Revering Every Bodhisattva as the World-Honored One
Sudhana's own contemplation continues: beholding every tathāgata, purifying every buddha-land, supporting every Dharma-teacher, and upholding the true Dharma. Having formed this resolve, he reveres every bodhisattva he meets exactly as though beholding the World-Honored One himself.
A Mind Free of Every Worldly Notion
「……見諸如來，淨一切剎，供養法師，護持正法；成就菩薩諸淨願身，善知緣起，修習不可思議善根。作是念已，淨心信敬一切菩薩，如世尊想；修習諸根，心不顛倒，正念恭敬，離世間想；……」
"… beholding every tathāgata, purifying every buddha-land, making offerings to Dharma-teachers, and upholding the true Dharma; accomplishing the bodhisattva's own every pure, vow-fulfilled body, skillfully knowing dependent origination, and cultivating inconceivable roots of goodness. Having formed this thought, with a pure mind he revered and had faith in every bodhisattva, regarding them exactly as the World-Honored One himself; cultivating his own faculties, his mind free of inversion, with right mindfulness and reverence, apart from every worldly notion … [the contemplation continues]"
Regarding "every bodhisattva... exactly as the World-Honored One himself" is a striking instruction for Sudhana to hold in mind precisely as he approaches the pilgrimage's most exalted teacher yet — Fazang reads this as pre-empting any temptation to treat lesser teachers as lesser: the reverence due Maitreya is, by this same logic, due every bodhisattva Sudhana has already met, from Lady Māyā down to the paired children who have just spoken.
Part 273 In Progress
Sudhana's own reverent contemplation continues. Part 274 continues with boundless transformation-bodies, wisdom reaching every place, and his unobstructed wisdom-eye beholding the entire dharma-realm.
Continue to Part 274 →