A Good Spiritual Friend as Mother and Father
Liberation sends Good-Wealth to a sixth teacher at the very edge of the known world, and Good-Wealth's own tearful departure this time carries a reflection that names, in the plainest terms yet, exactly what a good spiritual friend actually is to him — not merely a teacher, but a mother who removes what is harmful and a father who brings forth what is good.
To the Very Edge of Jambudvīpa
Liberation's own directions this time reach further than any before — not simply south, but all the way to the edge of Jambudvīpa itself, to a country and a monk whose name, Sea-Banner, already anticipates a setting at the boundary between land and ocean.
「善男子！從此南行，至閻浮提畔，有一國土，名：摩利伽羅；彼有比丘，名曰：海幢。汝詣彼問：菩薩云何學菩薩行、修菩薩道？」
"Good son! Traveling south from here, at the edge of Jambudvīpa, there is a country, named: Mālāgāra; there is a monk there, named: Sea-Banner. Go there and ask him: how does a bodhisattva study the bodhisattva's own practice and cultivate the bodhisattva's own path?"
至閻浮提畔 — at the edge of Jambudvīpa. Every previous teacher has been reached by traveling south through the human world; this is the first time the destination itself is marked as a boundary — the very edge of the continent this sūtra's geography has, until now, treated as effectively boundless.
Mother Who Removes, Father Who Brings Forth
Good-Wealth's own departure is framed, for the first time, entirely around what a good spiritual friend actually is to him: not opposed, never flattered or deceived, always followed in accord — and named, in the end, with the two most intimate images this sūtra has yet offered, a loving mother and a loving father.
時，善財童子頂禮解脫長者足，右遶觀察，稱揚讚歎，思惟戀仰，悲泣流淚——一心憶念：依善知識，事善知識，敬善知識，由善知識見一切智；於善知識不生違逆，於善知識心無諂誑，於善知識心常隨順；於善知識起慈母想，捨離一切無益法故；於善知識起慈父想，出生一切諸善法故。——辭退而去。
At that time, the boy Good-Wealth bowed his head at the feet of the elder Liberation, circled him to the right while observing him, extolled and praised him, reflected upon him with longing and devotion, and wept, his tears streaming — single-mindedly holding this in mind: relying on a good spiritual friend, serving a good spiritual friend, revering a good spiritual friend — it is through a good spiritual friend that one sees all-knowing wisdom; toward a good spiritual friend, one gives rise to no opposition; toward a good spiritual friend, one's mind holds no flattery or deceit; toward a good spiritual friend, one's mind constantly follows along in accord; toward a good spiritual friend, one gives rise to the thought of a loving mother, because she causes one to abandon and depart from every unbeneficial dharma; and toward a good spiritual friend, one gives rise to the thought of a loving father, because he brings forth every wholesome dharma — and having reflected thus, he took his leave and departed.
於善知識起慈母想……於善知識起慈父想 — toward a good spiritual friend, one gives rise to the thought of a loving mother … a loving father. The two images divide the good spiritual friend's own function cleanly in two: the mother's role is subtractive, removing what is unbeneficial; the father's role is generative, bringing forth what is wholesome. Between the two, nothing is left undone.
Part 928 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle sixty-three. Part 929 turns to Good-Wealth's own journey to Mālāgāra, and to what he finds there: the monk Sea-Banner seated in unmoving samādhi, beings pouring forth from his own body to benefit the world.