Arrival at Jue Cheng, and Sudhana Named
Mañjuśrī arrives at Jue Cheng — the "City of Awakening" — teaches nāga-kings at a stūpa-shrine where past buddhas once practiced austerities, and a crowd of laymen, laywomen, boys, and girls gathers before him. Among the boys is one the text itself pauses to explain by name: Sudhana, "Good Wealth."
Jue Cheng, and the Nāga-Kings
爾時，文殊師利菩薩建立彼諸比丘菩提心已，與其眷屬，漸遊南方。至覺城東，住莊嚴幢娑羅林中，大塔廟處，過去諸佛所遊止處；亦是過去諸佛為菩薩時，修苦行處。此處常為一切天、龍、夜叉、乾闥婆、阿脩羅、人非人等之所供養。
時，文殊師利即於此處，說普照一切法界修多羅，有百萬億修多羅，以為眷屬；說此法時，於大海中，有無量千億龍王與眷屬俱，來詣文殊師利。聞此法已，厭離龍趣，正求佛道；捨龍身已，生天人中；一萬龍王，於阿耨多羅三藐三菩提，得不退轉。
At that time, Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva, having established these monks in the mind of awakening, together with his retinue, gradually traveled south. He arrived east of Jue Cheng — the City of Awakening — and dwelt within the Śāla Grove of the Adorned Banner, at the site of a great stūpa-shrine, a place where the buddhas of the past had once dwelt and traveled; it was also the very place where the buddhas of the past, when they were bodhisattvas, had once cultivated ascetic practice. This place was constantly honored with offerings by every deva, nāga, yakṣa, gandharva, asura, and every human and non-human being.
At that time Mañjuśrī, right in that very place, expounded the sūtra Universally Illumining the Entire Dharma-Realm, with a hundred million sūtras serving as its retinue; while he expounded this teaching, from within the great ocean, nāga-kings beyond number, in the hundreds of billions, together with their retinues, came before Mañjuśrī. Having heard this teaching, they grew weary of and turned away from the destiny of the nāga, rightly seeking the path of buddhahood; having relinquished their nāga bodies, they were reborn among devas and humans; ten thousand nāga-kings attained non-retrogression from unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening.
Specific Fazang commentary on this exact passage was not available for consultation in preparing this page's reading note; the observation below is Ru-Yi's own, grounded in what the text itself makes visible. Jue Cheng — literally "the City of Awakening" — is where the rest of this chapter's pilgrimage will actually begin: it is here, not at Jetavana, that Sudhana himself will be introduced within the next few lines, and it is from a stūpa-shrine already marked as a site of past buddhas' own austerities that Mañjuśrī's teaching now goes out. The nāga-kings' conversion is worth noting for what it withholds as much as what it grants: only ten thousand of the "hundreds of billions" who came are said to reach non-retrogression, a reminder — arriving just before Sudhana's own story starts — that even a teaching this vast does not convert indiscriminately or all at once.
