Sovereign for an Asaṃkhyeya of Aeons
The catalogue continues: it is like the herb named Ālamba, which, when applied to the body, makes it supple and moist, and frees the mind of every evil; a bodhisattva-mahāsattva is likewise, having obtained the Ālamba-medicine of the mind of bodhi, which nurtures every wholesome deed of body, speech, and mind. It is like a person who obtains a mindfulness-power medicine, who never forgets any Dharma once heard; a bodhisattva-mahāsattva is likewise, having obtained the mindfulness-power medicine of the mind of bodhi, who hears and upholds every buddha-dharma without forgetting it. It is like a medicine named Lotus, which grants whoever takes it a single kalpa's own lifespan; a bodhisattva-mahāsattva is likewise, having taken the lotus-medicine of the mind of bodhi, who attains sovereign freedom across an asaṃkhyeya of aeons.
The Lotus-Medicine Grants an Asaṃkhyeya of Aeons
「善男子！譬如藥草，名阿藍婆，若用塗體，身得柔澤，意離諸惡。菩薩摩訶薩亦復如是，得菩提心阿藍婆藥，長身、口、意諸善行業。
「善男子！譬如有人得念力藥，有所聞法，終不忘失。菩薩摩訶薩亦復如是，得菩提心念力藥者，聞持一切佛法不忘。
「善男子！譬如有藥，名曰蓮華，其有服者，住壽一劫。菩薩摩訶薩亦復如是，服菩提心蓮華藥者，阿僧祇劫而得自在。
"Good man, it is like the herb named Ālamba — when applied to the body, it makes the body supple and moist, and frees the mind of every evil. A bodhisattva-mahāsattva is likewise: having obtained the Ālamba-medicine of the mind of bodhi, he nurtures and grows every wholesome deed of body, speech, and mind.
"Good man, it is like a person who obtains a mindfulness-power medicine, who, having once heard the Dharma, never forgets it. A bodhisattva-mahāsattva is likewise: having obtained the mindfulness-power medicine of the mind of bodhi, he hears and upholds every buddha-dharma without ever forgetting it.
"Good man, it is like a medicine named Lotus — whoever takes it dwells for the lifespan of a single kalpa. A bodhisattva-mahāsattva is likewise: having taken the lotus-medicine of the mind of bodhi, he attains sovereign freedom across an asaṃkhyeya of aeons."
The proportion drawn in the closing simile here is deliberately extreme: an ordinary lotus-medicine grants "a single kalpa," already an immense span, while its bodhicitta counterpart grants sovereignty across "an asaṃkhyeya of aeons" (阿僧祇劫, an incalculably vast number, one of the largest numerical categories named in Buddhist cosmology) — Fazang reads this jump in scale, from one kalpa to a virtually uncountable multitude of them, as the catalogue's characteristic method of proportion: whatever an ordinary medicine or jewel can do, bodhicitta does not merely equal but multiplies past any ordinary measure.
Part 346 Complete
Three more medicine similes are now given in full. Part 347 turns to a medicine granting invisibility from every māra, and the first of the great jewel similes — a mani-jewel called Gathering Every Treasure, which never depletes the ocean it draws from.
Continue to Part 347 →