Never Once Slack, Never Once Abandoned
Across kalpas as numerous as the sands of the Ganges, Light, Lord of the Devas, has never once let go of any tathāgata. She closes by naming the limit of her own knowledge next to the bodhisattvas' own boundless practice, then refers Sudhana to a boy's own teacher, Universal Friend, at Kapilavastu.
"How Could I Possibly Know, or Possibly Speak of Their Own Merit?"
「善男子！如是憶念恒河沙劫，我常不捨諸佛如來、應、正等覺，從彼一切諸如來所，聞此無礙念清淨莊嚴菩薩解脫，受持修行，恒不間斷，隨順趣入。如是先劫所有如來，從初菩薩乃至法盡，一切神變我以淨嚴解脫之力，皆隨憶念明了現前，持而順行，曾無懈廢。善男子！我唯知此無礙念清淨解脫，如諸菩薩摩訶薩出生死夜，朗然明徹，永離癡冥，未甞惛寐，心無諸蓋，身行輕安，於諸法性清淨覺了，成就十力，開悟群生。而我云何能知、能說彼功德行？善男子！迦毘羅城有童子師，名曰遍友。汝詣彼問云何菩薩學菩薩行、修菩薩道。」
"Good man, remembering kalpas as numerous as the sands of the Ganges in this way, I have never once let go of any tathāgata, arhat, the perfectly and fully awakened one; from the presence of every one of those tathāgatas, I heard this bodhisattva's own liberation, Unobstructed-Mindfulness Pure Adornment, and I have upheld and cultivated it, without ever once breaking off, according with it and entering into it. In this way, of every tathāgata of those former kalpas, from his very first standing as a bodhisattva until the Dharma itself came to its end, every one of his spiritual transformations, through the power of this pure, adorned liberation, I hold clearly present before me through mindfulness, upholding and according with it in practice, never once growing slack or abandoning it. Good man, I know only this Unobstructed-Mindfulness Pure Liberation. As for how the great bodhisattvas emerge from the long night of birth and death, radiant and thoroughly clear, forever free of the darkness of delusion, never once drowsy or benighted, their minds free of every hindrance, their bodily conduct light and at ease, awakened with purity to the nature of every dharma, accomplishing the ten powers, and awakening the multitude of beings — how could I possibly know, or possibly speak of, the practice of their own merit and virtue? Good man, at the city of Kapilavastu there is a boy's own teacher named Universal Friend. Go to him and ask how a bodhisattva learns the bodhisattva's own practice and cultivates the bodhisattva's own path."
The self-limitation formula returns in its familiar shape, but its content here is unusually precise: what she says she cannot know is not some vague "higher attainment" but a specific list — freedom from the darkness of delusion, freedom from drowsiness, a mind free of every hindrance, bodily ease, purity of insight into the nature of every dharma, the ten powers. Fazang reads lists like this as the text's own way of naming, concretely, exactly what distinguishes a bodhisattva mahāsattva's own realization from even a liberation as vast as the one she has just described — precision about the boundary, not mere modesty, is the point.
Part 223 Complete — Teacher 42 Concludes
Light, Lord of the Devas's own account is now finished in full, and teacher 42 is complete. Part 224 turns to Sudhana's farewell and arrival at Kapilavastu to meet Universal Friend, teacher 43 — a very brief episode that refers Sudhana onward again almost immediately.
Continue to Part 224 →