Boundless Medicine for Boundless Disease
The list continues through every power of wisdom, merit, and Dharma-gate, before turning to a striking image: sentient beings' own afflictions named as diseases, healed through boundless sublime Dharma-medicines and skillful means.
Every Power, Every Dharma-Gate, and a Medicine for Every Disease
「……開發無量諸大慧力；堅固無量諸欲性力；積聚無量諸功德力；長養無量諸淨智力；發起無量菩薩諸力；成滿無量諸如來力；悉分別知無量法門；普入無量諸法方面；淨修無量法門；發起無量法明，照無量法，無量諸根；了知無量諸煩惱病；積集無量諸妙法藥，以善方便，療眾結病；修習無量甘露正法；詣諸佛剎，恭敬供養無量如來；遍入菩薩大眾源底，護持無量如來正法；不譏無量眾生罪咎；……」
"… open up boundless power of great wisdom; make firm boundless power of the very nature of aspiration; accumulate boundless power of merit; nurture boundless power of pure wisdom; raise boundless bodhisattva powers; perfectly fulfill boundless tathāgata powers; discern and fully know boundless Dharma-gates; universally enter every direction of boundless dharmas; purely cultivate boundless Dharma-gates; raise boundless light of the Dharma, illumining boundless dharmas and boundless faculties; fully know sentient beings' own boundless afflictive diseases; accumulate boundless sublime Dharma-medicines, and through skillful means heal every one of their bound-up diseases; cultivate boundless ambrosial true Dharma; go to every buddha-land, reverently making offerings to boundless tathāgatas; enter fully into the very wellspring of the bodhisattva's own great assembly, upholding and guarding boundless tathāgatas' own true Dharma; never disparage boundless sentient beings' own faults and transgressions … [the list continues]"
The medical metaphor here — afflictions as "diseases" (病), the Dharma as "medicine" (藥) applied through "skillful means" like a physician's own art — recalls a figure this collection has used before for other teachers, but here it is scaled to match the list's own governing word: not one remedy for one ailment, but boundless medicines for boundless diseases. Fazang reads the final item, refusing to "disparage boundless sentient beings' own faults," as a necessary corrective placed immediately after so much talk of disease and affliction — diagnosis is never license for contempt.
Part 253 In Progress
The list continues to build toward its close. Part 254 continues with delivering sentient beings from evil destinies and gathering every kind of being without exception.
Continue to Part 254 →