Taking On the Very Color of the Light
The catalogue continues: it is like a wheel-turning king who has a mani-jewel that universally illuminates his palace, dispelling every darkness; a bodhisattva-mahāsattva is likewise, having obtained the mani-jewel of the mind of bodhi, able to universally illuminate the palaces of every one of the five destinies, dispelling every darkness there. It is like a person touched by the light of an indigo-colored jewel, who at once takes on that very color; a bodhisattva-mahāsattva is likewise, having obtained the indigo-colored jewel-light of the mind of bodhi, contemplating every dharma and dedicating every root of goodness, taking on the very color of all-knowing wisdom.
Illuminating Every Palace of the Five Destinies
「善男子！譬如轉輪王有摩尼寶，普照宮殿滅一切闇。菩薩摩訶薩亦復如是，得菩提心摩尼寶者，悉能普照五趣宮殿，滅一切闇。
「善男子！譬如有人為紺色寶光明所觸，即同其色。菩薩摩訶薩亦復如是，得菩提心紺色寶光，觀察諸法，善根迴向，同薩婆若色。
"Good man, it is like a wheel-turning king who has a mani-jewel that universally illuminates his own palace, dispelling every darkness. A bodhisattva-mahāsattva is likewise: having obtained the mani-jewel of the mind of bodhi, he is able to universally illuminate the palaces of every one of the five destinies, dispelling every darkness there.
"Good man, it is like a person touched by the light of an indigo-colored jewel, who at once takes on that very color. A bodhisattva-mahāsattva is likewise: having obtained the indigo-colored jewel-light of the mind of bodhi, and contemplating every dharma while dedicating every root of goodness, he takes on the very color of all-knowing wisdom."
"The five destinies" (五趣: the hell-realms, hungry ghosts, animals, humans, and gods — the standard fivefold division of saṃsāric rebirth used where a sixth category for asuras is not separately counted) receives here a spatial image rarely applied to it elsewhere in the catalogue — not liberation from the five destinies but illumination of their very "palaces," suggesting bodhicitta's light reaches into every corner of saṃsāra rather than only rescuing beings out of it. The indigo-jewel simile closing this stretch is unusually abstract even by this catalogue's standard: "taking on the color of all-knowing wisdom" (同薩婆若色) describes not a specific power or protection but a kind of ontological transformation, becoming of the same nature as omniscience itself through sustained contemplation — Fazang treats this as one of the catalogue's clearest statements that bodhicitta's ultimate effect is not merely to protect or provide, but to gradually identify the practitioner's own nature with buddhahood.
Part 351 Complete
This stretch of jewel similes concludes. Part 352 continues into fresh territory: the lapis lazuli gem that remains unstained even after ages spent in filth, and the stainless radiant mani that brings forth every other jewel.
Continue to Part 352 →