Chapter 48: Bhadrottamā
Sudhana, the head merchant’s son, went to the town called Vartanaka in the region of Kevalaka and approached the kalyāṇamitra Bhadrottamā. When he approached the kalyāṇamitra Bhadrottamā, he bowed his head to her feet, and then he stood before the kalyāṇamitra Bhadrottamā with his palms together in homage and said, “Āryā, I have developed the aspiration for the highest, complete enlightenment, but I do not know how bodhisattvas should train in bodhisattva conduct and in what way they should practice it. Āryā, I have heard that you give instruction and teachings to bodhisattvas. I pray that you explain to me how bodhisattvas should train in bodhisattva conduct and how they should practice it!”
When he had said that, the kalyāṇamitra Bhadrottamā said, “Noble one, I know and teach the Dharma teaching called The Field Without Location, and I have attained the samādhi called unimpeded.1938 That samādhi is unimpeded toward any phenomenon, and when I rest within it, I have the unimpeded eyes of omniscience, I have the unimpeded ears of omniscience, I have the unimpeded nose of omniscience, I have the unimpeded tongue of omniscience, I have the unimpeded body of omniscience, I have the unimpeded mind of omniscience, I have the unimpeded waves of omniscience, I have the unimpeded lightning1939 of omniscience, and I have the unimpeded power of omniscience and the field of the illumination of beings.
“Noble one, I know only this Dharma teaching called The Field Without Location. How could I know completely unimpeded bodhisattva conduct?
“Depart, noble one. In the southern region there is town called Bharukaccha. There resides a goldsmith by the name of Muktāsāra. Go to him and ask him, ‘How should a bodhisattva train in and practice bodhisattva conduct?’ ”
Sudhana, the head merchant’s son, bowed his head to the feet of the kalyāṇamitra Bhadrottamā. He circumambulated the kalyāṇamitra Bhadrottamā many hundreds of thousands of times, keeping her to his right, and, looking back at her again and again, he departed from the kalyāṇamitra Bhadrottamā.