A King, an Evil Kalpa, and a Cry for Help
The account finally opens: a kalpa located through a telescoping cosmic address — ocean of worlds, world-nature, world, four-continent land, Jambudvīpa, royal capital — narrowing at last onto a single great king's own reign. His rule, at first unrivaled, is overtaken by an evil kalpa and the five turbidities; drought and famine follow, and a starving, plague-ridden people cry out to him at the gates of his own city.
A Kalpa, Located Through a Telescoping Address
「佛子！乃往古世，過世界海微塵等劫，有一世界海，名明淨山；彼有如來，出興于世，號智慧法界山；諸方寂靜，普照王如來、應供、等正覺。彼佛為菩薩時，淨彼世界海；彼世界海中，有佛剎微塵等世界性；彼一一世界性中，有世界微塵等佛，出興于世；一一如來，說世界微塵等修多羅；一一修多羅中，授佛剎微塵等諸菩薩記，顯現如來種種神力，無量方便；種種諸乘，教化眾生。
佛子！彼世界海中，有一世界性，名普門莊嚴；彼世界性中，有一世界，名曰一切寶色妙德，普照一切寶華海，以為莊嚴；眾寶為體，狀若天城，清淨嚴飾，普照一切諸佛道場，顯現諸佛變化光明。彼世界中，有須彌山微塵等四天下；彼四天下中，有一四天下，名寶山幢；彼四天下，有閻浮提，縱廣十萬由旬；彼閻浮提內，有十萬大城；彼諸城中，有一王都，名堅固寶莊嚴雲燈，有一萬城，周匝圍遶，人壽萬歲。時，有大王名一切法師子吼圓蓋妙音，有五百大臣，六萬采女，七百王子，端正勇健。爾時，彼王威德普被一閻浮提，無有怨敵。
"Child of the Buddha, in ages long past, beyond kalpas as numerous as motes of dust in every ocean of worlds, there was an ocean of worlds, named Bright, Pure Mountain; there was a tathāgata who arose in the world there, named Mountain of the Dharma-Realm of Wisdom, Tranquil in Every Direction, King of Universal Illumination, Worthy of Offerings, Perfectly and Fully Awakened One. When this buddha was a bodhisattva, he purified this ocean of worlds; within this ocean of worlds, there were world-natures equal in number to motes of dust in every buddha-land; within each and every one of these world-natures, there were buddhas equal in number to motes of dust in every world, arising in the world; each and every one of these tathāgatas expounded sūtras equal in number to motes of dust in every world; within each and every one of these sūtras, predictions were bestowed upon bodhisattvas equal in number to motes of dust in every buddha-land, manifesting the Tathāgata's own manifold spiritual power, boundless skillful means; and every kind of vehicle taught and transformed sentient beings.
"Child of the Buddha, within this ocean of worlds, there was a world-nature, named the Universal Gate's Own Adornment; within this world-nature, there was a world, named Every Jewel-Colored Sublime Virtue, universally illumined, adorned with the ocean of every jeweled flower; its very substance formed of every jewel, its form like a heavenly city, pure and adorned, universally illumining every buddha's own bodhimaṇḍa, manifesting every buddha's own light of transformation. Within this world, there were four-continent worlds equal in number to motes of dust on Mount Sumeru; within these four-continent worlds, there was one four-continent world, named the Banner of the Jeweled Mountain; within this four-continent world, there was a Jambudvīpa, ten hundred thousand yojanas in breadth and length; within this Jambudvīpa, there were ten hundred thousand great cities; within these cities, there was one royal capital, named the Firm, Jeweled, Adorned Cloud-Lamp, with ten thousand cities encircling it all about, and its people lived ten thousand years. At that time, there was a great king, named the Sublime Sound, the Perfect Canopy of the Lion's Roar of Every Dharma, with five hundred great ministers, sixty thousand attendant women, and seven hundred princes, upright and valiant. At that time, this king's own awe-inspiring virtue covered the whole of Jambudvīpa, and he had no rival or enemy."
Fazang divides this final, deepest account into three: 前中三：初明過去大王起行即是本事、二有童女下明夜天本生同修勝行、三結會古今 — "the account has three parts: first, revealing the past great king's own arising practice — this is the ancient matter itself; second, beginning with 'there was a girl,' revealing the night-deva's own past body cultivating the supreme practice alongside him; third, the identification of past and present." Within the first of these, he counts five further steps, the first two of which structure what this part translates: 一總舉時處塵數佛興。二佛子彼世界海中有世界性下別舉本處明輪王興化 — "first, a general statement of the time and place, and the buddhas arising as numerous as motes of dust; second, beginning with 'child of the Buddha, within this ocean of worlds,' particularly citing the actual place, revealing the wheel-king's own arising and transformative work." The address narrows through six full stages — ocean of worlds, world-nature, world, four-continent land, Jambudvīpa, royal capital — before a single king's own name is finally given.
