“Go south, son, to the Dravidian city Vajrapura. There lives a grammarian named Megha. Go to him and ask him how an enlightening being is to learn and practice the conduct of enlightening beings.”
Then Sudhana again paid his respects to the monk Supratishthita and left.
Megha
Then Sudhana, mindful of the light of the Teaching, steeped in intensity of faith in the Teaching, his attention focused on thoughts of Buddha, intent on perpetuating the lineage of the three treasures, remembering spiritual friends, his mind having illumined the worlds of past, present, and future, thinking of great vows, striving for the salvation of all beings, his mind unattached to enjoyment of any created things, praising the tradition of dispassion, intent upon contemplation of the instrinsic essence of all things, firm in the commitment to purify all worlds, sojourning without attachment in the congregations of all buddhas, gradually approached the Dravidian city Vajrapura, looking for the grammarian Megha.
He saw Megha at a crossroads in the middle of the city, sitting on a lion seat to talk about the Teaching, elucidating a scripture called Manifestation of Turning of the Wheel of Letters. Sudhana went up to him, paid his respects, and said, “Noble one, I have set my mind on supreme perfect enlightenment, but I do not know how an enlightening being is to learn and carry out the practice of enlightening beings. How is an enlightening being to preserve the determination for enlightenment? How does one develop a will that is firm in all states of existence and is indefatigable? How does one purify one’s intent, in accord with invincibility? How is the power of great compassion produced so that it never flags? How does one acquire mental command that is totally purified? How is the light of wisdom produced, light free from obscurity in regard to meaning, principle, expression, and presence of mind? How does one acquire the power of recollection, keeping in mind the teachings of all buddhas without confusion? How is the power of migration purified, illumining all states of existence with the truth? How is an enlightening being’s power of concentration perfected, intent on the ascertainment and discernment of the meanings of all principles?”
Now Megha, out of respect for an enlightening being, got off his seat and prostrated himself before Sudhana, then showered Sudhana with golden flowers, precious jewels, and the finest sandalwood powders, covered him with hundreds of thousands of robes dyed in various colors, showered him with beautiful flowers of many various colors with pleasant scents, and honored him with various other offerings, then said to him, “It is good that you have set your mind on supreme perfect enlightenment; one who arouses the determination for supreme perfect enlightenment becomes engaged in the perpetuation of the lineage of buddhas, intent on correctly communicating the tradition of dispassion, engaged in purifying the family of all lands, directed toward guiding the family of all sentient beings to perfection, engaged in properly accomplishing all the teachings and transcending all things, intent on harmony of all actions, engaged in the fulfillment of all practices of enlightening beings, directed toward preserving the continuity of all religious vows, engaged in following knowledge of all times, active in making devotion steadfast, the focus of attention of all buddhas, near to equality with all buddhas, appreciated by all enlightening beings, praised by all sages, honored by all the chief Brahmas, protected by all the chief gods, respected, welcomed, and praised by the chiefs of the various supernatural beings, sought out by all world rulers; one becomes very well suited for putting an end to the three kinds of bad conditions in all worlds, getting rid of all difficult conditions inopportune for attaining enlightenment, getting beyond all states of destitution, attaining birth in celestial or human states, always seeing spiritual benefactors, consistently listening to the lofty buddha-teaching, purifying the will for enlightenment, cultivating the cause of the thought of enlightenment, gaining the illumination of the path of enlightening beings, following the knowledge of enlightening beings, and dwelling in the stages of enlightening beings.
“This is what I think of such a one: enlightening beings do what is difficult to do; it is hard to get to actually see them; they are comforts to the world; enlightening beings are the mothers and fathers of all sentient beings; enlightening beings are an adornment to the world with its gods; enlightening beings are a refuge for those oppressed by suffering; enlightening beings are a place of rest for the protection of all sentient beings; enlightening beings are the breath of life to those suffering all kinds of terrors and calamities; enlightening beings are a wind protecting all sentient beings from the heat of the three evils; enlightening beings are earth, causing the roots of goodness of all sentient beings to grow; enlightening beings are an ocean, a repository of endless treasures of virtue; enlightening beings are a sun, producing the light of knowledge; enlightening beings are the polar mountain, by virtue of the height of their roots of goodness; enlightening beings are a moon, the moon of knowledge of the essence of enlightenment having risen in them; enlightening beings are warriors crushing the armies of all demons; enlightening beings are heroic, having reached the city of the state of independence; enlightening beings are fire, annihilating the self-love of all sentient beings; enlightening beings are clouds, causing vast clouds of true teaching to shower; enlightening beings are rain, causing the sprouts of faculties such as faith to grow; enlightening beings are navigators, showing the way on the ocean of truth; enlightening beings are bridges conveying all sentient beings across the sea of mundane life; enlightening beings are a pathway to the holy for all sentient beings.”
