Wisdom as Mother, Skillful Means as Father
Maitreya continues: "Good man, a bodhisattva-mahāsattva takes the pāramitā of wisdom as his mother, and great skillful means as his father; he takes the pāramitā of giving as his milk, the pāramitā of precepts as his wet-nurse, the pāramitā of forbearance as his ornament, the pāramitā of diligence as the one who raises and rears him, and the pāramitā of meditation as his purification; he takes a good friend as his teacher, the components of bodhi as his friends, every root of goodness as his kin, and every bodhisattva as his brother; he takes the mind of bodhi as his household, practicing as he has been taught as his household's own land, and wherever a bodhisattva dwells as his household's own place; he takes the bodhisattva's own dharma of forbearance as his noble rank, giving rise to great vows as his vast wealth, being endowed with the bodhisattva's own practice as the law of following his household, and praising the Great Vehicle as the law of inheriting his household; and he takes being anointed at the crown with ambrosia as a one-more-birth bodhisattva to be like a crown prince of the realm, one able to purely cultivate and maintain the family of the buddhas of the three times."
A Complete Household: From Mother and Father to Crown Prince
「善男子！菩薩摩訶薩以般若波羅蜜為母；大方便為父；檀波羅蜜為乳；尸波羅蜜為乳母；羼提波羅蜜為莊嚴具；毘梨耶波羅蜜為養育者；禪波羅蜜為潔淨；善知識為師；菩提分為朋友；一切善根為親族；一切菩薩為兄弟；菩提心為家；如說修行為家地；菩薩所住為家處；菩薩忍法為豪尊；出生大願為巨富；具菩薩行為順家法；讚摩訶衍為紹家法；甘露灌頂一生菩薩為王太子，能淨修治三世佛家。
"Good man, a bodhisattva-mahāsattva takes the pāramitā of wisdom as his mother, and great skillful means as his father; he takes the pāramitā of giving as his milk, the pāramitā of precepts as his wet-nurse, the pāramitā of forbearance as his ornament, the pāramitā of diligence as the one who raises and rears him, and the pāramitā of meditation as his purification; he takes a good friend as his teacher, the components of bodhi as his friends, every root of goodness as his kin, and every bodhisattva as his brother; he takes the mind of bodhi as his household, practicing as he has been taught as his household's own land, and wherever a bodhisattva dwells as his household's own place; he takes the bodhisattva's own dharma of forbearance as his noble rank, giving rise to great vows as his vast wealth, being endowed with the bodhisattva's own practice as the law of following his household, and praising the Great Vehicle as the law of inheriting his household; and he takes being anointed at the crown with ambrosia as a one-more-birth bodhisattva to be like a crown prince of the realm, one able to purely cultivate and maintain the family of the buddhas of the three times."
"Anointed at the crown with ambrosia" (甘露灌頂) directly echoes the classical Indian royal consecration ritual (abhiṣeka) in which a crown prince is anointed with water to mark his formal investiture as heir — its application here to the one-more-birth bodhisattva (Maitreya's own rank) as the natural culmination of the household catalogue confirms what Sudhana's own earlier list of Maitreya's qualities already implied: Maitreya stands, within this extended royal-household metaphor, at the very threshold of inheriting the throne itself, buddhahood, exactly as a properly anointed crown prince stands at the threshold of his own father's kingdom. Fazang reads the systematic assignment of a specific paramita or virtue to each family role — never leaving any role unfilled — as this catalogue's own formal completeness, matching in structure, though shorter in length, the two great bodhicitta-simile catalogues given many parts earlier.
Part 407 Complete
The bodhisattva's own spiritual household is now given in full. Part 408 turns to what it truly means to be born into such a family — transcending the ordinary stage, entering the buddha's own lineage, and the extended list of realizations that flow from this birth.
Continue to Part 408 →