This Is My Own Field of Merit
Sudhana arrives at last and bows with his five limbs before the great, lofty tower, Adorned Pure Treasury. Before ever entering it, he reflects on what it truly is: every buddha and bodhisattva, every good friend, every buddha's own stupa, the tathāgata's own image, the dwelling of the Dharma-jewel, his own parents, his own field of merit, and the domain of the entire dharma-realm.
Every Buddha's Own Stupa, His Own Parents, the Entire Dharma-Realm
「爾時，善財五體敬禮彼嚴淨藏高大樓觀，作如是念：「此是諸佛菩薩、諸善知識；是諸佛塔；是如來像，諸佛菩薩、法寶住處；是聲聞、緣覺，亦是其塔；此是眾聖、亦是父母、亦是福田；此是一切法界境界。」」
At that time, Sudhana bowed with his five limbs in reverence before that great, lofty tower, Adorned Pure Treasury, and formed this thought: "This is every buddha and bodhisattva, every good friend; this is every buddha's own stupa; this is the tathāgata's own image, the dwelling-place of every buddha and bodhisattva and of the Dharma-jewel; it is also the stupa of śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas; this is the multitude of sages, and also my own parents, and also my own field of merit; this is the domain of the entire dharma-realm."
Before Sudhana ever crosses the tower's own threshold, he names it in a rapid succession of identities that refuse to settle on any single category — monument, image, dwelling, ancestor, field of merit, the whole dharma-realm at once. Fazang reads this opening litany as the tower's own first lesson, delivered before any teaching is spoken: what Sudhana is about to enter cannot be reduced to any one of these descriptions, because it is, in some sense, all of them simultaneously.
Part 275 Complete
Sudhana's own naming of the tower is now given in full. Part 276 turns to his deepening contemplation — beholding it as equal to empty space, to the dharma-realm, and to the tathāgata himself.
Continue to Part 276 →