How Rare It Is to Meet a Bodhisattva
Megha names the encounter Good-Wealth is currently having as something genuinely rare — difficult to arise, difficult to encounter, and rarer still actually to see. He then reaches for eighteen different images to describe what a bodhisattva is: refuge, rescuer, wind, earth, ocean, sun, fire, ship's captain, bridge.
Refuge, Rescuer, Protector
Before reaching for cosmic imagery, Megha names four plainer roles a bodhisattva fills for every sentient being — a refuge that helps them grow, a rescuer that pulls them from suffering, a support that guards the world, a protector that frees them from fear.
「善男子！應知菩薩所作甚難，難出難值，見菩薩者倍更難有。菩薩為一切眾生恃怙，生長成就故；為一切眾生拯濟，拔諸苦難故；為一切眾生依處，守護世間故；為一切眾生救護，令免怖畏故。
"Good son! You should know that what a bodhisattva does is extremely difficult — difficult to arise, difficult to encounter — and to actually see a bodhisattva is rarer still. A bodhisattva is a refuge for every sentient being, because he causes them to grow and reach accomplishment; he is a rescuer for every sentient being, because he pulls them out of every suffering and difficulty; he is a place of reliance for every sentient being, because he guards and protects the world; he is a protector for every sentient being, because he causes them to be free of fear and dread.
見菩薩者倍更難有 — to actually see a bodhisattva is rarer still. Megha says this to Good-Wealth immediately after having just prostrated before him — a teacher naming the rarity of the very encounter currently taking place, from the position of someone who has just fallen to the ground in front of it.
Fourteen Images for One Figure
Wind that upholds the world, earth that grows every root of goodness, ocean, sun, Sumeru, moon, general, sovereign, fire, cloud, timely rain, ship's captain, and bridge — fourteen images in a row, each one naming a different function the same figure performs.
菩薩如風輪，持諸世間不令墮落惡趣故；如大地，增長眾生善根故；如大海，福德充滿無盡故；如淨日，智慧光明普照故；如須彌，善根高出故；如明月，智光出現故；如猛將，摧伏魔軍故；如君主，佛法城中得自在故；如猛火，燒盡眾生我愛心故；如大雲，降霔無量妙法雨故；如時雨，增長一切信根芽故；如船師，示導法海津濟處故；如橋梁，令其得度生死海故。」
A bodhisattva is like the wheel of wind, because it upholds every world and does not let it fall into evil destinies; like the great earth, because it causes the roots of goodness of sentient beings to grow; like the great ocean, because his own blessedness and merit are full and inexhaustible; like the pure sun, because the light of his own wisdom universally shines; like Sumeru, because his own roots of goodness rise up high; like the bright moon, because the light of his own wisdom appears; like a valiant general, because he crushes and subdues the armies of māra; like a sovereign, because he attains self-mastery within the city of the buddha's own dharma; like a fierce fire, because it burns away entirely the mind of self-love in sentient beings; like a great cloud, because it pours down a measureless rain of wondrous dharma; like timely rain, because it causes the sprouts of every root of faith to grow; like a ship's captain, because he shows and guides the crossing-place of the ocean of dharma; and like a bridge, because he causes beings to cross over the ocean of birth and death."
如猛火，燒盡眾生我愛心故 — like a fierce fire, because it burns away entirely the mind of self-love in sentient beings. Among fourteen mostly benevolent images — earth, ocean, sun, cloud — this one alone is destructive by nature, and its destruction is named as exactly what makes it useful: fire's only role here is to burn away self-love, nothing else.
Part 919 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle sixty-three. Part 920 turns to Megha's own light, emitted from his face to illuminate an entire universe, and the dharma-gate he teaches to everyone it touches.