A Boat, Space Itself, and a Conjured Person
Three more similes complete this teacher's account of the bodhisattva's own profundity: a great ship that favors neither shore yet ferries beings across the ocean regardless; space itself, holding every buddha-land of every future kalpa without ever being stained by the worlds that arise and pass within it; and a conjured person, real enough to act, yet suffering nothing a real body suffers.
Three Similes: A Boat, Space, and a Conjured Person
佛子！譬如大船不依此岸，不樂彼岸，不著中流，於大海中，濟度眾生；菩薩摩訶薩亦復如是，以波羅蜜力船，於生死海，濟度眾生，不依此岸，不樂彼岸，而度眾生，於一切劫，修菩薩行，不起劫想，亦不見劫有脩短相。
佛子！譬如虛空出過法界一切世界，有成、有敗，而彼虛空，本性清淨，無所染污，不可沮壞，遠離恐怖一切障礙，而能普持未來諸劫一切佛剎；菩薩摩訶薩心亦復如是，以虛空等圓滿智慧，莊嚴其心，發起一切大願風輪，持一切眾生，令滅惡道生諸善趣，心無憂喜，安立眾生一切智道，除滅煩惱生死過患。
佛子！譬如化人，無有實形，生、老、病、死、飢渴等苦，菩薩出生如化智慧，不可沮壞，妙色法身亦復如是，於一切劫諸生死中，化度眾生，而無所著，亦無恐怖、無貪、無恚，除滅一切熾然煩惱，心不貪樂一切趣生。
"Child of the Buddha, it is like a great ship, which relies on neither this shore nor delights in the far shore, and does not cling to the mid-current, yet ferries beings across the great ocean. The bodhisattva-mahāsattva is just the same: with the ship-like power of the perfections, he ferries beings across the ocean of birth-and-death, relying on neither this shore nor delighting in the far shore, yet still delivers sentient beings; throughout every kalpa, cultivating the bodhisattva's own practice, he raises no notion of 'kalpa' at all, nor does he see any kalpa as having a long or short mark.
"Child of the Buddha, it is like space, which extends beyond the Dharma-realm and every world — worlds have their arising, and their passing — yet space itself, its own nature originally pure, is stained by nothing, cannot be destroyed, is far removed from every fear and every obstruction, and is able to universally uphold every buddha-land of every future kalpa. The bodhisattva-mahāsattva's own mind is just the same: with wisdom as perfect as space itself, he adorns his own mind, raising up the wind-wheel of every great vow, upholding every sentient being, causing them to be freed from the evil destinies and born into every wholesome destiny, his mind free of sorrow or joy, establishing sentient beings in the path of every wisdom, extinguishing the faults of affliction and birth-and-death.
"Child of the Buddha, it is like a conjured person, who has no real form at all, and undergoes no suffering of birth, old age, sickness, death, hunger, or thirst. The bodhisattva gives rise to wisdom like a conjured being's own, indestructible; his sublime, form-bearing Dharma-body is just the same: throughout every kalpa, amid every birth-and-death, he transforms and delivers sentient beings, yet is attached to nothing, has no fear, no greed, no hatred, extinguishing every blazing affliction, his mind never delighting in or craving any destiny of rebirth."
Fazang completes his naming of all five similes here: 三虛舟濟物喻，喻菩薩無住攝生義；四空性無礙喻，喻菩薩無功益物義；五化無形質喻，喻菩薩用而常寂義 — "the third, the simile of the unmoored boat ferrying things across, likens the bodhisattva's own meaning of gathering in beings without abiding anywhere; the fourth, the simile of space's own unobstructed nature, likens the bodhisattva's own meaning of benefiting things effortlessly; the fifth, the simile of a conjured person having no real form, likens the bodhisattva's own meaning of function that is, at the same time, constantly still." He closes this whole movement simply: 三佛子菩薩智慧下明結承力許說 — "third, beginning with 'child of the Buddha, the bodhisattva's own wisdom,' concludes by upholding the buddha's own power and granting permission to speak further." Five images, each pairing an ordinary thing — sun, boat, space, a conjuring — with a single precise quality of bodhisattva conduct: light without darkness, presence without entering, motion without preference, holding without ownership, and, at the last, form without any real suffering behind it. Only after all five have been given does the account turn, at last, to the actual kalpa this teacher's own root reaches back into.
Part 110 In Progress
Five similes have now closed this teacher's account of profundity — sun, sunlight, boat, space, and conjured form, each naming a single quality of bodhisattva conduct. Part 111 turns to the account itself: a kalpa named Virtuous Light, its first buddha, and a people who commit evil under his very teaching.
Continue to Part 111 →