Endowed with Every Buddha-Dharma
The catalogue continues: a golden medicine, dissolving the defilement of the afflictions; fragrant honey, endowed with the flavor of every merit; the true path, causing entry into the city of all-knowing wisdom; a jeweled vessel, holding every pure white dharma; a timely rain, removing the dust of every affliction; an abiding, giving rise to the very abode in which a bodhisattva dwells; a life-sustaining conduct, not grasping at the liberations of the śrāvaka; a lapis lazuli gem, its nature pure and wondrous; an indranīla gem, surpassing the wisdom of every śrāvaka and pratyekabuddha; and the Dharma-drum, awakening beings long asleep in the afflictions.
The Dharma-Drum Awakens Beings Long Asleep in the Afflictions
菩提心者，則為金藥，消煩惱垢，令清淨故；菩提心者，則為香蜜，具足一切功德味故；菩提心者，則為正道，令入一切智城故；菩提心者，則為寶器，容受一切白淨法故；菩提心者，則為時澤，悉能除滅煩惱塵故；菩提心者，則為安住，出生菩薩之所住故；菩提心者，則為壽行，不取聲聞諸解脫故；菩提心者，則為瑠璃寶，其性淨妙不受垢故；菩提心者，則為伊尼羅寶，勝諸聲聞、緣覺智故；菩提心者，則為法鼓，覺悟煩惱長寢眾生故；
"…the mind of bodhi is a golden medicine, for it dissolves the defilement of the afflictions, making all pure; the mind of bodhi is fragrant honey, for it is endowed with the flavor of every merit; the mind of bodhi is the true path, for it causes one to enter the city of all-knowing wisdom; the mind of bodhi is a jeweled vessel, for it holds every pure white dharma; the mind of bodhi is a timely rain, for it is able to remove the dust of every affliction; the mind of bodhi is an abiding, for it gives rise to the very abode in which a bodhisattva dwells; the mind of bodhi is a life-sustaining conduct, for it does not grasp at the various liberations of the śrāvaka; the mind of bodhi is a lapis lazuli gem, for its nature is pure and wondrous, taking on no defilement; the mind of bodhi is an indranīla gem, for it surpasses the wisdom of every śrāvaka and pratyekabuddha; the mind of bodhi is the Dharma-drum, for it awakens beings long asleep in the afflictions;"
"Indranīla" (伊尼羅寶, a transliteration of the Sanskrit for a deep-blue gem, generally identified with sapphire) joins lapis lazuli here as a second blue gem in close succession — Fazang reads the pairing as building toward the still more extensive jewel-simile catalogue that will follow this one, where sapphire-blue light recurs as an image for a mind whose own color-quality can be transmitted to whatever comes into contact with it. "The Dharma-drum" evokes the standard image of a drum sounded to summon an assembly or announce a teaching — its "awakening" function here is not metaphorical sleep alone but the deep dormancy of afflictions that persist beneath ordinary awareness, the very proclivities named several similes earlier in this same catalogue.
Part 341 In Progress
The catalogue approaches its final similes. Part 342 completes it with pure water, jambu-river gold, the king of mountains, a refuge, the true meaning, an unsurpassed jewel, a great assembly, an elder, a treasury, Indra's net and fire, and an unsurpassed stūpa — before Maitreya's closing declaration on the mind of bodhi's own boundless merit.
Continue to Part 342 →