The Flower Ornament Scripture

 

A Translation of the Avatamsaka Sutra

Thomas Cleary

A P P E N D I X   3

Commentary on Book 39 by Li Tongxuan

 

Translator’s Introduction

 

A C C 0 R DING T 0 B U D D H IST LEGE N D , the fullest extent of consciousness available to hun1ankind was rediscovered by Gau­ tanu Buddha thousands of years ago and summarized in the monurnental discourse known as The Flower Ornament Scriptu re (Auatamsaka Sutra). Finding this staten1ent of complete enlight­

enrnent beyond even the most advanced minds of his time, the Buddha spent the rest of his li fe teaching people how to prepare then1selves for this comprehensive understanding.  At every step of the way, there were those who succeeded  in absorbing , utilizing, and finally superseding each stage of preparation , as well as those who took the part for  the whole,  assumed they had realized all there was to know,  and fell by the wayside.

A fter the disappearance of Gautama Buddha, those among

his mendicant followers who had attained a certain stage of individual enligh temnent gathered together to recite and sys­ tenutize what they had learned from their teacher. Since the Buddha's teachings were adapted to the specific needs of indi­ viduals and groups according to their stage of evolution,  the result was a vast a tnount of material, a highly complex body of principles and practices.

No t yet having reached the full consciousness  of the Buddha, however, these rnendicants were unaware of the teach­ ings beyond their own  range,  and some of them assumed that they had recorded the full dispensation of their n1aster, even though all of then1 refused to say they had attained all that the teacher had attained . Eventually the followers of the followers

1545

 

 

of these mendicants, imagining then1sel ves to be the elite of a new religion holding the authentic teachings of the Buddha, not only rejected the more ve rsatile and expansive teachings le ft among certain lay adepts and com n1unities but even organized thernsel ves into n1ore than a dozen competing sects,  each with its own proprietary interest in what it considered truth .

According to  The  Scrip ture  of the  G reat  Ultimate  Extinction, the  fragmentation  of the  Buddha's teaching,  with  different fa ctions using parts of the teaching as clain1s to their own authority, was to be expected as a characteristic degeneration. The Scripture on Un locking  the  Mysteries,  revealing  certain  ad­ vanced teachings, represents this as already happening to men­ tally isolated Buddhist groups in  the tirne of Gautama Buddha an d explains its technical inefficiency.

Legend has it that the comprehensive  teaching  of  The Flower  Ornament  Scripture  was  under  these  conditions  withdrawn fo r a time, until th e advent of a major renewer, the great Nagarjuna , who studied all aspects of Buddhist learning and recovered  the  teaching of The  Flower  Ornam.ent  Scriptu re  " fro m the ocean. " Consistent with his role in revitalizing the compre­ hensive teaching, Nagarjuna is also regarded as ancestor of all the n1 ajor branches of East Asian Buddhisn1, including the Zen, Pure Land, and Tantric schools.

Turning from legend to history,  it n1ust be ad n1itted that the terrestrial source of The Flower Ornament Scripture is un­ known. This is a characteristic it has in con1mon with the other great scriptures of the universalist Buddhist tradition, but the ran ge of this scripture and  the  multitude of far-flung  branches of the school it comprehends places it in a class by itsel f. It appears to be the product of an esoteric association like the later Sarn1oun "Bees" who are said to traverse the world gathering the "honey " of knowledge from relict deposits .

The Sarmoun is the inner branch of the Designers , recog­ nized fo r the last five hundred years as the most comprehensive school of Sufisn1. Teachings projected  by  the  Designers  and their associates  h ave been outwardly connected by observers,

 

and inwardly connected by practitioners , with every m ajor religion in the wo rld, a phenomenon easily understood in reference to the activities of the Bees . The idea of restoration of lost knowledge parallels the legend of the recovery of  The Flower  Ornament Scriptu re,  and  the connection with all religions also parallels the clain1 of the scripture that true teaching has been represented in all cultures and in all faiths.

When  Buddhism began to  filter  into China to  revitalize that delapidated civilization in the early centuries of the com­ mon era, The Flower Ornament Scriptu re  was  among  the  first sources of study materials in  translation.  At first only a limited nun1ber of ideas from the great body of the Teaching were introduced to broaden the  mental horizons of the Chinese, but by the early fifth cen tury a nearly con1plete translation was available . Some two centuries later a more comprehensive ver­ sion was produced , not only adding teachings missing from the earlier wo rk but also  rendering  the  text in  a  far  more skillful and readable translation.

Uni fying the scattered lore of complete Buddhisn1, The Flower  Ornament  Scripture  presents a schen1e  of fifty-two stages of enlightenment in five or six ranks . The five ranks are known as the ten abodes, the ten practices, the ten dedications, the ten stages , and universal enlightenment.  The designation  of six ranks adds to this the final rank of sublime enlightenn1ent.

During  the early absorption  of Flower Orna n1ent teachings in China,  special attention was given to the ten stages,  which are described in a book of the scripture  that  traditionally circulates as a single volume and was separately translated into Chinese at least five tin1es . The book on the ten stages  is without a doubt one of the key sections of the scripture,  one of only two that still exist in the Sanskrit language fron1 which so many Buddhist scriptures were translated.

The other book still extant in Sanskrit is the thi rty-ninth book  of  The   Flower   Omamcnt  Scripture,    the  Candavyuha,  or

Garland Scripture,  known  in  the  con1prehen sive  Chinese edition as  The  Book  On  Entry  into  the  Realrn  of Reality .  This  final book,

 

of unparalleled beauty and grandeur, recapitulates the entire scheme of the fi fty-two stages in the tale  of a pilgrimage reflecting the total effort  of the  original  recollectors  of the con1p rehensive teaching  of The Flower Ornament  Scriptu re.   It is this book that is the su bject of the present volume,  a com rnen­ tary on the Gandavyuha con1posed by the great Li Tongxuan, a distinguished eighth-century Chinese Buddhist.

There are two m ajor Chinese commentaries on the com­ plete tran slation of The Flower Ornament Scripture, the one by Li Tongxuan , a l aynun, and one by his contemporary Zhengguan, a   n1onk.   Zhengguan's   co1n n1entary,   which  also   includes   a subcom n1entary on the con1 n1entary, is largely done from the point of view of what is known as the School of Characteristics, and is typically encyclopedic and astonishingly detailed. In contrast, Li's  com rnentary , Huayan helu rz, is done fro n1 the point of view of what is known as the School of Essence and places tremendous e n1phasis on sudden enli ghtenn1ent.

When I translated the complete  version of  The  Flower Ornament Scripture into English years ago, I used both Li's and Zhengguan 's con1n1entaries . No one who reads the latter could fail to be impressed by Zhengguan's colossal scholarship;  n1ore di ffi cult  than  the  scripture  itsel f,  that  comn1entary is  a  tour de fo rce ranging over the enorn1ous domain of Buddhist psychol­ ogy and philosophy. A Western scholar once assured me that Zhengguan had wasted his tirne writing his con1mentary  be­ cause no one would ever read it; and while I deeply lament this

attitude, it is not di fficult to understand it as an a ffirm ation that

the current state of Buddhist scholarship in the West is insuffi­ cient to n1ake Zhengguan's work com prehensible to the average reader of the present day .

Li's con1 n1entary, on the other hand, without the intensive detail that characterizes Zhengguan's work, demonstrates the expansive e n1brace, vibrant aliveness, and sensitivity to sy n1- bolism typical of Chan Buddhis n1. Li emphasizes the point that Tlze    Flower   Omament   Scrip ture   is   directed at ordinary  people, and his con1 n1entary renders the scripture even n1 ore accessible

 

to the nonspecialist. Nevertheless, produced as it was from a background of extensive learning in Buddhist teachings, it contains a great deal of material that makes sense only to someone similarly well versed in the whole range of Buddhist scriptures. For this reason I h ave chosen to use a Ming dynasty (1 4th-1 7th centuries C. E.) distillation of Li's original commen­ tary, adapted after the fashion of the time to present  the essential teachings in a manner accessible to the nonspecialist.

In recapitulating the teachings of The Flower  Ornament Scrip ture, the Gandavyuha, The  Book  on  Entry  into  the  Realm  of Reality,  uses the format of a journey for knowledge.  Sudhana, the inspired young pilgrim of the story, visits fifty-three teach­ ers to learn the conduct of the bodhisattva, the enlightening being dedicated to liberation of the hidden resources of hum an­ ity.  Quite out  of keeping  with the modern myth that  the inner circle of living Buddhism was traditionally a male  monkish elite, the story represents a small minority of the teachers as monks, and nearly half as females .

The first ten teachers visited by Sudhana teach him the so­ called ten  abodes,  which are explained in  quite different terms in the fifteenth book of The Flower Ornament Scripture. The first abode,  called the  abode of inspiration or initial determination, is a preliminary stage in which  the aspirant sets his or her mind on the comprehensive knowledge that characterizes fully awak­ ened buddhas. In this abode practitioners serve buddhas, ren1ain willingly in the  world,  guide  worldly  people  to  reject  evil, instruct people in the Teaching and encourage them to practice it, learn the virtues of enlightenment, enter the company of the enlightened, teach tranquil concentration as an expedient, en­ courage detachment fron1 compulsive routines, and provide protection for those who are su ffering.

The second abode, called the abode of preparing the ground, requires certain attitudes towards others : altruis n1 and compassion,  desire to  give happiness and security,  pity  and con cern, the desire to protect,  identification,  and the willing­ ness to learn from everyone. Practitioners in this abode encour-

 

age and study fo rmal learning, caln1ness, association with the wise, kind speech , timely speech, fearlessness, understanding, action in accord with the teaching,  avoidance of  folly and delusion, and stability .

The third  abode,  called  the abode  of  practice,  invol ves con tetnplation of phenon1 ena in certain specific ways : as i n1 per­ n1 anent, as irritating, as en1pty of ultim ate reality, as selfless, as h aving no creation, as senseless, as not corresponding to the names conventionally given to then1 , as having no locus,  as being  beyond  conception,  and  as  lacking  stable  solidity.  Here practitioners observe the realms  of sentient beings ; the realms of phenon1ena and principles; the realms of the world; the ma­ terial elements; and the realms of desire, form,  and formlessness.

The  fourth  abode,  called  the  abode  of noble birth,  is

characterized by pern1anent access to the presence of the en­ lightened;  deep  and  pure  faith;  careful  examination  of things; and knowledge of beings, lands, worlds, actions, consequences , birth and death , and nirvana. Practitioners  in this abode  en­ deavor to learn, practice,  develop, and ful fill the teachings of past, present, and future buddhas; and they realize that all buddhas are equal .

The fifth abode,  called the abode  of full equip n1ent with skill in means, calls for practitioners to cultivate virtues for the salvation and benefit of others, to free others fro n1 trouble,  to free others from the miseries of compulsive routines,  to inspire pure faith, to harm onize and pacify others , and to enable others to experience perfect peace.  In this abode practitioners  learn that beings are infinite, inconceivable, and identityless; create nothing; and possess nothing.

In the sixth abode, called the abode of the correct state of n1ind, the practitioners ' minds are unwavering regardless of whether they hear praise or vilification of buddhas , buddhas ' teachings , or enlightening practices . Their n1inds arc also un­ wavering  regardless  of what  they  hear  about  sentient  beings­ that they are finite or infinite, defiled or undefiled, easy or hard to liberate. Practitioners arc also undisturbed in mind regardless

 

of what they hear about the origin or end of the universe or the existence or nonexistence of the universe. In  this abode they learn in what respect all things are signless,  are insubstantial, arc impossible to cultivate, lack ultimate existen ce, lack true reality, are empty of absoluteness, h ave no identity, are like illusions, are like dreams, and cannot be apprehended concep­ tually.

In the seventh abode, the abode of nonrcgression, the practitioner is firm and does not backslide, regardless of what is said about the existence or nonexistence of buddhas , of truth, of enlightening beings, or of the practices of enlightening beings . Similarly, the practitioner  is undaunted  by  whatever n1ay be said about whether enlightening beings do or do not attain emancipation; whether or not there were, are, or will be buddhas in the past, present, or future; whether buddhas' knowledge is finite or in finite; or whether past,  present,  and future are uniform or not . Here the practitioner learns in what respect one is many and many are one, how expression accords with meaning and meaning accords with expression, how non­ existence is existence and existence is nonexistence, how forn1- lessness is form and forn1 is formless, how nature is natureless and naturelcssness is nature.

The eighth abode, called the abode of youth ful nature, or innocence,  is characterized by flawless thought, word, and deed. The practitioner takes on new modes of li fe at will; knows people's various desires, understandings , realn1s, and activities; knows how  worlds  con1e into  being and pass away; and is  able to travel freely by psychic projection.  Topics  of study in  this abode include knowledge, activation, nuintenance, observa­ tion, and visitation of fields of enlightenment.

In the nin th abode, the abode of the spiritual prince, practitioners know how people are born , how a fflictions arise, how habits continue, and what techniques arc to be ernployed to liberate people. They know innumerable teachings and un­ derstand n1 anners . They know the differen tiations of the wo rld, they know past and future events , and they  know how to

 

explain both conventional and ultinutc truth . In this abode they also study the skills, n1 anners, contemplations , power, fearless­ ness, and repose of spiritual monarchs.

In the tenth abode, the abode of coronation, the spiritual monarchs analyze, illun1ine, support, visit, and purify countless wo rlds ; they observe and teach countless people, knowing their faculties , and cause countless people to strive for enlightenn1ent and realize peace and harmony. The practitioners pron1ote the knowledge that is proper to buddhas; knowl edge of past,  pres­ ent, and future; knowledge of all worlds; knowledge of all beings ; knowledge of all things; and knowledge of all buddhas .

The next ten teachers instruct the  pilgrim Sudhana in  the ten practices , which are described in the twenty- first book  of The Flower Ornamerzt  Scripture.  The  first  one,  called the  practice of joy, or giving joy, is based on transcendent generosity. The practitioner is magnanimous in giving, without any concept of person, personality, human being, giver, or receiver. Exercising generosity in this  way,  the  practitioner observes  only the infin­ ity of reality and the real n1 of beings and sees the n1 as e n1pty, signless, insubstantial, and indeterminate. In this way the prac­ titioner develops pure generosity without taking pride in it.

Second is what is known as beneficial practice, based on transcendent morality . The practitioner n1aintains pure disci­ pline and self-control, free fro n1 attachment to n1 aterial senses, without seeking power, status,  wealth, or don1inion . By know­ ing  all  things  are  unreal,  practitioners  are  able  to  nuster  li fe, death, and nirvana; to liberate then1selves and others ; to attain tranquillity, security, purity, dispassion, and happiness; and to foster these attainments in others . Practitioners aspire to fo llow the enlightened; to detach fro n1 n1undanc activities;  to ful fill the qualities of buddhahood; to remain supremely equanin1ous and be impartial towards all; to understand  objective reality clearly; to eliminate error; to cut through conceptualization ; to abandon  attachment;  to achieve emancipation;  and to   abide n1 entally in supreme wisdon1.

The  third,  the  practice  of nonopposition,  is  based  on

 

transcendent toleran ce . Practitioners develop hurnility and fo r­ bearance,  refraining fron1 harming others .  Not seeking personal pron1inence or material gain , practitioners resol ve to expound the Teaching to others so that they n1ay get rid of all evil and put an end to greed, hatred, folly, pride, hypocrisy, possessi ve­ ness, jealousy, obsequiousn ess, and dishonesty. They transcend su ffering by reflecting on the ultimate unreality of the body, detaching from the idea of self and all that pertains to it.

The fourth , the practice of indon1itability , is based on transcendent energy. Practitioners becorne free fro n1 mental poisons  and   direct their  energy  towards   ending  psychological a fflictions; uprooting confusion ; eliminating the compulsion of habit; and learning all about people, phenon1ena, time, and the powers and qualities of the enlightened.

The fi fth, the practice of noncon fusion , is based on tran­ scendent  meditation . Practitioners  develop perfect mindfulness, so that their minds becon1e undistracted, imperturbable, pure, open, and free from  confusi on.  With this mindfulness they are able to hear and reme n1ber enlightened teachings and put them into practice without  confusion. They are also  able to change from one state of being to another without n1 ental disturbance and to enter into all sorts of n1 editation states, realizing that they are all of the sa n1e essence. Practitioners attain true knowl­ edge of phenomena and develop an increasingly vast sense of compassion.

The sixth, called the practice  of good  manifestation , is based on transcendent wisdorn . Here practitioners are pure and nonacquisitive in thought, wo rd , and deed, realizing that thoughts, words , and deeds have no absolute existence. Free from falsehood, they are accordingl y freed from bondage; they abide in the absolute essence of reality yet appear in life expe­ diently, having no retribution for their actions . Practitioners realize the transcendental truth of em ptiness,  the incon ceivabil­ ity of reality; yet they never give up the will to enlighten others and always expand their sense of compassion .

