Secure Abiding, the Earth-Goddess of the Bodhimaṇḍa
Sudhana arrives at the very bodhimaṇḍa in Magadha, where ten thousand earth-devas praise him before the earth-goddess Secure Abiding presses her toe into the ground and reveals countless treasuries of jewels — the visible fruit, she tells him, of roots of goodness he himself planted in this very place in ages long past. The tenth and final teacher of the Ten Transferences, closing this whole stage at the one ground every buddha's own awakening has ever actually touched.
Ten Thousand Earth-Devas, and a Toe Pressed Into the Ground
時，善財童子頭面敬禮彼大天足，乃至辭退，趣摩竭國，詣彼道場安住地神。爾時，一萬地天各作是言：「此來童子，能攝眾生，即是佛藏；能破一切眾生無明㲉膜，生法王家，離垢無礙，寶繒以冠其頂，智慧寶藏摧外道輪。」時，安住地天等一萬地天，雨眾香水以灑其地，掃以香風而以莊嚴，放大光明普照三千大千世界。眾寶莊嚴，一切華樹開敷鮮茂，一切果樹悉成果實，一切泉源、河池流相灌注，演出種種娛樂音聲，諸天眾寶莊嚴樓閣，異類眾鳥皆悉歡喜，出哀和音，無量寶藏自然涌出。
爾時，安住地神告善財言：「善來童子！汝欲自見曾於此處所種善根果報不乎？」爾時，善財頭面敬禮彼地神足，恭敬合掌，於一面住，白言：「大聖！唯然欲見。」
時，彼地神即以足指按地，無量阿僧祇那由他寶藏開發顯現。「善男子！汝昔所種善根、果報，致此寶藏自在隨汝。善男子！我已成就菩薩不可壞藏法門，我於然燈佛來，常護菩薩修習菩薩行，深入智慧境界，盡其源底，大願成滿，淨菩薩行，出生菩薩一切通明，具足菩薩諸力功德，成就菩薩不可壞法。遊諸佛剎，聞一切佛所授記法，轉一切法輪，一切修多羅法雲以大法光明教化眾生，受持諸佛自在神力。
At that time Sudhana the Boy reverently bowed his head at this Mahādeva's own feet, and, in brief, took his leave, and set out toward the land of Magadha, going to the earth-deity Secure Abiding at that very bodhimaṇḍa. At that time ten thousand earth-devas all spoke thus: "This boy who has come is able to gather in sentient beings — he is himself a treasury of the Buddha; he is able to break through every sentient being's own eggshell-membrane of ignorance, is born into the household of the Dharma-king, departed from defilement, unobstructed, a jeweled silk crown upon his very head, his treasury of wisdom's own jewel crushing the wheel of every outsider's path." At that time the earth-deva Secure Abiding, together with ten thousand earth-devas, rained down every kind of fragrant water, sprinkling the ground, sweeping it with fragrant wind and adorning it, releasing great light that universally illumined the whole trichiliocosm. Adorned with every jewel, every flowering tree blossomed forth in freshness and splendor, every fruit tree became entirely laden with fruit, every spring, river, and pool poured and flowed one into another, giving forth every kind of joyful, entertaining sound, the devas' own pavilions adorned with every jewel, and birds of every different kind all rejoiced, giving forth mournful, harmonious song, while countless treasuries of jewels welled up of themselves.
At that time the earth-deity Secure Abiding said to Sudhana: "Welcome, O boy! Do you wish to behold for yourself the fruit and recompense of the roots of goodness you yourself once planted in this very place?" At that time Sudhana bowed his head at this earth-deity's feet, and, joining his palms in reverence, stood to one side, and said: "Great sage, indeed, I wish to see it."
At that time this earth-deity pressed her toe into the ground, and countless incalculable nayutas of treasuries of jewels opened forth and were revealed. "Good son, the roots of goodness and the recompense you planted in ages past have brought forth this treasury, sovereign and following you of itself. Good son, I have accomplished the bodhisattva's own Dharma-gate of the Indestructible Treasury; since the buddha Dīpaṃkara, I have constantly guarded the bodhisattva's own cultivation of the bodhisattva's own practice, entering deeply into the domain of wisdom, reaching its very source and bottom, the great vow fulfilled, purifying the bodhisattva's own practice, giving rise to the bodhisattva's own every spiritual penetration, fully endowed with the bodhisattva's own every power and merit, accomplishing the bodhisattva's own indestructible Dharma. I travel throughout every buddha-land, hearing the Dharma of prophecy given by every buddha, turning every Dharma-wheel, teaching and transforming sentient beings through the great light of the Dharma amid every cloud of every sūtra's own Dharma, receiving and upholding every buddha's own sovereign spiritual power.