Thus praising enlightening beings to Sudhana in such terms, Megha applauded Sudhana. While he was saying these words pleasing to enlightening beings, there issued from his mouth a mass of flames that made a thousand worlds clearly visible; and all the sentient beings who perceived that light came to Megha, illumined by the light; to them, their attention commanded by Megha, their hands held forth in respectful supplication, their bodies and minds cooled, enraptured, inspired with reverence, divested of conceit, freed from deception, senses tranquil, Megha expounded and conveyed the teaching of the manifestation of the turning of the wheel of letters, upon hearing which they became irreversible in their progress toward supreme perfect enlightenment.
Megha sat back down on the seat of teaching and said to Sudhana, “I have attained the light of the spell of eloquence: I know the speech of all kinds of beings in a billion-world universe; I know the variety of speech of each kind of being; I know the unity of speech of each kind of being; I know the mixture of speech of each kind of being; I know the terms, speech, and concepts of all creatures; I know the ideas of all sages; I know the ideas of all ignoble people; I know the speech of enlightening beings, expressed according to the mentalities and languages of sentient beings; I enter into and focus on the oceans of utterances addressed to all sentient beings by the buddhas of past, present, and future. As in this billion-world universe in each moment of thought I enter into the oceans of all terms, expressions, speech, and concepts of sentient beings, I do the same in untold worlds in each of the ten directions.
“I know this light of the spell of eloquence of enlightening beings, but how can I know the practice or tell the virtues of the enlightening beings who have entered the ocean of what is in various conceptions, who have entered the ocean of the various conceptions and languages of all people, who have entered the ocean of the various conventions of verbal designation used by all people, who have entered the ocean of logical connections of all statements, who have entered the ocean of literalism, who have entered the ocean of designation of all objects of past, present, and future in one object, who have entered the ocean of teaching which is beyond verbal expression, who have entered the ocean of the teaching of the Buddha, who have entered the ocean of explanations of distinct types of statements, who have entered the ocean of explanation guiding the analysis of statements of all truths, who have entered the ocean of speech of all beings, who have gone into the pure arrays of all spheres of sound, who are conversant with the ultimate di
stinctions of the wheel of phonemes?
“Go, son—there is a country south of here called Vanavasin, where there lives a distinguished man named Muktaka. Go ask him how an enlightening being is to undertake the practice of enlightening beings and become familiar with it, and how the mind is to be observed.”
Then Sudhana, having bowed to Megha and paid respect to the teaching, describing the faith rooted in him, observing that all-knowledge comes from following good spiritual benefactors, reluctantly took his leave and went on.
Muktaka
Then Sudhana, reflecting on that array of light of the spell of eloquence of enlightening beings, plunging into that enlightening beings’ ocean of principles of speech, remembering that enlightening beings’ mental purification, undertaking that enlightening beings’ production of inclination to goodness, clarifying that enlightening beings’ method of perfecting sentient beings, purifying that enlightening beings’ knowledge of how to take care of sentient beings, making firm that enlightening beings’ purity of willpower, establishing that enlightening beings’ power of supreme resolve, clarifying that body of interest of enlightening beings, producing that goodness of intent and thought of enlightening beings, evoking that effort of enlightening beings, equipped with a mind of firm commitment and tireless consistency, with unrelenting energy and determination, imbued with unshakable power of faith, with an indestructible mind, follower of the instructions of all spiritual benefactors, with the perspective of sane knowledge, on the verge of all-sided purity, coursing in the purity of unobstructed knowledge, imbued with the light of the principle of the universal eye, illumined by the mystic formulations of all stages of enlightenment, his mind directed to the differentiations of the planes of the cosmos, aware of the pure essence of forms unfixed anywhere, intent on the sphere of absolute unity with no attachment, having purified the medium of powerful knowledge of all ideas, having broken through the boundaries of all spaces, progressively distinguishing the realms of worldly planes, progressively distinguishing the realms of planes of reality, intent on the manifestation of the vision of the varieties of abodes of Buddha, knowing about the distinctions of realms of time, his intellect bearing the radiant wheel of the teaching, his mind illumined by the light of the treasury of concentration of universally radiant knowledge, mentally and physically according with the stage of universal perspective, his mind illumined by the lightning of knowledge of those who realize Thusness, realizing the exaltation of faith in omniscience, never without the exaltation of faith in the buddha-teaching, filled with the exaltation of the empowerment of Buddha, illumined by the inherent mental light of all buddhas, hearing the vow to penetrate all networks of worlds with his own body, intent on putting all universes at once into his own body, made his way gradually to the country Vanavasin, arriving there after twelve years.