The seven th, the practice of nonattachn1ent,  is based on

 

transcendent skill in means . Practition ers neither fo rn1 attach­ ments to the sacred nor feel aversion towards the n1 undane, holding the Teaching without proprietary sentiments and teach­ ing people without emotional involvement.  By virtue of their great con1 n1itn1ent and will power, practitioners remain secure while teaching others , not becoming disturbed or discouraged, having attained nonattachn1ent and independence.

The eighth,  the practice  of the difficult-to-attain ,   is based on   trans cendent vows.   Here practitioners  perfect virtues  that are difficult to attain and never abandon or weary of the vow of universal salvation. They understand that people do not really exist, yet they do not abandon them; they do not ren1ain in the n1undane wo rld yet do not ren1ain in transcendental  nirvana either, alway s   traveling back  and   forth to deliver others fron1 the n1undane to the transcendental. Practitioners observe all things to be ungraspable yet not nonexistent; they see things as they are, without neglecting their work of den1onstrating the practices of enlightening activities wherever they are.

The ninth, the practice of good teachin g, is based on transcendent power. Here practitioners attain inexhaustible in­ tellectual powers and boundless versatility in teaching, their con1p assion extending to all beings. They adapt to the faculties, natures , and inclinations of the people they address,  and  re­ spond inexhaustibly to whatever questions or difficulties people bring then1. Practitioners of good teaching  are able to  do  this by discovery of the boundless resources of the potential of enlightenment,  by attainn1ent of the light of all truths,  and by ful fillment with universal knowledge. They arc void of wo rld­ liness yet enter into all worlds, acting as refuges , lights,  and guides for others, revealing the powers of the enlightened.

The tenth, the practice of truth, is based on transcendent

knowledge.  Here the  practitioners  develop  knowledge of what is so and what is not so; knowledge of consequences of past, present, and future actions; knowledge of faculties, realms, and understandings; knowledge of where all  paths lead;  knowledge of defilement or  purity and  proper or  itnproper  timing of all

 

n1editations, liberations, and concentrations; knowledge of past abodes in all  worlds;  knowledge of clairvoyance; and knowledge of the end of all taints . Practitioners preserve the right teachings of the buddhas  of all tin1es for the benefi t of all people  and reach the source of the reality of th e teachings  of buddhas. Through the influence of the practitioners those who associate with thern attain understanding, joy,  and purity.

From the next ten teachers Sudhana learns the ten dedica­ tions ,  extensively des cribed in  the massi ve twenty-fi fth book of The  Flower  Ornament  Scripture.   The fi rst is called dedication to s aving all beings without clinging to any inuge of beings. Practitioners of this dedication cultivate transcendent generos­ ity , discipline, patience, energy, n1editation, and wisdom; and they d well in great co mpassion , kindness, joy, and equanimity. They dedicate these virtues to the benefit of all people to enable everyone to be puri fied, to reach the ultimate realization of enlightenn1ent, and to be  fo rever freed  from  the su fferin g  and a ffli ction of miserable states .

The second is called indestructible dedication.  Practitioners of this dedication attain indestructible faith in buddhas and bodhisattvas , in the qualities and teachings of buddhas, in pure ways  of  life,   in  the  path  of  dedication  to  enlighten n1en t,  in teachers of ways of enlightenn1ent, in spiritual powers of bud­ dhas, and in the practice of expedient means of enlightenment . Practitioners anuss virtues, develop then1, concentrate on then1, conten1plate and analyze then1 , find joy in them, and li ve by then1; they set their rninds on dedication in accord with the essential nature of things, dedication entering into uncreated truth yet perfecting created expedients, dedication of techniques discarding attachments to concepts of phenon1ena , and dedica­ tion of expedient application of practices without clinging to fo rms.

Third is dedication equal to all buddhas. Practitioners of this dedication do not conceive either like or dislike for any perceived o bjects ; their n1 inds are free, pure, joyful, flexible, and without sorrow or trouble. They vow to increase the bliss

 

of the enlightened, the bliss of the unconceivable abode of buddhas, the bliss of the matchless concentration of buddhas, the bliss of unlimited compassion, the bliss of liberation, the bliss of im n1easurable power, and the bliss of tranquillity  de­ tached  fron1  cognition.  Practitioners  dedicate  their  virtues  to enabling others to ful fill their vows, perfect transcendent  prac­ tices , stabilize an indestructible determination  for enlighten­ n1ent, give up conceit, and attain the clear, sharp senses of the enlightened.

Fourth is dedication reaching all places . Practitioners  of this dedication intend the power of their virtues  to reach  all places , all things, all worlds, all beings , all lands, all space, all tin1e, and all speech; they pray that their virtues m ay include all truths , all enlightening practices, all enlightened spiritual p ow­ ers , all enlightening methods of In editation, all educational activities, and all ways of adaptive response to others . Practi­ tioners are able  to develop people to maturity; beautify and purify lands; avoid spoiling works; understand all things ; con1- prehend ultinute reality  apart from  desire;  achieve pure faith; and h ave clear,  sharp faculties . They are able to appear respon­ si vely in all worlds,  expound truth in all places , travel psychi­ cally in res ponse to others ' n1inds, attain com prehensive recol­ lective and explanatory powers , and attain  instantaneous universal perception reaching all places .

Fifth is dedication of infinite stores of virtue. The infinite stores, or treasuries, of virtue dedicated by the practitioners are attained by repentance and removal of obstructions caused by past actions, by p aying respect to all the enlightened, by re­ questing the enlightened to teach, by listening to the teachings and putting them into practice,  and by rejoicing  at  the  virtues of all buddhas and all people in all tin1es.  These practitioners are aware th at all things are like phanton1s and illusions, yet they  cultivate  the  pure  deeds  characteristic  of the  enlightened; they enter into inconceivable freedom yet employ skill in expe­ dient means  to  perform  the  work  of the  enlightened and  illu­ n1 ine the wo rld. They dedicate all their virtues to all fields of

 

enlightenment, to all  those  working for enlightenment,  to all the  enlightened,  to  enlightenment  itself,  to  all  universal  vows, to all essential ways of c n1ancipation, to purifying all real n1s of being, to seeing the enlightened appear in all worlds, to seeing the life of the enlightened as infinite, to seein g the enlightened teaching throughout the cosmos, and to assuring  the develop­ ment of all people.

Sixth is dedication that stabilizes all roots of goodness, causing then1 to endure. Practitioners exercise all manner of generosity, including the giving of right teachings and the giving of protection. As they exercise this generosity, the practitioners develop mental control by which they practice dedication, controlling the body and con trolling sensation , conception, action, and consciousness. When they give 111 aterial things to people, they pray that  people  nuy  attain correspond­ ing qualities : for example,  when they give clothing,  they pray that people m ay develop a sense of shame and conscience; when they give flowers , they pray that people  n1ay becon1e pleasing to all they meet; when they give perfumes , they pray that people m ay becorne generous;  when they give bedding,  they pray that people may becon1e wise; when they give shelter, they pray that people m ay becon1e peaceful; when they give la n1ps, they pray that people nuy become illun1inated; when they give medicines , they pray that people m ay become mentally as well as physically healthy .

S eventh is dedication according to all sentient beings . Prac­ titioners of  this  dedication  cultivate  virtues  by  the  p ower  of pure determination for enlightenment and give people  what they need without any psychological artifice, without expecta­ tion, without desire for reputation, without regret, without irritation; they extend compassion and mercy to all unrenlit­ tingly, not letting conditions stop their generosity and  never growing weary of it. Through this generosity they develop an unattached n1ind, an un fettered n1ind, a liberated n1ind, a strong mind, a pro found n1ind, a concentrated n1ind, a nonsub­ jective n1 ind, a controlled mind, an undistracted n1ind, an

 

understanding mind, a dedicated n1ind, a penetrating mind. In dedicating their virtues , they pray that people m ay lack nothing material or n1 oral, experience peace and happiness, get rid of confusion and delusion , attain pure impartial n1inds,  and attain all knowledge without difficulty .

Eighth is dedication characteristic of true Thusness. Prac­ titioners  of this dedication attain clear and perfect recollection and get beyond confusion and disturbance. They vow to attain freedo n1 of thought, word, and deed so as to carry out enlight­ ening practices; they vow to develop infinite generosity,  to cultivate all enlightening practices , to n1as ter all the teachings, to arrive at the realm of universal knowledge, to remember the buddhas of all times, to li ve in the world unwearied to  edify others, an d to activate countless liberative techniques of thought and wisdom. Practitioners dedicate these virtues without cling­ ing to the wo rld or  to  people, not relying on  anything , free from discriminatory views, in accord with all impartial truths.

Ninth is dedication without bondage or attachment. Prac­ titioners of this dedication  honor  and respect  e n1ancipation from compulsi ve routines, embodi n1ent of all virtues,  repen­ tance of past acts , moral support of virtues , and expressions of respect fo r the enlightened. They dedicate their virtues with an unbound, unattached, liberated mind, to accon1plish universally good thought, word, and deed without  forming  arbitrary  no­ tions of worlds or wo rldly things, of enlightenn1ent or enlight­ ened beings,  of enlightening practices or ways of emancipation , of buddhas or their teachings,  of training  or not training people, of virtue or dedication, of self or others , of gifts or recipients, or of truth or knowledge. They do not become proud or conceited, yet they are not sel f-dem eaning either;  the virtues they cultivate are for the benefit of all conscious creatures, dedicated to the most honorable human state, the state of buddh ahood.

Tenth is infinite dedication equal to the cosmos. For prac­ titioners of this dedication , the giving of teaching is paran1ount, establishing the will fo r enlighten n1ent in others . They are

 

impartial, tireless in practicing good works, pure of heart, independent in knowledge. They vow to develop the ability to perfect all perspectives of universal freedo m;  the ability to absorb, retain, and expound true teachings; and to cultivate enlightening practice for the benefit of one and all . They also vow to ful fill the practice of unall oyed Inorality, non reliance, nonacquisitiveness, nonattachment, noncontention, stabiliza­ tion of good will, incomparable compassion, immutable joy, and undisturbed equanimity.

The next ten teachers represent to Sudhana the ten stages, which arc expounded in the twenty-sixth book of The Flower Ornament Scripture. The first stage, the stage ofjoy, is character­ ized by calmness, happiness, ebullience, exaltation, delight, vigor, geniality, and freedom from anger. The practition ers of this stage becon1e cxtren1ely joyful thinking  of the enlightened ones and their teachings, of those working  for  enlightenment and their practices, of the ways of transcendence, and of the ability to help people. They becon1e free from all fear by transcending the very idea of self,  so they cannot be coerced by fear of ill repute,  fear of death,  fear of misery,  or intimidation by crowds . Practitioners in this stage also make a preparatory study of the indications  of all  the stages , becon1ing  versed in the problems and solutions of the stages , the attainments and cultivation of the stages , and the step-by-step  progression through the stages . No longer interested in n1undane satisfac­ tions, practitioners attain a special  p ower that  fosters in them the elen1ents that purify the stages : faith, compassion , kindness, relinquishment, indefatigability, knowledge of the teachings, knowledge of the world and hun1anity, modesty  and  con­ science,  stability,  and association with the enlightened.

Second is the stage  of purity,  which is sought  by  way of ten dispositions of n1ind: honesty, gentleness, capability, docil­ ity, tranquillity, goodness, purity, nonattach n1ent, broad­ rnindedn ess , and magnani mity. In this stage practitioners nat­ urally avoid killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, false speech ,

 

coarse speech, useless speech, covetousness, tnalevolence, and erroneous views.

Third is the stage of reful gence. Practitioners enter this stage by consciously focusing their n1inds on purity, stability, freedon1 fron1 illusion , dispassion, nonregression, steadfast­ ness,   ardor,   tirelessness,   high-tnindedness,   and  rnagnanin1ity. In this stage they also exan1ine the in1pern1anence, pain fulness, i rnpurity, unreliability, destructibility, instability, and mon1en­ tariness of all that is conditioned, thus causing their rninds to become yet tnore liberated fro n1 conditioned things and di­ rected towards en lightened knowledge. Practitioners cultivate nine levels of rneditation , up to the stage of neither perception nor nonperception , and experience tnany kinds of rniracles and extraditnensional powers, such as clairvoyance, clairaudience, knowledge of the past, and ability to go in and out of extraor­ dinary states without falling under the sway of those states .

Fourth is the stage of blazing radiance. Practitioners attain this stage by entering into the radiance of the Teaching through ten ways of contemplation: conten1plation of the realn1s of beings, of the realn1s of the world, of the realn1s of phenornena and principles, of the realm of space, of the realn1 of conscious­ ness, of the realm of desire, of the realm of forn1 , of the realm of the formless,  of the realm of high-n1inded devotion, and of the realm of inclinations of the magnanin1ous n1ind. Practition­ ers at this stage exan1ine inner and outer phenon1ena with precise awareness, getting rid of worldly desire and dejection; they strive for the developn1ent, enhancen1ent, and preservation of good states and for the lessening, elimination, and prevention of bad states . They also develop the bases of spiritual powers, the elements of the path to liberation, and the various branches of enlightenn1ent.

Fifth is the stage difficult to conquer.  Practitioners enter this stage by irnpartial attention to purity of the teachings of past, present, an d future buddhas; to purity of conduct, to purity of n1ind; to purity of rcn1oval of opinion, doubt, uncer­ tainty, and perplexity; to purity of knowledge of what to apply

 

and what to relinquish; to purity of the final discernrnent and realization of all the elcn1ents of cnlightenrnent; and to purity of perfecting all people. They attain unwavering attention and bccon1e fa n1iliar with both conventional and ultin1ate truths. As they n1editate on all truths, practitioners also develop skills in practical arts and sciences, according to the needs of the people of the tin1e.

Sixth is the stage of presence. Practitioners enter this stage by observing phen01nena in tern1s of their equality in having no ultimate definition, in having no fixed origin, in being apart fron1 any concept or notion of things, in being prirnordially pure, in neither con1ing nor going, in being existent in son1e sense and nonexistent in another, and in being like drean1s or reflected in1ages. They observe the fonnation and disintegration of worlds, they realize that the origins of worldl y ways arc all rooted  in  attachn1ent  to  self.   This  leads  then1  to  a  thorough exarnination of the process of conditioning, followed by liber­ ating absorption in en1ptiness, signlessness, and wishlessness. Practitioners in this stage furthennore develop unbreakable intent and become imn1L1ne to delusive influences.

Seventh is the stage of going far, in which practitioners are profi cient in concentration on emptiness, wishlessness, and signlessness; enter into selflessness and transcend ideas of per­ sonality; yet still accumulate virtue and knowledge and do not give up practicing infinite kindness, compassion, joy, and equa­ ninlity. They detach from the world yet work to beautify the world; whereas practitioners arrive at extinction in the sixth stage, in the seventh stage they plunge into extinction and emerge from it in each n1ental instant, without being overcome by extinction.  They live in the world by willpower for the sake of others, without being stained by the ills of the world; they becon1e calm and serene, yet they can be passionate as an expedient without, however, becoming inflan1ed by passion.

Eighth is the stage of in1n1ovability. In this stage practi­ tioners fully realize that all things are nonconceptual, accessible to nonconceptual knowledge. They become wholly detached

 

frotn mind, intellect, consciousness, thought, and ideation and thus become free from all striving in thought, word, and deed; no actions based on views, passions, or intentions become nunifest in then1. Nevertheless, even though they have attained peace and liberation, practitioners in this stage who are sup­ ported by their past vows of complete enlightenment do not become con1placent but are further inspired to seek infinite knowledge. By rneans of the knowledge they develop, they are able to distinguish nuny paths in the world, show all aspects of virtue, control their own resolution, know the past and future, repel deluding influences, and carry out enlightening activities in endless contexts without regression.

Ninth is the stage of good mind. Practitioners in this stage gain accurate knowledge of good, bad, neutral, n1undane, and transn1undane actions. They also know how people get entan­ gled in afflictions, acts, senses, resolutions, dispositions, incli­ nations, propensities, and habits; and they know what is bene­ ficial or not. Practitioners also know all about the compartmentalization of mind, the con1plexity of mind, how the n1ind becon1es defiled, how the mind becomes bound and liberated, and how it creates illusions. Learning to become expert teachers, practitioners in this stage develop analytic knowledge of principles, meanings, expressions, and elocution; and they attain n1ental comnund of the teachings through concentration spells, learning to teach in accord with the dis­ positions, faculties, and inclinations of the people with whon1 they are working.

Tenth is the stage of cloud of teaching, emblematic of the ability of practitioners to teach like clouds showering rain.  In this stage-which is also called the stage of anointment or coronation, symbolizing anointment or coronation with the crown  of all  knowledge-practitioners  attain  incalculable  num­ bers of special concentrations and gain access to the higher knowledges characteristic ofthe enlightened. They attain incon­ ceivable liberation; infinite powers of recollection; and ability to

 

receive, absorb, and hold the revelations of the n1ysteries of complete enlightenment.

