Mañjuśrī's Reply, and the Nine Questions
Mañjuśrī praises Sudhana's resolve, states the principle that will govern his entire pilgrimage — seek out a good spiritual friend, draw near to them, never weary of it — and names nine questions that will echo, in one form or another, at every one of the fifty-three encounters to come.
"This Itself Is a Bodhisattva's Own Foremost Treasury"
爾時，文殊師利如象王迴，觀善財童子，作如是言：「善哉！善哉！善男子！乃能發阿耨多羅三藐三菩提心。求善知識，親近善知識；問菩薩行，求菩薩道。善男子！是為菩薩第一之藏，具一切智，所謂：求善知識，親近恭敬而供養之。是故，善男子！應求善知識，親近恭敬，一心供養而無厭足；問菩薩行：云何修習菩薩道？云何滿足菩薩行？云何清淨菩薩行？云何究竟菩薩行？云何出生菩薩行？云何正念菩薩道？云何緣於菩薩境界道？云何增廣菩薩道？云何菩薩具普賢行？」
At that time Mañjuśrī, turning as an elephant king turns, beheld Sudhana the Boy and spoke thus: "Excellent, excellent, good son! You have been able to raise the mind of unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening. You seek out good spiritual friends, and draw near to good spiritual friends; you ask about a bodhisattva's own practice, and seek the bodhisattva's own path. Good son, this itself is a bodhisattva's own foremost treasury, fully endowed with omniscience — namely: seeking out a good spiritual friend, drawing near to that friend, honoring and making offering to them. For this reason, good son, you should seek out a good spiritual friend, draw near to them with honor and respect, single-mindedly making offering without ever wearying of it; and you should ask about a bodhisattva's own practice: How does one cultivate the bodhisattva path? How does one fulfill the bodhisattva's own practice? How does one purify the bodhisattva's own practice? How does one bring the bodhisattva's own practice to its very end? How does one give rise to the bodhisattva's own practice? How does one rightly hold in mind the bodhisattva path? How does one take the bodhisattva's own domain as one's own object and path? How does one broaden and extend the bodhisattva path? How does a bodhisattva come to be fully endowed with the practice of Samantabhadra?"
Mañjuśrī's answer to Sudhana's own hymn of entrapment, in the previous part, is not a direct promise of rescue but a method: 求善知識，親近善知識 — "seek out good spiritual friends, draw near to good spiritual friends" — named explicitly as 菩薩第一之藏, "a bodhisattva's own foremost treasury." This single principle is the whole structural key to everything that follows in this chapter: fifty-three separate encounters, each one enacting exactly this instruction once more. The nine questions that follow — how to cultivate, fulfill, purify, complete, give rise to, rightly hold in mind, take as one's own domain, broaden, and finally become fully endowed with the practice of Samantabhadra — are not nine different topics Sudhana will ask about separately. They are nine facets of a single question he will now put, in substance, to every teacher he meets, however different their answers turn out to be.
Mañjuśrī's Own Hymn, and the First Direction South
爾時，文殊師利為善財童子，以偈頌曰：「善哉功德藏， 能來詣我所，發廣大悲心， 專求無上道。先發諸大願， 除滅眾生苦，究竟菩薩行， 成就無上道。若有諸菩薩， 不厭生死苦，具足普賢行， 一切莫能壞。功德光勝來， 清淨功德海，正求普賢行， 饒益一切眾。無量無有邊， 世界諸佛所，聞說淨法雲， 受持不忘失。悉於十方界， 普見無量佛，成滿諸願海， 具足菩薩行。究竟方便海， 安住如來地，隨順諸佛教， 逮得一切智。一切世界中， 法王積劫行，具足普賢道， 究竟佛菩提。一切剎劫海， 修習菩薩行，滿足諸大願， 成就普賢乘。無量諸眾生， 聞彼名號者，修習普賢願， 得成無上道。」
爾時，文殊師利說此偈已，告善財言：「善男子！於此南方，有一國土，名曰可樂；其國有山，名曰和合。
At that time Mañjuśrī, for the sake of Sudhana the Boy, spoke in verse, saying:
Excellent, treasury of merit, that you are able to come before me, raising a mind of vast, great compassion, single-mindedly seeking the unsurpassed path.
Having first raised every great vow, extinguishing the suffering of sentient beings, bringing the bodhisattva's own practice to its very end, you will accomplish the unsurpassed path.
If there are bodhisattvas who do not weary of the suffering of birth and death, fully endowed with the practice of Samantabhadra, nothing at all is able to destroy them.
The supreme light of merit having come, the pure ocean of merit, rightly seeking the practice of Samantabhadra, bringing benefit to every being.
In worlds beyond measure and without limit, at the presence of every buddha, hearing the pure cloud of the Dharma expounded, upholding it without ever forgetting.
Throughout the ten directions entirely, beholding every buddha without measure, fulfilling completely the ocean of every vow, fully endowed with the bodhisattva's own practice.
Reaching the very end of the ocean of skillful means, abiding firmly on the Tathāgata's own ground, according with the teaching of every buddha, attaining omniscience at last.
In every world, the Dharma-King's own practice accumulated through every eon, fully endowed with the path of Samantabhadra, reaching the very end of the Buddha's own awakening.
Throughout the ocean of every land and every eon, cultivating the bodhisattva's own practice, fulfilling every great vow, accomplishing the vehicle of Samantabhadra.
Sentient beings beyond measure, whoever hears that very name, cultivating the vow of Samantabhadra, will come to accomplish the unsurpassed path.
At that time, having spoken this verse, Mañjuśrī said to Sudhana: "Good son, to the south of here there is a land called Delightful; in that land there is a mountain called Union.
This closing verse's very last line — 無量諸眾生，聞彼名號者，修習普賢願，得成無上道, "sentient beings beyond measure, whoever hears that very name, cultivating the vow of Samantabhadra, will come to accomplish the unsurpassed path" — is addressed, on its surface, to no one in particular; but placed exactly where it is, spoken to Sudhana just before he departs, it reads as a promise about the pilgrimage that is about to begin: not only Sudhana's own journey, but this chapter's own record of it, will go on to reach "sentient beings beyond measure" who simply hear the names of the teachers he is about to meet. The direction Mañjuśrī gives — south, to a land called Delightful, a mountain called Union — is the first concrete geography this chapter has offered since Jetavana itself. Fifty-three more such directions will follow, each one handed from one spiritual friend to the next, until the pilgrimage completes what this single conversation has only just begun.
Part 15 Complete
This closes Part 15, and with it the whole of this chapter's opening — the assembly at Jetavana, the Buddha's samādhi, Mañjuśrī's journey south, and now his own instruction and direction to Sudhana. Part 16 turns to Sudhana's first spiritual friend: the monk Meghaśrī, on the mountain called Union, and the pilgrimage's own first encounter.
Continue to Part 16 — Meghaśrī, the First Teacher →