Good-Wealth Greets Rest-and-Release
Good-Wealth bows at Rest-and-Release's feet and asks his standard question, and she answers with something none of his first six teachers claimed — a single liberation-gate whose power works on anyone who merely sees her, while buddhas from every direction of space come to her own throne to teach her the dharma.
A Single Liberation-Gate, Seen by Anyone
Good-Wealth's question is the same one he has asked six teachers before her, but Rest-and-Release's answer opens differently — she claims only a single liberation-gate, yet insists that nothing given to her, and nothing seen of her, is ever wasted, and that mere sight of her alone brings non-retrogression.
善財童子入普莊嚴園，周遍觀察，見休捨優婆夷坐於妙座，往詣其所，頂禮其足，遶無數匝，白言：「聖者！我已先發阿耨多羅三藐三菩提心，而未知菩薩云何學菩薩行？云何修菩薩道？我聞聖者善能誘誨，願為我說！」休捨告言：「善男子！我唯得菩薩一解脫門，若有見聞憶念於我，與我同住，供給我者，悉不唐捐。善男子！若有眾生不種善根，不為善友之所攝受，不為諸佛之所護念，是人終不得見於我。善男子！其有眾生得見我者，皆於阿耨多羅三藐三菩提獲不退轉。
The boy Good-Wealth entered the grove of Universal Adornment, looked all around, observing everywhere, and saw the laywoman Rest-and-Release seated on her wondrous throne. He went to her place, bowed his head at her feet, circumambulated her countless times, and said: "Noble one! I have already given rise to the mind of anuttara-samyak-sambodhi, but I do not yet know how a bodhisattva learns the bodhisattva practices, or how a bodhisattva cultivates the bodhisattva path. I have heard that the noble one is skilled in guiding and instructing others — I wish that you would explain it to me!" Rest-and-Release said to him: "Good son, I have attained only a single bodhisattva liberation-gate. If there are those who see, hear, or call me to mind, dwell together with me, or make offerings to me, none of it is ever done in vain. Good son, if there are beings who have not planted roots of goodness, who are not gathered in by good friends, and who are not mindfully protected by the buddhas, such people will never be able to see me. Good son, whatever beings are able to see me all attain non-retrogression in anuttara-samyak-sambodhi."
是人終不得見於我 — such people will never be able to see her. This turns the healing power described in Part 947 into something conditional rather than automatic: seeing her is not a matter of standing in the right place, but of already having planted the roots of goodness that make the seeing possible at all.
Buddhas From Every Direction, A Retinue Beyond Counting
Rest-and-Release closes her first reply by describing her own constant company: buddhas from all ten directions arriving at her own throne to teach her the dharma, and a retinue of eighty-four thousand koṭis of nayutas journeying beside her, every one of them already secure in non-retrogression.
「善男子！東方諸佛常來至此，處於寶座為我說法；南、西、北方，四維、上、下，一切諸佛悉來至此，處於寶座為我說法。善男子！我常不離見佛聞法，與諸菩薩而共同住。「善男子！我此大眾，有八萬四千億那由他，皆在此園與我同行，悉於阿耨多羅三藐三菩提得不退轉；其餘眾生住此園者，亦皆普入不退轉位。」
"Good son, buddhas of the east constantly come to this place, sitting on jeweled thrones to teach me the dharma; from the south, west, and north, and the four intermediate directions, above and below, every buddha likewise comes to this place, sitting on jeweled thrones to teach me the dharma. Good son, I am never apart from seeing buddhas and hearing the dharma, and I dwell together with all the bodhisattvas. Good son, this great assembly of mine numbers eighty-four thousand koṭis of nayutas, all journeying together with me within this grove, every one of them having attained non-retrogression in anuttara-samyak-sambodhi; and the remaining beings who dwell in this grove have likewise all universally entered the stage of non-retrogression."
處於寶座為我說法 — sitting on jeweled thrones to teach her the dharma. It is Rest-and-Release, seated already on her own throne, who receives the buddhas of all ten directions on their own thrones — an image that reverses the usual picture of a student traveling to a teacher, and instead has the teaching arrive at her.
Part 948 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle sixty-four. Part 949 turns to Good-Wealth's next question — how long ago Rest-and-Release first gave rise to the mind of awakening — and her own memory of ten named buddhas she served in ages past.