A Womb Neither Enlarged Nor Cramped
Every deva-king of every heaven — the Four Heavenly Kings, Trāyastriṃśa, down to Brahmā King himself — enters Māyā's own womb to pay homage to the bodhisattva, hear the Dharma, and make offerings. Her own womb holds every one of these assemblies, and yet is neither enlarged nor cramped by any of it. She closes this entire vision naming its single cause.
Every Deva-King Enters, and Nothing Changes
「又念念中十方一切世界，一切佛所不可說不可說菩薩眷屬，及四天王、忉利天王乃至梵王，如是等一切天王皆入我胎欲見菩薩，恭敬、供養、聽受正法，悉皆容受如是等眾，而胎不廣大亦不迫迮，於此世界示現如是神變，受生十方一切閻浮提中亦復如是，亦不分身種種現化，隨其所應為菩薩母。何以故？修此大願智幻法門故。」
"Further, within every single thought-moment, unspeakable, unspeakable retinues of bodhisattvas from every buddha's own presence throughout every world of the ten directions, and the Four Heavenly Kings, the king of Trāyastriṃśa Heaven, down to Brahmā King — every deva-king such as these — all entered my own womb, wishing to behold the bodhisattva, reverencing him, making offerings, and listening to receive the true Dharma; I was able to hold every one of these assemblies, and yet my womb was neither enlarged nor cramped by it. Manifesting spiritual transformations such as these within this world, I also, in just the same way, take rebirth within every Jambudvīpa of the ten directions, and yet do not divide my own body into separate manifestations, according with whatever is fitting, becoming a mother to the bodhisattva. Why is this so? Because I cultivate this very Dharma-gate of the Vow's Own Wisdom-Illusion."
This closes the single most celebrated passage in Māyā's own account, and its final sentence supplies the explanation the whole vision has been building toward: none of this — the vastness equal to empty space, the bodhisattvas walking a trichiliocosm per step, every deva-king entering without crowding — happens by some separate miracle layered onto an ordinary body. It happens, in Māyā's own words, simply "because I cultivate this very Dharma-gate of the Vow's Own Wisdom-Illusion" — the same liberation she named at this whole teaching's opening, now shown in its fullest possible expression. And she adds one detail easy to miss amid the cosmic scale: she does this "within every Jambudvīpa of the ten directions" simultaneously, "yet do not divide my own body into separate manifestations" — one body, everywhere at once, without multiplication.
Part 210 In Progress
The famous cosmic-womb vision is now complete in full. Part 211 turns to Māyā naming herself directly as mother to Vairocana, and opening the celebrated list of every buddha of the Bhadrakalpa she has been mother to in turn.
Continue to Part 211 →