A Dream, Seven Days Old
Just outside the garden stands a bodhimaṇḍa where a buddha named Supreme Sun-Light attained the unsurpassed path only seven days before. The girl beholds his body in a dream, and, waking, hears a deva in the sky confirm it — describing the vast assembly of bodhisattvas, devas, nāgas, and every kind of spirit already gathered there to hear him teach.
A Buddha, Seven Days Awakened, and a Dream Confirmed
「時，彼園外有一道場，名法雲光。有勝日光如來、應供、等正覺出興于世，於彼道場成無上道。時，女夢見彼如來身，於夢覺已，空中有天而告之曰：『汝夢所見是勝日光佛，成道已來始經七日，今在道場無量菩薩大眾圍遶彼佛眾會，一切天龍八部、鬼神乃至無量淨居諸天地神、風神、海神、火神、山神、樹神、叢林藥草城郭等神皆悉雲集，奉覲世尊，聽受正法。』」
"At that time, outside that garden, there was a bodhimaṇḍa, named the Light of the Dharma-Cloud. There was a tathāgata, worthy of offerings, perfectly and fully awakened, named Supreme Sun-Light, who had arisen in the world, and, at that very bodhimaṇḍa, attained the unsurpassed path. At that time, the girl, in a dream, beheld that tathāgata's own body; and, upon awakening from the dream, there was a deva in the sky who spoke to her, saying: 'What you beheld in your dream was the buddha Supreme Sun-Light; since his attainment of the path, only seven days have now passed, and he is, at this very moment, at the bodhimaṇḍa, surrounded by a boundless assembly of bodhisattvas gathered there in that buddha's own assembly. Every deva, nāga, and the rest of the eightfold assembly, every spirit, and, further, boundless devas of the Pure Abodes, earth-spirits, wind-spirits, ocean-spirits, fire-spirits, mountain-spirits, tree-spirits, spirits of forests and medicinal herbs, and spirits of every city wall, have all gathered together like clouds, to pay homage to the World-Honored One, and to hear and receive the true Dharma.'"
The bodhimaṇḍa's own name — the Light of the Dharma-Cloud — is not incidental: it names, in advance, the very ground this entire teacher stands upon, the tenth and final of the Ten Grounds, 法雲地, the Dharma-Cloud Ground itself. This girl's dream arrives at precisely the moment her mother expects her to accept the highest worldly honor available — marriage to a future wheel-turning king — and reveals instead a rival claim on her attention only seven days old: a buddha, freshly awakened, close enough that his own assembly could, in principle, be reached on foot. What the girl does with this knowledge is what the following parts will show.
Part 156 In Progress
The girl now knows of the newly awakened buddha nearby. Part 157 turns to her own answer to the prince — spoken in verse, describing her own qualities and what she actually seeks from him.
Continue to Part 157 →