Megha the Physician, and Why the Elder Bows First
At Spell-Medicine, Sudhana finds the physician Megha teaching ten thousand from a lion-throne — who, on learning the boy has raised the mind of awakening, descends, prostrates himself, and covers Sudhana in offerings before answering a single question.
Eleven Questions, and an Elder's Prostration
爾時，善財童子一心正念法光法門，具足法力；正念諸佛，不斷三寶，歎離欲性，念善知識，普照三世；念諸大願，究竟一切法界眾生；於一切有為，心無所著；觀察一切諸法無常，悉能嚴淨一切佛剎，心無懈怠；於一切佛，及其眷屬，心無所著。漸至彼國，入呪藥城，求良醫彌伽，今在何所？
爾時，童子見彼良醫，處正法堂，論師子座，與一萬大眾前後圍遶，為說輪字莊嚴光經。時，善財童子詣醫彌伽，頭面禮足，右遶畢，退住一面，合掌白言：「大聖！我已先發阿耨多羅三藐三菩提心，而未知菩薩云何向菩薩行？云何學菩薩行？云何於生死中，常能不失菩提之心？云何得平等心而無所趣？云何逮得堅固正直之心，一切世間無能壞者？云何生大悲力而無憂惱？云何證淨普門陀羅尼力？云何生智慧光，於一切法除滅癡闇？云何證諸辯力，分別諸法真實之藏？云何得正念力，受持一切清淨法輪，未曾忘失？云何得淨趣力，於一切趣普照諸法？云何得智慧力，於一切法，得決定智，了真實義？」
爾時，良醫謂善財言：「善男子！汝已先發阿耨多羅三藐三菩提心耶？」答言：「唯然。」爾時，良醫下師子座，五體投地，敬禮善財；禮已，散妙金華，諸雜寶華、無價摩尼、勝末栴檀、無價寶衣，而以覆之；以如是等眾妙供具而供養之；敬重讚歎，作如是言：「善哉！善哉！善男子！乃能發阿耨多羅三藐三菩提心。
At that time Sudhana the Boy, single-mindedly holding in mind the Dharma-gate of the light of Dharma, fully endowed with the power of Dharma; rightly holding the buddhas in mind, never breaking with the Three Jewels, praising the nature of freedom from desire, holding spiritual friends in mind, universally illumining the three times; holding every great vow in mind, reaching the very end for every sentient being in the entire Dharma-realm; his mind attached to nothing at all amid the conditioned; contemplating how every dharma is impermanent, able to adorn and purify every buddha-land entirely, his mind never slackening; his mind attached to nothing regarding any buddha or their retinue — gradually he arrived in that land, entered the city of Spell-Medicine, and sought out where the physician Megha might now be found.
At that time the boy saw that skilled physician, seated in the Hall of True Dharma, upon a lion-throne for debate, surrounded before and behind by ten thousand in the great assembly, expounding the Sūtra of the Wheel-Letters' Adorning Light. At that time Sudhana the Boy went before the physician Megha, bowed his head to his feet, circled him to the right, and, withdrawing to stand to one side, joined his palms and said: "Great sage! I have already raised the mind of unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening, but I do not yet know how a bodhisattva turns toward the bodhisattva's own practice; how a bodhisattva learns the bodhisattva's own practice; how, amid birth and death, one is constantly able never to lose the mind of awakening; how one attains a mind of equanimity that goes nowhere in particular; how one attains a firm, upright mind that nothing in any world is able to destroy; how one gives rise to the power of great compassion without anxiety or affliction; how one realizes the power of the pure dhāraṇī of the universal gate; how one gives rise to the light of wisdom, extinguishing the darkness of delusion in every dharma; how one realizes the power of every eloquence, discerning the true treasury of every dharma; how one attains the power of right mindfulness, upholding the wheel of every pure Dharma without ever once forgetting it; how one attains the power of pure destinies, universally illumining every dharma within every destiny; and how one attains the power of wisdom, attaining resolute wisdom regarding every dharma, understanding its true meaning?"
At that time the physician said to Sudhana: "Good son, have you already raised the mind of unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening?" Sudhana answered: "I have." At that time the physician descended from his lion-throne, prostrated himself with all five limbs touching the ground, and reverently bowed to Sudhana; having bowed, he scattered marvelous golden flowers and every kind of jeweled flower, priceless maṇi jewels, the finest sandalwood powder, and priceless jeweled robes, covering him with them; with offerings such as these, marvelous in every way, he made offering to Sudhana; and, honoring and praising him, spoke thus: "Excellent, excellent, good son! You have been able to raise the mind of unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening.
