Sixty Classes of Beings, Twenty-Four Kinds of Sound
A further vision manifests sixty classes of beings — from the highest heavens of the form realm down through dragon-kings, human kings, forest spirits, and vajra-warriors — each given voice through twenty-four kinds of sound to tell this night-deva's own biography, from her first raising of the mind onward. Sudhana finally understands what he has witnessed, and names ten reasons he was able to see it at all.
From the Highest Heaven to a Vajra-Warrior's Own Spirit
又於一切毛孔，出無量身雲，所謂：阿迦尼吒天身雲、淨居天身雲、善現天身雲、不熱天身雲、果實天身雲、遍淨天身雲、無量淨天身雲、少淨天身雲、淨果天身雲、無量淨果天身雲、少淨果天身雲、光音天身雲、無量光音天身雲、少光音天身雲、大梵天身雲、梵輔天身雲、梵身天身雲；他化自在天王，及他化自在天子、天女身雲；化自在天王，及化自在天子、天女身雲；兜率天王，及兜率天子、天女身雲；夜摩天王，及夜摩天子、天女身雲；三十三天王，及三十三天天子、天女身雲；提頭賴吒天王，及一切乾闥婆男女身雲；毘樓勒叉天王，及一切鳩槃荼男女身雲；毘樓博叉天王，及一切龍男女身雲；毘沙門天王，及一切夜叉男女身雲；緊那羅王，及一切緊那羅男女身雲；摩睺羅伽王，及一切摩睺羅伽男女身雲；迦樓羅王，及一切迦樓羅男女身雲；阿脩羅王，及一切阿脩羅男女身雲；閻羅王，及一切閻羅王男女身雲；人王身雲；男子、女人、童男、童女身雲；出如是等一切諸趣身雲。聲聞、緣覺、仙人身雲；地水火風神、海神、河神、山神、林神、樹神、穀神、味神、藥草神、園觀神、城郭神、道場神、夜神、晝神、虛空神、方神、道路神、身形神、金剛力士神，出如是等一切身雲，充滿十方一切世界法界。
She further, from every pore, gave forth clouds of bodies beyond number — namely: clouds of the body of the Akaniṣṭha heaven, clouds of the body of the Pure Abode heavens, clouds of the body of the Sudṛśa heaven, clouds of the body of the Atapa heaven, clouds of the body of the Bṛhatphala heaven, clouds of the body of the Śubhakṛtsna heaven, clouds of the body of the Apramāṇaśubha heaven, clouds of the body of the Parīttaśubha heaven, clouds of the body of the pure-fruit heaven, clouds of the body of the boundless pure-fruit heaven, clouds of the body of the lesser pure-fruit heaven, clouds of the body of the Ābhāsvara heaven, clouds of the body of the boundless Ābhāsvara heaven, clouds of the body of the lesser Ābhāsvara heaven, clouds of the body of the Great Brahmā heaven, clouds of the body of the Brahmapurohita heaven, clouds of the body of the Brahmakāyika heaven; clouds of the king of the heaven of Mastery over Others' Transformations, and of its heavenly sons and daughters; clouds of the king of the heaven of Delighting in Transformation, and of its heavenly sons and daughters; clouds of the king of the Tuṣita heaven, and of its heavenly sons and daughters; clouds of the king of the Yāma heaven, and of its heavenly sons and daughters; clouds of the king of the Trāyastriṃśa heaven, and of its heavenly sons and daughters; clouds of the heavenly king Dhṛtarāṣṭra, and of every gandharva man and woman; clouds of the heavenly king Virūḍhaka, and of every kumbhāṇḍa man and woman; clouds of the heavenly king Virūpākṣa, and of every nāga man and woman; clouds of the heavenly king Vaiśravaṇa, and of every yakṣa man and woman; clouds of the kiṃnara king, and of every kiṃnara man and woman; clouds of the mahoraga king, and of every mahoraga man and woman; clouds of the garuḍa king, and of every garuḍa man and woman; clouds of the asura king, and of every asura man and woman; clouds of King Yama, and of every man and woman of King Yama's own realm; clouds of the body of every human king; clouds of the body of men, women, boys, and girls — giving forth clouds of the body of every destiny such as these. Clouds of the body of śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas, and sages; the spirits of earth, water, fire, and wind, spirits of the sea, spirits of rivers, spirits of mountains, spirits of forests, spirits of trees, spirits of grain, spirits of flavor, spirits of medicinal herbs, spirits of gardens and parks, spirits of city walls, spirits of the bodhimaṇḍa, spirits of night, spirits of day, spirits of space, spirits of direction, spirits of roads, spirits of physical form, and vajra-warrior spirits — giving forth clouds of every body such as these, filling every world of the ten directions, the whole Dharma-realm.
