Overall Teaching

Samantanetra can cure beings and then teach them the Dharma and can make magic perfumes.

Summary

1. Immersed in the vision of endless buddhas and the principles of bodhisattvas taught by Ratnacūḍa, Sudhana went to Vetramulaka[1] looking for Samantanetra.[2] Looking all over the countryside and city, he eventually found the city of Samantamukta with high walls,[3] where the perfumer Samantanetra was in a perfumers’ shop in the city.

2.     Seeing him, Sudhana respected him and requested him to teach him bodhisattva practice.

3.     In reply, Samantanetra explained:

a.     He knew the maladies of all beings and how to cure them. [4]

b.     After curing them he clothes beings, and then teaches them how to get rid of greed, anger and ignorance, and then to aspire to awakening by talking about the virtues of buddhas. 

c.     He then elucidates the ways of bodhisattvas by explaining their practices and how to attain a buddha’s body and their purity. 

d.     Then he explains through the ten pāramitās for them all according to their inclinations.

e.     And after giving them the support of treasures, he lets them go on their way.

4. He also explained that he is an expert in incense, scents, perfumes, and unguents. He can thus produce clouds of towers of fragrance which can honour all buddhas in all directions, and which have various powers.[5]

5. He explained that despite knowing this medium of the Dharma, he cannot teach the virtues of bodhisattvas who are like bodhisattvas, even the sight of whom all beings become fearless and no longer fall into the abyss of saṃsāra. Thus, Sudhana should go south to Tāladhvaja where the king Anala can teach him.

6.     Respecting him, Sudhana left.

[1] “The land was called Reed Roots, because wisdom is deep and stable, penetrating to the wellspring of truth, just as reed roots reach deeply into the water table.”

[2] His name means “Universal Eye because he knew all through wisdom.” And he represents the sixth practice: good manifestation.

[3] “Because the gates of wisdom are manifold, lofty, and hard to enter, the city where Samantanetra lived was seen to have high walls. Because insight into emptiness has no boundaries, the streets were wide and even.” (1588)

[4] He has “learned conventional medicine; this also represents the Dharma. For example, illnesses associated with wind represent people who think too much, an affliction cured by counting breaths. Jaundices represent people with too much desire, an affliction cured by contemplation of impurity. Inflammatory illnesses represent people with too much foolishness, an affliction cured by contemplation of conditioning. Mental illnesses represent people who cling to subtle forms and are not free from bewilderment and extraordinary perceptions, an affliction cured by contemplation of the emptiness of dharmas. Illnesses caused by toxins represent the way possessiveness can produce binding and harmful actions. Illnesses associated with water represent craving, illnesses associated with fire represent anger. All these illnesses can be treated by the Dharma.” 

[5] “This means he practiced worldly arts, and it also represents the Dharma, as wisdom skilfully expounds the Dharma, whose fragrance perfumes the odours of evildoing to turn them into the scent of knowledge.