大智度論 薩陀波崙品之卷九十八經段Dazhidulun — Mahāprajñāpāramitā-upadeśa · Sadāprarudita, Part 3 of 4

Sadāprarudita, Fascicle 98, Sūtra Section: Within the Nature of the Samādhis No One Is Seen Emerging or Entering, and toward the Good Friend One Gives Rise to the Notion of a Buddha; the Sincerity of Selling His Body, Māra's Screening, Śakra's Test, and the Elder's Daughter's Arousing of the Mind; the Offerings at the City of Many Fragrances and the Question Where the Buddhas Come From and Where They Go

What Is Being Asked

In the previous unit, Sadāprarudita received the teaching of the voice in the sky and went east, and halfway along entered the samādhis and saw the buddhas of the ten directions. This unit runs from the moment the buddhas open their mouths to comfort him up to the point where, before Dharmodgata's seat in the City of Many Fragrances, he tells the whole course of his seeking of the Dharma over again and closes with one question—the sūtra text runs straight through in one breath, without a single sentence of the treatise's explanation set in between, and this is the longest stretch of narrative in the whole chapter, and the one least given any explanation.

To be given no explanation is not to be without doctrine. What this passage has to answer is in fact the plainest of doubts: since prajñā is 「不念有是諸法」 tr. "not thinking that these dharmas exist", why must the one who seeks prajñā walk five hundred yojanas, sell his body, cut his flesh and draw out his marrow, and bring five hundred carriages to make offerings to a sūtra written on tablets of gold? The buddhas' very first words lay this tension bare—contemplating the nature of the samādhis, they 「不見有法出三昧、入三昧者」 tr. "do not see any dharma that emerges from samādhi or enters samādhi", and do not see even the one who obtains awakening; and yet within the very same speech they teach Sadāprarudita 「於是佛法中，倍應恭敬愛念」 tr. "toward this Buddha-Dharma you should redouble your reverence and love" and 「於善知識中，應生如佛想」 tr. "toward the good friend you should give rise to the notion of a Buddha". Not seeing a single dharma and redoubled reverence—the sūtra text says them side by side and does not reconcile them.

Each of the episodes that follow serves as a note to this one sentence. Because he does not see the buddhas, doubt arises; because doubt arises and he cannot settle it himself, he must ask the good friend; because he must ask the good friend and dares not go empty-handed, he sells his body; because he sells his body and Māra screens the buyers, he cannot sell it; because he cannot sell it and weeps, Śakra comes to test him; tested and asked for heart, blood, and marrow, he on the contrary takes it as obtaining the foremost benefit; he cuts his body, and the elder's daughter comes down from the upper storey to ask, and with one question hears of the Buddha's merits, whereupon five hundred women together arouse the mind of awakening; the wealth and requisites now sufficient, he goes east to the city of twelve yojanas, sees the dais of the seven jewels and the prajñā written on tablets of gold, and divides the offerings into two portions; at the end he bows with head and face, lays out the road he came by point by point, and asks only one thing: 「是諸佛何處來、去至何處？」 tr. "From where do these buddhas come, and where do they go?"

So the bone of this unit is how the two ends, ‘not thinking’ and ‘seeking with all one's life’, are present together in one person. What the reader is to look at is not the strangeness of the episodes but how, at each pass, Sadāprarudita's mind turns—in poverty it turns out into selling his body; where he cannot sell it, it turns out into weeping without retreating; where heart, blood, and marrow are demanded, it turns out into 「我得大利」 tr. "I have obtained great benefit"; where the lord of the heavens grants a wish, it turns out into asking only for awakening. This whole way of turning is precisely the demonstration the sūtra text gives for 「云何求般若波羅蜜」 tr. "how prajñāpāramitā is sought".

Passage by Passage

1. The buddhas of the ten directions comfort him—within the nature of the samādhis no one emerging or entering is seen, and this is named prajñā. The buddhas first put themselves at one seat with him: 「我等本行菩薩道時，求般若波羅蜜，得是諸三昧，亦如汝今所得。」 tr. "When we first practised the bodhisattva path, seeking prajñāpāramitā, we obtained these samādhis, just as you have now obtained them." This sentence is the real meaning of the comfort—not praising him as a rarity, but telling him that the buddhas have all walked this road, and that what you have obtained is exactly what we obtained. Next, taking up the samādhis, they speak of prajñā: 「我等觀是諸三昧性，不見有法出三昧、入三昧者，亦不見行佛道者，亦不見得阿耨多羅三藐三菩提者。善男子！是名般若波羅蜜，所謂不念有是諸法。」 tr. "Contemplating the nature of these samādhis, we do not see any dharma that emerges from samādhi or enters samādhi, nor do we see anyone who practises the Buddha path, nor do we see anyone who obtains anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi. Good man! This is called prajñāpāramitā; it is namely not thinking that these dharmas exist." The sickness that most easily arises in one who has obtained samādhi is to take samādhi as a thing got in hand, and emerging and entering as a matter to boast of; the buddhas, not waiting for him to give rise to the thought, break it first—even the one who emerges and the one who enters are unfindable, how much less the samādhi that is emerged from and entered. Yet at the end they do not abide in breaking; on the contrary, with 「我等於無所念法中住」 tr. "we dwell in the dharma of recollecting nothing" they bring out the golden body, the sixteen-foot radiance, the thirty-two marks, the eighty minor marks, and so on up to all merits complete: recollecting nothing is not having nothing whatsoever; it is precisely the place from which all merits come forth. As to their being beyond telling to the end, the sūtra text uses its weightiest sentence: 「佛尚不能取相說盡，何況聲聞、辟支佛及諸餘人！」 tr. "Even a Buddha cannot, grasping at marks, tell them to the end—how much less the śrāvakas, the pratyekabuddhas, and other people!" The reason they cannot be told to the end lies in the two Chinese characters 「取相」 tr. "grasping at marks"—merits cannot be grasped by way of marks, so one who grasps at marks cannot tell them to the end; and this runs straight through with 「不念有是諸法」 tr. "not thinking that these dharmas exist" above. Then it turns back to admonition: 「於是佛法中，倍應恭敬愛念，生清淨心；於善知識中，應生如佛想。」 tr. "Toward this Buddha-Dharma you should redouble your reverence and love and give rise to a pure mind; toward the good friend you should give rise to the notion of a Buddha." The reason is only one sentence: 「為善知識守護故，菩薩疾得阿耨多羅三藐三菩提。」 tr. "Because, protected by the good friend, a bodhisattva swiftly obtains anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi." Not seeing a single dharma and yet redoubling reverence—this is not a contradiction between before and after; it is the two faces of prajñā: seeing that there is nothing to be attained, one gives rise to no self-conceit; knowing that it is obtained from conditions, one does not abandon reverence.

2. Sadāprarudita asks who his good friend is. Having heard them out, he does not ask about samādhi and does not ask about awakening; he asks only one sentence: 「何等是我善知識所應親近供養者？」 tr. "Who is my good friend, the one I should draw near to and make offerings to?" The buddhas have just said 「於善知識中，應生如佛想」 tr. "toward the good friend you should give rise to the notion of a Buddha", and he at once takes this sentence to make it real—he does not hear the admonition as words of praise but as a matter to be carried out. The quickness of one who seeks the Dharma lies exactly here: wherever the Dharma is spoken up to, his question follows up to there.

