Ten Kinds of Rebirth-Dharma
Sudhana bows farewell to the night-deva and travels to the garden of Lumbinī, where he finds the forest-deva Sublime Virtue, Perfect and Full, seated on a jeweled pavilion, teaching twenty thousand nayutas of devas the sūtra of the bodhisattva's own ocean of rebirth. Asked how a bodhisattva is born into the tathāgata's own family, she answers by naming ten kinds of rebirth-dharma.
A Garden Named Lumbinī
時，善財童子，頭面敬禮彼夜天足，遶畢辭退。◎爾時，善財童子正念思惟彼夜天教，修習增長隨所應化覺悟眾生長養善根法門；漸漸遊行，至彼林中，周遍推求妙德圓滿林天，見坐眾寶樓閣之上，二萬那由他諸天圍遶，為說菩薩受生海經，生如來家，長養菩薩功德。
爾時，善財頭面禮足，白言：「天神！我已先發阿耨多羅三藐三菩提心，云何菩薩行菩薩行？生如來家？為世間燈？」
At that time, Sudhana bowed his head to that night-deva's feet in reverence, and, having circled her, took his leave. At that time, Sudhana rightly recollected and contemplated that night-deva's own teaching, cultivating and increasing the Dharma-gate of Awakening Sentient Beings According to What Is Fitting to Transform and Nurturing Roots of Goodness; gradually traveling onward, he arrived at that forest, and, searching everywhere throughout it, sought out the forest-deva Sublime Virtue, Perfect and Full. He beheld her seated atop a pavilion of every jewel, surrounded by twenty thousand nayutas of devas, expounding for them the Sūtra of the Bodhisattva's Own Ocean of Rebirth, being born into the tathāgata's own family, and nurturing the bodhisattva's own merit.
At that time, Sudhana bowed his head to her feet in reverence, and said: "Divine one, I have already, before this, raised the mind of unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening. How does a bodhisattva practice the bodhisattva's own practice? How is one born into the tathāgata's own family? How does one become a lamp for the world?"
Fazang glosses both the place and the person by name. Of the garden: 流彌尼者，無正翻，義翻云花菓等勝妙事具足也 — "Lumbinī has no exact translation; rendered by sense, it means 'replete with flowers, fruits, and other sublime and wondrous things.'" He locates it precisely: 此園在迦毘羅城東二十餘里，是摩耶生太子處 — "this garden lies over twenty li east of Kapilavastu city; it is the very place where Māyā gave birth to the prince." Of the deva herself: 名妙德圓滿林天者，謂善妙之德內備，發願守護此林，故以為名也 — "she is named the forest-deva Sublime Virtue, Perfect and Full, because sublime virtue is fully accomplished within her, and she has vowed to guard this forest — hence the name." He adds a variant from an Indian source text: 天竺本云：有留彌尼天女，名妙圓光勝愛樂也 — "the Indian original says: there is a heavenly maiden of Lumbinī, named Sublime, Perfect Light, Supreme Joy." The garden named here is not incidental scenery — it is the exact ground on which the Buddha's own birth will later take place, and this teacher's whole episode, still ahead, turns out to circle that very event.
Ten Kinds of Rebirth-Dharma
答言：「佛子！菩薩有十種受生法。若有菩薩行是法者，生如來家，於念念中，長養善根，不退、不怖、不惱、不亂、不懈、不悔，至一切智順知法界，修解脫道；於一念中，長養一切諸波羅蜜，捨離世間，具足佛地智慧猛盛，佛法現前，順真實義，滿薩婆若。何等為十？所謂：供養一切佛，方便虛空願藏菩薩受生法；滿菩提心枝藏菩薩受生法；現前方便觀察寂滅虛空藏菩薩受生法；以淨直心，普照三世藏菩薩受生法；普照一切藏菩薩受生法；生如來家藏菩薩受生法；佛光明力藏菩薩受生法；具足分別薩婆若門藏菩薩受生法；一切法界化莊嚴藏菩薩受生法；勇猛精進至佛地藏菩薩受生法。」
She answered, saying: "Child of the Buddha, a bodhisattva has ten kinds of rebirth-dharma. If there is a bodhisattva who practices these dharmas, they are born into the tathāgata's own family, and, within every single thought-moment, nurture roots of goodness — never retreating, never afraid, never troubled, never disturbed, never slackening, never regretting — arriving at omniscience, according with and understanding the Dharma-realm, cultivating the path of liberation; within a single thought-moment, they nurture every pāramitā, relinquish the world, become fully endowed with the fierce, blazing wisdom of the buddha-ground, and, the buddha-dharma appearing directly before them, accord with the true meaning, and fulfill omniscience in full. What are these ten? Namely: the bodhisattva's rebirth-dharma of the Treasury of the Vow of Empty Space, the Skillful Means for Offering to Every Buddha; the bodhisattva's rebirth-dharma of the Treasury of the Branches That Fulfill the Bodhi-Mind; the bodhisattva's rebirth-dharma of the Treasury of Empty Space, Directly Contemplating Tranquil Cessation Through Skillful Means; the bodhisattva's rebirth-dharma of the Treasury of Universally Illumining the Three Times With a Pure, Upright Mind; the bodhisattva's rebirth-dharma of the Treasury of Universally Illumining All; the bodhisattva's rebirth-dharma of the Treasury of Being Born Into the Tathāgata's Own Family; the bodhisattva's rebirth-dharma of the Treasury of the Power of the Buddha's Own Light; the bodhisattva's rebirth-dharma of the Treasury Fully Endowed With Discerning the Gate of Omniscience; the bodhisattva's rebirth-dharma of the Treasury of the Transformative Adornment of the Whole Dharma-Realm; and the bodhisattva's rebirth-dharma of the Treasury of Valiant Diligence, Arriving at the Buddha-Ground."
Fazang gives a plain-sense gloss of all ten names at once: 一供佛願；二覺心支者，依菩提心出生餘行名支也；三觀寂滅；四淨直心；五智普照；六生佛家；七佛光力；八達佛智；九嚴法界；十懃至佛。由行此十行令諸菩薩得生佛家故也 — "first, the vow of offering to buddhas; second, the branch of the awakened mind — called a 'branch' because every further practice arises depending on the bodhi-mind; third, contemplating tranquil cessation; fourth, the pure, upright mind; fifth, wisdom universally illumining; sixth, being born into the buddha's own family; seventh, the buddha's own power of light; eighth, penetrating the buddha's own wisdom; ninth, adorning the Dharma-realm; tenth, diligently arriving at the buddha's own ground. By practicing these ten practices, bodhisattvas are thereby caused to be born into the buddha's own family." Each of the ten treasuries named in full above corresponds, in this order, to one of these ten short glosses.
Part 122 In Progress
The ten kinds of rebirth-dharma have now been named. Part 123 turns to Fazang's fuller explanation of each in turn — ten sections, each opening with the same formula, "Child of the Buddha, what is called..." — as the deva explains, one by one, what each of these ten treasuries actually consists of.
Continue to Part 123 →