Lotus Flowers Vast as Chariot Wheels
Beholding all such things as these, Sudhana further saw, within the jeweled pillars, boundless nets of blue, yellow, red, and white pure crystalline light universally sent forth, together with a net of light made of indranīla gems and jambu-river gold; and within pearl necklaces, he saw water of the eight excellent qualities pouring forth, while lapis lazuli gems sent forth boundless light. He further saw, within blue lotus, red lotus, and white lotus flowers, wondrous blossoms growing as vast as a chariot's own wheel; and within those very flowers, he saw men and women, the great and the small, Śakra and Brahmā and the four heavenly kings, every nāga and yakṣa, and even humans and non-humans, together with elephants and horses, śrāvakas and bodhisattvas — every sentient being of every different form and kind — all reverently joining their palms in worship, bowing before the buddhas.
Every Being, Every Form, Joining Palms Before the Buddhas
如是等事。又見諸寶柱中，普放無量青黃赤白淨玻瓈色，因尼羅寶閻浮檀金諸光明網；又見珠瓔珞中，出八功德香水；瑠璃寶中，出無量光明。又見優鉢羅鉢曇摩分陀利中，生諸妙華，大如車輪；華中悉見男女、大小、釋梵四王、諸龍、夜叉，乃至人、非人等，及諸象馬、聲聞菩薩、一切眾生，種種形類，皆悉恭敬，合掌禮佛。
Beholding all such things as these, he further saw, within the jeweled pillars, boundless nets of blue, yellow, red, and white pure crystalline light universally sent forth, together with a net of light made of indranīla gems and jambu-river gold; and within pearl necklaces, he saw water of the eight excellent qualities pouring forth, while lapis lazuli gems sent forth boundless light. He further saw, within blue lotus, red lotus, and white lotus flowers, wondrous blossoms growing as vast as a chariot's own wheel; and within those very flowers, he saw men and women, the great and the small, Śakra and Brahmā and the four heavenly kings, every nāga and yakṣa, and even humans and non-humans, together with elephants and horses, śrāvakas and bodhisattvas — every sentient being of every different form and kind — all reverently joining their palms in worship, bowing before the buddhas.
"Water of the eight excellent qualities" (八功德水, aṣṭāṅgopetavāri) names a standard description in Buddhist cosmological literature of the water found in pure lands — cool, sweet, soft, light, clear, unpolluted, and both easing hunger and never harming the throat when drunk — its appearance here poured forth from an ordinary pearl necklace collapses the usual distinction between an ordinary jewel and the defining feature of an entire pure land. Fazang reads the lotus-flowers containing "every sentient being of every different form and kind" as another instance of the vision's now-familiar principle of containment without obstruction, but notes a shift in emphasis: where earlier similes emphasized vastness holding vastness (a trichiliocosm within a tower), this one emphasizes the reverse — an ordinary-sized flower holding within it beings of every kind, size notwithstanding.
Part 396 Complete
The visions of pillars, pearls, and flowers are now given in full. Part 397 turns to jeweled trees revealing the bodies of tathāgatas, bodhisattvas, and the eight classes of divine beings, each holding offerings and bowing in reverence — and to Sudhana's first glimpse of Maitreya's own countless past lives.
Continue to Part 397 →