Joyful Eyes Observing Sentient Beings
Sudhana finds the night-deva Joyful Eyes Observing Sentient Beings seated in samādhi within the Buddha's own assembly, every pore of her body releasing clouds of manifestation. Ten clouds rise in turn, one for each perfection — giving, precepts, patience, diligence, meditation, wisdom, skillful means, vow, power, and knowledge — each demonstrated through countless transformation-bodies visible to beings throughout the ten directions. The third teacher of the Ten Grounds, in the first of seven parts.
Giving, Precepts, and Patience, Released from Every Pore
爾時，善財往詣喜目觀察眾生夜天，見彼夜天在如來所，於大眾中，處寶蓮華師子之座；正受菩薩普光喜幢法門，一切毛孔，出眾妙雲。其有見者，欣悅無厭，所謂：智慧行雲，饒益眾生，離於諍訟，不著諸法；以平等心，普攝眾生，顯三世菩薩修行布施，悉捨內外難捨之物，十方眾生，皆悉覩見。
又於一切毛孔，出眾生數等菩薩變化身雲，充滿法界，現眾生前；顯示正受不動三昧，覺悟眾生不樂三界。遠離世間，滅除生死，現天人中種種成敗；教諸眾生，修不淨觀，除淨想倒；說有為行，無常變易，苦惱之法；令諸眾生，深入佛戒，未曾暫離，受持諸佛清淨禁戒；現無疑戒，及以香戒戒香，普熏一切眾生。
又於一切毛孔，出眾生數等妙色身雲，顯示眾生，截諸肢節，皆悉能忍，堪受眾苦；一切訶責惡罵，皆悉忍受。於彼眾生，不生恚心，恭敬讚歎，不生愛心；於一切眾生，不起我慢，顯現諸法自性之忍，顯現無盡菩提心智；除滅一切眾生煩惱，修習忍法，行菩薩行；顯現清淨金剛之身，顯現如來清淨無上色身，隨其所應，教化眾生。
At that time Sudhana went before the night-deva Joyful Eyes Observing Sentient Beings, and beheld this night-deva at the presence of the Tathāgata, within a great assembly, seated upon a lion-throne of jeweled lotus; directly and rightly receiving the bodhisattva's own Dharma-gate of the Banner of Joy, Universal Light, every pore of her body gave forth clouds of every kind of wonder. Whoever beheld them delighted without ever tiring, namely: clouds of wisdom's own practice, bringing benefit to sentient beings, departing from dispute, unattached to any dharma; through a mind of equanimity, universally gathering in sentient beings, manifesting bodhisattvas of the three times cultivating the practice of giving, relinquishing entirely every object, inward or outward, however difficult to relinquish — sentient beings throughout the ten directions beheld it all.
She further, from every pore, gave forth clouds of transformation-bodies of bodhisattvas equal in number to sentient beings, filling the Dharma-realm, manifesting before sentient beings; manifesting directly and rightly receiving the unmoving samādhi, awakening sentient beings to take no delight in the three realms. Departing far from the world, extinguishing birth and death, manifesting every kind of arising and dissolution among gods and humans; teaching sentient beings to cultivate the contemplation of impurity, dispelling the inversion of a notion of purity; expounding the Dharma of conditioned activity, impermanent and ever-changing, a matter of suffering and affliction; causing sentient beings to enter deeply into the Buddha's own precepts, never once departing from them, upholding every buddha's own pure, restraining precepts; manifesting precepts free of any doubt, and the very fragrance of precepts as fragrance itself, universally perfuming every sentient being.
She further, from every pore, gave forth clouds of sublime forms equal in number to sentient beings, manifesting to sentient beings the cutting off of every limb and joint, all of it endured entirely, able to bear every suffering; every reviling and evil abuse, all of it endured entirely. Toward these very beings, she gave rise to no mind of hatred at all; toward reverence and praise, she gave rise to no mind of attachment at all; toward every sentient being, she gave rise to no pride of self at all, manifesting the patience that belongs to every dharma's own nature, manifesting the inexhaustible wisdom of the bodhi-mind; extinguishing every sentient being's own affliction, cultivating the Dharma of patience, practicing the bodhisattva's own practice; manifesting a pure, vajra body, manifesting the Tathāgata's own pure, unsurpassed form-body, teaching and transforming sentient beings according to what was fitting.
Fazang marks this as the third of the Ten Grounds, "the Ground of Light," and glosses the very first thing Sudhana beholds — before a word has been spoken — as the Dharma-gate's own body made visible: 身安寶座智處法門，謂依法界身，現普光幢差別人法，以益眾生 — "her body resting on a jeweled throne, her wisdom abiding in the Dharma-gate itself, means that, relying on the Dharma-realm's own body, she manifests the Banner of Universal Light's own distinct persons and dharmas, benefiting sentient beings." He reads the ten cloud-visions that follow — of which giving, precepts, and patience are only the first three — as one continuous demonstration of the ten perfections in turn, each pore-cloud enacting one perfection completely before the next begins: 初毛孔出身雲，行十度以化眾生...別中十度即為十段 — "the very first pore-cloud already sets in motion the practice of the ten perfections to transform sentient beings... taken separately, the ten perfections form exactly ten sections." Every scene Sudhana witnesses from here through the end of this teacher's opening vision, in other words, belongs to a single, deliberately ordered sequence — not scattered wonders, but the ten perfections shown one after another, each at the scale of countless simultaneous bodies.
