An Ancient Kalpa Named Pure Light
Sudhana asks how long Māyā has held this Dharma-gate. Her answer reaches back to a kalpa named Pure Light, a world named Sublime-Virtue-Sumeru-King, a bodhisattva named Stainless-Banner about to attain awakening in a bodhimaṇḍa named Moon-Light — and a māra named Vajra-Light who arrives with his own retinue to destroy the bodhisattva's practice.
A Māra Arrives to Destroy the Bodhisattva's Practice
「爾時，善財白言：「大聖！得此法門其已久如？」答言：「佛子！乃往古世，過不可思議非諸菩薩通明境界不可數劫，有劫名淨光明，有世界名曰妙德須彌山王。其土清淨無諸垢穢，眾寶合成種種嚴飾，見者無厭。彼世界中有千億四天下，諸四天下中有一四天下，彼四天下中有八十億大王之都，彼王都中有一王都，名曰智幢，有轉輪王名曰勇盛。彼王都北有一道場，名月光明，其道場神名慈妙德。時，有菩薩名離垢幢，坐於道場，臨成正覺時，有惡魔名金剛光明，與眷屬俱，至菩薩所，壞其道行；時，勇盛王具足菩薩神力自在，化作兵眾，多彼魔軍而摧伏之；……」
Then Sudhana said: "Great sage, how long have you held this Dharma-gate?" She answered, saying: "Child of the Buddha, in ages long past, beyond inconceivable, uncountable kalpas that lie beyond even the range of bodhisattvas' own penetrating wisdom, there was a kalpa named Pure Light, and a world named Sublime-Virtue-Sumeru-King. That land was pure, free of every defilement, formed entirely of every kind of jewel and adorned in every way, so that whoever beheld it was never wearied. Within that world there were a thousand koṭis of fourfold continents; among those fourfold continents there was one fourfold continent, and within that fourfold continent there were eighty koṭis of great kings' royal capitals; among those royal capitals there was one royal capital named Wisdom-Banner, whose wheel-turning king was named Valiant-and-Abundant. To the north of that royal capital there was a bodhimaṇḍa named Moon-Light, and the deity of that bodhimaṇḍa was named Kind-Sublime-Virtue. At that time there was a bodhisattva named Stainless-Banner, seated within the bodhimaṇḍa, on the very verge of attaining the most correct awakening, when an evil māra named Vajra-Light, together with his own retinue, arrived at the bodhisattva's place, seeking to destroy his practice of the path; at that time, King Valiant-and-Abundant, endowed with a bodhisattva's own sovereign spiritual power, manifested an army, one greater than that māra's own host, and subdued it …"
This account reaches back past even the Bhadrakalpa's own 178 buddhas just named, to a kalpa the text places beyond the reach of ordinary bodhisattva wisdom to survey — establishing, before the story itself unfolds, that whatever vow is about to be made here precedes and grounds everything already recounted. The māra's assault at the very moment of awakening follows a pattern this collection has met before: awakening is never undefended, and a wheel-turning king's own martial power here serves the bodhisattva's path directly, rather than standing apart from it.
Part 217 In Progress
The māra's army is now defeated. Part 218 turns to the bodhisattva's own awakening, and to the vow the bodhimaṇḍa's own deity makes upon seeing it.
Continue to Part 218 →