Skilled in Every Art
Good-Wealth descends from heaven to Kapilavastu expecting to learn from a teacher named Universal Friend — who instead points him, without a word of his own teaching, to a youth whose liberation-gate is built from the letters of an alphabet.
Down to Kapilavastu
Sovereign Light closes with the same formula every teacher in this journey has used, and sends Good-Wealth all the way back down from Trāyastriṃśa Heaven to the city of his own birth.
「善男子！我唯知此無礙念清淨解脫。如諸菩薩摩訶薩，出生死夜朗然明徹，永離癡冥未嘗惛寐，心無諸蓋、身行輕安，於諸法性清淨覺了，成就十力開悟群生；而我云何能知能說彼功德行？「善男子！迦毘羅城有童子師，名曰：遍友。汝詣彼問：菩薩云何學菩薩行、修菩薩道？」時，善財童子以聞法故，歡喜踊躍，不思議善根自然增廣；頂禮其足，遶無數匝，辭退而去。從天宮下，漸向彼城。至遍友所，禮足圍遶，合掌恭敬，於一面立，白言：「聖者！我已先發阿耨多羅三藐三菩提心，而未知菩薩云何學菩薩行？云何修菩薩道？我聞聖者善能誘誨，願為我說！」
"Good son! I know only this liberation-gate of Unobstructed Recollection's Pure Adornment. As for the bodhisattva-mahāsattvas, who emerge from the long night of birth-and-death, brilliant and thoroughly clear, forever free of delusion's darkness and never once drowsy or dull, whose minds are free of every obstruction, whose bodily conduct is light and at ease, who are purely and clearly awakened to the true nature of every dharma, and who accomplish the ten powers to awaken every multitude of beings — how could I possibly know, or possibly speak, of their own virtuous practice? Good son! In the city of Kapilavastu there is a teacher of youths, named Universal Friend. Go to him, and ask: how does a bodhisattva study the bodhisattva's own practice, and cultivate the bodhisattva's own path?" At that time, Good-Wealth, because of having heard the Dharma, was joyful and leapt for gladness, his inconceivable wholesome roots naturally increasing and expanding; he bowed his head at her feet, circled her countless times, and took his leave and departed. He descended from the heavenly palace, and gradually made his way toward that city. He arrived at Universal Friend's own place, bowed at his feet, circled him, stood reverently to one side with his palms joined, and said: "Noble one! I have already given rise to the mind of anuttara-samyak-sambodhi, yet I do not yet know how a bodhisattva studies the bodhisattva's own practice, or how one cultivates the bodhisattva's own path. I have heard that you, noble one, are skillfully able to guide and instruct — I beg you, teach me!"
迦毘羅城有童子師，名曰：遍友 — in the city of Kapilavastu there is a teacher of youths, named Universal Friend. Good-Wealth's journey has carried him through heavens and world-oceans; this teacher sends him back down to the very city where the bodhisattva himself was born.
Skilled in Every Art
Universal Friend answers Good-Wealth's question by declining to answer it at all — pointing instead, in the very same breath, to a youth studying something no teacher so far in this journey has taught: the letters themselves.
遍友答言：「善男子！此有童子，名：善知眾藝，學菩薩字智。汝可問之，當為汝說。」爾時，善財即至其所，頭頂禮敬，於一面立，白言：「聖者！我已先發阿耨多羅三藐三菩提心，而未知菩薩云何學菩薩行？云何修菩薩道？我聞聖者善能誘誨，願為我說！」時，彼童子告善財言：「善男子！我得菩薩解脫，名：善知眾藝。我恒唱持此之字母：
Universal Friend answered, saying: "Good son! There is a youth here, named Skilled in Every Art, who has studied a bodhisattva's own wisdom of letters. You may ask him, and he will surely explain it to you." At that time, Good-Wealth went at once to that youth's own place, bowed his head in reverence, stood to one side, and said: "Noble one! I have already given rise to the mind of anuttara-samyak-sambodhi, yet I do not yet know how a bodhisattva studies the bodhisattva's own practice, or how one cultivates the bodhisattva's own path. I have heard that you, noble one, are skillfully able to guide and instruct — I beg you, teach me!" At that time, that youth said to Good-Wealth: "Good son! I have attained a bodhisattva's own liberation-gate, named Skilled in Every Art. I forever chant and uphold these very letters of the alphabet:
我得菩薩解脫，名：善知眾藝。我恒唱持此之字母 — I have attained a bodhisattva's own liberation-gate, named Skilled in Every Art. I forever chant and uphold these very letters of the alphabet. Universal Friend never describes his own practice at all — he is named as a teacher only long enough to redirect Good-Wealth toward this youth, whose own liberation-gate is about to unfold one letter at a time.
Part 1248 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle seventy-six. Part 1249 begins the youth's own teaching in earnest — the famous syllabary in which every letter opens onto its own gate of prajñāpāramitā.