A Giving-Assembly, and a Buddha's Procession
The prince enters the prison, frees every condemned prisoner, and takes their punishment upon himself without a single moment's regret. Granted half a month's grace by his mother's plea, he holds a great assembly of giving in a forest north of the city — and a buddha arrives there, escorted by nāgas, yakṣas, gandharvas, asuras, garuḍas, kinnaras, and mahoragas, every class of nonhuman being honoring him in its own way.
A Prison Freed, and a Half-Month of Giving
「爾時，太子即入獄中，放諸罪人，代受楚毒，曾無中悔，一向正念，一切種智，大悲為首，饒益眾生。夫人白王：『願聽太子在外，半月布施修福，然後隨王如法苦治。』王即聽許。
「時，彼都城北，有一大林名曰日光，太子詣彼，設大施會，須食與食、須衣與衣，乃至車乘、華鬘、塗香、末香、幢幡、繒蓋，及餘一切寶莊嚴具，期限既滿。爾時，國王及諸群臣、長者、居士、男女、大小、并諸外道，皆悉雲集。爾時，法輪音聲虛空燈如來，知諸眾生應化時至，與大眾俱，天王圍遶，龍王供養；夜叉王守護；乾闥婆王讚歎；阿修羅王禮侍；迦樓羅王以清淨心散諸雜寶；緊那羅王歡喜讚歎，供養過去諸佛；摩睺羅伽王悲泣正觀；與如是等無量大眾前後圍遶，來詣彼會。
"At that time, the prince at once entered the prison, released every one of the condemned, and underwent every torment in their place, never once regretting it in his heart, single-mindedly holding right mindfulness, every kind of wisdom, great compassion foremost, bringing benefit to sentient beings. The queen said to the king: "May you permit the prince to remain outside for half a month, giving alms and cultivating merit, and only afterward, in accordance with the law, subject him to punishment." The king at once granted this.
"At that time, north of that royal capital, there was a great forest, named Sunlight. The prince went there, and held a great assembly of giving: to those who needed food, he gave food; to those who needed clothing, he gave clothing; and further chariots, garlands, ointment-incense, powdered incense, banners and pennants, silk canopies, and every other kind of jeweled adornment. When the appointed time was fulfilled, the king, together with every minister, elder, householder, man and woman, young and old, and every follower of other paths, all gathered together like clouds. At that time, the Tathāgata Empty-Space Lamp of the Sound of the Dharma-Wheel, knowing that the time had come for sentient beings to be transformed, came together with the great assembly: deva-kings encircling him, nāga-kings making offering; yakṣa-kings guarding him; gandharva-kings singing his praise; asura-kings bowing in attendance; garuḍa-kings, with pure minds, scattering every kind of jewel; kinnara-kings, joyfully praising him, making offering as they had to every buddha of the past; mahoraga-kings, weeping with reverent contemplation — with a boundless great assembly such as this encircling him before and behind, he came to that gathering.
Fazang marks these two steps in turn: 十一代獄放囚；十二王許修福；十三正設施會 — "eleventh, substituting himself in the prison and freeing the condemned; twelfth, the king permits him to cultivate merit; thirteenth, formally holding the giving-assembly." The prince's own resolve, "never once regretting it in his heart," is worth pausing on — he has already secured his mother's intervention and the king's grudging permission, and still nothing in the account suggests his own sentence has actually been lifted, only postponed by half a month. He spends that reprieve giving everything away to strangers rather than pleading his own case further.
Fazang then opens the fourteenth and final step of this whole sequence, itself divided into eight parts: 十四佛救太子，於中有八：一國人已集、二佛眾雲赴 — "fourteenth, the buddha rescues the prince; within this there are eight parts: first, the people of the land already gathered; second, the buddha's own assembly arriving like clouds." The seven kinds of nonhuman kings named here in procession — deva, nāga, yakṣa, gandharva, asura, garuḍa, kinnara, mahoraga — are the traditional eightfold assembly this collection has met before at other teachers' own gatherings, each showing devotion in a manner particular to its own kind: nāgas offering, yakṣas guarding, gandharvas singing, garuḍas scattering jewels, kinnaras recalling every past buddha, and mahoragas simply weeping in contemplation.
A Buddha Seen from Afar
「爾時，太子及諸大眾，遙見佛來，端嚴殊特，諸根寂定，如大象王神心澄明淨；若淵海，顯現如來自在境界，勝妙功德，相好嚴身，圓滿光明，普照一切，震動十方無量世界。一切毛孔，普出如來微妙香雲，普雨種種諸莊嚴雲，行佛威儀，除滅一切眾生煩惱。」
"At that time, the prince and the whole great assembly, from afar, beheld the buddha coming — upright, dignified, and extraordinary, every faculty tranquil and settled, like the great king of elephants, his spirit and mind clear and pure; like the depths of the ocean, manifesting the Tathāgata's own sovereign state, his supreme and sublime merit, his body adorned with excellent marks, his perfect light universally illumining all, shaking boundless worlds of the ten directions. From every pore, he universally sent forth clouds of the Tathāgata's own sublime fragrance, universally raining down every kind of adorned cloud, moving with the buddha's own dignified bearing, extinguishing every affliction of every sentient being."
This is the third of the eight steps in the buddha's own rescue of the prince: 三見佛威光 — "third, beholding the buddha's own awesome light." The description itself pairs two images not often set side by side: "like the great king of elephants," suggesting weight, steadiness, and unhurried strength, and "like the depths of the ocean," suggesting a clarity too deep to be disturbed by anything on its surface. Together they describe a buddha's approach as neither urgent nor showy — simply, inevitably, arriving.
Part 113 In Progress
Every prisoner has been freed, a half-month's giving-assembly has been held, and a buddha has been seen approaching from a distance, escorted by every class of nonhuman being. Part 114 turns to his actual arrival, his teaching, and what the prince attains from it directly.
Continue to Part 114 →