The Door Opens of Its Own Accord
Maitreya closes his teaching: "Good man, the mind of bodhi accomplishes boundless merit such as this — should any sentient being raise the mind of bodhi, he is thereby endowed with boundless merit such as this. For this reason, good man, you have gained excellent benefit, having raised the mind set on unsurpassed, perfect awakening, cultivating the bodhisattva's own practice, fully endowed with boundless merit such as this. Good man, you asked me earlier: 'How does a bodhisattva learn the bodhisattva's own practice and cultivate the bodhisattva's own path?' Now that you have entered this bright, pure, adorned-treasury great tower, you are able to fully understand how to learn the bodhisattva's own practice and cultivate the bodhisattva's own path, fully accomplishing boundless merit." At that time, Sudhana, reverently circling Maitreya, joined his palms and said: "I ask only that you, great sage, open the tower's own gate, and let me enter." At that time, Maitreya simply snapped his right finger, and the door opened of its own accord. Sudhana entered at once — and once he had entered, it closed again behind him.
Maitreya's Teaching Closes; Sudhana Asks to Enter
「善男子！菩提之心，成就如是無量功德；若有眾生發菩提心，則具如是無量功德。是故，善男子！汝得善利，發阿耨多羅三藐三菩提心，修菩薩行，具足如是無量功德。
「善男子！汝先所問：『云何菩薩學菩薩行、修菩薩道者？』汝今入是明淨莊嚴藏大樓觀者，則能了知學菩薩行、修菩薩道，具足成就無量功德。」◎
◎爾時，善財童子敬遶彌勒菩薩，合掌白言：「唯願大聖開樓觀門，令我得入。」
爾時，彌勒菩薩即彈右指，門自然開，善財即入；入已，還閉。
"Good man, the mind of bodhi accomplishes boundless merit such as this; should any sentient being raise the mind of bodhi, he is thereby endowed with boundless merit such as this. For this reason, good man, you have gained excellent benefit, having raised the mind set on unsurpassed, perfect awakening, cultivating the bodhisattva's own practice, and being fully endowed with boundless merit such as this.
"Good man, you asked me earlier: 'How does a bodhisattva learn the bodhisattva's own practice and cultivate the bodhisattva's own path?' Now that you have entered this bright, pure, adorned-treasury great tower, you are able to fully understand how to learn the bodhisattva's own practice and cultivate the bodhisattva's own path, fully accomplishing boundless merit."
At that time, the youth Sudhana, reverently circling the bodhisattva Maitreya, joined his palms and said: "I ask only that you, great sage, open the tower's own gate, and let me enter."
At that time, the bodhisattva Maitreya simply snapped his right finger, and the door opened of its own accord. Sudhana entered at once — and once he had entered, the door closed again behind him.
Fazang notes a striking feature of Maitreya's closing statement: he tells Sudhana that entering the tower alone will let him "fully understand" the bodhisattva path — before Sudhana has yet actually entered it. This is Maitreya's own prediction of what the vision about to unfold will accomplish, not a summary of a teaching already given; the two vast catalogues of similes just completed, however extensive, are here framed as preparation for something the words themselves could not yet convey. The single snap of a finger opening what is otherwise described as an immense, inconceivably vast tower is, per Fazang, the passage's first concrete signal that ordinary physical scale and ordinary physical causation no longer straightforwardly apply to what is about to be described — a tower whose door yields to the same small gesture regardless of its own boundless interior.
Part 385 Complete — Sudhana Enters the Tower
The gate has opened, and Sudhana has passed through it. Part 386 begins the description of what he sees: a tower vast and boundless as space itself, its ground made of every kind of jewel, adorned beyond counting.
Continue to Part 386 →