The Very Depths of Omniscience, and Offerings to Every Buddha's Career
Sudhana asks his question at last, and the bhikkhuni Lion's Vigor answers with a single samādhi: entering it, she multiplies her own body to make offering, simultaneously, at every stage of every buddha's entire career — dwelling in Tuṣita heaven, birth, renunciation, awakening, teaching, and final nirvāṇa alike — while holding not the slightest notion of a being, a buddha, or even the offering itself as real. This completes the fourth teacher of the Ten Transferences.
A Reaction Beyond Words
爾時，善財見師子奮迅比丘尼諸奇特事；所謂：園林資生之具，經行威儀寶師子座，大眾眷屬，諸妙功德，神力自在，微妙音聲，如是一切諸奇特事。又聞微妙清淨音聲，宣揚讚歎不思議法。無量法雲之所潤澤，身心柔軟，五體投地，恭敬禮已，將欲遶旋；見比丘尼遍一切座，自見己身及無量眾，樹木園林皆悉右旋，遶無數匝；如是見已，合掌恭敬，於一面住，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，唯願大聖為我解說。」
At that time Sudhana beheld every extraordinary matter concerning the bhikkhuni Lion's Vigor — namely: the garden's own provisions for life, her dignified bearing as she walked in meditation, her jeweled lion-thrones, her great assembly and retinue, her every sublime merit, her sovereign spiritual power, her sublime, subtle voice — every extraordinary matter such as this. He also heard a sublime, subtle, pure voice, proclaiming and praising the Dharma beyond conceiving. Moistened by boundless clouds of Dharma, his body and mind made soft and pliant, he prostrated with all five limbs to the ground, and, having paid reverent homage, was about to circle her; yet he beheld this bhikkhuni present at once upon every throne, and beheld his own body, and countless multitudes, and every tree and grove of the garden, all circling to the right together, countless times over. Having beheld this, he joined his palms in reverence, and, standing 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 — I beg only that the great sage explain it for my sake."
Fazang reads Sudhana's own attempt to circumambulate her as itself a kind of confirmation, arriving before a single word of teaching has even been spoken: 以根緣相稱故，自見己身遍尼所在，同皆右遶，等彼所入故也 — "because his own faculties and conditions now correspond to hers, he beholds his own body present wherever she is seated, all circling to the right together, matching what she herself has already entered." He adds that this moment is itself already an instance of the very Transference this whole teacher embodies — Reaching Every Place — since Sudhana's own body now moves freely according to mind alone, the same sovereign freedom just witnessed in her.
A Single Samādhi, Every Stage of Every Buddha's Life
「善男子！我成就菩薩一切智底法門。」
「大聖！如此法門體性云何？」
「善男子，此法門者智光莊嚴，於一念中普照三世。」
「大聖！此智光莊嚴法門境界云何？」
「善男子！入此法門，現前正受一切法林三昧時，十方一切世界諸佛處兜率天者，於彼一一佛所，從其自身出生不可說不可說佛剎微塵等摩㝹摩身，恭敬禮拜；又齎不可說不可說佛剎微塵等華、香、纓珞、諸妙寶鬘、末香、塗香、衣蓋、幢幡種種寶華雲，乃至一切莊嚴具雲，寶網、寶帳、莊嚴網等種種寶座，以如是等諸供養具供養如來，如兜率天所興供養，降神母胎，出生在宮，捨家學道，詣菩提樹，成最正覺，轉淨法輪，在諸天上、人、非人中乃至般涅槃所興供養，亦復如是。若有眾生知我供養，皆於阿耨多羅三藐三菩提得不退轉；其有眾生來至我所，即為彼說般若波羅蜜。我不起眾生想；不取眾生相；知一切語言而不著語言；見一切佛，不取佛相，深解法身故；受持一切諸佛法輪，而亦不取法輪之相，解了諸佛真實相故；於念念中悉能充滿一切法界，而亦不取法界之相，了一切法猶如幻故。善男子！我唯知此菩薩一切智底法門。諸大菩薩究竟法界，一切無著，一身結跏趺坐充滿法界；於自身內，悉能顯現一切佛剎；於一念中，悉能往詣一切佛所；於自身內，悉能顯現諸佛神力；能以一毛，舉不可說不可說諸佛世界；於一毛孔，現不可說不可說世界成敗；於一念中，攝取不可說不可說眾生；於一念中，攝取不可說不可說劫；我當云何能知、能說彼功德行？善男子！於此南方，有一國土名曰險難，城名寶莊嚴，有一女人名婆須蜜多，汝詣彼問云何菩薩學菩薩行、修菩薩道。」
時，善財童子頭面敬禮比丘尼足，遶無數匝，眷仰觀察，辭退南行。
"Good son, I have accomplished the bodhisattva's own Dharma-gate Reaching the Very Depths of Omniscience."
"Great sage, what is the substance of this very Dharma-gate?"
"Good son, this Dharma-gate is the adornment of the light of wisdom, universally illumining the three times within a single thought-moment."
"Great sage, what is the domain of this Dharma-gate of the Adornment of the Light of Wisdom?"
