Good-Wealth's Doubt, and a Suspicion of Māra
For the first time in this entire pilgrimage, Good-Wealth openly wonders whether the being standing in front of him is not a good spiritual friend at all, but Māra himself in disguise, seeking to destroy the very roots of goodness and the very life this pilgrimage has been built on.
Twelve Difficulties, Then an Open Suspicion
Good-Wealth's mind moves through twelve things that are difficult to attain — a human body, freedom from difficulty, a true good spiritual friend — before the list itself becomes evidence for a darker possibility: that Fierce-Heat's demand is not a teaching at all, but Māra's own attempt to end this pilgrimage by ending Good-Wealth himself.
時，善財童子作如是念：「得人身難，離諸難難，得無難難，得淨法難，得值佛難，具諸根難，聞佛法難，遇善人難，逢真善知識難，受如理正教難，得正命難，隨法行難。此將非魔、魔所使耶？將非是魔險惡徒黨，詐現菩薩善知識相，而欲為我作善根難、作壽命難，障我修行一切智道，牽我令入諸惡道中，欲障我法門、障我佛法？」
At that time, the boy Good-Wealth had this thought: "Attaining a human body is difficult; being free from every difficulty is difficult; attaining freedom from difficulty is difficult; attaining the pure dharma is difficult; encountering a buddha is difficult; possessing complete faculties is difficult; hearing the buddha-dharma is difficult; encountering a good person is difficult; meeting a true good spiritual friend is difficult; receiving the true teaching in accordance with the truth is difficult; attaining right livelihood is difficult; and following the dharma in practice is difficult. Could this perhaps be Māra, or someone employed by Māra? Could this perhaps be a dangerous and evil follower of Māra, falsely manifesting the appearance of a bodhisattva good spiritual friend, wishing to make it difficult for me to attain roots of goodness, and difficult for me to preserve my own life, obstructing my own cultivation of the path of omniscience, dragging me to enter every evil realm, wishing to obstruct my own dharma-gate, and obstruct my own buddha-dharma?"
此將非魔、魔所使耶 — could this perhaps be Māra, or someone employed by Māra? Eight teachers have each been praised, prostrated before, and trusted without any hesitation voiced at all. This is the first moment in the entire pilgrimage where Good-Wealth's own trust visibly cracks — not because the teaching seems false, but because what it asks of him seems impossible to survive.
Part 966 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle sixty-four. Part 967 turns to what answers Good-Wealth's doubt — ten thousand Brahmā gods appearing in the sky above him, telling him not to think such thoughts at all.