One Difficult to See, Equanimous Before the World
Maitreya's hymn continues: welcome, one difficult to see, child of the merit of every buddha, who increases every root of goodness and enters deeply into boundless states; welcome, one who is equanimous, whose mind is unstained by gain and loss, praise and blame, or the worldly dharmas of suffering and joy; welcome, one at ease, of upright mind free of flattery and deceit, who has destroyed pride, anger, and heedlessness.
Equanimous Before Gain and Loss, Praise and Blame
「善來難見者， 諸佛功德子，
增長諸善根， 深入無量境。
善來平等者， 利衰及毀譽，
苦樂世間法， 其心無所染。
善來安樂者， 直心離諂曲，
除滅於憍慢， 瞋恚放逸法。
善來最勝藏， 觀察一切眾，
長養功德藏， 其心無疲倦。
善來三世智， 圓滿諸法界，
了佛功德藏， 其心無疲倦。」
"Welcome, one difficult to see, child of the merit of every buddha,
Who increases every root of goodness, entering deeply into boundless states.
Welcome, one who is equanimous — before gain and loss, praise and blame,
The worldly dharmas of suffering and joy, whose mind is unstained by any of them.
Welcome, one at ease, whose upright mind is free of flattery and deceit,
Who has destroyed pride, anger, and the dharma of heedlessness.
Welcome, most supreme treasury, who observes every multitude of beings,
Nurturing the treasury of merit, whose mind knows no weariness.
Welcome, wisdom of the three times, who perfects every dharma-realm,
Realizing the buddha's own treasury of merit, whose mind knows no weariness."
The pairing of "equanimous... before gain and loss, praise and blame" with "the worldly dharmas of suffering and joy" names, in compressed form, what tradition elsewhere expands into the eight worldly dharmas (aṣṭalokadharma: gain and loss, defamation and praise, censure and honor, suffering and joy) — Fazang reads Maitreya's invocation of this exact list as a deliberate credential, since equanimity before precisely these eight is a standard measure of a bodhisattva's own maturity. The refrain "whose mind knows no weariness," repeated at the close of two consecutive stanzas here, echoes language Maitreya has already used of himself and of Sudhana's own long pilgrimage — an indication, per Fazang, that tirelessness itself is being offered as the single quality that most defines the entire fifty-one-teacher journey.
Part 324 In Progress
Maitreya's hymn of welcome continues. Part 325 turns to Sudhana as one who has come like a wondrous lotus, increasing the cloud of renown, and one whose wisdom-net comprehends the inconceivable.
Continue to Part 325 →