Great Light, and the City Every Being Sees Differently
Sudhana takes leave of King Fulfillment and journeys to the city Good Light, where King Great Light — bearing twenty-eight marks of a great being, since his own path is not yet complete — governs through a single samādhi of great loving-kindness so potent that, once entered, the whole city shakes in six ways and every creature, human and animal alike, bows down in reverence. The very same streets, he explains, are beheld as jeweled and pure by some, and defiled by others — depending only on each being's own past karma. The eighth teacher of the Ten Practices.
Into the City of Good Light
時，善財童子頭面禮足，遶無數匝，辭退南行。
爾時，善財童子一心正念彼王智慧幻化法門。觀一切法皆悉如幻，分別諸業，專求正法，一心思惟彼王變化，救度眾生；思惟世間一切如幻，分別了知三世願行悉如幻化，入淨法界。漸經人眾、聚落、城邑、曠野諸難，心無疲倦，至善光城，問眾人曰：「此城何名？」答言：「善光。」
爾時，善財作如是念：「我善知識在此城中，我今必定見善知識，聞菩薩行、菩薩正法及諸法門；菩薩功德不可思議，境界不可思議，自在不可思議，平等法門不可思議，勇猛之力不可思議，我今必聞菩薩究竟境界。」作是念已，入善光城。見城七寶無量莊嚴，七重深塹周匝圍遶，八功德水盈滿其中，底布金沙，優鉢羅、鉢曇摩、拘牟頭、分陀利華遍滿其中。七寶垣牆，七重圍遶，所謂：金剛師子垣牆、不可壞金剛垣牆、精進金剛垣牆、不可壞精進垣牆、無底金剛垣牆、淨網垣牆、離欲清淨金剛垣牆；是七重垣牆，阿僧祇寶而莊嚴之。其城奇特，高峻廣大，十億街巷；一一街巷，各有無量億那由他阿僧祇人眾。阿僧祇閻浮檀金樓閣，瑠璃寶網羅覆其上；不可思議白銀樓閣，赤真珠網羅覆其上；不可思議瑠璃樓閣，莊嚴藏摩尼寶網羅覆其上；不可思議玻瓈樓閣，離垢摩尼寶藏網羅覆其上；不可思議明淨寶樓閣，日藏摩尼寶網羅覆其上；阿僧祇因陀羅尼寶樓閣，妙寶光明網羅覆其上；阿僧祇堅固寶樓閣，夜光寶焰網羅覆其上；不可思議金剛樓閣，不可壞幢摩尼寶網羅覆其上；不可思議沈水栴檀樓閣，摩訶曼陀羅華網羅覆其上；如是等不可稱說妙寶樓閣，以種種網羅覆其上；不可思議妙寶網，不可思議金鈴網，不可思議香網，不可思議華網，不可思議衣網，羅覆其上。又張不可思議諸妙寶帳，不可思議珍妙寶蓋以覆其上，建立不可思議雜寶幢幡而莊嚴之。當此城中有一樓閣，名曰眾生樂見無厭，阿僧祇摩尼寶而以莊嚴；彼大光王常處其中。
At that time Sudhana the Boy bowed his head at his feet, circled him countless times, and, taking his leave, journeyed on to the south.
At that time Sudhana the Boy single-mindedly held in right mind that king's own Dharma-gate of illusory wisdom and transformation. Contemplating that every dharma is entirely like an illusion, discerning every kind of karma, single-mindedly seeking the true Dharma, he held in mind, single-mindedly, that king's own transformation and his rescue and deliverance of sentient beings; contemplating that the whole world is entirely like an illusion, discerning and understanding entirely that the vows and practices of the three times are all like illusory transformation, he entered the pure Dharma-realm. Gradually passing through multitudes of people, villages, cities, and the perils of the open wilds, his mind never wearying, he arrived at the city Good Light, and asked the people there: "What is this city called?" They answered: "Good Light."
