Mañjuśrī Departs South
Mañjuśrī leaves Jetavana with a vast retinue of named deities and kings — the exact line Fazang marks as the chapter's own turn from its "root assembly" to its "branch assembly." Śāriputra, watching him go, resolves to follow, bringing six thousand monks he himself has taught.
Mañjuśrī Leaves Jetavana
爾時，文殊師利童子從善安住樓閣出，與一切同行諸菩薩俱；金剛力士，常隨侍衛。本願足天；樂聞法地天；常習大悲泉池方天；除滅愚癡夜天；出生佛晝日天；莊嚴正法界虛空河天；度眾生生死海天；長養一切善根薩婆若山天；莊嚴一切眾生身，滿足諸願，供養一切佛身天，守護一切眾生城天。守護一切眾生夜叉王；令一切眾生歡喜乾闥婆王；除滅一切餓鬼趣鳩槃荼王；於生死海，拔濟眾生迦樓羅王；正求薩婆若阿脩羅王；見佛歡喜無厭足摩睺羅伽王；常厭生死諸天王；常敬禮佛諸梵天王等；俱詣佛所，頭面禮足，設諸供養已，辭遊南方。
At that time, Mañjuśrī the youth came forth from the Pavilion of Well-Established Abiding, together with every bodhisattva who traveled alongside him; vajra-wielding warriors constantly attended and guarded him. There were: the deity of the Foot Fulfilling the Original Vow; the deity of the Ground Delighting to Hear the Dharma; the deity of the Region Constantly Practicing the Spring and Pool of Great Compassion; the deity of the Night Extinguishing Folly; the deity of the Day Giving Rise to the Buddha; the deity of the River of Space Adorning the True Dharma-Realm; the deity of the Ocean of Birth and Death, Delivering Sentient Beings Across; the deity of the Mountain of Omniscience, Nurturing Every Root of Goodness; the deity Adorning Every Sentient Being's Body, Fulfilling Every Vow, Making Offerings to Every Buddha's Body; and the deity of the City Guarding Every Sentient Being. There were: the Yakṣa King Guarding Every Sentient Being; the Gandharva King Causing Every Sentient Being to Rejoice; the Kumbhāṇḍa King Extinguishing Every Realm of Hungry Ghosts; the Garuḍa King Rescuing Sentient Beings from the Ocean of Birth and Death; the Asura King Rightly Seeking Omniscience; the Mahoraga King Never Tiring of the Joy of Seeing the Buddha; the heavenly kings who constantly weary of birth and death; and the Brahmā kings who constantly honor and revere the Buddha, and others such as these — together they went before the Buddha, bowed their heads to his feet, and, having made every offering, took their leave to travel south.
This single line — Mañjuśrī coming forth from the Pavilion of Well-Established Abiding — is, on Fazang's own account, the single most important structural boundary in the entire chapter. In his opening overview of the whole chapter, before translating a single word, Fazang states its two-part macro-structure directly: 此一品中大分有二：初明本會；二「爾時文殊從善住樓閣出已」下明末會 — "this chapter divides broadly into two: first, making manifest the root assembly; second, from 'at that time Mañjuśrī came forth from the Pavilion of Well-Established Abiding' onward, making manifest the branch assembly." Everything translated across Parts 1 through 10 of this collection — the Buddha's own samādhi, the ten directions gathering, the hundred and three samādhis, Mañjuśrī's hymn — belongs entirely to the 本會, the "root assembly." This single sentence opens the 末會, the "branch assembly," which will run for the remainder of the chapter: the whole of Sudhana's pilgrimage to come.
Fazang characterizes the difference between the two halves in three paired terms, each restating the same distinction from a different angle: 亦則前明果法界、後明因法界 — "the first makes manifest the Dharma-realm of the fruit; the second, the Dharma-realm of the cause"; 又前明頓入法界、後明漸入法界 — "the first makes manifest sudden entry into the Dharma-realm; the second, gradual entry"; 又前總、後別 — "the first is the general statement; the second, its particulars" — closing with 則本末圓融無礙 — "root and branch are, in the end, perfectly fused and without any obstruction between them." On this reading, the root assembly's entire elaborate display — a buddha entering samādhi and manifesting the whole Dharma-realm's own nature at once, complete and entire, in a single scene — is not a separate teaching from what follows. It is that same one Dharma-realm's fruit, already fully present; what follows now is the same reality traced out cause by cause, cultivated stage by stage, teacher by teacher, in the person of a single boy who has not yet even been named.
