A Sun That Never Enters the Water It Lights
Asked how long she has held this Dharma-gate, the night-deva opens with two similes of five: a sun whose own nature knows no darkness at all, only the world's own turning away from it; and a sun whose reflection appears in every ocean, river, and pond without the sun itself ever once entering the water — an image for a bodhisattva who takes on a body like every being's own, yet is never truly born and never truly dies.
A Vast Function, and a Deep Question
我住此法門，現無量色身，分別了達一切色海，放無量無邊法雲，普照一切諸佛世界，現無量無邊諸佛，現無量無邊自在神力，覺悟眾生長養善根，於念念中，令不可思議眾生，於阿耨多羅三藐三菩提，得不退轉。
「佛子！如汝所問，得此法門為幾時者？我今承佛神力，為汝解說。佛子！菩薩圓滿智慧，離一切虛妄，本性清淨，一切種智，超出一切諸障礙山，隨所應化，皆悉普照。
"I abide in this Dharma-gate, manifesting boundless form-bodies, discerning and understanding the whole ocean of every form, releasing the boundless, unbounded cloud of the Dharma, universally illumining every buddha's own world, manifesting boundless, unbounded buddhas, manifesting boundless, unbounded sovereign spiritual power, awakening sentient beings and nurturing roots of goodness, and, within every single thought-moment, causing inconceivable sentient beings to attain non-retreat in unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening.
"Child of the Buddha, as you have asked, how long has it been since I attained this Dharma-gate? I shall now, upholding the buddha's own spiritual power, explain this for you. Child of the Buddha, the bodhisattva's own perfect wisdom, departed from every falsehood, its own nature originally pure, every kind of wisdom, transcending the mountain of every obstruction, universally illumines all according to what is fitting to transform."
Fazang closes this teacher's account of her Dharma-gate's own function here: 四佛子我住下結法門業用廣大 — "fourth, beginning with 'child of the Buddha, I abide,' concludes the vast scope of the Dharma-gate's own function." He then opens the deepest question with its own careful framing: 前中三：初牒問許說 — "the first of three parts cites the question and grants permission to answer it" — before what he calls, in the next step, a deliberate turn toward simile: 二菩薩圓滿下歎顯甚深，於中約五譬喻以顯深義 — "second, beginning with 'the bodhisattva's own perfect,' exclaims at and reveals the profundity, expressing this profound meaning through five similes." Unlike several teachers before her, whose deepest question opened directly onto a kalpa and a narrative, this one answers first through five images alone, holding the actual account back until the similes have done their work.
Two Similes: A Sun's Own Nature, and a Sun in Every Pond
佛子！譬如日性，無有暗冥；但日沒已，天下則闇，出則大明；菩薩圓滿明淨智日亦復如是，離一切虛妄，普照一切，教化眾生。佛子！譬如淨日，出閻浮提，普照天下眾寶山樹，影現一切；大海、河、池、眾生之類，莫不對見，日亦不來入此池流，菩薩智日亦復如是，出三有海，於佛實法虛空中行，住於寂滅，應現一切趣趣生處，同眾生身而化度之，實不生死，無所染著，離一切虛妄，無脩短想。何以故？佛子！菩薩摩訶薩離諸顛倒，了一切世，悉如夢幻，解真實法，無有眾生，圓滿大悲，皆悉對現一切眾生而教化之。
"Child of the Buddha, it is like the sun's own nature, which knows no darkness at all; only when the sun sets does the world grow dark, and when it rises, great brightness returns. The bodhisattva's own perfect, bright, and pure sun of wisdom is just the same: departed from every falsehood, it universally illumines all, teaching and transforming sentient beings.
"Child of the Buddha, it is like the pure sun, rising over Jambudvīpa, universally illumining every jeweled mountain and tree beneath the sky, its reflection appearing in all — the great oceans, rivers, ponds, and every kind of being all behold it without exception, and yet the sun itself never enters into these ponds and streams. The bodhisattva's own sun of wisdom is just the same: emerging from the ocean of the three states of existence, moving within the very emptiness of the buddha's own real Dharma, abiding in cessation, it manifests appropriately within every destiny, every place of birth, taking on a body identical to that of sentient beings in order to transform them, and yet, in truth, is never born and never dies, stained by nothing, departed from every falsehood, without any notion of long or short. Why is this so? Child of the Buddha, the bodhisattva-mahāsattva, departed from every inversion, understands that every world is entirely like a dream or an illusion, understands the true Dharma, in which there is no sentient being at all, and, fully endowed with great compassion, still manifests before every sentient being without exception, teaching and transforming them."
Fazang names each of the five similes precisely, and the first two are given here: 初一日性無闇喻，喻菩薩智無妄能破妄；二日光遍照喻，喻菩薩寂而常用義 — "the first, the simile of the sun's own nature knowing no darkness, likens the bodhisattva's own wisdom, free of falsehood, to something able to break through falsehood itself; the second, the simile of sunlight universally illumining, likens the meaning of the bodhisattva's own stillness that is, at the very same time, constant function." The second simile in particular carries real weight for this whole pilgrimage: a sun that appears in every pond without ever entering the water is precisely the relationship this project has watched play out, teacher after teacher, between a bodhisattva's own past-life identity and the ordinary body — night-deva, girl, prince, monk — through which that identity has taught. The reflection is real, fully present, fully engaged; the sun itself remains untouched.
Part 109 In Progress
Two similes have opened the account of how long this teacher has held her Dharma-gate — a sun whose own darkness-free nature never changes, and a sun whose light touches every pond without the sun itself ever entering the water. Part 110 turns to the remaining three similes: an unmoored boat ferrying beings across the sea, space itself holding every future kalpa, and a conjured person with no real form at all.
Continue to Part 110 →