The next ten teachers after this represent the eleventh stage, the practice of Uni versal Good. Universally Good, the nan1e of the supernal bodhisattva Samantabhadra, who represents the active manifestation of the totality of all enlightening  practice, is the fifty-third and final benefactor visited by the  pilgrim Sudhana in the tale of the Gandavyuha . These teachers of the eleventh stage transn1it ten major aspects of this totality: pro­ ducing knowledge fron1 compassion, consistently remen1bering all truths through mastery of knowledge and compassion, teaching worldly principles everywhere, penetrating the nlys­ teries of writing and higher  knowledge of arts, helping people by both conventional and n1ystical arts and sciences, pure liberation by being in the world without clinging thoughts, illumination by pure knowledge working in the world, finding infinite forms in fonnlessness, speaking so as to reveal truth, and living in the world with con1plete knowledge and compas­ sion.

The fifty-first teacher is Maitreya, the Loving One, who is thought of as the Buddha of the Future. The Heaven of Satisfac­ tion, where the higher personality of Maitreya awaits incarna­ tion on earth, is extensively described in the twenty-third and twenty-fourth books of Th e Flower Ornament Scriptu re, and the encounter between the pilgrim Sudhana and an earthly person­ ality of Maitreya is now described in sin1 ilar grandeur and detail. Maitreya opens the door to a building of cosn1ic propor­ tions, the inner dimensions of which Sudhana  finds even greater, containing infinite numbers  of buildings  of equal size. In these buildings Sudhana sees the entire panoran1a of Mai­ treya's career, feeling the passage of eons in a short period of tin1e, learning the way to enlightenn1ent in one lifetime.

Maitreya finally  sends Sudhana back to Manjushri, who first sent him on his journey for knowledge and who now becon1es his fifty-second benefactor. Manjushri in turn,  reach­ ing out to Sudhana beyond time and space, illun1ines hin1 with

 

the light of infinite knowledge and leads hi n1 into endless n1ental con1nund, presence of n1ind, concentration, and higher knowledge, plunging hi n1 into the sphere of practice of Univer­ sal Good.

The vision of Sarnantabhadra, the Un iversally Good bodh­ isattva, finally ushers the pilgrim Sudhana into the ultimate range of the enlightetunent experience. Samantabhadra is intro­ duced as a prototype of the bodhisattva effort in the third book of The Flower Ornament Scripture, in tenns sin1ilar  to the Sufis' global Assembly of Saints and the Taoists' Celestial  Govern­ nlent: " Universal Good always fills the universe with various bodies flowing everywhere, with concentration, psychic power, skill and strength, teaching widely without hindrance in a universal voice." Then the final chapter of the final book of the scripture describes the cosn1ic vision of Universal Good and the n1erging of the pilgrin1 with the total being of Universal Good and the final realization of enlightenn1ent.

 

 

 

 

 

Entry into the Realm ofReality

The  Gu ide

 

 

T HE INHER EN T BASELE SSNESS of physicaJ and mental objects is called reality. The interpenetration of one and many, the disappearance of the boundaries of the real and artificial, of affirmation and negation, is called the realm.

Also, the realn1 that is purely concomitant with knowledge and not with emotional perceptions is called the realm of reality.

Furthermore, actually to realize that the seeds of unenlight­ ened consciousness arc purely functions of knowledge and are not subsumed by delusion is the sphere of independent knowl­ edge and is called the realm of reality.

What is n1ore, since the substance of knowledge has no abode and is all-pervasive, one sees the absolute and the mun­ dane to be totally inconceivable. In the infinite realn1 where all beings and objects reflect one another, buddha-lands are multi­ plied and ren1ultiplied , sages and ordinary people are the same whole, and the forms of objects interpenetrate.  This is called the realm of reality.

And when one subtle sound pervades the universe, a single hair n1easures infinity, views of great and snull disappear, others and self are the same body, conditioned consciousness and feelings arc gone, and knowledge pervades without ob­ struction, this is called entry into the realm of reality.

 

1565

 

 

This is the eternal goal of all buddhas of all tin1es, without beginning or end. The progressive practices of the preceding stages all have this as their substance. At this point practice is cornplete; allowing knowledge to act, it returns to its original state-fundamentall y there is  no  change.

As to the setting of this scripture, it takes place in the hunun world to illustrate  that the garden of the human  world is the very garden of the reality realm, that the nature of living beings is the nature of the reality realm, and that the world of living beings is the world of true awakening.

Manjushri,   the   spirit   of  wisd01n,   wanted   to   induce   the pilgrin1 Sudhana to trust in the fundamental unshakable knowl­ edge that is inherently pure and has no origin or extinction, no cultivation or witness, to induce hin1 to become a bodhisattva, an enlightening being, of the stage of faith . So Manjushri explained enlightened teachings for Sudhana, to inspire the thought of enlightenrnent in him.

Since the thought of enlightenn1ent is not learned or culti­ vated, the thought of enlightenn1ent is always clearly  self­ evident as long as we carry out enlightening practices to quell habit energy.

It is as when clouds disperse in the sky; the sky is itself clear, so there is no further search for clear sky.

Just carry out the n1yriad practices of compassion and wisdom as means of stabilizing enlightenment.  If any practice is not understood or not carried out, or if there is any grasping and rejecting, then there is an obstacle, and so the thought of enlightenn1ent is not in its complete state, since enlightening action is itself the thought of enlightenn1ent.

So once Sudhana had awakened the thought of enlighten­ rnent, he asked Manjushri how to learn to act as an enlightening being  and  practice  the  path  of enlightening  beings-he  asked no n1ore about the thought of enlightenn1ent.

Because the methods of progress expounded in the previ­ ous assemblies of the Avatamsaka Su tra had not yet been realized by an ordinary hun1an being, in the Gandavyuha Manjushri

 

wants to make Sudhana a signpost for later generations of seekers.

Also,  the  nan1es  of the  teachers  and  their  abodes-people holy and ordinary, spirits, royalty, mendicants, lay people, non-Buddhists, humans, celestials, n1ales and females-repre­ sent certain principles.

Furthennore,  the South,  the direction  of Sudhana's pil­ gri nuge, is used to stand for truth, clarity, and openness. When you arrive at open, clear, true knowledge without subjectivity, then everywhere is the South .

Therefore Manjushri sent Sudhana south to call on spiritual friends and benefactors, each of whom sends him onwards that he may progress and not dawdle over past learning. This is why the friends always praise the virtues of those Sudhana has yet to n1eet.

In the realm of principle,  Manjushri stands for knowledge of the fundan1ental . Samantabhadra stands for knowledge of differentiation, and Maitreya stands for the uncreate realization within Manjushri and Samantabhadra.

These three principles are all in the fifty spiritual friends­ representing the five ranks of enlightenn1ent-that Sudhana meets on his pilgrimage, so there are fifty-three teachers.

Since the fifty teachings of the spiritual friends each has cause and effect-as in other books of the  Avatamsaka  Sutra, where there arc ten bodhisattvas and ten buddhas to represent cause and effect-this makes one hundred.  Add to this the basic ten ways of transcendence and this makes one hundred and ten, the number of cities Sudhana is said to have passed through.

 

The F�fty-three Teachers

1.      MEGHASHRI

First Sudhana clin1bed the Mountain of Marvelous Peaks, saw the monk Meghashri ("Glorious Clouds") , and realized the abode of inspiration.

Clouds have four meanings.  They are everywhere, repre-

 

senting concentration . They bear n1oisture, representing virtue. They  shade  and  cover,  representing  cmnpassion.  They  shower rain, representing knowledge. Hence the nan1e Glorious Clouds. The significance of n1onkhood is the cessation of opinion­ ated argument. The word used means "stopping contention. " When one is without thoughts, still and quiet as a mountain,

then forn1less subtle principles becon1e evident.

Sudhana climbed the rnountain to its furthest reach and looked all over for Meghashri . This syrnbolizes use of the power of caln1 observation to gain access to the abode of the enlight­ ened.

Sudhana saw Meghashri on a separate peak. This syn1bol­ izes going through expedient n1editation methods to get into the original state where there is neither concentration nor distraction.

Meghashri was walking slowly, syn1bolizing being undis­ turbed. Walking around represents not lingering in concentra­ tion trance.

Meghashri saw all living beings as the body of enlighten­ n1ent and saw the n1undane world as like light, like a reflection, neither real nor false, inherently undefiled. He rnaintained the integrity of ordinary vision, so he saw living beings. He n1ain­ tained the integrity of objective vision, so for hin1 all objects were insubstantial. He rnaintained the integrity of the vision of knowledge, so he could n1agically produce objects . He saw the body of buddhas to be free of both being and nonbeing.

Therefore Meghashri told Sudhana that he always saw infinite buddhas of the ten directions and knew the teaching of universal vision through the light of knowledge attained by recollection of the reahn of buddhas.

 

2.      SAGARAMEGHA

Next   Sudhana   went   to   the   country  of Sagaran1ukha (" Ocean Door") , saw the rnonk Sagaratnegha (" Ocean Cloud") , and realized the abode of preparing the ground.

 

Spontaneous discipline is like the ocean. Not retaining the corpse of birth and death is the ocean door.  Because he was able to make the ocean of birth and death itself into the ocean of great knowledge and always benefit people with this princi­ ple, the monk was called Ocean Cloud.

Having attained the light of highest knowledge, using it to observe current subjective and o bjective worlds to develop all knowledge, he knew that the ocean of ignorance  and pain caused by the twelvefold process of conditioning is wholly the vast ocean of essence of the buddhas of all times, and that there is no place to attain buddhahood outside the ocean of birth and death. Therefore Ocean Cloud said he had been living in that country for twelve years.

Because this ocean of essence is not finite and is full of knowledge and virtue,  Ocean Cloud said the ocean was very deep and very wide and adorned with many treasures .

In ordinary people, the seven conditions of ignorance, restlessness, self-consciousness, name and forn1, sense recep­ tors, contact, and reception are currently active, so they cling greedily and obstinately, thus forn1ing the three conditions of craving, grasping, and becoming. Fron1 these three conditions develop the conditions of birth, aging, sickness, and death.

Being tossed about on the waves of pain in an endless circle, temporary students of individual liberation reject this in disgust and do not conceive great con1passion.  Therefore Sagar­ a tnegha directly used basic intuitive insight to illun1ine all at once the intrinsic baselessness of the substance and forms of conditioned production, all at once transforn1ing it into an ocean of great knowledge.

This ocean produced a huge lotus, symbolizing the action of knowledge without taint. Because enlightened action is always in accord with knowledge, the flower covered the whole ocean.

When titans stand in the ocean,  the water only comes up to their waists; because wise action does not sink into the ocean of birth and death, the lotus stem was held by titans .

 

As knowledge gives natural discipline to wash away mental ddilernent, water spirits showered fragrant water.

As objectless cornpassion responds without contrivance, the spirits bowed in reverence.

As knowledge is invincible, the embodin1ent of the buddha sitting on the lotus blossom was immensely tall . The function of knowledge is represented by the buddha extending his right hand. The reflection and con1bination  of knowledge and ac­ tion is represented by the buddha's laying his hand on Sagara­ n1egha's head.

Knowledge of the fun dan1ental is represented as the univer­ sal eye, knowledge of differentiation is represented as a scrip­ ture. Teachings are set up in consideration of people's faculties and states, and so, as people arc infinite, the teachings are infinite.

So Sagaramcgha said there was a buddha on the flower whose height reached to the summit of existence and that the buddha had reached out with his right hand, laid his hand on Sagaran1egha's head and expounded the universal eye scripture, which is so vast that an ocean of ink and a brush n1ade of mountains could not write out even a little of one statement of one doctrine of one book of the scripture. Sagaramegha said he had been keeping the scripture for twelve hundred years, allud­ ing to the use of knowledge of expedients to overturn the t welve hundred afflictions and be liberated from then1 all.

 

3.      SuPRATISHTHITA

The Sudhana went to a village on the seashore of Lanka, where he saw the monk Supratishthita (" Well Established") and realized the abode of practice.

Having conten1plated the twelve links of conditioning, Sudhana reexan1ined current habit energies of discrin1ination active in his senses and found that they had all becon1e seeds of knowledge, so he no longer lingered over then1.

The n1ountain of Lanka is in the south seas, so high and

 

steep that it is nearly impossible to clin1b. Now that the ocean of birth and death had turned into the ocean of knowledge, Sudhana had found the way of ascent and rested peacefully in patience, not deluded by the bedevilments of birth and death. Therefore Sudhana saw the n1onk Supratishthita walking in the sky; because he dwelt neither in the world nor  beyond the world, he "traveled in the sky. "

Because the voice of the teaching had universal influence and the light of knowledge destroyed illusion, therefore the rain spirits produced thunder and lightning as o fferings to the tnonk.

Because of his practical knowledge and con1passion , his hun1ility and self-discipline, bird maidens surrounded the monk respectfully.

Because of his nustery of use of the ten transcendent ways to benefit beings, the n1onk was honored by ten kings.

Because he had entered the door of freedom through great knowledge, the monk was unhindered by barriers of defilement and purity; all false states of existence n1elted away on contact, to become like the sky.

Therefore the monk said he had found the door of unob­ structed liberation, swiftly serving buddhas everywhere, going throughout the ten directions in an instant of thought, going through walls,  penetrating the earth, and walking on water, as if they were all space.

 

4.      MEGHA

Then Sudhana went to the Dravidian city of Vaj rapura, saw the gran1marian Megha, and realized the abode of noble birth.

The significance of Dravidia is the n1elting away of mis­ taken understandings by the teaching of sages. Megha tneans "Cloud, " representing one who contains life-giving n1oisture and showers the rain of the teaching.

Sudhana saw Megha in the 1niddle of the city , surrounded by thousands of people, expounding ways into truth through arrays of revolving letters.

 

The preceding teachers were all n1endicants : Megha is a layn1an, to represent the fact that when transcendence of the world is achieved, transcendent knowledge is not divorced fro n1 the world. He was in the world yet unaffected by it,  so he was "in the middle of the city. " His knowledge body was free, interchanging with society, so he was "surrounded by thou­ sands of people. "

Revolving means turning completely. Since the fact that an individual word or sound has no inherent identity  underlies infinite words and sounds,  infinite words and infinite sounds are one word and one sound. Therefore one and many revolve around and embellish each other. All n1undane phenon1ena are transmundane phenomena, and all transmundane phenomena are n1undane phenon1ena.

When it is said that phenomena exist, each one is inherently empty; when it is said that phenomena do not exist,  that does not destroy appearances. Therefore the absolute and the n1un­ dane, existence and nonexistence, completely change into each other and embellish each other. Since the totality, individuality, san1eness, difference, integration, and disintegration of all phe­ nomena sin1ultaneously revolve around each other in an inter­ related array, this is called the rnethod of arrays of revolving letters.

Megha is personally a layman, while the spirit of enlight­ enment is an absolute principle. Mundane truth should obey absolute truth, so when Megha heard that Sudhana had awak­ ened the thought of enlightenn1ent, he imn1ediately got down from his seat and bowed.

Because he wanted to inspire Sudhana to further progress, Megha told hirn that he only knew this teaching method of concentration spells of subtle sound.

 

5.      MuKTAKA

Next Sudhana went to Vanavasin (" Forest D weller") , saw the distinguished man Muktaka ("The Liberated One") , and realized the abode of full equipn1ent with skill in means.

 

Muktaka was in the n1idst of the mundane, the same as Megha . The wise use places where there are nuny beings living and dying for rneditation comn1unities, and n1editation con1- munities are called forests , so Megha had indicated a con1 n1u­ nity in the South called Forest D weller.

Indicative of the fact that the twelve links of conditioning­ ignorance, restlessness, self-consciousness, 11an1e and forn1, sense receptors, contact, reception, craving, grasping, becorn­ ing, birth, aging and death-are the substance of n1editation, Sudhana traveled for twelve years to get to Vanavasin .

Before, with Sagaran1egha, he  had observed the twelve links of conditioned life and attained transn1undane awareness; here he neither destroys conditioned life nor clings to condi­ tioned life. Traveling n1eans not dwelling.

When Sudhana saw Muktaka he threw hin1sclf bodily on the ground, because the essence of the body-mind cluster is itself n1editation; he also joined his paln1s, syn1bolic of the nonduality of the absolute and rr1undane.

Because the subject of trance is immensely deep, all-per­ vasive, and completely ful filling, Muktaka entered absorption into a concentration forn1ula for the whirlpool of boundless buddha-fields, whereat there appeared in the ten directions the enlightenn1ent sites of buddhas as nun1erous as atoms in ten buddha-fields.

The whirlpool has the meaning of depth, the number ten has the meaning of fulfillment. In absorption, the buddhas resulting from his own knowledge and his own causal practices appeared in profound stillness, so Muktaka said that when he entered absorption in trance he saw ten buddhas in the ten directions, with their ten chief assistants .

Because buddha is the accord of the inner mind  with reality, therefore one thought in harn1ony is a n1orr1ent of buddhahood, while a continuun1 of thoughts in harrr1ony is a continuum of buddhas.