3. The buddhas of the ten directions point to Dharmodgata as the good friend—offerings exhausting the three-thousand world do not repay a single moment's kindness. The buddhas answer with the utmost clarity: 「曇無竭菩薩世世教化成就汝阿耨多羅三藐三菩提；曇無竭菩薩守護汝，教汝般若波羅蜜、方便力，是汝善知識。」 tr. "The bodhisattva Dharmodgata has life after life taught you and brought your anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi to accomplishment; the bodhisattva Dharmodgata protects you and teaches you prajñāpāramitā and the power of skilful means; he is your good friend." The two Chinese characters for ‘life after life’ draw this bond of teacher and disciple out from the present life across vast kalpas. Next comes the weighing of the measure of offering: for one kalpa, two kalpas, three kalpas, 「乃至過百千劫，頂戴恭敬」 tr. "and so on up to more than hundreds of thousands of kalpas, carrying him on the crown of your head in reverence", offering him all the wondrous forms, sounds, scents, flavours, and touches there are in the three-thousand world—and the verdict is 「未能報須臾之恩」 tr. "you still could not repay his kindness of a single moment". Why is it so? The sūtra text answers itself: 「曇無竭菩薩摩訶薩因緣故，令汝得如是等諸三昧，得般若波羅蜜、方便力。」 tr. "Because it is through the causes and conditions of the bodhisattva-mahāsattva Dharmodgata that you have obtained all these kinds of samādhi, and obtained prajñāpāramitā and the power of skilful means." The measure of repaying kindness is not taken from how much is given but from the weight of what is received—what is received is samādhi, is prajñā, is skilful means, none of which wealth and treasure can repay. This weighing is not meant to make people not make offerings; it is exactly meant to make people make offerings without holding the thought ‘already repaid’. When the buddhas had taught, comforted, and gladdened him, 「忽然不現」 tr. "they suddenly vanished"—coming and going without a trace, which plants the root for the doubt below.

4. Arising from samādhi he gives rise to doubt—from where do the buddhas come, and where do they go? The moment the buddhas vanish, his first thought is: 「是諸佛從何所來？去至何所？」 tr. "From where did these buddhas come? And where have they gone?" Next he is 「惆悵不樂」 tr. "disconsolate and unhappy" and asks himself 「誰斷我疑？」 tr. "Who can cut off this doubt of mine?" To obtain samādhi and see the buddhas is a matter of great joy, yet to come out of samādhi and not see the buddhas becomes great doubt—from which it can be seen that the buddhas seen were still tied to the concentration that sees them, and when the concentration goes the seeing goes. He does not force an explanation on himself, nor does he retreat because of the doubt; instead he at once thinks of Dharmodgata: that person 「久遠已來，常行般若波羅蜜，得方便力及諸陀羅尼，於菩薩法中得自在」 tr. "has from long ago always practised prajñāpāramitā, has obtained the power of skilful means and all kinds of dhāraṇī, and has attained mastery within the bodhisattva dharmas", and moreover 「世世為我師，常利益我」 tr. "life after life has been my teacher and has always benefited me", and therefore 「我當問曇無竭菩薩」 tr. "I shall ask the bodhisattva Dharmodgata". When doubt arises, to know whom to ask is the first-rank equipment of one who seeks the Dharma; when doubt arises, to make up one's own explanation, or to stop once doubt arises, is in either case not the way. This one question is the origin of all his austerities from here on, and is also the topic that the chapters after this chapter set out to answer directly.

5. Poor and without requisites of offering, he resolves to sell his body—life after life he has lost bodies, but never for the Dharma. Having settled on going to ask, the first matter is nevertheless 「我當以何供養曇無竭菩薩？」 tr. "With what shall I make offerings to the bodhisattva Dharmodgata?" So he counts out his poverty: he has no flowers and incense, necklaces, burning incense, scented ointment, clothing, banners and canopies, gold, silver, pearls, beryl, sphaṭika, coral, or amber. Next he sets himself a rule: 「我法不應空往曇無竭菩薩所，我若空往，喜悅心不生。」 tr. "By my own rule I should not go empty-handed to the bodhisattva Dharmodgata; if I go empty-handed, a joyful mind will not arise." The two Chinese characters 「我法」 tr. "my own rule" are a rule he himself lays down for himself—no one demands that he bring a gift; he knows that if he goes empty-handed, this thought of reverence of his will not land on solid ground. So he resolves to sell his body. And the reason he dares to sell it lies not in making light of the body but in having settled an account: 「我世世喪身無數，無始生死中或死、或賣，或為欲因緣故，世世在地獄中受無量苦惱，未曾為清淨法故、為供養說法師故喪身。」 tr. "Life after life I have lost my body countless times: in beginningless birth and death I have sometimes died, sometimes been sold, sometimes, because of the causes and conditions of desire, life after life undergone immeasurable suffering and vexation in the hells; but I have never lost my body for the sake of the pure Dharma, or for the sake of making offerings to the teacher who teaches the Dharma." One and the same body has from beginningless time been lost countless times to death, to sale, to desire, and those losses bought only the suffering and vexation of the hells; this time today is the first time it is exchanged for the Dharma. The difficulty of giving up the body lies in the giving up; yet the meaning of this passage lies in ‘it has been given up countless times anyway; this time at last it is given up in its proper place’—turning a heroic matter into a clear account; this is the measure with which the sūtra text teaches the giving up of the body.

6. In the market he cries aloud to sell himself. 「中道入一大城，至市肆上，高聲唱言：『誰欲須人？誰欲須人？誰欲買人？』」 tr. "Halfway along the road he entered a great city, went up into the market among the shops, and cried aloud: ‘Who needs a person? Who needs a person? Who will buy a person?’" The resolve was made in the mountain forest, but it is made real in the marketplace. A man who is to accomplish the Buddha path stands among the shops crying himself up for sale—the sound of the three cries is, in every word, the direct perception of the four Chinese characters 「不惜身命」 tr. "not sparing body and life". If the sincerity of seeking the Dharma were only in the heart, no one could test whether it was true or false; the sūtra text deliberately has him cry it out in the market.

7. Evil Māra screens the buyers—knowing that he will obtain much learning and leave his domain. Māra's thought the sūtra text writes with the utmost fineness. What Māra fears is not his selling his body but what comes after the selling: 「當得正問般若波羅蜜及方便力」 tr. "he will be able to ask rightly about prajñāpāramitā and the power of skilful means", and what he will ask is 「云何菩薩摩訶薩行般若波羅蜜，疾得阿耨多羅三藐三菩提？」 tr. "How does a bodhisattva-mahāsattva practise prajñāpāramitā so as swiftly to obtain anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi?"; moreover he will obtain much learning complete, 「如大海水」 tr. "like the water of the great ocean", 「是時不可沮壞」 tr. "and then he cannot be destroyed", and further 「得具足一切功德，饒益諸菩薩摩訶薩」 tr. "he will obtain all merits complete and benefit the bodhisattva-mahāsattvas". And the most crucial sentence is: 「為阿耨多羅三藐三菩提故，過我境界，亦教餘人出我境界」 tr. "for the sake of anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi he will pass beyond my domain, and will also teach other people to leave my domain". What Māra guards is a domain—the region of birth and death in the desire realm; one person going out of it can still be borne, but going out and then teaching others to go out must at all costs be ruined. So Māra's move is not to take his life and not to disturb his mind, but only 「隱蔽諸婆羅門、居士，令不聞其自賣聲」 tr. "to screen the brahmins and householders, so that they did not hear the sound of his selling himself". The cleverness of hindrance lies exactly here: it does not make you suffer; it only keeps your suffering from accomplishing anything. Yet the sūtra text, in passing, leaves one thread: 「除一長者女，魔不能蔽。」 tr. "Only an elder's daughter Māra could not screen." Though Māra's power can screen the ears of a whole city, it cannot screen this one person—the foreshadowing is laid down, and what follows shows it of itself.

8. Unable to sell his body, he weeps and blames himself. 「賣身不售，憂愁啼哭，在一面立，涕泣而言」 tr. "Unable to sell his body, he sorrowed and wept, stood to one side, and said with tears flowing", and what he said was 「我為大罪，賣身不售」 tr. "Great is my offence, that selling my body I cannot sell it". He does not suspect Māra and does not resent others; he only lays the blame on himself—this is the constant course of his mind (before the failure to sell had even arisen, he had already thought to himself that his merit was thin). The name Ever Weeping comes to its real ground at this place: his weeping is not that he cannot bear the suffering; he weeps because he seeks the Dharma and does not obtain it. And within the weeping he still states the reason plainly: 「我自賣身，為般若波羅蜜故，供養曇無竭菩薩。」 tr. "I am selling myself for the sake of prajñāpāramitā, to make offerings to the bodhisattva Dharmodgata." Weeping and not retreating never obstruct each other in him.