At that time Sudhana thought thus: "My good spiritual friend is within this very city; I shall now surely behold this good spiritual friend, and hear of the bodhisattva's own practice, the bodhisattva's own true Dharma, and every Dharma-gate; a bodhisattva's own merit is beyond conceiving, their domain is beyond conceiving, their sovereign mastery is beyond conceiving, the Dharma-gate of equanimity is beyond conceiving, the power of their valiant courage is beyond conceiving — I shall now surely hear of a bodhisattva's own ultimate domain." Having thought this, he entered the city Good Light. He beheld the city adorned with boundless splendor of seven jewels, a moat seven layers deep surrounding it on every side, filled with the water of the eight excellent qualities, its bottom spread with golden sand, and filled entirely with blue lotuses, red lotuses, white water-lilies, and white lotuses. A wall of seven jewels surrounded it, seven layers deep — namely: the vajra wall of the lion, the indestructible vajra wall, the vajra wall of diligence, the indestructible wall of diligence, the bottomless vajra wall, the wall of the pure net, and the vajra wall pure and free of desire; these seven layers of wall were adorned with countless jewels. The city itself was extraordinary, towering and vast, with a billion streets and lanes; within each and every street and lane dwelt multitudes of people beyond number, beyond a hundred million nayutas, beyond counting. Countless pavilions of Jambū-river gold were covered over with nets of lapis lazuli jewels; pavilions of silver beyond conceiving were covered over with nets of red pearls; pavilions of lapis lazuli beyond conceiving were covered over with nets of adorning-treasury maṇi jewels; pavilions of crystal beyond conceiving were covered over with nets of stainless maṇi jewel-treasuries; pavilions of bright, pure jewels beyond conceiving were covered over with nets of sun-treasury maṇi jewels; countless pavilions of indranīla jewels were covered over with nets of sublime jeweled light; countless pavilions of firm jewels were covered over with nets of night-shining jeweled flame; pavilions of vajra beyond conceiving were covered over with nets of indestructible-banner maṇi jewels; pavilions of aloeswood and sandalwood beyond conceiving were covered over with nets of great māndārava flowers — pavilions of sublime jewels such as these, beyond telling, were each covered over with every kind of net; nets of sublime jewels beyond conceiving, nets of golden bells beyond conceiving, nets of incense beyond conceiving, nets of flowers beyond conceiving, and nets of robes beyond conceiving, all covered over everything. Further, canopies of sublime jewels beyond conceiving were spread wide, and parasols of rare, sublime jewels beyond conceiving covered over them, with banners and pennants of every kind of jewel beyond conceiving raised up and adorning it all. Within this city stood a single pavilion, named Delighted-in Without Ever Tiring by Sentient Beings, adorned with countless maṇi jewels; and this King Great Light constantly dwelt within it.
Fazang marks this as the eighth of the Ten Practices, "the Practice of Veneration" (尊重行). He glosses the city's own name, 謂順理益物，業用為光 — "according with principle and benefiting beings — his function is called 'light'" — and the king's own name, 大慈定光照益群品，攝化自在，故以為名 — "the light of the samādhi of great loving-kindness illumines and benefits every class of being, his gathering and transformation sovereign and unhindered — hence this name." He counts the city's own environmental splendor as ten distinct kinds of adornment — the seven-layered moat, the seven-layered jeweled wall, the ten billion streets, the countless multitudes within them, the countless jeweled pavilions, and so on — and names the tenth as something easy to overlook: 善財無染，謂知如幻故、往求善友無異念故 — "Sudhana's own freedom from any taint, since he knows it is all like an illusion, and goes seeking his good friend with no other thought at all." Amid this splendor, in other words, Sudhana's own unmoved mind counts as one of the scene's own ten adornments, not merely as the observer of the other nine.
