Part 989 of the collection · Fascicle 65 of 80 · 入法界品第三十九之六 · T279

The Liberation of the Lamp of Accordance

Well-Seen names his liberation and describes the great bodhisattvas as a lamp that cannot be put out — born truly into the tathāgata's own family, immune to poison, blade, and fire alike, and simply being seen by them is enough to break a mountain of obstruction in whoever looks.

Translator: Ru-Yi Meditation Center Status: Part 989 — the liberation of the lamp of accordance Source: Taishō T279 (Śikṣānanda, Tang, 695–699 CE)

A Vajra Lamp, Immune to Poison, Blade, and Fire

Well-Seen's own image for the great bodhisattvas is a lamp of vajra — a light that cannot be extinguished because the body that carries it cannot be destroyed at all, immune to every weapon a hostile world might turn against it.

Chinese Source

「善男子!我唯知此菩薩隨順燈解脫門。如諸菩薩摩訶薩如金剛燈,於如來家真正受生,具足成就不死命根,常然智燈無有盡滅,其身堅固不可沮壞,現於如幻色相之身,如緣起法無量差別,隨眾生心各各示現,形貌色相世無倫匹,毒刃火災所不能害,如金剛山無能壞者,降伏一切諸魔外道;其身妙好如真金山,於天人中最為殊特,名稱廣大靡不聞知,觀諸世間咸對目前,演深法藏如海無盡,放大光明普照十方。若有見者,必破一切障礙大山,必拔一切不善根本,必令種植廣大善根。如是之人,難可得見,難可出世;而我云何能知能說彼功德行?

Ru-Yi Translation

"Good son, I know only this bodhisattva liberation-gate, the Lamp of Accordance. As for the great bodhisattvas, like a vajra lamp, truly born into the tathāgata's own family, fully accomplishing the deathless life-faculty, constantly kindling the lamp of wisdom, never exhausted or extinguished, their own body firm and solid, unable to be destroyed, manifesting a body of form like an illusion, like the dharma of dependent origination's own measureless distinctions, manifesting in accordance with each and every being's own mind, their own form and appearance without equal in the world, unable to be harmed by poison, blade, or fire, like a mountain of vajra, nothing able to destroy them, subduing every māra and heretic; their own body wondrous and fine like a mountain of true gold, most extraordinary among gods and humans, their own renown vast, none failing to hear of it, observing every world as though directly before their own eyes, expounding the profound treasury of dharma, inexhaustible like the ocean, emitting great light, universally illuminating the ten directions. Whoever sees them will certainly break through every great mountain of obstruction, will certainly pull out the root of every unwholesome thing, and will certainly come to plant vast roots of goodness. Such a person is difficult to encounter, and difficult to appear in the world; how could I possibly know or describe their own meritorious practice?

Reading note — Ru-Yi Meditation Center

毒刃火災所不能害 — unable to be harmed by poison, blade, or fire. Every teacher's own image tends to reflect their own practice — Fierce-Heat's own austerity was built from fire and blades, and here Well-Seen's own bodhisattva-image is defined precisely by its immunity to those same two dangers, as though answering the ordeal two teachers back.

Part 989 Complete

This continues chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle sixty-five. Part 990 turns to Well-Seen naming Good-Wealth's twelfth teacher — a boy named Sovereign Lord, found playing at a riverbank — and Good-Wealth's own extended wish before departing.