9. Śakra Devānām Indra resolves to test him—to know whether he loves the Dharma with a deep mind. What Śakra doubts is not whether he dares, but 「實以深心愛法故，捨是身不」 tr. "whether he truly, out of love of the Dharma with a deep mind, can give up this body"—the two Chinese characters for ‘deep mind’ are the target of the test. Those who love the Dharma are many; those who love the Dharma with a deep mind are few; there may be some willing to give up the body, but to give it up for the Dharma, and give it up gladly, is rare. So he 「化作婆羅門身，在薩陀波崙菩薩邊行」 tr. "transformed himself into the form of a brahmin and passed by beside the bodhisattva Sadāprarudita", and first asks an irrelevant question: 「汝善男子！何以憂愁啼哭，顏色焦悴，在一面立？」 tr. "You, good man! Why do you sorrow and weep, your face haggard, standing to one side?" The one who tests a person does not ask his aim directly but first asks about his countenance—drawing him by the outer appearance to set out his own case.

10. Sadāprarudita sets out his case truthfully. He answers without concealing anything: 「我愛敬法，欲自賣身為般若波羅蜜故，欲供養曇無竭菩薩。」 tr. "I love and revere the Dharma, and wish to sell my own body; for the sake of prajñāpāramitā I wish to make offerings to the bodhisattva Dharmodgata." And he says once more that there is no buyer, that he thinks to himself that his merit is thin, that he has no wealth or treasure. To a stranger brahmin he lays out his straits in full—one who seeks nothing from others also hides nothing from others. The directness of this answer is precisely what the 「我盡與汝」 tr. "I shall give you all of it" below rests on.

11. The brahmin asks for a human heart, human blood, and human marrow. 「我不須人，我今欲祠天，當須人心、人血、人髓，汝能賣與我不？」 tr. "I have no need of a person; I now wish to sacrifice to the gods, and must use a human heart, human blood, and human marrow. Can you sell them to me?" What is asked for is not labour but the heart, blood, and marrow of a living person—this is the price of death, not the price of a body. What makes the test a test is that it lays wholly bare the vagueness beneath the word 「賣身」 tr. "selling one's body": the selling of the body you speak of—is it selling oneself into servitude, or selling oneself to one's death?

12. Sadāprarudita takes it as obtaining the foremost benefit and gladly gives. An ordinary person hearing this would surely be startled and afraid, yet he has this thought: 「我得大利，得第一利！」 tr. "I have obtained great benefit; I have obtained the foremost benefit!" Why is this? 「我今便為具足般若波羅蜜方便力，得是買心、血、髓者！」 tr. "I am now, as it were, complete in the power of skilful means of prajñāpāramitā, that I have been able to meet this buyer of heart, blood, and marrow!"—no one being willing to buy was his dead end; now that someone is willing to buy, the road is open. He does not see the knife; he sees only the gate; and so 「心大歡喜，悅樂無憂；以柔和心，語婆羅門言：『汝所須者，我盡與汝！』」 tr. "his mind was greatly glad, delighted and without sorrow; with a gentle mind he said to the brahmin: ‘Whatever you need, I shall give you all of it!’" Glad, delighted, without sorrow, gentle—the sūtra text gives four marks of mind in a row, and describes to the full this person's bearing in the face of the matter. The test having come to this point, victory and defeat are in fact already settled.

13. The brahmin asks the price. 「善男子！汝須何價？」 tr. "Good man! What price do you want?" The tester presses one step further—since you are willing to sell, you ought at least to haggle over a price. This question is the last pass: if one gives up one's life and still wants a price, then what is given up is still a buying and selling.

14. He answers ‘as you please’, and at once pierces his arm and cuts his thigh. 「隨汝意與我！」 tr. "Give me whatever you please!"—five Chinese characters answer it all. Not even discussing the price, what he gives is not for the sake of getting things but only for the sake of accomplishing the matter. And having answered, he does not wait for another to lift a hand: 「即時，薩陀波崙右手執利刀，刺左臂出血，割右髀肉，復欲破骨出髓」 tr. "Then and there Sadāprarudita took a sharp knife in his right hand, pierced his left arm and drew blood, cut the flesh of his right thigh, and was about to break the bone to take out the marrow"—holding the knife himself, piercing and cutting himself. If giving up the body waits for another's hand, there is still a share of passivity; if one lays hand on oneself, there is not a share of a way back. 「復欲破骨出髓」 tr. "Was about to break the bone to take out the marrow" yet did not get to it—this is exactly the opening for the elder's daughter to come and ask below.

15. The elder's daughter sees from afar on the upper storey and comes down to ask. What she saw was 「自割身體、不惜壽命」 tr. "cutting his own body, not sparing his life", and what moved in her was a single thought: 「是善男子何因緣故，困苦其身？我當往問。」 tr. "For what cause and condition does this good man afflict his body so? I should go and ask him."—not alarm, not pity, but wanting to ask the cause and condition. And as soon as the thought arose she acted: 「長者女即下閣，到薩陀波崙所」 tr. "the elder's daughter then came down from the upper storey and came to where Sadāprarudita was". The one person Māra could not screen in the earlier text makes her entrance here; her first question, 「何因緣困苦其身？用是心、血、髓，作何等？」 tr. "For what cause and condition do you afflict your body? What will you do with this heart, blood, and marrow?", asks about both ends, the deed and the intent. The turning point of the whole passage falls on just one person willing to come down from the upper storey and ask.

16. Sadāprarudita answers the matter directly. 「賣與婆羅門，為般若波羅蜜故，供養曇無竭菩薩。」 tr. "I am selling them to the brahmin, for the sake of prajñāpāramitā, to make offerings to the bodhisattva Dharmodgata." It is still that one sentence, said the same way to anyone. The brevity of the answer shows that in his mind there is no second matter at all.

17. The elder's daughter asks again about the merit and benefit to be obtained. 「作是賣身，欲自出心、血、髓，欲供養曇無竭菩薩，得何等功德利益？」 tr. "Selling your body in this way, wishing to take out your own heart, blood, and marrow, wishing to make offerings to the bodhisattva Dharmodgata—what kind of merit and benefit can you obtain?" The first question asked about the cause and condition; this question asks about the retribution. This question is asked at a most crucial point—had there been no such question, Sadāprarudita would not have spoken the great passage of Buddha-Dharma below, and the arousing of the mind by five hundred people would have had nothing from which to arise. One good at asking can draw the Dharma out; this is what that means.

18. He answers with the Dharma sought and the fruit hoped for—to be a support for beings. First he speaks of the person from whom he will obtain the Dharma: 「是人善學般若波羅蜜及方便力，是人當為我說菩薩所應作、菩薩所應行道。」 tr. "This one trains well in prajñāpāramitā and the power of skilful means; this one will proclaim to me what a bodhisattva should do and the path a bodhisattva should practise." Next he speaks of his own training: 「我學是法、學是道」 tr. "I train in this dharma and train in this path". Next he speaks of the fruit hoped for, and the first meaning of the fruit is not his own realisation but 「為眾生作依止」 tr. "to be a support for beings". Only then does he list the merits of a Buddha: a golden body, the thirty-two marks, the eighty minor marks, great light, immeasurable illumination; great kindness, great compassion, great joy, great equanimity; the four fearlessnesses; the ten powers of a Buddha, the four unobstructed knowledges, the eighteen unshared dharmas; the six supernormal powers; inconceivable pure morality, meditative concentration, and wisdom. At the end it comes back to 「於諸法中得無礙一切知見」 tr. "within all dharmas obtaining unobstructed knowledge and vision of all", and ends with 「以無上法寶分布與一切眾生」 tr. "distributing the unsurpassed Dharma Jewel to all beings". Both ends of the one speech, head and tail, land on beings—seeking the merits of a Buddha and not for his own enjoyment; this is the place in his answer where the bone shows most. He calls this whole set 「如是等諸功德利，我當從彼得之」 tr. "merits and benefits of all such kinds as these I shall obtain from him": what he calls merits and benefits means these, not the price of heart, blood, and marrow.

