The Stem Array · Gaṇḍavyūha

Sudhana, the head merchant’s son, then contemplated that power of retention of the bodhisattvas called the light that is the display of Sarasvatī, remembered that particular entry by the bodhisattvas into an ocean of languages, remembered that particular entry by the bodhisattvas into the way of subtlety,⁴¹⁸ remembered that particular purity of the bodhisattvas through purification of the mind, accomplished that particular accomplishment by the bodhisattvas of creating the predispositions for roots of merit, purified that particular bodhisattva gateway for ripening, refined that particular bodhisattva wisdom that attracts beings, made firmer that particular pure strength of bodhisattva motivation, stabilized that particular strength of the superior motivation of the bodhisattvas, purified that lineage of bodhisattva aspiration, developed⁴¹⁹ that particular goodness that is in the minds of the bodhisattvas, and entered into that particular commitment of the bodhisattvas.

Sudhana, the head merchant’s son, displayed a continuity of strong commitment, a mind of aspiration, and indefatigability. He had the heroism⁴²⁰ of irreversible courage. He had the commitment of an irreversible mind. He possessed the strength of unassailable faith. His motivation had the indestructibility of the mighty vajra. He had acquired with reverence the instructions of all kalyāṇamitras. He had an unimpaired scope of wisdom. He faced the completely pure gateways. He possessed the unimpeded field of pure wisdom. He had the illumination of all-seeing wisdom. He had attained the radiance of the retentive power of all levels. His mind faced the separate bases of the realm of phenomena. He perceived the nature of the pure display that is completely without any basis. He was devoted to the unattached, unequaled,⁴²¹ nondual field of activity. He had the pure gateway of wisdom that surpasses all concepts. He had the discrimination⁴²² of all⁴²³ the separate directions and families.⁴²⁴ He had not annulled the separate bases and directions of the world. He had not annulled the separate bases and directions of the Dharma. He was dedicated to the perception of the vision of the different directions and families⁴²⁵ of the buddhas. He had the wisdom that comprehended the different directions and bases of time. He had the understanding endowed with the radiance of the wheel of the Dharma. The light of the complete radiance of wisdom and samādhi illuminated his mind. He had the mind and body⁴²⁶ that had reached the complete levels and ranges. He was continuously illuminated by the radiance⁴²⁷ of the wisdom of the tathāgatas. He had given rise to the power of faith in omniscience. He was never lacking in the power of faith in the Buddhadharma. He possessed the blessing of the tathāgatas. He had been illuminated by the light of the approach of his own mind to the buddhas. He was endowed with the aspiration for his own body pervading the network of all world realms. He was dedicated to accomplishing the inclusion of the entire realm of phenomena within his own body.

After twelve years he eventually arrived at Vanavāsī. He searched for the head merchant Muktaka and saw him. When he saw him, he bowed down his entire body onto the ground in homage and sat before him.

With palms together he said, “Ārya, today I have succeeded; I have succeeded well. Why is that? Because I have met the kalyāṇamitra.⁴²⁸ It is rare to have the opportunity to see the kalyāṇamitras. It is rare to have the opportunity to find their appearance. It is rare to have the opportunity to arrive where they are. It is rare to have the opportunity to go to where they are, it is rare to have the opportunity to serve them, it is rare to have the opportunity to approach⁴²⁹ them, it is rare to have the opportunity to dwell with them, it is rare to have the opportunity to train with them, and it is rare to have the opportunity to follow the kalyāṇamitras.

