Mother to the Tathāgata Vairocana
Māyā answers Sudhana by naming her own liberation — the Dharma-gate of the Vow's Own Wisdom-Illusion — and reveals what it made possible: becoming mother to the tathāgata Vairocana, giving birth to Prince Siddhārtha from her own right side, at Kapilavastu, in the palace of King Śuddhodana.
The Dharma-Gate of the Vow's Own Wisdom-Illusion
「答言：「佛子！我已成就大願智幻法門。得此法門故，為盧舍那如來母。於此閻浮提迦毘羅城淨飯王宮，從右脇生悉達太子，顯現不可思議自在神力。」
She answered, saying: "Child of the Buddha, I have accomplished only the Dharma-gate of the Vow's Own Wisdom-Illusion. Because I attained this Dharma-gate, I became the mother of the tathāgata Vairocana. Within this Jambudvīpa, in the palace of King Śuddhodana at the city of Kapilavastu, I gave birth to Prince Siddhārtha from my own right side, manifesting inconceivable, sovereign, spiritual power."
Māyā's own naming of her liberation — the Dharma-gate of the Vow's Own Wisdom-Illusion (大願智幻法門) — folds together the two threads that have run through this entire teacher's episode: 大願 (great vow), matching her own stated role as mother, and 智幻 (wisdom-illusion), matching the whole preceding catalogue of form-bodies each declared illusion-like even while fully functional. This is the first place in the account where Vairocana and Siddhārtha appear side by side as one and the same figure named twice — once by his cosmic buddha-name, once by his given human name — collapsing, in a single sentence, the distance this whole collection has traveled between the historical Buddha and the cosmic Buddha it has been describing throughout.
Part 206 In Progress
Māyā's own naming and the birth of Siddhārtha are now told. Part 207 turns to the bodhisattva's own descent from Tuṣita Heaven — a great light sent forth from every pore, entering the crown of Māyā's own head, revealing his entire future life within her body before it has even happened.
Continue to Part 207 →