Good-Wealth's Eighth Teacher Is Named
Rest-and-Release sends Good-Wealth south to the land of Nalasu and the sage Bhīṣmottaranirghoṣa, and he departs in tears, reciting ten things that are difficult to attain before this same grief resolves into ten new kinds of mind rising up as he sets out on the road.
Ten Things Difficult to Attain
Named toward a sage in a southern land, Good-Wealth bows, circles Rest-and-Release countless times, and weeps — not from despair, but reciting ten specific difficulties, each one naming exactly what makes the path he is on so hard to walk.
「善男子！於此南方海潮之處，有一國土，名：那羅素；中有仙人，名：毘目瞿沙。汝詣彼問：菩薩云何學菩薩行、修菩薩道？」時，善財童子頂禮其足，遶無數匝，慇懃瞻仰，悲泣流淚，作是思惟：「得菩提難，近善知識難，遇善知識難，得菩薩諸根難，淨菩薩諸根難，值同行善知識難，如理觀察難，依教修行難，值遇出生善心方便難，值遇增長一切智法光明難。」作是念已，辭退而行。
"Good son, in this place of Sea-Tide, to the south, there is a land named Nalasu; within it there is a sage named Bhīṣmottaranirghoṣa. Go to him and ask: 'How does a bodhisattva learn the bodhisattva practices, and cultivate the bodhisattva path?'" At that time, the boy Good-Wealth bowed his head at her feet, circumambulated her countless times, gazed up at her earnestly, and wept, his tears flowing, thinking this thought: "Attaining bodhi is difficult; drawing near to a good spiritual friend is difficult; encountering a good spiritual friend is difficult; attaining a bodhisattva's own faculties is difficult; purifying a bodhisattva's own faculties is difficult; meeting a good spiritual friend who practices alongside oneself is difficult; observing in accordance with the truth is difficult; cultivating practice in reliance on the teaching is difficult; encountering the skillful means that give rise to a wholesome mind is difficult; and encountering the light of the dharma of omniscience that causes it to grow is difficult." Having had this thought, he took his leave and departed.
悲泣流淚 — he wept, his tears flowing. This is the first time in the entire pilgrimage that Good-Wealth's own departure from a teacher is marked by tears rather than simply by bowing and taking leave — a small but real escalation in how difficult this parting itself has become to bear.
Ten Kinds of Mind, Rising as He Walks
Grief does not stop Good-Wealth's own progress; instead it resolves, as he walks, into ten distinct states of mind arising one after another — each a different way of holding what he has just been taught, from a mind that sees every buddha clearly to one that crushes every host of māras.
爾時，善財童子隨順思惟菩薩正教，隨順思惟菩薩淨行，生增長菩薩福力心，生明見一切諸佛心，生出生一切諸佛心，生增長一切大願心，生普見十方諸法心，生明照諸法實性心，生普散一切障礙心，生觀察法界無闇心，生清淨意寶莊嚴心，生摧伏一切眾魔心。
At that time, the boy Good-Wealth, in accordance with his own reflection on the bodhisattva's true teaching, and in accordance with his own reflection on the bodhisattva's pure conduct, gave rise to a mind that increases a bodhisattva's own power of merit; gave rise to a mind that clearly sees every buddha; gave rise to a mind that brings forth every buddha; gave rise to a mind that increases every great vow; gave rise to a mind that universally sees every dharma in the ten directions; gave rise to a mind that clearly illuminates the true nature of every dharma; gave rise to a mind that universally scatters every obstruction; gave rise to a mind that observes the dharma-realm without any darkness; gave rise to a mind adorned with the pure jewel of intention; and gave rise to a mind that crushes and subdues every host of māras.
生出生一切諸佛心 — a mind that brings forth every buddha. Set directly after "a mind that clearly sees every buddha," this phrase moves from perception to origination — not simply beholding buddhas already present, but a mind through which buddhahood itself is said to arise.
Part 954 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle sixty-four. Part 955 turns to Good-Wealth's arrival at the land of Nalasu, the forest of countless trees where he searches for Bhīṣmottaranirghoṣa, and his first sight of the sage seated beneath a sandalwood tree, surrounded by ten thousand disciples.