Śuddhodana, Māyā, and This Very Assembly
The girl's fifty-two-stanza hymn closes with seven stanzas on the benefit the newborn child brings to everyone who beholds him. The king then reveals who everyone in this ancient account has actually been: the wheel-king himself was Vairocana, the parents were none other than Śuddhodana and Māyā, and the people of that land are this very assembly, listening to the sūtra now.
Seven Stanzas: A Benefit Reaching Every Being
「時彼諸人民， 合掌恭敬禮，
歡喜如是言， 此是世歸依。
身放大光明， 普照於一切，
若有遇斯光， 諸漏悉除滅。
一切惡鬼神， 毒害眾生類，
悉捨不善心， 自然生慈愍。
惡名失善利， 疾病鬼所持，
如是眾苦滅， 一切皆歡喜。
天下諸群生， 相視如父母，
離惡修慈心， 專求一切智。
遠離諸惡趣， 廣開天人路，
顯現無上道， 度脫諸群生。
我等得善利， 遇斯大施主，
眾生失正路， 導師今出世。』
"At that time, all these people joined their palms and reverently bowed,
rejoicing and saying: 'This is the world's own refuge.'
His body released a great radiance, universally illumining all;
whoever encountered this light had every one of their own outflows extinguished entirely.
Every evil ghost and spirit, of every kind that harms sentient beings with poison,
relinquished their own unwholesome minds entirely, and of themselves gave rise to compassion and pity.
Ill repute, the loss of good fortune, sickness, and possession by evil spirits —
every such suffering as this was extinguished, and all rejoiced entirely.
Every kind of being throughout the world regarded one another as parent and child,
departing from evil and cultivating a mind of loving-kindness, single-mindedly seeking every wisdom.
Departing far from every evil destiny, broadly opening the path of gods and humans,
manifesting the unsurpassed path, delivering every kind of being.
We ourselves have gained a good benefit, encountering this great benefactor;
sentient beings, having lost the true path, now have a guide arisen in the world.'"
Fazang closes the count of this hymn's second half here: 五末後七頌明王出利益 — "fifth, the final seven stanzas reveal the benefit of the king's own emergence." Twenty-five plus twenty-seven, fifty-two stanzas in total, now complete across Parts 97 through this one — the largest single verse this entire pilgrimage has translated. The benefit these final seven stanzas name reaches further than any prior stanza in the hymn: not only human suffering, but "every evil ghost and spirit... relinquished their own unwholesome minds entirely" — malevolence itself, not merely its human victims, transformed by a single child's own presence.
A Bow, a Robe, and an Identification
「爾時，寶光明童女偈讚王已，頭面禮足，遶無數匝，恭敬合掌，於一面住。王讚女言：『善哉！善哉！乃能信知他人功德，是為希有；若有愚癡，不知報恩，無有智慧，濁心邪見；具如是等非法眾生，不知不信，諸佛菩薩清淨功德，一切智境。汝今專求無上菩提，修菩薩行，攝取安隱，饒益眾生。』王讚女已，以無價衣，手自授與，而告之曰：『汝自著之。』時，彼女人以膝著地，敬禮合掌，頂受而著。時，王復與六十女衣，彼著衣已，與眷屬俱，遶畢辭退。諸女衣中，普出一切星宿光明，眾人見已，咸歎之曰：『此諸女等，皆悉端正，如淨夜天，星宿莊嚴。』善男子！爾時，一切法師子吼圓蓋妙音王者，豈異人乎？今盧舍那如來、應供、等正覺是也；淨光王者，今淨飯王是也；蓮華光夫人者，摩耶夫人是也；時國人者，今大眾是也。悉於阿耨多羅三藐三菩提，得不退轉；或住初地，乃至十地；大願成就，住諸法門，修方便道，求一切智，住諸解脫。」
At that time, the girl Jeweled Light, having finished praising the king in verse, reverently bowed her head at his feet, circled him countless times, respectfully joined her palms, and stood to one side. The king praised the girl, saying: "Excellent, excellent! To be able to believe and know another's own merit in this way is a rare thing indeed; if there are those who are foolish, not knowing how to repay kindness, without wisdom, their minds muddied by wrong views — beings such as these, unlawful in this way, neither know nor believe in the pure merit of every buddha and bodhisattva, the state of every wisdom. You now single-mindedly seek unsurpassed bodhi, cultivate the bodhisattva's own practice, gather in security, and bring benefit to sentient beings." Having praised the girl, the king, with his own hand, personally bestowed upon her a priceless robe, saying to her: "Put this on yourself." At that time, this girl knelt with her knee upon the ground, reverently bowed with palms joined, and, receiving it upon her head, put it on. At that time, the king further gave robes to the sixty other girls; having put on these robes, they, together with their retinue, circled him and took their leave. From within these girls' own robes, there universally emerged the light of every star and constellation; the people, beholding this, all exclaimed together: "These girls, every one of them upright and fine, are like pure night-devas, adorned with the stars themselves."
Good son, could that king, named the Sublime Sound, the Perfect Canopy of the Lion's Roar of Every Dharma, have been anyone other than himself? He is none other than Vairocana Tathāgata, Worthy of Offerings, Perfectly and Fully Awakened One, now; King Pure Light is none other than King Śuddhodana, now; and Lady Lotus-Flower Light is none other than Lady Māyā, now. And the people of that land are none other than this very great assembly, now. Every one of them has attained non-retreat in unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening; some abide in the first ground, up to the tenth ground; their great vows accomplished, abiding in every Dharma-gate, cultivating the path of skillful means, seeking every wisdom, abiding in every liberation.
Fazang closes his account of this whole movement with two final steps: 五爾時等，明女讚已設禮。六王讚女德，以衣授之，主伴同益 — "fifth, 'at that time' and so on reveals the girl, having finished her praise, offering her bow; sixth, the king praising the girl's own virtue and bestowing a robe upon her — host and guest equally benefiting." Then, of the identification itself: 第三結會古今中，略不結云爾時彼童女者今則我身是 — "third, within the identification of past and present, it is abbreviated — it does not conclude by explicitly saying 'that young girl of that time is now myself.'" This is worth noticing precisely because it breaks the pattern this pilgrimage has followed at nearly every other teacher's own closing identification: the king, the parents, and the people of the land are all named outright — Vairocana, Śuddhodana, Māyā, this very assembly — but the girl's own identity as the night-deva narrating this account is left entirely unstated, understood only because she has been telling her own story from the very first line.
The identification itself reaches further than any this project has yet encountered: not merely one bodhisattva revealed as another, but the buddha of the present assembly identified as the miracle-child of an ancient lotus pond, his own parents named as the historical Buddha's own father and mother, and — in the single boldest move of the entire passage — "the people of that land are none other than this very great assembly, now." The vast cosmic frame the account opened with, kalpas and world-oceans deep, collapses at its very close onto the literal audience seated before Sudhana at this very moment.
Part 102 In Progress
The girl's fifty-two-stanza hymn has closed, and the identification has revealed Vairocana, Śuddhodana, Māyā, and this very assembly within a story that began kalpas ago. Part 103 turns to the night-deva's own closing verse — ten stanzas on the powers she has attained — before her self-limiting close and referral to teacher 38.
Continue to Part 103 →