Diligence, Meditation, and Wisdom, Released from Every Pore
又於一切毛孔，出諸趣種種色身雲，勇猛精進，現一切智；勇猛精進，現菩提境界而不退轉；勇猛精進，降伏諸魔；勇猛精進，於生死海，悉能救度一切眾生；勇猛精進，除滅一切惡道諸難；勇猛精進，壞無智山；勇猛精進，恭敬供養一切如來，心無疲倦；勇猛精進，受持守護諸佛法輪；勇猛精進，壞散一切諸障礙山；勇猛精進，嚴淨一切諸如來剎，得諸如來清淨精進，教化度脫一切眾生。
又於一切毛孔，出種種色身雲，以諸方便，除滅眾生愁憂苦惱，悉令歡喜；厭惡五欲，讚歎慚愧，調伏諸根，修行無上清淨梵行；身、口、意善，顯現世間一切所欲，皆不可樂；建立眾生，令樂正法，出生正受九次第定；除滅眾生一切煩惱，顯現菩薩諸三昧海，通明自在神力境界；令諸眾生，皆悉歡喜，身心柔軟，滅煩惱熱，得清涼樂，長養正法。
又於一切毛孔，出諸趣種種身雲，詣一切剎諸佛師長，善知識所，恭敬供養，心無疲倦。受持一切諸佛法輪；究竟一切佛海；顯現一切法海；顯現一切諸法實相；顯現一切諸三昧門，清淨智慧；分別一切眾生心海，金剛智慧；壞散一切眾生諸邪見山，出生圓滿明淨慧日。於一念中，悉能除滅一切眾生愚癡闇冥，令諸眾生，皆悉歡喜，得薩婆若。
She further, from every pore, gave forth clouds of every kind of form of every destiny, valiant and diligent, manifesting omniscience; valiant and diligent, manifesting the domain of bodhi without ever retreating; valiant and diligent, subduing every māra; valiant and diligent, within the ocean of birth and death, able to rescue and deliver every sentient being entirely; valiant and diligent, extinguishing every peril of the evil paths entirely; valiant and diligent, breaking apart the mountain of ignorance; valiant and diligent, reverently making offering to every tathāgata, her mind never weary; valiant and diligent, receiving and upholding, guarding every buddha's own Dharma-wheel; valiant and diligent, breaking apart and scattering every mountain of obstruction; valiant and diligent, purifying and adorning every one of the tathāgatas' own lands, attaining every tathāgata's own pure diligence, teaching and delivering every sentient being.
She further, from every pore, gave forth clouds of every kind of form, through every skillful means extinguishing sentient beings' own sorrow, worry, and affliction, causing them all to rejoice; growing weary of the five desires, praising conscience and moral shame, taming and subduing every faculty, cultivating the unsurpassed, pure holy life; her bodily, verbal, and mental conduct wholesome, manifesting that everything the world desires is never truly a source of delight; establishing sentient beings so that they delight in the true Dharma, giving rise to and directly, rightly receiving the nine progressive concentrations; extinguishing every sentient being's own affliction, manifesting the whole ocean of the bodhisattva's own samādhi, the domain of spiritual penetration's own sovereign power; causing every sentient being to rejoice entirely, their body and mind made soft and pliant, every feverish affliction extinguished, attaining cool, refreshing bliss, nurturing the true Dharma.
She further, from every pore, gave forth clouds of every kind of form of every destiny, going before every buddha, every teacher, and every good spiritual friend throughout every land, reverently making offering, her mind never weary. Receiving and upholding every buddha's own Dharma-wheel; reaching the very end of the whole ocean of every buddha; manifesting the whole ocean of every dharma; manifesting the true mark of every dharma entirely; manifesting every gate of samādhi, her wisdom pure; discerning the whole ocean of every sentient being's own mind, her wisdom like vajra; breaking apart and scattering every sentient being's own mountain of wrong view, giving rise to the perfect, bright, pure sun of wisdom. Within a single thought-moment, able to extinguish entirely every sentient being's own darkness of folly, causing every sentient being to rejoice entirely, attaining omniscience.
These three further clouds continue the same sequence: diligence, meditation, and wisdom, the fourth, fifth, and sixth of the ten perfections in Fazang's own count. On the meditation-cloud's "nine progressive concentrations" (九次第定) — the eight jhānas together with the cessation of perception and feeling that traditionally caps them — he offers no further gloss beyond confirming it belongs here as this perfection's own technical content. Every one of these clouds follows the identical shape already set by the first three: a single pore, a single perfection, and countless bodies enacting it before beings throughout the ten directions, all of it still unfolding before Sudhana has spoken a single word to this teacher.
Part 60 In Progress
Part 60 continues in Part 61: the remaining four pore-clouds — skillful means, vow, power, and knowledge — completing the full sequence of the ten perfections, followed by a further vision revealing this very night-deva's own past cultivation of each one in turn.
Continue to Part 61 — Skillful Means, Vow, Power, and Knowledge →