Overall Teaching

Siṃhavijṛmbhita teaches countless beings of all ranks at the feet of many jeweled trees. She removes all vain imaginings and can offer to buddhas and bodhisattvas in countless directions. She teaches beings but does not perceive of any beings.

Summary

1. Going to Kaliṅgavana, in land of Śroṇāparānta,^[1] Sudhana asked everyone where to find the nun Siṃhavijṛmbhita.^[2]

2. Sudhana was directed by the people to a park called Sunlight Park which was donated to the nun by King Jayaprabha.^[3] There he saw it was adorned with beautiful trees and flowers, which had beautiful radiance, jewels, and qualities.^[4]

3. At the foot of countless treasured trees, she saw lion seats, each in the calyx of a jeweled and brightly lit lotus. The ground was scattered with countless jewels, soft and pleasant to the touch, of pleasant scent, with the sound of nice birds, and surpassing the heaven of Indra. Arrayed in this way, Sudhana saw the park because of Siṃhavijṛmbhita’s power. Looking all over, Sudhana saw this all sprung forth from the illusory nature of phenomena, manifested by the power of Siṃhavijṛmbhita’s past actions. Under each of the countless trees in that land, Sudhana saw the nun Siṃhavijṛmbhita sitting, surrounded by followers, and teaching.⁵

a. Thus, in various heavens he saw her surrounded by different kinds of gods and goddesses of all the different heavens and surrounded by bodhisattvas of each of the ten stages, and to Vajradhāras, in each teaching them according to their capacities.

b. Thus, Sudhana saw each rank of beings being taught by her. This was because of her countless tens of hundreds of thousands of doors of transcendent wisdom. She taught them all until they were irreversible towards buddhahood.^[5]

4. Having seen her in this way, Sudhana requested her to teach him bodhisattva practice.

5. In response, she explained that she attained the awakening liberation of the removal of all vain imaginings, which is instantaneous awareness of the dharmas of the three times. She said that this allows her to go in all directions to offer to countless buddhas in buddha lands to offer to them all, including to bodhisattvas of various ranks.

a. All beings who know of this liberation of hers become certain of their buddhahood, come to her, and are taught by her.

b. Despite seeing all beings, she does not conceive of a sentient being. Despite hearing beings verbal signals, she does not enter any sphere of any discourse. Seeing all buddhas, she does not imagine so, knowing their body in reality. Remembering all buddhas’ teachings, she is aware of the nature of all things. Pervading the cosmos, she knows the nature of things as existing in illusion.

c. Despite knowing the removal of all vain imaginings, she asked how she can teach the practice or tell the virtues of bodhisattvas who penetrate the infinite cosmos of realities and are free from vain imaginings about all things, knowing the arising and dissolution of worlds in a single pore. Thus Sudhana must go south to the land of Durga, to the city Ratnavyūha, where Vasumitrā, a worshipper of the god of light is living, and enquire of her.

6. Thus Sudhana paid respects to her and left.

[1] “The land was called Brave, the city called Struggle, emblematic of energetically entering the ordinary world to stop the struggle between the two views of absolute and mundane, pure and defiled.

[2] She represents the fourth dedication: Reaching All Places. Her name means “Lion Stretch to symbolize the tirelessness of her practice of kindness. She is portrayed as a nun because of this rank, like the fourth abode and fourth stage, one leaves the bonds of the world and is born in the family of the awakened. Her mendicancy represents patience by abandonment of superficial adornments, and her femaleness represents kindness.”

[3] “She was in the park of the king Victorious Light. Kingship symbolizes knowledge; this means that in this rank of energy and diligence one combines patience, knowledge, and kindness to comprehend the practices of the five ranks in one spiritual realm.

[4] “The park was magnificently adorned, illustrating environmental perfection as a result of spiritual development.” 5 “Sudhana saw the nun sitting on various seats lecturing to various groups, symbolizing her integrative educational activities, including those in all stages up to the eleventh, which borders on buddhahood.”

[5] “This is the teaching of the infinite cosmic network, in which one rank pervades all ranks, and each rank pervades the spiritual cosmos, all refining one another, forming fifty-three teachings and one hundred and ten cities as a totality, as individually distinct, as the same, as different, as integrated, and as disparate, all freely interacting.” (1598)