The Crowd Gathers, and Sudhana Is Named
時，覺城人聞文殊師利在莊嚴幢娑羅林中，大塔廟處；聞已，優婆塞、優婆夷、童男、童女，皆悉往詣文殊師利。時，有優婆塞，名曰大智，與千優婆塞眷屬俱，其名曰：須達多優婆塞、婆須達多優婆塞、功德光優婆塞、名稱德優婆塞、寂靜德優婆塞、歡喜德優婆塞、善慧優婆塞、大慧優婆塞、賢優婆塞、賢妙德優婆塞；如是等千優婆塞俱，頭面禮足，退坐一面。復有五百優婆夷，其名曰：大慧光優婆夷、善光優婆夷、善身優婆夷、可樂身優婆夷、跋陀羅優婆夷、賢德優婆夷、賢光優婆夷、光明幢優婆夷、妙德光優婆夷、善眼優婆夷；如是等五百優婆夷俱，頭面禮足，退坐一面。復有五百童子，其名曰：善財童子、善行童子、善戒童子、善威儀童子、善精進童子、善心童子、善慧童子、善覺童子、善眼童子、善臂童子、善光勝童子；如是等五百童子俱，頭面禮足，退坐一面。復有五百童女，其名曰：善行童女、跋陀羅童女、悅樂顏童女、堅固慧童女、妙功德童女、勝體童女、梵天與童女、功德光童女、善光明童女；如是等五百童女俱，頭面禮足，退坐一面。
爾時，文殊師利知覺城大眾集已，隨其所應，以大慈力，令彼清涼；大悲現前，將為說法；甚深智慧，分別其心，以大辯力而為說法。觀察善財童子，以何因緣，名曰善財：此童子者，初受胎時，於其宅內，有七大寶藏；其藏普出七寶樓閣，自然周備，金、銀、瑠璃、玻瓈、真珠、硨磲、碼碯，從此七寶，生七種芽。時，此童子處胎十月，出生端正，肢體具足；其七種寶芽，高二尋，廣七尋。又其家內，自然具有五百寶器，盛滿眾寶：金器盛銀；銀器盛金；金剛器盛眾香；眾香器盛寶衣；玉石器盛上味饌；摩尼器盛雜寶；種種寶器盛酥油蜜，及以醍醐資生之具。瑠璃器盛眾寶；玻瓈器盛硨磲；硨磲器盛玻瓈；碼碯器盛赤珠；赤珠器盛碼碯；火珠器盛淨水珠；淨水珠器盛火珠；如是等五百寶器，自然行列。又雨眾寶，滿諸庫藏。以此事故，婆羅門中，善明相師，字曰善財。此童子者，已曾供養過去諸佛，深種善根，常樂清淨；近善知識，身、口、意淨；修菩薩道，求一切智；修諸佛法，心淨如空，具菩薩行。
At that time the people of Jue Cheng heard that Mañjuśrī was within the Śāla Grove of the Adorned Banner, at the site of the great stūpa-shrine; having heard this, laymen, laywomen, boys, and girls all went before Mañjuśrī. At that time there was a layman named Great Wisdom, together with a retinue of a thousand laymen, whose names were: Sudatta the Layman, Vasudatta the Layman, Guṇaprabha the Layman, Renowned Virtue the Layman, Tranquil Virtue the Layman, Joyful Virtue the Layman, Excellent Wisdom the Layman, Great Wisdom the Layman, Worthy the Layman, and Worthy Sublime Virtue the Layman; a thousand laymen such as these together bowed their heads to his feet and withdrew to sit to one side. There were, further, five hundred laywomen, whose names were: Great Wisdom-Light the Laywoman, Excellent Light the Laywoman, Excellent Body the Laywoman, Delightful Body the Laywoman, Bhadrā the Laywoman, Worthy Virtue the Laywoman, Worthy Light the Laywoman, Light-Banner the Laywoman, Sublime Virtue-Light the Laywoman, and Excellent Eye the Laywoman; five hundred laywomen such as these together bowed their heads to his feet and withdrew to sit to one side. There were, further, five hundred boys, whose names were: Sudhana the Boy, Excellent Conduct the Boy, Excellent Precepts the Boy, Excellent Bearing the Boy, Excellent Diligence the Boy, Excellent Mind the Boy, Excellent Wisdom the Boy, Excellent Awakening the Boy, Excellent Eye the Boy, Excellent Arm the Boy, and Excellent Light Supreme the Boy; five hundred boys such as these together bowed their heads to his feet and withdrew to sit to one side. There were, further, five hundred girls, whose names were: Excellent Conduct the Girl, Bhadrā the Girl, Joyful Countenance the Girl, Firm Wisdom the Girl, Sublime Merit the Girl, Supreme Body the Girl, Brahmā-Given the Girl, Merit-Light the Girl, and Excellent Radiance the Girl; five hundred girls such as these together bowed their heads to his feet and withdrew to sit to one side.
