Overall Teaching

Megha^[1] teaches all about the speech of bodhisattvas.

Summary

1. Megha with faith and recalling those teachings went to the Dravidian city Vajrapura and found Megha^[2] at the crossroads of the city. (1190)

2. Megha was teaching the sūtra Manifestation of Turning of the Wheel of Letters^[3] surrounded by thousands of people. Sudhana then asked him to teach him the Dharma.

3. Megha then bowed to and offered many precious things to Sudhana for he is a bodhisattva. He then praised Sudhana’s search.

4. Megha praises bodhisattvas, who, for instance, are a bridge across the sea of samsara or a pathway to the holy for all beings.

5. While Megha spoke to Sudhana, flames came forth from his voice and taught the Manifestation of Turning of the Wheel of Letters. As countless beings came to hear him, they heard his teaching and became irreversible on their path to buddhahood.

6. Megha explained that he knew all kinds of speech of bodhisattvas and that is what he teaches, but how could he know or teach the qualities of bodhisattvas who have entered into higher forms of teaching beyond verbal expressions. Thus he instructed Sudhana to go south to see the distinguished man Muktaka in Vanavasin to learn how the mind is to be observed.

7. Sudhana then honoured Megha and left.

[1] Megha means cloud, again referring to the cloud of teaching raining down from a bodhisattva. Represents the Fourth Abode: Noble Birth.

[2] Li: The previous teachers were all monks, but Megha is a layperson, indicating that transcendent knowledge is not divorced from the world. Thus he is also “in the middle of the city” and interchanging with society, thus “surrounded by thousands of people.” (1572)

[3] Li: This means that words, which have no inherent identity and are mere sounds, constantly revolve around and embellish each other—all mundane phenomena are transmundane and vice versa, thus the words they point to are empty.