Mañjuśrī Departs with a Vast Retinue
After the long description of bodhisattvas teaching in every form and setting, the sūtra turns at last to Mañjuśrī himself, who emerges from his own pavilion accompanied by the spirits of earth, water, fire, wind, day, and night, and the eight classes of divine and semi-divine beings who traditionally guard the dharma.
An Entire Cosmology in Attendance
This retinue is not incidental: nature-spirits governing earth, water, fire, wind, day, night, space, ocean, mountain, and city walk alongside nāga kings, yakṣa kings, gandharva kings, and every other class of the eight kinds of divine and semi-divine beings that traditionally protect the dharma — the entire cosmos, in effect, accompanying Mañjuśrī as he prepares to leave.
或說一切世間工巧事業，或說一切智慧照世明燈，或說一切眾生業力所莊嚴，或說十方國土建立諸乘位，或說智燈所照一切法境界，教化成就一切眾生，而亦不離此逝多林如來之所。爾時，文殊師利童子從善住樓閣出，與無量同行菩薩，及常隨侍衛諸金剛神、普為眾生供養諸佛諸身眾神、久發堅誓願常隨從諸足行神、樂聞妙法主地神、常修大悲主水神、智光照耀主火神、摩尼為冠主風神、明練十方一切儀式主方神、專勤除滅無明黑暗主夜神、一心匪懈闡明佛日主晝神、莊嚴法界一切虛空主空神、普度眾生超諸有海主海神、常勤積集趣一切智助道善根高大如山主山神、常勤守護一切眾生菩提心城主城神、常勤守護一切智智無上法城諸大龍王、常勤守護一切眾生諸夜叉王、常令眾生增長歡喜乾闥婆王、常勤除滅諸餓鬼趣鳩槃荼王、恒願拔濟一切眾生出諸有海迦樓羅王、願得成就諸如來身高出世間阿脩羅王、見佛歡喜曲躬恭敬摩睺羅伽王、常厭生死恒樂見佛諸大天王、尊重於佛讚歎供養諸大梵王。
In some cases speaking of every worldly craft and trade; in other cases speaking of the lamp of wisdom that illuminates the world; in other cases speaking of what every sentient being's own karmic power has adorned; in other cases speaking of the establishment of every vehicle's own stages throughout every land in the ten directions; and in other cases speaking of the domain of every dharma illuminated by the lamp of wisdom — teaching and bringing every sentient being to accomplishment, and yet never departing from this very place of the tathāgata within the Jeta Grove. At that time, Mañjuśrī, the youth, emerged from the Well-Abiding Pavilion, together with measureless bodhisattvas walking alongside him, and the vajra spirits who constantly attend and guard him, the body-spirits who universally make offerings to every buddha for the sake of sentient beings, the foot-walking spirits who, having long ago given rise to firm vows, constantly follow after him, the earth-lord spirits who delight in hearing the wondrous dharma, the water-lord spirits who constantly cultivate great compassion, the fire-lord spirits whose wisdom-light blazes bright, the wind-lord spirits crowned with maṇi jewels, the direction-lord spirits skilled in every ceremony throughout the ten directions, the night-lord spirits who single-mindedly and diligently extinguish the darkness of ignorance, the day-lord spirits who, with an undivided, untiring mind, make manifest the sun of the Buddha, the space-lord spirits who adorn the entire dharma-realm and every realm of empty space, the ocean-lord spirits who universally deliver sentient beings beyond every ocean of existence, the mountain-lord spirits who constantly and diligently accumulate roots of goodness that aid the path toward all-knowing wisdom, lofty and vast as a mountain, and the city-lord spirits who constantly and diligently guard the city of every sentient being's own mind of awakening — together with the great nāga kings who constantly and diligently guard the unsurpassed dharma-city of all-knowing, all-seeing wisdom, the yakṣa kings who constantly and diligently guard every sentient being, the gandharva kings who constantly cause sentient beings' own joy to grow, the kumbhāṇḍa kings who constantly and diligently eliminate the realm of hungry ghosts, the garuḍa kings who constantly vow to rescue every sentient being out of every ocean of existence, the asura kings who vow to accomplish every tathāgata's own body, rising high above the world, the mahoraga kings who, seeing the Buddha, rejoice and bow reverently with respect, the great deva kings who constantly weary of birth and death and constantly delight in seeing the Buddha, and the great Brahmā kings who honor the Buddha, praise him, and make offerings to him.
諸大龍王……諸大梵王 — from the great nāga kings through the great Brahmā kings, this passage names, in sequence, the traditional eight classes of divine and semi-divine beings said to protect the dharma wherever it is taught: nāgas, yakṣas, gandharvas, kumbhāṇḍas, garuḍas, asuras, mahoragas, and devas. Their gathering here, all at once, marks Mañjuśrī's own departure as an event the entire cosmos takes part in.
Part 887 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle sixty-one. Part 888 turns to Mañjuśrī's own departure from the Jeta Grove, heading south into the human world, and to Śāriputra's decision to follow him with six thousand monks.