Prisoners Revealed as a Thousand Buddhas
The identification closes on its two remaining figures: the condemned prisoners are revealed as Krakucchanda and the rest of the thousand buddhas of the Bhadrakalpa, and the wrathful king as Satyaka the Nirgrantha, a historical rival debater to the Buddha. The prince then leaves the household life at the buddha's own presence, and across five hundred years of pure conduct attains ten thousand of nearly everything a bodhisattva can attain.
Prisoners as a Thousand Buddhas, a King as a Rival Debater
「佛子！當知本諸罪人我所救者，即拘樓孫等賢劫千佛，及百萬阿僧祇諸大菩薩，於無量精進妙德慧佛所，發阿耨多羅三藐三菩提心，今悉現在十方國土，行菩薩行，修習增廣，此隨應化覺悟眾生，長養善根法門者是也；佛子！時，王勝光者，今薩遮尼揵子大論師是也；時，王宮人諸眷屬者，即彼尼揵六萬弟子與師俱來共佛論義，悉降伏之，授阿耨多羅三藐三菩提記者是也。此諸人等，當成正覺，世界劫號，皆悉不同。」
"Child of the Buddha, you should know that the very prisoners I rescued were none other than Krakucchanda and the rest of the thousand buddhas of the Bhadrakalpa, and a million asaṃkhyeyas of great bodhisattvas, who, at the presence of the buddha Boundless Diligence, Sublime Virtue, and Wisdom, raised the mind of unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening; now, present throughout the lands of the ten directions, they practice the bodhisattva's own practice, cultivating and expanding it — this is none other than this very Dharma-gate of Awakening Sentient Beings and Nurturing Roots of Goodness According to What Is Fitting to Transform. Child of the Buddha, at that time, King Supreme Light is none other than the great debater Satyaka the Nirgrantha, now; and the king's own palace attendants and retinue are none other than that same Nirgrantha's sixty thousand disciples, who, together with their teacher, came to debate with the buddha, and were all subdued by him, receiving the prediction of unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening. Every one of these people shall attain the most correct awakening, though the worlds and kalpa-names in which they do so shall all differ entirely."
This completes the identification Fazang named as fourfold — prince, ministers, prisoners, king. The prisoners here receive the boldest reading of all: they are Krakucchanda and the rest of the thousand buddhas of our own Bhadrakalpa, the very kalpa this teacher's own account, in earlier parts, has already located Sudhana's present listening within. Satyaka the Nirgrantha, identified here as the wrathful king, is a figure this project's readers may not recognize by name — a historical debater and leader of a rival ascetic tradition remembered in Buddhist sources for challenging the Buddha directly in argument, and, in some accounts, eventually being won over by him. Naming him as the king who nearly executed his own son for compassion, and naming that same king's sixty thousand disciples as the palace attendants who surrounded him, folds a specific historical rivalry into this ancient cosmic narrative — the king's fury here is not senseless cruelty invented for the story, but the same resistance a real teacher, in the sūtra's own telling, actually had to overcome.
Five Hundred Years, Ten Thousand of Everything
「佛子！我於爾時，救罪人已，父母聽我捨離國土、妻子、眷屬，於法輪音聲虛空燈佛所，出家學道，五百歲中，淨修梵行，於此中間得一萬三昧、一萬陀羅尼門、一萬諸明、一萬法藏、一萬薩婆若勇猛精進、一萬清淨忍門、一萬寂滅禪定、一萬方便般若波羅蜜，各於十方現前；對見一萬如來、出生一萬菩薩大願，長養菩薩一萬諸力；又得菩薩一萬神通，於念念中，各遊十方一萬佛剎；於念念中，各憶十方一萬佛海；見彼如來一萬化海，普遊十方，教化眾生；於念念中，見十佛世界眾生，於諸趣中，死此生彼，或好、或醜、或之善處、或入惡道，知彼眾生諸心，心法、心意所行，及諸根海行業善根，皆悉明達。」
"Child of the Buddha, at that time, having rescued the condemned, my parents permitted me to relinquish my own land, wife, children, and retinue, and, at the presence of the buddha Empty-Space Lamp of the Sound of the Dharma-Wheel, I left the household life to study the path. Throughout five hundred years, I purely cultivated pure conduct, and within this span attained ten thousand samādhis, ten thousand dhāraṇī-gates, ten thousand illuminations, ten thousand Dharma-treasuries, ten thousand valiant, diligent all-wisdoms, ten thousand pure gates of patience, ten thousand tranquil meditative concentrations, and ten thousand perfections of wisdom through skillful means, each appearing before me throughout the ten directions; I beheld ten thousand tathāgatas face to face, gave rise to ten thousand of the bodhisattva's own great vows, and nurtured ten thousand of the bodhisattva's own powers; I further attained ten thousand of the bodhisattva's own transcendent powers, and, within every single thought-moment, ranged through ten thousand buddha-lands of the ten directions, each in turn; within every single thought-moment, I recollected the ten thousand-fold ocean of buddhas of the ten directions, each in turn; I beheld this tathāgata's own ten thousand-fold ocean of transformation, universally ranging through the ten directions, teaching and transforming sentient beings; within every single thought-moment, I beheld the sentient beings of ten buddha-worlds, dying here and being born there among every destiny, whether fair or unsightly, whether going to a good place or entering an evil destiny, and I knew these sentient beings' every mind, every mental factor, every intention and conduct, and every root of goodness within the ocean of their own faculties and karma, understanding all of it clearly."
Fazang closes this whole first section of the account here: 八出家得法 — "eighth, leaving the household life and attaining the Dharma." This is the eighth and final step of the fourteen-part sequence he traced from the very first buddha's arising to this moment, and it closes the first great division of the whole account — practice and attainment "at the very first buddha's own presence" — before the second division begins: 第二我於爾時下明轉生值餘佛，略舉八佛，通結一萬 — "the second, beginning with 'at that time, I,' reveals rebirth to meet further buddhas, briefly citing eight buddhas, generally concluding with ten thousand." Nine separate attainments are each multiplied by ten thousand in this single passage — samādhis, dhāraṇīs, illuminations, treasuries, diligences, patiences, concentrations, perfections, and vows — a scale of cultivation that answers, item for item, the scale of the kalpa itself: ten thousand buddhas arising in a single world, met one by one across five hundred years of a single monastic life.
Part 115 In Progress
The identification is complete, and the prince, now a monk, has attained ten thousand of nearly everything across five hundred years at a single buddha's presence. Part 116 turns to what follows his death: rebirth after rebirth, meeting buddha after buddha, across a kalpa that has ten thousand buddhas still to offer.
Continue to Part 116 →