Never Regarding It as Suffering
Maitreya closes this stretch of praise by turning from Sudhana's own outward rescues to his inner disposition: never abandoning the pure quest for awakening, drinking the rain of the true Dharma without ever feeling satisfied, and, upon seeing a good friend, delighting without ever tiring — serving and attending to whatever is needed, according with their teaching, and never regarding any of it as suffering.
Drinking the Rain of the True Dharma Without Ever Feeling Satisfied
「……救護一切眾生之類，不捨清淨，求菩提心，積集大乘，心無疲倦，飲正法雨，而無厭足；勇猛究竟諸功德事，淨諸法門，修菩薩行，心無疲懈；不退方便，出生大願，見善知識，心樂無厭；奉給所為，隨順其教，不以為苦。」
"… He rescues and protects every kind of sentient being, never abandoning the pure quest for the mind of awakening; he accumulates the Great Vehicle, his mind never wearied, drinking the rain of the true Dharma without ever feeling satisfied; valiantly consummating every meritorious deed, purifying every Dharma-gate, cultivating the bodhisattva's own practice, his mind never wearied or slack; his skillful means never retrogressing, he gives rise to great vows, and, upon seeing a good friend, his mind delights without ever tiring; he serves and attends to whatever is needed, according with their teaching, and never regards it as suffering."
"Drinking the rain of the true Dharma without ever feeling satisfied" closes this entire catalogue on the same note of insatiability that has run through Sudhana's own pilgrimage since the very warning against complacency given by the children who referred him here — a rain that could easily overwhelm is instead something he can never get enough of. Fazang reads the closing phrase, "never regards it as suffering," as this whole praise's own final measure: every hardship implicit in seeking out over a hundred good friends is, in Sudhana's own experience, not hardship at all.
Part 307 Complete
This stretch of Maitreya's own praise is now complete. Part 308 turns to what he says next — how rare it is even to raise the mind of awakening at all, let alone to seek it as diligently and selflessly as Sudhana has.
Continue to Part 308 →