Equal to the Merit of Every Buddha and Bodhisattva
The great catalogue reaches its final similes: pure water, its nature pure and free of turbidity; jambu-river gold, beside which conditioned goodness looks like a heap of soot; the king of mountains, rising above every world; a refuge, rescuing every sentient being; the true meaning, far removed from every falsehood; an unsurpassed jewel, satisfying all; a great assembly, delighting all according to their need; an elder, without equal among all beings; a treasury, upholding every buddha-dharma; Indra's own net, gathering in every asura of the afflictions; the Vairambha wind, shaking and transforming the minds of beings; Indra's own fire, burning away every habitual affliction; and an unsurpassed stūpa, worthy of every god and human's offering. "Child of the Buddha," Maitreya declares, "the mind of bodhi accomplishes boundless merit such as this, entirely equal to the merit of every buddha and bodhisattva. Why is this so? Because from the mind of bodhi, every bodhisattva practice is born, and the buddhas of the three times attain the most correct awakening."
From Every Bodhisattva Practice, the Buddhas of the Three Times Attain Awakening
菩提心者，則為淨水，其性清淨，無垢濁故；菩提心者，則為閻浮檀金，令有為善，如聚墨故；菩提心者，則為山王，超出一切諸世間故；菩提心者，則為歸依，悉能救護諸眾生故；菩提心者，則為實義，遠離一切虛妄法故；菩提心者，則為無上寶，悉令歡喜，得滿足故；菩提心者，則為大會，隨彼所須，令充悅故；菩提心者，則為尊長，於諸眾生無倫匹故；菩提心者，則為寶藏，受持一切諸佛法故；菩提心者，則為因陀羅網，攝諸煩惱阿修羅故；菩提心者，則為毘樓那風，震動教化眾生心故；菩提心者，則為因陀羅火，焚燒一切煩惱習故；菩提心者，則為無上塔，一切天人應供養故。佛子！菩提心者，如是無量功德成就，悉與一切諸佛菩薩諸功德等。何以故？因菩提心，出生一切諸菩薩行，三世諸佛成正覺故。
"…the mind of bodhi is pure water, for its nature is pure, free of defilement and turbidity; the mind of bodhi is jambu-river gold, for it makes conditioned goodness appear, by comparison, like a heap of soot; the mind of bodhi is the king of mountains, for it rises above every world; the mind of bodhi is a refuge, for it is able to rescue and protect every sentient being; the mind of bodhi is the true meaning, for it is far removed from every false and empty dharma; the mind of bodhi is an unsurpassed jewel, for it causes all to rejoice and be satisfied; the mind of bodhi is a great assembly, for it satisfies and delights according to what each one needs; the mind of bodhi is an elder, for among all sentient beings none can compare to it; the mind of bodhi is a treasury of jewels, for it upholds and receives every buddha-dharma; the mind of bodhi is Indra's own net, for it gathers in every asura of the afflictions; the mind of bodhi is the Vairambha wind, for it shakes and transforms the minds of sentient beings; the mind of bodhi is Indra's own fire, for it burns away every habitual tendency of the afflictions; the mind of bodhi is an unsurpassed stūpa, for every god and human should make offerings to it. Child of the Buddha, the mind of bodhi accomplishes boundless merit such as this, entirely equal to the merit of every buddha and bodhisattva. Why is this so? Because from the mind of bodhi, every bodhisattva practice is born, and the buddhas of the three times attain the most correct awakening."
The catalogue closes on "Indra's net" (因陀羅網, Indrajāla, the net of jewels hanging in Indra's palace where each jewel reflects every other) and "an unsurpassed stūpa" — moving from an image of infinite mutual reflection to an image of a single object of universal veneration, a movement Fazang reads as a final gesture toward the totality this catalogue has been building throughout: bodhicitta is at once everywhere, reflected in everything (as in Indra's net), and also one supreme, particular thing worthy of singular reverence (as a stūpa). The closing declaration itself is doctrinally decisive: it asserts flatly that bodhicitta's own merit is "entirely equal" to a buddha's, not merely a preliminary or lesser stage on the way to one — a claim Fazang treats as this catalogue's ultimate point, and the reason this teaching became one of the most quoted passages on bodhicitta in the whole of Mahāyāna literature.
Part 342 Complete — The Bodhicitta Simile Catalogue Concludes
The great catalogue of similes for the mind of bodhi, running to one hundred and seventeen images without a single one omitted, is now complete in full. Part 343 turns immediately to an entirely new and equally extensive catalogue: Maitreya begins comparing the mind of bodhi to a series of medicines and jewels, each drawn from ordinary experience and paired with its precise spiritual counterpart.
Continue to Part 343 →