“Today I have succeeded in being with the kalyāṇamitra.⁴³⁰ Ārya, I have developed the aspiration for the highest, complete enlightenment in order to serve all the buddhas; to venerate all the buddhas; to see all the buddhas; to perceive all the buddhas; to comprehend the equality of all the buddhas; to comprehend the prayers of all the buddhas; to fulfill the prayers of all the buddhas; to have the light of the wisdom accomplished by all the buddhas; to accomplish all buddhas within my own body; to accomplish the knowledge of all the buddhas in my own conduct; to have the direct perception of the miracles of all the buddhas; to purify the strengths and fearlessnesses of all the buddhas; to never have enough of hearing the Dharma that is taught by all the buddhas; to hear and adopt the Dharma that is taught by all the buddhas; to truly hold the Dharma that is taught by all the buddhas; to become the same as all the bodhisattvas;⁴³¹ to be included among the bodhisattvas; to purify the conduct of all bodhisattvas; to fulfill the perfections of all bodhisattvas; to purify the accomplishment of the aspirations of all bodhisattvas; to attain the treasure of the buddha blessings of all the bodhisattvas; to obtain the unceasing light of wisdom that is all the bodhisattvas’ store of treasure of the Dharma; to realize all the bodhisattvas’ store of treasure of samādhi;⁴³² to accomplish the immeasurable treasure of all the bodhisattvas; to realize all the bodhisattvas’ store of treasure of great compassion, which is the definitive guiding of beings; to perceive all the bodhisattvas’ store of treasure of miracles; to gain the power in my own mind that is all the bodhisattvas’ store of power; and for the array of all the aspects of all the bodhisattvas’ store of treasure of purity.

“Ārya, I have come here with such a motivation, with such an intention, with such joy,⁴³³ with such delight, with such thoughts, with such an aspiration to accomplish certainty, with such an aspiration to conduct, with such an aspiration to comprehend the way, with such a dedication to purity, with such an intention for analysis,⁴³⁴ with such an oriented mind, with such a dedication to goodness, and with senses focused in that way.

“Ārya, I have heard⁴³⁵ that you give instruction and teachings to bodhisattvas, that you teach the way, elucidate the way to understand, teach the path, bring across the ford, open the gateway of the Dharma, cut through doubts, dispel uncertainty, extract the splinter of prevarication, remove hesitancy, illuminate the darkness of the mind, eliminate the stains of the mind, clarify the continuity of the mind, remove the deception of the mind, alleviate the distress of the mind, turn the mind away from saṃsāra, lead away from bad actions, dissuade from going to the hells, bring freedom from existence, liberate from attachment, banish all clinging, create the aspiration for omniscience, enable entry into the city of the Dharma, bring to great compassion, unite with great love, conjoin with bodhisattva conduct, cause to enter the meditation of the gateway of samādhi, establish in the gateway of realization, establish in the comprehension of nature, spread the possession of the strengths, and realize the equality of all beings.

“Therefore, now that I have heard that, teach me, Ārya, how bodhisattvas should learn⁴³⁶ bodhisattva conduct, how they train in it, how they are dedicated to it, and how they quickly⁴³⁷ purify the domain of bodhisattva conduct.”

Then, at that time, the head merchant Muktaka the bodhisattva entered the gateway of samādhi, the foremost gateway to the infinite circling of the power of retention, called the assembly of all buddha realms, through the power of past roots of merit, through the blessing of the tathāgatas, and through the concentration that brings the light of wisdom of Mañjuśrī Kumāra­bhūta.

Immediately, the form of the head merchant Muktaka, who had entered that samādhi, became a pure body. Because of the purity of his body, there appeared within his body the presence of buddha bhagavats as numerous as the atoms in the buddha realms in the ten directions, together with their pure buddha realms, the assemblies of their pupils, their pure halos, their past practice of conduct, their buddha miracles, their accumulation of prayers, their pure display of conduct and setting forth, their demonstration of the attainment of buddhahood, their teaching the wheel of the Dharma, their ripening of beings, and their final conclusion of the Dharma.

They were distinct from each other, were not obscuring each other,⁴³⁸ were perfectly separate from each other, were differentiated from each other, remaining in different ways,⁴³⁹ and were perceived exactly as they were. Their various arrays of buddha realms, the various adorning assemblies of bodhisattva pupils, and the appearances of various buddha miracles were seen.