Fazang counts this catalogue precisely: 始從阿迦尼吒，下至金剛力士，有六十類眾充滿法界 — "beginning from Akaniṣṭha and reaching down to the vajra-warriors, there are sixty classes of beings filling the whole Dharma-realm." He divides this whole section of the vision into four movements: first, the body-clouds themselves that are given forth; second, what past practice they go on to expound; third, the twenty-four kinds of sound through which they expound it; and fourth, the benefit that this teaching brings. Every rank of being in the traditional cosmology appears in turn — the heavens of form from the very highest down to the fourth dhyāna's own layers, the six heavens of desire with their kings and their sons and daughters, the four heavenly kings and the classes of being each one governs, the eight-fold host beyond them, and finally an entire register of nature-spirits, from the elements themselves down to a spirit of the very road underfoot. No single class is asked to stand in for the others; each is named, and each carries its own cloud.
A Biography Told Through Twenty-Four Kinds of Sound
為一切眾生，現喜目觀察眾生夜天，從初發心所行功德，積集無量諸波羅蜜，次第受生，死此生彼，及其名號，近善知識，值遇諸佛，聞持正法，行菩薩行，得諸三昧，次第覩見一切佛剎，及諸如來次第諸劫；得淨智慧，深入法界，觀察眾生，知眾生海，死此生彼。得淨天耳，次第悉聞一切音聲；知他心智，次第了知眾生心念；無依神足，次第自在充滿十方；得諸菩薩次第法門，究竟菩薩諸法門海、菩薩自在、菩薩精進、菩薩得證正趣，離生眾生想、菩薩想、菩薩勝妙清淨功德。如是等類一切功德，彼化身雲悉為眾生，以諸音聲分別解說，開示顯現；所謂：風輪音聲、水輪音聲、火焰音聲、大海音聲、大地震動音聲、山王相擊音聲、天城震動音聲、天寶音聲、諸天音聲，龍王音聲，夜叉王、乾闥婆王、阿脩羅王、迦樓羅王、緊那羅王、摩睺羅伽王等音聲，人王音聲、梵王音聲、天女歌頌音聲、天樂音聲、摩尼寶王音聲、如來音聲、菩薩音聲、如來化身音聲；以如是等種種音聲，為諸眾生，分別演說喜目觀察眾生夜天，從初發心一切功德。
彼一一身雲，說此法時，念念中，於一一方，嚴淨不可說不可說諸佛世界，無量無邊眾生滅惡道苦，無量無邊眾生成就天樂，無量無邊眾生度生死海，無量無邊眾生安立聲聞、辟支佛地，無量無邊眾生得菩薩不可思議喜幢自在法門，於念念中，無量無邊眾生住如來地。
For every sentient being, she manifested the night-deva Joyful Eyes Observing Sentient Beings' own merit practiced from her first raising of the mind: amassing boundless perfections, taking birth in sequence, dying here and being born there, and her own names throughout; drawing near to good spiritual friends, encountering every buddha, hearing and upholding the true Dharma, practicing the bodhisattva's own practice, attaining every samādhi, beholding in sequence every buddha-land, and every tathāgata's own succession of eons; attaining pure wisdom, entering deeply into the Dharma-realm, contemplating sentient beings, knowing the ocean of sentient beings, dying here and being born there. Attaining the pure heavenly ear, hearing every sound in sequence entirely; knowing the wisdom of others' minds, understanding in sequence every sentient being's own thought; unsupported spiritual feet, sovereign in sequence, filling the ten directions; attaining every bodhisattva's own Dharma-gate in sequence, reaching the very end of the whole ocean of the bodhisattva's own Dharma-gates, the bodhisattva's own sovereignty, the bodhisattva's own diligence, the bodhisattva's own attainment and realization of the true course, departing from every notion of a sentient being, every notion of a bodhisattva, and manifesting the bodhisattva's own supreme, sublime, pure merit. Every kind of merit such as these, these very transformation-body clouds expounded entirely for sentient beings, discerning and explaining, opening up and manifesting them, through every kind of sound — namely: the sound of the wheel of wind, the sound of the wheel of water, the sound of flame, the sound of the great ocean, the sound of the great earth shaking, the sound of mountain-kings colliding, the sound of a heavenly city shaking, the sound of heavenly jewels, the sound of every deva, the sound of nāga-kings, the sound of yakṣa-kings, gandharva-kings, asura-kings, garuḍa-kings, kiṃnara-kings, and mahoraga-kings, the sound of human kings, the sound of the Brahmā king, the sound of heavenly maidens singing, the sound of heavenly music, the sound of the maṇi jewel-king, the voice of the Tathāgata, the voice of bodhisattvas, and the voice of the Tathāgata's own transformation-body; through every kind of sound such as these, discerning and expounding for sentient beings the night-deva Joyful Eyes Observing Sentient Beings' own every merit, from her first raising of the mind.