A King with Twenty-Eight Marks, and a City Seen Differently by Each
爾時，善財於此一切嚴飾珍妙，心無染著，一心樂欲見善知識。見大光王處於法堂寶師子座，結跏趺坐，眾寶莊嚴，敷以寶衣，萬阿僧祇寶像以為莊嚴，種種妓樂而娛樂之。有二十八大人之相，八十種好而以莊嚴。身真金色，如明淨日，普照一切；如盛滿月，眾宿中明；如梵天王，處於大眾；如大海中，有眾珍寶；如雪山中，出諸良藥；如大龍王，雷震諸法實相音聲；如虛空，清淨不受塵垢；如須彌山四種寶色，普照眾生性海；譬如寶洲，智寶充滿。彼王殿前及諸街巷，城四門外，處處安置眾珍寶聚及諸寶衣；無量億那由他諸采女眾，容飾端嚴，五欲無倫，姿好巧妙，迴動天人，六十四術，無不備舉。無量乳牛，其角金色，乳味甘香，一[穀-(一/禾)+牛]一石。又有無量諸莊嚴具，種種甘香百味肴膳，無量音樂，及諸湯藥，資生之具。一一街巷，兩邊各有二十億菩薩，以此一切資生之具而用惠施；攝眾生故，悅眾生故，淨眾生心故，滅眾生煩惱故，令諸眾生解實義故，安立眾生一切智故，令眾生離惡心故，拔出眾生邪見刺故，淨眾生業道故。
爾時，善財五體敬禮大光王已，右遶一匝，於一面住，白言：「大聖！我已先發阿耨多羅三藐三菩提心，而未知菩薩云何學菩薩行、修菩薩道，我聞大聖善能解說，唯願敷演。」
答言：「善男子！我成就菩薩大慈幢行清淨滿足。我於無量不可說不可說諸佛菩薩所，聞此妙法，觀察清淨，修習莊嚴。善男子！我住此行，如法治國，觀察眾生，順行世間。如法教化眾生，攝取眾生，安置眾生，饒益眾生；如法熏眾生，如法教眾生，令修善根，觀法真實。令諸眾生得慈心、大慈心、大慈力心、饒益心、離恐怖心、攝眾生心、不捨眾生心，發於大願滅諸苦心。安隱眾生令得快樂，身心柔軟，遠離心垢，捨生死樂，常樂正法，除煩惱垢，得清淨心。以一切善熏眾生心，斷生死流，入深法海，滅諸有趣；出無礙心，得一切智，淨諸心海，信力堅固，無能壞者。善男子！我以如是安住此行，如法治國，令諸人民離眾怖畏。有貧窮者來至我所，隨所求索，常開庫藏而告之曰：『恣意取之，勿作眾惡。』此城眾生悉向大乘，各見此城種種不同，或見垢穢，或見清淨，或見木石，或見瑠璃，或見無壞幢牆周匝圍遶；或見不可思議樓閣，阿僧祇寶而以莊嚴；以正直心修諸善根，於諸佛所求一切智，為我宿世所攝眾生修菩薩行者，乃見此城眾寶嚴淨，餘見垢穢。善男子！此城眾生五濁惡時，行諸不善，我愍念彼，入於菩薩大慈為首順世三昧；入此定時，彼諸眾生惡心、惱心、諍心、害心皆悉除滅，所以者何？此三昧力，法如是故。善男子！且待須臾，汝自見之。」
At that time Sudhana, amid all this splendid, marvelous adornment, kept his mind entirely untainted, single-mindedly wishing only to behold the good spiritual friend. He beheld King Great Light seated upon a jeweled lion-throne within a Dharma-hall, seated in full lotus posture, adorned with every kind of jewel, spread with jeweled robes, adorned with ten thousand times countless jeweled images, entertained with every kind of music. He bore the twenty-eight marks of a great being, adorned further with the eighty minor marks. His body was the color of true gold, like the bright, pure sun, universally illumining everything; like the full moon, brightest among every constellation; like the Brahmā king, dwelling amid a great assembly; like the great ocean, holding every kind of rare treasure; like the Snow Mountains, from which every excellent medicine issues forth; like a great nāga-king, thundering forth the voice of the true mark of every dharma; like space itself, pure and receiving no dust or defilement; like Mount Sumeru with its own four kinds of jeweled color, universally illumining the ocean of sentient beings' own nature; like an island of jewels, filled entirely with the jewel of wisdom. Before this king's own palace hall, throughout every street and lane, and outside the city's four gates, heaps of every kind of rare treasure and every kind of jeweled robe were placed everywhere; countless hundred-millions of nayutas of women attendants, their appearance and adornment dignified and fine, the five desires without peer, their bearing skillful and marvelous, moving even gods and men, versed completely in all sixty-four arts. Countless milk-cows, their horns the color of gold, their milk sweet and fragrant, each yielding a full measure with every milking. There were, further, countless kinds of ornaments, every sort of sweet-fragrant delicacy of a hundred flavors, boundless music, and every kind of medicine and implement of livelihood. Along every single street and lane, on both sides, stood twenty hundred-million bodhisattvas, bestowing every one of these implements of livelihood as gifts — in order to gather in sentient beings, to delight sentient beings, to purify sentient beings' own minds, to extinguish sentient beings' own afflictions, to cause sentient beings to understand the true meaning, to establish sentient beings in omniscience, to cause sentient beings to depart from an evil mind, to draw out the thorn of wrong view from sentient beings, and to purify sentient beings' own path of karma.
