A Question, and a Kalpa Named Stainless Perfection
Sudhana asks the Dharma-gate's name, its age, and the practice that produced it. The night-deva names eight reasons this state exceeds every human, god, śrāvaka, and pratyekabuddha's own understanding, then, upholding the buddha's own power, opens her account: a kalpa named Stainless Perfection — the very name of the samādhi Sudhana has just received — and a wheel-turning king's household, including his young daughter Sublime-Virtue Eye.
A Question, and Eight Reasons It Exceeds Understanding
爾時，善財偈讚歎已，白言：「天神！甚奇！甚特！此菩薩法門，最為甚深；此法門者，名為何等？得此法門，其已久如？本修何行而致之乎？」
「善男子！此處甚深，一切人天、聲聞、緣覺，所不能知，何以故？滿普賢菩薩行者境界；大悲菩薩藏境界；救護一切眾生菩薩境界；除滅一切惡道諸難菩薩境界；一切佛剎中，守護一切佛法，令不斷絕菩薩境界；一切劫中，修菩薩行，滿大願海菩薩境界；具足成就明淨慧光，滅一切眾生愚癡闇障，普照一切菩薩境界；於一念中，明淨智慧，普照三世諸方便海菩薩境界。
At that time Sudhana, having finished praising her in verse, said, "O deva! How rare! How extraordinary! This bodhisattva Dharma-gate is utterly profound. What is this Dharma-gate called? How long has it been since you attained this Dharma-gate? And what practice did you originally cultivate that brought it about?"
"Good son, this place is utterly profound; it is something that no human, no god, no śrāvaka, and no pratyekabuddha is able to know. Why is this so? Because it is the very state of a bodhisattva who has fulfilled the practice of one who cultivates Samantabhadra Bodhisattva's own practice; the very state of the treasury of the great-compassion bodhisattva; the very state of the bodhisattva who rescues and protects every sentient being; the very state of the bodhisattva who extinguishes every difficulty of every evil destiny; the very state of the bodhisattva who, throughout every buddha-land, guards and upholds every buddha-dharma, causing it never to be severed; the very state of the bodhisattva who, throughout every kalpa, cultivates the bodhisattva's own practice, fulfilling the ocean of the great vow; the very state of the bodhisattva who, fully accomplished in bright and pure wisdom-light, extinguishes the darkness of folly obstructing every sentient being, universally illumining all; and the very state of the bodhisattva who, within a single thought-moment, with bright and pure wisdom, universally illumines the ocean of skillful means of the three times."
Fazang identifies three distinct questions folded into Sudhana's one outburst: 就前問中，初總歎深奇；下別問法門，有三問：一問法門名字、二問得法久近、三問法門因行 — "within the question, first comes a general exclamation at its profundity and rarity; then follow, separately, three questions on the Dharma-gate itself: first, asking the Dharma-gate's own name; second, asking how long it has been held; third, asking the practice and cause that produced it." Of the answer, he reads it as declining to answer directly at first: 初歎深難說、二諦聽下承力許說 — "first she exclaims at its profundity and difficulty to express; second, beginning with 'listen carefully,' she upholds the buddha's own power and grants permission to speak." Within the first half, two further steps: 初下位非分、二何以下徵顯上境 — "first, that this lies beyond the portion of any lower stage; second, beginning with 'why is this so,' inquiring into and revealing this higher state" — which he glosses further as first showing that ordinary and lesser beings simply do not know, and second explaining why they do not know: 滿普賢下示不知所由，以唯是修普賢行已成滿者大菩薩所知境故，非二乘等所知 — "'fulfilled the practice of Samantabhadra' reveals the reason for this not-knowing: this is a state known only to the great bodhisattvas who have already brought Samantabhadra's own practice to fulfillment, and not something the two vehicles [śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas] are able to know." The eight clauses that follow, he notes, are offered only "略舉" — in brief, by way of example — meant to show that the matter is vast in scope, deep in principle, and distant in time: the very roots of this Dharma-gate run deep.
