Ten Samādhis for Beholding a Good Friend
Good Eye names a second set of ten — samādhi-gates by which a bodhisattva is able to actually behold a good and wise friend, from contemplating every direction to never departing from that friend within a single thought-moment — closing on one further gate that reveals every buddha's own equality to whoever abides within it.
Ten Samādhi-Gates for Beholding a Good and Wise Friend
「復次，佛子！菩薩成就十三昧門，則能覩見諸善知識。何等為十？所謂：淨法虛空圓滿三昧；觀察一切方海三昧；分別一切境界三昧；對見十方諸佛三昧；長養功德藏海三昧；念念不捨善知識三昧；現前見一切如來功德善知識三昧；詣善知識三昧；常得不離一切善知識三昧；恭敬供養善知識無過失三昧。善男子！菩薩成就此十三昧門，則能覩見諸善知識。又得諸善知識微妙音聲轉正法輪三昧法門；若有菩薩住此法門，悉知一切諸佛平等，常能覩見諸善知識。」
"Furthermore, Child of the Buddha, a bodhisattva who accomplishes ten samādhi-gates is thereby able to behold every good and wise friend. What are these ten? Namely: the samādhi of the pure Dharma's own perfect fullness, like empty space; the samādhi of contemplating the whole ocean of every direction; the samādhi of discerning every state; the samādhi of beholding, face to face, the buddhas of the ten directions; the samādhi of nurturing the ocean of the treasury of merit; the samādhi of never abandoning a good and wise friend within any single thought-moment; the samādhi of directly beholding the merit of every tathāgata, one's own good and wise friend; the samādhi of going to a good and wise friend; the samādhi of constantly never departing from any good and wise friend; and the samādhi of reverently making offerings to a good and wise friend, without any fault. Good man, a bodhisattva who accomplishes these ten samādhi-gates is thereby able to behold every good and wise friend. He further attains the Dharma-gate of the samādhi of every good and wise friend's own sublime, subtle voice turning the true Dharma-wheel; if there is a bodhisattva who abides in this Dharma-gate, he fully knows the equality of every buddha, and is constantly able to behold every good and wise friend."
Good Eye's two teachings together answer the two halves of the same question in sequence: first, the ten dharmas that let a bodhisattva draw near to a good and wise friend at all, and now, the ten samādhis that let that same bodhisattva actually see one once close. The closing gate — knowing "the equality of every buddha" as the very condition for constantly beholding good and wise friends — collapses the distinction this whole approach sequence has been navigating: a good friend is not a lesser stand-in for a buddha to be sought only until a buddha becomes available, but is, rightly seen, already equal to one.
Part 193 In Progress
Good Eye's full teaching is now complete. Part 194 turns to Sudhana's own question — how does one actually find and travel to where a good and wise friend dwells — and the rākṣasa king's brief, four-part answer.
Continue to Part 194 →