At that time Sudhana, having paid reverence to King Great Light with all five limbs, circled him once to the right, and, standing to one side, said: "Great sage! I have already raised the mind of unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening, and I do not yet know how a bodhisattva learns the bodhisattva's own practice, cultivates the bodhisattva path; I have heard that the great sage is well able to explain this — I beg only that you expound it."
He answered: "Good son, I have accomplished the bodhisattva's own Practice of the Banner of Great Loving-Kindness, pure and complete. At the presence of boundless buddhas and bodhisattvas beyond telling upon telling, I have heard this sublime Dharma, contemplated it in purity, and cultivated its own adornment. Good son, abiding in this practice, I govern my land according to the Dharma, contemplating sentient beings and following the ways of the world. I teach and transform sentient beings according to the Dharma, gathering them in, establishing them securely, and bringing them benefit; I scent sentient beings' own minds according to the Dharma, teach sentient beings according to the Dharma, cause them to cultivate every root of goodness, and contemplate the true reality of every dharma. I cause every sentient being to attain a mind of loving-kindness, a mind of great loving-kindness, a mind of the power of great loving-kindness, a mind that benefits others, a mind free of fear, a mind that gathers sentient beings in, a mind that never abandons sentient beings, and a mind that gives rise to the great vow to extinguish every suffering. I bring peace and security to sentient beings, causing them to attain happiness, their bodies and minds made soft and pliant, departing far from every defilement of mind, forsaking the pleasures of birth and death, constantly delighting in the true Dharma, removing the defilement of affliction, and attaining a pure mind. Through every kind of goodness I scent sentient beings' own minds, severing the stream of birth and death, entering the deep ocean of the Dharma, and extinguishing every state of existence; I bring forth an unobstructed mind, attain omniscience, purify the ocean of every mind, my power of faith made firm, unable to be destroyed by anything at all. Good son, abiding thus in this practice, I govern my land according to the Dharma, causing all my people to depart from every fear. Whoever comes before me in poverty, whatever they seek, I constantly open my treasury and storehouse and say to them: 'Take from it as freely as you wish — only do not commit any evil deed.' Every sentient being of this city turns toward the Great Vehicle, yet each beholds this city differently: some behold it defiled and impure, some behold it pure; some behold it as wood and stone, some as lapis lazuli; some behold indestructible banners and walls surrounding it on every side; some behold pavilions beyond conceiving, adorned with countless jewels. Whoever cultivates every root of goodness with an upright mind, seeking omniscience at the presence of every buddha, and who was gathered in by me in ages past to cultivate the bodhisattva's own practice, beholds this city adorned in every jewel, pure — while all others behold it defiled and impure. Good son, the sentient beings of this city, in this evil age of the five corruptions, engage in every kind of unwholesome deed; having compassion for them, I enter the bodhisattva's own samādhi of Great Loving-Kindness as Foremost, According with the World; and once I have entered this concentration, every sentient being's own mind of malice, of vexation, of strife, and of harm is entirely extinguished. Why is this? Because this is simply how the power of this samādhi works, by its very nature. Good son, wait but a moment, and you will see it for yourself."
