Bejeweled Carts, Fascicle Twenty-Six Opens
Fascicle twenty-six opens with the sixth dedication's litany of specific gifts returning to vehicles, now in far greater elaboration than before. Recipients travel from every direction — some drawn by the bodhisattva's renown, some by karmic connection, some by a vow of giving made long ago — to receive carts of jewel, gold, lapis lazuli, silver, sandalwood, crystal, and agate, each adorned with jeweled nets, court attendants, and canopies, some laden with hundreds of thousands of attendants and drawn by fragrant elephants or fine steeds.
Why They Came
Before naming a single cart, the passage pauses to account for how its recipients arrived — some from far away, some nearby, some drawn by reputation, some by an old karmic bond, some who simply heard of a vow made in the past. This attention to arrival matters: the extravagant carts that follow are not scattered at random but given to people who came for reasons as various as the vehicles themselves, from those honoring a bodhisattva's fame down to those with no home at all.
「佛子！菩薩摩訶薩以種種車，眾寶嚴飾，奉施諸佛及諸菩薩、師長、善友、聲聞、緣覺，如是無量種種福田，乃至貧窮、孤露之者。此諸人眾，或從遠來，或從近來，或承菩薩名聞故來，或是菩薩因緣故來，或聞菩薩往昔所發施願故來，或是菩薩心願請來。菩薩是時，或施寶車，或施金車，悉妙莊嚴，鈴網覆上，寶帶垂下；或施上妙瑠璃之車，無量珍奇以為嚴飾；或復施與白銀之車，覆以金網，駕以駿馬；或復施與無量雜寶所莊嚴車，覆以寶網，駕以香象；或復施與栴檀之車，妙寶為輪，雜寶為蓋，寶師子座敷置嚴好，百千采女列坐其上，十萬丈夫牽御而行；或復施與玻瓈寶車，眾雜妙寶以為嚴飾，端正女人充滿其中，寶帳覆上，幢幡侍側；或復施與碼碯藏車，飾以眾寶，熏諸雜香，種種妙華散布莊嚴，百千采女持寶瓔珞，駕馭均調，涉險能安；或復施與堅固香車，眾寶為輪，莊嚴巨麗，寶帳覆上，寶網垂下，種種寶衣敷布其中，清淨好香流芬外徹，其香美妙稱悅人心，無量諸天翼從而行，載以眾寶隨時給施；或復施與光明寶車，種種諸寶妙色映徹，眾妙寶網羅覆其上，雜寶瓔珞周匝垂下，散以末香內外芬潔，所愛男女悉載其上。
"Child of the Buddha! The bodhisattva mahāsattva, with every kind of vehicle adorned with every kind of jewel, respectfully offers them to every buddha and every bodhisattva, to teachers and elders, to good friends, to śrāvakas, to pratyekabuddhas, to immeasurable fields of merit of every kind such as these, and even to the poor, the destitute, and those without support. These very people come, some from afar, some from nearby, some coming because they have heard the bodhisattva's own renown, some coming because of some karmic connection to the bodhisattva, some coming because they have heard of a vow of giving the bodhisattva made in the past, and some coming because they were invited by the bodhisattva's own wish and vow. At that time, the bodhisattva may give a jeweled cart, or may give a golden cart, every one of them wondrously adorned, covered above with bell-nets, jeweled sashes hanging down; or may give a most excellent lapis lazuli cart, adorned with immeasurable rare treasures; or may give a silver cart, covered with a golden net and drawn by fine steeds; or may give a cart adorned with immeasurable, various jewels, covered with a jeweled net and drawn by fragrant elephants; or may give a sandalwood cart, its wheels of wondrous jewels, its canopy of various jewels, a jeweled lion-throne spread and arranged in excellent adornment, hundreds of thousands of court women seated in rows upon it, a hundred thousand strong men drawing and driving it forward; or may give a crystal jeweled cart, adorned with every kind of various wondrous jewel, filled with beautiful women, covered above with a jeweled canopy, banners and pennants attending at its sides; or may give an agate treasure-cart, adorned with every kind of jewel, perfumed with every kind of fragrance, scattered and adorned with every kind of wondrous flower, hundreds of thousands of court women holding jeweled necklaces, driving it evenly and smoothly, able to travel safely even through dangerous terrain; or may give a firm and fragrant cart, its wheels made of every kind of jewel, magnificently and grandly adorned, covered above with a jeweled canopy, jeweled nets hanging down, every kind of jeweled robe spread out within it, its pure and excellent fragrance flowing and reaching outward, its scent so wondrous and pleasing that it delights the human heart, immeasurable heavenly beings accompanying it as it moves, laden with every kind of jewel given out according to the moment; or may give a cart of luminous treasure, every kind of jewel's wondrous color shining through, every kind of wondrous jeweled net draped over it, various jeweled necklaces hanging down all around, scattered with powdered incense pure and fragrant within and without, beloved men and women all riding upon it.
This passage revisits vehicle-giving, already dedicated once earlier in this same dedication, but at an entirely different scale of description — nine distinct carts, each cataloged down to its wheels, its canopy, its attendants, and its scent. The sūtra's own compositional habit is visible here: a theme named briefly once can return later transformed into an extended set-piece, without the earlier, shorter treatment being in any way superseded.
Part 270 Complete
This closes Part 270. Chapter 25 continues in Part 271 as the bodhisattva dedicates this very giving of vehicles toward specific wishes for every living being.