A Mind With No Bounded Scope
Sudhana asks how long until Relinquishment becomes a buddha. Her answer refuses the question's own premise: a bodhisattva's mind was never raised for any bounded number of beings, lands, buddhas, or vows — only for every one of them without limit — which is exactly why no bounded timeline could ever be computed for it.
Not for the Sake of Any Bounded Number
善財白言：「大聖！久如當成阿耨多羅三藐三菩提？」
「善男子！菩薩不為教化一眾生故，發菩提心；不為教化百眾生，乃至不為教化不可說不可說轉眾生故，發菩提心；廣說如阿僧祇品，不為教化一世界眾生故，發菩提心；乃至不為教化不可說不可說世界眾生故，發菩提心；不為教化閻浮提微塵等眾生故，不為教化三千大千世界微塵等眾生故，乃至不為教化不可說不可說三千大千世界微塵等眾生故，發菩提心；菩薩不為恭敬供養一如來故，發菩提心；乃至不為恭敬供養不可說不可說諸如來故，發菩提心；菩薩不為淨一剎故，發菩提心；乃至不為淨不可說不可說剎故，發菩提心；菩薩不為淨閻浮提微塵等剎故，發菩提心；乃至不為淨不可說不可說三千大千世界微塵等剎故，發菩提心；菩薩不為護持一佛法故，發菩提心；廣說如上，菩薩不為滿一願故，發菩提心；不為莊嚴一剎故、不為知一佛眷屬故、不為受持一佛法故、不為知一眾生心海故、不為度一眾生根海故、不為知一世界諸劫次第成敗故、不為知一眾生煩惱習氣故、不為斷一眾生煩惱故、不為滿一眾生行故，發菩提心；欲教化一切眾生故，發菩提心；欲恭敬供養一切諸佛、欲嚴淨一切佛剎、欲守護受持一切佛法、欲滿足一切大願、欲知一切佛眷屬、欲知一切眾生心海、欲知一切眾生心心所行、欲知一切眾生諸根輪、欲知一切世界一切劫數次第成敗、欲知一切眾生煩惱習氣、欲斷一切眾生煩惱、欲滿一切眾生行故，發菩提心。善男子！略說菩薩有如是等百萬阿僧祇方便法門，菩薩悉應究竟了知，隨順智慧；究竟修習菩薩等行，淨一切佛剎，心無倒惑。善男子！是故，我發此願，淨一切剎，我願乃滿；斷一切眾生煩惱習氣，我願乃滿。」
Sudhana said: "Great sage, how long until you will accomplish unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening?"
"Good son, a bodhisattva does not raise the mind of awakening for the sake of teaching and transforming a single sentient being; not for the sake of teaching a hundred sentient beings, even up to not for the sake of teaching sentient beings numbering an inconceivable, inexpressible number of rounds does one raise the mind of awakening. Not for the sake of teaching the sentient beings of a single world does one raise the mind of awakening; even up to not for the sake of teaching the sentient beings of worlds beyond telling upon telling does one raise the mind of awakening; not for the sake of teaching sentient beings as numerous as motes of dust in Jambudvīpa, not for the sake of teaching sentient beings as numerous as motes of dust in a great trichiliocosm, even up to not for the sake of teaching sentient beings as numerous as motes of dust in trichiliocosms beyond telling upon telling does one raise the mind of awakening. A bodhisattva does not raise the mind of awakening for the sake of reverently making offering to a single tathāgata; even up to not for the sake of reverently making offering to tathāgatas beyond telling upon telling does one raise the mind of awakening. A bodhisattva does not raise the mind of awakening for the sake of purifying a single land; even up to not for the sake of purifying lands beyond telling upon telling does one raise the mind of awakening. A bodhisattva does not raise the mind of awakening for the sake of purifying lands as numerous as motes of dust in Jambudvīpa; even up to not for the sake of purifying lands as numerous as motes of dust in trichiliocosms beyond telling upon telling does one raise the mind of awakening. A bodhisattva does not raise the mind of awakening for the sake of upholding a single buddha's own Dharma — stated broadly as above — a bodhisattva does not raise the mind of awakening for the sake of fulfilling a single vow; not for the sake of adorning a single land, not for the sake of knowing a single buddha's own retinue, not for the sake of receiving and upholding a single buddha's own Dharma, not for the sake of knowing the ocean of a single sentient being's own mind, not for the sake of delivering the ocean of a single sentient being's own faculties, not for the sake of knowing the sequence of formation and dissolution of every eon of a single world, not for the sake of knowing a single sentient being's own afflictive habitual tendencies, not for the sake of cutting off a single sentient being's own affliction, not for the sake of fulfilling a single sentient being's own practice does one raise the mind of awakening; rather, wishing to teach and transform every sentient being, one raises the mind of awakening; wishing to reverently make offering to every buddha, wishing to adorn and purify every buddha-land, wishing to guard and uphold every buddha-dharma, wishing to fulfill every great vow, wishing to know every buddha's own retinue, wishing to know the ocean of every sentient being's own mind, wishing to know every sentient being's own mind and every mental factor's own activity, wishing to know the wheel of every sentient being's own faculties, wishing to know the sequence of formation and dissolution through every eon of every world, wishing to know every sentient being's own afflictive habitual tendencies, wishing to cut off every sentient being's own affliction, wishing to fulfill every sentient being's own practice — for these reasons one raises the mind of awakening. Good son, stated briefly, a bodhisattva has skillful Dharma-gates such as these, in the hundreds of thousands beyond number; a bodhisattva should reach the very end of understanding every one of them, according with wisdom; reaching the very end of cultivating the bodhisattva's own equal practice, purifying every buddha-land, the mind free of any inverted confusion. Good son, it is for this reason that I raise this vow: only when every land is purified will my vow be fulfilled; only when the afflictive habitual tendency of every sentient being is cut off will my vow be fulfilled."
