Building a Bridge of Wisdom Over the River of Craving
The catalogue of Sudhana's own rescues begins in earnest: delivering beings from the mire of desire, untying the bonds of greed, toppling the banner of pride, pulling out the thorn of affliction, tearing the net of craving, extinguishing ignorance, resolving doubt, riding the great Dharma-boat across the four floods, and building a bridge of wisdom over the great river of craving.
The Mire of Desire, the Net of Craving, the River Bridged
「……出欲泥，解貪縛，除邪倒，摧慢幢，拔使刺，廢諸蓋，裂愛網，滅無明，竭有流，離諂幻，淨心垢，釋疑惑；度無智海，厭生死苦，乘大法船，濟四使流，於大愛河，造智慧橋；……」
"… delivering them from the mire of desire, untying the bonds of greed, removing every inverted wrong view, toppling the banner of pride, pulling out the thorn of affliction, discarding every hindrance, tearing apart the net of craving, extinguishing ignorance, drying up the stream of existence, freeing them from flattery and illusion, purifying the mind's own defilement, and resolving doubt and confusion; crossing the ocean of ignorance, wearied of the suffering of birth and death, riding the great Dharma-boat, ferrying them across the four floods, and building a bridge of wisdom over the great river of craving … [the catalogue continues]"
This catalogue moves through afflictions the tradition classifies with technical precision — the "banner of pride" (慢幢), the "thorn of the messenger" (使刺, a term for the underlying afflictive tendencies said to pursue beings like a summoning envoy), and the "four floods" (四流, the outflows of sense-desire, existence, view, and ignorance that carry beings along in saṃsāra) — each paired with an image of physical removal: untying, pulling out, tearing, drying. Fazang reads this list, credited entirely to Sudhana's own accomplished rescue-work rather than to Maitreya's own teaching, as itself evidence for the rarity claimed in the previous part: no ordinary practitioner performs work described in these terms.
Part 304 In Progress
The catalogue of rescues continues to build. Part 305 continues with lighting the lamp of wisdom in ignorance's own darkness, and offering the ambrosial Dharma to those facing birth, old age, and death.
Continue to Part 305 →