A Village Named Tower
At that time, Sudhana said: "Great sage, where do you yourself come from?" Maitreya answered: "Child of the Buddha, a bodhisattva has no destination he comes from, no destination of movement or dwelling, no destination he clings to; he has no destination of birth or death, no destination of going or arriving, no destination of departing or arising, no destination of abandoning or grasping, no destination of karma or its result, no destination of arising or dependence, no destination that is permanent or that is cut off. Good man, a bodhisattva comes only for the sake of teaching and rescuing sentient beings: he comes from great compassion, in order to extinguish the suffering of sentient beings; he comes from the bodhisattva's own path of pure precepts, in order to be born freely according to his own wish; he comes from the bodhisattva's own path of great vows, because of his very own original intention; he comes from the bodhisattva's own path of spiritual penetration, in order to extinguish the suffering of sentient beings and abide in the presence of the buddhas; he comes from the bodhisattva's own state free of increase or decrease, in order not to lose any wholesome karma of body or mind; he comes from the bodhisattva's own skillful means of wisdom, in order to accord with every kind of sentient being; and he comes from the bodhisattva's own state of transformation-bodies, exactly as a reflection appears in a mirror by lightning-flash. Good man, as for what you asked me — where I myself come from — I come from my own birthplace, the country of Mālaya; there is a village there called Tower, and there was an elder's son there named Gopāla, for whom I taught the Dharma, causing him to establish bodhi. For the sake of the multitude of beings in my own birthplace, I taught the Dharma according to whatever transformation was needed there; and I also taught the Dharma to my own parents and every one of my relatives, establishing them in the Great Vehicle — and it is from there that I have come to this place."
"There Is a Village There Called Tower"
爾時，善財白言：「大聖！從何所來？」
答言：「佛子！菩薩無來趣、無行住趣、無所著趣、不生不死趣、不往不至趣、不離不起趣、不捨不著趣、無業無報趣、無起無依趣、不常不斷趣。善男子！菩薩但為教化救護眾生，從大慈悲來，滅眾生苦故；從菩薩淨戒道來，隨其所樂，自在生故；從菩薩大願道來，本發意故；從菩薩神通道來，滅眾生苦，住佛所故；從菩薩無增損趣來，不失身心諸善業故；從菩薩慧方便來，隨順一切眾生類故；從菩薩化身趣來，如電鏡像故。善男子！汝所問我何所來者，我從生處摩離國來；彼有聚落，名曰樓觀；有長者子，名瞿波羅，我為說法，令立菩提；我本生處諸群生等，隨所應化而為說法；亦為父母及諸親屬，隨應說法，安立大乘，而來至此。」
At that time, Sudhana said: "Great sage, where do you yourself come from?"
Maitreya answered: "Child of the Buddha, a bodhisattva has no destination he comes from, no destination of movement or dwelling, no destination he clings to; he has no destination of birth or death, no destination of going or arriving, no destination of departing or arising, no destination of abandoning or grasping, no destination of karma or its result, no destination of arising or dependence, no destination that is permanent or that is cut off. Good man, a bodhisattva comes only for the sake of teaching and rescuing sentient beings: he comes from great compassion, in order to extinguish the suffering of sentient beings; he comes from the bodhisattva's own path of pure precepts, in order to be born freely according to his own wish; he comes from the bodhisattva's own path of great vows, because of his very own original intention; he comes from the bodhisattva's own path of spiritual penetration, in order to extinguish the suffering of sentient beings and abide in the presence of the buddhas; he comes from the bodhisattva's own state free of increase or decrease, in order not to lose any wholesome karma of body or mind; he comes from the bodhisattva's own skillful means of wisdom, in order to accord with every kind of sentient being; and he comes from the bodhisattva's own state of transformation-bodies, exactly as a reflection appears in a mirror by lightning-flash. Good man, as for what you asked me — where I myself come from — I come from my own birthplace, the country of Mālaya; there is a village there called Tower, and there was an elder's son there named Gopāla, for whom I taught the Dharma, causing him to establish bodhi. For the sake of the multitude of beings in my own birthplace, I taught the Dharma according to whatever transformation was needed there; and I also taught the Dharma to my own parents and every one of my relatives, establishing them in the Great Vehicle — and it is from there that I have come to this place."
Maitreya's answer moves through two entirely different registers in a single breath: first, ten paired negations of the very grammar of "coming" itself (no destination of coming, dwelling, clinging, birth, death, and so on), a philosophically rigorous refusal of any literal, spatial answer to Sudhana's question — and then, without any sense of contradiction, a plain, concrete, geographically specific answer naming an actual country, village, and person. Fazang reads the village's own name — "Tower" (樓觀), the very word used throughout this entire episode for the great adorned structure Sudhana has just left — as no coincidence: the vast, cosmic tower Sudhana entered and the humble village where Maitreya himself was born and first taught share a single name, binding the entire preceding vision back to Maitreya's own ordinary, historical origin, exactly as the vision's ultimate teaching has held throughout — that the boundless and the particular are never in tension.
Part 405 Complete
Maitreya's answer on his own origin is now given in full. Part 406 turns to Sudhana's next question — what are the birthplaces of a bodhisattva? — opening Maitreya's catalogue of the ten places from which a bodhisattva is truly born.
Continue to Part 406 →