Secure Abiding, and the Sandalwood Stūpa
Sudhana takes leave of Vasumitrā and journeys to the city Sublime Crossing to the Far Shore, where the elder Secure Abiding opens the door of a sandalwood buddha-stūpa each day and, within that single act, beholds every buddha of the past, present, and future — eight named buddhas of this very world, and worlds beyond telling besides — never once having actually entered nirvāṇa at all. The sixth teacher of the Ten Transferences, and the briefest episode of the pilgrimage so far, deliberately compressed by the text itself.
A Door Opened, and a Samādhi Entered
爾時，善財童子漸漸遊行至於彼城，詣長者所，乃至白言：「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：「善男子！我已成就不滅度際菩薩法門。住此法門，普見十方一切世界去、來、今佛無涅槃者；除化眾生，方便滅度。善男子！我開栴檀佛塔戶時，念念正受無盡佛性三昧門，於念念中得無量無邊勝妙諸法。」
白言：「大聖！此三昧者境界云何？」
At that time Sudhana the Boy gradually journeyed on until he arrived at that city, and went before this elder, and — in brief — 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: "Good son, I have accomplished the bodhisattva's own Dharma-gate of Never Entering the Limit of Final Nirvāṇa. Abiding in this Dharma-gate, I universally behold every buddha of the past, future, and present, throughout every world in the ten directions, as never having entered nirvāṇa at all — except where, through skillful means, they manifest entry into final nirvāṇa for the sake of transforming sentient beings. Good son, whenever I open the door of this sandalwood buddha-stūpa, within every single thought-moment I directly and rightly receive the gate of the samādhi of the Inexhaustible Buddha-Nature, and within every single thought-moment attain boundless, limitless, sublime dharmas."
Sudhana said: "Great sage, what is the domain of this samādhi?"
Fazang marks this as the sixth of the Ten Transferences. He glosses the city's own name, 首婆波羅者，此云善妙到彼岸 — "'Śubhaparā' means 'sublimely arriving at the far shore.'" On the elder's own name, he gives two readings: 安住者，謂得佛法身，常住供養故 — "'Secure Abiding' is because he has attained the buddha's own Dharma-body, constantly abiding there in offering"; but he adds that the Indian original more properly names him 攝持，或名執持攝入 — "'Gathering and Upholding,' or 'Grasping and Gathering In,'" because he gathers in every wholesome dharma. On why this episode reads so much more tersely than any before it, Fazang notes the compression plainly, twice over: the section that would ordinarily recount Sudhana holding the previous teaching in mind on the road is, here, 略無念法 — "entirely omitted"; and the section that would ordinarily describe his beholding and revering the elder in person is likewise 略無見敬，故云乃至也 — "entirely omitted, which is why the text simply says 'and so forth.'" This is not an editorial gap in Ru-Yi's own translation but a feature of the sutra's own transmitted text — an unusually brief episode, deliberately so, for a teacher whose own single Dharma-gate needs almost no scene-setting at all to make its point.
Eight Buddhas, and Every Buddha Beyond Them
答言：「善男子！我入此三昧時，見此世界迦葉佛、拘那含牟尼佛、尸棄佛、毘婆尸佛、提舍佛、弗沙佛、無上勝佛、無上蓮華佛。見如是等不可說不可說諸佛，閻浮提微塵等佛，乃至不可說不可說佛剎微塵等佛。見此諸佛從初發心、神力自在、一切大願、清淨妙行、諸波羅蜜、次第成就菩薩諸地、得深法忍、降伏眾魔、長養成就自在菩提、淨諸佛剎、種種大眾、教化眾生、放大光明、轉淨法輪、神力變化，皆悉受持，正念思惟；智慧分別彼諸佛法，顯現眾生，見知未來彌勒佛等一切諸佛，現在盧舍那佛等一切諸佛，亦復如是。如此世界，見知十方三世一切諸佛、聲聞、緣覺、菩薩亦復如是。善男子！我唯知此不滅度際菩薩法門，諸大菩薩一念悉知三世諸法，念際平等而無有二；住佛所住，於一切劫而無劫想；隨順諸佛平等正法，如來及我，一切眾生等無有二；淨莊嚴智，照三世間，成就諸佛不轉威儀，分別一切法界境界；我當云何能知、能說彼功德行？善男子！於此南方，有山名曰光明，彼有菩薩名觀世音，汝詣彼問云何菩薩學菩薩行、修菩薩道。」
時，善財童子頭面敬禮彼長者足，遶無數匝，眷仰觀察，辭退南行。
