Every Wheel of Every World, Within One Pore
The hymn closes: pure and defiled lands beheld with equal composure, every buddha's own bodhimaṇḍa seen at once, and, within each and every pore of a bodhisattva, the wind-wheels, water-wheels, and earth-wheels of every world. Yet even after boundless kalpas of cultivation, Gopā admits, in the hymn's own final line, that a bodhisattva's own bodily karma, mind, and wisdom remain beyond what she has been able to know.
Five Stanzas: Neither Craving the Pure Nor Hating the Defiled
「見彼諸佛剎， 或淨或垢穢，
於淨不貪樂， 於穢不憎惡。
普見諸世界， 如來坐道場，
一念見諸佛， 不思議光海。
亦見佛眷屬， 一切三摩提，
一切諸法門， 皆悉無障礙。
又知彼業行， 隨其所住地，
及諸大願海， 一念悉了知。
我於菩薩身， 見諸菩薩等，
無量劫修行， 一切莫能測。」
"Beholding those buddha-lands, whether pure or defiled, I neither craved pleasure in the pure, nor felt hatred toward the defiled.
Universally beholding every world, the tathāgatas seated at the bodhimaṇḍa, within a single thought-moment I beheld the inconceivable ocean of light of every buddha.
I also beheld the buddha's own retinue, every samādhi, and every Dharma-gate, all of them entirely unobstructed.
I further knew their own karma and conduct, according to whatever ground they abided in, and the whole ocean of their own great vows, understanding it all within a single thought-moment.
Within a bodhisattva's own body, I beheld every bodhisattva likewise, cultivating throughout boundless kalpas — none of it could ever be fathomed."
"Neither craved pleasure in the pure, nor felt hatred toward the defiled" names, in a single line, the equanimity this entire pilgrimage has been cultivating in Sudhana himself since its opening pages — an even regard that does not depend on the object beheld being agreeable. The final stanza of this run turns the whole vision back toward its own limit: even having beheld all of this, boundless kalpas of a bodhisattva's own cultivation remain, in Gopā's own words, something "none of it could ever be fathomed."
Four Stanzas: Every Wheel of Every World, and a Limit Still Held
「一一毛孔見， 阿僧祇劫剎，
風輪水火輪， 一切大地輪。
種種所依住， 世界形類相，
諸妙莊嚴具， 眾生身差別。
又見世界海， 一切諸世界，
諸佛出興世， 說法度眾生。
我於無量劫， 修習菩薩行，
猶不知菩薩， 身業心智慧。」
"Within each and every pore, I beheld asaṃkhyeya kalpas of lands, wind-wheels, water- and fire-wheels, and every great earth-wheel.
Every kind of support and abode, the forms and kinds of every world, every sublime adornment, and the distinctions among sentient beings' own bodies.
I further beheld, throughout the whole ocean of worlds, every world, every buddha arising in the world, expounding the Dharma and delivering sentient beings.
Throughout boundless kalpas, I have cultivated the bodhisattva's own practice, and yet I still do not know a bodhisattva's own bodily karma, mind, and wisdom."
The hymn's final line restates, almost verbatim, the same admission Gopā made in prose several parts earlier — that despite everything catalogued across this immense testimony, a bodhisattva's "own bodily karma, mind, and wisdom" remain unknown to her. This is not a failure of the teaching but its own deliberate closing gesture, the same humility this collection's deepest teachers repeat: the vastness of what has been shown only measures the vastness of what still lies beyond it.
Teacher 40 Complete — On to Lady Māyā
Teacher 40, Gopā, is now complete across fifty parts (138–187) — the tenth and final of the Ten Grounds, the Ground of the Dharma-Cloud, entirely traversed. Sudhana's whole ascent through the Ten Grounds, begun many teachers ago, closes here. Part 188 opens the next stage of the pilgrimage with Sudhana's farewell and his approach to Lady Māyā, still within this same city of Kapilavastu.
Continue to Part 188 →