Awake Alone, and a Verse Retelling
The night-deva closes with a stark image: while every sentient being lies in the long sleep of birth-and-death, she alone has awakened — and is able, because of this, to awaken others in turn. She names ten final aspects of what she teaches, closes her own portion, and sends Sudhana onward to the night-deva Blossoming Tree Flower, before retelling her whole account once more in verse.
Awake Alone, and a Closing
「是故，佛子！一切眾生長寢生死，唯我獨覺，復能覺悟一切眾生，守護心城，離三界城，入一切智無上法城。善男子！我唯成就此甚深妙德自在音聲法門，除滅眾生兩舌口過，令淨實語。諸大菩薩，決了眾生諸語言道，於一念中，覺悟一切眾生之心，深入眾生語言音海，善知眾生施設語法，分別了知一切法海，深入攝取一切諸法陀羅尼海；善巧方便，為眾生出一切法雲，究竟度脫一切眾生，攝取眾生，立無上業，隨順淨智，分別業藏，能師子吼，法施一切，得諸法地，圓滿陀羅尼。我當云何能知、能說彼功德行？善男子！此佛眾中，有一夜天，名開敷樹華。汝詣彼問云何菩薩學一切智，安立眾生於薩婆若。」
"Therefore, child of the Buddha, while every sentient being lies in the long sleep of birth-and-death, I alone have awakened, and am further able to awaken every sentient being, guarding the city of the mind, departing from the city of the three realms, and entering the unsurpassed Dharma-city of every wisdom. Good son, I have accomplished only this Dharma-gate of Profound Sublime Virtue, Sovereign Sound, extinguishing sentient beings' own fault of the double-tongued mouth, causing them to speak pure and truthful words. The great bodhisattvas decisively understand every path of sentient beings' own speech, within a single thought-moment awakening the mind of every sentient being, entering deeply into the ocean of every sentient being's own speech and sound, well knowing every sentient being's own manner of establishing language, discerning and knowing the whole ocean of every dharma, entering deeply into and gathering in the whole ocean of the dhāraṇī of every dharma; through skillful means, sending forth every cloud of dharma for the sake of sentient beings, reaching the very end of delivering every sentient being, gathering in sentient beings, establishing the unsurpassed karma, according with pure wisdom, discerning the treasury of karma, able to roar the lion's roar, giving the Dharma to all, attaining every ground of the Dharma, the perfect dhāraṇī. 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 Blossoming Tree Flower. Go to her and ask how a bodhisattva learns every wisdom, and establishes sentient beings in all-wisdom."
Fazang counts the closing ten clauses precisely, mapping each to a single word: 第五仰推中十句：一了語、二知心、三入語音、四善設語、五分別法、六攝總持、七巧出法、八攝眾生、九順淨智、十吼法施 — "in the fifth part, deferring upward, there are ten clauses: first, understanding speech; second, knowing the mind; third, entering the ocean of speech-sound; fourth, skillfully establishing language; fifth, discerning the Dharma; sixth, gathering in total retention; seventh, skillfully producing the Dharma; eighth, gathering in sentient beings; ninth, according with pure wisdom; tenth, the lion's roar of the gift of Dharma." He closes simply: 我當下結非己分。現前地竟 — "'how could I' concludes what is not her own portion to know. The Ground of Manifest Presence is concluded."
The image that opens this passage is worth sitting with on its own terms: "while every sentient being lies in the long sleep of birth-and-death, I alone have awakened." This is not a claim of superiority so much as a definition of function — awakening is precisely what makes her able, in the very next clause, to awaken others; the two cannot be separated. And what she names as her Dharma-gate's own most concrete effect, before any of the ten abstract clauses that follow, is disarmingly plain: "extinguishing sentient beings' own fault of the double-tongued mouth, causing them to speak pure and truthful words." A profound Dharma-gate, unpacked across five parts of Sanskrit-glossed names and ten-thousand-fold dhāraṇīs, comes to rest, at the very moment of its closing, on something as ordinary as whether a person tells the truth.