A Kalpa Named Stainless Perfection
「善男子！諦聽！諦聽！我當承佛神力，為汝解說。佛子！乃往古世，過世界微塵等劫，有劫名離垢圓滿，世界名明淨妙德幢；有須彌山微塵等如來，出現於世。其佛世界，七寶合成，眾寶莊嚴；其土圓滿，離垢清淨，寶網羅覆，金剛圍山周匝圍遶。有十萬億那由他四域天下：或有天下清淨，眾生亦淨；或有天下不淨，眾生不淨；或有天下淨不淨雜，眾生亦雜；或有天下清淨，一切眾生，善根具足，無諸疾患；或有天下嚴淨殊勝，但諸菩薩。彼世界東際，近金剛山，有四天下，名華燈幢；妙寶樓閣，臺觀宮殿，上味飲食，自然具足。瞻蔔華樹，普覆一切；種種香樹，出妙香雲；諸寶鬘樹，普雨鬘雲，諸雜華樹，雨不思議眾妙華雲；諸末香樹，雨末香雲；諸香王樹，雨妙香雲；摩尼寶樹，雨種種寶；諸音樂樹，微風吹動，出和雅音，充滿虛空；日月明淨，妙寶光明，普照一切。
彼四天下，有百萬億那由他諸王京都。一一王都，有千渠水，微流迴映，眾華普被，自然演出天音樂聲；岸植寶樹，行列莊嚴，眾寶為地。一一水間，有十億千城；彼一一城，有十億百千那由他聚落圍遶；彼一一城及一一聚落，各有無量億那由他妙寶樓閣而莊嚴之。彼閻浮提，有一王都，名寶華燈；安隱豐樂，人民熾盛，此諸眾生，具足修行十善業道。
「時，彼城中有轉輪王，名曰明淨寶藏妙德；為大法王，治以正法，從蓮華生，具三十二大人之相，七寶成就。王有千子，端正勇猛，有十億大臣，王有寶女，名妙德成滿，端嚴姝妙，目髮紺色，身如天金。梵音清淨，身出光明，照千由旬。彼有一女，名妙德眼，一切諸行，皆悉具足，端正殊特，觀者無厭，有十億百千那由他諸采女眾，皆與聖王同善根行，身真金色，一切毛孔，皆出妙香，眾寶莊嚴，超逾天女。
"Good son, listen carefully, listen carefully! I shall, upholding the buddha's own spiritual power, explain this for you. Child of the Buddha, in ages long past, beyond kalpas as numerous as motes of dust in every world, there was a kalpa named Stainless Perfection, and a world named Bright, Pure Sublime-Virtue Banner. Tathāgatas as numerous as motes of dust on Mount Sumeru appeared in the world. That buddha's world was formed of the seven jewels, adorned with every kind of jewel; its land was perfectly whole, stainless and pure, covered over with jeweled nets, and encircled all about by the ring of vajra mountains. There were a hundred thousand koṭis of nayutas of four-continent worlds: some four-continent worlds were pure, and their sentient beings likewise pure; some were impure, and their sentient beings likewise impure; some were a mixture of pure and impure, and their sentient beings likewise mixed; some were pure, with every sentient being fully endowed with roots of goodness and free of every affliction; and some were adorned, pure, and supreme, containing only bodhisattvas. At the eastern edge of that world, near the vajra mountains, there was a four-continent world named Banner of the Campaka-Flower Lamp; sublime jeweled pavilions, terraces, towers, and palaces, and food of the finest flavor, were all spontaneously provided in full. Trees of campaka flowers covered everything universally; every kind of fragrant tree sent forth clouds of sublime fragrance; every jeweled garland-tree rained down universal clouds of garlands; every tree of every kind of flower rained down inconceivable clouds of every sublime flower; every tree of powdered incense rained down clouds of powdered incense; every tree of the king of fragrances rained down clouds of sublime fragrance; every maṇi-jewel tree rained down every kind of jewel; and every tree of music, stirred by the gentle breeze, sent forth harmonious and elegant sounds, filling the whole of space; sun and moon shone bright and pure, and sublime jeweled light universally illumined all.
