A Form Equal to Every Sentient Being
"Good man, my own pure Dharma-body fills the entirety of the Dharma-realm, manifesting a form equal to every sentient being, a voice equal to every sentient being, a name equal to every sentient being, and a deportment equal to every sentient being; it manifests as according with the world equally with every sentient being, manifests rebirth equally with every sentient being, manifests a youthful body equally with every sentient being, and manifests a thought equal to every sentient being; and it brings forth every bodhisattva's own great vow as a transformation-body, filling the Dharma-realm equally with sentient beings. Should any of my fellow practitioners lose the mind set upon the path, I cause them, through this, to raise the mind of bodhi once more. It is for this reason that, within the southern region of this Jambudvīpa, in a village called Kuti within the country of Mālaya—"
Bringing Fellow Practitioners Back to the Mind of Bodhi
善男子！我淨法身，充滿一切法界，現一切眾生等色；一切眾生等音聲；一切眾生等名號；一切眾生等威儀；現一切眾生等隨順世間；現一切眾生等受生；現一切眾生等童子身；一切眾生等想；出生一切菩薩大願，為變化身，與眾生等充滿法界。若諸同行，失道心者，還令發起菩提心故；我於此閻浮提南界，摩離國內，拘提聚落，婆羅門家種姓中生，為欲滅彼憍慢心故，化度父母及親族故，於中受生。
"Good man, my own pure Dharma-body fills the entirety of the Dharma-realm, manifesting a form equal to every sentient being, a voice equal to every sentient being, a name equal to every sentient being, and a deportment equal to every sentient being; it manifests as according with the world equally with every sentient being, manifests rebirth equally with every sentient being, manifests a youthful body equally with every sentient being, and manifests a thought equal to every sentient being; and it brings forth every bodhisattva's own great vow as a transformation-body, filling the Dharma-realm equally with sentient beings. Should any of my fellow practitioners lose the mind set upon the path, I cause them, through this, to raise the mind of bodhi once more. It is for this reason that, within the southern region of this Jambudvīpa, in the country of Mālaya, in a village called Kuti, I was born into a family of the brāhmaṇa lineage, in order to destroy their own pride, and in order to teach and deliver my own parents and every one of my relatives — it was for this reason that I was born there."
This description of a Dharma-body manifesting "equal to every sentient being" in form, voice, name, deportment, and even thought describes a totality of accommodation beyond even the earlier catalogue of Maitreya assuming every throne and teaching every audience — here the claim is not that Maitreya takes on various specific forms in turn, but that his single Dharma-body is somehow already coextensive with every being's own particularity simultaneously. Fazang reads the closing purpose clause — turning back fellow practitioners who have "lost the mind set upon the path" — as narrowing this cosmic claim to a specific pastoral function: this vast capacity exists, in the end, for the concrete purpose of rescuing discouraged or backsliding companions on the same path, a modest, personal aim framing an otherwise nearly unbounded description.
Part 409 Complete
Maitreya's description of his own universal Dharma-body is now given in full. Part 410 continues directly into his autobiography: his birth in a Brahmin family, his coming death and rebirth in Tuṣita heaven, and his prophecy that Sudhana and Mañjuśrī together will behold him when he at last attains buddhahood.
Continue to Part 410 →