Fascicle Sixty-Four Opens Toward Rest-and-Release
Good-Wealth names, for the first time, exactly what a good spiritual friend has been to him throughout this entire pilgrimage — teacher, eye, and ferry-crossing — before arriving at a grove where seven kinds of jeweled trees rain down flowers, incense, garlands, garments, treasure, and music entirely of their own accord.
Teacher, Eye, and Ferry-Crossing
After seven teachers and a pilgrimage stretching years, Good-Wealth finally puts into words what a good spiritual friend has actually been throughout: not simply a source of instruction, but the very organ of sight that lets him see the buddha, and the crossing that lets him reach the far shore at all.
爾時，善財童子蒙善知識力，依善知識教，念善知識語，於善知識深心愛樂，作是念言：「因善知識，令我見佛；因善知識，令我聞法。善知識者是我師傅，示導於我諸佛法故；善知識者是我眼目，令我見佛如虛空故；善知識者是我津濟，令我得入諸佛如來蓮華池故。」
At that time, the boy Good-Wealth, sustained by the power of his good spiritual friends, relying on the teaching of his good spiritual friends, calling to mind the words of his good spiritual friends, with a deep and loving delight in his good spiritual friends, thought this thought, saying: "Because of good spiritual friends, I am able to see the buddha; because of good spiritual friends, I am able to hear the dharma. A good spiritual friend is my own teacher, because they reveal and guide me toward every buddha's own dharma; a good spiritual friend is my own eye, because they cause me to see the buddha as vast as empty space; and a good spiritual friend is my own ferry-crossing, because they cause me to be able to enter every buddha and tathāgata's own lotus pond."
善知識者是我眼目 — a good spiritual friend is my own eye. Earlier in this pilgrimage, Good-Wealth compared the good spiritual friend to a mother and a father. Here the comparison turns inward, to something even closer than a relationship — an organ of his own body, without which seeing itself would be impossible.
Seven Trees, Each Raining Its Own Gift
The grove of Universal Adornment announces itself through trees that need no gardener — flower-trees raining flowers, incense-trees perfuming the ten directions, garland-trees, jewel-trees, garment-trees, and music-trees whose sound, stirred only by wind, surpasses even heavenly music.
漸漸南行，至海潮處，見普莊嚴園，眾寶垣牆周匝圍遶，一切寶樹行列莊嚴；一切寶華樹，雨眾妙華，布散其地；一切寶香樹，香氣氛氳，普熏十方；一切寶鬘樹，雨大寶鬘，處處垂下；一切摩尼寶王樹，雨大摩尼寶，遍布充滿；一切寶衣樹，雨種種色衣，隨其所應，周匝敷布；一切音樂樹，風動成音，其音美妙，過於天樂；一切莊嚴具樹，各雨珍玩奇妙之物，處處分布，以為嚴飾。
He gradually traveled south, and arrived at the place of Sea-Tide, where he saw the grove of Universal Adornment, surrounded all around by walls of every kind of treasure, and adorned with rows upon rows of every kind of jeweled tree; every kind of jeweled flower-tree rained down every kind of wondrous flower, scattering them across the ground; every kind of jeweled incense-tree filled the air with dense fragrance, universally perfuming the ten directions; every kind of jeweled garland-tree rained down great jeweled garlands, hanging down everywhere; every kind of maṇi-jewel-king tree rained down great maṇi jewels, spreading and filling everything entirely; every kind of jeweled garment-tree rained down garments of every kind of color, laid out all around exactly as fitting; every kind of music-tree, stirred by the wind, produced sound, its own sound beautiful and wondrous, surpassing even heavenly music; and every kind of adornment-tree each rained down rare, marvelous, and wondrous objects, distributed everywhere, as its own decoration.
一切音樂樹，風動成音，其音美妙，過於天樂 — every kind of music-tree, stirred by the wind, produced sound, its own sound beautiful and wondrous, surpassing even heavenly music. Among seven trees that each produce something for the body — flowers, incense, garments — this one alone produces something for the ear, and needs no player at all, only the wind that any grove already has.
Part 943 Complete
This opens chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle sixty-four. Part 944 turns to the grove's own further wonders — palaces made of maṇi jewels, ponds of eight-fold water, and the great hall of Adornment-Banner where Rest-and-Release herself will be found.