Fazang treats the elder's prostration before a mere boy as needing real explanation, not as an incidental courtesy, and offers several stacked answers rather than one. First, an older reading: 顯敬法重人 — "this shows reverence for the Dharma by honoring the person who bears it"; a teacher, having already surpassed ordinary instruction, has no further need to bow before other Dharma-teachings in the way a student does, and so directs that same reverence toward the person instead. Second, his own preferred account: 以菩提心是佛因故，重其果而敬其因 — "since the mind of awakening is the very cause of buddhahood, one who honors the fruit must also honor the cause; and this honoring is itself already an enactment of the bodhisattva path, offered here as a model for others to imitate." Third, and most striking, Fazang cites a verse making the point explicit: 發心畢竟二不別，如是二心前心難。自未得度先度他，故我頂禮初發心 — "raising the mind and reaching its final end are, in the end, not different — but of these two minds, the first is the harder. One who has not yet crossed over, and yet resolves to bring others across first — it is to this that I bow, the very first raising of the mind." On this reading, Sudhana's newly raised resolve is not merely praiseworthy despite being unfinished; the fact that it comes before any of his own liberation is exactly what makes it, in a sense, harder and more remarkable than the completed fruit an elder physician like Megha has already attained.
On the sūtra Megha is found teaching, Fazang flags a manuscript problem directly: 有本錯作論字...近勘兩本梵經，皆名輪字 — "some editions mistakenly write '論' [treatise] here; having recently checked two Sanskrit source texts, both give '輪' [wheel] instead." He then gives three senses in which "wheel" applies: to the shape of its letters (as in the wheel-shaped script the Laṅkāvatāra compares to an elephant's footprint); to its content, complete and full the way a wheel is unbroken; and to its function, since a Dharma-wheel both transmits teaching and grinds down affliction, exactly as this sūtra's own later claim to be "never spoken in vain" describes.
Thirteen Similes for a Bodhisattva
「善男子！若有能發阿耨多羅三藐三菩提心者，則為守護一切佛性；嚴淨一切諸佛剎性；化眾生性；為一切眾生，說如法性；順一切業性；成滿一切菩薩行性；不斷一切諸大願性；解離欲性；智慧明淨，普照三世一切法性；建解脫性；為一切佛之所護持；一切諸佛常共護念；善能隨順一切菩薩；一切賢聖皆悉隨喜；為一切梵天恭敬禮拜；一切諸天恭敬供養；一切夜叉王之所建立；一切羅剎王恭敬供養；一切龍王而頂戴之；一切緊那羅王敬心讚歎；一切世界王皆悉敬念。彼為安慰一切眾生，滅三惡道，遠離眾難，救拔一切貧窮根本，安置天人快樂之處；遇善知識，未曾遠離；聞佛妙法，發菩提心；因淨菩提心枝，得明淨光，照菩薩道，順菩薩智，住菩薩地。善男子！當知菩薩能為一切眾生，作甚難事，難值難見；為一切眾生而作父母，莊嚴眾生；攝取一切諸天世人，除滅眾生無量苦難；守護眾生，遠離憂惱。菩薩為大風輪，安持眾生，不令墜落三惡道故；菩薩為大地，生長一切諸善根故，菩薩為大海，具足無盡功德藏故；菩薩為日，明淨慧光，普照世間滅癡闇故；菩薩為須彌山王，功德善根，最高大故；菩薩為月，令一切眾生，悉清涼故；菩薩為大將，悉能降伏一切魔故；菩薩為善丈夫，於法城中，為君王故；菩薩為火，能燒眾生諸貪愛故；菩薩為雲，雨甘露法故；菩薩為正見，悉能長養諸妙根故；菩薩為方，顯法海故；菩薩為橋，令諸眾生度生死海故。」
"Good son, whoever is able to raise the mind of unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening thereby guards the very nature of every buddha; adorns and purifies the very nature of every buddha-land; transforms the nature of sentient beings; expounds the nature of the Dharma as it truly is, for the sake of every sentient being; accords with the nature of every karma; brings every bodhisattva practice to complete fulfillment by nature; never breaks with the nature of every great vow; understands the nature of freedom from desire; his wisdom, bright and pure, universally illumines the nature of every dharma of the three times; establishes the nature of liberation; is upheld and guarded by every buddha; is constantly held in mind and guarded together by every buddha; is well able to accord with every bodhisattva; is rejoiced in by every worthy and noble one; is reverently bowed to by every Brahmā heaven; is reverently honored and made offering to by every deva; is established by every yakṣa king; is reverently honored and made offering to by every rākṣasa king; is borne upon the head by every nāga-king; is praised with a reverent mind by every kiṃnara-king; and is reverently held in mind by every king of every world. Such a one brings comfort to every sentient being, extinguishes the three evil paths, removes every peril, rescues the very root of every poverty, and establishes beings in the place of heavenly and human happiness; encountering a good spiritual friend, never once departing from them; hearing the Buddha's own sublime Dharma, raising the mind of awakening; and, through the branch of the pure mind of awakening, attaining a bright, pure light, illumining the bodhisattva path, according with the bodhisattva's own wisdom, abiding on the bodhisattva ground.
