Self-Mastery the Sea-Captain, and the Ocean of Precious Things
Sudhana takes leave of Blue Lotus Fragrance and journeys to the city Layered Pavilion, where the sea-captain Self-Mastery, surrounded by a hundred thousand merchants awaiting his teaching, cultivates ascetic practice for the poor before ever speaking of the sea itself — its treasures, its dangers, its tides and winds, each known in a sailor's exhaustive detail, and each turned in his own hands into a figure for the ocean of the Dharma. The second teacher of the Ten Transferences.
A City Beside the Sea, and a Banner of Great Compassion
時，善財童子頭面敬禮彼長者足，遶無數匝，辭退南行。
爾時，善財童子向樓閣城，觀察正道，專求正道，觀夷險道、垢淨道、安危道。復作是念：「因善知識，得菩薩道，諸波羅蜜道；攝取眾生入無礙法界，隨順一切眾生，除滅一切煩惱熾然，一切邪見；拔一切不善刺，度一切生死海，必至一切智城。何以故？因善知識，得一切善根；因善知識，得一切智。」作是念已，漸漸遊行，至樓閣城，周遍推求自在海師。見在海岸船舶處住，十萬商人及無量眾而圍遶之，欲聞勝法，入大海法，佛功德海法。往詣其所，頭面禮足，却住一面，白言：「大聖！我已先發阿耨多羅三藐三菩提心，而未知菩薩云何學菩薩行、修菩薩道？」
答言：「善哉！善哉！善男子！乃能發阿耨多羅三藐三菩提心；能諮問我大乘妙寶，度生死海，到一切智洲，得不可壞摩訶衍法，離二乘難，住寂滅樂，遠離生死洄澓流淵，逮得菩薩至處道法陀羅尼輪，菩薩莊嚴道，薩婆若道波浪，成就普法門，於一切法無所障礙，度一切智海。善男子！我成就大悲幢淨行法門，在此海邊樓閣城中，為貧窮者修諸苦行，欲令一切隨意所求悉充足已，廣為說法，皆令歡喜，發起善根，長養功德智慧之藏；利菩薩根，發菩提心，淨菩薩直心，增益菩薩深心，出生長養大悲之力，除生死苦，遊生死海而無疲倦，攝取眾生海，令住功德海，得一切法智海光明，見一切佛海，度一切智海。善男子！我住此城如是思惟，如是正念，饒益眾生。
At that time Sudhana the Boy reverently bowed his head at this elder's feet, circled him countless times, and, taking his leave, journeyed on to the south.
At that time Sudhana the Boy, turning toward the city Layered Pavilion, contemplated the true path, single-mindedly seeking the true path, contemplating the level path and the perilous path, the defiled path and the pure path, the safe path and the dangerous path. He thought further: "Through a good spiritual friend, one attains the bodhisattva path, the path of every perfection; gathering sentient beings into the unobstructed Dharma-realm, according with every sentient being, extinguishing every blazing affliction, every wrong view; drawing out every unwholesome thorn, crossing the whole ocean of birth and death, one must surely reach the city of omniscience. Why is this? Through a good spiritual friend, one attains every root of goodness; through a good spiritual friend, one attains omniscience." Having thought this, he gradually journeyed on, arriving at the city Layered Pavilion, and sought everywhere for the sea-captain Self-Mastery. He beheld him dwelling upon the seashore where the ships were moored, surrounded by a hundred thousand merchants and a boundless multitude, all wishing to hear the supreme Dharma, the Dharma of entering the great ocean, the Dharma of the ocean of the Buddha's own merit. He went before him, bowed his head at his feet, and, standing back to one side, said: "Great sage! I have already raised the mind of unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening, and I do not yet know how a bodhisattva learns the bodhisattva's own practice, cultivates the bodhisattva path?"
