Samantabhadra's Own Dharma, Like Empty Space
Gopā rejoices without measure at the mere sight of a bodhisattva in practice, gathering them toward non-retrogression through every skillful means. Yet even after cultivating this Dharma-gate across kalpas as numerous as motes of dust, at the presence of countless buddhas, she still cannot know the Dharma practiced by Samantabhadra himself — a Dharma as boundless and measureless as empty space.
Joy Without Measure, and a Dharma Still Beyond Reach
「佛子！我若見修菩薩行者，歡喜無量，恭敬供養，以諸方便而攝取之，令於阿耨多羅三藐三菩提，得不退轉。佛子！我於世界微塵等劫，值遇諸佛，恭敬供養，彼佛說法悉聞受持。時，彼諸佛各以種種修多羅為我說此法門，我聞是已，悉於三世佛剎海中、諸如來所、佛眷屬所修此法門，又行菩薩行、菩薩大願海，種種法門中修此法門，猶未能知普賢菩薩所行法門，何以故？佛子！普賢法門猶如虛空無量無邊，又如眾生及三世海、十方剎海及諸法界無量無邊。佛子！普賢菩薩法門與諸佛身境界齊等。我於世界微塵等劫，觀菩薩身，心無厭足，」
"Child of the Buddha, if I behold one who cultivates the bodhisattva's own practice, I rejoice without measure, and, reverencing and making offerings, gather them in through every skillful means, causing them to attain non-retrogression in unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening. Child of the Buddha, throughout kalpas as numerous as motes of dust in every world, I have met every buddha, reverenced and made offerings to them, and entirely heard and upheld the Dharma they expounded. At that time, each of those buddhas, through every kind of sūtra, expounded this Dharma-gate for me; having heard this, I have, throughout the whole ocean of buddha-lands of the three times, at the presence of every tathāgata, and at the presence of every buddha's own retinue, cultivated this Dharma-gate, and further practiced the bodhisattva's own practice, the bodhisattva's own ocean of great vows, cultivating this Dharma-gate within every kind of Dharma-gate — and yet I have still not been able to know the Dharma-gate practiced by the bodhisattva Samantabhadra. Why is this so? Child of the Buddha, Samantabhadra's own Dharma is like empty space, boundless and measureless; it is also like the ocean of sentient beings and of the three times, and like the ocean of lands of the ten directions and of every Dharma-realm, boundless and measureless. Child of the Buddha, the bodhisattva Samantabhadra's own Dharma-gate is equal in scope to the very state of every buddha's own body. Throughout kalpas as numerous as motes of dust in every world, I contemplate the bodhisattva's own body, my mind never growing weary of it."
Gopā's own limit is stated with unusual precision: not that she lacks knowledge in general, but specifically that Samantabhadra's own Dharma-gate exceeds even the vast Dharma-gate she has already spent kalpas cultivating "within every kind of Dharma-gate." The comparison she offers — equal in scope to empty space, to every sentient being, to every land of the ten directions, and, finally, "equal to the very state of every buddha's own body" — places Samantabhadra's own practice at the very ceiling of what this collection has ever described as knowable, a scale this project has now met at several of its final teachers as they each, in turn, name Samantabhadra as the horizon beyond their own reach.
Part 181 In Progress
Gopā's own admitted limit before Samantabhadra's vastness is now stated. Part 182 turns to what she does behold — boundless worlds, buddhas, and sentient beings, all witnessed within each and every pore of a bodhisattva's own body.
Continue to Part 182 →