19. The elder's daughter, startled in mind with her hair on end, gives him all her jewels and vows to go with him. Her response is 「即大歡喜，心驚毛竪」 tr. "at once greatly glad, startled in mind, her hair standing on end"—gladness and being startled arising together is the true look of one who first hears the great Dharma. Her words of praise are two: 「甚希有！汝所說者，微妙難值！」 tr. "Most rare! What you say is wondrous and hard to meet!" And from the praise comes a judgement: 「為是一一功德法故，應捨如恒河沙等身。」 tr. "For the sake of each single one of these dharmas of merit, one should give up bodies as many as the sands of the Ganges." Note the two Chinese characters 「一一」 tr. "each single one"—not that for this whole set of merits one gives up one body, but that for any single merit among them one ought to give up bodies as many as the sands of the Ganges; that being so, Sadāprarudita's giving up of one body becomes, on the contrary, a small matter. So what she gives is everything: gold, silver, pearls, beryl, sphaṭika, amber, coral, and all kinds of precious things, together with flowers and incense, necklaces, perfumed ointment, burning incense, banners and canopies, clothing, music, and other requisites of offering. And she urges him to stop his suffering: 「莫自困苦其身！」 tr. "Do not afflict your own body!" At the end she goes a step further: 「我亦欲往曇無竭菩薩所，共汝植諸善根」 tr. "I too wish to go to the bodhisattva Dharmodgata, to plant all kinds of roots of goodness together with you". To give wealth is one layer; to go together in seeking the Dharma is another layer—the one who has heard the Dharma is by now no longer only a donor but a fellow learner.

20. Śakra resumes his own body and praises his unmoving mind—he grants a wish. The test now sufficient, he 「即復本身」 tr. "at once resumed his own form", and his words of praise are two: 「汝堅受是事，其心不動。」 tr. "You hold firmly to this matter; your mind does not move." Holding firmly and not moving answer exactly to the ‘greatly glad’, the ‘delighted and without sorrow’, and the ‘gentle mind’ of the earlier text—glad and yet with a mind that does not move: only this is holding firmly. Next he cites proof: 「諸過去佛行菩薩道時，亦如是求般若波羅蜜及方便力，得阿耨多羅三藐三菩提。」 tr. "When the buddhas of the past practised the bodhisattva path, they too sought prajñāpāramitā and the power of skilful means in this way, and obtained anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi." This is woven on the same loom as the buddhas' 「我等本行菩薩道時」 tr. "when we first practised the bodhisattva path" in section 1: telling him this is not a special case but the common road. At the end he declares himself: 「我實不用人心、血、髓，但來相試」 tr. "I in fact have no need of a human heart, blood, or marrow; I came only to test you", and promises 「汝願何等，我當相與」 tr. "whatever you wish, I shall give you".

21. Sadāprarudita asks for anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi. The lord of the heavens grants a wish, and he asks for only one thing: 「與我阿耨多羅三藐三菩提！」 tr. "Give me anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi!" He does not ask for wealth, does not ask for long life, does not ask for supernormal powers—he does not even ask for the requisites of offering he lacks most at this moment. What he seeks being settled, everywhere there is only this one seeking.

22. Śakra says this is not something his power can accomplish. 「此非我力所辦，是諸佛境界。必相供養，更索餘願。」 tr. "This is not something my power can accomplish; this is the domain of the buddhas. Since I must make you an offering, ask for another wish." The power of the lord of the gods can give whatever people in the human world desire; awakening alone it cannot give. This sentence draws the boundary between heavenly power and the Buddha path: fortune can be sought from others; awakening can only be accomplished by oneself. The four Chinese characters 「必相供養」 tr. "I must make you an offering" still keep faith with his promise of a wish, and so he has him ask again.

23. He turns to asking that his body be restored. 「汝若於此無力，汝必見供養，令我是身平復如故。」 tr. "If you have no power in this, and since you must make me an offering, make this body of mine restored as it was before."—what he asks is still not for his own pleasure; he wants this body, which is about to go to the City of Many Fragrances, to be fit for use. The earlier asking for awakening is where his aim lies; this asking for restoration is what the matter needs; the aim is not changed by not obtaining, and the matter is not made extravagant by obtaining.

24. His body is at once restored, and Śakra suddenly vanishes. 「身即平復，無有瘡瘢，如本不異。」 tr. "His body was at once restored, without sore or scar, no different from how it was at first." The marks of piercing the arm and cutting the thigh are gone all at once, which shows precisely that what was given up before was truly given up, and what is restored now is truly restored—because the giving up was true, the return is whole. 「釋提桓因與其願已，忽然不現」 tr. "Śakra Devānām Indra, having fulfilled his wish, suddenly vanished" is the same closing stroke as the buddhas' 「忽然不現」 tr. "suddenly vanished" in section 3: the one who came to test goes, and the ones who came to comfort go too; what can always accompany one is only the good friend and the Dharma.

25. The elder's daughter invites him to her house. 「來到我舍，有所須者，從我父母索之，盡當相與。」 tr. "Please come to my house; whatever you need, ask my parents for it, and all of it shall be given you." Her earlier promise of giving comes here to the pass of her parents—she can make the vow to go with him herself, but she is not the master of the family's wealth, and so she must tell her parents. And at the same time she states her own matter: 「我亦當辭我父母，與諸侍女，共往供養曇無竭菩薩，為求法故。」 tr. "I too will take leave of my parents and, bringing my attendant maidens, go together with you to make offerings to the bodhisattva Dharmodgata, for the sake of seeking the Dharma." Wealth and people—the two matters are requested together, and the line of reasoning is clear.

26. They arrive together at her house, and the girl goes in and tells her parents. Sadāprarudita 「在門外住」 tr. "stood outside the gate"—not entering within another's house, keeping to his proper bounds. What the girl goes in and tells is two matters: one is the requisites of offering, the other is people; the requisites are many fine flowers and incense, necklaces, perfumed ointment, burning incense, banners and canopies, clothing, gold, silver, beryl, sphaṭika, pearls, coral, amber, and all kinds of music; the people are 「我身及五百侍女先所給使」 tr. "me myself and the five hundred attendant maidens whom you formerly gave me to serve me". And in the telling she states her own aim: 「曇無竭菩薩當為我等說法，我當如說行，當得諸佛法。」 tr. "The bodhisattva Dharmodgata will teach us the Dharma; I shall practise as it is taught, and shall obtain the dharmas of the buddhas." The four Chinese characters for ‘practise as it is taught’ are the words of her proper portion in seeking the Dharma—she is not going to watch a spectacle; she is going to receive the Dharma and practise it.

27. Her parents ask what kind of person Sadāprarudita is. 「薩陀波崙菩薩是何等人？」 tr. "What kind of person is the bodhisattva Sadāprarudita?" Her parents do not first discuss the wealth; they first ask about the person. This question is most in keeping with reason, and also most crucial—precisely because there is this question, the girl's long account below is drawn out; without this question, the matter would in her household have been only a daughter wanting to travel far.