"Good son, you should know that a bodhisattva is able to accomplish, for the sake of every sentient being, what is most difficult — difficult to encounter, difficult to see; becomes father and mother to every sentient being, adorning them; gathers in every deva and every person of the world, extinguishing every sentient being's suffering and difficulty without measure; guards sentient beings, keeping them far from anxiety and affliction. A bodhisattva is the great wheel of wind, sustaining sentient beings so they do not fall into the three evil paths; a bodhisattva is the great earth, giving rise to and nurturing every root of goodness; a bodhisattva is the great ocean, fully endowed with the inexhaustible treasury of merit; a bodhisattva is the sun, its bright, pure light of wisdom universally illumining the world, extinguishing the darkness of delusion; a bodhisattva is King Sumeru, its merit and roots of goodness the very highest and greatest; a bodhisattva is the moon, bringing coolness and relief to every sentient being entirely; a bodhisattva is the great general, able to subdue every māra entirely; a bodhisattva is the good and worthy man, the very king within the city of the Dharma; a bodhisattva is fire, able to burn away every sentient being's own craving and desire; a bodhisattva is the cloud, raining down the ambrosial Dharma; a bodhisattva is right view, able to nurture every sublime faculty entirely; a bodhisattva is the very direction, revealing the ocean of the Dharma; and a bodhisattva is the bridge, causing every sentient being to cross the ocean of birth and death."
Fazang glosses "Sovereign" and "Spell-Medicine," the land and city where Sudhana finds Megha, together: 良醫於此攝化自在，故以為名 — "the physician exercises sovereign mastery in transforming beings here, and so the land is named for it" — while the city's own name works by a matched pair of similes: releasing the light of samādhi to break the darkness of ignorance is like an incantation dispelling a ghost-caused illness; teaching the wheel-letter Dharma to break other afflictions is like medicine treating other diseases. On the physician's own name, Fazang notes that "Megha" itself simply means cloud — 謂能注法雨潤益眾生故名也, "named for being able to pour down the rain of the Dharma, moistening and benefiting sentient beings" — the same cloud-imagery this collection has already met twice, in Meghaśrī's own name and now again here.
He divides the closing thirteen similes as a shift in register from the ten qualities just praised: the first ten described a state a bodhisattva possesses (性, "nature"); these thirteen instead each answer the question "what does a bodhisattva do" through direct comparison — sustaining like wind, nurturing like earth, illumining like the sun, cooling like the moon, subduing like a general, burning away craving like fire, raining the Dharma like a cloud, and finally serving as the bridge across birth and death itself. Coming immediately after an elder's prostration before an unproven boy, the sequence reads almost as its own justification: everything Megha has just done in bowing to Sudhana is what these thirteen similes describe a bodhisattva doing for every being, starting from the very moment the mind of awakening is first raised.
