Sublime Virtue, Rescuing and Protecting Sentient Beings
Sudhana, still holding the previous teacher's Dharma-gate in mind, walks within the very same buddha-assembly to the night-deva Sublime Virtue, Rescuing and Protecting Sentient Beings — fourth teacher of the Ten Grounds. Her brow-light enters his crown and grants him a samādhi that reveals every world's arising and passing within every single mote of dust, before she relieves the sufferings of all five destinies, names the twenty fears that afflict the human realm, and teaches him the four kinds of birth. The fourth teacher of the Ten Grounds, in the first of an estimated nine parts.
Within the Same Assembly, a Brow-Light Enters
爾時，善財童子正念思惟普光喜幢法門，分別深入，開發顯現。
隨順善知識教，一向專求見善知識，身心諸根，普遊方面；求善知識，思念善知識道，勇猛精進，乃得值遇；同善知識一切善根，具足成就深妙方便；因善知識，出生長養一切善根，發諸大願，於一切劫，不離善知識，往詣妙德救護眾生夜天所。
爾時，夜天為善財童子顯現菩薩教化一切世間法門境界，相好嚴身，眉間白毫相中，放大光明，名曰普慧焰燈淨幢，無量光明，以為眷屬，普照一切世界；照已，入善財頂，充滿其身。
At that time Sudhana the Boy rightly held in mind and contemplated the Dharma-gate of the Banner of Joy, Universal Light, discerning it and entering it deeply, opening it up and manifesting it in full.
Following in accord with the good friend's teaching, single-mindedly seeking to behold the good friend, his body, mind, and every faculty ranging universally through every quarter; seeking the good friend, contemplating the good friend's path, valiant and diligent, until at last he came to meet her; sharing in the good friend's every root of goodness, fully accomplishing profound and sublime skillful means; because of the good friend, giving rise to and nurturing every root of goodness, raising every great vow, and throughout every kalpa never departing from the good friend, he journeyed onward to the place of the night-deva Sublime Virtue, Rescuing and Protecting Sentient Beings.
At that time the night-deva, for Sudhana's sake, manifested the bodhisattva's own state of the Dharma-gate of teaching and transforming every world — her body adorned with excellent marks, and from within the mark of the white curl between her brows she released a great radiance, named the Pure Banner of the Torch of Blazing Universal Wisdom, boundless light as its retinue, universally illuminating every world; and having illuminated it, this light entered Sudhana's crown and filled his entire body.
Fazang marks this teacher's opening with the ground she occupies and the meaning folded into her name: 第四焰地善知識中亦五，初舉法勸修中，同在證位，故云此佛眾中。吉祥勝智，名為妙德。攝物起行，名救護眾生 — "within the good friend of the fourth ground, the Ground of Blazing Light, there are likewise five parts; in the first, raising the Dharma to urge cultivation, she remains within the very same position of realization [as the teacher before her], hence 'within this very buddha's own assembly.' Auspicious, supreme wisdom is called Sublime Virtue; gathering beings in through practice is called Rescuing and Protecting Sentient Beings." He then reads Sudhana's approach in three steps — taking leave, contemplating, and arriving — glossing the "contemplating" step itself in two halves: first dwelling on the Dharma-gate the previous teacher had just shown him, then recalling the very teacher to whom he had been sent.
Of the brow-light and what it accomplishes, he writes plainly: 初現法加證、二眉光加證、三善財則得法門 — "first she reveals her own dharma-gate embodiment; second, the brow-light's confirming empowerment; third, Sudhana thereupon attains the dharma-gate." This is the same architecture the pilgrimage has used since its earliest teachers — light as transmission, not metaphor — but here it arrives from a night-deva already standing, per Fazang's own account of the sutra's structure, at the fourth of the Ten Grounds herself.