On the king's own body, marked yet incomplete, Fazang gives a single, precise reason for the number twenty-eight: 現因位未滿故 — "because this shows that his causal stage is not yet full" — twenty-eight, not the thirty-two marks of a buddha, deliberately signals that he still stands within the path, not at its end. Fazang reads this whole scene of the city's own giving as split into two halves, matched to two kinds of benefit at once: first the Dharma imparted directly, gathering beings into a mind of loving-kindness and its own further refinements; second, the material wealth — the treasuries, the milk-cows, the twenty hundred-million bodhisattvas along every street — benefiting beings through ordinary goods before the Dharma is even spoken. He also flags something easy to miss in the list of nine reasons for this giving, "counted off" in the text — 攝眾生故...淨眾生業道故 — noting plainly that the passage 欠一句, "is short one phrase," from what would complete a proper set of ten: a small, honestly-recorded gap in the transmitted text itself, not a translation choice.
A Samādhi That Moves Every Living Thing
時，王即入大慈為首順世三昧，入已，善光大城六種震動，諸寶垣牆、樓閣、宮殿、欄楯、窓牖、却敵、半月、寶鈴、羅網，諸寶形像出妙音聲，讚歎彼王；其城內外一切人民，皆大歡喜，一心合掌，敬禮彼王；諸畜生等，慈心相向，亦禮彼王；山原樹林，皆悉曲躬而向彼王；河池泉流，皆悉向王；一萬龍王興黑重雲，雷震曜電，雨眾香水；一萬釋天王、夜摩天王、刪兜率天王、化自在天王、他化自在天王等，於虛空中作億那由他妓樂音聲；阿僧祇天采女，眾妙音歌頌，雨阿僧祇華雲、香雲、末香雲、鬘雲、蓋雲、雜色衣雲，阿僧祇寶幢幡蓋莊嚴虛空，供養彼王；伊那槃那龍王敷大蓮華，普覆虛空，垂阿僧祇妙綵繒帶，阿僧祇寶而莊嚴之，阿僧祇寶鬘瓔珞，天莊嚴具，諸妙華香，充滿虛空，供養彼王；阿僧祇天女，充滿虛空，稱讚彼王；阿僧祇羅剎鬼等，常在大海閻浮提住，飲血食肉，水陸惡獸，常害眾生，皆得慈心及寂靜心，明信後世，遠離諸惡，心大歡喜，五體投地，敬禮彼王，皆得無量身心快樂；阿僧祇毘舍闍鬼及四天下毒害眾生，三千大千世界乃至十方各百萬億那由他世界中毒害眾生，亦復如是。
時，大光王從三昧起，告善財言：「善男子！我唯知此菩薩大慈幢行三昧；諸大菩薩以大慈蓋普覆救護一切眾生，上、中、下品，等觀無二；慈如大地，載育眾生；菩薩滿月，出功德光除眾惱熱；菩薩淨日，智慧光明普照一切；菩薩明燈，除滅重闇；菩薩淨水珠，滅眾生心海煩惱垢濁；菩薩如意寶珠，隨眾生心，悉令滿足；菩薩疾風，速令眾生修習三昧，入一切智城。我當云何能知、能說彼功德行，讚歎稱量彼功德山，觀彼功德，知大願風輪，得真實地，分別了知莊嚴大乘普賢菩薩之所修行及諸三昧，讚大悲雲？善男子！於此南方，有城名曰安住，有優婆夷名曰不動，汝詣彼問云何菩薩學菩薩行，修菩薩道。」
At that time the king entered the samādhi of Great Loving-Kindness as Foremost, According with the World; and once he had entered it, the great city of Good Light shook in six ways; every jeweled wall, pavilion, palace hall, balustrade, window, parapet, half-moon, jeweled bell, and net, and every jeweled image, gave forth sublime sounds, praising this king; every one of the people, within the city and without, rejoiced greatly, joined their palms single-mindedly, and paid reverence to this king; every kind of animal, too, turned toward one another with a mind of loving-kindness, and likewise paid reverence to this king; every mountain, plain, tree, and forest bent low in reverence toward this king; every river, pool, and spring likewise turned toward this king; ten thousand nāga-kings raised up heavy, dark clouds, thundering and flashing with lightning, and rained down waters of every fragrance; ten thousand kings of Śakra, of the Yāma heaven, of the Tuṣita heaven, of the heaven of Delighting in Transformation, and of the heaven of Mastery over Others' Transformations, and the like, made music resounding a hundred million nayutas of times throughout the sky; countless heavenly maidens, with every kind of sublime sound, sang songs of praise, raining down countless clouds of flowers, clouds of incense, clouds of powdered incense, clouds of garlands, clouds of parasols, and clouds of robes of every color, with countless jeweled banners, pennants, and canopies adorning the whole of space, making offering to this king; the nāga-king Airāvaṇa spread out great lotus blossoms, universally covering the whole of space, and hung down countless sublime, colored silken ribbons, adorned with countless jewels, countless jeweled garlands and necklaces, and heavenly ornaments, every kind of sublime flower and fragrance filling the whole of space, making offering to this king; countless heavenly maidens filled the whole of space, extolling and praising this king; countless rākṣasa demons, who constantly dwell in the great ocean and in Jambudvīpa, drinking blood and eating flesh, every fierce beast of water and land, who constantly harm sentient beings, all attained a mind of loving-kindness and a mind of tranquility, came to a clear faith in future lives, departed far from every evil, their minds rejoicing greatly, and, prostrating with all five limbs, paid reverence to this king, all attaining boundless happiness of body and mind; and countless piśāca demons, and every being that poisons and harms throughout the four continents, throughout a great trichiliocosm, even throughout a hundred million koṭis of nayutas of worlds in every one of the ten directions — every being that poisons and harms was, in exactly the same way, transformed.
