Sovereign Over Every Nāga of the Afflictions
The catalogue turns briefly from jewels back to skill and armor: it is like a person skilled in spellcraft over nāgas, who thereby attains sovereignty among every nāga; a bodhisattva-mahāsattva is likewise, having obtained the skillful mantra-dharma of the mind of bodhi, attaining sovereignty over every nāga of the afflictions. It is like a valiant warrior clad in armor and bearing weapons, whom no enemy at all is able to overcome; a bodhisattva-mahāsattva is likewise, clad in the great adornment of the mind of bodhi, whom no māra or enemy of the afflictions is able to overcome.
The Nāga-Taming Spell and the Warrior's Armor
「善男子！譬如有人善能呪龍，於諸龍中而得自在。菩薩摩訶薩亦復如是，得菩提心善呪術法，於一切煩惱龍而得自在。
「善男子！譬如勇士被執鎧仗，一切怨敵所不能壞。菩薩摩訶薩亦復如是，被菩提心大莊嚴具，一切煩惱諸魔怨敵，所不能壞。
"Good man, it is like a person skilled in spellcraft over nāgas, who thereby attains sovereignty among every nāga. A bodhisattva-mahāsattva is likewise: having obtained the skillful mantra-dharma of the mind of bodhi, he attains sovereignty over every nāga of the afflictions.
"Good man, it is like a valiant warrior, clad in armor and bearing weapons, whom no enemy at all is able to overcome. A bodhisattva-mahāsattva is likewise: clad in the great adornment of the mind of bodhi, no māra or enemy of the afflictions is able to overcome him."
"Nāgas of the afflictions" recurs here for the third time in this catalogue, following the nāga-king medicine and the great nāga-pearl earlier — Fazang reads this persistence of nāga imagery specifically (rather than a single mention) as reflecting the outsized role nāgas play throughout the wider Avataṃsaka as both a genuine threat and a figure ambivalently poised between danger and potential Dharma-protector, exactly as the afflictions themselves are neither wholly external enemies nor wholly alien to the mind that holds them. The armor simile, by contrast, returns to the martial register of the first catalogue's own weapon-similes, suggesting the second catalogue is not strictly organized by category but allows earlier registers to resurface as the teaching continues.
Part 356 Complete
Two more similes are now given in full. Part 357 turns to fragrance: the incense Udagasāra, whose scent when burned pervades a small chichiliocosm, and white sandalwood, which cools the body's every feverish affliction.
Continue to Part 357 →