"That Wet-Nurse Was None Other Than Myself"
The deva identifies herself directly with the ancient wet-nurse, describing an unbroken continuity of vision — every buddha's own sovereign mastery in rebirth, every buddha's first raising of the vow — that has held constant, thought-moment after thought-moment, since that instant long ago. She then begins a hymn, upheld by the buddha's own power, to retell this whole account a second time in verse.
An Unbroken Vision, Since That Very Moment
「佛子！於意云何？彼乳母者，豈異人乎？我身是也。我從是來念念常見菩薩受生自在法海，盧舍那佛教化眾生自在神力。佛子！我念念中悉得三千大千世界微塵等淨智慧眼，常見一切世界微塵等剎及彼諸佛，知彼如來自在受生。又復了知盧舍那佛初發大願，乃至悉知十方諸佛初發大願，亦復如是。亦恭敬供養彼諸如來，彼佛說法我悉得聞，受持修行。」
"Child of the Buddha, what do you think? That wet-nurse — could she have been anyone else? She was none other than myself. From that time onward, within every single thought-moment, I have constantly beheld the whole ocean of the Dharma of a bodhisattva's own sovereign mastery in rebirth, and the buddha Vairocana's own sovereign, spiritual power in teaching and transforming sentient beings. Child of the Buddha, within every single thought-moment, I have attained the pure eye of wisdom as numerous as motes of dust in the trichiliocosm, and constantly behold lands as numerous as motes of dust in every world, and the buddhas within them, knowing those tathāgatas' own sovereign mastery in rebirth. I have further come to understand the buddha Vairocana's own first raising of the great vow, and, further still, fully understand the first raising of the great vow of every buddha of the ten directions, in just the same way. I have also reverently made offerings to those tathāgatas, and the Dharma expounded by those buddhas I have entirely heard, upheld, and cultivated."
Fazang names this sixth and seventh of his ten steps together: 六得此法門、七結會古今 — "sixth, attaining this Dharma-gate; seventh, the identification of past and present." Every teacher in this collection eventually names their own past self within the story just told, but the phrasing here is distinctive: not simply "that wet-nurse was myself," but a claim of continuous vision extending from that single ancient instant all the way to now — "within every single thought-moment," across the entire span since, watching every buddha's own rebirth and every buddha's own first vow. The moment of attainment is dated precisely; the vision it opened is described as having never once lapsed since.
A Hymn Begins
時，彼林天承佛神力，觀察十方，欲重明此一切境界菩薩受生自在法門義故，以偈頌曰：
「佛子汝所問， 最勝寂滅境，
一心善諦聽， 我今說因緣。」
At that time, the forest-deva, upholding the buddha's own spiritual power, contemplated the ten directions, and, wishing to make clear once more the meaning of this whole state — the Dharma-gate of a bodhisattva's own sovereign mastery in rebirth — spoke this hymn in verse:
"Child of the Buddha, that which you have asked — the most supreme, tranquil state of cessation — with a single mind, listen well and carefully; I shall now explain its cause and condition."
Fazang counts this hymn at twenty-three and a half stanzas in four groups, and names this single opening stanza its own first movement: 初一誡聽許說 — "first, one stanza admonishing to listen, and granting to speak." A detail worth noting for what follows: the Chinese source itself does not keep a uniform four-line stanza throughout this hymn — some of its stanzas run to six lines rather than four, a pattern this project has now met twice in this teacher's own two hymns. The half-stanza in Fazang's own count of "23.5" likely reflects exactly this kind of irregular stanza length, not a scribal error.
Part 133 In Progress
The identification is complete, and the hymn has opened. Part 134 continues the verse retelling of the ancient kalpa, the buddha, and the wet-nurse's own identification — restating in poetry what the prose has already told in full.
Continue to Part 134 →