He answered: "Excellent, excellent, good son! You have indeed been able to raise the mind of unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening; you have been able to consult me on the Great Vehicle's own sublime treasure, crossing the ocean of birth and death, reaching the island of omniscience, attaining the indestructible Dharma of the Great Vehicle, departing from the peril of the two lesser vehicles, abiding in the bliss of tranquil extinction, departing far from the whirlpools and deep currents of birth and death, attaining the bodhisattva's own dhāraṇī-wheel of the Dharma of Reaching Every Place, the bodhisattva's own adorned path, the very waves of the path of omniscience, accomplishing the universal Dharma-gate, unobstructed within every dharma, crossing the whole ocean of omniscience. Good son, I have accomplished the Dharma-gate of the Pure Practice of the Banner of Great Compassion; here, at this city Layered Pavilion beside the sea, I cultivate every kind of ascetic practice for the sake of the poor and needy, wishing to satisfy fully whatever every one of them seeks according to their own wish, and then broadly expound the Dharma for them, causing them all to rejoice, rousing their own roots of goodness, nurturing the treasury of merit and wisdom; benefiting the bodhisattva's own faculties, raising the awakening-mind, purifying the bodhisattva's own direct mind, increasing the bodhisattva's own profound mind, giving rise to and nurturing the power of great compassion, extinguishing the suffering of birth and death, traveling the ocean of birth and death without ever wearying, gathering in the ocean of sentient beings, causing them to abide in the ocean of merit, attaining the light of the ocean of wisdom in every dharma, beholding the ocean of every buddha, and crossing the ocean of omniscience. Good son, abiding within this city, thinking thus, holding this right mindfulness, I bring benefit to sentient beings.
Fazang marks this as the second of the Ten Transferences, "the Transference of Indestructibility." He glosses the city's own name, 大悲依智勝出之狀 — "the mark of great compassion relying on wisdom, rising up and excelling" — and the sea-captain's own name, 於佛法海及生死海能善通達及運度，故以為名 — "skillfully penetrating and ferrying across both the ocean of the Buddha-dharma and the ocean of birth and death — hence this name," a name that describes his entire teaching before he has spoken a single word of it. On the threefold mind that structures his own account of raising bodhicitta, Fazang draws directly on the Awakening of Faith: 發菩提心者，發三種心：一者直心，正念真心法故；二者深心，樂修一切諸善行故；三者大悲心，救拔一切苦眾生故 — "'raising the bodhi-mind' means raising three kinds of mind: first, the direct mind, because it rightly holds the true mind's own Dharma in view; second, the profound mind, because it delights in cultivating every wholesome practice; third, the mind of great compassion, because it rescues and delivers every suffering sentient being." He then maps this sea-captain's own words onto the three in turn: extinguishing the suffering of birth and death is the direct mind departing from suffering; gathering in the ocean of sentient beings is the mind of compassion gathering beings in; and attaining every ocean of merit and wisdom is the profound mind attaining the Dharma.
Everything a Sea-Captain Knows
「善男子！我知海中一切寶洲，一切寶相，一切生寶，一切淨寶及不淨寶；知一切寶價，一切寶器；知一切寶隨所應用；知作一切寶；知一切寶境界；知一切寶光明。知一切龍宮殿，滅一切龍難；知一切羅剎宮殿，滅一切羅剎難；知一切大身眾生宮殿，滅一切大身眾生難；知趣、知捨洄澓恐怖，能離波浪；知相水色，知日月星宿，知諸算數，知晝、知夜，知剎那羅婆摩睺姤路；知去、知住，安危之法；知海船舶牢不牢法，明候風相而迴轉之，了所至處。善男子！我已成就如是智慧，利益眾生故，入於大海，因為說法，悉令歡喜，離生死怖，入一切智海，竭愛欲海，逮得三世光明智海，度一切苦海，清淨一切眾生心海，嚴淨一切諸佛剎海，遍遊一切十方界海，無所障礙；知一切眾生諸根願海，隨順一切眾生行海，知一切眾生隨所應海。
善男子！我成就此大悲幢淨行法門；若有見聞憶念我者，皆悉不虛。善男子！我唯知此法門，諸大菩薩行於生死煩惱大海，無所染著，離邪見海，入實法海，以善方便攝眾生海，住一切智海，滅一切眾生諸放逸海，善分別知時、非時海，善方便知化眾生海，未曾失時，我當云何能知、能說彼功德行？善男子！於此南方，有城名曰可樂，彼有長者名無上勝，汝詣彼問云何菩薩學菩薩行、修菩薩道。」
