Overall Teaching

Śrīsaṃbhava and Śrīmati teach how all things are illusory, and also how all bodhisattva practices come and benefit from spiritual benefactors.

Summary

1. Proceeding to the city Sumanāmukha and finding and paying respects to the boy Śrīsaṃbhava and girl Śrīmati,^[1] Sudhana asked them to teach him bodhisattva practice.^[2] They replied:

a. They have attained the liberation called ‘illusory’ whereby they know all worlds, beings, and phenomena as illusory, born of the confused mind, misunderstanding, and the conceiving mind. Moreover, bodhisattva practices and vows, and their developmental guidance are also products of the illusions of vows and knowledge.^[3]

b. They know this liberation but claim to be unable to tell of the practices and virtues of bodhisattvas who follow the extensive network of the endless illusion of action.

c. Thus, they said, Sudhana should go south to a place called Samudrakaccha. In the park Great Array there is a tower called Chamber of Adornments of Vairocana produced by beings’ vows and practices. In that tower is a bodhisattva mahāsattva called Maitreya, who lives to benefit people of his land and develop them to maturity and then guide them to the Mahāyāna and to attain this liberation and appear in all states being unattached.

d. This is because Maitreya has entered all bodhisattva practices, reached their goal, confronted their guidance, fulfilled all pāramitās, had all buddha’s empowerments (adhiṣṭhāna) and consecrations (abhiṣeka), introduce him to the practices of universal goodness (Samantabhadra), and how to carry out bodhisattva vows.^[4]

e. They implored him not to just practice one virtue or practice, vow, etc., or three, etc., or any limited number of spiritual benefactors, because bodhisattvas should gather infinite roots of goodness, and develop infinite virtues, practices, aspirations, and so forth. This is because bodhisattva practice is to perfect all sentient beings, arise everywhere in all conditions, and provide for all buddhas, etc.

f. Thus, Sudhana should not grow tired of seeking and attending spiritual friends and benefactors, for they are the source of learning the practice of bodhisattvas, their vows, their awakening practices, and so forth. Sustained by spiritual benefactors, bodhisattvas do not deviate from the path or come under bad influences, and thus in association with them, bodhisattvas develop all elements of awakening. This is because they clear away obstructions and teach us what is and is not to be done on the path to buddhahood.

g. In this way, spiritual benefactors are mothers, fathers, nurses, mentors, guides, physicians, and so forth. They should thus be approached and sought like a student, like a servant, like various animals with good qualities, and like a son, looking up to them as parents, and like a prince, carrying out the directives of the king of the Dharma. One should think of oneself as sick and the spiritual benefactors as physicians, along with various other analogies. They will then allow bodhisattvas to grow in goodness, become vessels of the Dharma, and illumine the dharmadhātu like the sun. Thus, all practices, pāramitās, stages, samādhis, mystic knowledges, manifestations, and so forth are all born, fostered, and produced by spiritual benefactors.

2. Sudhana, delighted at hearing about the infinity of bodhisattva practice, was delighted.

Paying respects to the boy and girl, he left.

[1] They represent the tenth of Samantabhadra’s practices: Living in the World with Complete Knowledge and Compassion.

[2] “The city represents subtle practice within knowledge, the boy and girl represent desireless, unaffected gentility and humility, with equal knowledge and compassion.”

[3] “The boy and girl said they had attained the liberation of illusoriness, meaning they had realised that the realms of buddhas and sentient beings are both illusory products of knowledge.

“In the illusory state, there is neither real nor false; mind and objects merge, essence and appearance do not interfere: the body and the environment interpenetrate, their radiance and reflections multiply ad infinitum. The being pervading the sacred and the profane, the essence complete through all time, they abide in the world permanently yet without resting on anything. Therefore they said that the essence of illusory states is inconceivable.”

[4] “After this they directed Sudhana to see Maitreya, who is to fulfil buddhahood in one lifetime. This one lifetime is the birthless lifetime, not a lifetime in the temporal order. The three principles represented by Maitreya, Mañjuśrī, and Samantabhadra are the body of all causes and effects of the fifty ranks, not principles that exist outside the fifty ranks.” (1621)