The Bodhimaṇḍa of No Abiding Place
Worthy Supreme names her liberation and describes an inexhaustible samādhi — not that the samādhi itself has an end or lacks one, but that it endlessly gives rise to the omniscient faculty of each of the six senses, and to four further boundless capacities of wisdom, power, merit, and light.
Ten Faculties, Each Inexhaustible
「賢勝答言：「善男子！我得菩薩法門，名無依處道場，既自開解復為人說。又得無盡三昧，非彼三昧法有盡無盡，以能出生一切智性眼無盡故；又能出生一切智性耳無盡故；又能出生一切智性鼻無盡故；又能出生一切智性舌無盡故；又能出生一切智性身無盡故；又能出生一切智性意無盡故；又能出生一切智性種種慧明無盡故；又能出生一切智性周遍神通無盡故；又能出生一切智性如海波濤無量功德皆無盡故；又能出生一切智性遍世間光無盡故。」
Worthy Supreme answered, saying: "Good man, I have attained the bodhisattva's own Dharma-gate named the Bodhimaṇḍa of No Abiding Place, and having opened this understanding for myself, I proclaim it for others as well. I have further attained an inexhaustible samādhi — not that the dharma of that samādhi itself is finite or infinite, but rather because it is able to give rise, inexhaustibly, to the eye of the nature of omniscience; and able to give rise, inexhaustibly, to the ear of the nature of omniscience; and able to give rise, inexhaustibly, to the nose of the nature of omniscience; and able to give rise, inexhaustibly, to the tongue of the nature of omniscience; and able to give rise, inexhaustibly, to the body of the nature of omniscience; and able to give rise, inexhaustibly, to the mind of the nature of omniscience; and able to give rise, inexhaustibly, to the manifold wisdom-light of the nature of omniscience; and able to give rise, inexhaustibly, to the pervasive spiritual powers of the nature of omniscience; and able to give rise, inexhaustibly, to the boundless merit of the nature of omniscience, like the ocean's own surging waves; and able to give rise, inexhaustibly, to the light of the nature of omniscience that pervades the entire world."
The samādhi's own name, "inexhaustible," is carefully distinguished at the outset from a naive reading: it is not that the dharma of the samādhi is itself "finite or infinite" — a category that does not properly apply — but that its output, the omniscient faculty it continuously produces through each of the six senses and four further capacities, never comes to an end. Fazang reads the six-sense structure here as deliberately exhaustive: every avenue through which a being ordinarily perceives the world is shown capable of becoming, instead, an inexhaustible avenue of omniscience.
Part 235 In Progress
The full ten-item inexhaustible samādhi is now given. Part 236 turns to Worthy Supreme's own self-limitation and her referral to the next teacher.
Continue to Part 236 →