A Canopy of Visions, and Thirty-Four Minds
The young princess Sublime-Virtue Eye removes her own ornaments and offers them; they become a jeweled canopy revealing Vairocana Buddha, boundless other buddha-lands, Samantabhadra's own ceaseless activity, and Indra's net of worlds within worlds, each teaching the Dharma in its own way. Hearing the buddha's own sūtra, she attains ten thousand samādhis — twelve of them named, thirty-four minds, and nine Dharma-gates, every one given in full.
A Princess's Offering, and a Canopy of Visions
「爾時，妙德眼女即解身上諸莊嚴具，奉散如來。時，莊嚴具於虛空中，變成寶蓋，眾寶莊嚴，悉與一切諸宮殿等，端嚴齊整，十寶莊嚴，金剛圍山周匝圍遶；其形猶如明淨樓閣，眾寶莊嚴，無量龍王悉共執持，寶樹圍遶，妙香普熏。於其蓋中，有菩提樹，枝葉榮茂，普覆法界，以無量莊嚴而莊嚴之。見盧舍那佛坐此樹下，與不可說佛剎微塵等大菩薩俱，皆悉具足普賢菩薩一切所行，住菩薩住，無能壞者。又見一切世界諸王，圍遶如來；又見彼佛神力自在；又見一切諸劫次第，世界成敗；又見一切諸佛次第出世；又見普賢菩薩在一切佛所，恭敬供養，教化眾生；又見彼一一世界中，悉有佛剎微塵等世界，種種安住、種種莊嚴、種種清淨、種種劫、種種如來出興于世、種種三世、種種國土、種種法界、種種諸道、種種入法界、種種虛空、種種道場、種種佛光、種種諸佛莊嚴師子之座、種種如來眷屬、種種如來方便、種種轉法輪、種種如來妙音說、種種音聲海說、種種修多羅雲。時，彼女人見聞如是，歡喜無量。
"At that time, the daughter Sublime-Virtue Eye at once removed the adornments from her own body, and scattered them in offering to the Tathāgata. At that time, these adornments, in the midst of space, transformed into a jeweled canopy, adorned with every jewel, in every way equal to every palace, upright and orderly, adorned with the ten jewels, encircled all about by the ring of vajra mountains; its form was like a bright, pure pavilion, adorned with every jewel, held up together by boundless nāga-kings, encircled by jeweled trees, its sublime fragrance perfuming all. Within this canopy there was a bodhi tree, its branches and leaves flourishing, universally covering the Dharma-realm, adorned with boundless adornments. She beheld Vairocana Buddha seated beneath this tree, together with great bodhisattvas equal in number to motes of dust in unspeakable buddha-lands, every one of them fully endowed with Samantabhadra Bodhisattva's own every practice, abiding in the bodhisattva's own abode, which nothing could destroy. She also saw the kings of every world, encircling the Tathāgata; she also saw that buddha's own sovereign spiritual power; she also saw the successive sequence of every kalpa, the arising and passing of worlds; she also saw the successive arising of every buddha in the world; she also saw Samantabhadra Bodhisattva, at the presence of every buddha, reverently making offering, and teaching and transforming sentient beings; she also saw that, within each and every one of these worlds, there were worlds equal in number to motes of dust in every buddha-land, each with its own manner of abiding, its own manner of adornment, its own manner of purity, its own manner of kalpa, its own manner of a tathāgata arising in the world, its own manner of the three times, its own manner of land, its own manner of Dharma-realm, its own manner of path, its own manner of entering the Dharma-realm, its own manner of space, its own manner of bodhimaṇḍa, its own manner of buddha-light, its own manner of every buddha's own adorned lion-throne, its own manner of a tathāgata's own retinue, its own manner of a tathāgata's own skillful means, its own manner of turning the Dharma-wheel, its own manner of a tathāgata's own sublime-voiced teaching, its own manner of teaching through an ocean of sounds, and its own manner of clouds of sūtras. At that time, this woman, seeing and hearing all this, rejoiced without measure."
Fazang reads the princess's gesture on two levels at once: 若隨事言，以重佛故解身重服以散佛也；若表行言，以己所修福惠二嚴迴求佛果，故奉佛也 — "taken as a matter of the event itself, it is that, out of reverence for the buddha, she removes her own weighty garments and scatters them for the buddha; taken as representing practice, it is that she turns her own twin adornments of cultivated merit and wisdom toward seeking the buddha's own fruit, and so makes offering to the buddha." A single gesture — a girl taking off her jewelry — carries, in his reading, both the plain gesture of reverence and the entire bodhisattva path's twin cultivation of merit and wisdom folded into it.