There is no country outside rr1ind, no buddha  outside rr1ind, so the Liberated One Muktaka said that if he wanted to

 

see buddhas such as the Buddha of Infinite Light in the World of Bliss, he could see them as soon as he thought of them.

Because the whole realm of the infinite con1passionate acts of all knowledge is a meditation community, inherently un­ impeded, Muktaka said he had only delved into the ins and outs of this way to liberation through unimpeded manifestation .

 

6.      SARADHVAJA

Then Sudhana went to the tip of the continent,  saw the monk Saradhvaja, and realized the abode of the correct state of mind.

Because Saradhvaja had reached the ultimate boundary of transmundane knowledge, he "lived on the tip of the conti­ nent. " Because he had only attained the great compassion by which worldlings transcend the world and had not attained the great compassion by which to enter the mundane and share its confinen1ents, he was a "monk. " Because his oceanic knowl­ edge could smash through delusion, he was called Ocean Ban­ ner. *

Sudhana saw Saradhvaja by the side of a place for walking meditation. A place for walking represents function, concentra­ tion in quiescence. This represents having tranquillity based on function . That Saradhvaja was sitting by the side of the prom­ enade represents not dwelling in quiescent function, being spontaneous and free. He was detached from his breathing, representing tranquillity and function in accord with inner reality, since essence is inherently omnipresent and is not going in or out.

So Sudhana saw Saradhvaj a in a trance next to a promenade detached from his breathing.

Grandees, householders, and Brahn1ins are worldly people who practice virtue, while feet are means of travel; so Sudhana saw grandees, householders, and Brahn1ins issuing frotn Sar­ adhvaja's feet and traveling throughout the ten directions.

 

*Chinese translates the name as if it  were Sagaradhvaja.

 

Warriors are a governing class,  Brahn1ins are a priestly class. Knees are joints that bend and extend freely. Because of Saradhvaja's freedom of pure knowledge, warriors and priests issued from his knees.

The midsection is the place of worldly desires, and wizards are people without desire. By knowledge Saradhvaj a magically produced actions similar to those of sentient beings yet was without   desire   himself,   so   wizards   as   numerous   as   sentient beings issued fron1 his waist.

Water spirits symbolize the rain of the Teaching enlivening beings, and the sides of the body are covered, so a multitude of water spirits issue fron1 Saradhvaja's sides.

The heart has the meaning of bravery, the auspicious symbol on a buddha's heart has the meaning of endless purity of conduct. Titans represent not sinking in the sense of not sinking into the ocean of birth and death because of diligence in all practices. Therefore a multitude of titans issued from the auspicious syn1bol on Saradhvaja's heart.

Because the practices of all vehicles are not left out in the developn1ent of sentient beings yet the two vehicles of individ­ ual liberation turn their backs on the great function of the compassion and knowledge ofbuddhas, inultitudes of followers of the two vehicles of individual liberation issued from Sara­ dhvaja's back.

The shoulders have the sense of bearing burdens, while fearsome supernatural beings have the sense of protection. Because they bear the great work and protect sentient beings, therefore a multitude of supernatural beings issued from Sa­ radhvaja's shoulders.

Celestial n1usicians are the spirit of n1usic, and the abdo­ men represents the containing of myriad truths.  Since  they always sing praises of enlightening truths, celestial musicians issued fron1 Saradhvaja's abdomen.

An en1pcror signifies the turning of the wheel of  the Teaching, so a n1ultitude of emperors issued from Saradhvaja's face .

 

The sun breaks through the darkness, so suns issued fron1 Saradhvaja's eyes.

In the n1idst of birth and death, practical wisdom is fore­ most, so enlightening beings issued from Saradhvaj a's head.

Because their knowledge is n1ost elevated, buddhas issued fron1 the crown of Saradhvaja's head.

This all illustrates the usc of knowledge of en1ptiness to produce various bodies, creating multitudes of en1a11ations fill­ ing the ten directions, developing, educating, and adorning sentient beings while in essence being like space, con1pletely free fron1 cogitation. Therefore Saradhvaja produced the ap­ pearances of these n1ultitudes of beings in the n1idst of trance.

Sudhana also saw Saradhvaja producing countless light bean1s   fron1   his   pores-his   whole  body   was   the  unimpeded light of truth of the body of reality.

Sudhana stood there for a day and a night, two days and nights, seven days and nights, a fortnight, a n1onth, finally six months and six days, until Saradhvaja en1erged from trance. One day and one night represents the ful filln1ent of generosity. Seven days and seven nights represent the seven branches of ethics . The full fortnight represents the fulfill n1ent of forbear­ ance (a fortnight is half a 1nonth,  and forbearance is a half in the sense of only benefiting oneself and not actively benefiting others) . One n1onth sytnbolizes the ful filln1ent of diligence. Six months represent the sixth abode, the correct state of mind. The six days represent the ful fill n1ent of the sixth transcendent way, that of wisdon1.

Because he had only attained the pure love of unaffected

action and had not yet attained the great compassion and skill in tneans to cooperate with sentient beings, Saradhvaj a said he had only attained this method of absorption in transcendent wisdom.

 

7.      AsHA

Next Sudhana went to Samudravetali, saw Asha, and real­ ized the abode of non regression.

 

San1udravetali ("Keeper of the Ocean Door") is the tide. This represents reality adapting to evolve sentient beings in a tin1ely n1anner.

Asha was in a park called San1antavyuha, which is trans­ lated as "Ubiquitous Adornn1ent. " This represents countless practices taking place in life and death constituting a ubiquitous array of adornn1ents.

Being  greatly  con1passionate yet unaffected, Asha  was a l ay  devotee.   Being  gentle  and  of  good  will,  she  appeared  as  a won1an, though she was not conscious of being a won1an .

Sudhana saw the park an d its buildings, ponds, and other features as being  adorned with jewels and saw Asha's features to be ineffably beautiful, because they were an environment and a person produced by respect for the  enlightened  and service to life, the countless practices of knowledge and com­ passion.

Because of the con1bining of compassion and knowledge, Asha said that the buddhas of the ten directions all came to explain truths to her. She also said that the eighty-four quadril­ lion beings living in the park carrying out the san1e practices as she were all irreversible in progess towards supreme perfect enlightenment, because she used the eighty-four thousand af­ flictions to appear to be like then1 in order to meet and guide thern, so that they had arrived at the original  unity  of the essence of life and death and enlightened knowledge.

As she would enter into life and death to educate sentient

beings-while realizing that life, death, sentient beings, and the teaching activity are all nirvanic processes that neither come into  nor  go  out  of existence,  and  are  ultin1atcly  peacefu l-she said she had attained this state of sorrowless well-being.

 

8.      BHISHMOTTARANIRGHOSHA

Then Sudhana went to the land of Nalayur on the coast, saw the seer Bhishn1ottaranirghosha, and realized the abode of youthful nature, or innocence.

 

The seer lived on the seacoast because he had used transcen­ dent vows to initiate works of wisdom to complement his con1passion, n1erging them into one, and only thus had attained effortless great function, benefiting multitudes without even thinking about it, like the ocean tide thundering and washing effortlessly.

The land of Nalayur is called Not Lazy, in the sense of the homeland of the seer being the use of effortless knowledge to help beings tirelessly.

Bhishn1ottaranirghosha is called He Who Utters A Fear­ son1e Sound, in the sense that when he spoke he crushed followers of aberrant doctrines. Because he used knowledge to adapt to different religions without havin g different views, he is represented as a seer.

Because he had both knowledge and con1passion, the vir­ tues that protect beings, the seer was seen in a grove variously adorned. The seer himself was sitting on an antelope hide spread on some grasses, symbolizing a state of few desires.

Because the seer had n1yriad practices in him, he is repre­ sented as having ten thousand followers, wearing deerskin.

Because the realms of the "dusts"-sense experiences-all return to the "ground" of knowledge,  Sudhana cast his body on the ground.

Because effortless knowledge is unshakable, the seer said he had attained a liberation called "unsurpassed banner, " en1- blen1atic of invincibility.

Because the seer's union of knowledge and environment was comprehensive, when he took Sudhana's hand the pilgrin1 saw hin1self going to buddhas in the ten directions as numerous as aton1s in ten buddha-fields.

The gesture of taking the hand represents mystic empow­ ern1ent: because the eighth stage is the beginning of effortless knowledge, people at this stage may linger in quietude and be unable to let knowledge and compassion work spontaneously. Then it is necessary for sages to add support and promote

 

inspiration. Thus when the seer took his hand, Sudhana was helped and supported by the sage in his entry into reality.

Once one has entered reality, one is always thus of one's own power, just as one does not carry a boat  about  after crossing a river in it. Therefore when the seer let go of his hand, Sudhana returned to where he had been before.

 

9.      jAYOSHMAYATANA

Then   Sudhana  went  to  Ishana,   saw  Jayoshnuyatana,   and realized the abode of the spiritual prince.

Ishana is called Long and Straight, symbolizing the use of inclusive teaching to extend the straight path, making  one's abode in having no false pretences.

Jayoshrnayatana the Brahrnin is called Ovcrco1ning Heat because he used knowledge to adapt to fal sehood, his power able to overcome the poisonous heat of en1otional afflictions; entering into spiritual function, he appeared to be like a Hindu ascetic, roasting his body with fires all around  under the burning sun,  yet in reality he was leading aberrant cultists back to right knowledge.

There was a razor mountain there,  syn1bolizing the razor of truth cutting through confusion . Below was a bonfire, representing the light of adan1antine knowledge.  Because he un derstood inherent liberation and could use his energy freely, he had no fear and could show and ren1ove the emotional afflictions   of  beings   in   the   long   night   of  ignorance;   so   the Brahn1in clin1bed the razor mountain and threw his body into the bonfire.

Because it is ordinarily unthinkable to contravene the ob­ jective order, when jayoshmayatana urged Sudhana to climb the razor mountain and jump  into the fire, Sudhana hesitated.

Because this inconceivable  realm of energy use  must be en tered into experientially, celestial spirits appeared in the sky and sang praises of Jayoshmayatana's virtues, urging Sudhana not to doubt.

 

When his knowledge meshed with the total event, Sudhana entered in experientially; so he clin1bed the razor mountain and leaped. Before he was even halfway down he attained well­ established n1ental focus, and the mon1ent he hit the fire he also attained mental focus on the bliss of tranquillity.

Because he used this one practice to show endless different practices according to people's different inclinations, Jayosh­ nuyatana said he had attained liberation into an inexhaustible sphere.

 

10.   .    MAITRAYANI

Then Sudhana went to the city of Simhavijurn1bhita,   saw the girl Maitrayani, and realized the abode of coronation.

As she was spontaneously compassionate yet unaffected by the habits of attraction that result in bondage to existence, Maitrayani is represented as a girl . As her compassion was born of knowledge and she was independent and fearless, her father was a king called Lion Banner.

In this abode of coronation, knowledge and compassion con1pletely include the knowledge and compassion of the five ranks, with no different road,  so Maitrayani is portrayed as having a retinue of five hundred girls.

As she was able to abide in the abode of buddhas, contain­ ing the causes and effects ofbuddhahood through the five ranks, she lived in a palace of radiant jewels. As she used the practice of great compassion based on all knowledge to expound the five-part body of reality, the pure teaching covering sentient beings, she sat on a seat set on sandalwood legs, draped with nets of gold strings and arrayed with celestial cloth.

Since all beings entered this chamber of compassion in this palace of knowledge and the enlightening beings  of the five ranks all sojourned there, Sudhana saw countless people going in the royal palace.

The crystal base of the palace stands for the clear purity of the body of reality. The lapis lazuli pillars stand for n1aintenance

 

of pure conduct. The diamond walls stand for protection by knowledge. The golden fences stand for outward strictness in discipline. The bright windows stand for illun1ination of the ordinary world by the light of the Teaching.

Because her heart was undefiled, Maitrayani was born with golden skin; because she covered living beings with knowledge, she was born with jet-black eyes and hair.

So Sudhana saw the objects and person in the palace thus magnificently adorned.

And since each principle contains all principles, and they interpenetrate simultaneously, so knowledge and objects inter­ penetrate on infinite levels; therefore when the girl had Sudhana look at the palace, he saw the features of the realms of all the buddhas contained in each wall,  each pillar,  and each mirror 1 nuge.

The girl said this was the n1edium of wisdom in the total array, which she had learned from buddhas  as numerous  as grains of sand in thirty-six Ganges  rivers, entering into a different aspect of it with each buddha.

The medium of the total array refers to one rank including all ranks. The ten abodes, ten practices, and ten dedications are three decades; the ten beliefs, or ten stages of faith, are faith in these three teachings. The ten stages and the eleventh stage are also just developments of these three teachings,  involving no new principles. So these three teachings produce the six ranks; this is the reason for the number thirty-six.

The six ranks are included in this abode, and each rank has inexhaustible practical undertakings; though the characteristics of the practices are different, the principles are not different­ this is the significance of entering into different aspects of the Teaching with each of the buddhas, who are as numerous as grains of sand in thirty-six Ganges rivers.

 

Summary of the First Ten  Teachers

1.      Meghashri elucidated the way of meditation to bring out the buddha-knowledge in one's own mind and see the realms of the buddhas everywhere.

 

2.      Sagaran1egha elucidated the way to contemplate the twelve conditioning links in the ocean of birth and death as the fundan1entally pure ocean of buddha-lands.

3.      Supratishthita elucidated the way to emerge unimpeded into the ordinary world with the freedom of the knowledge of reality .

4.      Megha elucidated the way to live in the ordinary world and cultivate worldly letters and penetrate all they imply.

5.      Muktaka elucidated the way of spontaneous meditation on the body containing the countless realn1s of buddha-fields.

6.      Saradhvaja elucidated the way to the unin1peded spir­ itual power of tranquil function freed from bondage.

7.      Asha elucidated the way to live in the world to develop and extend great compassion.

8.      Jayoshmayatana elucidated the way of asceticism to con­ tact aberrant cultists .

9.      Bhishmottaranirghosha elucidated the way to appear sin1ilar to rnisguided people by means of effortless knowledge.

10.   .   Maitrayani elucidated  the way of simultaneous com­ pleteness of knowledge and compassion, including all ranks when knowledge is fulfilled and compassion con1plete.

 

The next ten teachers represent the ten practices for self­ help and helping others. It is not that the ten abodes do not include self-help and helping others, but the polish of the teachings of the ten practices is necessary lest one be incapable of autonomy in the different realms of the world.

 

11.   . SuDARSHANA

Next Sudhana went to Trinayana, saw the mendicant Su­ darshana,  and realized  the practice ofjoy.

Trinayana n1eans "Three Eyes." The eye of knowledge observes faculties, the objective eye knows principles,  and the eye of wisdorn distinguishes right fron1 wrong. These three are originally one, which is given three nan1es according to func­ tion .

 

If one lacks these three eyes, one is also deluded already and so cannot help others . Therefore the name of the land is Three Eyes.

Sudhana sees a rnendicant for the first of the practices because it is possible to enter the world and integrate illumina­ tion beneficially for others, inducing them to end contention, only when one's own rnind is unattached to the world.

The practices involved in adaptation to the world are n1any, as n1 any as trees in a forest. Their purpose is to enter birth and death to liberate beings fron1 birth and death-and also  to induce beings to nuke compassionate commitments to go back into birth and death to liberate yet others,  going on and on in this way, like one lamp lighting a hundred thousand lamps so that all darkness is illun1ined and the light never ends. This is the meaning of going and returning. Thus the story says Sudhana saw the mendicant walking around in a forest, em­ blernatic of this process.

The mendicant's appearance as a young  man signifies ability to carry out practical actions . His handsome features stand for correctness of action. His hair curled regularly to the right, symbolizing his action in accord with the Way. He had a topknot of flesh on top of his head, symbolizing lo ftiness of knowledge and fullness of virtue. His skin was golden, sym­ bolizing  clarity of heart  and purity of intellect.  His forehead was broad, flat, and square, symbolizing breadth of knowledge and vision. His lips were red and clean, symbolizing skillful explanation of the principle of emptiness. He had an auspicious sign on his chest, symbolizing clarity and coolness  of wise action.  His fingers were webbed, symbolic of using the Teach­ ing to scoop sentient beings up out of the ocean of suffering.

Because his practice of saving beings was universal, he was surrounded by celestial spirits. Because he could adapt the Teaching to people's faculties, his method being without fixed n1ethod and his teaching being without fixed dognu, spirits of direction guided him whichever way he turned. Because his

 

conduct was undefiled, footstep-following spirits  held lotuses for hin1 to walk on .

As he used n1editation to manifest the production  of knowledge and wisdom, so the earth spirits revealed jewel mines to him. Because he was elevated yet humble, the polar moun­ tain spirits bowed to him.  He spoke elegantly,  causing others to adn1ire hin1 ; breeze signifies verbal teaching, and flowery fragrance signifies appreciation, so the wind spirits gave o ff a flowery fragrant breeze.