28. The girl gives a full account of the person and the matter—his selling himself, the test of his mind, his cutting his body, the merits he answered with, and the cause of her own vow. Answering her parents, the girl first establishes the person: 「以深心求阿耨多羅三藐三菩提，欲度一切眾生無量生死苦。」 tr. "With a deep mind he seeks anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi, wishing to deliver all beings from the suffering of immeasurable birth and death." Next she recounts the matter, and from the crying aloud in the market, the failure to sell his body, Śakra's transforming himself and coming to test him, the asking for heart, blood, and marrow, the answer ‘as you please’, to the taking of the knife and piercing and cutting, she tells it all over again point by point; in the middle she also attaches a note of her own: 「般若波羅蜜名菩薩所學道。」 tr. "Prajñāpāramitā is called the path in which bodhisattvas train." Next she recounts what she heard, reciting once more the great passage on merits with which Sadāprarudita answered her, and within it the four phrases 「此是菩薩所應學、菩薩所應作、菩薩所應住、菩薩所行道」 tr. "this is what a bodhisattva should train in, what a bodhisattva should do, what a bodhisattva should abide in, the path a bodhisattva practises" are more distinct than the time before. At the end she sets out the traces of her own mind: 「我聞是微妙不可思議諸佛功德，聞其大願，我心歡喜」 tr. "hearing these wondrous and inconceivable merits of the buddhas, and hearing his great vow, my mind was glad", and the thought that arose was a comparison in the manner of self-reproach—「今善男子為法能受苦行難事，所謂不惜身命；我多有妙寶，云何不生願，勤求如是法」 tr. "now this good man, for the sake of the Dharma, can bear austerities and hard things—namely, not sparing body and life; I have many fine precious things—how could I not arouse a mind of vowing, and diligently seek such a Dharma". He, without wealth, gives up his body; I, with wealth, am unwilling to make a vow—once this comparison arises, the mind of vowing is settled. The sūtra text uses a whole passage of retelling to write her account; it looks like repetition, but in fact it is a demonstration: a person truly moved by the Dharma will tell it to others from beginning to end; and her parents' permission is exactly what this passage of speech moved them to. Further, within it, Sadāprarudita is said to call her 「姊」 tr. "sister"—his only form of address to her in the whole passage, which appears twice within the retelling.

29. The girl asks her parents for permission, and to take the requisites of offering with her. 「父母今聽我并五百侍女先所給者」 tr. "father and mother, now do permit me and the five hundred attendant maidens—those you formerly gave me", and she further asks to take many fine flowers and incense, necklaces, perfumed ointment, powdered incense, clothing, banners and canopies, music, gold, silver, beryl, and requisites of offering with her, and what it is for is 「得如是等清淨微妙諸佛法故」 tr. "for the sake of obtaining such kinds of pure and wondrous dharmas of the buddhas". The previous passage set out the matter; this passage is the formal request; within the request she marks once more the target of what she seeks, so that her parents do not think it is only following someone on a distant journey.

30. Her parents answer the girl, give permission, and rejoice. Her parents first praise what she praises: 「汝所讚者，希有難及！」 tr. "What you praise is rare and hard to reach!" Next they state three reasons it is worthy of praise: 「是善男子為法精進，大樂法相」 tr. "this good man is vigorous for the sake of the Dharma, and greatly loves and delights in the substance and marks of the Dharma", 「是諸佛法不可思議，一切世間最為第一」 tr. "these dharmas of the buddhas are inconceivable, foremost in all the world", 「一切眾生歡喜因緣」 tr. "the cause and condition of the gladness of all beings". Next they permit her: 「我等聽汝往見曇無竭菩薩，親近供養。」 tr. "We permit you to go and see the bodhisattva Dharmodgata, to draw near to him and make offerings." At the end they close with rejoicing: 「汝發大心，為得諸佛法故如是精進，我等云何當不隨喜？」 tr. "You have aroused the great mind and are vigorous in this way for the sake of obtaining the dharmas of the buddhas—how could we not rejoice?" Lay parents who have never once seen Sadāprarudita, relying only on their daughter's account, grant five hundred attendant maidens and carriages full of precious things—the reach of the power of hearing the Dharma does not stop at the one person who hears.

31. The girl answers her parents: she will never cut off the causes and conditions of other people's wholesome dharmas. 「我等亦隨是心歡喜，我終不斷人善法因緣。」 tr. "We too rejoice in accord with this mind; I shall never cut off the causes and conditions of other people's wholesome dharmas." Her parents rejoice with her, and she in turn rejoices in her parents' mind; and the last sentence, 「終不斷人善法因緣」 tr. "never cut off the causes and conditions of other people's wholesome dharmas", is an oath she sets for herself out of this experience—she saw with her own eyes Māra screening people's ears and nearly cutting off a great good matter, and so she swears never to be one who cuts off other people's wholesome dharmas. All the girl's words in the passage arrive here at the setting up of the discipline of her whole life.

32. Five hundred carriages adorned, they go east, see the City of Many Fragrances, get down from the carriages, and go forward on foot. The travelling outfit now prepared: five hundred carriages of the seven jewels, all kinds of flowers born in water and on land, as well as gold, silver, jewelled flowers, jewelled garments of many colours, fine incense, pounded incense, scented ointment, necklaces, and all kinds of flavoured food and drink; as for the people, Sadāprarudita and the five hundred attendant maidens each ride in a carriage, 「恭敬圍繞，漸漸東去」 tr. "reverently surrounding him, they went little by little toward the east". The earlier going east was a solitary man weeping; this going east is five hundred carriages—the same 「東行」 tr. "going east", and the difference between before and after is precisely the reward of seeking the Dharma. Next it depicts the City of Many Fragrances: adorned with the seven jewels and encircled sevenfold, its moats of the seven jewels and rows of trees of the seven jewels also each sevenfold, the city twelve yojanas in length and breadth, 「豐樂安靜，甚可喜樂，人民熾盛」 tr. "rich and joyful, peaceful and quiet, exceedingly delightful, its people flourishing", its hundred thousand market wards 「街巷相當，端嚴如畫，橋津如地，寬博清淨」 tr. "their streets and lanes facing one another, upright and orderly as a painting; its bridges and fords level as the ground, broad and clean". Entering the city they see Dharmodgata 「坐高臺法座上，無量百千萬億眾恭敬圍繞說法」 tr. "seated on the Dharma seat of a high dais, reverently surrounded by an immeasurable assembly of hundreds of thousands of myriads of koṭi, teaching the Dharma". And when Sadāprarudita sees him, the sūtra text writes his mind with a simile: 「心即歡喜，譬如比丘入第三禪，攝心安隱」 tr. "his mind was at once glad, like a bhikṣu who has entered the third dhyāna, his mind gathered and at peace". It is not wild joy; it is the happiness of the third dhyāna—at peace and unmoving. Beneath the gladness a thought at once arises: 「我等儀不應載車趣曇無竭菩薩。」 tr. "By our rule of conduct, we should not go to the bodhisattva Dharmodgata riding in carriages." So he gets down from his carriage and goes forward on foot, and the elder's daughter and the five hundred attendant maidens also all get down from their carriages. Having been able to see the person he sought, what he thinks of first is the rule of conduct—this getting down from the carriage shows more reverence than the offering of five hundred carriages.

33. The dais of the seven jewels and the prajñā written on tablets of gold. Dharmodgata's dais: adorned with red ox-head sandalwood, a net of pearls covering its top, maṇi jewels hung at its four corners as lamps, censers of four jewels always burning famous incense—and the sūtra text specially marks what it is for: 「為供養般若波羅蜜故。」 tr. "For the sake of making offerings to prajñāpāramitā." In the dais there is a great couch of the seven jewels with a small couch of four jewels laid in layers upon it, 「以黃金牒書《般若波羅蜜》，置小床上」 tr. "the Prajñāpāramitā written on tablets of gold and placed on the small couch", with all kinds of banners and canopies adorning it, hanging down over it. This dais is not a seat for teaching the Dharma; it is a place for making offerings to a sūtra; a great teacher who is a bodhisattva makes offerings to a sūtra with such a dais—this is the very first lesson he gives Sadāprarudita: the Dharma teacher himself also makes offerings to the Dharma.

