The Stem Array · Gaṇḍavyūha

Then Sudhana, the head merchant’s son, whose mind spread great love throughout the immeasurable realm of beings; whose being was saturated with the tenderness¹¹³⁰ of great compassion; who had accumulated a vast array of the accumulations of merit and wisdom; who had become free of all the dust, darkness, dirt, and mire of the kleśas; who had realized the equality of all phenomena; who was devoted to the path that leads¹¹³¹ upward to omniscience; who had chosen¹¹³² the gateway for entering into immeasurable good qualities; who had the exertion¹¹³³ of firm diligence that is unimpaired by any bad quality; who was filled¹¹³⁴ with the vast calmness¹¹³⁵ of inconceivable bodhisattva samādhis; who shone with the light of the sun of wisdom that eliminated all the darkness of ignorance; who scattered flowers of wisdom brought by the pleasant, cool breezes of methods; who followed the way of wisdom that emerged from an ocean of great aspirations; and who possessed the wisdom that permeated without impediment the entire realm of the Dharma‍—he had approached entry into the city¹¹³⁶ of faultless¹¹³⁷ omniscience, and he yearned for the bodhisattva path.

He arrived at the town called Nandihāra and looked and searched for the head merchant Jayottama. He saw him on the eastern edge of the town of Nandihāra, in a forest of ashoka trees that was called Vicitra­dhvaja. He was encircled by many thousands of householders deciding¹¹³⁸ upon various kinds of civic duties, and in reference to those he talked about the Dharma. He was teaching the Dharma for the sake of eliminating all egotism;¹¹³⁹ abandoning all possessiveness;¹¹⁴⁰ rejecting all attachment; forsaking all fixation on things; destroying all clinging; cutting through all the bondage of craving; breaking down the doors of all views; clearing away the darkness of doubt, uncertainty, and equivocation; cleansing away the dirt of illusion and deceit; purifying the stains of envy and miserliness; clarifying the lake of the mind; bringing beings to a state of unpolluted mentality; giving rise to an unpolluted faith; giving rise to the aspiration to see the buddhas; eulogizing the power of bodhisattvas; receiving the Dharma of the buddhas; aspiring to bodhisattva conduct; giving rise to the power of bodhisattva samādhi; teaching the power of bodhisattva wisdom; and attaining the highest purity of the power of bodhisattva memory.

This means that he was teaching the Dharma in order to inspire the aspiration to enlightenment.

Then when the teaching was concluded, Sudhana, the head merchant’s son, approached and bowed his head to the feet of the head merchant Jayottama. He bowed down to him for a long time and said, “Ārya, I am Sudhana, I am Sudhana! I seek bodhisattva conduct. Instruct me, Ārya, on how I should train in bodhisattva conduct and while training how I should aspire to guide and ripen all beings,¹¹⁴¹ not forsake seeing all the buddhas, hear the Dharma of all the buddhas, possess the rain¹¹⁴² from the clouds of the Dharma of all the buddhas, practice in the way of all the buddhas, practice bodhisattva conduct in all world realms, never tire of bodhisattva conduct while dwelling in all kalpas, comprehend¹¹⁴³ the manifestations of all the tathāgatas, receive the blessing of all the buddhas, and attain splendor in the power of all the tathāgatas.”

Then the head merchant Jayottama said to Sudhana, the head merchant’s son, “Noble one, it is excellent, excellent, that you have developed the aspiration for the highest, complete enlightenment.

