Ten Questions for Maitreya
The children give Sudhana ten precise questions to bring before Maitreya — on purifying the path, the precepts, the mind, raising vows, accumulating merit, the grounds, the pāramitās, the forbearances, meritorious conduct, and drawing near a good friend. They then explain why he, uniquely among every teacher so far, can answer in full: he has consummated every bodhisattva practice and received prediction from every buddha.
Ten Questions, and Why Only He Can Answer
「……汝詣彼問云何菩薩淨菩薩道、云何菩薩學菩薩戒、云何菩薩淨菩薩心、云何菩薩發諸大願、云何菩薩積功德具、云何菩薩得菩薩地、云何菩薩滿足一切諸波羅蜜、云何菩薩得諸忍法、云何菩薩住功德行、云何菩薩近善知識；何以故？彼菩薩摩訶薩，究竟一切諸菩薩行，分別了知眾生心行，以巧便智而教化之；滿足一切諸波羅蜜，住菩薩地，得諸忍門；證於菩薩離生之法，於諸佛所而得授記；於菩薩法，自在遊戲，持諸佛持；無量諸佛，以一切智甘露正法，而灌其頂。」
"… Go to him and ask: how does a bodhisattva purify the bodhisattva's own path; how does a bodhisattva learn the bodhisattva precepts; how does a bodhisattva purify the bodhisattva mind; how does a bodhisattva raise every great vow; how does a bodhisattva accumulate the requisites of merit; how does a bodhisattva attain the bodhisattva grounds; how does a bodhisattva fulfill every one of the pāramitās; how does a bodhisattva attain every forbearance; how does a bodhisattva abide in meritorious conduct; how does a bodhisattva draw near a good friend? Why is this so? That bodhisattva mahāsattva has consummated every one of the bodhisattva's own practices, discerns and fully knows sentient beings' own mental conduct, and teaches and transforms them through skillful, expedient wisdom; he has fulfilled every one of the pāramitās, abides in the bodhisattva grounds, and has attained every gate of forbearance; he has realized the bodhisattva's own dharma of transcending birth, and has received prediction in the presence of every buddha; in the bodhisattva's own Dharma he plays freely and sovereignly, upholding what every buddha upholds; boundless buddhas anoint his own crown with the ambrosia of the true Dharma of omniscience."
Ten questions, phrased as a single unbroken sequence — path, precepts, mind, vows, merit, grounds, pāramitās, forbearances, conduct, and good friends — trace almost the entire structure of bodhisattva training this whole 53-teacher pilgrimage has been demonstrating piece by piece, now gathered into one compact interrogative list addressed to a single figure. Fazang reads Maitreya's own qualification, "received prediction in the presence of every buddha," as the decisive credential distinguishing him from every prior teacher: he is not merely far advanced but formally confirmed, by buddhas themselves, to reach buddhahood in due course — the pilgrimage is now, for the first time, approaching a teacher whose own future awakening is already an established fact rather than an aspiration.
Part 249 Complete
The ten questions and Maitreya's own qualifications are now given in full. Part 250 continues with the children's further instruction — urging Sudhana never to feel satisfied with any single attainment, however great, before he even sets out for the tower.
Continue to Part 250 →