At that time King Great Light rose from this samādhi, and said to Sudhana: "Good son, I know only this samādhi of the Bodhisattva's Practice of the Banner of Great Loving-Kindness; the great bodhisattvas, with a canopy of great loving-kindness, universally cover and rescue every sentient being, high, middling, and low alike, regarding them all equally, without any distinction; their loving-kindness is like the great earth, bearing and nurturing every sentient being; the bodhisattvas are like the full moon, giving forth the light of merit that removes every feverish affliction; the bodhisattvas are like the pure sun, their light of wisdom universally illumining everything; the bodhisattvas are like a bright lamp, extinguishing every heavy darkness; the bodhisattvas are like a pure water-clarifying jewel, extinguishing the defiled turbidity of affliction within the ocean of sentient beings' own minds; the bodhisattvas are like a wish-fulfilling jewel, according with sentient beings' own minds, causing them to be satisfied completely; the bodhisattvas are like a swift wind, quickly causing sentient beings to cultivate samādhi and enter the city of omniscience. How could I possibly know, how could I possibly speak of, such merit and practice as this — praising and measuring that mountain of merit, contemplating that merit, knowing the wheel of wind of the great vow, attaining the ground of true reality, discerning and understanding entirely the practice cultivated by Samantabhadra's own adornment of the Great Vehicle and every samādhi, and praising the cloud of great compassion? Good son, to the south of here there is a city, named Secure Abode; there is a laywoman there, named Unmoving. Go to her and ask how a bodhisattva learns the bodhisattva's own practice, cultivates the bodhisattva path."
Fazang divides this final display into two moments: first the samādhi's own function explained in words, then, "wait but a moment, and you will see it for yourself," its function demonstrated directly — first entering the concentration, then its effect made visible, benefiting sentient and non-sentient alike at once, mountains and rivers bowing no less than the human crowds. He reads the seven similes that follow — the great earth, the full moon, the pure sun, a bright lamp, a water-clarifying jewel, a wish-fulfilling jewel, a swift wind — as together displaying the depth and breadth of loving-kindness's own benefit, closing the teacher's own portion before he defers upward to what still lies beyond him. On the city that different beings behold so differently — some jeweled and pure, others merely wood, stone, or filth — Fazang locates the deciding factor precisely in section three of the dharma-gate's function: those "gathered in by the king in ages past" to cultivate the bodhisattva's own practice see the pure city; everyone else sees only what their own karma allows them to see. The city has not changed at all; only the eye beholding it has.
Part 38 Complete
This closes Part 38: Sudhana's arrival at Good Light, and King Great Light, eighth teacher of the Ten Practices, whose samādhi of great loving-kindness moves an entire city — human, animal, mountain, and river alike — while the very same streets remain jeweled to some eyes and defiled to others, depending only on karma. Sudhana is sent onward, to the city Secure Abode, and the laywoman named Unmoving.
Continue to Part 39 — Unmoving, and Five Hundred Samādhis in a Single Touch of Light →