"Do Not Become an Obstruction"
The prince answers neither yes nor no to the marriage proposal. Instead, he declares his own bodhisattva vow in full — to practice every pāramitā, adorn every buddha's own world, and, across every kalpa yet to come, relinquish his kingdom, his wife and children, and even his own body, limb by limb. He asks her plainly not to obstruct this vow.
A Vow, Not an Answer
「爾時，太子答言：『善女！我已先發阿耨多羅三藐三菩提心，欲無量劫行菩薩行，積集一切功德智慧，淨修一切諸波羅蜜，恭敬、供養一切諸佛，護持正法，嚴淨一切諸佛世界，令如來種相續不斷，教化眾生，滅生死苦，住究竟樂。欲令眾生淨智慧眼，住菩薩道，修菩薩行，具足一切菩薩諸地。令一切眾生心大歡喜，我當盡未來劫行檀波羅蜜，悉捨一切國城、妻子、肢節、手足、頭目、髓腦，或在家布施、出家修道，汝於爾時，莫作障礙，壞我道心。』」
At that time, the prince answered, saying: "Good woman, I have already, before this, raised the mind of unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening, and wish, throughout boundless kalpas, to practice the bodhisattva's own practice, accumulating every merit and wisdom, purely cultivating every pāramitā, reverently making offerings to every buddha, upholding and guarding the true Dharma, adorning and purifying every buddha's own world, causing the tathāgata's own lineage to continue unbroken, teaching and transforming sentient beings, extinguishing the suffering of birth-and-death, and abiding in ultimate happiness. I wish to cause sentient beings to attain the pure eye of wisdom, to abide in the bodhisattva's own path, to cultivate the bodhisattva's own practice, and to become fully endowed with every one of the bodhisattva's own grounds. To cause every sentient being's own mind to rejoice greatly, I shall, throughout every kalpa yet to come, practice the pāramitā of giving, relinquishing entirely every kingdom and city, wife and children, limbs and joints, hands and feet, head and eyes, marrow and brain — whether while remaining a householder giving in charity, or after leaving the household life to cultivate the path. At that time, you must not become an obstruction, or destroy my own mind set upon the path."
The prince's answer reframes the entire proposal: he is not asking her to marry an ordinary future king, but warning her, in advance, of exactly what marrying a bodhisattva actually entails — that he will, in the course of his own practice, give away everything, including, eventually, "wife and children" themselves, along with his own body piece by piece. This is not a hypothetical caveat; it is the precise condition under which he asks her to accept him, stated before any answer is given, so that consent, if it comes, cannot later claim to have been given without knowing the cost.
Part 165 In Progress
The prince has named his own condition in prose. Part 166 turns to his verse restatement of this same vow, asking her directly whether she can accept what it will one day cost her.
Continue to Part 166 →