A Nāga King Raining Ambrosial Dharma
The catalogue continues: a great flowing river, carrying forward every pāramitā and the four means of gathering beings; a nāga king, universally raining the ambrosial Dharma; the life-faculty, sustaining the bodhisattva's own great compassion; ambrosia, enabling one to abide in the deathless dharma; a net, a good snare, and a hook and bait, gathering in and fishing out every being from the abyss of birth and death; agada medicine and prātimokṣa medicine, healing every evil affliction and the poison of the five desires; the great earth once more, absorbing the boundless waters of wrong thought; the wind-wheel, shattering every hindrance; a treasure-island, giving rise to the jeweled merit of the path; a lineage, nurturing every pure white dharma; a dwelling-house, holding every jeweled merit; and a great city, the dwelling-place of bodhisattvas and merchants alike.
A Net, a Snare, and a Hook Fishing Beings from the Abyss
菩提心者，則為大河流，引諸度四攝法故；菩提心者，則為龍王，悉能普雨甘露法故；菩提心者，則為命根，任持菩薩大悲法故；菩提心者，則為甘露，能令安住不死法故；菩提心者，則為羅網，網取一切所應化故；菩提心者，則為善羂，攝取一切諸眾生故；菩提心者，則為鉤餌，釣出生死淵居眾生故；菩提心者，則為阿伽陀藥，除滅一切諸惡患故；菩提心者，則為波羅提毘叉藥，悉能療治五欲毒故；菩提心者，則為大地，消滅無量邪想水故；菩提心者，則為風輪，壞散一切諸障蓋故；菩提心者，則為寶洲，出生道品功德寶故；菩提心者，則為種性，長養一切白淨法故；菩提心者，則為居宅，納受一切功德寶故；菩提心者，則為大城，菩薩、商人所住處故；
"…the mind of bodhi is a great flowing river, for it carries forward every pāramitā and the four means of gathering beings; the mind of bodhi is a nāga king, for it is able to universally rain the ambrosial Dharma; the mind of bodhi is the life-faculty, for it sustains and upholds the bodhisattva's own dharma of great compassion; the mind of bodhi is ambrosia, for it enables one to abide in the deathless dharma; the mind of bodhi is a net, for it gathers in everyone fit to be transformed; the mind of bodhi is a good snare, for it gathers in every sentient being; the mind of bodhi is a hook and bait, for it fishes out beings dwelling in the abyss of birth and death; the mind of bodhi is agada medicine, for it removes every evil affliction; the mind of bodhi is prātimokṣa medicine, for it can heal the poison of the five desires; the mind of bodhi is the great earth, for it absorbs and dissolves the boundless waters of wrong thought; the mind of bodhi is the wind-wheel, for it shatters and scatters every hindrance and obstruction; the mind of bodhi is a treasure-island, for it gives rise to the jeweled merit of the components of the path; the mind of bodhi is a lineage, for it nurtures every pure white dharma; the mind of bodhi is a dwelling-house, for it takes in and holds every jeweled merit; the mind of bodhi is a great city, for it is the dwelling-place of bodhisattvas and merchants alike;"
"Agada medicine" (阿伽陀藥, Skt. agada, a term meaning simply "medicine" or "antidote" but used in Buddhist literature as the name of a legendary universal remedy) and "prātimokṣa medicine" (波羅提毘叉藥, naming the monastic code of discipline itself as a medicine) are paired here as two distinct kinds of cure — one general and one specifically tied to the discipline a renunciant keeps. Fazang notes that "the great earth" reappears in this catalogue under a second, distinct justification (here, absorbing wrong thought, rather than earlier upholding the world) — a repetition Fazang reads not as redundancy but as evidence that a single image can support more than one facet of bodhicitta's own function, each facet drawn out through a different comparison.
Part 340 In Progress
The catalogue nears its final stretch. Part 341 turns to a golden medicine, honey, the true path, a jeweled vessel, a timely rain, and an abiding, before the catalogue reaches its concluding declaration.
Continue to Part 341 →