The Buddha Merit-Banner, and Mañjuśrī Revealed
The buddha Merit-Banner grants the night-deva the ninth ground's own dhāraṇī and the tenth ground's own Dharma-gate in twelve final stanzas — the very ground called "Dharma-Cloud," the last of the Ten Grounds entire. She then reveals what the whole account has been holding back: the wheel-turning king was Mañjuśrī himself, and the night-deva who first woke her from her dream was Samantabhadra in disguise. This closes the third teacher of the Ten Grounds.
Twelve Stanzas, and the Ground of the Dharma-Cloud
「功德幢如來， 出興於世時，
我為功德天， 供養彼最勝。
時佛為我說， 莊嚴大願海，
陀羅尼念力， 皆悉能受持。
我得明淨眼， 三昧陀羅尼，
於一一念中， 悉見最勝海。
出生大悲藏， 深入方便雲，
心淨如虛空， 悉得諸佛力。
觀察諸眾生， 常樂我淨倒，
愚癡闇所覆， 煩惱起虛妄。
邪見貪欲等， 無量諸惡業，
一切諸趣中， 具受不善報，
一切諸趣中， 種種業受身，
生老病死患， 無量苦逼迫。
我發無上心， 安樂彼眾生，
令至諸佛所， 成滿如來力。
滿足大願雲， 常見一切佛，
修習於正道， 具足諸功德。
一向廣專求， 無量功德雲，
法門波羅蜜， 充滿諸法界。
佛子我爾時， 即得普賢行，
分別深法界， 攝取一切法。
成滿一切地， 三世方便海，
修習無礙行， 一念具佛智。」
"When the Tathāgata Merit-Banner arose in the world,
I was the deva Merit, and I made offering to this most supreme one.
At that time this buddha expounded for me the ocean of the adornment of the great vow,
and the power of dhāraṇī and recollection — all of it I was able to receive and uphold.
I attained the bright, pure eye, the dhāraṇī of samādhi,
and within every single thought-moment beheld entirely the ocean of the most supreme.
Giving rise to the treasury of great compassion, entering deeply into the cloud of skillful means,
my mind pure as space itself, I attained every buddha's own power entirely.
Contemplating every sentient being, inverted by notions of the eternal, the blissful, the self, and the pure,
covered over by the darkness of folly, giving rise to falsehood through affliction.
Wrong view, greed, and desire, and every kind of boundless evil karma,
throughout every destiny, receiving in full every unwholesome recompense;
throughout every destiny, receiving a body through every kind of karma,
the afflictions of birth, old age, sickness, and death, oppressed by boundless suffering.
I raised the unsurpassed mind, to bring peace and happiness to these sentient beings,
causing them to reach the presence of every buddha, fulfilling the Tathāgata's own power.
Fulfilling the cloud of the great vow, constantly beholding every buddha,
cultivating the true path, fully endowed with every merit.
Single-mindedly, broadly and single-mindedly seeking the boundless cloud of merit,
the perfection of every Dharma-gate, filling the whole Dharma-realm.
Child of the Buddha, at that very time, I attained at once Samantabhadra's own practice,
discerning the profound Dharma-realm, gathering in every dharma.
Fulfilling every ground completely, the ocean of skillful means of the three times,
cultivating the unobstructed practice, within a single thought-moment endowed with the buddha's own wisdom."
Fazang reads these twelve stanzas as the account's own culmination, naming precisely which grounds they complete: 初陀羅尼念力等者，明九地得四無礙解及持成就，領受如來所說法雨 — "'the power of dhāraṇī and recollection' reveals attaining the ninth ground's own four unobstructed understandings and the accomplishment of retention, receiving the rain of Dharma the Tathāgata expounds." Then: 二我得明淨眼三昧陀羅尼者，明得十地法門 — "'I attained the bright, pure eye, the dhāraṇī of samādhi' reveals attaining the Dharma-gate of the tenth ground" — the very last of the Ten Grounds, traditionally named "the Ground of the Dharma-Cloud," which the sutra's own text names directly two stanzas later: 法雲波羅蜜等，結位名也 — "'the perfection of every Dharma-gate' [read alongside 'cloud'] concludes by naming this very position." He glosses two further phrases precisely: 一一見佛者，攝報果中見佛也 — "'beholding entirely' means beholding buddhas gathered within the very fruit of recompense"; and 心淨如空者，明微細障亦盡也 — "'mind pure as space' reveals that even the subtlest obstructions have been exhausted." Of "attaining every buddha's own power," he writes plainly: 得佛力者，則十地受位墮在佛數也 — "this means that, at the tenth ground, receiving consecration, one falls within the very count of buddhas" — functionally equal to buddhahood, though not yet a buddha outright.
This is worth sitting with directly: across eighty-nine and a half stanzas, this night-deva's own account has just traced her realization through every one of the Ten Grounds in sequence — from the first ground's path of seeing, through the second-to-fifth accomplished together, the sixth ground's contemplation of dependent origination, the seventh ground's threshold, and now the ninth and tenth grounds themselves, the very last stage before buddhahood. And yet she teaches Sudhana here from the position of only the third of the Ten Grounds. The gap between what she has shown herself to have attained and the modest rank she occupies as his teacher is, by this point in the pilgrimage, no longer a surprise — it is the same "borrowed rank" this project has already seen made explicit with the bhikkhuni Lion's Vigor, now demonstrated at the greatest scale yet.
