A World Still Present, and Ten Stanzas
The night-deva closes her long account with a striking claim: the ancient world of Stainless Light, where her story began kalpas ago, still exists at this very moment. She retells the whole account in ten stanzas — urging Sudhana to listen, tracing her own vast cause, honoring the fields of buddhas and parents alike, rescuing beings from every suffering — before closing her own portion and naming the next teacher: Sublime Virtue, Guardian of Every City.
A World Still Present
「善男子！汝所問我發心已來為幾時者，如上所說，乃至來生此剎，供養盧舍那佛，如此世界，供養拘樓孫佛，乃至盧舍那佛，供養賢劫未來諸佛，亦復如是；如供養賢劫諸佛，供養一切世界未來諸佛，亦復如是；而彼離垢光金色莊嚴世界，今猶現在。是故，善男子！汝當一心修此法門。」
"Good son, as for what you asked me — how long it has been since I raised the mind — it is as I have described above, up to and including my coming to be born in this land, making offering to Vairocana Buddha; just as, in this world, I made offering to the buddha Krakucchanda, up to Vairocana Buddha, so too shall I make offering to every future buddha of the Bhadrakalpa in just the same way; and just as I make offering to the buddhas of the Bhadrakalpa, so too shall I make offering to every future buddha of every world in just the same way. And that world of Stainless Light, Adorned in Golden Color, still exists at this very moment. Therefore, good son, you should single-mindedly cultivate this Dharma-gate."
Fazang closes this whole long answer in five steps: 結答中五：一總結答。二如此界下以四佛類賢劫千佛。三如供養賢劫下類十方一切世界，未來一切劫諸佛悉皆供養。四彼離垢界猶在者，以是十世中過去，現在則現在現在故。又是淨土無災壞故。五汝當等，結勸令學 — "the concluding answer has five parts: first, a general conclusion; second, beginning with 'in this world,' comparing four buddhas to the thousand buddhas of the Bhadrakalpa; third, beginning with 'just as making offering to the Bhadrakalpa,' extending this to every world of the ten directions, making offering to every buddha of every future kalpa in the same way; fourth, that world of Stainless Light 'still existing' — because, within the ten periods of time, what is past is, from within the present, still the present's own present; and also because it is a pure land, free of calamity or destruction; fifth, 'you should' and so on, concluding by urging her to study." Four buddhas — Krakucchanda, Kanakamuni, Kāśyapa, Vairocana — stand in, by simple extension, for the thousand buddhas the Bhadrakalpa is traditionally said to hold; and the claim that a world visited kalpas ago is "still present" rests on the Huayan doctrine of the ten times, in which past and present interpenetrate rather than simply succeed one another — a claim this project has met before in different guises, and meets again here stated with unusual directness.
Ten Stanzas
爾時，寂靜音夜天欲重明此法門義，以偈頌曰：
「善財應諦聽， 我說此法門，
應生歡喜心， 勤修令究竟。
無量諸劫海， 修習菩薩行，
心淨如虛空， 入一切智城。
聞三世佛法， 一心樂專求，
於彼如來所， 修習諸功德。
我見過去佛， 恭敬悉供養，
聞佛說正法， 歡喜心無量。
亦已悉恭敬， 供養於父母，
一心樂專求， 究竟此法門。
老病貧窮等， 諸根不具者，
除滅彼苦惱， 悉令得安樂。
水火官賊難， 怨敵諸恐怖，
及海中諸難， 我皆救濟之。
眾生煩惱業， 種種受報苦，
摧破生死山， 救護諸群生。
一切諸惡道， 無量楚毒苦，
生老病死痛， 我當悉除滅。
我願無量劫， 安隱一切眾，
常見一切佛， 滅除生死苦。」
At that time the night-deva Tranquil Sound, wishing to make the meaning of this Dharma-gate clear once more, spoke this hymn in verse:
"Sudhana, you should listen carefully as I speak of this Dharma-gate;
you should give rise to a joyful mind, diligently cultivating it to its very completion.
Throughout the boundless ocean of every kalpa, cultivating the bodhisattva's own practice,
my mind pure as space itself, I entered the city of every wisdom.
