A Girl's Vow, and the Realm Before a King
A young girl within the assembly, watching the king give everything he owns, removes her own ornaments and vows to become just like him — his wisdom, his path, his indestructible marks — in every future life. She then begins a hymn of fifty-two stanzas, the largest single verse this pilgrimage has yet encountered, opening with six describing the realm exactly as it was before he ever arose: parched, lawless, like the very domain of hungry ghosts.
A Girl Named Jeweled Light
時，彼會中有一童女，名寶光明；端正姝妙，顏容無倫，身如真金，目髮紺色，口演妙音，身出名香，眾寶莊嚴，常懷慚愧，正念無亂，威儀庠序，於諸師長，恭敬尊重。諸根寂定，念慧現前，所聞諸法，能持能解；宿世長養無量善根，諸妙善法，潤澤其身，近善知識，好樂大乘，心如虛空，自安安彼，常樂見佛，求薩婆若。
與六十童女俱，去王不遠，一心恭敬，合掌而住，作如是念：『我得善利，見善知識，遇善知識。』於彼王所，起大師想、善知識想、慈悲人想。生此念時，歡喜無量，脫莊嚴具，置彼王前，發如是願：『今此大王，安隱無量無邊眾生，願我來世亦復如是；大王智慧、大王正道、大王所乘、大王相好、大王財寶，無能壞者，願我來世亦復如是。隨所生處，我亦隨生。』時，彼大王告此女言：『我今悉捨內外所珍，恣汝取之。』
At that time, within this assembly there was a young girl, named Jeweled Light; upright and lovely, her countenance without compare, her body like true gold, her eyes and hair a deep indigo hue, her mouth sending forth a sublime voice, her body emitting a renowned fragrance, adorned with every jewel; she constantly held a sense of conscience and shame, her right mindfulness never disturbed, her bearing composed and dignified, and toward every teacher and elder she was reverent and respectful. Her every faculty tranquil and settled, mindfulness and wisdom manifest before her, whatever dharma she heard she was able to uphold and able to understand; throughout past lives she had nurtured boundless roots of goodness, every sublime, wholesome dharma moistening her own body; she drew near to the good friend, delighted in the Great Vehicle, her mind like space itself, at peace herself and bringing peace to others, constantly delighting to behold a buddha, seeking all-wisdom.
Together with sixty other young girls, not far from the king, single-mindedly reverent, she stood with palms joined, thinking to herself: "I have gained a good benefit, beholding the good friend, meeting the good friend." Toward the king she raised the thought of a great teacher, the thought of the good friend, the thought of a compassionate person. As this thought arose, she rejoiced without measure, and, removing her own adornments, placed them before the king, raising this vow: "This great king now brings peace and security to boundless, unbounded sentient beings; may I, in a future life, be just the same. The king's own wisdom, the king's own true path, the king's own vehicle, the king's own excellent marks, the king's own treasury of wealth — nothing able to destroy them — may I, in a future life, be just the same. Wherever I am born, may I be born there as well." At that time, the great king said to this girl: "I have now relinquished every treasure, inner and outer; take from it as you please."
Fazang opens this second major movement of the account plainly: 第二時彼會中有一童女下明本生身同修勝行。於中六：初歎女德勝。二作如是念下順善知識捨物 — "second, beginning with 'at that time, within this assembly there was a young girl,' reveals the night-deva's own past body cultivating the supreme practice alongside him. Within this there are six parts: first, praising the girl's own excellent virtue; second, beginning with 'thinking to herself,' according with the good friend, relinquishing her own possessions." Of the gesture itself, he reads two levels: 同願脫莊嚴具者，示背世間榮華之報。置王前而發願者，悕同出世菩薩大行 — "her shared vow, removing her own adornments, shows her turning her back on the worldly reward of splendor; placing them before the king and raising a vow expresses her hope to share equally in the supreme, world-transcending practice of the bodhisattva." Her vow itself is worth noting for what it does and does not ask: not wealth, not comfort, but the king's own wisdom, path, and indestructible marks — a girl asking, in effect, to become exactly what she has just watched him be.
A Hymn Begins: Six Stanzas on a Realm Before the King
「時，彼女人倍增歡喜，以偈頌曰：
「『大王未興世， 堅固莊嚴都，
一切不可樂， 猶如餓鬼處。
眾生相殘害， 竊盜縱婬佚，
兩舌不實語， 無義麁惡言。
貪利他財物， 瞋恚懷害心，
邪見不善行， 命終墮惡道。
如是眾生等， 愚癡所覆蔽，
種種行諸惡， 天旱不降澤。
以無時雨故， 百穀悉不生，
草木皆枯槁， 泉流亦乾竭。
大王未興世， 一切諸河池，
皆悉乾枯涸， 猶如大曠野。」
At that time, this girl, her joy redoubling, spoke this hymn in verse:
"Before the great king arose in the world, though the capital was firm and adorned,
nothing at all could bring joy, as though it were the realm of hungry ghosts.
Sentient beings harmed one another, stealing and indulging in reckless lust,
speaking with a double tongue, untrue words, meaningless and coarse, evil speech.
Coveting the wealth of others, their minds bearing anger and harm,
wrong views and unwholesome conduct, at the end of life falling into an evil destiny.
Sentient beings such as these, covered over by folly,
committed every kind of evil, and heaven withheld its rain.
Because the rain no longer came in season, every grain of every crop failed to grow,
grass and trees all withered away, and even the springs and streams dried up.
Before the great king arose in the world, every river and pond
was utterly dried and parched, like a vast and desolate wilderness."
Fazang gives the full scope of the hymn this stanza begins, before breaking down its first movement: 四女人說偈讚王德者，賀恩報故。五十二頌分二：初二十五頌總顯大王興世利益、後二十七別明本生利益之相。前中四：初六頌明王未興時損 — "fourth, the girl speaking a hymn in praise of the king's own virtue, in gratitude for his kindness. The fifty-two stanzas divide in two: the first twenty-five generally reveal the benefit of the king's own arising in the world; the latter twenty-seven particularly reveal the benefit within her own past-life account. Within the first: the first six stanzas reveal the harm before the king had yet arisen." Fifty-two stanzas is, by a wide margin, the longest single hymn this pilgrimage has yet encountered — and it opens not with praise, but with its exact opposite: a realm so lawless and parched, before this king ever came to be, that the text likens it outright to the realm of hungry ghosts.
Part 97 In Progress
A girl has vowed to become everything she has just witnessed in a king, and begun a hymn of fifty-two stanzas — by far the largest in this collection — with six describing the world exactly as it was before he arose. Part 98 turns to what changed the moment he was born.
Continue to Part 98 →