An Evil Kalpa, and a Starving People's Cry
彼大劫中，有惡劫起，五濁熾然。爾時，人民行十惡業，遠離十善，死入惡道，壽命短促，形色鄙陋，貧窮下賤，多苦少樂，更相諍訟，互相謗毀，離他眷屬，深入邪見；以諸貪著行非法故，風雨不時，卉木叢林，百穀苗稼，皆悉枯槁。彼時，人民飢饉病瘦，悉詣王都，高聲大呼。時，諸人眾無量無數，圍遶王城，或舉兩手、或復合掌、或號天扣地、或舉身自撲、或右膝著地、或著弊衣，眼無光色，悲聲大叫，咸言：『大王！我等今者，大苦！大苦！飢渴寒凍，疾病危困，無所歸依，無救濟者；如在牢獄，種種苦逼，轉趣死路。』作如是等無量楚毒，悲聲上訴，求自全濟，安隱快樂。大王則是眾生寶藏清涼之池，善正治法，大智大乘，為大寶洲，真實利益，能與眾生天人之樂。
Within this great kalpa, an evil kalpa arose, and the five turbidities blazed fiercely. At that time, the people practiced the ten evil deeds, departing far from the ten wholesome deeds; upon death, they fell into evil destinies; their lifespans grew short, their forms and appearances base and unsightly, poor and lowly, suffering much and enjoying little happiness, contending and disputing with one another, slandering and reviling one another, parted from their own kin, entering deeply into wrong views; because of their every attachment and unlawful conduct, wind and rain came at the wrong times, and the plants, forests, and every crop and sprouting grain all withered away. At that time, the people, famished and afflicted with illness and emaciation, all went to the royal capital, crying out in loud voices. At that time, these countless, boundless multitudes of people, encircling the royal city, some raising both hands, some joining their palms, some crying out to heaven and beating the earth, some throwing their whole bodies down, some kneeling with their right knee upon the ground, some wearing tattered clothes, their eyes without any light or color, wailing and crying aloud, all saying together: "Great King! We, at this time, suffer greatly! We suffer greatly! Hunger, thirst, cold, and freezing, sickness and peril, we have nowhere to turn, no one to rescue us; as though in a prison, oppressed by every kind of suffering, we turn toward the road of death." Raising up boundless torment and poison such as this, they cried out in sorrowful appeal, seeking to be saved and delivered, brought to peace and happiness. The Great King is indeed the cooling pond of every sentient being's own treasury, governing well and correctly by the Dharma, of great wisdom and the Great Vehicle, a great, jeweled island, of true and real benefit, able to grant sentient beings the very happiness of gods and humans.
Fazang identifies the five turbidities by name and traces exactly which clause reveals which kind of karmic fruit: 三彼大劫中下明有惡劫起。於中五濁熾然者總舉也，謂劫濁、見濁、煩惱濁、眾生濁、命濁，具如別章。行十惡等，造苦因也。死入惡道，明受異熟果也。命短等，明受等流果也。以諸貪著下明增上果 — "third, beginning with 'within this great kalpa,' reveals an evil kalpa arising; within this, 'the five turbidities blazed fiercely' is a general statement — namely the turbidity of the kalpa itself, of view, of affliction, of sentient beings, and of lifespan, treated fully elsewhere. 'Practicing the ten evil deeds' and so on is the creation of the cause of suffering. 'Upon death, falling into evil destinies' reveals receiving the ripened fruit. 'Lifespans grew short' and so on reveals receiving the outflow fruit — the fruit that resembles its own cause. 'Because of their every attachment' and what follows reveals the dominant fruit — the fruit borne by the shared environment itself." Three distinct kinds of karmic fruit, each keyed to a specific clause: a fruit that ripens into rebirth, a fruit that simply resembles the deed that caused it, and a fruit that reshapes the very world the deed was committed in — wind and rain themselves turning erratic because of a people's own unlawful conduct.
Fazang closes this step with the fourth and fifth of his five: 四彼時人民下明苦人於王上訴求救，為大悲之境。五時彼大王聞下對境起心，成大悲之行 — "fourth, beginning with 'at that time, the people,' reveals the suffering people appealing to the king above them for rescue — this becomes the very object of great compassion; fifth, beginning with 'at that time, the great king heard,' reveals a mind arising in response to this object, becoming the very practice of great compassion." The crowd's own physical desperation — hands raised, bodies thrown to the ground, tattered clothes, eyes without light — is not incidental description; it is, in the commentary's own reading, the precise condition that calls great compassion into being as a practice rather than an abstraction.
Part 94 In Progress
A kalpa has been located through a cosmic address six stages deep, a great king's reign has been overtaken by the five turbidities, and a starving, plague-ridden people now cry out at his gates. Part 95 turns to what the king does in response — a mind of great compassion attained on the spot, and ten vows spoken aloud, one for each kind of suffering he has just witnessed.
Continue to Part 95 →