Twelve Years to Reach Elder Liberation
Megha names a fifth teacher and Good-Wealth departs in tears — but this journey is unlike any before it. Rather than a few days of travel, twelve full years pass while Good-Wealth holds an unbroken sequence of contemplations in mind, his own body growing as firm as vajra before he finally reaches the city where Liberation waits.
A Fifth Name, and Tears at Parting
Megha names the fifth teacher and the fourfold question to bring him, and Good-Wealth's own departure this time is marked by open weeping — a devotion the text records directly, rather than leaving it to be inferred from bows and circumambulations alone.
「善男子！從此南行，有一聚落，名曰：住林；彼有長者，名曰：解脫。汝詣彼問：菩薩云何修菩薩行？菩薩云何成菩薩行？菩薩云何集菩薩行？菩薩云何思菩薩行？」爾時，善財童子以善知識故，於一切智法，深生尊重，深植淨信，深自增益；禮彌伽足，涕泗悲泣，遶無量匝，戀慕瞻仰，辭退而行。
"Good son! To the south of here there is a village, named: Grove-Dwelling; there is an elder there, named: Liberation. Go there and ask him: how does a bodhisattva cultivate the bodhisattva's own practice? How does he accomplish the bodhisattva's own practice? How does he gather the bodhisattva's own practice? How does he reflect upon the bodhisattva's own practice?" At that time, the boy Good-Wealth, because of this good spiritual friend, gave rise to deep reverence toward the dharma of all-knowing wisdom, deeply planted pure faith in it, and deeply increased and benefited himself; he bowed at the feet of Megha, weeping and shedding tears, circled him measureless times, gazing up at him with longing and devotion, and took his leave and set off.
涕泗悲泣 — weeping and shedding tears. Good-Wealth has wept once before, on leaving Mañjuśrī at the very start of his journey. That it recurs here, on leaving only his fourth teacher, suggests something about Megha specifically — the teacher who bowed to him first, before he had answered a single question.
Twelve Years of Unbroken Contemplation
This journey stretches across twelve full years, and the text refuses to summarize it as mere travel: gate after gate held in mind, a mind made as firm as vajra and Nārāyaṇa, a body that comes to feel as though the entire dharma-realm has entered into it, before Good-Wealth finally arrives and begins to search.
爾時，善財童子思惟諸菩薩無礙解陀羅尼光明莊嚴門，深入諸菩薩語言海門，憶念諸菩薩知一切眾生微細方便門，觀察諸菩薩清淨心門，成就諸菩薩善根光明門，淨治諸菩薩教化眾生門，明利諸菩薩攝眾生智門，堅固諸菩薩廣大志樂門，住持諸菩薩殊勝志樂門，淨治諸菩薩種種信解門，思惟諸菩薩無量善心門；誓願堅固，心無疲厭；以諸甲冑而自莊嚴，精進深心不可退轉，具不壞信；其心堅固，猶如金剛及那羅延，無能壞者；守持一切善知識教，於諸境界得不壞智；普門清淨，所行無礙；智光圓滿，普照一切；具足諸地總持光明，了知法界種種差別，無依無住，平等無二；自性清淨而普莊嚴，於諸所行皆得究竟，智慧清淨離諸執著；知十方差別法，智無障礙；往十方差別處，身不疲懈；於十方差別業，皆得明了；於十方差別佛，無不現見；於十方差別時，悉得深入；清淨妙法充滿其心，普智三昧明照其心，心恒普入平等境界；如來智慧之所照觸，一切智流相續不斷，若身若心不離佛法；一切諸佛神力所加，一切如來光明所照；成就大願，願身周遍一切剎網，一切法界普入其身。漸次遊行，十有二年，至住林城，周遍推求解脫長者。
At that time, the boy Good-Wealth reflected on the bodhisattvas' own gate of the adorning light of the dhāraṇī of unobstructed understanding, deeply entered the bodhisattvas' own gate of the ocean of language, called to mind the bodhisattvas' own gate of knowing the subtle skillful means for every sentient being, observed the bodhisattvas' own gate of the pure mind, accomplished the bodhisattvas' own gate of the light of roots of goodness, purified the bodhisattvas' own gate of teaching and transforming sentient beings, sharpened the bodhisattvas' own gate of the wisdom that gathers in sentient beings, made firm the bodhisattvas' own gate of vast and expansive aspiration and delight, upheld the bodhisattvas' own gate of supremely excellent aspiration and delight, purified the bodhisattvas' own gate of every kind of faith and understanding, and reflected on the bodhisattvas' own gate of measureless good minds; his vow was firm, and his mind knew no weariness; he adorned himself with every kind of armor, his diligence and deep mind could never regress, and he was complete in unbreakable faith; his mind was firm, just like vajra and like Nārāyaṇa, something nothing could ever break; he upheld the teaching of every good spiritual friend, and attained an unbreakable wisdom amid every state; his universal gate was pure, and every practice he carried out was unobstructed; the light of his wisdom was perfect and complete, universally illuminating everything; he was complete in the light of total retention across every ground, comprehending every kind of distinction within the dharma-realm, relying on nothing, abiding nowhere, equal and without duality; his own intrinsic nature was pure, and he was universally adorned; in every practice he carried out, he attained ultimate completion; his wisdom was pure, departed from every attachment; he knew the distinct dharma of the ten directions, his wisdom without obstruction; he went to every distinct place in the ten directions, his body never wearying or growing lax; he came to a clear understanding of every distinct karma throughout the ten directions; of every distinct buddha throughout the ten directions, there was none he did not manifestly see; into every distinct time throughout the ten directions, he was able to deeply enter entirely; the pure and wondrous dharma filled his own mind; the samādhi of universal wisdom brightly illuminated his own mind; his mind constantly and universally entered the domain of equality; touched by the illumination of the tathāgata's own wisdom, the stream of all-knowing wisdom continued without interruption, and whether in body or in mind, he never departed from the buddha's own dharma; sustained by the spiritual power of every buddha, illuminated by the light of every tathāgata; he accomplished his own great vow, vowing that his own body would pervade the entire net of every land, and that the entire dharma-realm would universally enter into his own body. He journeyed on by stages for twelve full years, until he arrived at the city of Grove-Dwelling, and searched everywhere for the elder Liberation.
漸次遊行，十有二年 — he journeyed on by stages for twelve full years. Every prior journey between teachers has taken days or, at most, seven; this single sentence compresses twelve years into a single clause, its actual content given entirely by the long sequence of contemplations that precedes it rather than by any description of the road itself.
Part 921 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle sixty-three. Part 922 turns to Good-Wealth's own meeting with elder Liberation, prostrating before him and naming, at length, exactly why he has sought out this particular teacher.