The King Calls His Whole Land
Given one sentence of news, the king does not go alone. He takes his queen, his thousand sons, his ministers and his entire army a yojana into the sky, lights the four continents so everyone can see him, and tells them all to get up.
A Yojana Up
Samantabhadra told one man. That man's first act is to make the news visible to everyone at once, and he uses his own kingship to do it.
「善男子！時，轉輪王與其寶女、千子、眷屬、大臣、輔佐、四種兵眾，及其城內無量人民，前後圍遶；以王神力，俱昇虛空，高一由旬，放大光明照四天下，普使一切咸得瞻仰，欲令眾生俱往見佛，以偈讚曰：
"Good son, at that time the wheel-turning king, with his jewel-woman, his thousand sons, his retinue, his great ministers and his counsellors, his fourfold army, and the measureless people of his city surrounding him before and behind, by the king's own spiritual power rose together into the sky to a height of one yojana. He sent out a great light that shone over the four continents, so that all everywhere could gaze up at him; and wishing to make beings go together to see the Buddha, he praised him in verse, saying:
俱昇虛空，高一由旬 — they rose together into the sky to a height of one yojana. Not ten, not a thousand — one. In a fascicle that has just spent eleven lights, a hundred thousand koṭis of nayutas of continents, and Sumeru-dust-many buddhas on the vertical dimension, the king's ascent is modest to the point of being practical. A yojana is roughly the distance an ox-cart travels in a day, and the height is chosen for exactly one purpose, stated in the next clause: 普使一切咸得瞻仰, so that all everywhere could gaze up at him. He goes as high as he needs to be seen from, and no higher.
與其寶女、千子、眷屬、大臣、輔佐、四種兵眾，及其城內無量人民 — with his jewel-woman, his thousand sons, his retinue, his great ministers and his counsellors, his fourfold army, and the measureless people of his city. Samantabhadra delivered the news to the king alone, standing in the sky above his palace. The king's instinct is not to go and see for himself but to take everybody, down to the population of the city, and the whole apparatus of a realm — court, cabinet, and army — is redeployed in a single sentence from governing to pilgrimage.
Ten Stanzas of Summons
The verse is a call to get up and go. It spends four stanzas on why a buddha is worth the trip, two on what the trip is, and ends by telling the listeners what to bring.
「『如來出世間，普救諸群生，
汝等應速起，往詣導師所。
無量無數劫，乃有佛興世，
演說深妙法，饒益一切眾。
佛觀諸世間，顛倒常癡惑，
輪迴生死苦，而起大悲心。
無數億千劫，修習菩提行，
為欲度眾生，斯由大悲力。
頭目手足等，一切悉能捨，
為求菩提故，如是無量劫。
"'The Tathāgata has appeared in the world
to rescue universally the whole host of living beings.
You should rise up quickly
and go to where the Guide is.
Through measureless, countless eons
only then does a buddha arise in the world,
expounding the deep and wondrous dharma
and benefiting the whole multitude.
The Buddha looked upon the worlds —
inverted, always foolish and confused,
turning round in the suffering of birth and death —
and gave rise to the mind of great compassion.
For countless koṭis of thousands of eons
he cultivated the practices of awakening,
wishing to ferry beings across;
this came about by the power of great compassion.
Head and eyes and hands and feet
he was able to give away, every one of them,
for the sake of seeking awakening,
and so through measureless eons.
無量億千劫，導師難可遇；
見聞若承事，一切無空過。
今當共汝等，往觀調御尊，
坐於如來座，降魔成正覺。
瞻仰如來身，放演無量光，
種種微妙色，除滅一切暗。
一一毛孔中，放光不思議，
普照諸群生，咸令大歡喜。
汝等咸應發，廣大精進心，
詣彼如來所，恭敬而供養。』
Through measureless koṭis of thousands of eons
a Guide is hard to meet with;
to see him, to hear of him, or to serve him —
not one of these is ever spent in vain.
Now, together with all of you,
I shall go to behold the Tamer, the Honoured One,
seated upon the tathāgata's seat,
who subdued Māra and accomplished right awakening.
Gaze up at the tathāgata's body,
which sends out and spreads measureless light
in every kind of subtle and wondrous colour,
doing away with every darkness.
