A Mind That Regards Her as Myself
Having just received eighty-four practices held in common, Good-Wealth answers with a nine-stanza verse of gratitude of his own — opening on the very phrase the night-spirit first used of him — before asking not how long since her resolve, but how long until her buddhahood.
A Verse of His Own
Eighty-four items of shared practice draw from Good-Wealth not a further list but a personal verse — nine stanzas of gratitude, addressed to her directly.
時，善財童子觀察大願精進力救護一切眾生夜神，起十種清淨心，獲如是等佛剎微塵數同菩薩行；既獲此已，心轉清淨，偏袒右肩，頂禮其足，一心合掌，以偈讚曰：「我發堅固意，
志求無上覺；
今於善知識，
而起自己心。
以見善知識，
集無盡白法，
滅除眾罪垢，
成就菩提果。
我見善知識，
功德莊嚴心，
盡未來剎劫，
勤修所行道。
我念善知識，
攝受饒益我，
為我悉示現，
正教真實法，
關閉諸惡趣，
顯示人天路，
亦示諸如來，
成一切智道。
我念善知識，
是佛功德藏，
念念能出生，
虛空功德海。
與我波羅蜜，
增我難思福，
長我淨功德，
令我冠佛繒。
我念善知識，
能滿佛智道；
誓願常依止，
圓滿白淨法。
我以此等故，
功德悉具足，
普為諸眾生，
說一切智道。
聖者為我師，
與我無上法，
無量無數劫，
不能報其恩。」
At that time, Good-Wealth, having contemplated the night-spirit Power of Great Vows and Diligence Who Rescues and Protects Every Being, gave rise to ten kinds of pure mind, and came to share practices as many as the fine motes of dust in a buddha-land with bodhisattvas such as these; having gained this, his mind grew ever more pure, and, baring his right shoulder, he bowed at her feet, joined his palms with his whole mind, and praised her in verse, saying: "I have given rise to a firm resolve,
aspiring to seek unsurpassed awakening;
and now, toward the good spiritual friend,
I give rise to the mind that regards her as myself.
Because I have seen the good spiritual friend,
who gathers inexhaustible white dharmas,
I extinguish every stain of wrongdoing,
and accomplish the fruit of bodhi.
I see that the good spiritual friend's
mind is adorned with merit,
and to the very end of future lands and kalpas,
I shall diligently cultivate the path she practises.
I call to mind that the good spiritual friend
gathers me in and brings me benefit,
manifesting for me entirely
the true teaching and the real dharma,
closing off every evil destiny,
revealing the path of humans and gods,
and also showing me every tathāgata,
and the path to accomplishing all-knowing wisdom.
I call to mind that the good spiritual friend
is the treasury of the buddha's own merit,
and in thought after thought is able to bring forth
the ocean of merit as vast as space.
She gives me the pāramitās,
increases in me merit hard to conceive,
grows in me pure virtue,
and causes me to wear the buddha's own silken crown.
I call to mind that the good spiritual friend
is able to fulfil the path of buddha-wisdom;
I vow to forever rely upon her,
and bring the pure white dharmas to their fullness.
Because of all this,
my merit is entirely complete,
and universally, for the sake of every being,
I shall expound the path of all-knowing wisdom.
The noble one is my teacher,
and gives me the unsurpassed dharma;
throughout measureless, countless kalpas,
I could never repay her kindness."
今於善知識，而起自己心 — and now, toward the good spiritual friend, I give rise to the mind that regards her as myself. This is not a new phrase. It is, almost word for word, the very first of the ten minds the night-spirit was said to give rise to toward Good-Wealth back in Part 1161 — 於善知識生同己心. There, the phrase described what she felt toward him; here, in the opening line of his own verse, Good-Wealth gives the identical mind back to her. The pilgrimage's usual posture — pupil looking up at teacher — briefly becomes something closer to a mind held in common, stated in the same words on both sides.
Not How Long Since — How Long Until
Good-Wealth's question, when it finally comes, breaks from the pattern this pilgrimage has repeated with three earlier teachers.
爾時，善財說此偈已，白言：「大聖！願為我說，此解脫門名為何等？發心已來為幾時耶？久如當得阿耨多羅三藐三菩提？」
At that time, when Good-Wealth had spoken this verse, he said: "Great sage, I beg you to tell me: what is this liberation-gate named? How long has it been since you gave rise to the resolve? And how long until you attain anuttara-samyak-sambodhi?"
久如當得阿耨多羅三藐三菩提 — how long until you attain anuttara-samyak-sambodhi. Parts 1079, 1094, 1127, and 1147 all asked some form of 其已久如, how long since — a question aimed backward, at a resolve or a liberation already attained. This question points the opposite direction: not into the teacher's past but toward her future, and toward the one attainment the standing formula has never asked about. The identical phrase, 久如當得阿耨多羅三藐三菩提, appears already in this translation at Part 951, addressed to a different teacher entirely — a second instance of a question this pilgrimage otherwise leaves alone.
Part 1164 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle seventy-three. Part 1165 opens the night-spirit's answer — naming her liberation-gate, and beginning a catalogue of the countless bodies she manifests to teach beings, one colour and one form at a time.