Fourteen Channels, and Water That Teaches
The ponds divide into fourteen branching channels, each with banks of gold and beds of jeweled sand — yet, however complex this branching becomes, order never breaks down. This water then does something no ordinary water can: wherever it touches, whatever it flows past, its sound itself becomes the Dharma, calibrated to whoever happens to be listening.
Fourteen Channels, Never Falling Into Disorder
三、從分為十四支下，至以為底沙已來，正明池分異溜旋還無亂。即有其三。一明渠數多少。二明一一渠岸作黃金色。三明渠下底沙作雜寶色。言金剛者，即是無漏之體也。
四、從一一水中下，至尋樹上下已來，正明水有不思議用。即有其五。一明別指渠名顯彼莊嚴之相。二明渠內寶華多少。三明華量大小。四明摩尼寶水流注華間。五明寶水從渠而出尋諸寶樹上下無礙。故名如意水也。
Third, from "divided into fourteen branches" down through "forming the sand of its own bed," this makes plain that, though these ponds divide into separate, flowing channels, circling and returning, they never once fall into disorder. There are three points within it. First, this makes plain the number of these channels. Second, this makes plain that each and every channel's own bank takes on the color of gold. Third, this makes plain that the sand forming the bed beneath each channel takes on the color of an assortment of jewels. As for "vajra": this is itself the very substance of that which is free of all defilement.
Fourth, from "within each and every one of these waters" down through "weaving up and down among the trees," this makes plain that this water possesses inconceivable function. There are five points within it. First, this makes plain the specific naming of these channels, revealing their own splendid appearance. Second, this makes plain the number of jeweled flowers within these channels. Third, this makes plain the size and measure of these flowers. Fourth, this makes plain that maṇi-jeweled water flows and pours among these flowers. Fifth, this makes plain that this jeweled water, emerging from the channels, weaves up and down among all these jeweled trees without any obstruction whatsoever — hence it is called wish-fulfilling water.
The chain of naming here — "wish-fulfilling" applied first to the jewel these ponds originate from, and now to the water itself, once it demonstrates its own unobstructed movement through the trees — suggests the name tracks a demonstrated capacity rather than a fixed label. Water that could only fill a pond would not earn this name; water that moves freely wherever it is needed, through solid trees as easily as through open channels, does. The insistence that fourteen branching channels "never once fall into disorder," despite this complexity, continues a pattern already seen with the trees' own uncountable variations: profusion in this land is never confusion.
Every Ripple Speaks the Dharma
五、從其聲微妙下，至諸佛相好者已來，正明水有不可思議德。即有其二。一明寶水華間流注，微波相觸即出妙聲，聲中皆說妙法。二明寶水上岸尋樹枝條華果葉等，或上或下，中間相觸皆出妙聲，聲中皆說妙法。或說眾生苦事，覺動菩薩大悲，勸令引他。或說人天等法，或說二乘等法，或說地前地上等法，或說佛地三身等法。
Fifth, from "its sound is subtle and wondrous" down through "the excellent marks of every buddha," this makes plain that this water possesses inconceivable virtue. There are two points within it. First, this makes plain that, as this jeweled water flows and pours among the flowers, its subtle ripples, touching one another, give forth a wondrous sound — and within this very sound, the wondrous Dharma is entirely expounded. Second, this makes plain that, as this jeweled water rises up the banks and weaves among the branches, twigs, flowers, fruit, and leaves of these trees, now rising, now falling, wherever it touches, in every instance, it gives forth a wondrous sound — and within this very sound, the wondrous Dharma is entirely expounded. It may expound the suffering endured by sentient beings, stirring the great compassion of the bodhisattvas, exhorting them to draw others toward liberation. It may expound the teachings pertaining to gods and humans; it may expound the teachings of the two lesser vehicles; it may expound the teachings pertaining to the stages before and upon the bodhisattva grounds; or it may expound the teachings of the three bodies belonging to the stage of buddhahood itself.
The full range of teaching this water gives voice to — from the plain suffering of ordinary beings up through the three bodies of buddhahood, the most advanced doctrinal topic in the entire Mahāyāna canon — mirrors the same logic already seen with the light emerging from the Buddha's own body back in Fascicle 2: a single source, calibrated to whatever level a given listener can actually receive. What is distinctive here is the mechanism: not a deliberate act of speech by any single teacher, but the simple physical contact of water touching leaf, water touching branch, water touching another ripple of itself. The entire land continues to teach without anyone choosing, moment to moment, to teach at all — the same principle already established for the wind-borne music of the water contemplation, now extended into the ponds themselves.
Part 44 Complete
This closes Part 44. Part 45 completes the jeweled pond contemplation in full: the wish-fulfilling jewel king's own golden light, transformed into birds whose song praises the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha together, and the formal close of this fifth of the sixteen contemplations.
Continue to Part 45 — Birds That Sing the Three Jewels →