From within each single pore
he sends out inconceivable light,
shining universally on the whole host of living beings
and causing all of them great joy.
All of you should give rise
to a vast mind of vigour,
go to where that tathāgata is,
and reverently make your offerings.'
如來出世間，普救諸群生 — the Tathāgata has appeared in the world to rescue universally the whole host of living beings. The second line of the king's very first stanza contains the two characters 普救, which are the first two of the name of the night-spirit telling this whole story: 普救眾生妙德, Wondrous Virtue Who Universally Rescues Beings. In this fascicle those two characters appear six times, four of them in her name. This is the one place where they describe a buddha instead, and it is inside a verse she has chosen to quote.
一一毛孔中，放光不思議 — from within each single pore he sends out inconceivable light. The phrase 一一毛孔 occurs exactly twice in fascicle seventy. The first was in Part 1103, where Good-Wealth praised this night-spirit with 一一毛孔放，眾生心數光, from each single pore you send forth lights as many as the thoughts of beings. The second is here, where an ancient king praises a buddha. The pilgrim in the present and the king in the deep past reached for the same image, and the woman quoting the king is the woman the pilgrim was describing.
見聞若承事，一切無空過 — to see him, to hear of him, or to serve him: not one of these is ever spent in vain. Three grades of contact, in descending order of effort, and the verse refuses to rank their results. This is the argument the king actually makes to his city. He does not promise them awakening; he promises them that nothing they spend on the journey will be wasted, which is a far more modest claim and a far harder one to refuse.
Ten Thousand Kinds of Cloud
The offerings do not come from a treasury. They come out of the king himself, and they set off before he does.
「爾時，轉輪聖王說偈讚佛，開悟一切眾生已，從輪王善根，出十千種大供養雲，往詣道場，向如來所。所謂：一切寶蓋雲、一切華帳雲、一切寶衣雲、一切寶鈴網雲、一切香海雲、一切寶座雲、一切寶幢雲、一切宮殿雲、一切妙華雲、一切諸莊嚴具雲，於虛空中周遍嚴飾。
"At that time, when the wheel-turning sage-king had spoken these verses in praise of the Buddha and had awakened all beings, there came forth from the wheel-turning king's roots of goodness ten thousand kinds of great offering-cloud, which went to the awakening-site and toward where the tathāgata was. Namely: clouds of every jewelled canopy, clouds of every flower-curtain, clouds of every jewelled garment, clouds of every net of jewelled bells, clouds of every ocean of fragrance, clouds of every jewelled seat, clouds of every jewelled banner, clouds of every palace, clouds of every wondrous flower, and clouds of every kind of adornment — and in the sky they adorned everything all around.
到已，頂禮普智寶焰妙德幢王如來足，遶無量百千匝，即於佛前坐普照十方寶蓮華座。
Having arrived, he bowed his head at the feet of the tathāgata King Banner of Wondrous Virtue and the Jewel-Flame of Universal Wisdom, circled him measureless hundreds of thousands of times, and then, before the Buddha, took his seat upon a jewelled lotus seat that illuminated the ten directions universally.
從輪王善根，出十千種大供養雲 — there came forth from the wheel-turning king's roots of goodness ten thousand kinds of great offering-cloud. The preposition is the point. The clouds do not come from his storehouses, which as a wheel-turning king he has in abundance; they come 從輪王善根, out of his roots of goodness. Ten kinds are then named — canopies, flower-curtains, garments, nets of bells, oceans of fragrance, seats, banners, palaces, flowers, and adornments generally — and all of them are things a rich man might have given. The sūtra has him give them anyway, and simply relocates the source from his wealth to his merit.
即於佛前坐普照十方寶蓮華座 — and then, before the Buddha, took his seat upon a jewelled lotus seat that illuminated the ten directions universally. Part 1108 described the great lotus ringed by ten buddha-lands' worth of lotuses, each with a lion seat, each seat already holding a bodhisattva. A seat is waiting for this king when he arrives. The scene was complete before he set out, and his journey has consisted of catching up with an arrangement that had already been made.
Part 1110 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle seventy. Part 1111 turns to the king's daughter, who takes the ornaments off her own body and throws them at the Buddha — whereupon they become a jewelled canopy in the sky with a bodhi tree inside it, and Vairocana seated beneath that.