34. Seeing Śakra and the gods scattering flowers to delight the dais, he asks the cause and condition. What he sees is Śakra Devānām Indra with immeasurable hundreds of thousands of myriads of gods 「以天曼陀羅花、碎末栴檀、磨眾寶屑以散臺上，鼓天伎樂於虛空中娛樂此臺」 tr. "scattering heavenly māndārava flowers, powdered sandalwood, and ground jewel-dust upon the dais, and playing heavenly music in the sky to delight this dais". Sadāprarudita at once asks: 「憍尸迦！何因緣故……娛樂此臺？」 tr. "Kauśika! For what cause and condition … delight this dais?" When he met Śakra the time before, Śakra was the tester transformed into a brahmin; meeting this time before the Dharma dais, he addresses him straightaway as 「憍尸迦」 tr. "Kauśika" and asks where the Dharma is—one test and one question, two turns of affinity.

35. Śakra answers that this is the Mahāprajñāpāramitā, the mother of the bodhisattvas. 「此是《摩訶般若波羅蜜》，是諸菩薩摩訶薩母，能生諸佛、攝持菩薩。」 tr. "This is the Mahāprajñāpāramitā, the mother of the bodhisattva-mahāsattvas, which can give birth to the buddhas and holds and sustains bodhisattvas." The meaning of ‘mother’ is twofold: able to give birth, and able to hold and sustain—it gives birth to them, so the buddhas come forth from it; it sustains them, so the bodhisattvas rely on it to stand. Next it brings out its effect: 「菩薩學是般若波羅蜜，成就一切功德，得諸佛法、一切種智。」 tr. "Bodhisattvas who train in this prajñāpāramitā accomplish all merits and obtain the dharmas of the buddhas and the omniscience of all kinds." The prajñā he had sought along the whole road—only here does someone tell him plainly what it is; and the one who tells him is not Dharmodgata but the lord of the heavens; the preciousness of the Dharma is known in the heavens too.

36. He asks where prajñā now is. Having heard the passage on 「諸菩薩摩訶薩母」 tr. "the mother of the bodhisattva-mahāsattvas", he at once recites Śakra's words back without changing a word, and at the end adds only one question: 「今在何處？」 tr. "Where is it now?"—not debating its meaning, not praising its excellence, only asking where it is. Coming along the whole road, what he wanted was always that one thing itself.

37. Śakra answers that it is sealed with a seal of the seven jewels and cannot be opened. Prajñā is right in this dais, in the golden tablets on the great couch of the seven jewels and the small couch of four jewels; and yet 「曇無竭菩薩以七寶印印之，我等不能得開以示汝」 tr. "the bodhisattva Dharmodgata has sealed it with a seal of the seven jewels; we cannot open it to show you". Close before his eyes and yet not to be opened—at this point in seeking the Dharma another pass is set up. And the key to this pass is not with the lord of the heavens but with Dharmodgata; the sūtra text thereby of itself pushes him toward the Dharma teacher. The Dharma sought and the person one should draw near to here become one.

38. The requisites of offering are divided into two portions. 「華香、瓔珞、幡蓋分作二分：一分供養《般若波羅蜜》，一分供養法座上曇無竭菩薩。」 tr. "Flowers and incense, necklaces, banners and canopies were divided into two portions: one portion as an offering to the Prajñāpāramitā, one portion as an offering to the bodhisattva Dharmodgata on the Dharma seat." The Dharma and the person are offered to together, neither neglected: to make offerings only to the person makes the Dharma light; to make offerings only to the Dharma is not to know where the Dharma comes from. This dividing is exactly the making real of the two sentences the buddhas taught, 「於是佛法中，倍應恭敬」 tr. "toward this Buddha-Dharma you should redouble your reverence" and 「於善知識中，應生如佛想」 tr. "toward the good friend you should give rise to the notion of a Buddha".

39. They make offerings to Dharmodgata, and the flowers and incense transform into a dais, a tent, a canopy, and banners; the five hundred women all arouse the mind of awakening. Having first made offerings to prajñā, 「然後到曇無竭菩薩所」 tr. "then they went to the bodhisattva Dharmodgata"; seeing him seated on the Dharma seat, they scatter flowers and incense, necklaces, pounded incense, scented ointment, gold, silver, jewelled flowers, banners and canopies, and jewelled garments upon his body, 「為法故供養」 tr. "making offerings for the sake of the Dharma". And the things scattered do not fall to the ground: the flowers and incense and jewelled garments 「於曇無竭菩薩上虛空中化成華臺」 tr. "in the sky above the bodhisattva Dharmodgata transformed into a flower dais", the powdered sandalwood, jewel-dust, gold, silver, and jewelled flowers 「化成寶帳」 tr. "transformed into a jewelled tent", the jewelled garments scattered above the jewelled tent 「化為寶蓋」 tr. "transformed into a jewelled canopy", and from the four sides of the jewelled canopy 「垂諸寶幡」 tr. "hung all kinds of jewelled banners". All who saw it were greatly glad and thought: 「未曾有也！曇無竭大師神德乃爾！行菩薩道時，神通力尚能如是，何況得阿耨多羅三藐三菩提時！」 tr. "Never before has there been such a thing! The divine virtue of the great teacher Dharmodgata reaches even to this! While he practises the bodhisattva path his supernormal power can be like this—how much more when he obtains anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi!" The one phrase 「何況」 tr. "how much more" leads what is seen before the eyes toward the fruit not yet seen—this is the road by which faith arises from a matter. So the elder's daughter and the five hundred women 「清淨信心敬重曇無竭菩薩，皆發阿耨多羅三藐三菩提心」 tr. "revering the bodhisattva Dharmodgata with pure faith, all aroused the mind of anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi". And the vow they make takes Dharmodgata as its pattern in every phrase: as he has obtained the bodhisattva's many deep dharmas, as he makes offerings to prajñāpāramitā, as he in the great assembly expounds and reveals the meaning of prajñāpāramitā, as he has obtained prajñāpāramitā and the power of skilful means, accomplished the supernormal powers, and attained mastery in the affairs of a bodhisattva—「我等亦當如是」 tr. "so too should we be". The four occurrences of the Chinese character 「如」 tr. "as" are the four matters they saw: understanding, offering, teaching, and using. When the arousing of the mind has a concrete person to emulate, the vow does not fall into emptiness.

40. Bowing with head and face at his feet, standing to one side, he speaks. The offerings finished, 「頭面禮曇無竭菩薩，合掌恭敬，一面立。一面立已，白曇無竭菩薩言」 tr. "they bowed with head and face to the bodhisattva Dharmodgata, joined their palms in reverence, and stood to one side. Having stood to one side, he addressed the bodhisattva Dharmodgata, saying". The sūtra text, untiring, writes 「一面立」 tr. "stood to one side" over again, precisely so that one looks at the order of this courtesy: bowing at the feet, joining the palms, standing settled, and only then opening the mouth. The courtesy of seeking the Dharma fully done, what is asked is then weighty.

41. He sets out the whole course of his seeking of the Dharma—the voice in the sky, the seven days of weeping, the appearing of the Buddha's body, the journey east, the samādhis, the buddhas comforting him and vanishing. He tells the events of the previous two units over again to Dharmodgata: in a secluded forest he heard the voice in the sky teach him to go east; not long after going east he regretted not having asked 「我當何處去？去是遠近？當從誰聞？」 tr. "Where should I go? Is the place I am going far or near? From whom should I hear it?"; whereupon he greatly sorrowed and wept, 「於是處住七日七夜」 tr. "and stayed in that place seven days and seven nights", and because of his sorrow did not even think of food and drink, but only thought 「我何時當得聞般若波羅蜜？」 tr. "When shall I be able to hear prajñāpāramitā?"; thinking of prajñā with one mind, he saw the Buddha's body in the sky, which taught him 「大欲、大精進心莫放捨」 tr. "do not let go of your mind of great desire and great vigour", pointed out to him his destination, the City of Many Fragrances five hundred yojanas away, and the person, named Dharmodgata, and further said 「是菩薩世世是汝善知識，常守護汝」 tr. "this bodhisattva has life after life been your good friend and always protects you"; having received the teaching, he went east, with no other thought; halfway along he stopped and 「於一切法中得無礙知見、得觀諸法性等諸三昧現在前」 tr. "obtained unobstructed knowledge and vision within all dharmas, and the samādhi of contemplating the nature of dharmas and all kinds of other samādhis appeared before him", and dwelling in these samādhis he saw immeasurable asaṃkhyeya buddhas of the ten directions proclaiming prajñā; the buddhas praised what he had obtained as being like their own of old, widely taught the essentials of the Dharma, and having comforted him, suddenly vanished; arising from samādhi he gave rise to the doubt 「諸佛從何處來？去至何所？」 tr. "From where do the buddhas come? Where do they go?", greatly sorrowed, and then thought of Dharmodgata, 「是我善知識，守護我」 tr. "he is my good friend and protects me", and that he should ask him about this matter. This retelling and the text of the previous two units are the inside and outside of each other—there the sūtra text narrates from outside; here the person concerned tells it himself from the beginning. And reading the two against each other, what most deserves attention is what he chooses and leaves out in telling it himself: of the glory of seeing the buddhas in samādhi he says little; of the straits of weeping for seven days he hides nothing; all that he records along the road is ‘how I went from not knowing to knowing’. One who seeks the Dharma, telling his own story, does not make a ledger of merits; he makes a record of the journey.