"Good son, entering this Dharma-gate, when I directly and rightly receive the samādhi of the Forest of All Dharmas, then, for every buddha throughout the ten directions and every world who now dwells within the Tuṣita heaven, at the presence of each and every one of these buddhas, I give rise from my own body to mānuṣa bodies as numerous as motes of dust in buddha-lands beyond telling upon telling, and pay reverent homage; I further bring flowers, incense, necklaces, every kind of sublime jeweled garland, powdered incense, perfumed unguents, robes and canopies, banners and pennants, clouds of every kind of jeweled flower, even clouds of every kind of adorned object, jeweled nets, jeweled canopies, and every kind of jeweled throne adorned with nets, as numerous as motes of dust in buddha-lands beyond telling upon telling, and with offerings such as these make offering to the Tathāgata — and just as I make such offering as he dwells within the Tuṣita heaven, so too do I make offering, in exactly the same way, as he descends into his mother's womb, is born within the palace, leaves his household to learn the path, goes to the bodhi-tree, accomplishes the most perfect awakening, turns the pure Dharma-wheel, and, amid every heaven, among humans and non-humans, even up to his entry into parinirvāṇa. Whoever knows of this offering of mine attains non-retrogression from unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening entirely; and whoever comes before me, I expound for them at once the perfection of wisdom. I give rise to no notion of a sentient being; I take up no mark of a sentient being; I know every kind of language, yet am not attached to language; I behold every buddha, yet take up no mark of a buddha, since I deeply understand the Dharma-body; I receive and uphold every buddha's own Dharma-wheel, yet take up no mark of the Dharma-wheel either, since I understand fully the true mark of every buddha; within every single thought-moment I am able to fill the whole Dharma-realm entirely, yet take up no mark of the Dharma-realm either, since I understand that every dharma is just like an illusion. Good son, I know only this Dharma-gate of the Bodhisattva Reaching the Very Depths of Omniscience. The great bodhisattvas, having reached the very end of the Dharma-realm, unattached to anything at all, seated in full lotus posture within a single body, fill the whole Dharma-realm; within their own body, they are able to manifest every buddha-land entirely; within a single thought-moment, they are able to go before every buddha entirely; within their own body, they are able to manifest every buddha's own spiritual power entirely; they are able, with a single hair, to lift up buddha-worlds beyond telling upon telling; within a single pore, they manifest the arising and destruction of worlds beyond telling upon telling; within a single thought-moment, they gather in sentient beings beyond telling upon telling; within a single thought-moment, they gather in eons beyond telling upon telling. 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 land, named Perilous and Difficult; its city, named Jewel Adornment; there is a woman there, named Vasumitrā. Go to her and ask how a bodhisattva learns the bodhisattva's own practice, cultivates the bodhisattva path."
At that time Sudhana the Boy reverently bowed his head at this bhikkhuni's feet, circled her countless times, gazing back with longing regard, and, taking his leave, journeyed on to the south.
Fazang finds three distinct reasons packed into this Dharma-gate's own name: 一位居菩薩，得百萬僧祇般若智用，盡佛一切智之原底...二智光頓照三際，窮種智之境，故以為名；三廣興供養，盡佛八相智之原底，故得此名 — "first, standing at the rank of a bodhisattva, she has attained the wisdom-function of a million incalculable prajñās, reaching the very source and bottom of a buddha's own omniscience — precisely as shown already, teaching even bodhisattvas at the stage of Equal Awakening, something no lesser stage could do; second, her light of wisdom instantly illumines the three times, exhausting the domain of every kind of wisdom, hence this name; and third, her vast offerings reach the very source and bottom of a buddha's own wisdom across all eight aspects of a buddha's career, hence this name as well." He reads her answer as unfolding in three movements: first, what her practice depends upon — a prior samādhi, "the Forest of All Dharmas," already attained, from which this very function now arises; second, the offering itself, made above to every buddha across all eight aspects of a complete career; and third, "I give rise to no notion of a sentient being" onward, departing far from every dual mark to reveal a function utterly without conceptual effort. On the closing survey of what still lies beyond her — a single hair lifting worlds beyond telling, a single pore holding whole world-cycles rising and falling — Fazang reads it as five deliberate pairs: exhausting the Dharma without attachment; the body vast without, yet all-containing within; swift in going without, yet full of power within; raised up pervasively without, yet broadly containing within; and, gathering beings broadly within a single thought-moment, later gathering across many eons — from which it follows that within every single thought-moment, the gathering of beings is itself inexhaustible. With this, he closes the fourth of the Ten Transferences in full.
Part 47 Complete
This closes Parts 45–47 together, and with them the bhikkhuni Lion's Vigor, fourth teacher of the Ten Transferences: a garden vast enough to hold every being in the trichiliocosm at once, twenty-eight audiences taught simultaneously through a million incalculable gates of wisdom, and a single samādhi in which she makes offering, without ceasing, to every stage of every buddha's entire career. Sudhana is sent onward, to the land Perilous and Difficult, the city Jewel Adornment, and the woman named Vasumitrā.
Continue to Part 48 — Vasumitrā, at Jewel Adornment →