Twenty Bodies
Fascicle seventy-six opens before Good-Wealth has even arrived — his own mind, set wholly on reaching Lady Māyā, already describes her in twenty separate epithets, each one ending in the same word: body.
Twenty Bodies
Fascicle seventy-six of the Avataṃsaka Sūtra opens on Good-Wealth's own anticipation of the forty-second teacher, described before he has even set eyes on her.
爾時，善財童子一心欲詣摩耶夫人所，即時獲得觀佛境界智，作如是念：「是善知識，遠離世間，住無所住，超過六處，離一切著，知無礙道，具淨法身，以如幻業而現化身，以如幻智而觀世間，以如幻願而持佛身、隨意生身、無生滅身、無來去身、非虛實身、不變壞身、無起盡身、所有諸相皆一相身、離二邊身、無依處身、無窮盡身、離諸分別如影現身、知如夢身、了如像身、如淨日身、普於十方而化現身、住於三世無變異身、非身心身，猶如虛空，所行無礙，超諸世眼，唯是普賢淨目所見。如是之人，我今云何而得親近承事供養、與其同住、觀其狀貌、聽其音聲、思其語言、受其教誨？」
At that time, Good-Wealth, with his whole mind set on going to the place of Lady Māyā, at that very moment attained the wisdom of contemplating the buddha's own domain, and thought to himself: "This good spiritual friend is far removed from the world, abides in no abode at all, has gone beyond the six sense-bases, is free of every attachment, knows the unobstructed path, and is endowed with the pure Dharma-body. Through illusion-like karma she manifests a transformation-body, through illusion-like wisdom she contemplates the world, and through illusion-like vows she upholds the buddha-body — the body born according to will, the body without birth or death, the body without coming or going, the body neither empty nor real, the body unchanging and undecaying, the body without arising or ending, the body in which every mark is a single mark, the body free of both extremes, the body without any dwelling place, the body without exhaustion, the body manifesting like a reflection free of discrimination, the body known as if a dream, the body understood as if an image, the body like the pure sun, the body universally manifesting throughout the ten directions, the body abiding in the three periods of time without change, and the body that is neither body nor mind — just like empty space, moving without any obstruction, transcending every worldly eye, visible only to the pure eye of Samantabhadra. A person such as this — how could I now possibly draw near to her, serve her, make offerings to her, dwell together with her, behold her very form, hear her voice, reflect on her words, and receive her teaching?"
隨意生身、無生滅身⋯非身心身 — the body born according to will, the body without birth or death⋯the body that is neither body nor mind. Twenty separate epithets, each ending in 身, "body," describe Māyā before Good-Wealth has even reached her — the same register of language this pilgrimage has used, again and again, for the buddha's own dharmakāya. He has not yet asked a single question, and the text has already told its reader exactly what kind of teacher he is about to meet.
Part 1230 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle seventy-six. Part 1231 turns to the first of several spirits who greet Good-Wealth before he ever reaches Māyā herself, beginning with a city-guardian named Jewel Eye and a teaching on guarding the city of the mind.