Mañjuśrī, Samantabhadra, and a Closing Referral
「善男子！爾時，智慧轉輪王者，豈異人乎？文殊師利童子是也；紹繼轉輪王姓，諸如來種，使不斷絕。時，王賢慧寶女者，我身是也，爾時，夜天覺悟我者，普賢菩薩所變化也。我於爾時，初發阿耨多羅三藐三菩提心，發道心已，於佛剎微塵等劫，不墮惡道，常生天人，覩見諸佛，乃至功德幢佛所，得此普光喜幢法門，得此法門已，饒益化度無量眾生。
「善男子！我唯知此法門，諸大菩薩於念念中，普詣一切諸如來所，具足成就精進大海；於念念中，滿足一切諸大願海；於念念中，出生一切未來劫，菩薩諸行；於一一菩薩行中，出生一切佛剎微塵等身，彼一一身，充滿一切諸法界海；於一一法界中，顯現一切佛剎，隨其所應，現菩薩行；於一一佛剎中，究竟一切佛剎微塵等諸佛海；於一一佛所，究竟一切法界等，如來自在神力，一一如來所，分別過去諸劫，行菩薩行；一一如來所，守護受持一切法輪，究竟三世如來諸方便海。我當云何能知、能說彼功德行？善男子！此佛眾中，有一夜天，名曰妙德救護眾生，汝詣彼問云何菩薩學菩薩行，具菩薩行，淨菩薩行。」
時，善財童子頭面敬禮喜目觀察眾生夜天足，辭退而行。
"Good son, could that king of wisdom, the wheel-turning king, have been anyone other than himself? He was none other than Mañjuśrī the Youth, who continued the very lineage of wheel-turning kings, and every tathāgata's own lineage, causing it never to be broken off. And that king's wise and virtuous jeweled daughter was I myself; and the night-deva who awakened me was none other than a transformation of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva. At that time I first raised the mind of unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening, and, having raised this mind of the path, throughout eons as numerous as motes of dust in every buddha-land, I never once fell into an evil path, constantly being born among gods and humans, beholding every buddha, until, at the presence of the buddha Merit-Banner, I attained this very Dharma-gate of the Banner of Joy, Universal Light. Having attained this Dharma-gate, I have brought benefit and delivered countless sentient beings.
"Good son, I know only this Dharma-gate; the great bodhisattvas, within every single thought-moment, go universally before every tathāgata, fully accomplishing the great ocean of diligence; within every single thought-moment, fulfilling the whole ocean of every great vow; within every single thought-moment, giving rise to the bodhisattva's own every practice throughout every future eon; within every single one of the bodhisattva's own practices, giving rise to bodies as numerous as motes of dust in every buddha-land, each and every one of these bodies filling the whole ocean of every Dharma-realm; within every single Dharma-realm, manifesting every buddha-land, manifesting the bodhisattva's own practice according to what is fitting; within every single buddha-land, reaching the very end of the whole ocean of every buddha, as numerous as motes of dust in every buddha-land; at the presence of every single buddha, reaching the very end of the whole Dharma-realm equally, the Tathāgata's own sovereign spiritual power; at the presence of every single tathāgata, discerning the bodhisattva's own practice throughout every past eon; at the presence of every single tathāgata, guarding and upholding every Dharma-wheel, reaching the very end of the whole ocean of skillful means of the tathāgatas of the three times. How could I possibly know, how could I possibly speak of, such merit and practice as this? Good son, within this very buddha's own assembly, there is a night-deva, named Sublime Virtue, Rescuing and Protecting Sentient Beings. Go to her and ask how a bodhisattva learns the bodhisattva's own practice, becomes fully endowed with the bodhisattva's own practice, purifies the bodhisattva's own practice."
At that time Sudhana the Boy reverently bowed his head at the night-deva Joyful Eyes Observing Sentient Beings' feet, and, taking his leave, journeyed on.
Fazang reads this closing identification in four parts: naming who, within that ancient assembly, corresponds to whom in the present; revealing the benefit of her own raising of the mind; revealing the benefit of attaining this Dharma and bringing benefit to beings through it; and concluding what belongs to her own portion alone. The identification itself closes a circle this project has now watched form across eight parts: the wheel-turning king who ruled a hundred thousand koṭis of the four continents was Mañjuśrī himself, continuing "every tathāgata's own lineage, causing it never to be broken off" — the same bodhisattva who set Sudhana on this entire pilgrimage in the first place; and the night-deva who woke the sleeping princess with a single midnight voice, setting in motion every kalpa that followed, was Samantabhadra in disguise. The two bodhisattvas who stood at the very head of the assembly in Part 1 of this collection, before Sudhana had even been named, turn out to have been quietly present at the very origin of this teacher's own path as well — one as the sovereign whose household she was born into, the other as the voice that first woke her to a single dream.
Part 67 Complete
This closes Parts 60–67 together, and with them the night-deva Joyful Eyes Observing Sentient Beings, third teacher of the Ten Grounds and by far the largest single episode in this entire collection: ten pore-clouds demonstrating the ten perfections, sixty classes of beings speaking through twenty-four kinds of sound, and an eighty-nine-and-a-half-stanza account tracing one bodhisattva's realization through all Ten Grounds in full — while she herself teaches from only the third. Sudhana is sent onward, within this very same assembly, to the night-deva named Sublime Virtue, Rescuing and Protecting Sentient Beings.
Continue to Part 68 — Sublime Virtue, Rescuing and Protecting Sentient Beings →