A Ten-Fold Praise of the Good Spiritual Friend
Still prostrate on the ground, Good-Wealth names ten things a good spiritual friend has been to him — gate, vehicle, boat, torch, road, lamp, bridge, canopy, eye, and tide — each paired with exactly what it makes possible, before rising to ask the same question he has carried to every teacher so far.
Gate, Vehicle, Boat, Torch, Road
The first five images move Good-Wealth forward and upward at once — a gate he enters, a vehicle that carries him, a boat that crosses water, a torch that gives him light, and a road that leads all the way to the city of nirvāṇa itself.
「我今得遇真善知識。善知識者，則是趣向一切智門，令我得入真實道故；善知識者，則是趣向一切智乘，令我得至如來地故；善知識者，則是趣向一切智船，令我得至智寶洲故；善知識者，則是趣向一切智炬，令我得生十力光故；善知識者，則是趣向一切智道，令我得入涅槃城故；
"I have now encountered a true good spiritual friend. A good spiritual friend is the very gate leading toward omniscience, causing me to enter the true path; a good spiritual friend is the very vehicle leading toward omniscience, causing me to reach the tathāgata's own ground; a good spiritual friend is the very boat leading toward omniscience, causing me to reach the island of the treasury of wisdom; a good spiritual friend is the very torch leading toward omniscience, causing the light of the ten powers to arise within me; a good spiritual friend is the very road leading toward omniscience, causing me to enter the city of nirvāṇa;
Lamp, Bridge, Canopy, Eye, Tide
The second five images turn toward seeing and shelter — a lamp that reveals which roads are safe, a bridge across danger, a canopy of cool compassion, an eye onto the true nature of things, and finally a tide that fills him entirely with great compassion's own water.
善知識者，則是趣向一切智燈，令我得見夷險道故；善知識者，則是趣向一切智橋，令我得度險惡處故；善知識者，則是趣向一切智蓋，令我得生大慈涼故；善知識者，則是趣向一切智眼，令我得見法性門故；善知識者，則是趣向一切智潮，令我滿足大悲水故。」作是語已，從地而起，遶無量匝，合掌前住，白言：「聖者！我已先
a good spiritual friend is the very lamp leading toward omniscience, causing me to see which roads are level and which are perilous; a good spiritual friend is the very bridge leading toward omniscience, causing me to cross over perilous and evil places; a good spiritual friend is the very canopy leading toward omniscience, causing the cool shade of great loving-kindness to arise within me; a good spiritual friend is the very eye leading toward omniscience, causing me to see the gate of the true nature of every dharma; and a good spiritual friend is the very tide leading toward omniscience, causing me to be filled entirely with the water of great compassion." Having spoken these words, he rose up from the ground, circumambulated him countless times, stood before him with his palms joined, and said: "Noble one! I have already...
善知識者，則是趣向一切智潮 — a good spiritual friend is the very tide leading toward omniscience. Every one of these ten images names something Good-Wealth travels through or by — a gate, a road, a bridge — except this last one, where the good spiritual friend instead arrives at him, the way a tide rises to fill whatever is waiting on the shore.
Part 956 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle sixty-four. Part 957 turns to Good-Wealth's standard question in full, and the start of Bhīṣmottaranirghoṣa's answer.