42. He asks directly the place from which the buddhas come and the place to which they go—having known it, never to part from seeing the buddhas. At the end he asks directly: 「我今問大師」 tr. "Now I ask the great teacher", and what he asks is 「是諸佛何處來、去至何處？」 tr. "From where do these buddhas come, and where do they go?" And why he needs to know, the sūtra text itself brings out: 「當為我說諸佛所從來、所至處，令我得知；知已，亦常不離見諸佛！」 tr. "Please proclaim to me the place from which the buddhas come and the place to which they go, so that I may come to know it; and having known it, may I too never part from seeing the buddhas!"—to ask about coming and going is not to satisfy a bout of curiosity but to obtain a 「常不離見」 tr. "never parting from seeing". Seeing the buddhas within samādhi and losing them on coming out of concentration is because what is seen is tied to the concentration; if one knows the real mark of the buddhas' coming and going, the seeing is not tied to concentration, and therefore it is said ‘never parting from seeing’. This question is both the conclusion of his austerities along the whole road and the closing gate of the doctrine of the whole chapter—and the answer comes after it; this unit lays down its brush here. The sūtra text ends with a question, and the reader too should carry this question as he goes on.

Do Not Misread

Do not read 「不見有法出三昧、入三昧者」 tr. "they do not see any dharma that emerges from samādhi or enters samādhi" as saying that samādhi is useless. The place where the buddhas speak this sentence is exactly after they themselves 「得是諸三昧，善入般若波羅蜜，成就方便力，住阿鞞跋致地」 tr. "obtained these samādhis, were well able to enter prajñāpāramitā, accomplished the power of skilful means, and dwelt on the ground of avaivartika"; what is broken is the grasping at the mark of samādhi, not samādhi itself. To obtain and not grasp, and not to obtain, are two different things.

Do not take 「倍應恭敬愛念」 tr. "you should redouble your reverence and love" and 「不念有是諸法」 tr. "not thinking that these dharmas exist" as two sets of teaching and choose one. The sūtra text puts them in the same speech, with no words of turning between them. Not thinking is not grasping at marks toward dharmas; reverence is not forgetting kindness toward conditions. To take ‘since everything is empty, why make offerings?’ as penetration is exactly the misreading this passage most guards against.

Do not read the selling of the body as the sūtra text urging people to destroy the body. The sūtra text writes of his cutting himself, and also writes of the elder's daughter's 「莫自困苦其身」 tr. "do not afflict your own body", of Śakra's 「我實不用人心、血、髓，但來相試」 tr. "I in fact have no need of a human heart, blood, or marrow; I came only to test you", and of his body being 「即平復，無有瘡瘢」 tr. "at once restored, without sore or scar". Looking at the three places together, one can know that what is prized is that one thought of not sparing, not that one stroke of the knife. To take this passage as proof of austerities and imitate the deed is to take its traces and lose its mind.

Do not read evil Māra's screening as an outer force being able to cut off a person's roots of goodness. What Māra can do is only 「隱蔽諸婆羅門、居士，令不聞其自賣聲」 tr. "to screen the brahmins and householders, so that they did not hear the sound of his selling himself"—it obstructs his conditions; it cannot obstruct his aim; and moreover 「除一長者女，魔不能蔽」 tr. "only an elder's daughter Māra could not screen". Hindrance can make the matter slow; it cannot make the mind retreat; and if the mind does not retreat, the conditions in the end come of themselves.

Do not read the refusal of 「與我阿耨多羅三藐三菩提」 tr. "give me anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi" as the lord of the heavens being stingy. Śakra himself says 「此非我力所辦，是諸佛境界」 tr. "this is not something my power can accomplish; this is the domain of the buddhas", and still keeps his promise, saying 「必相供養，更索餘願」 tr. "since I must make you an offering, ask for another wish". What is distinguished here is the reach of power, not the willingness or unwillingness of the mind—awakening is from the first not obtained from another's hand, and this refusal is, on the contrary, true speech.

Do not read the elder's daughter's long account as repetition in the sūtra text. Before, it was the narrator speaking; this time, it is she telling it to parents who did not see the matter; precisely because she tells it from beginning to end, her parents permit the five hundred attendant maidens and carriages full of precious things to go along. The fullness of the retelling is the reality of her arousing of the mind, and is also the gate by which this family enters into an affinity with the Dharma.

Do not read the final question as having already obtained its answer. This unit stops at the place of the question; the answer comes after it. The sūtra text closes its brush with a question so that the reader first asks this question in earnest—from where do the buddhas come, and where do they go; if one has no such doubt in one's own mind, the answer in the later text will be only a passage of words.

Bearing on Practice

Use 「不念有是諸法」 tr. "not thinking that these dharmas exist" to check where one's own practice has gained strength. Whenever one's practice has a little attainment, a little accord, first take this sentence of the buddhas and shine it on oneself: can the dharma obtained be thought of or not? Who is it that emerges and enters? If, as soon as there is something obtained, one wants to hold on to it, wants to tell people, wants to use it to prove something, that thought is grasping at marks. Only when one obtains and can not think of it does the attainment become provisions for the path.

Use 「於善知識中，應生如佛想」 tr. "toward the good friend you should give rise to the notion of a Buddha" to set the measure of drawing near. Giving rise to the notion of a Buddha is not worshipping a person as a Buddha; it is giving rise, toward the Dharma he transmits, to the notion of the Buddha-Dharma, and toward the kindness of his protection, to the notion that it is hard to repay. The words of weighing say that offerings exhausting the three-thousand world 「未能報須臾之恩」 tr. "still could not repay his kindness of a single moment", exactly to guard against the mind of ‘I have already made enough offerings’. Make offerings as before; do not hold the notion that repaying kindness is finished.

Use Sadāprarudita's account to cut off the thought of sparing the body. When one wants to apply effort and the body fears hardship and the matter fears difficulty, take up his counting of himself in this passage: this body has from beginningless time been lost countless times to death, to sale, to desire—when has it ever once been lost to the Dharma? There is no need to imitate his cutting his body; one need only recognise this account—a share of strength used on the Dharma is, among those countless times, the first time it is used in its proper place.

Use 「除一長者女，魔不能蔽」 tr. "only an elder's daughter Māra could not screen" to hold a mind that does not retreat. When one sets out to do a Dharma matter and it fails at every turn and no one responds, remember that what one meets is mostly obstructing conditions and not severing conditions: conditions can be screened; the aim cannot be screened; and within the screening one thread is always left. When it does not succeed, do not change one's cry; when one has cried long, a hearer of itself comes down from the upper storey.

