The Dwelling of One Who Abides in Every Merit
This entire extended reflection reaches its close: the eightfold path cultivated without a permanent escape from birth-and-death, the five aggregates contemplated without their own final extinguishing, every vehicle studied without ever abandoning the Great Vehicle. Sudhana concludes: such is this tower — the dwelling-place of one who abides in every merit.
"The Dwelling-Place of One Who Abides in Every Merit"
「……修八正道，而不永出生死難者；超凡夫地，而不墮於二乘地者；觀陰熾然，而不永滅於五陰者；離四魔道，而不永捨諸魔覺者；捨六入障，而現受者；觀真如相，而不證於實際法者；現學一切乘，而不捨離摩訶衍者。如此樓觀，住一切功德者之所住處。」」
"… of one who cultivates the eightfold noble path, yet does not permanently escape the hardship of birth-and-death; of one who transcends the ordinary being's own ground, yet does not fall into the ground of the two vehicles; of one who contemplates the blazing aggregates, yet does not permanently extinguish the five aggregates; of one who transcends the four paths of māra, yet does not permanently abandon every māra's own awakening; of one who abandons the obstruction of the six sense-entries, yet manifests receiving them; of one who contemplates the mark of suchness, yet does not realize the dharma of the reality-limit for oneself alone; of one who presently studies every vehicle, yet never abandons the Great Vehicle. Such is this tower — the dwelling-place of one who abides in every merit."
The closing sentence, "the dwelling-place of one who abides in every merit," gathers every single epithet across this entire reflection — nearly fifty distinct qualities spanning nine parts — into one final, comprehensive name. Fazang reads this whole reflection as Sudhana's own culminating demonstration of everything the pilgrimage has taught him so far: he no longer needs a teacher to explain each of these paradoxical unities one at a time, as earlier teachers once did for him — he now generates the entire sequence himself, standing silently before a tower whose door he has not yet crossed.
Part 288 Complete — Sudhana's Extended Reflection Concludes
This entire reflection on the tower's own significance, spanning nine parts, is now complete in full. Part 289 turns to what comes next: Sudhana breaking into an extended verse hymn of his own, celebrating the tower and Maitreya in one of the most celebrated passages of the whole sūtra.
Continue to Part 289 →