Maitreya Himself Arrives
Having praised the tower and Maitreya throughout an entire hymn, Sudhana stands at the tower's own gate, wishing to see Maitreya. At that moment, Maitreya himself is finally seen from a distance, approaching from outside with an immense retinue of devas, nāgas, yakṣas, gandharvas, asuras, garuḍas, kinnaras, mahoragas, humans, and non-humans — his own majesty singularly revered, universally illumining, unstained by any worldly dharma.
An Immense Retinue, Approaching from Outside
「◎爾時，善財讚歎樓觀諸菩薩已，合掌恭敬供養；禮訖，於門下立，欲見彌勒菩薩。爾時，遙見彌勒菩薩，與無量天、龍、夜叉、乾闥婆、阿修羅、迦樓羅、緊那羅、摩睺羅伽、人、非人等，大眾圍遶，從外而來。威德特尊，普照一切；不染世法，超出一切世間眾魔境界；滅諸障礙，深入如來菩薩境界；供養諸佛，等諸佛法；冠解脫繒淨妙天冠，住大智網；於諸佛所，得一切智；甘露灌頂，生諸佛法，得薩婆若。」
At that time, Sudhana, having praised the tower's own bodhisattvas, joined his palms in reverent offering; having finished bowing, he stood beneath the gate, wishing to see the bodhisattva Maitreya. At that time, he saw from a distance the bodhisattva Maitreya, together with boundless devas, nāgas, yakṣas, gandharvas, asuras, garuḍas, kinnaras, mahoragas, humans, and non-humans, surrounded by a great assembly, approaching from outside. His own majestic virtue was singularly revered, universally illumining all; unstained by any worldly dharma, he transcended the entire worldly domain of every māra; extinguishing every obstruction, he had entered deeply into the tathāgatas' and bodhisattvas' own domain; making offerings to every buddha, he was equal to every buddha's own Dharma; crowned with a pure, sublime deva-crown woven of liberation, he abided in the great net of wisdom; in the presence of every buddha, he had attained omniscience; anointed with the ambrosia of the crown, born of every buddha-dharma, he had attained the wisdom of omniscience.
Maitreya's retinue names the same eightfold assembly of non-human beings (devas, nāgas, yakṣas, gandharvas, asuras, garuḍas, kinnaras, mahoragas) that has appeared throughout this collection at moments of particular significance, here surrounding the pilgrimage's most exalted teacher yet. Fazang reads the closing description — "anointed with the ambrosia of the crown... attained the wisdom of omniscience" — as confirming in narrative what the earlier referral speech already claimed of Maitreya: he arrives not merely as a great bodhisattva but as one already formally consecrated for buddhahood, the "eldest son of every buddha" the hymn has just spent so many stanzas describing.
Part 300 Complete
Maitreya has finally arrived in person. Part 301 turns to Sudhana bowing before him and asking his own question once more, now elaborated with the full weight of everything this pilgrimage has meant to him.
Continue to Part 301 →