A Boy and a Girl Together
Sudhana bows farewell to Śibi Supreme and journeys south to the city of Sublime-Intent Flower-Gate, arriving before the pilgrimage's first paired teacher: a boy named Born of Virtue and a girl named Possessing Virtue, together, to ask his question.
Born of Virtue and Possessing Virtue
「時，善財童子於法尊重，禮婆羅門足，遶無數匝，戀仰而去。漸次南行，至於彼城，見童子、童女，頂禮其足。圍遶畢已，於前合掌而作是言：「聖者！我已先發阿耨多羅三藐三菩提心，而未知菩薩云何學菩薩行、修菩薩道？唯願慈哀為我宣說！」」
At that time, Sudhana, holding the Dharma in reverence, bowed at the brahmin's own feet, circled him countless times in longing reverence, and took his leave. Journeying gradually south, he arrived at that city, and saw the boy and the girl; he bowed his head at their feet. Having finished circling them, he stood before them with palms joined and spoke these words: "Noble ones, I have already raised the mind set on unsurpassed, perfect awakening, but I do not yet know how a bodhisattva learns the bodhisattva's own practice and cultivates the bodhisattva's own path. I ask only that you, in your compassion, proclaim it for me!"
The question itself is addressed to both children at once, in the plural "noble ones" (聖者, here doing double duty), and their answer will likewise come jointly — the first time in this collection two distinct teachers share a single liberation and a single voice rather than each holding a separate one. Fazang reads a boy and a girl teaching as one pair as itself a teaching: the bodhisattva's own path is not gendered, and the pairing anticipates the boy-and-girl pattern this pilgrimage will use again for at least one teacher still to come.
Part 244 Complete — Teacher 50 Begins
Sudhana has arrived before both children and asked his question. Part 245 begins their shared answer: their liberation, Dwelling in Illusion, and its rich, ten-item catalogue of everything in existence as itself illusion-dwelling.
Continue to Part 245 →