Sudhana Beholds Samantabhadra
At that time, having seen these ten auspicious signs, Sudhana thought to himself: "I will now surely see the bodhisattva Samantabhadra, growing my own roots of goodness, consummating the bodhisattva's own wondrous practice; to see every buddha is exactly like seeing Samantabhadra himself; attaining the very conception of all-wisdom, with a whole and reverent mind, I wish to see the bodhisattva Samantabhadra." At that time, Sudhana at once beheld the bodhisattva Samantabhadra, at the vajra-treasury bodhimaṇḍa, before the very presence of the tathāgata, seated upon a lotus-treasury lion-throne, encircled by a great assembly; his mind like space, unattached to anything at all, dispelling every hindrance, purifying every land; with the unobstructed Dharma, he fills the ten directions, abiding in all-wisdom, entering every Dharma-realm, teaching and transforming sentient beings; across every kalpa carrying out the bodhisattva's own practice, reverently making offerings to every buddha, his mind never turning back; among sentient beings, the most supreme and unsurpassed, unable to be overcome by anything in any world, his own domain of wisdom unfathomable even by any other bodhisattva; endowed with inconceivable, wondrous merit, universally observing the tathāgatas of the three times equally.
"To See Every Buddha Is Exactly Like Seeing Samantabhadra Himself"
爾時，善財見十種瑞相已，即作是念：「我今必見普賢菩薩，增長善根，究竟菩薩妙行；見一切佛若見普賢菩薩；得一切智想，一心恭敬，欲見普賢菩薩。」爾時，善財即見普賢菩薩，在金剛藏道場，於如來前，處蓮華藏師子之座，大眾圍遶；心如虛空，無所染著，除滅障礙，淨一切剎；以無礙法，充滿十方，住一切智，入諸法界，教化眾生；於一切劫，行菩薩行，恭敬供養一切諸佛，心無退轉；於眾生中，最勝最上，一切世間無能壞者，一切菩薩不能察其智慧境界；具不思議諸妙功德，普觀三世等諸如來。
At that time, having seen these ten auspicious signs, Sudhana thought to himself: "I will now surely see the bodhisattva Samantabhadra, growing my own roots of goodness, consummating the bodhisattva's own wondrous practice; to see every buddha is exactly like seeing Samantabhadra himself; attaining the very conception of all-wisdom, with a whole and reverent mind, I wish to see the bodhisattva Samantabhadra."
At that time, Sudhana at once beheld the bodhisattva Samantabhadra, at the vajra-treasury bodhimaṇḍa, before the very presence of the tathāgata, seated upon a lotus-treasury lion-throne, encircled by a great assembly; his mind like space, unattached to anything at all, dispelling every hindrance, purifying every land; with the unobstructed Dharma, he fills the ten directions, abiding in all-wisdom, entering every Dharma-realm, teaching and transforming sentient beings; across every kalpa carrying out the bodhisattva's own practice, reverently making offerings to every buddha, his mind never turning back; among sentient beings, the most supreme and unsurpassed, unable to be overcome by anything in any world, his own domain of wisdom unfathomable even by any other bodhisattva; endowed with inconceivable, wondrous merit, universally observing the tathāgatas of the three times equally.
Sudhana's own anticipatory thought — "to see every buddha is exactly like seeing Samantabhadra himself" — states outright, before the vision even arrives, the doctrinal claim this whole final episode exists to demonstrate: Samantabhadra represents not one bodhisattva among others but the very practice through which buddhahood itself becomes visible and enacted. Fazang reads "his own domain of wisdom unfathomable even by any other bodhisattva" as marking a genuine escalation past every teacher Sudhana has visited before, including Maitreya — a one-more-birth bodhisattva's own wisdom, however vast, is here explicitly said to fall short of fathoming what Samantabhadra's own domain contains, since Samantabhadra's role in this literature stands at the very summit of bodhisattva practice, immediately adjacent to buddhahood itself.
Part 419 Complete
Sudhana's first sight of Samantabhadra is now given in full. Part 420 turns to what pours forth from Samantabhadra's own body — light from every single pore, healing every suffering and nurturing every root of goodness, opening an even vaster vision than Maitreya's own tower.
Continue to Part 420 →