Śāriputra Resolves to Follow
爾時，尊者舍利弗承佛神力，見文殊師利童子，以菩薩莊嚴而自莊嚴，出祇洹林，遊行南方。見已，作如是念：「我今當與文殊師利菩薩俱行。」爾時，尊者舍利弗與六千比丘，眷屬圍遶，從自房出，來詣佛所，禮足辭退，向文殊師利。此六千比丘是舍利弗共行弟子，皆新出家，其名曰：海智比丘、大善調伏比丘、功德光比丘、大童子比丘、電光興比丘、清淨行比丘、天妙德比丘、因陀羅慧比丘、梵天比丘、寂靜慧比丘；如是等六千比丘，已曾供養過去諸佛；於諸佛所，種諸善根，性樂清淨，信心明徹，行諸大願，觀佛境界，了法實相，饒益眾生，常樂專求諸佛功德；此等比丘，皆是文殊師利之所化度。
爾時，尊者舍利弗觀察大眾，告海智比丘言：「汝可觀察文殊師利菩薩清淨之身，相好莊嚴，一切天人，莫能思議，光明圓滿，令無量眾生，發歡喜心，放大莊嚴妙光明網，除滅眾生無量苦惱。觀其眷屬，成就善根；觀其遊步，威儀庠序，所遊行處，自然平正，十方無礙；觀其功德所行道路，其傍悉有眾妙寶藏，自然發出；觀其供養過去諸佛，善根依果，從眾林樹出莊嚴藏；觀彼一切諸天大王，恭敬禮拜，供養雲雨。海智！汝觀文殊師利、一切如來，眉間毫相，放無量光，說諸佛法，悉入其頂。」
爾時，尊者舍利弗，為諸比丘讚說文殊師利無量功德，諸大莊嚴。
彼諸比丘聞讚歎已，皆悉歡喜；其心清淨，離諸垢穢，身體柔軟，調伏諸根；遠離障礙；現見諸佛，正求菩提，逮得菩薩清淨諸根；具菩薩力，長養大悲，入諸波羅蜜，發弘誓願，悉見十方諸如來海。
時，諸比丘白尊者舍利弗言：「唯然。大師！願俱往詣文殊師利。」
爾時，尊者舍利弗，與諸比丘往詣其所；到已，謂文殊師利：「此諸比丘，皆新出家，欲見仁者。」
爾時，文殊師利童子即為顯現菩薩自在，如象王迴顧視比丘。時，諸比丘頭面禮足，却住一面，合掌而立，作如是念：「我等以此禮拜功德，知法實相，如和上舍利弗、釋迦牟尼世尊；得清淨身，相好音聲，神力自在，如文殊師利。」
At that time, the Venerable Śāriputra, sustained by the Buddha's own spiritual power, beheld Mañjuśrī the youth, adorned with a bodhisattva's own adornment, coming forth from Jeta's Grove to travel south. Having seen this, he thought thus: "I should now travel together with Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva." At that time the Venerable Śāriputra, surrounded by a retinue of six thousand monks, came forth from his own quarters, went before the Buddha, bowed at his feet and took his leave, and turned toward Mañjuśrī. These six thousand monks were Śāriputra's own fellow-practicing disciples, all newly gone forth from home, whose names were: Sāgaramati Bhikṣu, Well-Tamed-in-Goodness Bhikṣu, Guṇaprabha Bhikṣu, Great Youth Bhikṣu, Lightning-Arising Bhikṣu, Pure Conduct Bhikṣu, Heavenly Sublime Virtue Bhikṣu, Indramati Bhikṣu, Brahmā Bhikṣu, and Tranquil Wisdom Bhikṣu; six thousand monks such as these had already made offerings to the buddhas of the past; at the buddhas' own presence they had planted every root of goodness, their nature delighting in purity, their faith bright and penetrating, practicing every great vow, contemplating the buddhas' own domain, understanding the true mark of the Dharma, bringing benefit to sentient beings, constantly delighting in single-mindedly seeking every buddha's own merit; these monks had all been taught and transformed by Mañjuśrī himself.