Use the elder's daughter's two questions to learn to be one who hears the Dharma. Her first question asked about the cause and condition, her second about the merit and benefit—and through this a whole passage of Buddha-Dharma was drawn out, and the arousing of the mind by five hundred people was drawn out too. Hearing the Dharma is not sitting quietly and enjoying it; asking well is itself helping the Dharma. When one meets a person and a matter worth asking about, be willing to come down from the upper storey and willing to open one's mouth, and the Dharma comes out from there.

Use 「分作二分」 tr. "divided into two portions" to hold the twofold reverence for the Dharma and the person. In training, one either leans toward the scrolls of the sūtra and makes light of the person who teaches the Dharma, or leans toward the teacher and is remote from the teaching of the sūtras. Take this section as a constant lesson: the requisites of offering divided into two portions, one portion to the Dharma, one portion to the person; when reading the sūtra think of the person who transmits the Dharma; when drawing near to the teacher think of the Dharma transmitted; neglect neither.

Use the final question to nurture one's own doubt. What is most to be feared in seeking the path is to have no doubt; next most is to have doubt and make up one's own explanation. Not seeing the buddhas, he gave rise to doubt; doubting, he did not explain it for himself and did not retreat, but only kept in mind that he must go and ask the good friend—this is the right use of doubt. If in one's mind there is a true question one cannot answer oneself, there is no need to hurry to smooth it over; holding it and seeking is exactly the place of practice.

Further Resonances

This unit is sūtra from end to end, with no treatise explanation following it; the treatise-author's explanation lies in the next unit, and all the sections narrated in this passage—the deeds of Māra and his transformations, the selling of the heart and the buying of the heart, the elder's daughter's arousing of the mind, the deep clinging to the mark of the Buddha—are brought out there one by one in question and answer, and are not anticipated here. As to the momentum of the sūtra text itself, the whole passage starts from the buddhas' comforting, passes through the arising of doubt, the selling of the body, the meeting with the test, the obtaining of wealth, the journey east, and the offerings, and stops at the one question 「是諸佛何處來、去至何處」 tr. "from where do these buddhas come, and where do they go"—the question already set up and the answer not yet come forth; so the end of this unit is not the completion of a passage but the opening of the latter half of the whole chapter. And the answer to this question is not exhausted within this chapter; Dharmodgata's direct answer to the meaning of coming and going lies in the chapters following this one, and the reader should look at them together before seeing head and tail.

Of the explanations of the ancient masters, one school can be recorded for this passage. Jizang, in Jizang's Commentary on the Larger Sūtra, divides the sūtra text from here on into sections, making the place where, not seeing the buddhas, he gives rise to doubt the second major section, saying: 「見諸佛下，大段第二、更勸尋善友求般若也。」 tr. "From ‘seeing the buddhas’ onward is the second major section: he is further urged to seek out the good friend and seek prajñā." Below this he marks a heading for each section: 「復作是念下，第二、賣身供養。」 tr. "From ‘again he had this thought’ onward is the second: selling his body to make offerings." 「時有長者女下，第三、值善友得財物也。」 tr. "From ‘at that time there was an elder's daughter’ onward is the third: meeting a good friend and obtaining wealth." 「是時長者女下，第四、正法香城，為法尋善友也。」 tr. "From ‘at this time the elder's daughter’ onward is the fourth: the Fragrant City of the true Dharma—seeking out the good friend for the sake of the Dharma." 「既入城下，第五、到所至處。」 tr. "From ‘having entered the city’ onward is the fifth: arriving at the place he was going to." 「因曇無竭言下，第六、自護求法請決疑也。」 tr. "From ‘because of Dharmodgata's words’ onward is the sixth: guarding himself in seeking the Dharma, and requesting the resolution of his doubt." This agrees with the sequence of the sūtra text in this treatise and can be consulted alongside it. His explanation of why the requisites of offering had to be prepared brings out three meanings, saying: 「一、為他人見其遠來，空無有物，則不生喜心，故須供養具；二者、欲引導眾人，其是貧窮，尚辦供養等，云何而不行耶？二者、欲明般若，檀為其初。」 tr. "First, because when others see him come from afar empty-handed with nothing at all, they do not give rise to a joyful mind, so requisites of offering are needed; second, he wishes to guide the many—he is poor and still provides offerings and so on, so how could they not practise? Second, he wishes to make clear that of prajñā, dāna is the beginning." [Note: its text itself has 「二者」 tr. "second" repeated; it is recorded as it is, without change.] Further, he sets a question and answer himself to explain his poverty: 「問：常啼得六萬三昧，見十方佛，何故貧耶？答：其人雖有見佛之緣，過去復少罪，生貧窮家，故無財物；二者、雖生富家，去家遠，在深山學道，故不取財物也。」 tr. "Question: Ever Weeping obtained sixty thousand samādhis and saw the buddhas of the ten directions; why was he poor? Answer: although that person had the conditions for seeing the Buddha, in the past he also had a small offence, and was born into a poor household, so he had no wealth; second, although he was born into a rich household, he was far from home, training in the path in the deep mountains, so he did not take wealth." His explanation of what Māra did says: 「問：魔何故不煞常啼而惱亂之耶？答：魔不減其壽命，但破其求佛心也。」 tr. "Question: why did Māra not kill Ever Weeping but harass him instead? Answer: Māra does not reduce his lifespan; he only breaks his mind of seeking buddhahood." He further explains why Māra did not come before but comes now, saying: 「爾時未得諸三昧，未能決定忘身，故不能動魔」 tr. "at that time he had not yet obtained the samādhis and could not yet decisively forget his body, so he could not move Māra", and closes it with 「將出魔境，將入道門，故魔來也」 tr. "he was about to leave Māra's domain and about to enter the gate of the path, so Māra came". His explanation of why the elder's daughter alone heard the sound of his selling himself lists three explanations: 「一解：是人不死因緣故其得聞。二解：是法尚神力今其得取。三云：與常啼宿世善友，善根既深魔不能弊也。」 tr. "One explanation: this person had the causes and conditions of not dying, so she got to hear. A second explanation: it was Dharma-Esteeming's supernormal power that now let her obtain it. The third says: she had been Ever Weeping's good friend in past lives; her roots of goodness being deep, Māra could not obstruct her."—「法尚」 tr. "Dharma-Esteeming" is the one this treatise calls Dharmodgata, a variant-translation name within one line of the sūtra text. He further explains why Śakra, already knowing his mind, still came to test him, saying: 「天主但知世人心，世人以作佛必非其知」 tr. "the lord of the gods knows only the minds of worldly people; that a worldly person would become a Buddha is surely beyond his knowing", and brings out a second explanation, saying: 「雖知其心，為欲發起眾人示希有事故誡也。」 tr. "Though he knew his mind, it was in order to rouse the many and show them a rare matter that he admonished him." On the meaning of the prajñā written on tablets of gold, he first cites the treatise's explanation, saying: 「善根深人者，從曇無竭聞般若；善根淺者，從經卷中，故有金牒書般若也。」 tr. "People whose roots of goodness are deep hear prajñā from Dharmodgata; those whose roots of goodness are shallow, from the scrolls of the sūtra; therefore there is the prajñā written on tablets of gold." And on the meaning of the seal of the seven jewels he lists two explanations, one taking the seal to be in Dharmodgata's hand, the other taking it that 「是求佛道七大神王，如金剛神之類，守護金牒，不令魔等，改汎其文，故言七印也」 tr. "these are seven great spirit-kings who seek the Buddha path, of the kind of the vajra spirits, guarding the golden tablets so that Māra and the like do not alter its text; therefore it speaks of seven seals". Of these explanations, some take a meaning close to what this treatise says, and some are not found in this treatise; all are the explanations of one school, recorded side by side without judgement. The extant portion of Huiying's Commentary stops at the earlier part of this treatise and does not reach this chapter; there is no explanatory text of his to cite for this passage, and the gap is marked according to the facts, not filled with text from elsewhere; Junzheng's book is not in the form of a chapter-by-chapter sectional commentary and has nothing touching this chapter. The variant titles in the various editions bearing on the chapter of this passage, and matters of collation, are detailed in the apparatus layer.