Free of the Five Fears
Maitreya begins a second great catalogue: it is like a person who obtains a sovereign medicine, thereby freed of five fears — fire cannot burn him, water cannot carry him away, poison cannot harm him, a blade cannot wound him, smoke cannot injure him. A bodhisattva-mahāsattva is likewise: raising the mind of bodhi and gathering in all-knowing wisdom, he is freed of five fears — he is not burned by the fire of desire, not carried away by the flowing waters of any state of existence, not harmed by the vicious poison of hatred, not wounded by the sharp blade of the afflictions, and not injured by the smoke of wrong deliberation. And it is like a person who obtains a liberation medicine, who will never meet a violent death; a bodhisattva-mahāsattva is likewise — having obtained the wondrous wisdom-medicine of the mind of bodhi, he cannot be harmed by the perils of birth and death.
The Sovereign Medicine and the Liberation Medicine
「◎善男子！譬如有人得自在藥，離五恐怖。何等為五？所謂：火不能燒、水不能漂、毒不能中、刀不能傷、熏不能害。菩薩摩訶薩亦復如是，發菩提心，攝薩婆若，離五恐怖。何等為五？所謂：不為欲火所燒，諸有流水所不能漂，瞋恚惡毒所不能中，煩惱利刀所不能傷，邪覺觀煙熏不能害。
「善男子！譬如有人得解脫藥，終不橫死。菩薩摩訶薩亦復如是，得菩提心妙智慧藥，生死過患所不能害。
"Good man, it is like a person who obtains a sovereign medicine, and is thereby freed of five fears. What are the five? They are: fire cannot burn him, water cannot carry him away, poison cannot harm him, a blade cannot wound him, and smoke cannot injure him. A bodhisattva-mahāsattva is likewise: having raised the mind of bodhi and gathered in all-knowing wisdom, he is freed of five fears. What are the five? They are: he is not burned by the fire of desire, not carried away by the flowing waters of any state of existence, not harmed by the vicious poison of hatred, not wounded by the sharp blade of the afflictions, and not injured by the smoke of wrong deliberation.
"Good man, it is like a person who obtains a liberation medicine, and will never meet a violent death. A bodhisattva-mahāsattva is likewise: having obtained the wondrous wisdom-medicine of the mind of bodhi, he cannot be harmed by the perils and afflictions of birth and death."
This second catalogue shifts register from the first: rather than a single flowing list of "the mind of bodhi is like X," each simile here is developed as a small, complete comparison in its own right, an ordinary medicine or jewel described first on its own terms and only then mapped, point for point, onto its bodhicitta counterpart. Fazang reads the fivefold structure of this opening simile — five fears, five corresponding protections — as setting the pattern for the whole catalogue: precision of correspondence, not merely resemblance, is what each pairing is meant to demonstrate.
Part 343 Complete
Two similes of medicine open the second catalogue. Part 344 continues with the nāga-king medicine that repels poisonous insects, the indestructible medicine that no enemy can overcome, and the medicine that draws out every thorn.
Continue to Part 344 →