Sovereign Mastery, Beginning With Light and a Womb
Every class of deva and nonhuman being gathers beneath the Pārikṣa tree to make offerings to the bodhisattva about to be born. The deva then describes the first three of Lady Māyā's own ten forms of sovereign mastery in taking rebirth: a light that eclipses every other light and heals every suffering, and a single womb that holds the entire trichiliocosm at once.
The Great Assembly Gathers, and a Light Eclipses Every Light
「佛子！摩耶夫人於此林中，在畢利叉樹下坐時，現菩薩十種受生自在。何等為十？爾時，欲界一切天王、天子、天女、色界諸天及龍、夜叉、乾闥婆、阿修羅、迦樓羅、緊那羅、摩睺羅伽，并其眷屬，皆悉雲集，為欲供養彼菩薩故。
「爾時，摩耶夫人放大功德妙色光明，普照一切，其餘光明悉蔽不現，猶如聚墨，除滅眾生一切煩惱，一切惡道苦，又於一切諸毛孔中，放大光明，普照十方，無所障礙，是為菩薩第一受生自在。」
"Child of the Buddha, when Lady Māyā, within this forest, sits beneath the Pārikṣa tree, the bodhisattva's own ten kinds of sovereign mastery in taking rebirth will be manifested. What are these ten? At that time, every deva-king, deva-son, and deva-maiden of the realm of desire, every deva of the realm of form, and nāgas, yakṣas, gandharvas, asuras, garuḍas, kinnaras, and mahoragas, together with their own retinues, will all gather like clouds, wishing to make offerings to that bodhisattva.
"At that time, Lady Māyā will send forth a great, meritorious, sublime light of form, universally illumining everything, so that every other light is entirely eclipsed and no longer appears, as though it were a mass of ink; it will extinguish every affliction of sentient beings, and the suffering of every evil destiny. Further, from every single pore, she will send forth a great light, universally illumining the ten directions, without any obstruction whatsoever. This is the bodhisattva's own first form of sovereign mastery in taking rebirth."
Fazang opens his third division here: 三明受生有十自在 — "third, revealing the ten forms of sovereign mastery in taking rebirth." He also glosses the tree named for the first time in this passage: 畢利叉者，具云鉢刺叉，義翻云高顯樹也 — "Pārikṣa, in full Palakṣa, translated by sense as 'the lofty, resplendent tree.'" He is careful to distinguish it from trees named in other sources for other events: 有處名阿輸迦樹，此云無憂樹也；又阿說他樹...此是菩提樹，非是生處樹也 — "some sources call it the Aśoka tree, meaning 'the sorrowless tree'; and there is also the Aśvattha tree... this is the bodhi tree, not the birth-place tree" — a small but deliberate correction against conflating the tree of this birth with the very different tree of the later awakening.
A Womb Holding the Trichiliocosm, Pores Holding Every Past Buddha
「復次，佛子！摩耶夫人腹內，悉能容受三千大千世界，又能顯現百億四天下，於彼百億閻浮提中，王都、京邑、所住園林、名字各異；摩耶夫人遍坐彼處，諸天圍遶，悉為顯現不可思議智慧自在，是為菩薩第二受生自在。
「復次，佛子！摩耶夫人一一毛孔中，顯現如來於過去世為菩薩時，恭敬尊重供養諸佛，彼諸如來所說正法，於毛孔中，皆悉得聞，譬如明鏡淨池水中，見日月像；摩耶夫人諸毛孔中，顯現如來於過去世為菩薩時，恭敬尊重供養諸佛，彼諸如來所說正法，皆悉得聞，亦復如是，是為菩薩第三受生自在。」
"Furthermore, Child of the Buddha, within Lady Māyā's own womb, she will be able to hold the entire trichiliocosm, and will further be able to manifest a hundred koṭis of the four continents; within those hundred koṭis of Jambudvīpas, the royal capitals, cities, and gardens where she dwells will each bear a different name; and Lady Māyā will sit throughout every one of those places at once, surrounded by every deva, entirely manifesting an inconceivable sovereign mastery of wisdom. This is the bodhisattva's own second form of sovereign mastery in taking rebirth.
"Furthermore, Child of the Buddha, within each and every one of Lady Māyā's own pores, there will be manifested the tathāgata, in ages past, at the time he was a bodhisattva, reverently honoring and making offerings to every buddha; and the true Dharma expounded by those tathāgatas will be entirely heard within those very pores — just as, in a bright mirror or a pure, still pond, one beholds the reflection of the sun and moon. Within every pore of Lady Māyā, there will be manifested the tathāgata, in ages past, at the time he was a bodhisattva, reverently honoring and making offerings to every buddha, and the true Dharma expounded by those tathāgatas will be entirely heard — in just the same way. This is the bodhisattva's own third form of sovereign mastery in taking rebirth."
The second and third forms of mastery both work by the same device — one body containing, without contradiction, a scale that should overwhelm it — but each in a different register. The second holds physical space itself: a single womb containing the trichiliocosm, and a hundred differently named Jambudvīpas occupied all at once. The third holds time and testimony: every pore becomes a mirror reflecting the tathāgata's own entire past as a bodhisattva, and the Dharma once spoken by buddhas now long gone remains audible within it, "just as, in a bright mirror or a pure, still pond, one beholds the reflection of the sun and moon" — the past not merely remembered but genuinely present, and hearable, in the body of the one about to give birth to it.
Part 128 In Progress
Three of Māyā's ten forms of sovereign mastery are now complete. Part 129 continues with three more — her pores revealing every past rebirth in which she has been this bodhisattva's own mother, the bodhisattva's every past body and conduct, and every act of giving he has ever made.
Continue to Part 129 →