From the Stars to the Transcendent Dharma
Mastery of astronomy, physiognomy, the calls of birds and beasts, weather, harvest, and statecraft rounds out every worldly art — and extends without a seam into full discernment of the transcendent Dharma itself. Skilled in Every Art closes his account and refers Sudhana to an upāsikā named Worthy Supreme, at a city in the kingdom of Magadha.
Worldly Art Without Seam, Transcendent Dharma Without Doubt
「又善觀察天文地理、人相吉凶、鳥獸音聲、雲霞氣候、年穀豐儉、國土安危，如是世間所有技藝莫不該練，盡其源本。又能分別出世之法，正名辯義，觀察體相，隨順修行，智入其中，無疑無礙，無愚闇，無頑鈍，無憂惱，無沈沒，無不現證。而我云何能知、能說彼功德行？善男子！此摩竭提國有一聚落，彼中有城，名婆呾那。有優婆夷，號曰賢勝。汝詣彼問云何菩薩學菩薩行、修菩薩道。」
"They are further skilled in observing the patterns of heaven and the configurations of earth, the auspicious and inauspicious signs of physiognomy, the calls of birds and beasts, the clouds, mists, and weather, the abundance or scarcity of each year's own harvest, and the safety or peril of a nation — every worldly art such as these, there is none they have not thoroughly trained in, mastering each to its very root. They are further able to discern the transcendent Dharma as well, rightly naming it and distinguishing its meaning, contemplating its essence and its characteristics, cultivating in accordance with it, their wisdom entering fully into it — without doubt, without obstruction, without ignorance or darkness, without dullness, without vexation, without sinking, and with nothing left unrealized. How, then, could I possibly know, or possibly speak of, the practice of their own merit and virtue? Good man, in the kingdom of Magadha there is a village, and within it a city named Vātana. There is an upāsikā there named Worthy Supreme. Go to her and ask how a bodhisattva learns the bodhisattva's own practice and cultivates the bodhisattva's own path."
The closing pair of sentences moves, without any change of register, from birdsong and harvest yields directly into "the transcendent Dharma... without doubt, without obstruction... with nothing left unrealized" — the same seamlessness Fazang reads throughout this teacher's own account, in which worldly skill and transcendent realization are never treated as two separate competencies requiring two separate trainings. The referral that follows also marks a shift in the pilgrimage's own social register: after two royal or divine teachers in a row, Sudhana is now sent to an ordinary upāsikā, a laywoman, in an unremarkable city.
Part 233 Complete — Teacher 44 Concludes
Skilled in Every Art's own account — spanning the forty-two syllables and every worldly and transcendent art besides — is now complete. Part 234 turns to Sudhana's farewell, his journey to the city of Vātana in Magadha, and his arrival before the upāsikā Worthy Supreme.
Continue to Part 234 →