Because he was at the beginning of the ten practices, he is represented as young. He included the three teachings of the ten abodes, ten practices, and ten dedications all in one practice without leaving the eightfold correct path, and this lifetime was a lifetime without before or after, beginning or end; so Sudar­ shana said he was young and had only recently left home, but he had in this lifetime cultivated pure conduct in the company of as nuny buddhas as sand grains in thirty-eight Ganges rivers. Because the moment delusion disappears an instant and all time interpenetrate, there being no far or near in knowledge, each atom containing oceans of lands, Sudarshana said he had cultivated pure conduct with some buddhas for a day and a

night, with others up to untold eons.

 

12.   INDRIYESHVARA

Then Sudhana went to Sumukha,  saw the boy Indriyesh­ vara by a river, and realized beneficial practice.

The land symbolizes the fragrance of morality scenting everywhere, the river symbolizes  the undefiled discipline  to enter the world autonon1ously, eventually to enter the ocean of knowledge, just as rivers flow to the sea.

Because play is buddha-work, Sudhana saw the boy playing in the sand.

For him the substance of discipline was in using practical and artistic genius to enter the world and yet go beyond the world, just as for Sagaramegha the substance of discipline was

 

in identifying the ocean of birth and death with the ocean of knowledge.

For the boatn1an, a later teacher, the substance of discipline was in carrying people across, not staying on this shore or on the further shore. For the night goddess ofjoyful eyes, another teacher, the substance of discipline was great compassion. *

According to the rank, progress is not the same; but when knowledge penetrates, every rank is included.  Therefore the boy said he knew the teaching of higher knowledge of all practical arts and knew about writing, printing, analysis, med­ icine, industry, agriculture, commerce, and alchen1y.

 

13.   . PRABHUTA

Then Sudhana went to Samudrapratishthana, saw the lay­ woman Prabhuta, and realized the practice of nonopposition.

The city where Prabhuta lived was called Ocean Founda­ tion because her tolerance was like the ocean admitting  a hundred rivers. Prabhuta was called Perfected because she per­ fected all practices through patience and tolerance.

Because of her patience, Prabhuta is depicted as physically beautiful, clothed in pure white, her hair hanging down. Be­ cause of her fulfillment of myriad practices, she is depicted as being surrounded by ten thousand maidens.

By means of the distribution of the cosmic network of knowledge of the real universe, the small contains infinity; and by the great heart of willpower of knowledge of  the real universe, Prabhuta could satisfy the hunger of all living beings with a tiny morsel of food, yet without diminishing the food.

Because a single n1orsel of food is as extensive as the universe-food  unlimited  to  inside  or  outside,   center  or  ex­ tremes-Prabhuta said she had attained a way of liberation that was an infinite treasury ofblessings and could feed an unlimited number of beings with a small vessel of food and drink.

Countless beings  entered Prabhuta's  home  by its  four

 

* Sec nos . 22 and 33 .

 

doors,  because  they  were  received  by  the  four  infinite  minds­ infinite love, infinite con1passion, infinite joy, and infinite equa­ nirnity.

 

14.   VIDVAN

Then Sudhana went to Mahasambhava, saw the house­ holder Vidvan, and realized the practice of indomitability.

Because his diligence produced great benefit, Vidvan's city was called Great Production; and because he observed faculties and examined phenomena,  Vidvan was called  the Knower. He is represented as a householder because he stayed in society to improve custon1s and n1orals.

As he used the practices of the four integrative methods and seven branches of enlightenment to live on the road of life and death un wearied, Vidvan was seen at a crossroads in the city, sitting on a pedestal n1ade of seven precious substances.

Using diligence to equip himself with blessings and virtues and to eliminate suffering and poverty, Vidvan said he had attained a way of liberation that enabled hin1 to produce treas­ uries of blessings at will.

Since both n1aterial and metaphysical generosity are pro­ duced by knowledge of emptiness and baselessness, therefore when countless beings came from various lands seeking from him what they desired,  Vidvan looked up to the sky, and all they wanted descended from the sky; and he taught them truths according to their faculties.

In the first abode, one begins to understand the wisdon1 of buddha, and one is born in the home of the enlightened. In the fourth abode one quells worldly delusions, pure buddha-knowl­ edge appears,  and one is born in the home of the enlightened. In the eighth abode one is born in the house of the effortless knowledge of the enlightened. In the tenth abode, knowledge and compassion help everyone, one ascends to the rank of coronation, and one is born in the house of the enlightened.

Now in the fourth practice,  by using  the approach  of

 

contemplating the emptiness of phenomena, this understanding produces liberation and quells ren1aining worldl y habits; knowledge of the reality body appears, and one is born in the hon1e of the enlightened. Thus Vidvan said that his companions had already been reborn in the family of buddhas.

 

15.   . RATNACHUDA

Then Sudhana went to Simhapota, saw the eminent Rat­ nachuda, and realized the practice of nonconfusion .

The city was called Lion Foundation to represent the fearlessness attained through meditation. The body of concen­ tration pervades all practices: just as Muktaka in the fifth abode contained innumerable lands in himself and took for his medi­ tation the provenance of objects fro n1 the body, here in the fifth practice the body is in function; so countless objects are all included in one meditation, reaching the crown of the Teach­ ing-therefore Ratnachuda  is  called Jewel Topknot.

The silent function of the body of practice is always concentrated, undi n1inished in the midst of the n1arketplace of life and death; so Sudhana saw Ratnachuda in a n1arketplace.

Ratnachuda used meditation to embody the ten transcen­ dent ways and the eight-fold right path, so he is represented as living in a building with ten stories and eight doors.

On the first floor of the building, food was being distrib­ uted, representing generosity. The other floors each represent one transcendent way; finally the top floor was filled with buddhas, representing knowledge. These ten floors completely take in the five ranks and include buddhahood. Since the substance was independent meditation in the real universe, the stories of the building were adorned by the ten transcendent ways within meditation .

Ratnachuda said that in the remote past he had played n1usic and burned a ball of incense in o ffering to a buddha who can1e to the city and dedicated the n1erit to three points; and that for this he had been rewarded with such an abode.

 

The remoteness of that past event symbolizes the trancend­ ence of feelings and entry into concentration. The music sym­ bolizes explanation of truth. This represents producing insight through concentration.

The ball of incense represents one kind of "scent"-con­ centration-including the five kinds of "scent, " the fivefold spiritual body consisting of discipline, concentration, insight, liberation, and the knowledge and vision of liberation.

The three points are always seeing the enlightened, always hearing truth, and always being free from poverty and misery. The message is that the substance or body of concentration has already been attained in the ten abodes, and now, in the meditational aspect of the ten practices, independence of tran­ quil function is attained. Ratnachuda's attainment of liberation of the treasury of inf1nite blessings means fulfillment of myriad practices within meditation.

 

16.   .  SAMANTANETRA

Then Sudhana went to Vetramul aka, saw the perfumer Samantanetra, and realized the practice of good manifestation.

The land was called Reed Roots, because wisdom is deep and stable, penetrating to the wellspring of truth, just as reed roots reach deeply into the water table.

Samantanetra was called Universal Eye because he knew all through wisdom.

Because the gates of wisdom are manifold, lofty, and hard to enter, the city where Samantanetra lived was seen to have high walls. Because insight into emptiness has no boundaries, the streets were wide and even.

Samantanetra said he was skilled in curing diseases, mean­ ing that he had learned conventional medicine; this also repre­ sents the Teaching. For example, illnesses associated with wind represent people who think too much, an affliction cured by counting breaths. Jaundices represent people with too much desire, an affliction cured by contemplation  of impurity. In-

 

ftammatory illnesses represent people with too much foolish­ ness, an affliction cured by  conten1plation of conditioning. Mental illnesses represent people who cling to subtle forms and are not free from bewilderment and extraordinary perceptions, an affliction cured by contemplation of the emptiness of phe­ nomena. Illnesses caused by toxins represent the way posses­ siveness can produce binding and harmful actions. Illnesses associated with water represent craving, illnesses associated with fire represent anger. All these illnesses can be treated by the Teaching .

Samantanetra also said he was skilled at compounding perfumes . This means he practiced worldly arts, and it also represents the Teaching, as wisdom skillfully expounds the Teaching, whose fragrance perfun1es the odors of evildoing to turn them into the scent ofknowledge.

Samantanetra said he knew how to induce sentient beings to see buddhas everywhere and rejoice, using wisdom to cause all realms to enter the realm of buddhahood.

 

17.   . ANALA

Then Sudhana went to Taladhvaja, saw the king Anala, and realized the practice of nonattachment.

Taladhvaja is called Bright and Clean,  because the bright and clean knowledge and wisdom that goes beyond the world also enters the world to practice compassion, observing people's faculties so as to be able to harmonize with them, not contact­ ing people randomly-hence the name of the city.

King Anala is called Tireless because he helped beings masterfully and never tired of helping  them.  Because  King Anala used myriad activities to enter the world, Sudhana saw him surrounded by ten thousand ministers, collectively order­ ing the affairs of state.

Anala used his knowledge of skill in means to manifest the appearance of horrifying scenes in order to govern, so there were ten thousand fierce soldiers cutting off the heads of

 

crin1inals, or gouging out their eyes, or any number of similar horrors.

The king had Sudhana enter his palace and look at its superlative adornments; then he said he knew magical libera­ tion, explaining that these punishments, the criminals, and the soldiers, were all magical projections of great compassion to frighten actual people into giving up evil. In reality,  not even a single gnat or a single ant was harmed, much less any humans. This was why he had been rewarded with such splendor,  to make it clear that he would, on the contrary, have been doomed if he had been torturing people intentionally because of his own subjective feelings.

 

18 .  MAHAPRABHA

Then Sudhana went to Suprabha, saw the king Mahap­ rabha, and realized the practice of the difficult-to-attain.

The city is called Beautiful Light to represent the subtle function of differentiation within effortless knowledge.

King Mahaprabha is called Great Light to represent funda­ mental effortless independent knowledge.

One gains access to effortless, subtle function only when one has remedied the unfulfilled knowledge and compassion of earlier stages and balanced them masterfully; thus in the story Sudhana wandered through the human  world, eventually to make his way to the city of Beautiful Light.

Effortless knowledge and compassion are difficult to attain; even though Sudhana looked around, he still sought certainty through direction. So when he had reached the city he inquired further of the longtime inhabitants.

Because Sudhana had en1bodied a variety of practices of knowledge and compassion, he saw the ground, trees, build­ ings, terraces, and flower ponds of the city to be all adorned with jewels.

The story says the city was octagonal, with ten leagues to a side, and also that it had ten million streets, on each of which

 

lived countless beings. Ten million streets could not fit into a ten-league octagon; these are not worldly measurements, but representative of the great n1etropolis of funda1nental knowl­ edge, with streets representing the infinity of interactions of the ten ways of transcendence.

Therefore beings  saw the city differently, according  to their  faculties  and  their  ways  of acting-some  saw  it  as  large, some as small, some as clean, some as polluted, and so on. In this way the king of knowledge showed everyone the laws of reality.

When one uses independent knowledge to enter into minds as many as beings and identify with them, there is no separate nature-the sentient and insentient are of one nature, and all are transformed according to knowledge into agents  of buddha­ work.

In the world when a national leader is enlightened,  even the anin1als dance, and phoenixes appear. When ordinary peo­ ple are perfectly filial, they also experience phenomena  like finding leaping fish in frozen ponds and bamboo shoots sprout­ ing in winter. How much the better when knowledge penetrates the fountainhead and practice is equal to the real world­ kindness takes in all beings, spirituality gathers all awarenesses; one has no subjective mind but takes to heart the minds of all beings, just as  a clear jewel may take on all colors.

As the king had entered the door of absorption in great kindness adapting to the world, so the people, birds,  and animals of the city and its environs all came to pay him respect. The trees and grasses of the mountains and plains all b owed towards him; the lakes, springs, rivers, and seas all flowed towards him; and the celestial spirits showered him with gifts.

The reason that the seventh and this eighth practice are both represented by kings is to illustrate that while the power and function of compassion and knowledge differ according to the rank, there are not two paths. Therefore the seventh and eighth abodes are both represented at the seashore, and the seventh and eighth dedications are represented in the san1e

 

assembly. The appearance of the teachers as various persons in various walks of life symbolizes the differences in power and function.

 

1 9 . AcHALA

Then Sudhana went to the kingdom  of Sthira, saw the devout wonun Achala, and realized the practice of good teach­ Ing.

The location is called a kingdom to represent mastery of teaching, the devout wonun is called Immovable because of her spiritual power to remain unaffected.

Protected by the mother of knowledge and the father of skill in means, the mind is not influenced by objects ; to repre­

sent this and the compassion of hun1ility, Achala is said to be a

young woman in the care of her mother and father.

When Sudhana went into her house, upon contact with the golden aura of the house he attained five hundred trances; illumined by the edifying light of the chamber of con1passion, he gained access to five hundred entryways into the five ranks. The trances were subtle as the consciousness of a new embryo, because when knowledge enters compassion, it is harmonized and becomes  comfortable.

No one who saw this young woman became enamored of her; because her behavior was unaffected by en1otional love, her body was not erotic but caused the n1inds of all who saw her to become upright and correct.

Achala said that long ago in the tin1e of an ancient buddha she had been a princess, daughter of a king named Vidyuddatta, called Lightning-bestowed. At that time she was inspired with the thought of enlightenment on seeing the magnificence of the buddha,  and in all the eons since that time she had not so much as had a lustful thought, let alone acted on lust.

The buddha of that titne was called Arn1s Extended Down­ ward, representative of carrying out transcendent vows fro n1 effortless knowledge to guide sentient beings. The king was

 

called Lightning-bestowed because knowledge sees the path of enlightenment quickly. Achala was a princess because from knowledge she cultivated kindness.

Before the eighth practice one is still affected by the habit of sadness; here in the ninth there arc no ingrained habits . That is why Achala said she had no lust.  In the rank of teachcrhood one overcon1es obstacles to mastery of teaching, requiring tireless effort; so she said she had attained absorption in tireless search for all truths.

 

20 .  SARVAGAMIN

Then Sudhana went to Tosala, saw the mendicant Sarvaga­ min, and realized the practice of truth.

Tosala   is   called   Production  of Happiness,   to   represen t  the

use of ubiquitous physical manifestation through ful fillment of transcendent knowledge in order to benefit ordinary people and n1ake them happy.

Sarvagamin is represented as a mendicant because his knowledge was equal to a buddha's. He is called Going Every­ where because he appeared to assimilate to false ideas and to the three vehicles of Buddhism. The Confucian and Taoist sages were also in this category.

Ordinarily, learners are called outsiders as long  as they have not yet entered into the real universe, where there is interpenetration of noumenon and phenomena, of bodies and lands. In this case, Sarvagamin appeared to be an outsider, helping beings according to type, yet in reality he was not an outsider.

In the middle of the night Sudhana saw the flora on the n1ountain east of the city of Tosala radiate light like the rising sun,  representing the sun of great knowledge in the middle of the night of birth and death.

Sudhana saw Sarvagamin walking around on the flat moun­ taintop: the mountaintop symbolizes the lo fty supremacy of knowledge, the flatness symbolizes the evenness of compassion.

 

Walking around illustrates not dwelling partially on either knowledge or compassion.

Sarvagan1in said he knew the enlightening  practice  of going everywhere; by n1eans of knowledge he penetrated all existences, and appeared in corresponding physical forms, as

echoes respond to sounds without there being any substance

.         .

coming or go1ng.

 

After this the ten dedications are set up. By means of the ten practices one can perfect worldly arts of government and education, yet one is still unable to remain in the ocean of birth and death, neither emerging nor sinking, based on unob­ structed action in the real universe by the universally good practice of inherent buddhahood. Therefore the ten dedications are needed.

 

21 . UTPALABHUTI

Then Sudhana went to Prthurashtra, saw the eminent perfumer Utpalabhuti, and realized dedication to saving all beings without clinging to any image of beings.

The land is called Vast Territory to represent far-ranging vows. Utpalabhuti's being a perfumer symbolizes the combin­ ing of knowledge and compassion, noumenon and phenomena, nirvana and samsara, and ideas of defilement and purity all into one ball while still freely totalizing or distinguishing them.  He is a l ayman on account of his great compassion, entering birth and death without being affected.

The nature of fragrance rests on nothing,  yet it radiates good and extinguishes bad; this symbolizes great vows that rely on nothing yet radiate deeds that benefit beings.

The regal fragrance of fundamental knowledge emerges within ignorance, the fragrance of differentiating knowledge emerges within myriad objects; so the en1inent said he knew where the king of fragrances can1e from and knew how to compound fragrances .

 

According to Utpalabhuti there is in the human world a fragrance that comes from the struggle of water spirits and that causes those anointed with it to become golden in color. This represents the first abode, in which tranquillity and insight struggle with conditioning, producing the fragrance of knowl­ edge; those who enter thereupon attain true awakening.

Also, there is a kind of sandalwood whose essence will protect people from burning by ftre. This represents the abode of preparing the ground, in which the body of discipline is anointed with the principle of essencelessness so that it can enter the fire of the three poisons without being burned.