They were establishing the various yānas and reciting the various gateways of prayers. They were seen in some worlds being born in a palace in Tuṣita. They were seen to accomplish all the deeds of a buddha: In some worlds they were descending from the palace in Tuṣita; in some they were entering their mothers’ wombs and manifesting various miracles; in some they were being born; in some they demonstrated playing as children; in some they were in the middle of their harems; in some they were setting forth in renunciation; in some they were arriving at the bodhimaṇḍa; in some they were defeating the armies of Māra with vast miraculous manifestations; in some they were encircled by devas, nāgas, yakṣas, and gandharvas, and Brahmā and Indra⁴⁴⁰ were supplicating them to turn the wheel of the Dharma; in some they were turning the wheel of the Dharma; in some they were present in the abodes of all beings; and in some they were passing into nirvāṇa. In some world realms there could be seen the distribution of the relics of the tathāgatas who had passed into nirvāṇa, and in some buddha realms devas and humans could be seen covering the caityas of the tathāgatas with adornments.

Those buddha bhagavats were teaching among the various classes of beings, the various worlds of beings, the various modes of beings, the various births of beings, the various aggregations of beings, the various successive roots of merit of beings, the various successive modes of beings, the various successive thoughts of beings, the various successive aspirations of beings, the various successive sensory faculties of beings, the various successive times of beings, the various particular karmas of beings, the various dissimilar karmas of beings, the various worlds of beings, the various modes and conducts of beings, the various aspirations and conducts in the ocean of beings, the various, different pure faculties, and the various kleśas, predispositions, and propensities in the vast extent of beings.

They did so through the demonstration of various kinds of buddha miracles, through the accomplishment of the various word definitions in various worlds, through various aspects of voice and language in various worlds, through relating the ways of various sūtras, through the processes of the various kinds of gateways to the power of retention, through the production of various kinds of discernment, through the processes of an ocean of various names for the truth, through various majestic lion’s roars of the buddhas, through the demonstration of miracles that teach the roots of merit to beings, through miracles that teach the various gateways of memory, through the lion’s roar of various prophecies to bodhisattvas, and through the power that arises from the various Dharma wheels of the tathāgatas.

The buddha bhagavats taught through the aspects of the voice of a tathāgata and in accordance with all languages in the various assemblies of pupils‍—which are limitless, infinitely different, and dependent on one another‍—in the various vast, pure assemblies of pupils, in the gatherings of small assemblies of pupils, among those that are the length of one yojana, the length of ten yojanas, the length of a hundred yojanas, and so on, up to assemblies of pupils that are as many yojanas as there are atoms in even more countless than countless buddha realms.

Sudhana, the head merchant’s son, heard, adopted, kept, and contemplated all those Dharmas that were taught. He also saw those buddha miracles. He saw the power of the majesty of that bodhisattva samādhi.

Then the head merchant Muktaka mindfully and with awareness arose from his samādhi and said to Sudhana, the head merchant’s son, “Noble one, I have obtained and hold the liberation of the tathāgatas called the unimpeded display.

“Noble one, when in that way I strove for and attained⁴⁴¹ the liberation of the tathāgatas called the unimpeded display, to my eyes appeared the tathāgata arhat samyak­saṃbuddha named Tāreśvararāja in the eastern world realm called Jāmbū­nada­prabhāsa­vatī. He was accompanied by an assembly that was all bodhisattvas, such as the bodhisattva Vairocana­garbha.

“To my eyes appeared the tathāgata arhat samyak­saṃbuddha named Samanta­gandha­vitāna in the southern world realm called Sarva­bala­vegavatī. He was accompanied by an assembly that was all bodhisattvas, such as the bodhisattva Cintārāja.

“To my eyes appeared the tathāgata arhat samyak­saṃbuddha named Meru­pradīpa­rāja in the western world realm called Sarva­gandha­prabhāsa­vatī. He was accompanied by an assembly that was all bodhisattvas, such as the bodhisattva Asaṅga­citta.

