The midsection is the place of worldly desires, and wizards are people without desire. By knowledge Saradhvaja magically produced actions similar to those of sentient beings yet was without desire himself, so wizards as numerous as sentient beings issued from 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 from 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 symbol on Saradhvaja’s heart.
Because the practices of all vehicles are not left out in the development of sentient beings yet the two vehicles of individual liberation turn their backs on the great function of the compassion and knowledge of buddhas, multitudes of followers of the two vehicles of individual liberation issued from Saradhvaja’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 Saradhvaja’s shoulders.
Celestial musicians are the spirit of music, and the abdomen represents the containing of myriad truths. Since they always sing praises of enlightening truths, celestial musicians issued from Saradhvaja’s abdomen.
An emperor signifies the turning of the wheel of the Teaching, so a multitude of emperors issued from Saradhvaja’s face.
The sun breaks through the darkness, so suns issued from Saradhvaja’s eyes.
In the midst of birth and death, practical wisdom is foremost, so enlightening beings issued from Saradhvaja’s head.
Because their knowledge is most elevated, buddhas issued from the crown of Saradhvaja’s head.
This all illustrates the use of knowledge of emptiness to produce various bodies, creating multitudes of emanations filling the ten directions, developing, educating, and adorning sentient beings while in essence being like space, completely free from cogitation. Therefore Saradhvaja produced the appearances of these multitudes of beings in the midst of trance.
Sudhana also saw Saradhvaja producing countless light beams from 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 month, finally six months and six days, until Saradhvaja emerged from trance. One day and one night represents the fulfillment of generosity. Seven days and seven nights represent the seven branches of ethics. The full fortnight represents the fulfillment of forbearance (a fortnight is half a month, and forbearance is a half in the sense of only benefiting oneself and not actively benefiting others). One month symbolizes the fulfillment of diligence. Six months represent the sixth abode, the correct state of mind. The six days represent the fulfillment of the sixth transcendent way, that of wisdom.
Because he had only attained the pure love of unaffected action and had not yet attained the great compassion and skill in means to cooperate with sentient beings, Saradhvaja said he had only attained this method of absorption in transcendent wisdom.
7. ASHA
Next Sudhana went to Samudravetali, saw Asha, and realized the abode of nonregression.
Samudravetali (“Keeper of the Ocean Door”) is the tide. This represents reality adapting to evolve sentient beings in a timely manner.
Asha was in a park called Samantavyuha, which is translated as “Ubiquitous Adornment.” This represents countless practices taking place in life and death constituting a ubiquitous array of adornments.
Being greatly compassionate yet unaffected, Asha was a lay devotee. Being gentle and of good will, she appeared as a woman, though she was not conscious of being a woman.
Sudhana saw the park and 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 compassion.
Because of the combining 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 quadrillion beings living in the park carrying out the same practices as she were all irreversible in progess towards supreme perfect enlightenment, because she used the eighty-four thousand afflictions to appear to be like them in order to meet and guide them, 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 ultimately peaceful—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 Bhishmottaranirghosha, and realized the abode of youthful nature, or innocence.
The seer lived on the seacoast because he had used transcendent vows to initiate works of wisdom to complement his compassion, merging 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.
Bhishmottaranirghosha is called He Who Utters A Fearsome Sound, in the sense that when he spoke he crushed followers of aberrant doctrines. Because he used knowledge to adapt to different religions without having different views, he is represented as a seer.
Because he had both knowledge and compassion, the virtues 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 myriad practices in him, he is represented 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,” emblematic of invincibility.
Because the seer’s union of knowledge and environment was comprehensive, when he took Sudhana’s hand the pilgrim saw himself going to buddhas in the ten directions as numerous as atoms in ten buddha-fields.
The gesture of taking the hand represents mystic empowerment: 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 Jayoshmayatana, 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.
Jayoshmayatana the Brahmin is called Overcoming Heat because he used knowledge to adapt to falsehood, his power able to overcome the poisonous heat of emotional 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, symbolizing the razor of truth cutting through confusion. Below was a bonfire, representing the light of adamantine knowledge. Because he understood inherent liberation and could use his energy freely, he had no fear and could show and remove the emotional afflictions of beings in the long night of ignorance; so the Brahmin climbed the razor mountain and threw his body into the bonfire.
Because it is ordinarily unthinkable to contravene the objective 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 entered 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 climbed the razor mountain and leaped. Before he was even halfway down he attained well-established mental focus, and the moment 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, Jayoshmayatana said he had attained liberation into an inexhaustible sphere.
10. MAITRAYANI
Then Sudhana went to the city of Simhavijurmbhita, 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 completely 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, containing the causes and effects of buddhahood 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 maintenance 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 illumination 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 interpenetrate 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 image.
The girl said this was the medium 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. Sagaramegha elucidated the way to contemplate the twelve conditioning links in the ocean of birth and death as the fundamentally 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 realms of buddha-fields.
6. Saradhvaja elucidated the way to the unimpeded spiritual 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 contact aberrant cultists.
9. Bhishmottaranirghosha elucidated the way to appear similar to misguided people by means of effortless knowledge.
10. Maitrayani elucidated the way of simultaneous completeness of knowledge and compassion, including all ranks when knowledge is fulfilled and compassion complete.
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 Sudarshana, and realized the practice of joy.
Trinayana means “Three Eyes.” The eye of knowledge observes faculties, the objective eye knows principles, and the eye of wisdom distinguishes right from wrong. These three are originally one, which is given three names according to function.
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 mendicant for the first of the practices because it is possible to enter the world and integrate illumination beneficially for others, inducing them to end contention, only when one’s own mind is unattached to the world.
The practices involved in adaptation to the world are many, as many as trees in a forest. Their purpose is to enter birth and death to liberate beings from birth and death—and also to induce beings to make 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 illumined 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, emblematic 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 loftiness of knowledge and fullness of virtue. His skin was golden, symbolizing 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 Teaching 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 t
o people’s faculties, his method being without fixed method and his teaching being without fixed dogma, spirits of direction guided him whichever way he turned. Because his conduct was undefiled, footstep-following spirits held lotuses for him to walk on.
As he used meditation 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 mountain spirits bowed to him. He spoke elegantly, causing others to admire him; breeze signifies verbal teaching, and flowery fragrance signifies appreciation, so the wind spirits gave off 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 Sudarshana said he was young and had only recently left home, but he had in this lifetime cultivated pure conduct in the company of as many 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 Indriyeshvara 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 autonomously, 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.
The Flower Ornament Scripture Page 216