Twelve Years Contemplating the Ocean
Ocean-Cloud finally answers what giving rise to the mind of enlightenment actually means — eleven distinct minds, each with its own reason. Then he turns personal, describing twelve years spent doing nothing but contemplating the ocean itself, until one day a single question occurs to him: is anything in the world more vast than this?
Eleven Minds, Eleven Reasons
Ocean-Cloud's own definition never simply names a mind without also naming why: great compassion because one rescues every being, a mind without obstruction because one has abandoned every obstruction, a boundless mind because there is nowhere it does not go.
「發菩提心者。所謂：發大悲心，普救一切眾生故；發大慈心，等祐一切世間故；發安樂心，令一切眾生滅諸苦故；發饒益心，令一切眾生離惡法故；發哀愍心，有怖畏者咸守護故；發無礙心，捨離一切諸障礙故；發廣大心，一切法界咸遍滿故；發無邊心，等虛空界無不往故；發寬博心，悉見一切諸如來故；發清淨心，於三世法智無違故；發智慧心，普入一切智慧海故。
"As for giving rise to the mind of enlightenment: namely, to give rise to a mind of great compassion, because one universally rescues every sentient being; to give rise to a mind of great loving-kindness, because one equally protects every world; to give rise to a mind of peace and joy, because one causes every sentient being to extinguish every suffering; to give rise to a mind of benefit, because one causes every sentient being to depart from every evil dharma; to give rise to a mind of pity, because one guards and protects entirely whoever is fearful; to give rise to a mind without obstruction, because one abandons and departs from every obstruction; to give rise to a vast and expansive mind, because one entirely fills and pervades the whole dharma-realm; to give rise to a boundless mind, because, equal to the realm of empty space, there is nowhere one does not go; to give rise to a broad and spacious mind, because one sees entirely every tathāgata; to give rise to a pure mind, because one's wisdom is never at odds with the dharma of the three times; and to give rise to a mind of wisdom, because one universally enters the ocean of all wisdom.
發大悲心，普救一切眾生故 — to give rise to a mind of great compassion, because one universally rescues every sentient being. Every one of the eleven minds Ocean-Cloud names follows this same shape: the mind itself, then its justification. Nothing here is simply asserted; each quality of mind is tied directly to what it accomplishes.
Is Anything More Vast Than This?
Ocean-Cloud turns to his own history: twelve years in this same country, his entire practice reduced to one object — the ocean, considered from ten different angles, its depth, its treasures, its inhabitants, its constancy — until, one day, a single doubt surfaces.
「善男子！我住此海門國十有二年，常以大海為其境界。所謂：思惟大海廣大無量，思惟大海甚深難測，思惟大海漸次深廣，思惟大海無量眾寶奇妙莊嚴，思惟大海積無量水，思惟大海水色不同不可思議，思惟大海無量眾生之所住處，思惟大海容受種種大身眾生，思惟大海能受大雲所雨之雨，思惟大海無增無減。「善男子！我思惟時，復作是念：『世間之中，頗有廣博過此海不？頗有無量過此海不？頗有甚深過此海不？頗有殊特過此海不？』
"Good son! I have dwelled in this country of Ocean-Gate for twelve full years, constantly taking the great ocean as my own object of contemplation. Namely: I contemplated how the great ocean is vast and measureless; I contemplated how the great ocean is profoundly deep and difficult to fathom; I contemplated how the great ocean grows deeper and wider by degrees; I contemplated how the great ocean is adorned with measureless treasures, rare and wondrous; I contemplated how the great ocean accumulates measureless water; I contemplated how the great ocean's own water is of colors so varied they cannot be conceived; I contemplated how the great ocean is the dwelling-place of measureless sentient beings; I contemplated how the great ocean holds and receives every kind of being with a vast body; I contemplated how the great ocean is able to receive the rain poured down by the great clouds; and I contemplated how the great ocean never increases and never decreases. Good son! While I was contemplating in this way, I further had this thought: 'Within the world, is there perhaps anything more vast and expansive than this ocean? Is there perhaps anything more measureless than this ocean? Is there perhaps anything more profoundly deep than this ocean? Is there perhaps anything more extraordinary than this ocean?'
頗有廣博過此海不？ — is there perhaps anything more vast and expansive than this ocean? Twelve years of unbroken contemplation end, not in an answer, but in a question — and it is this very question, asked after twelve years rather than on the first day, that the next Part answers in a way Ocean-Cloud could not have anticipated.
Part 907 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle sixty-two. Part 908 turns to Ocean-Cloud's own vision — a vast lotus flower suddenly appearing beneath the ocean itself, attended by a hundred million kings from every class of being, answering his question in a way no contemplation alone could have produced.