Bodhisattvas Walking Within Her Womb
As the bodhisattva descends, his own light extinguishes the suffering of every evil destiny and reveals sentient beings' own past-life karma. He then enters Māyā's own womb together with his entire assembly — and within it, bodhisattvas range freely, some taking the whole trichiliocosm as a single step, others taking worlds beyond counting as a single step.
A Single Step Across the Whole Trichiliocosm
「降神下時，放大光明普照世界；現自在力除滅一切諸惡道苦；以巧方便教化不可思議眾生，皆悉令知宿世業行；令諸菩薩修不放逸，無所染著，救護眾生，令悉覩見此菩薩身，現如是等諸奇特事：與大眾俱，來處我胎，彼諸菩薩於我胎內遊行自在，或以三千大千世界以為一步，或不可說不可說佛剎微塵等世界以為一步。」
"As he descended in spirit, he sent forth a great light, universally illumining the world; manifesting sovereign power, he extinguished the suffering of every evil destiny; through skillful means, he taught and transformed inconceivable sentient beings, causing them all to know their own past-life karma and conduct; he caused every bodhisattva to cultivate freedom from negligence, unattached to anything, and to rescue and protect sentient beings, causing them all to behold this bodhisattva's own body, manifesting extraordinary matters such as these: together with the great assembly, he came to dwell within my own womb, and those bodhisattvas ranged freely within my own womb, some taking the entire trichiliocosm as a single step, some taking worlds as numerous as motes of dust in unspeakable, unspeakable buddha-lands as a single step."
The bodhisattva's own light does its ordinary work of dispelling suffering and revealing past-life karma before the account turns to something the phrase "extraordinary matters" (奇特事) understates considerably: bodhisattvas actually walking within a human womb, some taking an entire trichiliocosm — a billion-world galaxy, in this cosmology's own reckoning — as the space covered by a single footstep. The scale mismatch is total and stated without qualification, the same principle of containment-without-limit this collection has used since Māyā's own Lumbinī account, now demonstrated as an actual event within the womb rather than described only as a capacity.
Part 209 In Progress
Bodhisattvas now walk freely within the womb. Part 210 turns to the final scale of this vision — every deva-king of every heaven entering to pay homage, without the womb ever becoming crowded, and Māyā's own explanation of why this is possible.
Continue to Part 210 →