Hearing the Dharma of the buddhas of the three times, single-mindedly and joyfully seeking it,
at the presence of these tathāgatas, I cultivated every merit.
I beheld the buddhas of the past, reverently making offering to every one of them;
hearing the buddhas expound the true Dharma, my joyful mind was boundless.
I have also reverently made offering to my own parents entirely;
single-mindedly and joyfully seeking it, I brought this Dharma-gate to its very completion.
For those who are old, sick, or poor, and those whose faculties are incomplete,
I extinguish their suffering and vexation, causing them all to attain peace and happiness.
From the difficulties of water, fire, officials, and thieves, from every fear of enemies and foes,
and from every danger upon the sea, I rescue and deliver them all.
The karma of sentient beings' own afflictions, the manifold suffering of receiving recompense —
I crush and shatter the mountain of birth-and-death, rescuing and protecting every kind of being.
Every evil destiny, boundless torment and poison and suffering, the pain of birth, old age, sickness, and death —
all of this I shall extinguish entirely.
I vow that, throughout boundless kalpas, I shall bring peace and security to every being,
constantly beholding every buddha, extinguishing the suffering of birth-and-death."
Fazang divides the ten stanzas by exactly what each does: 二頌中十偈，分五：初一誡聽勸學、次二明修因曠遠、次二供報恩田、次四救眾生苦難、後一顯己大願 — "second, the verse of ten stanzas, divided into five: the first one urges attentive listening and cultivation; the next two reveal the vast, far-reaching cause of her practice; the next two show offering made to the fields of gratitude and recompense; the next four rescue sentient beings from suffering and hardship; and the last one reveals her own great vow." The "fields of gratitude" in stanzas four and five are worth noting side by side: the buddhas of the past, and, in the very next breath, her own parents — offered reverence in the identical terms, with no distinction drawn between the field of awakening and the field of one's own household. The four stanzas of rescue that follow move outward in scope exactly as the prose sections earlier in this teacher's account did — the old, sick, and poor; travelers facing water, fire, officials, and thieves; the karmic suffering of affliction generally; and finally every evil destiny at once — before closing on a single vow that gathers all of it into one line: peace for every being, and an end to the suffering of birth-and-death.
A Closing, and a Referral to Sublime Virtue, Guardian of Every City
「善男子！我唯成就此無量歡喜莊嚴法門；諸大菩薩，深入法海，分別一切劫，善知一切諸世界海成敗之事，我當云何能知、能說彼功德行？善男子！此道場上，如來眾中，有一夜天，名曰妙德守護諸城；汝詣彼問云何菩薩學菩薩行、修菩薩道。」
"Good son, I have accomplished only this Dharma-gate of the Adornment of Boundless Joy; the great bodhisattvas enter deeply into the ocean of the Dharma, discerning every kalpa, well knowing the arising and passing of the whole ocean of every world — how could I possibly know, how could I possibly speak of, such merit and practice as this? Good son, within this very bodhimaṇḍa, in the assembly of the Tathāgata, there is a night-deva, named Sublime Virtue, Guardian of Every City. Go to her and ask how a bodhisattva learns the bodhisattva's own practice, cultivates the bodhisattva's own path."
The self-limiting close — "I have accomplished only this Dharma-gate" — is by now a familiar refrain across every teacher of this pilgrimage, and Fazang marks it simply: 四我唯下結己自分 — "fourth, beginning with 'I only,' concludes what belongs to her own portion." The referral that follows keeps Sudhana within the identical bodhimaṇḍa a third teacher running: the night-deva Sublime Virtue, Guardian of Every City, sits within the very same buddha-assembly this teacher and the one before her have both taught from. Sudhana's whole path through the fourth and fifth grounds has, in this sense, been a single unmoving position from which he keeps encountering different teachers — presence accumulating in one place rather than distance covered between many.
Part 82 In Progress
The account has closed with a claim that reframes everything before it — the ancient world where this story unfolded still exists, its pastness folded into an ever-present now — and ten stanzas have retold the whole teaching once more. The night-deva has sent Sudhana onward, within this same bodhimaṇḍa, to Sublime Virtue, Guardian of Every City. Part 83 turns to Sudhana's own hymn of praise, closing the fifth teacher of the Ten Grounds.
Continue to Part 83 →