Every Language, and the Referral to Vimukta
爾時，良醫稱揚讚歎善財童子，及諸菩薩已，即從口中，放大光雲，普照三千大千世界；照已，時大千世界大神力天，乃至諸梵天等，悉詣良醫。時，彼良醫即為方便隨順，分別廣演顯現，說輪字莊嚴光經；時，彼大眾聞此經已，於阿耨多羅三藐三菩提得不退轉；所應作已，還昇本座，告善財言：「善男子！我已成就所言不虛法門，分別了知三千大千世界，諸天語言，諸龍、夜叉、乾闥婆、阿脩羅、迦樓羅、緊那羅、摩睺羅伽、人非人等，一切語言；如此三千大千世界，十方無量無邊，不可說不可說三千大千世界，亦復如是。善男子！我唯知此菩薩所言不虛法門，云何能說諸菩薩行？彼諸菩薩，隨順深入眾生一切相海、隨順深入眾生一切施設海、隨順深入諸名號海、隨順深入諸語言海、隨順深入諸句相續海、隨順深入諸解說句次第海、隨順深入諸解說句相續次第海、隨順深入諸如來海、隨順深入分別諸句海、隨順深入一切眾生諸語言海，逮得一切圓滿莊嚴，微妙音聲，出生分別諸文字輪。善男子！於此南方，有一國土，名曰住林；彼有長者，名曰解脫。汝詣彼問云何菩薩向菩薩道，修菩薩道，成菩薩道，思菩薩道。」
時，善財童子於良醫所，聞此法門，發深淨信心，恭敬於法，決定知見，因善知識，得薩婆若；頭面禮足，乃至辭退南行。
At that time, having praised and extolled Sudhana the Boy and every bodhisattva, the physician then released, from his own mouth, a great cloud of light, universally illumining the great trichiliocosm of three thousand worlds; having illumined it, the devas of great spiritual power throughout that great trichiliocosm, even the Brahmā heavens, all came before the physician. At that time that physician then, through skillful means according with them, discerned and broadly expounded, manifesting and revealing, the Sūtra of the Wheel-Letters' Adorning Light; at that time that assembly, having heard this sūtra, attained non-retrogression from unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening. Having accomplished what needed to be done, he returned to ascend his own throne, and said to Sudhana: "Good son, I have already accomplished the Dharma-gate called Never in Vain, discerning and understanding entirely the languages of every deva throughout the great trichiliocosm of three thousand worlds, and the languages of every nāga, yakṣa, gandharva, asura, garuḍa, kiṃnara, mahoraga, human, and non-human being; and it is exactly the same for the immeasurable, boundless great trichiliocosms of three thousand worlds beyond telling in the ten directions.
"Good son, I know only this bodhisattva's own Dharma-gate called Never in Vain — how could I possibly explain a bodhisattva's own practices? Those bodhisattvas accord with and enter deeply into the ocean of every mark of sentient beings; accord with and enter deeply into the ocean of every designation of sentient beings; accord with and enter deeply into the ocean of every name; accord with and enter deeply into the ocean of every language; accord with and enter deeply into the ocean of every phrase in succession; accord with and enter deeply into the ocean of the sequence of every explanatory phrase; accord with and enter deeply into the ocean of the sequence and succession of every explanatory phrase; accord with and enter deeply into the ocean of every tathāgata; accord with and enter deeply into the ocean of discerning every phrase; and accord with and enter deeply into the ocean of the language of every sentient being — attaining every perfect adornment, subtle and marvelous voice, giving rise to the discerning wheel of every letter.
"Good son, to the south of here there is a land called Grove-Dwelling; there is an elder there named Vimukta. Go to him and ask how a bodhisattva turns toward the bodhisattva path, cultivates the bodhisattva path, accomplishes the bodhisattva path, and reflects upon the bodhisattva path."
At that time Sudhana the Boy, having heard this Dharma-gate in the physician's presence, gave rise to a deep, pure faith, reverent toward the Dharma, his knowledge and vision resolute, and, through this good spiritual friend, attained omniscience; he bowed his head to his feet, and, having taken his leave, traveled onward to the south.
Fazang notes a small but real question the text itself raises without answering: 前既敬禮，今何故復坐 — "having already bowed in reverence earlier, why does the physician now return to sit upon his own throne?" His answer turns on Megha's shifting relationship to Sudhana within the same encounter: the earlier bow honored Sudhana's own newly raised mind before any Dharma had passed between them, at which point Megha was not yet acting as his teacher; here, about to actually transmit a teaching, he resumes the teacher's own seat, since the roles now in play are teacher and student rather than the mutual honoring of two who have each raised the mind of awakening. Fazang glosses the Dharma-gate's own Sanskrit name as "attaining the dhāraṇī of sublime sound" (得妙音陀羅尼法門) — matching exactly what the text has just shown: comprehension of every language spoken by every being in three thousand great-thousand worlds, and beyond.
Part 20 Complete
This closes Part 20, and the whole of Megha's teaching: his prostration before Sudhana's newly raised mind, the ten qualities and thirteen similes of a bodhisattva, and his mastery of every language in three thousand worlds — closing, as always, on his own disclaimer and referral, this time to the elder Vimukta at Grove-Dwelling. Part 21 turns to Sudhana's fifth teacher, and a liberation whose central image will recur throughout the rest of this pilgrimage: infinite buddha-realms contained within a single body.
Continue to Part 21 — Vimukta, and the Body That Holds Every World →