Never Cutting Off the Buddha-Lineage
Sudhana bows before Maitreya with his head and face, joins his palms with a single mind, and asks his familiar question once more — now elaborated with everything he hopes such learning will accomplish: liberating sentient beings, comforting devas and humans, never betraying his own original mind, never violating the Three Jewels, and never cutting off the buddha-lineage.
"I Ask Only That You Proclaim All Such Matters as These"
「爾時，善財頭面敬禮，一心合掌，白言：「大聖！云何菩薩學菩薩行、修菩薩道？既修學已，具一切佛法，隨所請眾生，悉令度脫，成就大願；究竟一切菩薩所行，安慰一切諸天世人；不負本心，不違三寶，不欺天人，不罔眾生，不斷佛種，持菩薩家，如來正法；如是等事，唯願演說。」」
At that time, Sudhana bowed his head and face in reverence, joined his palms with a single mind, and said: "Great sage, how does a bodhisattva learn the bodhisattva's own practice and cultivate the bodhisattva's own path? Having learned and cultivated it, may I be endowed with every buddha-dharma, and, according with whatever sentient beings request, cause them all to be liberated, accomplishing every great vow; may I consummate every one of the bodhisattva's own practices, comforting every deva and every person of the world; never betraying my own original mind, never violating the Three Jewels, never deceiving devas or humans, never failing sentient beings, never cutting off the buddha-lineage, upholding the bodhisattva's own household and the tathāgata's own true Dharma — I ask only that you proclaim all such matters as these."
This is the same question Sudhana has asked more than fifty times already across this pilgrimage, yet here it arrives fully expanded — no longer a simple request to learn the bodhisattva's own path, but an entire statement of what that learning must ultimately serve: liberated beings, comforted devas and humans, an unbroken buddha-lineage. Fazang reads this expansion as itself a measure of how far Sudhana has traveled — the same opening formula that once needed no elaboration now carries, without strain, the full weight of everything he has learned from every teacher who came before Maitreya.
Part 301 Complete
Sudhana has now asked his question before Maitreya himself. Part 302 turns to what happens next — rather than answering directly, Maitreya turns to the assembled crowd and begins an extended, glowing praise of Sudhana.
Continue to Part 302 →