The Samādhi of Stainless Perfection, and Every World Within a Mote of Dust
爾時，善財即得菩薩離垢圓滿三昧。得此三昧已，於一切地、水、火、風微塵，眾寶微塵、香微塵、金剛微塵、摩尼微塵、碎末微塵、一切莊嚴具微塵、一切境界微塵，如是等一一微塵中，悉見佛剎微塵等世界成敗。風輪、水輪、金剛輪、地輪，種種莊嚴，眾山圍遶、無量大海，諸天宮殿，諸雜寶樹，種種莊嚴；諸龍宮殿，夜叉、乾闥婆、阿脩羅、迦樓羅、緊那羅、摩睺羅伽、人、非人等，城郭宮殿，地獄餓鬼，畜生閻羅王處，悉見五道眾生，死此生彼。
分別了知彼諸世界：或有世界淨，或有世界不淨，或有世界趣淨，或有世界趣不淨，或有世界淨不淨，或有世界不淨淨，或有世界一向淨，或有世界其形平正，或有世界其形如伏，或有世界其形四方；如是等一切世界，一切趣中，見彼夜天，於一切時，普現一切諸眾生前，隨其所應而度脫之。
為地獄眾生，滅諸楚毒；為諸畜生，滅惱害畏；為餓鬼眾生，除飢渴苦；為諸龍等，滅一切畏；為欲界眾生，除欲界苦，為諸人類，除闇冥畏、不活畏、惡名畏、大眾畏、惡道畏、死畏、失善根畏、失菩提心畏、近惡知識畏、失善知識畏、聲聞緣覺地畏、生死畏、不同意畏、非時受生畏、生惡人家畏、行惡業畏、業障畏、煩惱障畏、報障畏、諸貪著畏、諸繫縛畏，滅如是等一切怖畏。
又復教化四生眾生，所謂：卵生、胎生、濕生、化生、有色、無色、有想、無想、非有想、非無想眾生，常現其前而教化之。滿大願力故，菩薩三昧力故，諸通明力故，出生普賢菩薩行力故，出生長養大悲海故，無礙大慈覆一切眾生故，安樂一切眾生故，攝取一切眾生故，深入菩薩自在境界法門故，普現一切諸佛剎中為嚴淨故，在一切法中智慧覺悟故，在一切佛所恭敬供養故，在一切佛法中守護正法故，在一切眾生心海中度脫眾生故，在一切眾生諸根中調伏諸根故，在一切眾生欲海中為除障礙得清淨故，在一切眾生愚癡闇中出生一切智光明故。
爾時，善財見彼夜天自在神力，不可思議菩薩境界，一切世界，教化眾生，成就菩薩一切法門自在神力，歡喜無量，頭面禮足，恭敬合掌，於一面住，一心觀察。爾時，夜天即捨相好妙莊嚴身，現夜天形，而不捨離自在神力。爾時，善財以偈頌曰：
At that time Sudhana at once attained the bodhisattva's samādhi of Stainless Perfection. Having attained this samādhi, within every mote of dust of earth, water, fire, and wind, every mote of dust of every jewel, of fragrance, of vajra, of maṇi-gems, of ground powder, of every kind of adornment, and of every kind of realm — within each and every one of these motes of dust, he beheld in full the arising and passing of worlds as numerous as motes of dust in every buddha-land. He saw the wheel of wind, the wheel of water, the wheel of vajra, and the wheel of earth, adorned in every manner, ringed about by every mountain, boundless great oceans, the palaces of every heaven, every kind of jeweled tree in every manner of adornment; the palaces of every nāga; yakṣas, gandharvas, asuras, garuḍas, kinnaras, mahoragas, humans, and non-humans; walled cities and palaces; the hells, the hungry ghosts, the animal realm, and the domain of Yama — he beheld in full the beings of the five destinies, dying here and being born there.
He discerned and knew these worlds distinctly: some worlds were pure, some worlds were impure; some worlds tended toward purity, some worlds tended toward impurity; some worlds were pure-then-impure, some worlds were impure-then-pure; some worlds were purely and only pure; some worlds had a level, even shape, some worlds had a shape like a basin turned face-down, some worlds had a square shape. Amid every such world, within every such destiny, he saw this night-deva, at every single time, universally manifesting before every sentient being, and, according to what was fitting for each, delivering them.
For the beings of the hells, she extinguished every torment and poison; for the animals, she extinguished the fear of harm and affliction; for the hungry ghosts, she removed the suffering of hunger and thirst; for the nāgas and their kind, she extinguished every fear; for the beings of the desire realm, she removed the sufferings of the desire realm; and for humankind she removed the fear of darkness, the fear of not surviving, the fear of ill repute, the fear of the assembly, the fear of evil destinies, the fear of death, the fear of losing one's roots of goodness, the fear of losing the mind of awakening, the fear of drawing near an evil friend, the fear of losing the good friend, the fear of the ground of the śrāvaka or pratyekabuddha, the fear of birth-and-death, the fear of discord, the fear of untimely rebirth, the fear of being born into an evil family, the fear of committing evil karma, the fear of the obstruction of karma, the fear of the obstruction of affliction, the fear of the obstruction of recompense, the fear of every attachment and craving, and the fear of every bondage — she extinguished every such fear as this.
