Every Sentient Being's Karma, Known in Full
Gopā names her own liberation, and Sudhana asks after its scope. Her answer opens with an exhaustive claim: she knows every sentient being of this Sahā world, across kalpas as numerous as motes of dust, in every fine distinction of karma — wholesome, unwholesome, mixed, and every buddha who ever arose within those same kalpas.
A Name, a Question, and Every Fine Distinction of Karma
「善男子！我已成就分別觀察一切菩薩三昧海法門。」
善財白言：「大聖！此法門者，境界云何？」
答言：「善男子！我入是法門，知此娑婆世界眾生，佛剎微塵等劫中，死此生彼，作善惡業，受諸果報，在生死道出生死者，正定、邪定及不定，聚有使善根、無使善根，具足善根、不具足善根，不善善根，善根攝不善根、不善根攝善根，善根所起、不善根所起，一切善惡，皆悉了知。彼諸劫中佛興于世，我悉了知。」
"Good man, I have accomplished only this Dharma-gate of discerning and contemplating the whole ocean of every bodhisattva's own samādhi."
Sudhana said: "Great sage, as for this Dharma-gate, what is its scope?"
She answered, saying: "Good man, having entered this Dharma-gate, I know that the sentient beings of this Sahā world, throughout kalpas as numerous as motes of dust in a buddha-land, die here and are born there, create wholesome and unwholesome karma, and undergo every karmic result; among those upon the path of birth-and-death, and those who emerge from birth-and-death, I know those of the rightly fixed group, the wrongly fixed group, and the indeterminate group; those whose roots of goodness are still afflicted and those whose roots of goodness are free of affliction; those fully endowed with roots of goodness and those not fully endowed; unwholesome roots that masquerade as good; roots of goodness that subsume unwholesome roots, and unwholesome roots that subsume roots of goodness; what arises from roots of goodness, and what arises from unwholesome roots — every wholesome and unwholesome thing, I know it all in full. Within those kalpas, whatever buddhas arose in the world, I know them all in full."
Gopā's own naming of her liberation — "discerning and contemplating the whole ocean of every bodhisattva's own samādhi" — is, on the surface, narrower than what follows: the answer to Sudhana's question about its scope turns out to encompass not merely bodhisattvas but every sentient being's own karma without exception, sorted here into the classic threefold division of certainty (rightly fixed toward liberation, wrongly fixed away from it, and indeterminate) and then further subdivided by the condition of each being's own roots of goodness. The claim is total: "every wholesome and unwholesome thing, I know it all in full" — a scope of knowledge this collection has granted only to its very deepest teachers.
Part 149 In Progress
Her knowledge of sentient beings' own karma is stated. Part 150 continues with what she knows of the buddhas, śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas, and bodhisattvas who arose within those same kalpas.
Continue to Part 150 →