In the ocean there is a fragrance called invincible, which, when painted on drums, causes even brave opponents to retreat on hearing the sound of the drums; this represents the develop­ ment of acceptance of reality in the abode of practical cultiva­ tion, causing evils to withdraw spontaneously.

Ten kinds of fragrance are mentioned, representing the ten abodes; by combining the two aspects of the ten abodes and ten practices-the absolute and the mundane, knowledge and com­ passion-causing them to be free, the method of dedication is created.

Because this dedication first enters the ocean of great compassion, one might leave out the awareness of knowledge; so ten fragrances are used to syn1bolize the principle of the ten abodes. Because one principle contains all the principles, this is represented by compounding fragrance.

 

22. VAIRA

Then Sudhana went to the city of Kutagara,   saw the mariner Vaira, and realized indestructible dedication.

Kutagara is called the City of  High  Houses,  the high houses representing knowledge. Vaira is called Independent, because he used natural discipline and great compassion to go into the ocean of birth and death while remaining free.

Vaira is represented as a n1ariner, for he was like a ship that

 

does not stay on the near shore, does not stay on the farther shore, and does not stay in n1idstream, but carries people across. He ferried people over the ocean of birth and death by means of myriad principal and satellite practices within discipline, so he was seen on the seashore surrounded by hundreds of thou­ sands of merchants.

Being profoundly caln1 and unshakable in the middle of the ocean of birth and death, Vaira said he knew all the treasure islands in the ocean.

Knowledge of the locations  of precious  substances  refers to the empty and nonempty matrices of enlightenment. Knowl­ edge of categories of precious substances refers to countless natural virtues. Knowledge of types of precious  substances refers to the realization of buddha-nature. Knowledge of pre­ cious vessels refers to understanding ofbeings' faculties . Extrac­ tion of precious substances refers to setting up teachings accord­ ing to faculties in order to bring out knowledge and virtue.

Part of the enlightening beings of the pure lands are free like dragons; when purity and pollution have not been forgot­ ten, this is the danger zone of the dragon abodes. Listeners can empty the three poisons; this is the danger zone of demons. Conditional illuminates dwell in the ocean of nirvana, so bud­ dha-knowledge does not appear; this is the danger zone of goblins. Since the ocean of birth and death becomes a way of access to the real universe, Vaira said he avoided all such danger zones.

Knowing whirlpools, depths,  and shallows refers to know­ ing the workings of craving , grasping, and becoming. The ranges of ocean waves refer to the quantity  of thoughts  in emotive consciousness. The good and bad colors of the waters refer to the joy and anger of the clinging mind.

Vaira also knew the movements of the sun,  moon,  and stars, meaning that he understood the mysterious signs of yin and yang in the world and used this to help people. It also represents the methods and guidelines for developing maturity according to faculties by different teachings and practices.

 

Vaira also knew about the soundness of ship hulls and how well their machinery worked, emblematic of his knowledge of the degree of maturity of faculties and capacities, of whether or not people's minds were transformed, and of whether or not they could enter birth and death.

Vaira brought merchants to treasure islands so that they could collect jewels, then brought them back to the continent; this symbolizes passing through the various ranks and their teachings, and then, when the ten stages are fulfilled, in the eleventh stage going back to live as before in the ocean of birth and death to carry out the practice of Universal Good.

Vaira said he had attained practice characteristic of great compassion, meaning that the natural discipline of great com­ passion is indestructible.

 

23 .   jAYOTTAMA

Then Sudhana went to Nandihara, saw the eminent Jayot­ tama, and realized the dedication equal to all buddhas.

Nandihara was called the City of Happiness because the eminent grandee Jayottama skillfully settled people's affairs and because he skillfully examined truths, to the delight of the people.

Jayottama was called Supreme Victor because of the su­ premacy of his practice of patience. He was seen in a grove of "sorrowless" trees east of the city lecturing to a group of innumerable businessmen and city elders : east of the city sym­ bolizes development of goodness by knowledge; the grove of "sorrowless" trees represents protection from anxiety through patience; the businessmen symbolize exchanging ignorance for knowledge, bad for good; the city elders represent education of the populace by means of virtue.

Jayottama said he knew the pure method of cultivating enlightening practices everywhere, because the practice of ded­ ication equal to all buddhas reaches everywhere.

The reason these last three teachers are lay people is to represent dedication directed from the absolute to the mundane.

 

24.     SINHAVIJURMBHITA

Then Sudhana went to   the city of Kalingavana in the land of Shronaparanta, saw the nun Sinhavijurmbhita, and realized dedication reaching all places.

The land was called Brave, the city called Struggle, em­ blematic of energetically entering the ordinary  world to stop the struggle between the two views of absolute and mundane, pure and defiled.

Sinhavijurmbhita was called Lion Stretch to symbolize the tirelessness of her practice of kindness.  She is portrayed as a nun because in this rank, like the fourth abode and fourth stage, one leaves the bonds of the world and is born in the family of the enlightened. Her mendicancy represents patience by aban­ donment of superficial adornments, and her femaleness repre­ sents kindness.

She was in the park of the king Victorious Light. Kingship symbolizes knowledge; this means that in this rank of energy and diligence one combines patience, knowledge, and kindness to comprehend the practices of the five ranks in one spiritual realm.

The park was magnificently adorned, illustrating environ­ nlental perfection as a result of spiritual development. Sudhana saw the nun sitting on various seats lecturing to various groups, symbolizing her integrative educational activities, including those in all the stages up to the eleventh, which borders on buddhahood.

This is the teaching of the infinite cosmic  network,  in which one rank pervades all ranks, and each rank pervades the spiritual cosmos, all refining one another, forming fifty-three teachings and one hundred and ten cities as a totality, as individually distin ct, as the same, as different, as integrated, and as disparate, all freely interacting.

 

25 . VASUMITRA

Then Sudhana went to the land of Durga, saw the woman Vasumitra, and realized dedication of infinite stores of virtue.

 

This woman was settled in a polluted, fearsome realm, nuking it hard for people to believe in her; so the land was called Danger. By means of rr1editation she entered into defiled realms and turned them all into spheres ofknowledge; by virtue of great compassion she remained in the ordinary world, and by  virtue  of knowledge  she  rerruined  unaffected,   so  her  city was  called  City ofJewel  Arrays.

The 11a n1e vciSumitra means "Friend of the World, " n1eaning that she was a teacher and friend to people. Her femaleness represents being in the absolute without being absorbed by it, while being in the midst of bondage without being affected by it. She gave the appearance of impassioned behavior, yet her heart was dispassionate. She appeared to be a won1an, yet in ultinute reality one is neither male nor female; she is just portrayed as a fenule to represent the con1passion of the real universe.

In the real n1 of the magic of knowledge of Universal Good one's own body is like a magical effect, the world is like  a projected i n1age; with no mind influenced by objects, there are no objects that can influence the n1ind. The mind having no nature of its own, objects are also basically nonexistent. This is inconceivable to comtnon sense and inaccessible to the folly and confusion of subjective views. It is necessary that knowledge penetrate the true source and that practice match the  real universe before one can embody this Way.

This woman was living in her house north of the town square; this means that the dangerous road of folly in the long night of birth and death is the house of enlightening beings, and that they h ave no other house.

Vasumitra said she had attained the liberation of ultimate dispassion, because by means of the supreme knowledge of the real universe she lived in the midst of pollution without becom­ ing defiled.  One attains the joy of meditation just by believing in this, so Vasumitra said that anyone who looked at her became free from desire and attained absorbing joy. Because insight produced from concentration understands the nature of sound,

 

she said that anyone who conversed with  her for a while attained n1astery of sound.

Vasumitra went on to speak of holding her hand,  getting up on her couch, gazing at her, en1bracing her, and kissing her. Holding  her  hand  means  seeking  salvation.  Getting  up  on  her couch means ascendancy of formless knowledge. Gazing at her n1eans seeing truth, embracing her means not departing from it. Kissing her means receiving instruction.

This illustrates how all who come near enter a door of total knowledge, unlike those who only seek to get out of bondage and  do  not  arrive  at  the  ultimate  dispassion-supreme  knowl­ edge of the real universe that ren1ains in the polluted  world without being defiled, freely helping the living,  neither bound nor freed.

Vasumitra also said that in the time of a past buddha, Manjushri had fostered her inspiration to enlightenn1ent; and that upon her inspiration with the thought of enlightenment she had distributed all of her wealth and thereby attained this liberation. The encouragement of Manjushri represents produc­ ing concentration from knowledge, the wealth represents the ability of concentration to permeate everything totally.

Inspiration with the thought of enlightenment is detach­ ment from lust, giving of wealth is detachment from greed. A single coin may not be much n1oney, but if the mentality of ability to give up what is valued is the same as when giving a lot of money, then this is what is called infinite stores of virtue.

 

26.   VESHTHILA

Then Sudhana went to Shubhaparamgama, saw the house­ holder  Veshthila, and realized dedication adaptively stabilizing all roots of goodness.

Veshthila is called the Etnbracer, illustrating the vastness of his knowledge and wisdom, which embraced all things. This layman had before hin1 a shrine where there was placed a sandalwood throne without an icon on it; the idea is to illustrate

 

how buddhas and sentient beings have no sign of origination and destruction, using the shrine with the sandalwood throne as a device to indicate this symbolically, to inform us that our own essence and manifestations are like the original formless Buddha on the throne.

When you understand that essence is spacelike and find that appearances are like projections, you open up enlightened knowledge and vision; then there is no beginning and no end, no present and no past. Thus Veshthila said  that  when he opened the shrine he attained liberation without complete ex­ tinction, absorbed in the infinity of the lineages of buddhas .

 

27.   AvALOKITESHVARA

Then Sudhana went to Mount Potalaka, saw the enlighten­ ing being Avalokiteshvara, and realized dedication according  to all sentient beings.

Potalaka is a mountain where many small white flowers grow; this represents the modesty and compassionate behavior of the enlightening being.

Avalokiteshvara represents living in the ocean of birth and death, helping beings con1passionately. This is one of the three laws that make up the virtues of Vairocana , the Illuminator Buddha; the other two are the subtle principle of the spiritual body represented by Manjushri and the myriad acts of the body of knowledge represented by Samantabhadra.

Avalokiteshvara lives on a mountain  of little white flowers to show people they should not do even a little  wrong and should not abandon even a little good.

Sudhana saw Avalokiteshvara on a plateau on the west side of the mountain, which was adorned with shining springs and streams, thick woods, and soft fragrant plants spiraling to the right covering the ground. West is the direction associated with killing and punishment, meaning a place calling for the practice of compassionate education. The great compassion of the en­ lightening being is paramount, intent on the benefit of beings

 

and not dwelling on personal rewards, so he lives in the material world of sentient beings, represented by the mountainside. The springs and strean1s represent the clear shining of the heart of compassion, the woods represent the dense shade of works of kindness. The fragran t plants represent fine words that please people, while spiraling to the right symbolizes sentient beings going along with the teaching.

Sudhana saw Avalokiteshvara sitting on a diamond boul­ der, surrounded by countless enlightening beings sitting  on jewel rocks. This symbolizes adamantine  knowledge  going along with compassion, their subtle functions meshing without disturbance.

The enlightening being said he had perfected liberation of great cotnpassionate action, showing how Avalokiteshvara rep­ resents the universal con1passion ofbuddhas of all tin1es . There­ fore fron1 here on, even to the tenth stage, all levels are associ­ ated with great compassion, but in this rank one enters the ordinary world and great con1passion becon1es ful filled; so Avalokiteshvara says he has perfected it.

Then the enlightened being Ananyagamin came from the sky and stood atop the mountain range surrounding the world, causing the earth to quake and radiate light so brilliant it obscured the lights of all the celestial bodies. Ananyagamin can1e from the sky because true knowledge has no resting place. The surrounding mountains are the deluded attachments of sentient beings to conditioned realn1s; the earthquakes represent the disappearance of delusion on the appearance of knowledge. The light outshining the sun, moon, and stars is the light of uncontaminated knowledge that cannot be reached by the lights resulting from worldly actions. Ananyagamin coming to where Avalokiteshvara was  represents great knowledge con1ing back to con1passion.

 

28.   . ANANYAGAMIN

Then  Sudhana  saw  the  enlightening  being  Ananyaga111in and realized dedication characteristic of true Thusness.

 

As knowledge and compassion are not two separate enti­ ties , Ananyagamin, called He Who Proceeds Directly, was also on the mountain oflittle white flowers, the same as Avalokitesh­ vara.

Ananyagamin said he had come fro tn the East, fron1 a world pregnant with subtle marvels, where he had associated with a buddha born of universal light, and thus attained libera­ tion enabling him to speed forth in all directions.

One's  own  treasury  of knowledge of subtle inner designs is always producing without producing anything-this is the eastern world pregnant with subtle marvels.

From fundamental knowledge are produced differentiated nugical knowledge-bodies, which echo throughout the ten directions without traveling in essence; this is the liberation enabling one to speed forth in all directions,  attained in the con1 pany of a buddha transcending all.

It had already been eons since Ananyagamin had left that world, and in each instant he took as rnany steps as atoms in untold buddha-fields, with each step passing as many buddha­ fields as atoms in untold buddha-fields, honoring each of the buddhas in those fields with subtle offerings .

Because the essence of knowledge is inherently omnipres­ ent and all-inclusive, it extends without actually speeding, transcending sensual or intellectual assessments; therefore An­ anyagamin passed so many buddha-fields in a single instant of thought. By the unfabricated seal of knowledge he mastered the magical function of acts, so that they succeeded effortlessly, becoming subtle o fferings.

 

29.   MAHADEVA

Then Sudhana went to Dvaravati, saw the celestial Maha­ deva, and realized dedication without bondage or attachment.

Dvaravati means "Having a Door, " the name of the place deriving fro n1 the fact that in the rank of teacher there is a great door of truth that opens up to enlighten sentient beings.

 

Mahadeva ("The Great God") had knowledge like the celestials, showing signs of good and evil, rewarding and pun­ ishing in a timely manner, always responding spiritually  to n1yriad beings,  yet without deliberate contrivance. This is why he is portrayed as a celestial spirit. All nature spirits are reflec­ tions of enlightening beings, beyond the psychic power of mundane ghosts.

Mahadeva extended four hands, brought  water from the four oceans, and washed his face. This symbolizes using the four integrative methods to receive sentient beings with careful consideration.

Mahadeva said he had attained "cloud net" liberation, showering teaching as rain  from clouds  of great  compassion and rescuing sentient beings as with a net.

Mahadeva manifested heaps of gold,  silver,   and jewels, then gave them to Sudhana for him to practice giving to others. This illustrates how the function of acts is inexhaustible with the magical great compassion born of uncontrived knowledge.

 

30.   STHAVARA

Then Sudhana saw the earth goddess Sthavara at the site of enlightenment and realized infinite dedication equal to the cosmos.

In this rank, the five realities of enlightenment,  inner design, knowledge, kindness, and compassion are united into one and all fulfilled as the site of enlightenment.

Because kindness and compassion underlie and produce the various teachings and methods, supporting and nurturing living beings, Sthavara is represented as an earth goddess.

The sky god Mahadeva represented the subtle function of pure knowledge; this earth goddess represents the substance of great compassion. The substance  is always functioning yet always tranquil, so the earth goddess is called Stable.

Sky moves, earth is still; this symbolizes the protection and support of knowledge and compassion.

 

Sudhana saw Sthavara with a million earth goddesses, all radiating light and causing the earth to tremble; this illustrates how compassion and knowledge are completely fulfilled at this point, so habits that defile purity disappear.

Sthavara touched the ground with her foot, whereupon countless deposits of jewels spontaneously gushed forth: this represents the way great compassion can clearly reveal the hidden resources of the mind-ground, having full use  of the spirit without overt effort.

Sthavara said she had attained liberation through an inde­ structible store of knowledge; since compassion arises from knowledge,  nothing can destroy it, and since in action in the real universe no knowledge is not included and no compassion not fulfilled, it is called a store, or mine.

The goddess also said she had attained this liberation eons before in the service of buddhas; because great compassion is limitless, even enlightenment and final extinction are all begin­ ningless and endless household affairs .

 

31 . VASANTI

Then Sudhana went to the city of Kapilavastu,  saw the night goddess Vas anti, and realized the stage ofjoy.

Kapilavastu is called the Yellow City, representing knowl­ edge uniting with the middle way. Yellow is the color associated with the center and with felicity.

Vasanti is said to be in charge of spring growth, symbolic of the production of myriad practices in the first stage. She is a night goddess to represent great knowledge in the night ofbirth and death.

The next ten teachers beginning  with this night goddess are female, emblematic of the great compassion of enlightening beings, like a mother begrudging no effort to raise her children. As they are in the spiritual ranks-in charge of protecting and helping the world-even  though  they do not physically  leave the Buddha's assembly, they still can project their appearances throughout the ten directions.

