Revealing the Sun and Moon's Own Palaces
The catalogue continues: it is like a stainless great mani-jewel, which, dwelling within Jambudvīpa, is able to illuminate and make fully visible the sun and moon's own palaces across forty thousand yojanas; the stainless treasure-pearl of the mind of bodhi is likewise, dwelling amid birth and death, illuminating the emptiness of the Dharma-realm, and making fully visible every palace and dwelling within a buddha's own domain. It is like the mani-wind-king, able to hold within it every fragrance and flower of every kind found within the domain reached by the light of the sun and moon; the mani-wind-king of the mind of bodhi is likewise, able to hold within it every domain reached by the light of all-seed wisdom — every god and human, every śrāvaka and pratyekabuddha, every buddha and bodhisattva, and every root of goodness, whether tainted or untainted.
The Mani-Wind-King Holds Every Fragrance and Root of Goodness
「善男子！譬如離垢大摩尼寶，處閻浮提，能照四萬由旬日月宮殿，皆悉顯現。菩提之心離垢寶珠亦復如是，住於生死，照法界空，佛境宮宅，悉令顯現。
「善男子！譬如摩尼風王，能持日月所照境界，所有香華一切品類。菩提之心摩尼風王亦復如是，悉能攝持一切種智所照境界，一切天人，聲聞、緣覺，諸佛菩薩，及諸有漏、無漏善根。
"Good man, it is like a stainless great mani-jewel, which, dwelling within Jambudvīpa, is able to illuminate and make fully visible the palaces of the sun and moon across forty thousand yojanas. The stainless treasure-pearl of the mind of bodhi is likewise: dwelling amid birth and death, it illuminates the emptiness of the Dharma-realm, making fully visible every palace and dwelling within a buddha's own domain.
"Good man, it is like the mani-wind-king, able to hold within it every fragrance and flower of every kind found within the domain reached by the light of the sun and moon. The mani-wind-king of the mind of bodhi is likewise: it is able to hold within it every domain reached by the light of all-seed wisdom — every god and human, every śrāvaka and pratyekabuddha, every buddha and bodhisattva, and every root of goodness, whether tainted or untainted."
"A yojana" (由旬) is a traditional Indian unit of distance, its exact modern equivalent debated but generally reckoned at several miles — "forty thousand yojanas" names a specific, immense but bounded distance drawn from Buddhist cosmological description of the sun and moon's own celestial palaces, here made fully visible by a single stainless jewel. Fazang reads the mani-wind-king's comprehensiveness — "every god and human... every root of goodness, whether tainted or untainted" — as this catalogue's broadest single claim of scope so far: unlike similes that name a specific class of being helped or a specific affliction removed, this one asserts that literally nothing within all-wisdom's own reach falls outside what bodhicitta holds and sustains.
Part 354 Complete
Two more jewel similes are now given in full. Part 355 turns to the sea-treasury mani revealing every ornament within the ocean, and jambu-river gold, surpassed only by the wish-fulfilling jewel among all treasures.
Continue to Part 355 →