“To my eyes appeared the tathāgata arhat samyak­saṃbuddha named Vajra­pramardana in the northern world realm called Kāṣāyadhvajā. He was accompanied by an assembly that was all bodhisattvas, such as the bodhisattva Vajra­pada­vikrāmin.

“To my eyes appeared the tathāgata arhat samyak­saṃbuddha named Anilambha­cakṣurvairocana⁴⁴² in the northeastern world realm called Sarva­ratna­rucirā. He was accompanied by an assembly that was all bodhisattvas, such as the bodhisattva Anilambha­sunirmita.

“To my eyes appeared the tathāgata arhat samyak­saṃbuddha named Gandhapradīpa in the southeastern world realm called Gandhārciḥ­prabhā­svarā. He was accompanied by an assembly that was all bodhisattvas, such as the bodhisattva Sarva­dharma­dhātu­tala­bheda­ketu­rāja.⁴⁴³

“To my eyes appeared the tathāgata arhat samyak­saṃbuddha named Samanta­mukha­jñāna­virocana­ghoṣa in the southwestern world realm called Sūrya­kesara­nirbhāsā. He was accompanied by an assembly that was all bodhisattvas, such as the bodhisattva Samanta­kusumārciḥ­pralamba­cūḍa.

“To my eyes appeared the tathāgata arhat samyak­saṃbuddha named Apramāṇa­guṇa­sāgara­prabha in the northwestern world realm called Gandhālaṃkāra­rucira­śubha­garbhā. He was accompanied by an assembly that was all bodhisattvas, such as the bodhisattva Asaṅga­kāya­raśmi­tejomati.⁴⁴⁴

“To my eyes appeared the tathāgata arhat samyak­saṃbuddha named Dharma­dhātu­vidyotita­raśmi in the world realm below called Ratna­siṃhāvabhāsa­jvalanā. He was accompanied by an assembly that was all bodhisattvas, such as the bodhisattva Dharma­dhātvarcirvairocana­saṃbhava­mati.

“To my eyes appeared the tathāgata arhat samyak­saṃbuddha named Apratihata­guṇa­kīrti­vimokṣa­prabha­rāja in the world realm above called Akṣaṇa­rucira­vairocanā. He was accompanied by an assembly that was all bodhisattvas, such as the bodhisattva Asaṅga­bala­vīrya­mati.

“Noble one, in that way, in addition to these ten⁴⁴⁵ tathāgatas, I see in the ten directions tathāgata arhat samyak­saṃbuddhas as numerous as the atoms in the buddha realms in the ten directions, but those tathāgatas have not come here and I have not gone there.

“When I wish to, I see the Tathāgata Amitābha in the buddha realm Sukhāvatī, I see the Tathāgata Vajrābha in the buddha realm Candana­vatī, I see the Tathāgata Ratnābha in the buddha realm Gandhavatī, I see the Tathāgata Ratnapadmābha in the buddha realm Padmavatī, I see the Tathāgata Śantābha in the buddha realm Kanaka­vatī, I see the Tathāgata Akṣobhya in the buddha realm Abhiratī, I see the Tathāgata Siṃha in the buddha realm Supratiṣṭhā, I see the Tathāgata Candra­buddhi in the buddha realm Ādarśa­maṇḍala­nibhāsā, and I see the Tathāgata Vairocana in the buddha realm Ratna­śrī­haṃsa­citrā.⁴⁴⁶

“Noble one, in that way, I see whatever tathāgata I wish to, in whatever direction, in whatever world realm. I see whatever tathāgata I wish to, in whatever time, in whatever location,⁴⁴⁷ in whatever past conduct. I see whatever tathāgata I wish to, wherever he is accomplishing miracles or wherever he is guiding beings. And those tathāgatas have not come here, nor have I gone there.