"That four-continent world held a hundred million koṭis of nayutas of royal capitals. In every single royal capital there were a thousand irrigation channels, their gentle flow reflecting back and forth, every kind of flower spread over them, spontaneously sending forth the sound of heavenly music; their banks were planted with jeweled trees, arrayed in adorned rows, and the ground itself was formed of every kind of jewel. Between each channel of water there were a billion thousand cities; around each and every one of these cities there were a billion hundred thousand nayutas of villages; and each and every one of these cities and villages was adorned with boundless koṭis of nayutas of sublime jeweled pavilions. Within that Jambudvīpa there was one royal capital, named Jeweled Flower Lamp — secure, at peace, and abundant, its people flourishing in great numbers, and all these sentient beings fully cultivating the ten wholesome courses of action.
"At that time, within that city, there was a wheel-turning king, named Bright, Pure Jeweled-Treasury Sublime-Virtue. He was a great Dharma-king, governing by the true Dharma, born from a lotus flower, fully endowed with the thirty-two marks of a great being, and accomplished in the seven treasures. The king had a thousand sons, upright and valiant, and a billion ministers. The king had a jeweled queen, named Sublime Virtue, Fully Accomplished, adorned and sublimely lovely, her eyes and hair a deep indigo hue, her body like heavenly gold, her Brahmā-voice pure, her body emitting light that illumined a thousand yojanas. He also had a daughter, named Sublime-Virtue Eye, fully endowed with every excellent conduct, upright and extraordinary, whom none who beheld her ever tired of looking upon; she had a billion hundred thousand nayutas of attendant women, all sharing the sagely king's own roots of goodness and practice, their bodies the color of true gold, every pore of their bodies sending forth sublime fragrance, adorned with every kind of jewel, surpassing even the goddesses of heaven."
Fazang reads the whole long narrative that follows as falling into three great sections — this kalpa, a later kalpa named Great Light, and finally a summary of countless further kalpas — and within this first section alone, he counts ten distinct parts: 一總舉本事、二顯本生處、三本生父母、四本生之身、五佛興利益、六普賢引導、七德女興供、八聞經得益、九宿因堅固、十結會古今 — "first, a general statement of the ancient matter; second, revealing the place of that past birth; third, the parents of that past birth; fourth, the very body of that past birth; fifth, the benefit of the buddha's arising; sixth, Samantabhadra's guidance; seventh, the virtuous daughter's own offering; eighth, the benefit gained from hearing the sūtra; ninth, the firmness of a prior cause; tenth, identifying past and present." What this part has just translated covers the first four of these ten in full — and Fazang subdivides the second, "the place of that past birth," into three steps of its own: 初通舉世界、二彼世界東際下於彼界中別顯一四天下、三彼閻浮下別顯一王都 — "first, a general statement of the world; second, beginning with 'at the eastern edge of that world,' singling out one particular four-continent world within it; third, beginning with 'that Jambudvīpa,' singling out one particular royal capital within it" — a telescoping from cosmos down to a single city that this translation has followed exactly.
Worth marking plainly here, before the story runs any further: the fourth of Fazang's ten parts, "the very body of that past birth" (本生之身), is this passage's closing sentence — the young daughter, Sublime-Virtue Eye. Nothing in the text yet says so, but the closing identification many parts from now will reveal that this daughter is the very past self of the night-deva narrating this account. The elaborate care given to her description — every pore emitting fragrance, surpassing even the goddesses of heaven — is, in effect, a self-portrait offered several lifetimes and one entire Dharma-gate before its subject is named.
Part 70 In Progress
The account has opened in a kalpa named Stainless Perfection — sharing its name with the very samādhi Sudhana received two parts ago — inside a world of a hundred thousand koṭis of nayutas of four-continent lands, narrowing to one royal capital and the household of its wheel-turning king. Part 71 turns to why these people, for all their prosperity, begin to quarrel — and to the bodhi-tree grove where a buddha is about to arise.
Continue to Part 71 →