A Prince and His Minister
The tenth paired reflection closes the teaching: oneself as a prince, the good friend as a minister, their teaching as the sovereign's own instruction to be studied. The children then instruct Sudhana to hold every one of these reflections with right mindfulness as he approaches any good friend, and turn to explain why.
Ten Reflections, Held with Right Mindfulness
「……又於自身，生王子想；於善知識，生大臣想；於所說法，學王教想。善男子！詣善知識，應正思念，發如是想。何以故？……」
"… Further, regard your own self as a prince; regard the good friend as a minister; regard their teaching as the sovereign's own instruction to be studied. Good man, in approaching a good friend, you should rightly reflect and raise thoughts such as these. Why is this so? … [the reason follows]"
Ten paired reflections in total, each casting the same relationship in a fresh idiom — medicine, travel, water-crossing, agriculture, wealth, study, warfare, commerce, family, and finally sovereignty — closing on political imagery that mirrors, from the opposite direction, the mother-and-child image that opened the earlier ten similes. Fazang reads the prince-and-minister pairing as a deliberate final note: even one destined for the highest station still owes their own governance to counsel received, exactly as Sudhana, already advanced through fifty teachers, still owes everything to the ones yet to come.
Part 268 Complete — The Paired Reflections Conclude
All ten paired reflections are now complete. Part 269 turns to the reason itself — a further set of similes describing what actually happens to one who follows a good friend's own teaching, beginning with herbs emerging from a snow mountain.
Continue to Part 269 →