Healed by Mere Sight, Untouched by Any Dust
The catalogue continues: it is like a spell-medicine — should any sentient being see it, hear of it, or dwell near it, every one of his diseases is entirely healed; the medicine of the mind of bodhi is likewise, nurturing every root of goodness, gathering in the medicine of wisdom, fully endowing the bodhisattva's own wisdom-body with every great vow — should any sentient being see, hear of, or dwell near one who upholds right mindfulness in this way, every one of his affliction-sicknesses is entirely removed. It is like a swan-down robe, which takes on no dust or defilement at all; the robe of the mind of bodhi is likewise, taking on none of the dust of birth and death.
The Spell-Medicine's Reach and the Swan-Down Robe
「善男子！譬如呪藥，若有眾生見聞共住，一切眾病，皆悉除愈。菩提心藥亦復如是，長養善根，攝智慧藥，滿足大願菩薩慧身，若有眾生見聞共住，修正念者，皆悉除滅煩惱諸病。
「善男子！譬如恒娑相衣，不受塵垢。菩提心衣亦復如是，不受一切生死塵垢。
"Good man, it is like a spell-medicine — should any sentient being see it, hear of it, or dwell near it, every one of his diseases is entirely healed. The medicine of the mind of bodhi is likewise: nurturing every root of goodness, gathering in the medicine of wisdom, fully endowing the bodhisattva's own wisdom-body with every great vow — should any sentient being see, hear of, or dwell near one who upholds right mindfulness in this way, every one of his affliction-sicknesses is entirely removed.
"Good man, it is like a swan-down robe, which takes on no dust or defilement at all. The robe of the mind of bodhi is likewise: it takes on none of the dust of birth and death."
The spell-medicine simile's threefold access — "see it, hear of it, or dwell near it" — recurs verbatim in mapping onto a bodhisattva's own healing presence, and Fazang reads this threefold structure as significant precisely because it requires no active treatment or teaching on the bodhisattva's own part: unlike similes elsewhere describing deliberate rescue or instruction, this one describes healing as an ambient effect of mere proximity to right mindfulness, echoing the earlier Sandana-tree simile whose shade alone healed every sore. "Swan-down" (恒娑, haṃsa, the swan or wild goose, whose feathers were proverbially considered to repel water and dust in Indian literary tradition) supplies a natural, observable image for bodhicitta's own imperviousness to what it moves through.
Part 378 Complete
Two more similes are now given in full. Part 379 turns to a person who constantly upholds ambrosia in mindfulness, able to discern every dharma without distraction, and to a plow without a proper yoke, useless for its purpose.
Continue to Part 379 →