The Verse Ends, and Fascicle Seventy Closes
Thirty more buddhas, and then the verse stops counting and makes an offer instead. The next teacher is a fourth night-spirit — and she is the queen from the story we have just been told.
The Last Three Decades
Thirty names to finish, and the hundred and tenth buddha of the list is called Worthy Virtue. One name in the middle of them will matter in about two hundred characters' time.
從此後次第，復有十佛出：
第一願海光，第二金剛身，
第三須彌德，第四念幢王，
第五功德慧，第六智慧燈，
第七光明幢，第八廣大智，
第九法界智，第十法海智。
After this, in succession,
ten more buddhas appeared:
the first, Light of the Ocean of Vows;
the second, Vajra Body;
the third, Sumeru Virtue;
the fourth, King of the Banner of Mindfulness;
the fifth, Wisdom of Merit;
the sixth, Lamp of Wisdom;
the seventh, Banner of Light;
the eighth, Vast Wisdom;
the ninth, Wisdom of the Dharma-Realm;
the tenth, Wisdom of the Dharma-Ocean.
從此後次第，復有十佛出：
初名布施法，次名功德輪，
三名勝妙雲，四名忍智燈，
五名寂靜音，六名寂靜幢，
七名世間燈，八名深大願，
九名無勝幢，十名智焰海。
After this, in succession,
ten more buddhas appeared:
the first named Dharma of Giving;
the next named Wheel of Merit;
the third named Victorious Wondrous Cloud;
the fourth named Lamp of the Wisdom of Patience;
the fifth named Voice of Tranquillity;
the sixth named Banner of Tranquillity;
the seventh named Lamp of the World;
the eighth named Deep and Great Vows;
the ninth named Unsurpassed Banner;
the tenth named Ocean of Wisdom-Flame.
從此後次第，復有十佛出：
初佛法自在，二佛無礙慧，
三名意海慧，四名眾妙音，
五名自在施，六名普現前，
七名隨樂身，八名住勝德，
第九本性佛，第十賢德佛。
After this, in succession,
ten more buddhas appeared:
the first buddha, Sovereign in the Dharma;
the second buddha, Unobstructed Wisdom;
the third named Wisdom of the Ocean of Mind;
the fourth named Manifold Wondrous Voice;
the fifth named Sovereign Giving;
the sixth named Universally Present Before All;
the seventh named Body Accordant with Delight;
the eighth named Abiding in Victorious Virtue;
the ninth, Intrinsic Nature Buddha;
the tenth, Worthy Virtue Buddha.
五名寂靜音 — the fifth named Voice of Tranquillity. Hold on to this one. Two hundred characters from here, the night-spirit will tell Good-Wealth to go to a teacher named 寂靜音海, Ocean of Tranquil Sound. The three characters occur three times in fascicle seventy: once at Part 1114, where she identified the queen 圓滿面 as that night-spirit; once here, as the name of a buddha in a list of a hundred and ten; and once at the end of this part, as the address she sends him to.
十名智焰海 — the tenth named Ocean of Wisdom-Flame. The two characters 智焰 occur four times in fascicle seventy, and the other three are worth putting beside this one. Twice they are inside her own name, 普智焰妙德眼, the girl in the story; and once they are 初佛名智焰, the very first of these hundred and ten buddhas. The first buddha she ever met, and the last-but-one decade's closing name, and her own name as a child, all carry the same two characters. The verse does not point at it.
第十賢德佛 — the tenth, Worthy Virtue Buddha. The hundred and tenth and last of the names, and one of the plainest. Whatever a reader was expecting a list of this length to arrive at, it arrives at a buddha called Worthy Virtue, and then simply stops.
An Offer, Not a Boast
Three quatrains close the verse. The first two account for what she did; the third turns to the listener and offers him the same thing.
須彌塵數劫，此中所有佛，
普作世間燈，我悉曾供養。
佛剎微塵劫，所有佛出現，
我皆曾供養，入此解脫門。
我於無量劫，修行得此道；
汝若能修行，不久亦當得。
Through eons as many as Sumeru's dust,
all the buddhas there were in them,
who acted as lamps for the world —
I made offerings to every one.
Through eons as many as a buddha-land's dust,
all the buddhas who appeared —
to every one of them I made offerings,
and entered this liberation-gate.
Through measureless eons
I practised and gained this path;
if you are able to practise,
before long you too will gain it."
汝若能修行，不久亦當得 — if you are able to practise, before long you too will gain it. The last line of a hundred and seventy-one lines of verse, and it is the only one addressed to Good-Wealth's future rather than her past. 不久, before long, is a startling word to arrive at after a hundred and ten buddhas and eons beyond counting, and it is not a slip. Everything before it was the measure of what she paid. The last line says the price for him is different.