As each and every one of these body-clouds expounded this Dharma, within every single thought-moment, in every single direction, they purified and adorned buddha-worlds beyond telling upon telling; boundless, limitless sentient beings had the suffering of the evil paths extinguished; boundless, limitless sentient beings accomplished heavenly bliss; boundless, limitless sentient beings crossed the ocean of birth and death; boundless, limitless sentient beings were established securely in the ground of the śrāvaka and the pratyekabuddha; boundless, limitless sentient beings attained the bodhisattva's own Dharma-gate of the Sovereign Banner of Joy, beyond conceiving; and, within every single thought-moment, boundless, limitless sentient beings abided in the Tathāgata's own ground.
Fazang counts the sound-catalogue at twenty-four kinds in total, and reads the benefit that follows in two parts: first, the purifying and adorning of buddha-lands themselves; second, the benefit brought to beings, unfolding across what he counts as six successive stages of increasing depth — from the mere extinguishing of suffering in the evil paths, through heavenly bliss and the crossing of birth and death, up to abiding in the ground of a tathāgata outright. Nothing about this section, on his reading, is decorative excess: every class of being named in the previous vision now becomes the very medium through which this teaching reaches every other class of being, in a form fitted to its own manner of speech.
Ten Reasons Sudhana Could See What He Saw
爾時，善財童子皆得見聞，如上一切諸奇特事，正念思惟，觀察分別，深入定智，安住平等。何以故？與彼夜天，先同行故，佛護念故，成就不可思議諸善根故，具足菩薩根故，生佛家故，得善知識力故，一切諸佛神力持故，盧舍那佛本願力故，善根熟故，堪受普賢菩薩行故。
At that time Sudhana the Boy beheld and heard every extraordinary matter such as those described above, rightly holding it in mind and contemplating it, discerning it, entering deeply into concentration and wisdom, abiding securely in equanimity. Why was this? Because he had, in past ages, practiced together with this very night-deva; because the buddhas held him in their protective mind; because he had accomplished every root of goodness beyond conceiving; because he was fully endowed with the bodhisattva's own faculties; because he had been born into the buddha's own household; because he had attained the power of a good spiritual friend; because he was sustained by every buddha's own spiritual power; because of Vairocana Buddha's own original vow; because his roots of goodness had ripened; and because he was a fit vessel to receive Samantabhadra's own practice.
Fazang reads Sudhana's own beholding of this entire vision as itself an entry into the Dharma-realm, not merely a spectator's report: 善財見聞證入法界，於中三：先辨所見聞；二正念下正證法界；三何以下釋成證因，有十種所由 — "Sudhana's own seeing and hearing is itself a realization of entry into the Dharma-realm; within this, first what was seen and heard is specified; then 'rightly holding in mind' marks the direct realization of the Dharma-realm itself; and then 'why was this' explains the causes of that realization, ten reasons in all." The ten reasons given are worth reading as a single claim rather than ten separate ones: nothing about Sudhana's ability to witness a vision of this scale is incidental — every reason traces back either to a bond already formed in a past life, or to a ripeness cultivated across this entire pilgrimage so far. A vision this vast, in other words, was never simply shown to him; it required him to have already become someone capable of receiving it.
Part 62 In Progress
Part 62 continues in Part 63: Sudhana's own hymn of praise, ten stanzas offered once he understands what he has witnessed, before he asks this night-deva how long ago she first raised the awakening-mind — a question that opens the longest single account in this entire collection.
Continue to Part 63 — Sudhana's Hymn, and a Question Ninety Stanzas Long →