Fazang reads this entire passage as answering Sudhana's question — how long until buddhahood — by declining its terms rather than supplying a number, and divides it into two exact mirrors of each other: 一不為限齊故發心, "first, she did not raise the mind for the sake of anything bounded or limited," followed immediately by 欲教化一切…故發心, "she raised the mind precisely in order to teach and transform everything without limit" — each of the fourteen negated items in the first half (one being, a world's worth of beings, one buddha, one land, one vow, one being's mind, one being's faculties, and so on) reappearing in the second half in exactly the same order, each time transformed from "not for the sake of one" into "for the sake of every one without limit." Fazang's own note on this pairing is brief and exact: 相翻可知 — "each mirrors the other; this can be understood directly." His closing gloss on why she cannot answer Sudhana's original question at all: 無限齊故，不辨自身成佛期 — "because there is no bounded limit, she cannot determine any timeline for her own attainment of buddhahood" — not evasion, but the direct logical consequence of a vow that was never scoped to anything countable in the first place.
Fazang anticipates the objection this answer invites and states it himself before answering it: 問：若爾，豈可成耶？ — "if this is so, can she ever become a buddha at all?" His answer works on two levels at once: 菩薩闡提亦不成故，眾生須成 — "even the icchantika [a being sometimes described as incapable of awakening] does, in the end, attain it, precisely because sentient beings as a whole must eventually be liberated" — the scope is boundless, but boundlessness includes eventual completion rather than excluding it; and 亦現成故、望自證理無成不成故 — "she is also already accomplished in the present moment, and, viewed from the standpoint of the truth she has herself already realized, there is no meaningful distinction between 'having become' and 'not yet having become' at all." The question "how long" assumes a linear countdown toward a future event; Fazang's answer suggests the question itself may be asking about the wrong kind of time.
The Dharma-Gate Named, and the Same Place Once More
「大聖！此法門者，名為何等？」
「善男子！此法門名離憂安隱幢。我唯知此法門，諸大菩薩其心如海，悉能容受一切佛法，我當云何能知其行？諸菩薩心堅固正直，如須彌山；諸大菩薩，則為見藥，若有見者，除滅煩惱；諸大菩薩，則為淨日，除滅一切眾生癡闇；諸大菩薩，則為大地，悉能載持一切眾生；諸大菩薩，則為智風，長養一切眾生實義；諸大菩薩，則為自在，以淨智光普照一切；諸大菩薩，則為慶雲，隨其所應，雨甘露法；諸大菩薩，則為淨月，放諸功德光明之網；諸大菩薩，則為帝釋，悉能守護一切眾生。我當云何能知其行？善男子！於此南方，有一國土，名曰海潮；彼有仙人，名毘目多羅，善能解
"Great sage, what is this Dharma-gate called?"
"Good son, this Dharma-gate is named the Banner of Departing Sorrow, Peace and Stability. I know only this Dharma-gate — how could the great bodhisattvas, whose minds are like the ocean itself, able to hold and receive every buddha-dharma entirely, how could I possibly know their own practice? The great bodhisattvas' own minds are firm and upright, like Mount Sumeru itself; the great bodhisattvas are themselves the very medicine that heals — whoever sees them has their affliction extinguished; the great bodhisattvas are themselves the pure sun, extinguishing the folly and darkness of every sentient being; the great bodhisattvas are themselves the great earth, able to bear and sustain every sentient being entirely; the great bodhisattvas are themselves the wind of wisdom, nurturing the true meaning of every sentient being; the great bodhisattvas are themselves sovereign mastery, universally illumining everything with the light of pure wisdom; the great bodhisattvas are themselves an auspicious cloud, raining down the ambrosial Dharma according to what each requires; the great bodhisattvas are themselves the pure moon, releasing a net of the light of every merit; the great bodhisattvas are themselves Śakra, able to guard and protect every sentient being entirely. How could I possibly know their own practice? Good son, to the south of here there is a land, called Sea Tide; there is a sage there, named Supreme Voice Without Fear, skilled in understanding —"
Fazang glosses the Dharma-gate's own name in one line: 大心多劫遭苦無憂，造修正行安穩無倦，大志獨拔是故云幢 — "the great mind, through eons upon eons of encountering suffering, never once knows sorrow; cultivating true practice, it remains at peace and stable, never once weary; its great aspiration standing alone, unmatched — this is why it is called a banner." He notes the Sanskrit original renders the name as "the Banner Established Without Sorrow" (無憂建立幢) — a slightly different emphasis, standing rather than departing, but pointing at the same figure.
The next teacher Sudhana is sent to, Fazang notes, is found at a land bearing the identical name — Sea Tide — as the one Sudhana already stands in. He reads this repetition as deliberate rather than coincidental: 同前處者，表第七已上同是菩薩故 — "being the same place as before signifies that, from the seventh abode onward, every one of these teachers is likewise a bodhisattva." Where the pilgrimage's first six teachers each required their own distinct geography, the sameness of place from here signals a shift already underway: not a change of location but a change of register, the same tide reaching a little further up the same shore.
Part 26 Complete
This closes Part 26, and the whole of Relinquishment's teaching: a bodhicitta with no bounded scope at all, refusing Sudhana's own question about a timeline for buddhahood, and the Dharma-gate's own name — the Banner of Departing Sorrow, Peace and Stability. Sudhana is sent onward, to the very same Sea Tide, and to the sage Supreme Voice Without Fear.
Continue to Part 27 — Supreme Voice Without Fear →