Fascicle Seventy-Two Complete
The story of a king who was Vairocana ends, and the night-spirit returns to her own voice — ten stanzas on the reach of her own eyes, ears, and mind, a plain admission that this is the only gate she knows, and a name for the thirty-ninth teacher before Good-Wealth departs and the fascicle closes.
Nine Reaches, and a Tenth That Teaches
The story ends, and the night-spirit sings again — but this time every line begins with 我, I, and describes not a king's past but her own present reach.
爾時，開敷一切樹華主夜神，為善財童子，欲重宣此解脫義而說頌言：「我有廣大眼，
普見於十方，
一切剎海中，
五趣輪迴者。
亦見彼諸佛，
菩提樹下坐，
神通遍十方，
說法度眾生。
我有清淨耳，
普聞一切聲，
亦聞佛說法，
歡喜而信受。
我有他心智，
無二無所礙，
能於一念中，
悉了諸心海。
我得宿命智，
能知一切劫，
自身及他人，
分別悉明了。
我於一念知，
剎海微塵劫，
諸佛及菩薩，
五道眾生類。
憶知彼諸佛，
始發菩提願，
乃至修諸行，
一一悉圓滿。
亦知彼諸佛，
成就菩提道，
以種種方便，
為眾轉法輪。
亦知彼諸佛，
所有諸乘海，
正法住久近，
眾生度多少。
我於無量劫，
修習此法門；
我今為汝說，
佛子汝應學。
At that time, the chief night-spirit She Who Opens Every Tree's Flowers, wishing to proclaim this liberation's meaning once more for Good-Wealth's sake, spoke in verse, saying: "I have a vast and expansive eye,
universally seeing throughout the ten directions,
within every ocean of lands,
all those who revolve through the five destinies.
I also see every buddha there,
seated beneath the tree of awakening,
their spiritual powers pervading the ten directions,
expounding the dharma and delivering beings.
I have a pure and clear ear,
universally hearing every sound;
I also hear the buddhas expounding the dharma,
and rejoice in it, believing and accepting it.
I have the wisdom that knows others' minds,
without duality and without any hindrance;
in a single thought I am able to
fully understand the whole ocean of every mind.
I have attained the wisdom of past lives,
able to know every kalpa;
my own self and every other,
I distinguish and understand entirely.
In a single thought I know,
throughout kalpas as many as the fine motes of dust in an ocean of lands,
every buddha and bodhisattva,
and every kind of being in the five destinies.
I recall and know how those buddhas
first gave rise to the vow of bodhi,
and how, on up to their cultivation of every practice,
each and every one became entirely perfect.
I also know how those buddhas
accomplished the path of bodhi,
and, by every kind of skilful means,
turned the wheel of the dharma for the sake of beings.
I also know, of those buddhas,
the whole ocean of every vehicle they held,
how long or short the true dharma abided,
and how many or how few beings were delivered.
Throughout measureless kalpas
I have cultivated and practised this dharma-gate;
I now expound it for you —
buddha's child, you should learn it."
我有廣大眼⋯⋯我有清淨耳⋯⋯我有他心智⋯⋯我得宿命智 — I have a vast and expansive eye⋯⋯I have a pure and clear ear⋯⋯I have the wisdom that knows others' minds⋯⋯I have attained the wisdom of past lives. Ten stanzas run in the first person throughout, and not one of them is spent on Vairocana, the king, or Jewel Light. Having just finished revealing that she herself was a character inside the story she told, the night-spirit's very next words are about a different subject entirely — what she, now, in this assembly, is able to see, hear, and know. The story closes; the claim about her own present reach does not depend on it.
I Only Know This One Gate
Every teacher in this pilgrimage eventually says some version of this, and the night-spirit says it now — right after a claim of vast wisdom, an equally plain confession of its limit.
「善男子！我唯知此菩薩出生廣大喜光明解脫門。如諸菩薩摩訶薩，親近供養一切諸佛，入一切智大願海，滿一切佛諸願海；得勇猛智，於一菩薩地，普入一切菩薩地海；得清淨願，於一菩薩行，普入一切菩薩行海；得自在力，於一菩薩解脫門，普入一切菩薩解脫門海。而我云何能知能說彼功德行？
"Good son, I only know this bodhisattva liberation-gate of Bringing Forth Vast Joy and Light. As for the great bodhisattvas who draw near to and make offerings to every buddha, who enter the great ocean of vows for all-knowing wisdom and fulfil the ocean of every buddha's vows; who, having attained courageous wisdom, universally enter the ocean of every bodhisattva ground from within a single bodhisattva ground; who, having attained pure vows, universally enter the ocean of every bodhisattva practice from within a single bodhisattva practice; who, having attained sovereign power, universally enter the ocean of every bodhisattva liberation-gate from within a single bodhisattva liberation-gate — how, then, could I know or speak of their meritorious practice?
我唯知此菩薩出生廣大喜光明解脫門 — I only know this bodhisattva liberation-gate of Bringing Forth Vast Joy and Light. This is the same gate named at the start of her teaching, all the way back in Part 1145 — the door has not changed across sixteen Parts of history, hymn, and revelation. What she calls a single gate has held a king's entire reign, his birth, his death, his double identity as Vairocana, and now this second hymn about her own present powers. The humility formula is standard across this pilgrimage's teachers; what it is being modest about, in this particular case, turns out to have been unusually large.
Referred Onward, and the Fascicle Closes
The pilgrimage's standing gesture closes this teacher's account exactly as it has closed every other — a name for the next one, four questions, and a wordless departure.
「善男子！此道場中，有一夜神，名：大願精進力救護一切眾生。汝詣彼問：菩薩云何教化眾生，令趣阿耨多羅三藐三菩提？云何嚴淨一切佛剎？云何承事一切如來？云何修行一切佛法？」時，善財童子頂禮其足，遶無數匝，慇懃瞻仰，辭退而去。
"Good son, within this awakening-site there is a night-spirit named Power of Great Vows and Diligence Who Rescues and Protects Every Being. You should go to her and ask: how does a bodhisattva teach and transform beings, causing them to advance toward anuttara-samyak-sambodhi? How does one purify every buddha-land? How does one attend upon every tathāgata? How does one cultivate every buddha-dharma?" At that time, Good-Wealth bowed at her feet, circled her countless times, gazed up at her with earnest devotion, took his leave, and departed.
大願精進力救護一切眾生 — Power of Great Vows and Diligence Who Rescues and Protects Every Being. The thirty-ninth teacher's name is announced before Good-Wealth has taken a single step toward her, in the same breath as four questions that repeat, almost word for word, the standing formula this chapter has used for teacher after teacher. Fascicle seventy-two closes exactly as fascicle seventy-one did — not on a resolution, but on a name and a question still waiting to be asked.
Part 1160 Complete — Fascicle Seventy-Two Complete
This closes chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle seventy-two. Part 1161 opens fascicle seventy-three, 入法界品第三十九之十四, with the thirty-ninth teacher — the night-spirit Power of Great Vows and Diligence Who Rescues and Protects Every Being, named at the end of this Part and still waiting in the same assembly.