Fazang marks this as the tenth and final of the Ten Transferences, "the Transference of the Boundless Dharma-Realm" — and treats the choice of teacher here as carrying unusual structural weight. Every one of the pilgrimage's five great stages, he explains, has its own version of "becoming a buddha beneath a tree": 良由五位終極各有成佛，樹下現成屬此位故 — "precisely because each of the five great stages, at its own culmination, has its own becoming-a-buddha; manifesting accomplishment beneath the tree belongs to that very stage's own close." This is why the Ten Transferences close not with a distant land but at the bodhimaṇḍa itself — the actual ground beneath the actual tree — and why the teacher here is a deity of that ground rather than of a city or a garden. He distinguishes two kinds of guardian spirit at any bodhimaṇḍa, tree-deities and earth-deities, and reads the choice of an earth-deity specifically: 表所依心地，以心中得道為道場地 — "marking the very ground of mind relied upon — attaining the path within the mind itself is what makes any place 'the ground of a bodhimaṇḍa' at all." Her own name, he explains, follows from her function: 攝諸善根迴向菩提，安在道場地處，住持不失要令成果，故以為名 — "she gathers in every root of goodness and dedicates it toward bodhi, securely abiding at the very ground of the bodhimaṇḍa, upholding it without loss until the fruit is reached — hence 'Secure Abiding.'"
On the toe pressed into the ground, Fazang reads the treasures that spring forth as something more specific than ordinary wealth: 以善財宿世善根悉皆迴向大菩提故，是故在此道場菩提樹下藏中安住...今欲證地，加令總現，則一切善根皆在此處 — "because every one of Sudhana's own roots of goodness from past lives has already been dedicated toward great bodhi, they abide securely within this very treasury beneath the bodhi tree of this bodhimaṇḍa... wishing now to make this ground manifest, she causes it all to appear together — every root of goodness Sudhana has ever planted is, quite literally, present in this one place." The jewels are not a gift; they are Sudhana's own accumulated merit, made visible for the first time.
A Buddha Named Excellent Eye, and the Ten Transferences Complete
善男子！乃往古世，過須彌山微塵等劫，有劫名莊嚴，世界名月幢，佛號善眼。於彼佛所得此法門，修習長養淨此法門，於其中間常遇不可說不可說佛剎微塵等佛，彼諸如來往詣道場，自在神力皆悉奉覲，於此佛所修集善根。善男子！我唯知此法門，諸大菩薩常能隨侍一切諸佛，悉聞受持彼諸佛法，深入諸佛祕密教法，於念念中出淨法身等一切佛、一切佛影藏，出一切佛法所行無壞，我當云何能知、能說彼功德行？善男子！此閻浮提有城，名曰迦毘羅婆；彼有夜天，名婆娑婆陀。汝詣彼問云何菩薩學菩薩行、修菩薩道。」
"Good son, in an age long past, beyond eons as numerous as motes of dust upon Mount Sumeru, there was an eon named Adornment, a world named Moon Banner, and a buddha named Excellent Eye. At the presence of that buddha I attained this Dharma-gate, cultivating, nurturing, and purifying this very Dharma-gate; and, within that span, I constantly encountered buddhas as numerous as motes of dust in buddha-lands beyond telling upon telling, and, as these tathāgatas went before the bodhimaṇḍa, I paid homage to their own sovereign spiritual power in every case, cultivating and gathering roots of goodness at the presence of each of these buddhas. Good son, I know only this Dharma-gate; the great bodhisattvas are constantly able to accompany every buddha, hearing and upholding every one of these buddhas' own Dharma entirely, entering deeply into every buddha's own secret teaching, within every single thought-moment giving rise to a pure Dharma-body equal to every buddha, a treasury of the reflection of every buddha, giving rise to the indestructible practice of every buddha's own Dharma. How could I possibly know, how could I possibly speak of, such merit and practice as this? Good son, within this Jambudvīpa there is a city, named Kapilavastu; there is a night-deva there, named Vāsantī. Go to her and ask how a bodhisattva learns the bodhisattva's own practice, cultivates the bodhisattva path."
Fazang glosses the Dharma-gate's own name directly from what it accomplishes: 以住持不失，成佛決定，名不壞藏 — "because she upholds it without any loss at all, buddhahood being thereby assured, it is named the 'Indestructible Treasury.'" On why she defers to the great bodhisattvas' ability to "constantly accompany every buddha," he offers a plain, almost wistful reason: 以此地神唯道場處見佛，不能常隨，故仰推也 — "because this earth-deity beholds buddhas only at the bodhimaṇḍa itself, and is not able to accompany them constantly elsewhere — hence this deferral." Bound to one sacred ground, however central, she cannot follow a buddha's own path everywhere the way a fuller bodhisattva can. Fazang closes her section directly: 上來十迴向位竟 — "the stage of the Ten Transferences, presented above, is hereby complete" — and opens the next at once: 自下從婆娑婆陀至瞿夷有十善知識，明十地位行 — "from here, from the night-deva Vāsantī through to Gopā, there are ten spiritual friends, revealing the practice of the Ten Grounds stage" — the pilgrimage's fourth great division, about to begin.
Part 53 Complete
This closes Part 53, and with it the entire "Ten Transferences" stage of the pilgrimage — Fazang's own commentary marks this earth-goddess of the bodhimaṇḍa as its tenth and final position, fitting because every one of the path's five great stages culminates in its own version of enlightenment beneath a tree. Sudhana is sent onward, to the city Kapilavastu, and the night-deva named Vāsantī, opening the Ten Grounds to come.
Continue to Part 54 — Vāsantī, and the Ten Grounds Begin →