One detail in his outline is worth flagging before the story runs any further: of the canopy's form, "like a bright, pure pavilion," he writes 如明淨樓閣者，舉下文彌勒樓觀為喻 — "'like a bright, pure pavilion' cites, as its own comparison, the tower of Maitreya's own pavilion found later in the text." This is not a stray simile. Maitreya's Tower is the single most famous scene in the entire Gaṇḍavyūha, still many teachers ahead of Sudhana at this point in the pilgrimage — the vast pavilion, at the very end of his journey, that opens to reveal endless worlds nested within worlds. Fazang is telling us the sūtra itself reaches forward and borrows this very canopy, offered here by a girl at the fourth teacher of the Ten Grounds, as the image it will later use to describe that final, culminating vision. He then divides what the canopy reveals into four layers: 初現盧舍那佛及菩薩眾等；二又見一切諸劫下明現餘剎餘佛；三見普賢業用。四見重重帝網世界，種種佛興，異異說法 — "first, the manifestation of Vairocana Buddha and his bodhisattva assembly; second, beginning with 'she also saw every kalpa,' the manifestation of other lands and other buddhas; third, seeing Samantabhadra's own karmic activity; fourth, seeing the layered, nested worlds of Indra's net, each with its own manner of a buddha's arising, each teaching differently." The same nested cosmos this project has met before, now compressed into a single canopy woven from a princess's own bracelets and rings.
Ten Thousand Samādhis, Thirty-Four Minds, Nine Dharma-Gates
「爾時，妙德幢佛於大眾中，說修多羅，名一切如來法輪妙音，十佛世界微塵等修多羅，以為眷屬。時，彼女人聞此經已，即得一萬三昧，身心柔軟，如初受胎，又如眾生初受勝業果報，又如初生堅固吉樹。所謂：見現在一切諸佛三昧、普照一切佛剎三昧、深入三世三昧、一切如來妙音轉法輪三昧、知一切佛願海三昧、滅一切眾生生死苦惱三昧、滅一切眾生癡闇滿足莊嚴大願三昧、滅一切眾生諸苦三昧、令一切眾生具足快樂三昧、教化一切眾生心無疲倦三昧、一切菩薩無礙幢三昧、菩薩降神母胎莊嚴三昧。得如是等一萬三昧，復得淨三昧心、不動心、歡喜心、正希望心、廣大心、順善知識教心、甚深薩婆若心、隨順方便海心、一切無著心、捨離一切世間境界心、究竟如來境界心、普照一切色海心、滅瞋恚心、愛念心、平等心、無疲倦心、不退轉心、離懈怠心、觀一切法寂靜心、隨順一切法海心、隨順分別一切法心、分別一切眾生海心、救護一切眾生心、普照一切世界心、滿一切佛大願海心、壞散一切障礙山心、積集無量功德山心、向佛十力心、普照一切菩薩境界心、長養一切菩薩諸功德心、充滿一切十方海心、發平等心、成滿佛剎微塵等諸願海心、願淨一切如來剎心。如是等心，出生十佛世界微塵等法門，所謂：教化一切眾生法門；分別一切法界法門；究竟一切法海法門；於一切世界盡未來劫，出生菩薩行法門；於一切世界盡未來劫，住菩薩行法門；往詣一切佛所法門；值遇一切善知識法門；恭敬供養一切佛法門；於念念中，出生一切智，不斷菩薩行法門；出生如是等十佛世界微塵等法門，出生普賢菩薩願行，專求一切智。時，彼女人得諸如來初發心願。
"At that time the buddha Sublime-Virtue Banner, in the midst of the great assembly, expounded a sūtra, named the Sublime Sound of Every Tathāgata's Own Dharma-Wheel, with sūtras equal in number to motes of dust in ten buddha-worlds as its retinue. At that time, this woman, having heard this sūtra, at once attained ten thousand samādhis; her body and mind became soft and pliant, as though she were newly conceived in the womb, or as a sentient being newly receiving the fruit of a supreme karmic recompense, or as a firm and auspicious tree newly sprung up. Namely: the samādhi of beholding every buddha of the present; the samādhi of universally illumining every buddha-land; the samādhi of entering deeply into the three times; the samādhi of every tathāgata's own sublime voice turning the Dharma-wheel; the samādhi of knowing the ocean of every buddha's own vow; the samādhi of extinguishing the suffering and affliction of birth-and-death of every sentient being; the samādhi of extinguishing the folly and darkness of every sentient being and fulfilling the adornment of the great vow; the samādhi of extinguishing every suffering of every sentient being; the samādhi of causing every sentient being to be fully endowed with happiness; the samādhi of teaching and transforming every sentient being with a mind never wearied; the samādhi of the unobstructed banner of every bodhisattva; and the samādhi of the adornment of a bodhisattva's own descent into a mother's womb.