Fourteen Stanzas: A Verse Retelling
爾時，妙德守護諸城夜天欲重明此法門義，以偈頌曰：
「佛子深法門， 虛空如如性，
分別三世佛， 無量諸法界。
出生無量門， 不思議諸法，
長養無礙智， 了達三世法。
過轉剎塵劫， 劫名離垢光，
世界妙德雲， 城名寶華光。
彼劫次第有， 須彌塵等佛，
初佛號法海， 雷音光明王。
後佛法界城， 明淨智慧燈，
我皆悉供養， 聞法大歡喜。
見法海雷音， 光明王如來，
眾妙相莊嚴， 猶如須彌山。
見佛即發心， 專求一切智，
心大如虛空， 其性同如如。
充滿於三世， 諸佛菩薩眾，
大悲心普覆， 一切剎眾生。
清淨妙法身， 充滿諸佛剎，
隨其所應化， 悉為顯現身。
我初發心時， 震動一切剎，
教化諸群生， 悉令大歡喜。
次值第二佛， 聞法而供養，
即時得覩見， 十剎海塵佛。
如是次第值， 須彌塵等佛，
恭敬供養彼， 一切諸如來。
聞法悉受持， 逮得此法門，
廣度一切眾， 究竟到彼岸。
轉剎塵等劫， 諸佛興出世，
我亦悉詣彼， 恭敬而供養，
聞法悉受持， 清淨此法門。」
At that time the night-deva Sublime Virtue, Guardian of Every City, wishing to make the meaning of this Dharma-gate clear once more, spoke this hymn in verse:
"Child of the Buddha, this Dharma-gate is profound, its nature like space itself, like suchness;
discerning the buddhas of the three times, and the boundless Dharma-realm.
Giving rise to boundless gates, to every inconceivable dharma;
nurturing unobstructed wisdom, understanding the dharmas of the three times.
Beyond kalpas as numerous as motes of dust in a whirling world, there was a kalpa named Stainless Light;
a world, the Cloud of Sublime Virtue; a city, named the Light of the Jeweled Flower.
Within that kalpa, in sequence, there were buddhas as numerous as motes of dust on Sumeru;
the very first buddha was named the King of the Light of the Thunder-Sound of the Ocean of Dharma.
The last buddha was the Lamp of Bright, Pure Wisdom, the City of the Dharma-Realm;
I made offering to every one of them, and, hearing the Dharma, rejoiced greatly.
I beheld the Tathāgata King of the Light of the Thunder-Sound of the Ocean of Dharma,
adorned with every sublime mark, like unto Mount Sumeru itself.
Beholding the buddha, I at once raised the mind, single-mindedly seeking every wisdom,
my mind vast as space itself, its very nature the same as suchness.
Filling the three times, every buddha and bodhisattva assembly;
a mind of great compassion universally covering the sentient beings of every land.
A pure, sublime Dharma-body, filling every buddha-land;
according to what was fitting for each being's transformation, manifesting a body for every one.
When I first raised the mind, every land shook;
teaching and transforming every kind of being, causing them all to rejoice greatly.
Next I met the second buddha, hearing the Dharma and making offering;
at that very moment I was able to behold buddhas as numerous as motes of dust in ten oceans of lands.
In this same sequence I met buddhas as numerous as motes of dust on Sumeru,
reverently making offering to every one of these tathāgatas.
Hearing the Dharma, I upheld it entirely, and thereby attained this Dharma-gate,
broadly delivering every being, reaching at last the further shore.
Throughout kalpas as numerous as motes of dust in a whirling world, buddhas arose in the world;
I too went to every one of them, reverently making offering,
hearing the Dharma and upholding it entirely, purifying this Dharma-gate."
This verse retells only the first kalpa of the two this teacher's account has narrated — the kalpa of Stainless Light, its ninety-eight named buddhas compressed here into "the very first" and "the last," with the ninety-six between them held only in the phrase "as numerous as motes of dust on Sumeru." The pattern is now a familiar one across this pilgrimage's verse retellings: the prose gives every name in full: the verse trusts the reader to remember the mountain of names just closed, and spends its own economy instead on what the prose left implicit — that beholding a single buddha's body, "adorned with every sublime mark, like unto Mount Sumeru itself," was enough, on its own, to shake every land and raise the mind of awakening for the first time.
Part 88 In Progress
The night-deva has closed her own portion, declaring that she alone has awakened from the long sleep of birth-and-death, and sent Sudhana onward, within this same assembly, to the night-deva Blossoming Tree Flower. Her own verse retelling has compressed ninety-eight buddhas into a single named pair. Part 89 turns to Sudhana's own attainment of this Dharma-gate — a rare moment where he does not merely witness a teacher's realization but receives it directly himself — and his closing hymn of praise.
Continue to Part 89 →