The Stem Array · Gaṇḍavyūha

Then Sudhana, the head merchant’s son, eventually reached the goddess of the earth, Sthāvarā, in the land of Magadha’s bodhimaṇḍa. When he arrived there, one million earth goddesses proclaimed to one another, “Someone who will be a refuge for all beings is coming here! Someone who has the essence of the tathāgatas and who will break open the enclosing egg of ignorance of all beings is coming here! Someone who is in the family of the kings of the Dharma and will attain the state of an unimpeded, stainless king of the Dharma is coming here! Someone who is a hero with the thunderbolt weapon that has the great power of wisdom and who will subdue the circle of opponents is coming here!”

At that moment, Sthāvarā and the other one million earth goddesses shook the great earth, caused a loud sound like deep thunder, and illuminated the world realm of a billion worlds with a vast light. Their bodies were adorned by all adornments and precious jewelry. They shone and moved in the sky like a mass of streaks of lightning.

They rose up out of the ground, causing the seedlings of all trees to sprout; causing all flowering trees to blossom; causing all rivers to flow; causing lakes, ponds, and reservoirs to rise; causing a great rain of scented water to fall; causing a great wind that scattered a cloud of flowers to blow; causing a quintillion musical instruments to sound; causing a multitude of divine aerial palaces and ornaments to spread; causing the lords of cows, bulls, elephants, tigers, and deer to make their cries; causing the leaders of devas, asuras, nāgas,¹²⁸¹ and bhūtas to roar; causing the great lords of mountains to clash together; and causing trillions of masses of treasures to emerge.

Then the earth goddess Sthāvarā said to Sudhana, the head merchant’s son, “Noble one, it is excellent that you have come here.¹²⁸² This area is where in the past you dwelled and generated roots of merit, where I am the witness for that. Do you wish to see just a fraction of their ripening?”

Sudhana, the head merchant’s son, bowed his head to the feet of the earth goddess Sthāvarā. He circumambulated the earth goddess Sthāvarā many hundreds of thousands of times, keeping her to his right. Then he stood before her and, with his hands placed together in homage, said, “Āryā, I do wish it!”

Then the earth goddess Sthāvarā stamped on the ground with the sole of her foot and revealed an array of countless millions upon millions of precious treasures and said, “Noble one, these millions upon millions of precious treasures follow you. They go before you. You can use them as you like. They come from the ripening of your merit. They are protected by the power of your merit. You can take from among them whatever you need.

“Noble one, moreover, I have attained the bodhisattva liberation called the essence of invincible wisdom. Through my possessing this bodhisattva liberation, since the time of the Tathāgata Dīpaṅkara I have constantly followed bodhisattvas and always protected them. Since that time, noble one, I have practiced the mental conduct of the bodhisattvas, been immersed within the scope of wisdom, entered the domain of prayer, realized pure bodhisattva conduct, followed the ways of all samādhis, permeated the vast motivations and higher cognitions of all bodhisattvas, and realized, possessed, and acquired mastery of the powers of all bodhisattvas, the pervasion of the network of all realms, the acquisition of prophecies from all the tathāgatas, the sight at all times of the attainment of buddhahood, all the ways of turning the wheel of the Dharma, all the ways of the clouds of Dharma that elucidate the sūtras, the way of illumination by the great radiance of the Dharma, the way of completely ripening all beings, and the way of the display of all the miraculous manifestations of the buddhas.

“Noble one, I received this bodhisattva liberation, the essence of invincible wisdom, far beyond and even more beyond as many past kalpas as there are atoms in Sumeru, during a kalpa called Avabhāsa­vyūha, in a world realm called Candra­dhvajā, from the Tathāgata Sunetra.

“Noble one, in that way, until this Bhadra kalpa, while cultivating,¹²⁸³ practicing,¹²⁸⁴ increasing, and augmenting this bodhisattva liberation called the essence of invincible wisdom, I have never been deprived of the sight of the tathāgatas.

“During that time, I have propitiated as many tathāgata arhat samyak­saṃbuddhas as there are atoms in an anabhilāpyānabhilāpya of buddha realms. I have seen the miraculous manifestation of all those tathāgatas going to the bodhimaṇḍa. I have witnessed the roots of merit of all those tathāgatas.

“Noble one, I know only the bodhisattva liberation called the essence of invincible wisdom. How could I know the conduct or describe the qualities of bodhisattvas who attend all tathāgatas, who follow the teaching of all buddhas, who enter into the impenetrable wisdom of the tathāgatas, who have the power to pervade the entire realm of phenomena in one instant of mind, who have bodies that are the same as those of the tathāgatas, who have the essence of the stainless intention of all the buddhas, who always realize all appearances of buddhas, and who are emissaries inseparable from the activity¹²⁸⁵ of the buddhas?

“Depart, noble one. In this Jambudvīpa, in the land of Magadha, in the city of Kapilavastu, is the goddess of the night named Vāsantī. 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 earth goddess Sthāvarā, circumambulated the earth goddess Sthāvarā many hundreds of thousands of times, keeping her to his right, and, looking back again and again, departed from the earth goddess Sthāvarā.