"Good son, I know every island of treasure within the sea, every mark of every treasure, every treasure that is born there, every pure treasure and every impure one; I know the value of every treasure, every vessel that holds treasure; I know how every treasure is put to its own fitting use; I know how to fashion every treasure; I know the domain of every treasure; I know the light of every treasure. I know the palace of every nāga, and dispel every peril from nāgas; I know the palace of every rākṣasa, and dispel every peril from rākṣasas; I know the palace of every great-bodied being, and dispel every peril from great-bodied beings; I know how to seek out and how to avoid the terror of whirlpools, and am able to depart from the waves; I know the mark and color of the water, know the sun, moon, and every constellation, know every kind of calculation, know day and know night, know every fraction of an instant down to the finest measure of time; I know when to go and when to remain, the Dharma of safety and danger; I know the Dharma of whether a seafaring ship is sound or unsound, discern the signs of the wind and turn accordingly, and understand where one will arrive. Good son, having accomplished wisdom such as this, for the sake of benefiting sentient beings, I enter the great ocean, and, through this, expound the Dharma, causing them all to rejoice, departing from the fear of birth and death, entering the ocean of omniscience, exhausting the ocean of craving and desire, attaining the ocean of light and wisdom of the three times, crossing the whole ocean of suffering, purifying the whole ocean of every sentient being's own mind, purifying and adorning the whole ocean of every buddha-land, traveling throughout the whole ocean of every world in the ten directions without any obstruction; knowing the whole ocean of every sentient being's own faculties and vows, according with the whole ocean of every sentient being's own conduct, and knowing the whole ocean of whatever is fitting for every sentient being.
Good son, I have accomplished this Dharma-gate of the Pure Practice of the Banner of Great Compassion; whoever sees me, hears of me, or holds me in mind, it is never in vain for them. Good son, I know only this Dharma-gate; the great bodhisattvas travel through the great ocean of birth, death, and affliction untainted by anything, departing from the ocean of wrong view, entering the ocean of true Dharma, gathering in the ocean of sentient beings through skillful means, abiding in the ocean of omniscience, extinguishing the whole ocean of every sentient being's own heedlessness, skillfully discerning and knowing the ocean of the right time and the wrong time, skillfully knowing through skillful means the ocean of transforming sentient beings, never once missing the right moment. How could I possibly know, how could I possibly speak of, such merit and practice as this? Good son, to the south of here there is a city, named Delightful; there is an elder there, named Unsurpassed Victory. Go to him and ask how a bodhisattva learns the bodhisattva's own practice, cultivates the bodhisattva path."
Fazang glosses one term easy to read too broadly: 大身眾生宮殿者，大身應是修羅，以四位修羅俱在海下故 — "'the palace of great-bodied beings': 'great-bodied' here should specifically mean the asuras, since all four ranks of asura dwell beneath the sea." He divides the sea-captain's own catalogue of nautical knowledge into two halves: knowing the sea through wisdom — ten phrases on treasure, followed by the dangers of nāga, rākṣasa, and asura dwellings, then water, sky, and time itself — and then properly revealing how this same knowledge benefits beings, once he becomes their guide into the sea and expounds the ocean of the Dharma to deliver them. He counts the closing list of ocean-metaphors as ten distinct "dharma-oceans," the first four self-benefiting and the last six benefiting others, closing in two final strokes: confirming that this benefit is never in vain, and concluding that all of it is a single Dharma-gate. Every fact a sailor needs to survive the sea, on this reading, has already been transposed, term for term, into what a bodhisattva needs to cross the ocean of birth and death — nothing in the catalogue is decorative.
Part 43 Complete
This closes Part 43: Sudhana's arrival at Layered Pavilion, and the sea-captain Self-Mastery, second teacher of the Ten Transferences, whose exhaustive knowledge of the literal sea becomes, in his own hands, an equally exhaustive knowledge of the ocean of the Dharma. Sudhana is sent onward, to the city Delightful, and the elder named Unsurpassed Victory.
Continue to Part 44 — Unsurpassed Victory, and the Grove Named Free of Sorrow →