At that time the Venerable Śāriputra, surveying the assembly, said to Sāgaramati Bhikṣu: "You should behold Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva's own pure body, adorned with excellent marks, which no god or human at all is able to conceive, its light perfectly full, causing sentient beings beyond measure to raise a mind of joy, releasing a great net of marvelously adorned light, extinguishing sentient beings' every suffering and affliction without measure. Behold his retinue, who have accomplished every root of goodness; behold his own walking, his bearing composed and orderly, wherever he travels the ground becoming naturally level, unobstructed in the ten directions; behold the path his own merit has traveled, along whose sides every kind of marvelous treasury spontaneously comes forth; behold how his offerings to the buddhas of the past, the fruit relied upon by his own roots of goodness, bring forth an adorned treasury from every grove and tree; behold how every great king of the heavens reverently bows in worship, making offerings like a rain of clouds. Sāgaramati! Behold how, from Mañjuśrī's own curl of hair between his brows, just as with every tathāgata, he releases light without measure, expounding the Dharma of every buddha, all of it entering into his own crown."
At that time the Venerable Śāriputra, for the sake of these monks, praised Mañjuśrī's own merit beyond measure and his every great adornment.
Having heard this praise, these monks all rejoiced entirely; their minds became pure, free of every stain and defilement, their bodies made supple, their faculties tamed; far removed from every hindrance; beholding the buddhas directly before them, rightly seeking awakening, they attained the bodhisattva's own pure faculties; endowed with a bodhisattva's own strength, nurturing great compassion, entering the pāramitās, raising a vast vow, they beheld the ocean of every tathāgata in the ten directions.
At that time these monks said to the Venerable Śāriputra: "So be it, great teacher! We wish to go together before Mañjuśrī."
At that time the Venerable Śāriputra, together with these monks, went before him; having arrived, he said to Mañjuśrī: "These monks are all newly gone forth from home, and wish to see you, honored one."
At that time Mañjuśrī the youth manifested a bodhisattva's own sovereign mastery, turning to look upon the monks as an elephant king turns to look behind. At that time these monks bowed their heads to his feet, withdrew to stand to one side, and, joining their palms, stood thus, thinking: "Through the merit of this very act of homage, may we come to know the true mark of the Dharma, just as our own preceptor Śāriputra and the World-Honored Śākyamuni do; may we attain a pure body, excellent marks and voice, and sovereign spiritual power, just as Mañjuśrī does."
Śāriputra's appearance here is worth reading against Part 4's earlier portrait of him as one of the ten great śrāvakas who, seated in the very same hall, could not perceive any of the Buddha's own sovereign display. Nothing in this passage suggests that failure has been reversed; Śāriputra still needs Sāgaramati's own eyes turned, point by point, toward Mañjuśrī's body, retinue, and gait before he can even describe what he sees, and his own six thousand monk-disciples, once they hear the description, attain realizations that Śāriputra's own speech is only reporting rather than personally sharing. What has changed is not Śāriputra's vision but his direction: rather than remaining in the hall where his own blindness was on full display, he chooses to follow the one figure the text has already identified, in Part 1, as the "gate of prajñā." The elephant-king glance with which Mañjuśrī receives the monks — turning his whole body rather than merely his head, the way an elephant does — is a small but exact gesture: dignity that does not startle, welcome that does not court.
Part 11 Complete
This closes Part 11: Mañjuśrī's departure from Jetavana — the chapter's own turn from its root assembly to its branch assembly — and Śāriputra's decision to follow with six thousand monks he has personally taught. Part 12 turns to Mañjuśrī's own teaching to these monks: the ten great minds by which even a single thought can outstrip the śrāvaka and pratyekabuddha paths entirely.
Continue to Part 12 — The Ten Great Minds →