued a golden light that shone a thousand yojanas.
Once the sunlight had set and the music had all fallen silent, the great king and his attendants were every one of them asleep.
At that time the Buddha Ocean of Virtue arose in the world, revealing his spiritual power, filling the realms of the ten directions; he released an ocean of great radiance, as many as the dust-motes of every buddha-land, and bodies sovereign in every kind, everywhere throughout the ten directions.
The earth quaked and gave forth a wondrous sound, announcing universally that a buddha had arisen in the world; and the hosts of gods, humans, nāgas and spirits were every one of them delighted.
From each single pore came oceans of the Buddha's transformation-bodies, filling the ten directions throughout, teaching the wondrous dharma as was fitting.
At that time, in a dream, I saw the Buddha's spiritual transformations, and heard the profound and wondrous dharma too, and great delight arose in my mind.
Ten thousand night-spirits stood together in the sky, praising the Buddha's arising in the world, and all at once they woke me: 'Worthy Wisdom, you should rise! The Buddha has appeared in your own land. Through oceans of eons he is hard to meet with, and whoever sees him becomes pure.'
I then awoke from sleep, and at once beheld the pure light.
I looked to see where it came from, and saw the Buddha beneath the king of trees, his body adorned with every mark, like a king of jewel mountains; and from all his pores he released oceans of great radiance.
Having seen it, my mind rejoiced, and this thought arose in me: 'May I come to have, as the Buddha has, a vast power of spiritual penetration.'
I then went and woke the great king and his kindred, and had them see the Buddha's light, and all of them were glad.
Then I, together with the great king, with a thousand million riders in attendance and measureless beings besides, went all of us to where the Buddha was.
For twenty thousand years I made offerings to that tathāgata, presenting the four continents with all their seven treasures entire.
At that time that tathāgata taught the Sūtra of the Universal Cloud of Merit, responding universally to the minds of beings and adorning their oceans of vows.
The night-spirits had woken me and brought me benefit; and I vowed to become such a body myself, to wake those who live in heedlessness.
From this I first gave rise to the supreme vow of awakening, and coming and going among the realms of existence, my mind has never lost it.
From then onward I made offerings to ten million nayutas of buddhas, constantly enjoying the pleasures of gods and humans, and bringing benefit to the throngs of beings.
日光既已沒，音樂咸寂然，大王及侍御，一切皆安寢 — once the sunlight had set and the music had all fallen silent, the great king and his attendants were every one of them asleep. This is the third time in three fascicles that the sūtra has opened a night-spirit's origin story with a household asleep: Vāsantī was a queen 夜久眠寐 in Part 1080, then a merchant's daughter asleep beside her parents, and now a jewel-woman in a palace at the hour the music stops. The pattern is the doctrine: what these teachers do is wake people, and each of them was woken first.
我時於夢中，見佛諸神變 — at that time, in a dream, I saw the Buddha's spiritual transformations. She meets the buddha while asleep, before anyone wakes her. The dream is not a false vision to be corrected; it is where the encounter genuinely begins, and the night-spirits' shout only brings her to where she can see with open eyes what she has already seen.
賢慧汝應起 — Worthy Wisdom, you should rise! Her name in that life is plain Chinese, and the line is the only direct address in the whole verse. Ten thousand spirits, and what they say is four words and a name. Compare Part 1080, where the spirit Pure Moon simply rattled a necklace: the method escalates with the sleeper.
夜神覺悟我，令我得利益，我願作是身，覺諸放逸者 — the night-spirits had woken me and brought me benefit; and I vowed to become such a body myself, to wake those who live in heedlessness. The vow is specific and modest in shape: not buddhahood but the same job. 是身, such a body — she asks to be what woke her. Everything this teacher has done in the last nine parts follows from that one sentence.
Part 1095 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle sixty-nine. Part 1096 continues her verse through the buddhas she served afterwards, named ten at a time across eon after eon — and her admission that through all of them she still had not gained the eye of wisdom, and still took what does not exist to exist.