"Having attained ten thousand samādhis such as these, she further attained a mind of pure samādhi, a mind unmoving, a mind of joy, a mind of true aspiration, a mind vast and great, a mind that follows in accord with the good friend's teaching, a mind of the profound all-knowing wisdom, a mind that accords with the ocean of skillful means, a mind of non-attachment to all things, a mind that relinquishes every worldly state, a mind that reaches the very end of the Tathāgata's own state, a mind universally illumining the whole ocean of forms, a mind that extinguishes anger, a mind of loving thought, a mind of equality, a mind never wearied, a mind never turning back, a mind that departs from indolence, a mind that contemplates the stillness of every dharma, a mind that accords with the ocean of every dharma, a mind that accords with the discernment of every dharma, a mind that discerns the ocean of every sentient being, a mind that rescues and protects every sentient being, a mind that universally illumines every world, a mind that fulfills the ocean of every buddha's great vow, a mind that breaks apart the mountain of every obstruction, a mind that accumulates the mountain of boundless merit, a mind directed toward the buddha's own ten powers, a mind universally illumining every bodhisattva's own state, a mind that nurtures every bodhisattva's own merit, a mind that fills the ocean of the ten directions entirely, a mind that raises equanimity, a mind that fulfills the ocean of every vow equal to motes of dust in every buddha-land, and a mind that vows to purify every tathāgata's own land.
"Minds such as these give rise to Dharma-gates equal in number to motes of dust in ten buddha-worlds — namely: the Dharma-gate of teaching and transforming every sentient being; the Dharma-gate of discerning every Dharma-realm; the Dharma-gate of the whole ocean of every dharma; the Dharma-gate of giving rise, throughout every world and to the very end of future kalpas, to the bodhisattva's own practice; the Dharma-gate of abiding, throughout every world and to the very end of future kalpas, in the bodhisattva's own practice; the Dharma-gate of going to the place of every buddha; the Dharma-gate of meeting every good friend; the Dharma-gate of reverently making offering to every buddha; and the Dharma-gate of giving rise, within every single thought-moment, to every wisdom, the bodhisattva's own practice unbroken — giving rise to Dharma-gates such as these, equal in number to motes of dust in ten buddha-worlds, giving rise to Samantabhadra Bodhisattva's own vow and practice, single-mindedly seeking every wisdom. At that time, this woman attained the very vow every tathāgata first raises upon first raising the mind."
Fazang confirms the exact scope of each list, and this translation preserves every item of all three in full: 於中三：初得三昧益，先總、次別、後結。別中，略辨十二種。二復得淨心下明得淨心益，文略列三十四心。三如是等下明得法門，初如是等心出生者，明法門所依總舉；次別顯九種 — "within this there are three parts: first, the benefit of attaining samādhi, given first in general, then in particular, then in summary; the particular section briefly distinguishes twelve kinds. Second, beginning with 'she further attained a pure mind,' the benefit of attaining a pure mind, the text briefly listing thirty-four minds. Third, beginning with 'minds such as these,' the attainment of the Dharma-gate; 'minds such as these give rise to' first generally states what the Dharma-gate depends upon, then separately reveals nine kinds." Twelve samādhis, thirty-four minds, nine Dharma-gates — each count Fazang gives matches the list translated here exactly, item for item.
Read as a sequence rather than a list, these three tiers trace a clear escalation: twelve samādhis of direct beholding (of buddhas, of lands, of the three times), thirty-four minds that turn beholding into disposition — patience, non-attachment, equanimity, an unwearied heart — and finally nine Dharma-gates that turn disposition into an unbroken practice reaching to the end of future kalpas. A single sūtra, heard once, in the account's own telling, restructures a young woman's entire interior life in three concentric passes.
Part 74 In Progress
The princess's offering has become a canopy showing worlds within worlds, and a single sūtra has left her holding ten thousand samādhis, thirty-four minds, and nine Dharma-gates entire. Part 75 turns to the closing identification of this kalpa's story — who, among these figures, corresponds to whom in the present — before the account moves on to a second kalpa entirely.
Continue to Part 75 →