A Buddha's Hand Upon Her Own Head
The girl's verse closes with the full account of her own dream: the buddha Supreme Sun-Light, seated beneath the bodhi tree, surrounded by the whole assembly, placing his own hand upon the crown of her head. Waking in boundless joy, and hearing a deva confirm it, she resolves to tell the prince the moment she meets him — and now asks that they go there together.
Seven Stanzas: A Dream, a Deva's Voice, and a Vow Fulfilled
「『修廣明淨眼， 慈愍觀眾生，
不起染污心， 必成菩提道。
太子遊行時， 地出眾寶華，
此相無有疑， 必為轉輪王。
我昔於夢見， 正覺勝日光，
菩提樹下坐， 大眾悉圍遶。
夢中見彼佛， 以手摩我頂，
覺已大歡喜， 踊躍無有量。
空中時有天， 名曰清淨身，
彼天為我說， 道場佛興世。
我發如是念， 若見太子者，
當為分別說， 勝日光佛興。
我昔所志願， 於今悉成滿，
唯願俱往詣， 供養彼如來。』」
"Cultivating the broad, bright, pure eye, beholding sentient beings with loving-kindness and compassion, never giving rise to a defiled mind, you shall surely accomplish the path of awakening.
When the prince goes about, the earth gives forth every kind of jeweled flower; this sign leaves no doubt — you shall surely become a wheel-turning king.
In days past, I beheld in a dream the most correct awakening of Supreme Sun-Light, seated beneath the bodhi tree, surrounded entirely by the great assembly.
Within that dream, I beheld that buddha place his own hand upon the crown of my head; upon awakening, I rejoiced greatly, leaping for joy without measure.
At that time, in the sky, there was a deva, named Pure Body; that deva expounded for me that a buddha had arisen in the world at that very bodhimaṇḍa.
I raised a thought such as this: should I behold the prince, I ought to explain to him, in full, the arising of the buddha Supreme Sun-Light.
The vow I made in days past is now entirely fulfilled; I beg only that we go there together, to make offerings to that tathāgata."
The girl reveals only now, at the very close of her own long verse, what she resolved to do the moment she first heard of the newly awakened buddha: not to refuse the prince outright, but to use this very encounter as the occasion to bring him to that buddha's own presence. Her earlier declaration that she would rather die than marry him, read against this closing revelation, was never really about the marriage itself — it was about not yet knowing whether this particular union could serve the purpose she had already resolved on. A buddha's hand placed upon her own head in dream, and a deva's own confirmation of it, together settle what her mother's long catalogue of virtues could not: this marriage will, in fact, deliver a future buddha directly to the very ground where an awakening has just occurred.
Part 168 In Progress
The girl's own account is now fully told. Part 169 turns to the prince's joyful response and the gifts he offers her, before the mother speaks a final verse confirming everything her daughter has said.
Continue to Part 169 →