Gaining It Entirely, Simply Through Hearing
Maitreya tells Sudhana: beholding every true child of the Buddha in sequence, whatever each one has spoken of their own vow and practice, he has gained entirely upon simply hearing it — a feat difficult to accomplish even across boundless kalpas. For this very reason, every one of these buddha-children has shown him, in sequence, what is otherwise difficult even to hear of or see.
Whatever Each One Spoke, You Have Entirely Gained
「……清淨之信；諸妙功德，正法義者，悉得覩見一切佛子。善財！汝今獲大善利，次第覩見諸佛真子；隨彼自說，願行所得，汝從聞已，皆悉具得，如是行者，於無量劫之所難辦；以是因緣，諸佛子等，次第為說，難聞見者，汝悉聞見。……」
"… pure faith; every sublime merit, and the meaning of the true Dharma, you have been able to behold in every child of the Buddha. Sudhana! You have now gained great and excellent benefit, beholding in sequence every true child of the Buddha; whatever each one has spoken of their own attainment through vow and practice, having heard it, you have entirely gained it in full — such a practice would be difficult to accomplish even across boundless kalpas; for this very reason, every one of these buddha-children, speaking to you in sequence, has shown you what is difficult to hear of or see, and you have entirely heard and seen it … [the address continues]"
This is the pilgrimage's own explicit statement of a mechanism this collection has demonstrated fifty times over without ever naming it directly: that hearing each teacher's own vow and practice, genuinely and with the right mind, is itself sufficient to gain what took that teacher countless kalpas to accomplish. Fazang reads Maitreya's own confirmation here as retroactively validating every one of Sudhana's fifty prior encounters — none of them were merely instructive conversations, but each was an actual transmission of attainment, now fully disclosed by the very teacher positioned to see the pilgrimage's own cumulative result.
Part 313 In Progress
Maitreya's own confirmation continues. Part 314 continues with how hearing this Dharma has caused Sudhana to manifest sovereign power himself, protected and embraced by every buddha and bodhisattva.
Continue to Part 314 →