Toward Kapilavastu, and a Deva Named Sorrow-Free
Sudhana bows farewell to the forest-deva of Lumbinī and travels onward, arriving at a lecture hall called Bodhisattva-Assembly Adornment. There, a deva named Sorrow-Free, Sublime Virtue, together with ten thousand devas of her own retinue, comes forward to welcome him — the tenth and final Ground of Sudhana's whole journey now beginning.
A Farewell, and a Journey Toward Kapilavastu
時，善財童子頭面敬禮彼林天足，遶畢辭退，◎◎向於彼城。正念思惟增廣明淨菩薩受生自在法門，漸漸遊行，至菩薩會莊嚴講堂，離憂妙德天所。
At that time, Sudhana bowed his head to that forest-deva's feet in reverence, and, having circled her, took his leave, and set out toward that city. Rightly recollecting and contemplating, expanding and purifying the Dharma-gate of a bodhisattva's own sovereign mastery in rebirth, he gradually traveled onward, and arrived at a lecture hall named Bodhisattva-Assembly Adornment, at the place of the deva Sorrow-Free, Sublime Virtue.
This teacher opens the tenth and final of the Ten Grounds, 法雲地 (the Ground of the Dharma-Cloud) — the last stage before the bodhisattva path this collection has been tracing culminates in buddhahood itself. Fazang's own outline for this whole teacher opens with three simple steps: 一敬辭、二念法、三至後 — "first, the reverent farewell; second, recollecting the Dharma; third, arriving afterward" — matching this passage exactly. The deva named here, Sorrow-Free, Sublime Virtue, is not the teacher Sudhana has been sent to find; Gopā herself has not yet appeared. This is a minor figure encountered en route, a pattern this collection has met at several earlier teachers' own approaches — a threshold presence before the main teaching begins.
Part 138 In Progress
Sudhana has arrived at the lecture hall, but has not yet been welcomed. Part 139 turns to the deva Sorrow-Free, Sublime Virtue, and her own ten thousand devas coming forward to greet him with a substantial speech praising his practice.
Continue to Part 139 →