And moreover she taught and transformed the beings of the four kinds of birth — namely, those born from eggs, those born from the womb, those born from moisture, and those born by transformation; those with form and those without form; those with perception and those without perception; and those neither with perception nor without perception — constantly manifesting before them and teaching them. Because she fulfilled the power of the great vow; because of the power of the bodhisattva's samādhi; because of the power of every transcendent faculty; because she gave rise to the power of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva's own practice; because she gave rise to and nurtured the ocean of great compassion; because her unobstructed great loving-kindness covered every sentient being; because she brought peace and happiness to every sentient being; because she gathered in every sentient being; because she entered deeply into the Dharma-gate of the bodhisattva's own sovereign state; because she universally manifested throughout every buddha-land, adorning and purifying it; because within every dharma she was awakened through wisdom; because at the presence of every buddha she offered reverent worship; because within every buddha-dharma she guarded and upheld the true Dharma; because within the ocean of the minds of every sentient being she delivered sentient beings; because within the every faculty of every sentient being she tamed and subdued their faculties; because within the ocean of desire of every sentient being she removed obstructions and brought about purity; and because within the darkness of folly of every sentient being she gave rise to the light of every wisdom.
At that time Sudhana, beholding this night-deva's sovereign spiritual power, the bodhisattva's own inconceivable state, her teaching and transforming beings throughout every world, and her accomplishment of the sovereign spiritual power of the bodhisattva's every Dharma-gate, rejoiced without measure; reverently bowing his head at her feet, respectfully joining his palms, he stood to one side, contemplating her with single-minded attention. At that time the night-deva at once set aside her body of excellent marks and sublime adornment, and manifested in the plain form of a night-deva, yet without relinquishing her sovereign spiritual power. At that time Sudhana, in verse, spoke this hymn:
Fazang glosses the samādhi's own name directly, tying it back to the eye-and-wisdom pairing this project has seen at earlier teachers: 離垢者，眼瞙盡故。圓滿者，淨智具故，能見法也 — "'stainless' means the film over the eye is exhausted; 'perfection' means pure wisdom is fully endowed, and thereby one is able to see the Dharma." The name Sudhana's own samādhi bears — Stainless Perfection — is, notably, the very same phrase this teacher's account will later give as the name of the kalpa in which her whole past story unfolds; the sutra plants the name of an entire aeon inside a single samādhi three parts before the story that owns it begins.
On the ninefold typology of worlds, Fazang offers two readings side by side rather than resolving them into one: 此中世界趣淨者，眾生在染土中修淨土行故。趣不淨者，作不善業，向惡道故。又釋：趣淨者是劫增向淨故，趣不淨者劫減向穢故。淨不淨者，淨多穢少。不淨淨者，穢多淨少。又釋：前淨中有穢、後穢中有淨 — "here, a world that 'tends toward purity' is one where beings, dwelling within a defiled land, cultivate the practice of a pure land; one that 'tends toward impurity' is one where unwholesome karma is committed, tending toward an evil destiny. Another reading: 'tends toward purity' means the kalpa is on its increasing arc, moving toward purity, while 'tends toward impurity' means the kalpa is on its decreasing arc, moving toward defilement. 'Pure-then-impure' means more purity, less defilement; 'impure-then-pure' means more defilement, less purity. A further reading still: the former, 'pure,' contains some defilement within it, while the latter, 'impure,' contains some purity within it." He does not choose between these — the ninefold list is left legible under more than one lens at once.
Of the twenty fears named for humankind, he isolates only the one likely to puzzle a reader outright: 二十種畏，非時受生畏者，是不值佛世生也 — "among the twenty kinds of fear, 'the fear of untimely rebirth' means being born into a time when one does not encounter a buddha's own era." And of the section as a whole, he notes its total scope plainly: 又復教化下授之以法，謂四生三界通收一切也 — "'and moreover she taught' introduces the giving of the Dharma; the four kinds of birth together with the three realms comprehensively gather in every being without remainder" — before the seventeen reason-clauses that follow, each closing on "because," which he reads as answering a single question: by what cause does this bodhisattva appear before beings of the five destinies and four kinds of birth at once, relieving suffering and bestowing joy?
Part 68 In Progress
Sudhana has crossed into the fourth teacher's episode within the same buddha-assembly as the third: a brow-light samādhi that opens every mote of dust into a world, a ninefold typology of pure and impure worlds held under more than one reading at once, twenty named fears relieved for humankind, and the four kinds of birth gathered in without remainder. Part 69 turns to Sudhana's own hymn of praise for what he has just witnessed.
Continue to Part 69 →