He looked for the noble Muktaka, saw him, paid his respects, and said, “Noble one, I have made gains, having met the spiritual benefactor Megha. Why do I say this? Spiritual benefactors are hard to get to see, hard to get to encounter, hard to visit, hard to attend, hard to approach, hard to stay with, hard to be perfected by, hard to associate with. But I have met the spiritual benefactor Megha. Noble one, I have set my mind on supreme perfect enlightenment, to attend all buddhas, to be on good terms with all buddhas, to see all buddhas, to know all buddhas, to approach equality with all buddhas, to follow the vows of all buddhas, to fulfill the vows of all buddhas, to view the knowledge attained by all buddhas, to produce all buddhas in my own body, to accomplish the realization of all buddhas in my own practice, to directly know the mystical transformations of all buddhas, to purify the powers and confidences of all buddhas, to hear all true teachings tirelessly, to listen to and take up the teachings of all buddhas, to hold the teachings of all buddhas, to distinguish the teachings of all buddhas, to preserve the instructions of all buddhas, to be one being with all buddhas, to be equal to all enlightening beings, to purify the practice of all enlightening beings, to fulfill the transcendent ways of enlightening beings, to purify the accomplishment of the vows of all enlightening beings, to attain all enlightening beings’ store of mystical power of buddhas, to be illumined by the endless knowledge of the treasury of truths of all enlightening beings, to approach the treasury of enlightening beings, to produce the infinite treasury of enlightening beings, to realize the ultimate consummation of guidance of sentient beings with the treasury of great compassion of all enlightening beings, to know the treasury of spiritual transformations of all enlightening beings, to command in my own body the treasury of powers of all enlightening beings, to be fully arrayed with the treasury of purities of all enlightening beings.
“Noble one, I have come in such a spirit, with such desires, such wishes, such intentions, such thoughts uppermost in my mind, aiming for such a realm, determined to follow such principles, intent on such purity, seeking such adornments, with such a humble mind, applied to such good, my faculties oriented in this way. Noble one, I hear you give instructions to enlightening beings, explain principle and clarify procedure, explain the Path, take them across the bridge, open the door of the Teaching, cut off doubts, dispel craving, pull out the arrow of confusion, clear away the grime of uncertainty, light up the obscurity in the mind, remove defilement from the mind, calm the mental flow, remove deviousness from the mind, cool the fever of the mind, foster nonattachment, turn back the mind revolving in the mundane whirl, turn enlightening beings away from evil, separate them from hells, free them from attachments, direct them toward omniscience, lead them into the city of truth, establish them in great compassion, settle them in great kindness, introduce them into the practice of enlightening beings, cause them to enter into the development of ways of concentration, establish them in means of realization, fill them with contemplation of inherent nature, and explain mind according to power for the sake of attainment of equanimity toward all beings. Noble one, please tell me how an enlightening being is to learn, commence, and carry out the practice of enlightening beings, and how one so engaged can quickly purify the sphere of practice of enlightening beings.”
At that juncture Muktaka entered an enlightening concentration medium called “collection of all buddha-fields,” led by a mystic formula of endless progression, accomplishing entry into this concentration by the power of his past roots of goodness, by the empowerment of the Buddha, and by Manjushri’s attention and gift of the light of knowledge. As soon as Muktaka had entered that state, his body became pure, and by that purity of body as many buddhas in the ten directions as atoms in ten buddha-lands were visible within his body, along with the adornments of their pure lands, their congregations, their pure lights, their past actions and abodes, their mystical projections, their vows, their pure arrays of liberative practices, their manifestations of attainment of perfect enlightenment, their turnings of the wheel of teaching, their developments of sentient beings, and the ultimate consummation of their teaching. All these were visible within Muktaka’s body without mutual confusion, without mutual obstruction, clearly distinct, showing the various individual ages accurately defined, the various arrays of the buddha-lands, the various adornments of the congregations of enlightening beings, and the various miracles of the buddhas. Some buddhas were seen to be in the heaven of happiness in a world setting forth various means of liberation and illumining various undertakings; some were seen descending from the heaven of happiness doing the duty of buddhas; some were seen in the womb of the mother displaying various miracles; some were seen being born and showing a child’s play; some were seen at home, some leaving home, some gone to the summit of enlightenment defeating the army of demons; some were seen surrounded by deities, spirits, and cherubim, being asked by Brahma and Indra to turn the wheel of the teaching; some were seen turning the wheel of teaching; some were seen in the abodes of all beings; some were seen passing away; in some cases the division of the relics of deceased buddhas in a world was seen, and in some cases people and celestial beings in a buddha-lan
d were seen adorning a buddha’s shrine. And what those buddhas said, in various groups of beings, in various beings’ worlds, in various realms of existence, in various assemblies of beings, in various situations according to beings’ virtues, states, inclinations, beliefs, and faculties, in various periods of time, amid various kinds of beings’ activities, in various manifestations of worlds of beings carrying out various intentions, in the midst of beings with various degrees of purity of senses and various afflictions, habits, and propensities, teaching by various manifestations of buddhas’ transfigurations and projections, by various expressions, various utterances, various enunciations of doctrine, various mystical mnemonic formulae, various intellectual analyses of principles, various stirrings of the ocean of names of truth, various roarings of the mighty lion’s roar of buddhas, various manifestations of magical performances teaching beings bases of goodness, mystic projections showing various facets of memory, various lion roars foretelling the buddhahood of enlightening beings, various manifestations of the wheel of teaching of the enlightened, in infinite assemblies of infinite varieties, all interdependent, in groups variously purified, in large groups contained in small groups, in groups a league deep, ten leagues deep, up to groups the size of as many worlds as atoms in untold buddha-fields—all that those buddhas taught, Sudhana heard, took in, remembered, undertook, and contemplated. He also saw the mystic projection and the inconceivable power of concentration of the enlightening being.
The Flower Ornament Scripture Page 160