He answered: "Good son, when I enter this samādhi, I behold, within this world, the Buddha Kāśyapa, the Buddha Kanakamuni, the Buddha Śikhin, the Buddha Vipaśyin, the Buddha Tiṣya, the Buddha Puṣya, the Buddha Unsurpassed Victory, and the Buddha Unsurpassed Lotus. I behold buddhas such as these, beyond telling upon telling, buddhas as numerous as motes of dust in Jambudvīpa, even buddhas as numerous as motes of dust in buddha-lands beyond telling upon telling. I behold these buddhas, from their very first raising of the mind, their sovereign spiritual power, every great vow, their pure, sublime practice, every perfection, their sequential accomplishment of every bodhisattva ground, their attainment of profound forbearance of the Dharma, their subduing of every māra, their nurturing and accomplishing of sovereign bodhi, their purifying of every buddha-land, their every kind of great assembly, their teaching and transforming of sentient beings, their releasing of great light, their turning of the pure Dharma-wheel, and their spiritual transformation — all of this I receive and uphold entirely, rightly holding it in mind and contemplation; through wisdom I discern these buddhas' own Dharma, manifesting it for sentient beings, and I likewise behold and know the future Buddha Maitreya and every other future buddha, and the present Buddha Vairocana and every other present buddha, in exactly the same way. Just as within this world, so too do I behold and know every buddha, śrāvaka, pratyekabuddha, and bodhisattva of the three times throughout the ten directions, in exactly the same way. Good son, I know only this bodhisattva's own Dharma-gate of Never Entering the Limit of Final Nirvāṇa; the great bodhisattvas, within a single thought-moment, know every dharma of the three times entirely, the very limit of that thought-moment equal to and non-dual with what is known; abiding in the abode of the buddhas themselves, they hold no notion of any eon at all, throughout every eon; according with every buddha's own equanimous, true Dharma, the Tathāgata and I myself, and every sentient being, are equal, without any duality; their pure, adorned wisdom illumines the three realms, they accomplish the buddhas' own unchanging, dignified bearing, and discern the whole domain of the Dharma-realm. 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 mountain, named Mount Light; there is a bodhisattva there, named Avalokiteśvara. Go to him 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 elder's feet, circled him countless times, gazing back with longing regard, and, taking his leave, journeyed on to the south.
Fazang reads "except where, through skillful means, they manifest entry into final nirvāṇa" as the crux of the whole teaching: 除化眾生者，但變異他心令見出歿，其實常身無出無滅。又佛月常住，但眾生心水影有現滅 — "'except in transforming sentient beings' means only that the buddha alters other minds so that they perceive an arising and a passing away; in reality, his eternal body never arises and never perishes at all. It is like the moon, which abides constantly, while only its reflection, in the water of a sentient being's own mind, appears and disappears." On the humility that closes the teaching, he draws out an unusually precise, eightfold account of exactly what still exceeds this elder's own grasp: though he knows the buddhas of the three times never truly cease, he cannot yet make the single thought-moment that knows this fully non-dual with what it knows; he knows the eons in sequence, but not free of the very notion of "an eon"; he beholds the buddhas as indestructible, but cannot know that any two buddhas are themselves equal and non-dual; he cannot yet make mind, buddha, and sentient being — as he puts it, "the Tathāgata and I myself, and every sentient being" — truly without distinction; and though he illumines the three times, he has not yet made that same wisdom identical with the buddhas' own dignified bearing, nor sovereign within the Dharma itself. Fazang closes this section calling it "the Transference of Firm Roots of Goodness" — a name that varies slightly from the section's own opening title, a small inconsistency this project records rather than silently resolves.
Part 49 Complete
This closes Part 49: Sudhana's brief encounter with the elder Secure Abiding, sixth teacher of the Ten Transferences, whose sandalwood stūpa opens onto every buddha of the three times at once. Sudhana is sent onward, to Mount Light, and the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara.
Continue to Part 50 — Avalokiteśvara, at Mount Light →