Yet I Was Still Unable to Know
Under the last of the forty-eight named buddhas, Gopā attains a liberation and spends kalpas multiplying a hundredfold cultivating it — and admits, twice over, that a single bodhisattva's own true nature still lay beyond what all of it let her know.
Yet I Was Still Unable to Know
The last of the forty-eight buddhas gives Gopā a liberation and a name for what she still cannot see, no matter how far the kalpas of practice extend.
「其最後佛，名：廣大解，於彼佛所，得淨智眼。爾時，彼佛入城教化。我為王妃，與王禮覲，以眾妙物而為供養，於其佛所聞說出生一切如來燈法門，即時獲得觀察一切菩薩三昧海境界解脫。佛子！我得此解脫已，與菩薩於佛剎微塵數劫勤加修習，於佛剎微塵數劫中承事供養無量諸佛；或於一劫承事一佛，或二、或三、或不可說，或值佛剎微塵數佛，悉皆親近承事供養，而未能知菩薩之身形量色貌及其身業心行智慧三昧境界。「佛子！若有眾生，得見菩薩修菩提行，若疑若信；菩薩皆以世、出世間種種方便而攝取之，以為眷屬，令於阿耨多羅三藐三菩提得不退轉。佛子！我見彼佛得此解脫已，與菩薩於百佛剎微塵數劫而共修習；於其劫中，所有諸佛出興于世，我皆親近承事供養，聽所說法讀誦受持。於彼一切諸如來所，得此解脫種種法門，知種種三世，入種種剎海，見種種成正覺，入種種佛眾會，發菩薩種種大願，修菩薩種種妙行，得菩薩種種解脫，然未能知菩薩所得普賢解脫門。
The last of these buddhas was named Vast and Great Understanding, and in that buddha's presence I attained the pure eye of wisdom. At that time, that buddha entered the city to teach and transform its people. I was then the king's queen, and together with the king I went to pay reverent homage, making offerings with every kind of wondrous thing; and in that buddha's presence I heard him expound the Dharma-gate that Gives Birth to the Lamp of Every Tathāgata, and at that very moment attained the liberation of contemplating the ocean-of-samādhi state of every bodhisattva. Son of the Buddha! Having attained this liberation, I diligently cultivated it together with that bodhisattva throughout kalpas as numerous as the fine motes of dust in a buddha-land, and throughout kalpas as numerous as the fine motes of dust in a buddha-land I served and made offerings to measureless buddhas — sometimes, within a single kalpa, serving a single buddha; sometimes two, sometimes three, sometimes an ineffable number; and sometimes encountering buddhas as numerous as the fine motes of dust in a buddha-land, drawing near to every one of them, serving them, and making offerings to them — and yet I was still unable to know that bodhisattva's own bodily form, stature, and countenance, nor his bodily deeds, mental conduct, wisdom, or the state of his samādhi. Son of the Buddha! If there is a being who comes to see a bodhisattva cultivating the practice of bodhi, whether doubting or believing, the bodhisattva gathers them in through every kind of mundane and world-transcending skillful means, taking them as his own retinue, and causes them to attain non-retrogression from anuttara-samyak-sambodhi. Son of the Buddha! Having seen that buddha and attained this liberation, I cultivated it together with that bodhisattva throughout kalpas as numerous as the fine motes of dust in a hundred buddha-lands; and throughout those kalpas, whatever buddhas appeared in the world, I drew near to every one of them, served them, made offerings to them, and listened to, recited, and upheld the Dharma they expounded. In the presence of every one of those tathāgatas, I attained every kind of dharma-gate belonging to this liberation, came to know every kind of the three periods of time, entered every kind of land-ocean, beheld every kind of accomplishment of perfect awakening, entered every kind of buddha-assembly, gave rise to every kind of the bodhisattva's own great vow, cultivated every kind of the bodhisattva's own wondrous practice, and attained every kind of the bodhisattva's own liberation — and yet I was still unable to know the very liberation-gate of Samantabhadra that bodhisattva had attained.
而未能知⋯然未能知 — and yet I was still unable to know⋯and yet I was still unable to know. This admission appears twice in this one passage, each time after kalpas of practice too vast to number — first after kalpas as numerous as the fine motes of dust in a single buddha-land, then after kalpas as numerous as the fine motes of dust in a hundred buddha-lands. The scale of practice grows a hundredfold between the two admissions; what remains unknown does not shrink at all.
Part 1225 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle seventy-five. Part 1226 turns to Gopā's own explanation of why even this much practice could not reach a bodhisattva's Samantabhadra liberation-gate.