A Single Day Outlasting a Thousand Years
The catalogue continues with two further Pārijāta similes: it is like the Pārijāta tree's own flower which, even before it has opened, pervades the whole of Jambudvīpa with its fragrance, a fragrance every other flower's scent cannot match; the flower of the mind of bodhi is likewise, its fragrance of tainted and untainted merit unmatched by every god and human. It is like the Pārijāta tree's own flower, whose scenting of a garment for a single day surpasses even a thousand years of scenting by campaka or jasmine blossoms; the flower of the mind of bodhi is likewise — the merit it scents in a single day reaches, in fragrance, the buddhas of the ten directions, a fragrance the merit scented by the untainted minds of every śrāvaka and pratyekabuddha across a hundred thousand kalpas is unable to match.
Reaching the Buddhas of the Ten Directions in a Single Day
「善男子！譬如波利質多樹華，未開敷時，其香普熏閻浮提內，一切華香所不能及。菩提心華亦復如是，一切天人，有漏、無漏功德華香，所不能及。
「善男子！譬如波利質多樹華，一日熏衣，薝蔔華、婆師華雖千歲熏，所不能及。菩提心華亦復如是，一日所熏功德，香徹十方佛所，一切聲聞、緣覺，以無漏心熏諸功德，於百千劫所不能及。
"Good man, it is like the Pārijāta tree's own flower — even before it has opened, its fragrance universally pervades the whole of Jambudvīpa, a fragrance that every other flower's scent is unable to match. The flower of the mind of bodhi is likewise: its fragrance of the tainted and untainted merit of every god and human is one that nothing can match.
"Good man, it is like the Pārijāta tree's own flower — a single day's scenting of a garment with it surpasses what even a thousand years of scenting with campaka or jasmine blossoms could achieve. The flower of the mind of bodhi is likewise: the merit it scents in but a single day reaches, in its fragrance, the buddhas of the ten directions, a fragrance that the merit scented by the untainted minds of every śrāvaka and pratyekabuddha across a hundred thousand kalpas is unable to match."
These two similes complete a triptych of Pārijāta-flower comparisons (following the one in the previous part), an unusually sustained focus on a single image that Fazang reads as deliberate escalation: first surpassing only nearby flowers, then surpassing every merit of gods and humans, and finally surpassing an entire hundred thousand kalpas of śrāvaka and pratyekabuddha cultivation — each simile widening the comparison's scope while keeping the same source-image constant. The phrase "reaches, in fragrance, the buddhas of the ten directions" treats scent itself as a form of spiritual transmission across vast distance, a recurring conceit in this catalogue whereby merit's proper mode of travel is likened to how fragrance moves through open space rather than along any bounded path.
Part 359 Complete
The Pārijāta-flower triptych is now complete. Part 360 turns to the coconut palm, whose every part benefits sentient beings, and to a rare alchemical medicine that transmutes copper into gold without diminishing itself.
Continue to Part 360 →