Consumed by Desire
Gopā explains why Samantabhadra's liberation-gate outran every measure of practice she named — and then reaches for the one image she has never used before, worldly infatuation, to say how she actually watched the bodhisattva's body.
Like the Whole of Empty Space
Gopā answers her own question — why even a hundred buddha-lands of kalpas could not reach this liberation-gate — with a stack of similes, none of them sufficient alone.
何以故？菩薩普賢解脫門，如太虛空，如眾生名，如三世海，如十方海，如法界海，無量無邊。佛子！菩薩普賢解脫門，與如來境界等。
Why is this? Because the bodhisattva's own Samantabhadra liberation-gate is like the whole of empty space, like the names of every being, like the ocean of the three periods of time, like the ocean of the ten directions, and like the ocean of the Dharma-realm — measureless and boundless. Son of the Buddha! The bodhisattva's own Samantabhadra liberation-gate is equal to the very domain of the tathāgata.
如太虛空⋯如法界海 — like the whole of empty space⋯like the ocean of the Dharma-realm. Five similes, each introduced by the same word, 如, stack one on top of another to describe a single liberation-gate — empty space, the names of every being, and three separate oceans — because no single image was ever going to be enough on its own.
Consumed by Desire
To say how closely she watched the bodhisattva, Gopā reaches for a comparison this pilgrimage has never used before — and what she finds in every pore is nothing like what the comparison would suggest.
「佛子！我於佛剎微塵數劫，觀菩薩身無有厭足。如多欲人男女集會，遞相愛染，起於無量妄想思覺。我亦如是，觀菩薩身一一毛孔，念念見無量無邊廣大世界種種安住、種種莊嚴、種種形狀，有種種山、種種地、種種雲、種種名、種種佛興、種種道場、種種眾會，演種種修多羅，說種種灌頂、種種諸乘、種種方便、種種清淨。又於菩薩一一毛孔，念念常見無邊佛海，坐種種道場，現種種神變，轉種種法輪，說種種修多羅，恒不斷絕。又於菩薩一一毛孔，見無邊眾生海種種住處、種種形貌、種種作業、種種諸根。又於菩薩一一毛孔，見三世諸菩薩無邊行門，所謂：無邊廣大願、無邊差別地、無邊波羅蜜、無邊往昔事、無邊大慈門、無邊大悲雲、無邊大喜心、無邊攝取眾生方便。
Son of the Buddha! Throughout kalpas as numerous as the fine motes of dust in a buddha-land, I contemplated that bodhisattva's own body, never growing weary of it. It was like a man and woman consumed by desire coming together, each captivated by love for the other, giving rise to measureless deluded thoughts and imaginings. I was just the same: contemplating every single pore of that bodhisattva's body, in thought after thought I beheld measureless, boundless, vast worlds — abiding in every kind of way, adorned in every kind of way, shaped in every kind of way — with every kind of mountain, every kind of land, every kind of cloud, every kind of name; every kind of buddha appearing there, every kind of awakening-site, every kind of assembly, expounding every kind of sūtra, proclaiming every kind of consecration, every kind of vehicle, every kind of skillful means, and every kind of purity. And moreover, in every single pore of that bodhisattva's body, in thought after thought I forever beheld a boundless ocean of buddhas, seated at every kind of awakening-site, manifesting every kind of spiritual transformation, turning every kind of Dharma-wheel, and expounding every kind of sūtra, forever without cease. And moreover, in every single pore of that bodhisattva's body, I beheld a boundless ocean of living beings, in every kind of dwelling-place, every kind of form and appearance, every kind of deed, and every kind of faculty. And moreover, in every single pore of that bodhisattva's body, I beheld the boundless gateways of practice belonging to every bodhisattva across the three periods of time. Namely: boundless vast and great vows, boundless differentiated grounds, boundless pāramitās, boundless deeds of ages past, boundless gateways of great loving-kindness, boundless clouds of great compassion, boundless minds of great joy, and boundless skillful means for gathering in every being.
如多欲人男女集會，遞相愛染 — like a man and woman consumed by desire coming together, each captivated by love for the other. It is a startling comparison for this pilgrimage to reach for — worldly infatuation as the nearest available image for how fixedly Gopā watched the bodhisattva's body, pore by pore, never once growing weary of it. What she finds there is not desire's object at all, but an entire cosmos in miniature, ending in eight things named alike: 無邊, without limit.
Part 1226 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle seventy-five. Part 1227 turns to Gopā's own admission of what even this vision could not reach, and her instruction sending Sudhana to the next teacher.