Twenty-Two Gates of Letters
The youth begins the teaching his own name promised — not a story or a vow this time, but an alphabet, where intoning each single syllable opens its own distinct gate of prajñāpāramitā.
Twenty-Two Gates of Letters
This is the first half of the famous forty-two-letter teaching shared by the Avataṃsaka and Prajñāpāramitā traditions alike — the Siddham syllabary in which every single sound, intoned on its own, unlocks a named gate of wisdom.
唱阿字時，入般若波羅蜜門，名：以菩薩威力入無差別境界；唱多字時，入般若波羅蜜門，名：無邊差別門；唱波字時，入般若波羅蜜門，名：普照法界；唱者字時，入般若波羅蜜門，名：普輪斷差別；唱那字時，入般若波羅蜜門，名：得無依無上；唱邏字時，入般若波羅蜜門，名：離依止無垢；唱柂輕呼字時，入般若波羅蜜門，名：不退轉方便；唱婆蒲我切字時，入般若波羅蜜門，名：金剛場；唱荼徒解切字時，入般若波羅蜜門，名曰：普輪；唱沙史我切字時，入般若波羅蜜門，名為：海藏；唱縛房可切字時，入般若波羅蜜門，名：普生安住；唱哆都我切字時，入般若波羅蜜門，名：圓滿光；唱也以可切字時，入般若波羅蜜門，名：差別積聚；唱瑟吒字時，入般若波羅蜜門，名：普光明息煩惱；唱迦字時，入般若波羅蜜門，名：無差別雲；唱娑蘇我切字時，入般若波羅蜜門，名：降霔大雨；唱麼字時，入般若波羅蜜門，名：大流湍激眾峯齊峙；唱伽上聲輕呼字時，入般若波羅蜜門，名：普安立；唱他他可切字時，入般若波羅蜜門，名：真如平等藏；唱社字時，入般若波羅蜜門，名：入世間海清淨；唱鎖字時，入般若波羅蜜門，名：念一切佛莊嚴；唱柂字時，入般若波羅蜜門，名：觀察揀擇一切法聚；
When I intone the syllable a (阿), I enter the gate of prajñāpāramitā named By a Bodhisattva's Own Power, Entering the State Free of Every Distinction; when I intone the syllable duo (多), I enter the gate of prajñāpāramitā named The Gate of Boundless Distinctions; when I intone the syllable bo (波), I enter the gate of prajñāpāramitā named Universally Illumining the Dharma-Realm; when I intone the syllable zhe (者), I enter the gate of prajñāpāramitā named The Universal Wheel That Severs Every Distinction; when I intone the syllable na (那), I enter the gate of prajñāpāramitā named Attaining What Is Unsupported and Unsurpassed; when I intone the syllable luo (邏), I enter the gate of prajñāpāramitā named Free of Every Reliance, Utterly Stainless; when I intone the syllable yi (柂, pronounced lightly), I enter the gate of prajñāpāramitā named The Skillful Means of Non-Retrogression; when I intone the syllable po (婆, as glossed), I enter the gate of prajñāpāramitā named The Vajra Site; when I intone the syllable tie (荼, as glossed), I enter the gate of prajñāpāramitā named The Universal Wheel; when I intone the syllable shuo (沙, as glossed), I enter the gate of prajñāpāramitā named The Treasury of the Ocean; when I intone the syllable fe (縛, as glossed), I enter the gate of prajñāpāramitā named Universally Arising, Abiding in Peace; when I intone the syllable duo (哆, as glossed), I enter the gate of prajñāpāramitā named Perfect and Complete Light; when I intone the syllable ye (也, as glossed), I enter the gate of prajñāpāramitā named The Accumulation of Every Distinction; when I intone the syllable sezha (瑟吒), I enter the gate of prajñāpāramitā named Universal Light That Quells Every Affliction; when I intone the syllable jia (迦), I enter the gate of prajñāpāramitā named The Cloud Free of Every Distinction; when I intone the syllable suo (娑, as glossed), I enter the gate of prajñāpāramitā named Sending Down a Great Rain; when I intone the syllable mo (麼), I enter the gate of prajñāpāramitā named The Great Current's Rushing Torrent, Where Every Peak Stands Equal; when I intone the syllable jia (伽, pronounced lightly, rising tone), I enter the gate of prajñāpāramitā named Universal Establishment; when I intone the syllable te (他, as glossed), I enter the gate of prajñāpāramitā named The Treasury of Suchness's Own Equality; when I intone the syllable she (社), I enter the gate of prajñāpāramitā named Entering the Purity of the World's Own Ocean; when I intone the syllable suo (鎖), I enter the gate of prajñāpāramitā named Recollecting the Adornment of Every Buddha; when I intone the syllable tuo (柂, unmarked, contrasting with its lighter reading above), I enter the gate of prajñāpāramitā named Contemplating and Discerning Every Gathering of Dharmas.
唱阿字時，入般若波羅蜜門⋯唱柂字時，入般若波羅蜜門 — when I intone the syllable a, I enter the gate of prajñāpāramitā⋯when I intone the syllable tuo, I enter the gate of prajñāpāramitā. This is the well-known forty-two-letter dharma gate (四十二字門) found in both the Avataṃsaka and the Prajñāpāramitā sūtras, built on the Siddham syllabary tradition scholars call Arapacana. Several of the Chinese characters here carry a fanqie (反切) gloss — a pair of characters whose sounds combine to fix an exact pronunciation — because the text needs a precise, unambiguous syllable rather than any of a character's more common readings. Reconstructing the exact historical Sanskrit value of each letter is a specialized question this translation does not attempt to settle; each syllable below is rendered by its plain modern reading, with the original character kept alongside it, so nothing is asserted beyond what the text itself gives.
Part 1249 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle seventy-six. Part 1250 completes the forty-two-letter teaching with its remaining twenty syllables, closing on the youth's own claim that these letters open onto measureless further gates.