Overall Teaching

Praśāntarutasāgaravatī experiences great joy from Vairocana Buddha and his manifestations, and vows to put an end to sufferings of all kinds in all beings.

Summary

1.      Cultivating that previous enlightening liberation, Sudhana proceeded to the night goddess Praśāntarutasāgaravatī[1] and requested that she teach him bodhisattva practice.

2.      In reply, the goddess praised his goal and said that she has attained a liberation of supernal manifestations of a moment of consciousness producing floods of joy.

a.     Sudhana asked what her activity is, how she practices, and how she contemplates.

b.    She explained that her mind has attained equanimity, abides in mindfulness of awakened knowledge, and she undertakes to stop all sufferings and become a refuge of beings.

c.     Moreover, she explained that she finds satisfaction in creating detachment in beings who dwell in mansions and ending desires for material things. She teaches all beings who have different inclinations according to what they need: for instance, those attached to pleasures are taught delighting in awakening practices instead, those who are ignorant, she teaches omniscience, and so forth, going through all possible attachments and harmful inclinations.

d.    She attains great joy and rejoices at showing beings the way to happiness and leading them away from miseries and paths leading to unhappiness.

e.     As she observes beings in all directions, she sees countless bodhisattvas manifesting in all directions, manifesting all kinds of powers, and teaching various beings with various teachings in various languages according to their needs. From this they all are seen to give rise to floods of great joy.

f.      She experiences floods of great joy from: 

i.      observing the form body of Vairocana Buddha, which is boundless, of great light, and manifests in infinite colours in each moment.

ii.     Vairocana Buddha’s great beams of light emanating from his pores.

iii.    The clouds of light emerging from his head. 

iv. The multitudes of fragrant light emanating from each pore of his body.

v.         Multitudes of images of buddhas emerging from his marks of greatness.

vi.        Multitudes of his mystically projected bodies of buddhas.

vii.      Multitudes of his spiritual manifestations of buddhas.

viii.     Multitudes of all kinds of his celestial and human manifestations.

ix.        Multitudes of brahma gods teaching countless beings—the floods of joy from this are simultaneous with omniscience.

x.         Thus she penetrates, sees, and hears what she never did before because all things are known to be of one characteristic and yet manifesting in an endless variety as all things.

g. This is the range of her liberation which produces great joy. It is like various natural phenomena, such as Mount Meru, which rises like a jewel over all things, or like the sun, dispersing ignorance of all beings, with countless such similes.

3.      Sudhana asked her how she managed to attain such a liberation. She replied:

a.     She explained that there are ten great encompassing practices by which bodhisattvas attain this power, they are the ten perfections:

i.           Giving

ii.         Morality

iii.        Patience

iv.        Energy/effort

v.         Meditation

vi.        Wisdom

vii.       Skilful means

viii.     Vows

ix.        Power

x.         Knowledge

b.    Bodhisattvas thus practice intent upon the powers of all buddha-lands in the oceans of structures of the dharmadhātu: in each buddha-land one can see Vairocana Buddha at the pinnacle of awakening manifesting the miracle of bodhi in each moment of consciousness, pervading every moment with a miraculous display of awakening. Perceiving him, she sees herself in his presence receiving what his infinite manifestations are teaching. As multitudes of manifestations come forth from each of their pores, by mental command, she picks up what they teach, and pass it into awareness in one moment.

c.     Thus, she carries forth all the Dharmas’ principles, and produce oceans of awareness, knowledge of the stages and practices, all through concentration on those infinite buddhas and their attainments, particularly their transcendent powers of the ten perfections, and their transcendence of the ten stages of awakening.

d.    Also, upon the concentration of the networks of buddhas pervading all realms with their light and bodhisattvas as their manifestations pervading all realms with their light. She comprehends everything about those buddhas in each moment of thought, from their first arising of bodhicitta to the end of their Dharma era.

e.     When she was a bodhi tree goddess in the buddha-land Pure Golden Radiance aeons ago, she first gave rise to bodhicitta, and for aeons practiced bodhisattva practice, up until this aeon, from Krakucchanda to Śākyamuni.  The lineage of buddhas in the land Pure Golden Radiance still exists and is unbroken. Thus, one should exert oneself with the great strength of a bodhisattva.

4.      In verse she summarised what she had said:

a.     When she honoured the buddhas in the past, she always generated immense joy.

b.    She always served and honoured her parents and elders.

c.     She helped those who were old, infirm, poor, handicapped, suffering, or suffering from the intense pains of sickness and death: putting an end to these, in order to produce the bliss of awakening for endless aeons, is her vow.

5.      She says she only knows this liberation, but cannot tell of the virtues of bodhisattvas who have plunged into the ocean of all principles of the cosmos of reality. Thus, Sudhana should go to Sarvanagararakṣāsaṁbhavatejaḥśrī, who is at this awakening site, in the assembly of Vairocana Buddha.[2]

6.      In verse Sudhana explained:

a.     No normal beings can know her form, even if they look for endless aeons.

b.    She is free from dependence upon the aggregates and appears in the world transforming.

c.     Her body contains the Dharmakāya and produces universal light in the world.

d.    Knowing the world is like a dream, she lives in the world without clinging.

e.     Without dualism she expounds the Dharma in all realms.

f.      Beings and the buddhas are infinite: they are both the spheres of her liberations’ practice.

7.      Paying his respects to her, Sudhana left.

[1] She represents the fifth stage: Difficult to Conquer.

 “In this stage one uses meditation concentration to cultivate worldly arts and crafts. As one has these skills without becoming alienated from the essence of awakening and the practice of diligence, the goddess’s place is said to be ‘not far from here’.”

 “The goddess is called Possessed of an Ocean of Tranquil Sound. Tranquility is concentration, while the ocean of sound is function. This illustrates how the body of concentration is uncontrived yet its response is universal. This night goddess was the mother of the night goddess of universal salvation, representing the ability of the body of concentration to produce energetic action. Unless all practices are based on concentration, one will become fatigued at some point.”

[2] “The goddess said she had attained liberation of supernal manifestations producing floods of joy in each instant of thought. This illustrates the all-pervasiveness of the joy of meditation, the mutual adornment of principle and practice, the vastness of benefit to the living. She also said she would serve all the future buddhas of this aeon, as well as the future buddhas of all worlds in all aeons, illustrating how the essence of meditation is complete, in the sense that past, present, and future form one time, like a mirror containing multiple images.” (1609)