An Ancient Kalpa, and a Queen Named Joyful Light
Sudhana asks how long the deva has held this Dharma-gate. Her answer opens an entirely new account: a kalpa named Delightful, a world named All Jewels, eighty nayutas of buddhas, and a queen named Joyful Light — mother to the very first of them, just as Lady Māyā is mother to the buddha Vairocana now.
"How Long Has It Been?"
爾時，善財白圓滿妙德林天言：「天神得此菩薩受生自在法門，其已久如？」答言：「佛子！乃往古世，過億佛剎微塵等劫，有劫名可悅樂，彼有世界名一切寶。彼劫世界中，有八十那由他佛出興于世，其最初佛號不可壞自在幢王。彼世界中一閻浮提有一王都，名莊嚴幢，王名寶焰眼光第一，夫人名善喜光。如此世界摩耶夫人為盧舍那佛母，彼世界中善喜光夫人為最初如來母，亦復如是。
At that time, Sudhana said to the forest-deva Sublime Virtue, Perfect and Full: "Divine one, how long has it been since you attained this Dharma-gate of a bodhisattva's own sovereign mastery in rebirth?"
She answered, saying: "Child of the Buddha, in ages long past, beyond kalpas as numerous as motes of dust in a koṭi of buddha-lands, there was a kalpa named Delightful, and there was a world named All Jewels. Within that kalpa and world, eighty nayutas of buddhas arose in the world, and the very first buddha was named King of the Indestructible Sovereign Banner. Within that world, in a single Jambudvīpa, there was a royal capital, named Adorned Banner; the king was named Jeweled Flame, Foremost Eye-Light, and his queen was named Joyful Light. Just as, in this world, Lady Māyā is the mother of the buddha Vairocana, so too, within that world, Lady Joyful Light was the mother of that very first tathāgata, in just the same way."
This is Fazang's fourth of the five gates: 四辨法根 — "fourth, discerning the roots of the Dharma." Sudhana's question shifts the whole account onto a different axis. The previous parts described the scope of the Dharma-gate through the still-future birth at Lumbinī; this question asks instead how long the deva has already held it, and the answer reaches back into a kalpa the text calls simply "ages long past, beyond kalpas as numerous as motes of dust in a koṭi of buddha-lands" — a temporal depth that dwarfs even the vast future the deva has just finished describing. The explicit parallel she draws — Māyā to Vairocana now, Joyful Light to that ancient first buddha then — signals plainly what the rest of this account will confirm: this ancient queen's story is her own.
A Golden Garden, a Wet-Nurse, and a Sudden Samādhi
「善喜光夫人生菩薩時，與二百萬那由他諸采女眾詣金色園林，攀寶樹枝，生彼如來。時，有乳母名離垢光。諸天王等以雜香湯洗浴太子，抱授乳母，乳母敬受，歡喜無量，即得菩薩普眼境界三昧。得三昧已，見十方佛無所障礙，復得菩薩受生自在法門。佛子！譬如初受胎識，速疾無礙，得此法門，知一切佛受生自在，亦復如是。」
"When Lady Joyful Light gave birth to the bodhisattva, she went, together with two million nayutas of attendant women, to a golden garden, and, grasping the branch of a jeweled tree, gave birth to that tathāgata. At that time, there was a wet-nurse, named Stainless Light. The deva-kings and the rest bathed the prince with water scented with every fragrance, and placed him in the arms of the wet-nurse; the wet-nurse reverently received him, and, rejoicing without measure, at once attained the bodhisattva's own samādhi of the state of the universal eye. Having attained this samādhi, she beheld the buddhas of the ten directions without any obstruction, and further attained the bodhisattva's own Dharma-gate of sovereign mastery in rebirth. Child of the Buddha, it is like the consciousness that first takes hold within the womb — swift and unobstructed; attaining this Dharma-gate is, in just the same way."
Fazang's own ten-part outline for this whole account (T1733 line 24636-24638) names these opening steps precisely: 一古世佛興、二出往佛母、三攀樹生佛、四授與乳母、五乳母得定 — "first, an ancient buddha arising; second, she becomes a buddha's own mother; third, grasping the tree branch, giving birth to the buddha; fourth, given over to a wet-nurse; fifth, the wet-nurse attains samādhi." The tree-grasping detail here — "攀寶樹枝," grasping a jeweled tree's own branch — deliberately echoes the very posture the Lumbinī account has already fixed for Māyā's own giving birth, just as this ancient queen's name and role mirror Māyā's directly. The wet-nurse's own attainment, arriving the instant she takes the newborn into her arms, is compared to something startlingly ordinary: the swiftness and lack of obstruction of consciousness itself first taking hold in a womb — the most intimate possible image for how quickly this Dharma-gate can be entered.
Part 132 In Progress
The ancient buddha, the queen, and the wet-nurse's sudden samādhi are all now in place. Part 133 turns to the identification: the deva reveals that this ancient wet-nurse, Stainless Light, was none other than herself, then begins the hymn that will retell this whole ancient account a second time in verse.
Continue to Part 133 →