Ten Powers, and a Ground Gone Afar
The night-deva retells her own attainments in ten stanzas of her own — the divine eye and ear, knowledge of every mind and of past lives, and a single thought-moment that holds every buddha's own cause and fruit at once — before closing her own portion and sending Sudhana onward to the night-deva Vow-Valor Light, Guardian of Sentient Beings. This closes the seventh teacher of the Ten Grounds, the Ground Gone Afar.
Ten Stanzas: The Eye, the Ear, the Mind, the Past
爾時，開敷樹華夜天欲重明此義，以偈頌曰：
「我有清淨眼， 悉見世界海，
生死五趣中， 眾生常流轉。
見諸佛菩薩， 往詣菩提樹，
得道轉法輪， 化度諸群生。
我以淨天耳， 境界一切音，
諸佛所說法， 悉聞歡喜持。
我有無二智， 一切無等等，
能於一念中， 了眾生心海。
我得宿命智， 念一切劫海，
自身及他人， 分別悉了達。
我於一念知， 諸剎海塵劫，
諸佛及菩薩， 五道眾生類。
彼佛初發願， 專求佛菩提，
究竟悉滿足， 無量菩薩行。
覺了等正覺， 種種巧方便，
轉淨妙法輪， 顯現諸乘海。
為眾演說法， 度脫於一切，
乃至遺法住， 我悉一念知。
我於無量劫， 修習此法門，
真佛子應速， 究竟此法門。」
At that time the night-deva Blossoming Tree Flower, wishing to make this meaning clear once more, spoke this hymn in verse:
"I possess the pure eye, beholding entirely the whole ocean of worlds,
and, within the five destinies of birth-and-death, sentient beings constantly turning and flowing.
I behold every buddha and bodhisattva, going to the bodhi tree,
attaining the path and turning the Dharma-wheel, transforming and delivering every kind of being.
With my own pure heavenly ear, the state of every sound,
the Dharma expounded by every buddha, I hear entirely, joyfully upholding it.
I possess the wisdom without duality, equal to the unequaled itself,
able, within a single thought-moment, to understand the whole ocean of every sentient being's own mind.
I have attained the wisdom of past lives, recollecting the whole ocean of every kalpa,
discerning and understanding entirely both my own self and every other being.
Within a single thought-moment, I know the whole ocean of lands, kalpas as numerous as motes of dust,
every buddha and bodhisattva, and every kind of being of the five destinies.
That buddha's own first raising of the vow, single-mindedly seeking the buddha's own bodhi,
reaching the very end, fulfilling entirely the bodhisattva's own boundless practice.
Awakening to and understanding the most correct awakening, every kind of skillful means,
turning the pure, sublime Dharma-wheel, manifesting the whole ocean of every vehicle.
Expounding the Dharma for the sake of beings, delivering every one of them,
up to and including the abiding of the Dharma left behind — all of this I know within a single thought-moment.
Throughout boundless kalpas, I have cultivated this Dharma-gate;
a true child of the Buddha should swiftly bring this Dharma-gate to its very completion."
Fazang counts these ten stanzas by exactly which transcendent power each one names: 二重頌中十偈，初二天眼、次一天耳、次一他心、次一宿命、次四廣知諸佛因果等事、後一結勸修學 — "second, the repeated verse of ten stanzas: the first two, the divine eye; the next one, the divine ear; the next one, knowledge of others' minds; the next one, knowledge of past lives; the next four, broadly knowing every buddha's own cause and fruit and such matters; the last one, concluding and urging study." Two, one, one, one, four, and one — ten stanzas, matching this translation exactly, each power introduced by its own traditional name before the verse moves, in its final four stanzas, from personal attainment to a single thought-moment that holds an entire buddha's career — vow, awakening, teaching, and the Dharma's own eventual passing — all at once.
A Closing, and a Referral to Vow-Valor Light
「佛子！我唯知此菩薩無量歡喜知足光明法門；諸大菩薩，於一切佛所，修行一切諸佛行海；求一切智，清淨滿足一切大願；於一菩薩地，修行一切菩薩地海；於一菩薩行，攝取一切菩薩行海；於一法門，自在修攝一切法門。我當云何能知、能說彼功德行？佛子！於此道場，有一夜天，名願勇光明守護眾生。汝詣彼問云何菩薩學菩薩行、修菩薩道；成就眾生無上菩提，淨諸佛剎；值一切佛，修習一切如來正法。」
時，善財童子頭面敬禮彼夜天足，遶畢辭退。
"Child of the Buddha, I know only this bodhisattva's own Dharma-gate of the Light of Boundless Joy and Contentment; the great bodhisattvas, at the presence of every buddha, cultivate the whole ocean of every buddha's own practice; seeking every wisdom, purely and fully satisfying every great vow; within a single bodhisattva ground, cultivating the whole ocean of every bodhisattva ground; within a single bodhisattva practice, gathering in the whole ocean of every bodhisattva practice; within a single Dharma-gate, sovereignly cultivating and gathering in every Dharma-gate. How could I possibly know, how could I possibly speak of, such merit and practice as this? Child of the Buddha, within this very bodhimaṇḍa, there is a night-deva, named Vow-Valor Light, Guardian of Sentient Beings. Go to her and ask how a bodhisattva learns the bodhisattva's own practice, cultivates the bodhisattva's own path; accomplishes sentient beings' own unsurpassed bodhi, purifies every buddha-land; meets every buddha, and cultivates every tathāgata's own true Dharma."
At that time Sudhana the Boy reverently bowed his head at that night-deva's feet, circled her, and, having finished, took his leave.
Fazang closes this entire teacher with the same brief formula that has closed every teacher of the Ten Grounds before her: 五法自在下結非己分。遠行地竟 — "fifth, beginning with 'sovereignly,' concludes what is not her own portion to know. The Ground Gone Afar is concluded." The referral, as with every teacher since the fourth ground, requires no travel: Vow-Valor Light, Guardian of Sentient Beings sits within this same bodhimaṇḍa, a fourth teacher running in the identical assembly.
Part 103 Complete
This closes Parts 90–103 together, and with them the night-deva Blossoming Tree Flower, seventh teacher of the Ten Grounds — the Ground Gone Afar, and by a wide margin the largest single episode this collection has yet translated, needing fourteen parts against the nine of the previous record-holder. Her episode opened with a light released at sunset and afflictions matched to the ten perfections, moved through a contemplation of Vairocana's own compassion at the very moment he first raised the mind, and declared this Dharma-gate difficult to know in five distinct ways. Its account then opened onto a kalpa located through a six-stage cosmic address: a king's realm collapsing under the five turbidities, ten words of compassion answering ten named sufferings, a giving-assembly where he offered away his own body, and a young girl's fifty-two-stanza hymn — the longest single verse in the collection — tracing a miracle birth from a thousand-petaled lotus. The identification that closed it reached further than any before: the wheel-king was Vairocana himself, his parents were Śuddhodana and Māyā, and the people of that ancient land were revealed as this very assembly, listening now. Sudhana is sent onward, within this same bodhimaṇḍa, to the night-deva named Vow-Valor Light, Guardian of Sentient Beings.
Continue to Part 104 — Vow-Valor Light, Guardian of Sentient Beings →