普作世間燈 — who acted as lamps for the world. A buddha named 世間燈, Lamp of the World, stood seventh in the tenth decade, four stanzas ago. Here the same two characters describe what all of them did. The list of names and the account of the work turn out to be made of the same vocabulary, which is this sūtra's usual way of saying that a name is not decoration.
Only This One Gate
The verse over, she says the sentence every teacher in this chapter says — that she knows one thing, and that real bodhisattvas do rather more.
「善男子！我唯知此菩薩普現一切世間調伏眾生解脫。如諸菩薩摩訶薩，集無邊行，生種種解，現種種身，具種種根，滿種種願，入種種三昧，起種種神變，能種種觀察法，入種種智慧門，得種種法光明；而我云何能知能說彼功德行？
"Good son, I know only this bodhisattva liberation of Universally Manifesting in Every World and Taming Beings. But the bodhisattva-mahāsattvas gather boundless practices, give rise to every kind of understanding, manifest every kind of body, are complete in every kind of faculty, fulfil every kind of vow, enter every kind of samādhi, set in motion every kind of spiritual transformation, are able to contemplate dharmas in every kind of way, enter every kind of gate of wisdom, and attain every kind of light of the dharma. How, then, could I know or speak of their meritorious practice?
我唯知此菩薩普現一切世間調伏眾生解脫 — I know only this bodhisattva liberation of Universally Manifesting in Every World and Taming Beings. The gate is named for the second and last time in the fascicle. Good-Wealth asked for the name in Part 1104; the answer came buried in a story at Part 1114; and here it is repeated in the humility formula, where every teacher's single attainment goes. Between the asking and this sentence lie a hundred and ten buddhas, eight bodies, a broken statue, and the reveal that the storyteller is the girl.
The word 種種, every kind of, occurs nine times in one sentence — understanding, body, faculty, vow, samādhi, spiritual transformation, contemplation, gate of wisdom, light of the dharma. The formula is fixed across this chapter and the items vary from teacher to teacher. What does not vary is the shape of the confession: one thing known, nine kinds of thing not known, and a question at the end that expects no answer.
A Fourth Night-Spirit
And the next teacher is not a stranger. Good-Wealth is being sent to a woman whose name he heard six parts ago, in a story about somebody's mother.
「善男子！去此不遠，有主夜神，名：寂靜音海，坐摩尼光幢莊嚴蓮華座，百萬阿僧祇主夜神前後圍遶。汝詣彼問：菩薩云何學菩薩行、修菩薩道？」
"Good son, not far from here there is a night-spirit named Ocean of Tranquil Sound, seated upon a lotus seat adorned with maṇi-light banners, with a million asaṃkhyeyas of night-spirits surrounding her before and behind. You should go to her and ask: how does a bodhisattva learn the bodhisattva practices, and cultivate the bodhisattva path?"
時，善財童子頂禮其足，遶無數匝，慇懃瞻仰，辭退而去。
At that time, Good-Wealth bowed his head at her feet, circled her countless times, gazed up at her with earnest devotion, took his leave, and departed.
有主夜神，名：寂靜音海 — there is a night-spirit named Ocean of Tranquil Sound. Part 1114 has already told us who she is. When the night-spirit identified the people in her ancient story, she said 時王妃圓滿面者，寂靜音海夜神是，今所住處去此不遠 — the queen Perfect and Complete Countenance is the night-spirit Ocean of Tranquil Sound, and her dwelling is not far from here. The next teacher on this pilgrimage is the mother of the girl who mended the statue. Good-Wealth is being sent up the family tree of a story he has just been told.
菩薩云何學菩薩行、修菩薩道 — how does a bodhisattva learn the bodhisattva practices, and cultivate the bodhisattva path? The question reverts. Part 1100 noted that the formula had been advancing — Good-Wealth was sent here with 入菩薩行、淨菩薩道, enter and purify, rather than the standing 學 and 修. He then never asked it; neither 入菩薩行 nor 淨菩薩道 occurs anywhere in fascicle seventy. And the question he is given for the next teacher is the ordinary one again. The escalation was a single gesture, and the pilgrimage has gone back to learning and cultivating.
Four night-spirits in a row now, and the distances have stopped mattering entirely: Universal Virtue's Pure Light at the awakening site, Joyful Eye a few paces off, Wondrous Virtue in the same assembly, and now 去此不遠, not far from here. What has replaced travel is genealogy. Each of these teachers turns out to have been present in the last one's story.
Part 1119 Complete — Fascicle Seventy Complete
This closes chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle seventy. Part 1120 opens fascicle seventy-one, 入法界品第三十九之十二, with the night-spirit Ocean of Tranquil Sound — the thirty-sixth teacher of this pilgrimage, the fourth night-spirit in a row, and the queen of the story just told.