Twenty-Four Bodies at Once
Fascicle seventy-three opens with the thirty-ninth teacher already in full display — twenty-four bodies manifested simultaneously, from reflections of the sun and stars to a body of dharma-nature originally pure — and Good-Wealth answers not with a question yet, but with ten distinct minds.
Twenty-Four Bodies at Once
Before any word passes between them, the thirty-ninth teacher is already teaching — through a seat built of an entire cosmos, and a body she does not hold to just one form.
爾時，善財童子往大願精進力救護一切眾生夜神所，見彼夜神在大眾中，坐普現一切宮殿摩尼王藏師子之座，普現法界國土摩尼寶網彌覆其上，現日、月、星宿影像身，現隨眾生心普令得見身，現等一切眾生形相身，現無邊廣大色相海身，現普現一切威儀身，現普於十方示現身，現普調一切眾生身，現廣運速疾神通身，現利益眾生不絕身，現常遊虛空利益身，現一切佛所頂禮身，現修習一切善根身，現受持佛法不忘身，現成滿菩薩大願身，現光明充滿十方身，現法燈普滅世暗身，現了法如幻淨智身，現遠離塵暗法性身，現普智照法明了身，現究竟無患無熱身，現不可沮壞堅固身，現無所住佛力身，現無分別離染身，現本清淨法性身。
At that time, Good-Wealth went to the place of the night-spirit Power of Great Vows and Diligence Who Rescues and Protects Every Being, and saw that night-spirit, amid the great assembly, seated upon a lion-seat that was the treasury of the maṇi king universally manifesting every palace, with the maṇi jewel-net universally manifesting every land of the dharma-realm spread over it above. She manifested a body reflecting the images of the sun, moon, and stars; a body that, according to the minds of beings, universally caused them to be able to see her; a body equal in form to every being; a body of a boundless and vast ocean of forms; a body universally manifesting every kind of dignified bearing; a body universally showing itself throughout the ten directions; a body universally taming every being; a body of vast and swift spiritual power; a body that benefits beings without ceasing; a body constantly wandering through empty space to bring benefit; a body bowing at the feet of every buddha; a body cultivating every wholesome root; a body upholding the buddha-dharma without forgetting it; a body fulfilling the bodhisattva's great vows; a body whose light fills the ten directions; a body that is a dharma-lamp universally extinguishing the darkness of the world; a body of pure wisdom that understands dharmas as illusory; a body of dharma-nature far removed from the darkness of dust; a body of universal wisdom illuminating and fully understanding the dharma; a body ultimately free of affliction and fever; a body firm and unbreakable; a body of buddha-power abiding nowhere; a body free of discrimination and untainted; a body of dharma-nature originally pure.
現日、月、星宿影像身⋯⋯現本清淨法性身 — counted directly against the source, twenty-four bodies, and their character shifts as the list runs on. The opening bodies are visible things — reflections of sun and stars, a form matched to whatever a viewer expects, dignified bearing shown throughout the ten directions. The closing bodies are not things anyone could see at all — dharma-nature far from the darkness of dust, freedom from discrimination, a nature originally pure. The list moves, without announcing it, from what a body can look like to what a body ultimately is.
Ten Minds Toward a Good Friend
Good-Wealth's response to twenty-four bodies is a long silence, a full prostration, and then — before he asks anything — ten separate minds arising toward the teacher he has not yet spoken to.
時，善財童子見如是等佛剎微塵數差別身，一心頂禮，舉體投地，良久乃起，合掌瞻仰，於善知識生十種心。何等為十？所謂：「於善知識生同己心，令我精勤辦一切智助道法故；於善知識生清淨自業果心，親近供養生善根故；於善知識生莊嚴菩薩行心，令我速能莊嚴一切菩薩行故；於善知識生成就一切佛法心，誘誨於我令修道故；於善知識生能生心，能生於我無上法故；於善知識生出離心，令我修行普賢菩薩所有行願而出離故；於善知識生具一切福智海心，令我積集諸白法故；於善知識生增長心，令我增長一切智故；於善知識生具一切善根心，令我志願得圓滿故；於善知識生能成辦大利益心，令我自在安住一切菩薩法故，成一切智道故，得一切佛法故。」是為十。
At that time, Good-Wealth, having seen bodies as many and varied as the fine motes of dust in a buddha-land, bowed with his whole mind, casting his entire body to the ground, and only after a long while rose again; joining his palms, he gazed up at her with reverence, and toward this good spiritual friend gave rise to ten kinds of mind. What were these ten? Namely: "Toward the good spiritual friend, I give rise to the mind that regards her as myself, so that I may diligently accomplish every aid to the path of all-knowing wisdom. Toward the good spiritual friend, I give rise to the mind of the pure fruit of my own karma, because drawing near to her and making offerings gives rise to wholesome roots. Toward the good spiritual friend, I give rise to the mind of adorning the bodhisattva practices, so that I may swiftly be able to adorn every bodhisattva practice. Toward the good spiritual friend, I give rise to the mind of accomplishing every buddha-dharma, because she guides and instructs me, causing me to cultivate the path. Toward the good spiritual friend, I give rise to the mind that can give birth, because she is able to give birth in me to the unsurpassed dharma. Toward the good spiritual friend, I give rise to the mind of departure, so that I may cultivate every practice and vow that Samantabhadra Bodhisattva holds, and thereby depart from the world. Toward the good spiritual friend, I give rise to the mind of possessing the whole ocean of merit and wisdom, so that I may amass every white dharma. Toward the good spiritual friend, I give rise to the mind of increase, so that I may increase all-knowing wisdom. Toward the good spiritual friend, I give rise to the mind of possessing every wholesome root, so that my resolve and aspiration may be brought to fulfilment. Toward the good spiritual friend, I give rise to the mind that is able to accomplish great benefit, so that I may abide in sovereign freedom within every bodhisattva dharma, accomplish the path of all-knowing wisdom, and attain every buddha-dharma." These are the ten.
於善知識生同己心 — toward the good spiritual friend, I give rise to the mind that regards her as myself. Other teachers in this pilgrimage have opened with 於善知識生如來想, regarding the good friend as a tathāgata — a posture of looking up. The first of these ten minds instead collapses the distance the other way: not "she is greater than me" but "she is myself." Only after this does the list move on to more familiar postures — gratitude, guidance, the wish to be increased and completed by her — but the opening term is not one of reverence from below at all.
Part 1161 Complete
This opens chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle seventy-three. Part 1162 continues as Good-Wealth's ten minds are met with an answering gift — the night-spirit and countless bodhisattvas found to already share the same practices, the same realizations, in an ever-lengthening catalogue of what they hold in common.