None Other Than Śākyamuni
Gopā steps outside the story she has been telling and names every figure in it — the prince none other than the buddha under whom Sudhana now trains, and the story's audience the very people listening to her tell it.
None Other Than Śākyamuni
The story Gopā has been telling for so many Parts turns out to have named, all along, a buddha still unnamed — and the reveal does not stop with him.
「佛子！於汝意云何，彼時太子得輪王位供養佛者，豈異人乎？今釋迦牟尼佛是也。財主王者，寶華佛是。其寶華佛，現在東方過世界海微塵數佛剎有世界海，名：現法界虛空影像雲，中有世界種，名：普現三世影摩尼王，彼世界種中有世界，名：圓滿光，中有道場，名：現一切世主身，寶華如來於此成阿耨多羅三藐三菩提，不可說佛剎微塵數諸菩薩眾前後圍遶而為說法。寶華如來往昔修行菩薩道時，淨此世界海；其世界海中去、來、今佛出興世者，皆是寶華如來為菩薩時教化令發阿耨多羅三藐三菩提心。
"Son of the Buddha! What do you think? That prince who attained the position of wheel-turning king and made offerings to the buddha at that time — could he be someone else? He is none other than Śākyamuni Buddha, right now. And King Wealth Lord is the buddha Jewel-Flower. That buddha Jewel-Flower is now, in the east, beyond world-oceans as numerous as the fine motes of dust in a buddha-land, within a world-ocean named Cloud of Images Reflected in the Dharma-Realm's Empty Space; within it there is a world-seed named Maṇi-King Universally Manifesting the Reflections of the Three Periods of Time; and within that world-seed there is a world named Perfect and Full Light, within which there is an awakening-site named Manifesting the Bodies of Every Lord of the World. It is there that the tathāgata Jewel-Flower has accomplished anuttara-samyak-sambodhi, surrounded before and behind by bodhisattva assemblies as numerous as the fine motes of dust in ineffable buddha-lands, expounding the Dharma for them. When the tathāgata Jewel-Flower, in ages past, practiced the bodhisattva path, he purified this very world-ocean; and every buddha who has appeared, will appear, or now appears within that world-ocean — past, future, and present — was, without exception, taught and transformed by the tathāgata Jewel-Flower while he was still a bodhisattva, and caused by him to give rise to the mind of anuttara-samyak-sambodhi.
今釋迦牟尼佛是也 — he is none other than Śākyamuni Buddha, right now. The prince whose questions, vows, and warnings this pilgrimage has followed for so long turns out to be the very buddha under whom Sudhana now trains. His father does not follow him into that same buddhahood — he becomes an entirely separate buddha, Jewel-Flower, presently teaching, in a world-ocean impossibly far to the east, bodhisattva assemblies too numerous to describe.
A Story Told to Itself
The last two identities Gopā names do not point somewhere distant at all — they point at the room she is standing in.
彼時女母善現者，今我母善目是。其王眷屬，今如來所眾會是也，皆具修行普賢諸行成滿大願，雖恒在此眾會道場而能普現一切世間，住諸菩薩平等三昧，常得現見一切諸佛，一切如來以等虛空妙音聲雲演正法輪悉能聽受，於一切法悉得自在，名稱普聞諸佛國土，普詣一切道場之所，普現一切眾生之前，隨其所應教化調伏，盡未來劫修菩薩道恒無間斷，成滿普賢廣大誓願。
That mother of the maiden at that time, Wholesome Manifestation, is now my own mother, Wholesome Eye. That king's own retinue is now this very assembly at the tathāgata's own place — all of them fully cultivating every practice of Samantabhadra and fulfilling their great vows completely; and although they forever remain within this very assembly at this awakening-site, they are able to universally manifest throughout every world, abiding in the equal samādhi of every bodhisattva, forever able to behold, directly and in person, every buddha, and able to receive and hear the wheel of the true Dharma expounded by every tathāgata through a cloud of wondrous sound equal to the whole of space. They have attained sovereign mastery over every dharma entirely; their renown is universally heard of throughout every buddha-land; they universally arrive at every awakening-site there is, and universally manifest before every living being, teaching, transforming, and taming them according to what each is fit to receive, cultivating the bodhisattva path to the very end of future kalpas, forever without interruption, and bringing Samantabhadra's own vast and great vows to complete fulfillment.
今我母善目是⋯其王眷屬，今如來所眾會是也 — is now my own mother, Wholesome Eye⋯that king's own retinue is now this very assembly at the tathāgata's own place. Gopā is not only remembering a past life; she is describing the audience in front of her, right now, as the very same retinue from the story she has just finished telling. The listeners have not changed across all those kalpas. Only the story being told about them has finally caught up to the present.
Part 1223 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle seventy-five. Part 1224 turns to Gopā's own identity within the story — the maiden Wondrous Virtue, and what she and the wheel-turning king offered the buddha together.