At that time Mañjuśrī, knowing that the great assembly of Jue Cheng had gathered, according to what each required, through the power of great kindness brought them coolness and relief; with great compassion manifest before them, he was about to expound the Dharma for their sake; through profound wisdom, discerning their minds, he expounded the Dharma for them through the power of great eloquence. He contemplated Sudhana the Boy, and for what reason he was named Sudhana, "Good Wealth": when this boy was first conceived, within his household there appeared seven great treasuries; from these treasuries there arose, spontaneously and completely, a pavilion of seven jewels — gold, silver, lapis lazuli, crystal, pearl, giant clam-shell, and carnelian — and from these seven jewels there sprang forth seven kinds of sprouts. When this boy had remained in the womb for ten months, he was born handsome and upright, every limb complete; and the seven jeweled sprouts, by then, stood two fathoms high and seven fathoms broad. Furthermore, within his household there spontaneously appeared five hundred jeweled vessels, filled entirely with every kind of treasure: a golden vessel filled with silver; a silver vessel filled with gold; a vajra vessel filled with every fragrance; a vessel of every fragrance filled with jeweled robes; a jade vessel filled with the finest delicacies; a maṇi vessel filled with every mingled treasure; vessels of every kind of jewel filled with butter, oil, honey, and ghee, every provision for life. A lapis lazuli vessel filled with every treasure; a crystal vessel filled with giant clam-shell; a giant clam-shell vessel filled with crystal; a carnelian vessel filled with red pearls; a red-pearl vessel filled with carnelian; a fire-pearl vessel filled with water-purifying pearls; a water-purifying-pearl vessel filled with fire-pearls — five hundred jeweled vessels such as these arranged themselves spontaneously in rows. Furthermore, treasures rained down, filling every storehouse to the full. Because of this occurrence, the skilled fortune-tellers among the brahmins gave him the name Sudhana, "Good Wealth." This boy had already, in the past, made offerings to the buddhas of ages gone by, deeply planting roots of goodness, constantly delighting in purity; drawing near to good spiritual friends, his body, speech, and mind were pure; he cultivated the bodhisattva path, seeking omniscience; cultivating the Dharma of every buddha, his mind pure as space, fully endowed with the bodhisattva's own practice.
The sūtra is careful to name Sudhana's own wealth as an omen rather than an inheritance he did anything to earn — every treasury, pavilion, and vessel "spontaneously" (自然) appearing at the moment of his conception, not accumulated by any family effort — and the text's own closing sentence quietly redirects attention away from that wealth entirely: the reason this particular boy, among five hundred named boys sharing this scene, becomes the pilgrimage's own center is not the seven jeweled sprouts or the five hundred vessels, but that he "had already, in the past, made offerings to the buddhas of ages gone by, deeply planting roots of goodness" — a cause laid down long before this life, exactly as Part 7 already established for anyone able to perceive the Buddha's own sovereign display at all. The material omens explain his name; they do not explain why Mañjuśrī is about to single him out.
It is also worth noticing how many other named children stand alongside him, unremarked upon beyond their own names — Excellent Conduct, Excellent Precepts, Excellent Wisdom among the boys; Excellent Conduct, Firm Wisdom, Sublime Merit among the girls. Nothing in the text suggests these companions lack merit of their own; the chapter simply does not follow their path. Sudhana's own pilgrimage, beginning in the very next part of this collection, is one route through the Dharma-realm among many that might have been told from this same crowd, on this same day, in this same city.
Part 13 Complete
This closes Part 13, and with it the whole of this chapter's front matter: Mañjuśrī's arrival at Jue Cheng, the nāga-kings' conversion, the gathered crowd of laymen, laywomen, boys, and girls, and the sūtra's own explanation of Sudhana's name. Part 14 turns to the moment Mañjuśrī actually speaks to Sudhana directly — the teaching that sends him on the pilgrimage to fifty-three teachers that gives this entire chapter its name.
Continue to Part 14 — Mañjuśrī Sends Sudhana South →