True Course, and the Universal Gate of Swift Practice
Without leaving Avalokiteśvara's own assembly, Sudhana turns to the bodhisattva True Course, who has just arrived from a land so distant that even devas and humans cannot fathom the journey — a single thought-moment carrying him past worlds beyond telling, a single step crossing what would otherwise take eons, a buddha present in every land he passes through along the way. The eighth teacher of the Ten Transferences.
A Journey No One Can Fathom
時，善財童子頭面敬禮觀世音足，遶無數匝，觀察無厭，正念聖教，深入智海，辭詣正趣，頭面禮足，右遶畢，恭敬合掌，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。」
「善男子！我已成就菩薩普門速行法門。」白言：「大聖！於何佛所得此法門？所從來剎去此幾何？發來久如？」
答言：「善男子！此處難知。一切諸天、人、非人等，所不能了。唯精進不退，近善知識，佛所護念，具足善根，淨正直心，得菩薩根，開智慧眼，多聞多知菩薩境界。」
「唯願大聖為我解說！我當承佛神力、善知識力，而得信解。」
At that time Sudhana the Boy reverently bowed his head at Avalokiteśvara's feet, circled him countless times, gazing upon him without ever tiring, rightly holding this noble teaching in mind, entering deeply into the ocean of wisdom; and, taking his leave, went before True Course, bowed his head at his feet, and, having circled him to the right, 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."
"Good son, I have accomplished the bodhisattva's own Dharma-gate of the Universal Gate of Swift Practice." Sudhana said: "Great sage, at the presence of which buddha did you attain this Dharma-gate? How far from here is the land you came from? How long ago did you set out?"
He answered: "Good son, this matter is difficult to know; every deva, human, and non-human is unable to fathom it. Only one who is diligent and never retreats, who draws near to good spiritual friends, who is held in mind and protected by the buddhas, who is fully endowed with roots of goodness, whose mind is pure and upright, who has attained the bodhisattva's own faculties, who has opened the eye of wisdom, and who has heard much and knows much of a bodhisattva's own domain, could understand it."
"I beg only that the great sage explain it for my sake! I shall, through the Buddha's own spiritual power and the power of a good spiritual friend, come to believe and understand it."
Fazang marks this as the eighth of the Ten Transferences, "the Transference of the Mark of Suchness." He reads Sudhana's own three questions as deliberately structured: first, where True Course attained this Dharma-gate; second, how far the land he set out from lies; third, how long ago he departed — each answered in turn, in the very order asked. He also notes something easy to miss in how Sudhana approaches this teacher: unlike every prior encounter, the text does not have Sudhana recollect the previous teaching on his way here. His own explanation: 何故不念觀音悲門？以悲不離智，故令悲深入於智海，方為究竟 — "why does he not hold Avalokiteśvara's own gate of compassion in mind? Because compassion never departs from wisdom — and so the text has compassion enter deeply into the ocean of wisdom instead, only then reaching its own true completion." Moving straight from Avalokiteśvara to True Course, in other words, is itself the doctrinal point: compassion's own culmination is wisdom, not a separate recollection alongside it.
A Single Step Beyond Worlds Beyond Telling
答言：「善男子！我所從來剎，名曰妙藏，佛號妙德。於彼佛所得此法門，從彼發來已經不可說佛剎微塵等劫；於一念中行不可說佛剎微塵等步；一步過不可說佛剎微塵等世界；所經諸國，佛皆現在，以一切菩薩諸供養具而供養之。悉能了知彼世界中諸群生海，分別諸根，隨其所應而為說法，放大光網，普照十方，出妙音聲，演說正法，饒益度脫彼諸眾生，乃至十方亦復如是。善男子！我唯知此菩薩普門速行法門。諸大菩薩普於十方，無所不至，境界無量，無能壞者；清淨法身充滿法界，分別了知諸眾生道，滿一切剎，順一切法，等觀三世，說平等法，隨順世間，不著佛道，普至諸道，無著無礙，我當云何能知、能說彼功德行？善男子！於此南方，有城名婆羅波提；彼有一天，名曰大天。汝詣彼問云何菩薩學菩薩行、修菩薩道。」
時，善財童子頭面敬禮正趣菩薩，遶無數匝，眷仰觀察，辭退南行。
He answered: "Good son, the land I came from is named Wondrous Treasury; its buddha is named Wondrous Virtue. At the presence of that buddha I attained this Dharma-gate; since setting out from there, I have already passed through eons as numerous as motes of dust in buddha-lands beyond telling; within a single thought-moment I travel steps as numerous as motes of dust in buddha-lands beyond telling; with a single step I pass beyond worlds as numerous as motes of dust in buddha-lands beyond telling; in every land I pass through, a buddha is present, and I make offering to him with every kind of bodhisattva offering. I am able to understand entirely the whole ocean of every kind of being within that world, discerning their every faculty, and, according to what is fitting, expound the Dharma for them, releasing a great net of light, universally illumining the ten directions, giving forth a sublime voice, expounding the true Dharma, bringing benefit and delivering these sentient beings — and it is exactly the same throughout the ten directions. Good son, I know only this bodhisattva's own Dharma-gate of the Universal Gate of Swift Practice; the great bodhisattvas, universal throughout the ten directions, reach everywhere without exception, their domain boundless, unable to be destroyed by anything; their pure Dharma-body fills the whole Dharma-realm, discerning and understanding every sentient being's own path, filling every land, according with every dharma, regarding the three times with equanimity, expounding the Dharma of equanimity, according with the world, yet unattached even to the buddha-path itself, reaching universally every path, without attachment, without obstruction. 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 Dvāravatī; there is a deva there, named Mahādeva. 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 to the bodhisattva True Course, circled him countless times, gazing back with longing regard, and, taking his leave, journeyed on to the south.
Fazang reads the scale of True Course's journey as making a precise doctrinal point, not simply piling up hyperbole: 謂上供諸佛、下救眾生，非直不廢速行而成妙行，亦乃則以速行成此勝行 — "making offerings above to every buddha, rescuing beings below — this is not merely a case of sublime practice happening not to interfere with swift practice; rather, swift practice itself is precisely what accomplishes this supreme practice." Speed, on this reading, is not incidental to the teaching but constitutive of it. On the closing survey of what the great bodhisattvas do that True Course himself cannot, Fazang draws a distinction easy to miss: 所住境界無量無壞，不同正趣唯此住一金剛山頂 — "their domain of abiding is boundless and indestructible, unlike True Course, who abides only at this one Mount Vajra." And on speed itself, he goes further still: 謂以法身本來滿法界，不待速行 — "since the Dharma-body already fills the whole Dharma-realm from the very outset, it has no need of 'swift practice' at all" — the great bodhisattvas do not need to travel fast, because in the relevant sense they are already everywhere. True Course's own dazzling speed, for all its scale, is revealed as a lesser stand-in for a condition that requires no travel whatsoever.
Part 51 Complete
This closes Part 51: the bodhisattva True Course, eighth teacher of the Ten Transferences, whose Universal Gate of Swift Practice carries him past worlds beyond telling in a single thought-moment — itself, Fazang notes, only an approach to a condition the greatest bodhisattvas already occupy without needing to travel at all. Sudhana is sent onward, to the city Dvāravatī, and the deva named Mahādeva.
Continue to Part 52 — Mahādeva, and the Dharma-Gate of the Cloud-Net →