 

The night goddess wore a red robe,  a sacred crest,  and pearl necklaces; all the stars and constellations shone on her body. This represents how the first stage includes the l aws of all the stages, so the awareness of great compassionate differen­ tiating knowledge is comprehensive.

The goddess said she had attained the liberation of the light of truth that dispels the darkness of ignorance in all sentient beings and was able to be a guide or make shelter, passage, and light on dark, stormy,  and dangerous  nights  to free beings from fear of the darkness. This shows how the practice of great compassion is detailed and comprehensive. She also said she had always been a woman for countless eons, practicing this teaching, showing how great compassion is so deep that it does not seek to leave the world, for in the original  real universe there is no world to leave.

 

32.   SAMANTAGAMBHIRASHRIVIMALAPRABHA

Then Sudhana saw the night goddess Samantagambhira­ shrivimalaprabha at the site of enlightenment and realized the stage of purity.

Great compassion in the ordinary world is not separate from fundamental awareness ,  so this scene also takes place at the site of enlightenment.

The night goddess said she had attained liberation through the bliss of tranquil meditation going everywhere. This is because the fundamental meditation underlying discipline, spontaneous meditation on the essence of all objects, is by nature inherently omnipresent.

She said that while she focused her mind wholly on the salvation and protection of living beings, she practiced the various stages of meditation up to the extinction of irritation and  affliction  in  sentient  beings.  This  shows  how  the  substance of discipline of the spiritual body is always spontaneously in a state of concentration yet always functions along with compas­ sion, teaching in accord with the faculties of the learners; all is

 

an aspect of meditation. Though this meditation is the same as what is practiced in the meditation heavens, there is not the same attitude of attraction to meditation and enjoyment of tranquillity.

 

33.   PRAMUDITANAYANAJAGADVIROCANA

Then Sudhana saw the night goddess Pramuditanayanaj a­ gadvirocana on the right side of the enlightenment site and attained the stage of refulgen ce.

The right is the position of compassion; this represents initiating action by enlightenment and developing tolerance and kindness. The goddess is called Joyful Eyes Illumining  the World; joyful eyes represent tolerance and kindness, illumining the world means not abandoning sentient beings.

From every pore of her body the night goddess enunated countless multitudes of projected bodies, filling the ten direc­ tions and expounding the practical aspects of the ten ways of transcendence; this illustrates how the work of the teaching reaches everywhere.

She also emanated multitudes of bodies like various beings and rnultitudes of bodies like human and celestial rulers, per­ vading the ten directions, adapting and assin1ilating everywhere to liberate others.

The night goddess said that in the distant past she was the wife of a king who was in fact Manjushri, the spirit of wisdon1, and that she was awakened by a night spirit emanated by Samantabhadra, the spirit of Universal Good. This represents how activation of complex functions based on fundamental knowledge and practice of great compassion are not limited by time; this is because cultivation of world transcendence shows up in an instant, while practice of great compassion goes on forever.

 

34.   SAMANTASATTVATRANOJAHSHRI

Then at the same assembly Sudhana saw the night goddess Samantasattvatranojahshri and realized the stage of blazing radiance.

 

In this rank knowledge and compassion are completed and one is born in the house of the enlightened, never parting from enlightenn1ent; hence the goddess was in this assembly at the Buddha's site of enlightenn1ent .

Sudhana saw the goddess in all worlds, in all  states  of being, in all times, liberating sentient beings by techniques adapted to their languages, behaviors, and understandings. This was because she had attained the freedom to appear in all worlds to civilize beings.

The goddess said that in a past eon called Sphere of Purity there appeared as many buddhas as particles in a polar moun­ tain; in that time a king was born spontaneously from a lotus, and the king had a daughter, who was none other than the night goddess herself. The name of the age is based on the roundness and purity of the body of knowledge.  The buddhas as nun1erous as particles represent different fruits of knowledge realized in the course of progressive practice. The king being born from a lotus represents knowledge being undefiled. The princess being the night goddess herself stands for the merging of knowledge and compassion.

The goddess said she had attained her liberation from one hundred and ten buddhas in the past, and she also said she followed buddhas numerous as atoms in lands. The interpene­ tration of the causes and results of the ten and eleven stages make a hundred and ten buddhas. When knowledge is complete and praxis comprehensive, one's own mind is like buddha, all acts are like buddha, all insights are like buddha, nothing in all worlds in the ten directions is not buddha-this is "buddhas numerous as aton1s in lands." To see any thing or any being as other than buddha is a false view.

The goddess also said that in such and such ages,  in the time of such and such buddhas, she had been a night spirit, an emperor, and other beings, including an entertainer. Entertain­ ment represents delight in truth. These incarnations all repre­ sent practices according to rank within the realization of en­ lightenment.

 

Therefore when practice and realization reach each other, the buddhas spontaneously respond. If you see anything apart fron1 your own practice and own realization , this is not true seeing. Even if you get visions by forced seeking, these are only temporary hallucinations, not real buddhas .

 

35 .   PRASHANTARUTASAGARAVATI

Not far from here Sudhana saw the night goddess Prashan­ tarutasagaravati and realized the stage difficult to conquer.

In this stage one uses meditation concentration to cultivate worldly arts and crafts . As one has these skills without becon1- ing alienated fron1 the essence of enlightenment and the practice of diligence, the goddess's place is said to be "not far from here. "

The goddess is called Possessed of an Ocean of Tranquil Sound.  Tranquillity is concentration,  while the ocean of sound is function. This illustrates how the body of concentration is uncontrived yet its response is universal.  This night  goddess was the mother of the night goddess of universal salvation, representing the ability of the body of concentration to produce energetic action. Unless all practices are based on concentration, one will become fatigued at some time.

The goddess said she had attained liberation of supernal manifes tations producing floods of joy in each instant of thought. This illustrates the all-pervasiveness of the joy of n1editation, the mutual adornment of principle and practice, the vastness of benefit to the living. She also  said  she would serve all the future buddhas of this eon, as well as the future buddhas of all worlds in all eons, illustrating how the essence of meditation is complete, in the sense that past, present, and future form one tin1e, like a mirror containing multiple images .

 

36.   SARVANAGARARAKSHASAMBHAVATEJAHSHRI

Then in the Buddha's assembly Sudhana saw the night goddess Sarvanagararakshasambhavatejahshri and attained the stage of presence.

 

This goddess represents protection of the minds of sentient beings and increasing the power of knowledge and insight in the mind. She said she had attained liberation of extremely profound, free, subtle sound,  illustrating the single "sound" that is everywhere in the universe, without substance, without discrimination, able to express all truths, teach sentient beings, and manifest all knowledge freely.

The goddess said she had attained this liberation eons in the past. The first buddha in her recollection was called the Illuminating King Voicing the Ocean of All Truths; after that buddha's demise, a certain king left home to preserve the buddha's teachings. The countless eons refer to the ability to turn the countless expressions of the sentient beings  of all worlds into a total ocean of expressions of insight. The first buddha stands for fundan1ental knowledge, and the buddha's name represents freedom in expounding truth and breaking delusion.

The demise of the buddha represents the attainment of knowledge free from bondage and the disappearance of trapped attention and reflection. The king leaving home stands for knowledge of emptiness. Since wisdom activates transcendent compassion, the king's daughter also became a nun.

By the time the buddha's teaching was about to die out, there were a thousand sects that often engaged in disputation and quarrel  and were on the verge of destroying Buddhism. This illustrates insight into emptiness that is not yet equipped with the great compassion to enter the ordinary world.

The goddess also mentioned one hundred buddhas  and said she had served them all: this represents cultivating the fruits of interdependent progress of all ten stages within the sixth stage. The reason she did not reach the manifestation of the fruits of the eleventh stage is that insight into emptiness is not yet the practice of Universal Good that enters into bondage.  It is for this same reason that in the book on the ten concentrations the thirty enlightening beings with insight into emptiness all

 

entered the stage of coronation yet did not see the body of Universal Good.

 

37.   SARVAVRIKSHAPRAPHULLANASUKHASAMVASA

Then, in the Buddha's assembly, Sudhana saw the night goddess Sarvavrikshapraphullanasukhasamvasa and realized the stage of far going.

This goddess symbolizes using expedients in the midst of freedom from birth and death to enter into birth and death and carry out practices everywhere.

The goddess said she had attained liberation producing the light of great joy, meaning that she had clearly penetrated the four integrative methods and the four infinite minds.

She also said that in the remote past there had been a king named Encompassing Sound of the Proclamation of All Laws, who had five hundred ministers, six thousand concubines, and seven hundred sons. The king set up a great charitable event, which a young woman named Jewel Light, daughter of a grandee, attended with sixty maids .

The king was Vairocana and the young woman Jewel Light was the night goddess; this represents the stage of practical compassion in a bad time when there is a lot of suffering. The king represents knowledge, the five hundred ministers represent the five ranks being practiced in concert, the six thousand concubines represent compassion pervading the six realms of being, the seven hundred princes represent the practices of the seven limbs of enlightenment, the woman Jewel Light represents compassion, the sixty maidens at the assembly represent the compassion of the six ranks combining with knowledge.  That the king was Vairocana Buddha represents knowledge being the fruit of action in the ordinary world.

 

38.   SARVAJAGADRAKSHAPRANIDHANAVIRYAPRABHA

Then at the site of enlightenment Sudhana saw the night goddess Sarvajagadrakshapranidhanaviryaprabha and realized the stage of immovability.

 

The sp1nt, whose name means " Light of Energy of the Vow To Protect All Beings, " represents total absorption in helping living beings, using effortless knowledge to let  the power of the fundamental vow do its work.

Sudhana saw the spirit sitting on a seat ofjewels reflecting the abodes of all beings;  this represents how the pure function of knowledge in effortless knowledge appears in all places.

The body of the night goddess  showed reflections of the sun, moon, and stars; and she appeared to sentient beings everywhere in the forms of various bodies, according to the mentalities of those beings. This represents the body of knowl­ edge appearing in context.

The night spirit said she had attained liberty to teach beings in ways that promoted goodness. When knowledge of the essence of nonbeing is realized, all faculties of goodness de­ velop.

Certain metaphors are raised here, such as that of the orb of knowledge of enlightening beings being like the sun travers­ ing the sky,  having itself no day or night; or like a phantom in the world, having no joy or sorrow. The goddess uses them to answer the question of how long it has been since she has been inspired to seek enlightenment, making it clear that enlighten­ ing liberation cannot be measured in temporal terms.

The goddess re1 ated that in the remote past there had been a buddha named King Illumining Space with the Voice of Truth, who sat on the enlightenment site for a full hundred years. The king of that time and place, called Victorious Light, had a son, the crown prince Conquerer, who had t wenty-eight of the thirty-two marks of a world ruler. A fter releasing people from prison, the prince led a holy life for five hundred years.

The buddha represents effortless knowledge, like an echo, everywhere aware yet not based anywhere. The hundred years represent the hundred transcendent ways of the full ten stages practiced in one stage. The king  represents knowledge,  the prince represents practical kindness, the prison represents the sphere of operation of kindness. Leading a holy life for five

 

hundred years after renunciation stands for leaving the home of effort and penetrating the five ranks in effortlessness . The prince only had twenty-eight of the marks of greatness, lacking four, because in the eighth stage one lacks the causes and effects of the ninth and tenth stages.

 

39.   SuTEJOMANDALARATISHRI

Then Sudhana saw the night goddess Sutejomandalaratishri in the Lumbini grove and realized the stage of good mind.

Lun1bini is the garden where Buddha was born, called Supreme in Pleasure because of the bliss produced in people by the Teaching.

In the stage of good mind, subtle insight and intellect are completed, and one is good at explaining teachings; hence the spirit is called Glory of the Sphere of Good Power.

The goddess explained ten kinds of birth by which enlight­ ening beings are born in the family ofbuddhas and said she had countless eons since attained liberty to be freely reborn. This means that having attained effortless knowledge and being on the verge of rising to receive a buddha's work, in this stage one studies buddhas' powers of elucidation-this is called  being reborn.

The goddess said she had purposely been reborn in the Lumbini grove, where  she realized the Buddha  would be born in a hundred years. The Buddha also appeared to be born in each Lumbini grove in the billion-world universe and in each atom of all worlds in the ten directions.  The ascent from this stage to the tenth stage is referred to as a hundred years; being born in all places  means that since unfabricated knowledge is like space, like magic, even a single moment of the descent of the spirit pervades the real universe, without any here or there, coming or going, or interruption in time. Goddesses bearing gifts awaited the birth of the Buddha, illustrating the ancient saying, "Sages act, and all beings observe. "

The night goddess recounted the story of a past age in

 

which eighty decillion buddhas were born. A royal queen, accompanied by twenty decillion ladies-in-waiting, went to a park of golden flowers, and there, as she held onto a tree, she gave birth to an enlightening being. The wet nurse at that time was none other than the night  goddess  herself.

The number of buddhas in the eon, eighty decillion, represents the issue of the effortless knowledge of the eighth stage. The number of ladies with the queen, twenty decillion, represents the fulfillment of joy in truth produced by  the buddhas' twin practice of con1passion and knowledge. That the queen gave birth while holding onto a tree represents the development of great knowledge through focus on great com­ passion. The role of the wet nurse also syn1bolizes compassion.

 

40.   GoPA

Then Sudhana saw the girl Gopa in Kapilavastu and realized the stage of clouds of teaching.

The setting symbolizes the essence and function of knowl­ edge and con1passion reaching everywhere, immaterial yet nur­ turing and supporting all beings. The setting is the san1e as that of the first stage (represented by the night goddess Vasanti, the thirty-first benefactor) because knowledge and compassion are simultaneous.

Gopa's name has the sense of watching over, or protecting, representing the preservation of the ground of great com­ passion.

According to the story, Gopa was the wife of Buddha in a past life, representing kindness, compassion, and delight in truth. She also is said to have been wife to Buddha for eons, symbolizing the inseparability of knowledge and compassion.

Knowledge attuned to reality is omnipresent; it cannot be discussed in terms of matter, cannot be understood in terms of form or appearance. It manifests similarity to humans and den1onstrates humanlike l aws, it manifests similarity to celes­ tials and demonstrates celestial ways; it is variegated according

 

to the species to which it appears; it cannot be known by one practice, cannot be understood by one body. This is because that is the nature of the body of practices of Universal Good.

The qualities of  knowledge are briefly described  in ten ways . First, the body of knowledge rests on nothing, manifest­ ing characteristics according to the subject. Second, appearances of knowledge are like reflections in essence, without any mate­ rial conventionality.  Third,  reflections of knowledge originally do not exist; the subject appears according to the mind. Fourth, knowledge  has  no   "here"  or  "there"-it  responds  to  objects like an echo. Fifth, sentient beings see it falsely, but that is not the doing of knowledge itself. Sixth, knowledge n1akes nothing but arises according to illusions. Seven th, magical birth does not involve thoughts of desire. Eighth, the spacelike power of intention appears responsively throughout the ten directions. Ninth, uncontrived, great compassion pervades the ordinary world to benefit beings . Tenth, knowledge is common to all conscious beings, so observation of the ordinary is always real. These ten aspects of the Teaching are Gopa's practice.

At that time there was in the hall of universal reflections of the light of truth a goddess named Sorrowless who came with ten thousand house goddesses to welcome Sudhana. Ten thou­ sand symbolizes myriad practices, the house goddesses repre­ sent the shelter of kindness and compassion. Welcoming repre­ sents knowledge and kindness meeting.

Sudhana saw Gopa surrounded by eighty-four thousand maidens of royal lineage, representing the eighty-four thousand a fflictions . All of them were engaged in the same practice, through kindness and compassion; and compassion is born of knowledge.

Gopa said she had once been the bride of a prince,  who was a previous manifestation of the present Buddha;  she and her husband went together to see the buddha of their time and hear the Teaching. This symbolizes the inseparable union of knowledge and compassion in this stage.

She added  that she had attained liberty  to observe the

 

concentrations of all enlightening beings,  yet even after eons she did not completely know the practices of enlightening beings, because the practice of Universal Good is infinite.

The ten teachers who follow Gopa  represent the practice of Universal Good in the eleventh stage.

 

41 . MAYA

Then Sudhana saw Lady Maya in this world and realized the n1ethod of nugical attainment of enlightenment by produc­ ing knowledge from compassion.

"This world" symbolizes the realm embraced by great compassion, without distinctions of far and near, inside and outside. Lady Maya represents the effortless great compassion that is always in the world. The fact that she is the mother of Buddha symbolizes great compassion  magically  producing great knowledge.

A city goddess named Jewel Eyes exhorted Sudhana  to guard the citadel of mind, a goddess named Spiritual Lotus eulogized Lady Maya, lights entered Sudhana's head, and a goblin guarding the teaching hall instructed Sudhana to view body and mind as like drean1s or reflections as he sought teachers .

Jewel Eyes represents the eye ofknowledge within compas­ sion, the lights symbolize teaching, and the goblin represents devouring the poisons of ignorance. These three principles constitute expedients on the threshold of the eleventh stage, ushering one into the great practice of Universal Good.