“Noble one, in that way, I know that the tathāgatas have not come from anywhere. I know my own body has not gone anywhere. I know that perceiving the tathāgatas is like a dream, and I know that perceiving the activity of my own mind is like having a dream. I know that the perception of the tathāgatas is like a reflection, and I know that my own mind’s perception is like a bowl of clear water. I know that the perception of the tathāgatas is like that of forms created by a magical illusion, and I know that my own mind’s perception is like a magical illusion. I know that the speech of the tathāgatas is like echoes that sound in the mountains, and I know that my own mind’s perception is like an echo.

“It is thus that I understand, thus that I know that the entire Buddhadharma of the bodhisattvas arises from the blessing of one’s own mind. All the pure buddha realms are the blessing of one’s own mind. The bodhisattva conduct also is the blessing of one’s own mind. The ripening and guidance of all beings is the blessing of one’s own mind. The fulfillment of the aspirations of the bodhisattvas is the blessing of one’s own mind. Arriving at the city of omniscience is the blessing of one’s own mind. Delighting in inconceivable liberations is the blessing of one’s own mind. At attainment, the enlightenment of buddhahood is the blessing of one’s own mind. The miraculous manifestation of the powerful majesty of uniting the entire realm of phenomena is the blessing of one’s own mind. The wisdom that unites all kalpas into a brief time is the blessing of one’s own mind.

“Noble one, this is what I think: One’s own mind should be supported by all roots of merit, one’s own mind should be moistened by the clouds of the Dharma, one’s own mind should be purified of obscuring phenomena,⁴⁴⁸ one’s own mind should be made firm by diligence, one’s own mind should be made tranquil by patience, one’s own mind should be cultivated by the comprehension of knowledge, one’s own mind should be refined by wisdom, one’s own mind should have accomplishment in power, one’s own mind should be made vast in the equality of the buddhas, and one’s own mind should be illuminated by the ten strengths of the tathāgatas.

“Noble one, I know, have adopted, and keep this liberation called the unimpeded display of the tathāgatas, but how could I know or describe the qualities of dwelling without impediment in the field of activity of the unimpeded minds of the bodhisattvas; the attainment of the samādhi of the direct perception of all the buddhas in the present; the attainment of the samādhi gateway to the enlightenment that has reached the apex that is without passing into nirvāṇa; the attainment of the sameness of the three times; the knowledge of the way of the field of activity of the samādhi of the completely undivided basis; the bodies distributed throughout all buddha realms; the presence in the indivisible ranges of the buddhas; the field of activity that is oriented toward all directions; the view of the domain of undivided wisdom; and the conduct that is free of the dualistic conceptions of self and world, even though in their bodies there appears the destruction and creation of all world realms?

“Now depart, noble one. On this road to the south, at the tip of Jambudvīpa, there is Milaspharaṇa. There dwells a bhikṣu by the name of Sāgara­dhvaja. Go to him and ask him, ‘How should a bodhisattva train in bodhisattva conduct? How should a bodhisattva proceed?’ ”

Then Sudhana, the head merchant’s son, bowed his head to the feet of the head merchant Muktaka, circumambulated the head merchant Muktaka a hundred thousand times, keeping him to his right, and, looking back again and again, beautifully describing, examining, and aspiring to the countless qualities of the head merchant Muktaka, thinking of Muktaka, he was weeping and wailing as he departed from head merchant Muktaka. He was thinking of kalyāṇamitras with affection, trusting in them, longing to honor the kalyāṇamitras, maintaining obedience to the instructions of kalyāṇamitras, and seeing omniscience as dependent upon the kalyāṇamitras; his thoughts focused on the kalyāṇamitras, his conduct faithful to the kalyāṇamitras, and being in the power of the minds of the kalyāṇamitras, by avoiding anything that would be harmful to the kalyāṇamitras he regarded them as his mother and, by developing all the qualities of roots of merit, regarded them as his father.