An Only Child, and a Bodhisattva's Grief
Sudhana answers the deva's welcome with a meditation on the compassion that drives the bodhisattva path: the same grief a parent feels watching an only child's limbs cut off, extended to every sentient being suffering in the three evil destinies — and a bodhisattva who seeks nothing for himself, only gathering in that suffering through the vow of great compassion.
"Like a Father Watching His Only Child"
善財答言：「如天所說，我願如是！欲令一切眾生歡喜，除滅煩惱諸不善法，具足善法得安隱樂。一切眾生以眾惡業煩惱結故，入三惡道，受無量苦，菩薩見已，起憂悲心。譬如有人唯有一子，愛念情重，忽有人來割截其身、肢節手足，慈父見已，悼惻悲念。菩薩若見眾生造惡業緣煩惱結故，入三惡道，受無量苦，見如是已，痛心悲念，亦復如是。菩薩若見眾生具身、口、意諸善業故，生天人中，受身心樂，見如是已，歡樂無量，何以故？菩薩摩訶薩不自為故求薩婆若，不貪生死、五欲快樂，不隨心想、諸見顛倒、結使纏縛、貪愛邪見，不著眾生種種樂想，不著禪味，不為結礙流轉生死。菩薩但見諸有海中，一切眾生受無量苦，發大悲願而攝取之。」
Sudhana answered, saying: "As the divine one has said, so indeed is my own vow! I wish to cause every sentient being to attain joy, to extinguish every affliction and unwholesome dharma, and to become fully endowed with wholesome dharmas, attaining tranquil, secure happiness. Every sentient being, because of the fetters of every evil karma and affliction, enters the three evil destinies, undergoing boundless suffering; the bodhisattva, beholding this, raises a mind of grief and sorrow. It is like a person who has only a single child, whom he loves and cherishes deeply; should someone suddenly come and cut off that child's own body, limbs, joints, hands, and feet, the loving father, beholding this, would be struck with grief and compassion. When a bodhisattva beholds sentient beings, because of the fetters of the causes and conditions of evil karma, entering the three evil destinies and undergoing boundless suffering, and, having beheld this, is stricken to the heart with grief and compassion, it is in just the same way. When a bodhisattva beholds sentient beings, because of every wholesome deed of body, speech, and mind, being born among devas and humans, receiving happiness of body and mind, and, having beheld this, rejoices without measure — why is this so? A bodhisattva-mahāsattva does not seek omniscience for his own sake; he does not covet birth-and-death, nor the pleasures of the five desires; he does not follow the mind's own fancies, the inverted views, the bonds and fetters of affliction, or greed, craving, and wrong view; he is not attached to sentient beings' own various notions of pleasure, nor attached to the flavor of meditative absorption, nor does he, bound by fetters and obstructions, flow on through birth-and-death. A bodhisattva only beholds, within the ocean of every mode of existence, every sentient being undergoing boundless suffering, and raises the vow of great compassion, gathering them all in."
Sudhana's reply does not thank the deva for her praise, or confirm the future she has just described for him — it answers instead with his own understanding of what the bodhisattva path is actually for. The "only child" simile, given here in stark physical terms — a father watching his single beloved child's own limbs cut off — is a well-known figure for great compassion this collection has used before, but its pairing here with the mirror-image response to joy is precise: the bodhisattva grieves at suffering and rejoices at happiness in exactly the same unconflicted way a parent would for an only child, with no remainder of self-interest in either reaction. The passage's closing insistence — that a bodhisattva does not even seek omniscience "for his own sake" — forecloses any reading of the whole practice as enlightened self-interest.
Part 140 In Progress
Sudhana's meditation on great compassion is complete. Part 141 continues his reply with a long declaration of what a bodhisattva becomes for every sentient being — father and mother, ferryman, refuge, guide, and lamp — each role named in turn.
Continue to Part 141 →