When Sudhana put these teachings into practice, he saw a jewel lotus spring up from the earth, with Maya sitting on it manifesting countless  incarnations  in conformity with the doings of sentient beings. This illustrates the absence of inher­ ent identity of body and mind-this is seeing bodies magically produced by compassion and knowledge.

Maya said that her body, even though in its original state, contained oceans of enlightening beings who traveled freely

 

within her belly,  crossing  a billion-world universe in a single step . This n1eans that the ocean ofgreat compassionate p ractices of Universal Good is endlessly vast, like space.

Maya said she was the mother of all buddhas of all times, meaning that the knowledge to help beings spontaneously is all born of the mother of great compassion.

M aya also said she had attained this liberation of the magic of knowledge inconceivable eons before, making it dear that it is not possible to calculate in ordinary relative terms-it is necessary that calculation be forgotten , feelings end, and knowledge become  manifest before one could know how long it had been since she had attained this liberation. Therefore only buddhas could know how tnany eons it had been.

 

42.   S URENDRABHA

Then, in the thirty-three-fold heaven, Sudhana saw the goddess Surendrabha, daughter of the god Smrtimati, and realized unfailing mindfulness of all truths through mastery of knowledge and compassion.

The god Smrtimati ("Mindful")  appeared  in an earlier book of The Flower Ornament Scrip ture, and here is called a king, who also has a daughter. This represents spontaneous wisdom and con1passion without thought, spiritual teaching without fixed convention; this freedom is represented as divinity and kingship, which thus do not refer literally to a specific realm or status .

The goddess said she had attained liberation of unimpeded recollection, meaning that the extent of the eons of past, present, and future was perfectly clear to her, manifest in the immediate present. This is natural, by knowledge without thought.

The goddess said that she served all the buddhas in count­ less eons. This is a description of temporal relativity within the absolute where there is no temporal relativity. Because the tin1eless realm of knowledge is instantly  all-pervasive, this  is not a result of fabrication .

 

After this the teachers are lay people, not presented as supernatural, to show that the Way of transcendence is fulfilled, but there may be lack of breadth of freedon1 in helping living beings. There is no more will to seek liberation apart from defilernent and purity: there is only riding on the ship of the essence of reality  and hoisting the sail of great compassion, with great knowledge as the captain, following the wind of the fundamental vow, casting the net of transcendent ways, travel­ ing the ocean of birth and death, hauling out "fish," those with attachments, and placing them on the shore of independent knowledge, to dwell in the precious hall of the real universe, like the tower of Maitreya described hereafter.

 

43.   . VISHWAMITRA

Then Sudhana saw the young teacher Vishwamitra in the city of Kapilavastu and realized how to be a teacher of worldly principles everywhere.

Vishwamitra did not tell Sudhana anything but sent him to see Shilpabhijna, illustrating the rule for teacher-exemplars, which is properly not to instruct personally but to leave this to assistant mentors, just answering questions about unresolved matters. This represents the fact that the virtuous  are never alone, always having associates to assist in the development of education.

 

44.   SHILPABHIJNA

Then Sudhana saw Shilpabhijna and realized universal knowledge of writing.

Shilpabhijna was a student of Vishwamitra. He said he had attained liberation with higher knowledge of arts . Constantly reciting forty-two phonemes,  he entered into countless  facets of transcendent wisdom. Because these phenomena include all writings, to hold one in mind is to hold all in mind,  and to hold all in mind is to hold one in mind-this is the portal  of wisdom.

 

 

For example, in reciting A, he entered the facet of transcen­ dent wisdom in which there are no distinctions in the power of enlightening beings. A  is the negative prefix: realizing the truth that all is empty and not really existent is the realm of nondif­ ferentiation in the power of enlightening beings.  Pronouncing Ra, he entered the facet of transcendent wisdom in which there are infinite differentiations, as Ra represents the realm of differ­ entiated knowledge and practice of Universal Good.

 

45 . BHADROTTAMA

Then Sudhana saw the Buddhist l aywon1an Bhadrottarna and realized how to help people by conventional and mystical arts and sciences.

Bhadrottama is called Best of the Good because she under­ stood all principles. Because she was in the material world helping beings, son1etimes she was a diviner, sometimes a curer, sometin1es an appraiser ofjewels, sometimes a writer.

Understanding all genius and effective knowledge, able to control all pernicious influences, containing the ocean ofknowl­ edge of Universal Good, equaling the spiritual  body of Man­ jushri, en1bodying buddhahood, spiritualizing myriad beings, reaching everywhere and  performing all  practices,  in accord with the saying that buddhas have reality for their body, only when one arrives at all realities and knows all truths can one be a teacher of gods and humans.

But reality has no place of abode, so the body also has no anchor-though it pervades n1yriad existences, it has no sub­ stance itsel f. Therefore Bhadrottama said she had only realized liberation of the baseless sphere.

 

46.   MUKTASARA

Then Sudhana saw the goldsmith Muktasara in the city of Bharukaccha and realized the way to pure liberation  by being in the world without clinging thoughts.

 

Adorn thoughts  with formless knowledge and   thoughts will naturally not cling to phenomena. This is liberation.

 

47.   SucHANDRA

Then Sudhana saw the householder Suchandra in the same city and realized the way to illumination by pure knowledge working in the world.

The practical great compassion represented in this meeting is one with the formless liberation of the preceding meeting, so it takes place in the same city. In the ten abodes, ten practices, ten dedications, and ten stages, the seventh and eighth steps merge into each other; in this eleventh stage, the sixth and seventh grades are one body.  Using the light of great compas­ sion to break through the confusion of sentient beings  is liberation of the illumination of pure knowledge.

 

48.   AJITASENA

Then Sudhana saw the householder Ajitasena in the city of Roruka and realized the method of finding infinite forms in formlessness.

The city Roruka represents the great vows that produce spiritual practices. The householder Ajitasena represents vic­ tory over the demons of birth and death.

The totality of states of mind are the infinite forms of buddha. These are the infinite forms in formlessness.

 

49.   SHIVARAGRA

Then Sudhana saw the Brahmin  Shivaragra in Dharma village and realized the way of speaking in such a manner that truth is revealed.

Dharma village represents the rank of a teacher of Dharma whose village is the real universe. The Brahmin Shivaragra represents transcendent power-in the ordinary without being ordinary, in the clamor without making clamor.

 

The liberation of speech revealing truth is attained by realization that the essence of all words and speech is inherently real  and  that  persons  and  things  are  all  thus-so  there  is  no empty talk.

 

50.   SHRISAMBHAVA AND SHRIMATI

Then Sudhana went to the city of Sumanamukha,  saw the boy Shrisambhava and the girl Shrimati, and realized illusori­ ness, living in the world with complete knowledge and com­ passion.

The city represents subtle practice within knowledge,  the b oy and girl represent desireless, unaffected gentility and hu­ mility, with equal knowledge and compassion.

The boy and girl said they had attained the liberation of illusoriness, meaning they had realized that the realms of buddhas and sentient beings are both illusory products of knowledge.

In the illusory state,  there is neither real nor false; mind and o bjects merge, essence and appearance do not interfere: the body and the environment interpenetrate, their radiance and reflections multiply  ad infinitum. The being  pervading the sacred and the profane, the essence complete through all time, they abide in the world permanently yet without resting on anything. Therefore they said that the essence of illusory states in inconceivable.

After this they directed Sudhana to see Maitreya, who is to

fulfill buddhahood in one lifetime. This one lifetime is the birthless lifetime, not a lifetime in the ten1poral  order.  The three principles represented by Maitreya, Manjushri, and Sa­ mantabhadra are the body of all causes and effects of the fifty ranks, not principles that exist outside the fifty ranks.

 

51 . MAITREYA

Shrisambhava and Shrimati used the inconceivable  power of faculties for goodness to make Sudhana feel at ease and

 

aglow,  then directed him to the great building called chamber of adornments of Vairocana in the Great Array Park in Samu­ drakaccha, at the edge of the ocean, where he saw the enlight­ ening being Maitreya and realized the way to buddhahood in one lifetime.

The seashore represents gradually ascending progress to buddhahood in one lifetin1e, facing the shore of the ocean of birth and death. The Park of the Great Array symbolizes adornment ofbuddhahood with the knowledge and compassion to enter birth and death.

The name va irocana includes both the meaning of differen­ tiated light, symbolizing knowledge of distinctions, and ubiq­ uitous illumination shining everywhere, symbolizing funda­ mental knowledge.

The building represents the universally enlightening knowledge of the substance and function of the real universe, working in various ways for the maximum  benefit of living beings. Therefore its size is equal to space,  so that all worlds and their beings  are living in it-though unaware of each other-as told in detail in the scripture,  represented  by  the various worlds seen by Sudhana in the tower.

The building was made by the great compassion  of the ocean of enlightened knowledge, the great vow to help  the living, and it was situated in the park of birth and death of all sentient beings. Therefore Maitreya said its manifestation is produced from skill in means, from virtue and knowledge; it comes from nowhere and goes nowhere. These are all charac­ teristics of presence in the n1idst of origination and destruction with knowledge of illusoriness. It is like the p ower of actions of sentient beings, which arises and disappears without any grasp­ able substance or appearance of coming and going.

Maitreya is the Loving One, of whom buddhahood in the next lifetime was foretold. In the realn1 of knowledge of illusory states in the real universe, in every particle of every land there are infinite oceans of buddhas, but their unique enlightenment is always as is, without origin or disappearance, without past,

 

future, or present. It is only through the great practice  of Universal Good that there are manifestations of attainment of buddhahood, nirvana, and giving instructions for the future, according to what is timely and appropriate for sentient beings. That is why Maitreya appears to be in the position of successor­ ship before the present buddha's mission is ended, while in reality Maitreya is already equal to the buddhas.

Shrisambhava and Shrimati extolled the virtues of Maitreya at length to induce Sudhana to approach and attend Maitreya, and warned hin1 not to try with a limited mind to practice the six ways of transcendence, dwell in the ten stages, purify a buddha-field, or serve teachers. This makes it clear that the six transcendent ways and the ten stages are not yet free from the transcendental partial view of purity; do not yet fully embody the practice of Universal Good; and are not the same as the body of virtues of the ocean of fruits of rewards of Vairocana Buddha, the ocean of blessings represented as flower crowns, necklaces, bracelets, and so on. Through them one only attains equality with the emanation buddhas transcending the world, giving up the mortal body that likes and dislikes.

Therefore when the eleventh stage is ful filled, the Teaching leads into the real universe, to merge with the complete embod­ iment of the fundamental root and arrive at the realm  of the great knowledge of the real universe that originally underlies unawareness, thus naturally to be rewarded with boundless virtues.

In addition, the infinitely adorned body of enjoyment developed by the differentiating knowledge of the ocean of practical vows of Universal Good would not allow Sudhana to stick to limited practices projected to inspire ordinary people.

Now Sudhana prostrated himself in front of the building, using various modes of praise to extol this building as the abode of great sages with measureless virtues. This illustrates the fruits of buddhahood as being such that they can never be fully described.

The enlightening being Maitreya came fron1 elsewhere and

 

lauded Sudhana's virtues to the crowd, then extolled at length the virtues of the thought of enlightenment. "Coming from elsewhere" n1eans that when adapting to conventions in order to teach people, one does not dwell on one's own rewards. The process of using all spiritual capacities, enlightenn1ent power, and the myriad practices of enlightening beings to turn the ocean of afflictions into the ocean of all knowledge is all based on the thought of enlightenment.

The thought of enlightenn1ent is independent, and knowl­ edge is also independent, so all that is done is without depend­ ence or obsession-myriad practices are like projections, help­ ing the living is like magic, spiritual capacities and enlightened powers are like the moon in the sky appearing in waters everywhere. All these are functional capacities  of the thought of enlightenment. Anything attained through any agency but the thought of enlightenment is not natural law, so the virtues of the thought of enlightenment are inconceivable.

Maitreya n1ade a sound by snapping his fingers , and the door to the building opened up. Snapping the fingers has the meaning of dismissing material sense, sound has the meaning of stirring awake. When material sense is removed and attach­ ment gone, the door of knowledge spontaneously opens.

Once Sudhana had entered the building, the door then reclosed. Opening means the disappearance of delusion and the appearance of knowledge. Reclosing means that in knowledge there is no inside or outside, no exiting or entering, no delusion or enlightenment. This n1eans wholly returning to the source.

Sudhana saw the interior of the building to be infinitely vast as space. This represents the infinity of the rcaln1 of knowledge. The ornaments were all made of precious sub­ stances, representing the value of practical acts of kindness and wisdom.

In the building Sudhana saw spiritually projected scenes: the past, present,  and future practices of Maitreya, as well as the buddhas with whon1 he worked and his spiritual friends, who also expounded various truths to Sudhana. Because the

 

realm of knowledge of the body of reality  is by natural  law always so, no thing is not spiritual, no phenomenon is not wonderful-these are spiritual scenes.  Because past,  present, and future are not beyond a n1oment, Sudhana saw events of all times. Because the nature of past, present, and future is perfect, they clearly always teach-so Sudhana heard past buddhas teaching.

When Maitreya withdrew his spiritual  force, the scenes that had been manifested now disappeared. This is because the identities of phenomena are like dreams, like illusions, like shadows, like reflections, always there and yet always gone, always one and yet always different.  Maitreya let Sudhana know the essence of true Thusness, naturally going along with con­ ditions yet naturally reverting to essence.

 

52.   MANJUSHRI

Then Maitreya sent Sudhana back to see his first benefactor Manjushri , showing that the ultimate result is the same as the cause, because the way into eternity of the silent function of universally illumined knowledge is not of the past, present, or future and has no beginning or end, no exit or entry.

Sudhana traveled through a hundred and ten cities to see Manjushri , representing simultaneous certainty of the principles he had practiced.  The unity of all buddhas and sentient beings in the same one real unverse is the place where Manjushri is seen .

Manjushri reached out over a hundred and ten leagues to lay his right hand on Sudhana's head, praising his ability to set out on these practical undertakings and be received by spiritual friends. Then he had Sudhana fulfill countless teachings,  and had him enter the sphere of the practice  of Universal Good. Laying the hand on the head syn1bolizes mutual identification of  cause  and  effect.   The  hundred  and  ten  leagues   symbolize having passed through the causes and effects of the five ranks. Introduction to the realm of practice of Universal Good means

 

introduction to perpetual practice of Universal Good after the fruition of buddhahood.

A fter establishing Sudhana in his own place, Manjushri disappeared, illustrating how after the fruition of buddhahood one is not different from when one was among  ordinary n1ortals. A fter one attains buddhahood, buddha is basically nonexistent, so Manjushri "disappeared."

Sudhana saw as n1any spiritual benefactors as atoms in a billion-world universe, in the sense that knowledge of the body of reality pervades the real universe evenly, so he saw everything everywhere as no different from the body of Manjushri, the personification of wisdom.

 

53.   SAMANTABHADRA

Finally, in front of the Buddha's seat at the diamond mine site of enlightenment, Sudhana escalated his awareness to the vastness of space, whereupon he saw Samantabhadra (" Univer­ sally Good") , sitting on a jewel lotus in front of the Buddha. This means that the aftermath of the fruition of buddhahood is ultimately not apart from the subtle principle of enlightenment, the diamond mine of knowledge,  in the first attitude of faith, yet it activates the cosmic network of perpetual practice.

Samantabhadra extended his right hand and lay it on Sudhana's head, whereupon Sudhana attained as many concen­ trations as atoms in all buddha-fields. And just as Samanta­ bhadra lay his hand on Sudhana's head here, so did each Sanuntabhadra before every buddha in every atom  of every world in the ten directions also lay his hand on Sudhana's head, and Sudhana attained the same spiritual experience. This illus­ trates the eternal buddhahood of the real universe and its eternal practice of Universal Good; only upon reaching and according with these do you realize the buddhas are already enlightened and Universal Good is already in action.  It also illustrates how the  fulfillment  of practice  is  not  apart  from  cause-time  does not shift, knowledge does not alter.

 

With each step in the buddha-fields in the pores of Univer­ sal Good, Sudhana crossed untold worlds , but even traveling thus throughout the eons of the future one could not know the limits of the order of succession of oceans of lands in a single pore of the matrices of oceans of lands, of the differences in oceans of lands, of the interpenetration of oceans of lands, or of the formation and disintegration of oceans of lands; one could not know the limits of the oceans of buddhas or the oceans of congregations of enlightening beings. This is because such is the reality of the vast realm of infinite practice of Universal Good.

Then Sudhana attained the ocean of practical vows of Samantabhadra, equal to Universal Good and equal to the buddhas, filling all worlds with one body,  equal  in sphere, equal in practice, equal in true awareness, equal in spiritual powers, equal in teaching, equal in kindness and compassion, equal in the freedom of inconceivable liberation. This illustrates how the ocean of infinite practices is carried out by all buddhas of all times and places. This is the ultimate enlightenment, in which there are no more ideas of attaining buddhahood or not attaining buddhahood.