Every Part Benefits Every Being
The catalogue continues: it is like the nārikela tree, whose root, stem, branch, leaf, flower, and fruit all together benefit sentient beings; the tree of the mind of bodhi is likewise — arising in dependence on a bodhisattva's own great compassion, from the very first raising of the mind all the way to the consummation of every buddha-dharma, it is constantly able to benefit every sentient being. It is like a single measure's weight of alchemical medicine, which transmutes a thousand measures' weight of copper into true gold, without that portion of medicine itself being diminished at all; the medicine of the mind of bodhi is likewise — gathering the wisdom of dedication, it removes every karmic hindrance of the afflictions, purifying every dharma into the very color of all-wisdom, while the evil karma of the afflictions is unable to diminish it in the least.
Transmuting Copper into True Gold Without Diminishment
「善男子！譬如那利羅樹，根莖枝葉，及其華果，悉益眾生。菩提心樹亦復如是，依因菩薩大慈悲生，從初發心，乃至究竟一切佛法，常能饒益一切眾生。
「善男子！譬如一兩阿羅娑藥，變千兩銅，以為真金，於彼藥分，無所損減。菩提心藥亦復如是，攝迴向智，除滅一切煩惱業障，淨一切法，同薩婆若色，煩惱惡業，不能損減。
"Good man, it is like the nārikela tree, whose root, stem, branch, and leaf, together with its flower and fruit, all benefit sentient beings. The tree of the mind of bodhi is likewise: arising in dependence on a bodhisattva's own great compassion, from the very first raising of the mind all the way to the consummation of every buddha-dharma, it is constantly able to benefit every sentient being.
"Good man, it is like a single measure's weight of alchemical medicine, which transmutes a thousand measures' weight of copper into true gold, while that portion of the medicine itself is not diminished at all. The medicine of the mind of bodhi is likewise: gathering the wisdom of dedication, it removes every karmic hindrance of the afflictions, purifying every dharma into the very color of all-wisdom, while the evil karma of the afflictions is unable to diminish it in the least."
"Nārikela" (那利羅, the coconut palm) is praised here for a property distinct from most trees named elsewhere in the two catalogues: not a single potent part (a root, a fruit, a shade) but the totality of every part working together, root through fruit, each contributing its own benefit — Fazang reads this as mapping onto the bodhisattva path's own totality, "from the very first raising of the mind all the way to the consummation of every buddha-dharma," where no single stage of the path is dispensable, each contributing exactly as each part of the tree does. The alchemical medicine simile, echoing the earlier aloe-medicine simile from the first catalogue (also concerning copper transmuted to gold "without diminishment"), reinforces through repetition a principle already established: whatever bodhicitta transforms, it does so without itself being consumed or reduced by the transformation.
Part 360 Complete
Two more similes are now given in full. Part 361 turns to fire and light: a small flame whose blaze only intensifies with whatever it burns, and a single lamp that can kindle a hundred thousand others without its own flame ever diminishing.
Continue to Part 361 →