“Noble one, I purify the gateway to omnipresent¹¹⁴⁴ bodhisattva conduct through the power of the attainment of noncomposite miracles¹¹⁴⁵ while residing in the absence of existence. In that way, remaining in this gateway to omnipresent¹¹⁴⁶ bodhisattva conduct, in all billion-world universes, in all the Trāyastriṃśa¹¹⁴⁷ paradises, in all the Yāma paradises, in all the Tuṣita paradises, in all the Nirmāṇarati paradises, in all the Para­nirmita­vaśa­vartin paradises, in all the abodes of the māras, in all the places that are classed as paradises within all desire realms, in all the nāga worlds, in all the nāga abodes, in all the yakṣa worlds, in all the yakṣa abodes, in all the rākṣasa worlds, in all the rākṣasa abodes, in all the kumbhāṇḍa worlds, in all the kumbhāṇḍa abodes, in all the preta worlds, in all the preta abodes, in all the gandharva worlds, in all the gandharva abodes, in all the asura worlds, in all the asura abodes, in all the garuḍa worlds, in all the garuḍa abodes, in all the kinnara worlds, in all the kinnara abodes, in all the mahoraga worlds, in all the mahoraga abodes, in all the human worlds, in all the human abodes, villages, towns, market towns, districts, countries, and capitals, and for all classes of beings that are within all desire realms I teach the Dharma, reject all that is not Dharma, pacify all disputes, dispel all conflict, pacify all quarrels, prevent all battles, pacify wars, pacify hostility, cut through all bondage, break open all prisons, dispel all fear, and end the practice of nonvirtuous activities. I turn beings away from killing and from taking what is not given, sexual misconduct, telling lies, slandering, harsh speech, idle speech, avariciousness, maliciousness, and wrong views. I turn beings away from all that should not be done and make them engage in all virtuous Dharma activity, and I make all beings train in all skills. I teach, prepare, elucidate, and present all the treatises that are beneficial to the world, so as to bring happiness to the world, to ripen beings, to follow false doctrines¹¹⁴⁸ in order to describe the special higher wisdom, to dispel all wrong views, and to describe and teach all the Buddhadharma. I overwhelm and teach the Dharma to all the devas in the form realm as far up as the Brahmā paradise.

“Just as I teach the Dharma in the world realms of this billion-world universe, I do so in world realms in the ten directions as numerous as the atoms in an indescribable quintillion buddha realms. I teach the Dharma of the buddhas. I teach the Dharma of the bodhisattvas. I teach the Dharma of the śrāvakas and the Dharma of the pratyeka­buddhas. I teach the hells. I teach the path that leads to the hells. I teach the unhappiness¹¹⁴⁹ of beings in the hells. I teach the animal existences. I teach the different kinds of animal existences, the paths that lead to animal existences, and the suffering of animal existences. I teach the world of Yama. I teach the path that leads to the world of Yama. I teach the suffering in the world of Yama. I teach the higher existences. I teach the path that leads to the higher existences. I teach the practice and enjoyment of happiness in the higher existences. I teach the human world. I teach the path that leads to the human world. I teach the various experiences of happiness and suffering in the human world.

“In that way, noble one, I also teach the Dharma of the world, the creation of the world, the destruction of the world, the transgressions in the world, and the renunciation of the world.

“In this way, I teach the Dharma in order to explain the bodhisattva path, reject the faults of saṃsāra, teach the qualities of omniscience, pacify the delusion and sufferings of the existences, describe the unobscured true nature, illuminate the activities of being in the world, describe all the happiness and suffering of being in the world, contemplate the designations of the abodes of all beings, teach the tathāgata qualities that have no location, counter the wheel of all karma and kleśas, and describe the turning of the tathāgata’s wheel of the Dharma.

“Noble one, I know this gateway to pure, omnipresent¹¹⁵⁰ bodhisattva conduct, the stainless¹¹⁵¹ display of the noncomposite miracles¹¹⁵² based in the absence of existence,¹¹⁵³ but how could I know the conduct or describe the qualities of the bodhisattvas who know all; who fill the surfaces of all realms with illusory bodies of wisdom; who have attained the level of the complete eyes of wisdom; who have the supreme hearing of the range of speech, sound, and communication;¹¹⁵⁴ who have attained the power of the light of Dharma gateways that fill the three times; who are heroic beings who have the mastery of the power of the wisdom that includes all phenomena; who possess beautiful, fine tongues that are endowed with a domain of speech that is directed separately, according to their aspirations, to inconceivable, immeasurable beings; who have bodies that are like illusions and equal to all bodhisattvas, with complexions and forms that accord with the various wishes of an ocean of beings; who possess inconceivable bodies that have a conduct no different from that of all the tathāgatas; who have bodies of wisdom that follow all three times; and who have a scope and field of conduct that is as immeasurable and vast as the expanse of space?

“Depart, noble one. In this southern region, in the land called Śroṇāparānta, there is a city by the name of Kaliṅgavana where dwells a bhikṣuṇī by the name of Siṃha­vijṛmbhitā. Go to her and ask her, ‘How should a bodhisattva train in bodhisattva conduct? How should a bodhisattva practice it?’ ”

Then Sudhana, the head merchant’s son, bowed his head to the feet of the head merchant Jayottama, circumambulated the head merchant Jayottama many hundreds of thousands of times, keeping him to his right, and, looking back again and again, departed from the head merchant Jayottama.