Overall Teaching

Maitrāyaṇī is a princess, her palace reflects all buddhas. She teaches many arrays, that are one.

Summary

1. Sudhana, conscious of non-duality and without attachment to purities, proceeded to Siṃhavijurmbhita to look for the girl Maitrāyaṇī.[1] (1222-3)

2. He was told that she, daughter of the king, is on the palace2 roof expounding the Dharma with a retinue of 500 girls.[2] (1223)

3. Sudhana went to the palace and was welcomed into the palace, as no one is barred.[3] It was built of many precious substances.[4] She had golden skin[5] and black eyes and hair.[6]

4. When he approached her, she told Sudhana to look around her palace. Looking around the palace, Sudhana saw, in each and every object, all the buddhas of the cosmos reflected.[7] a. Maitrāyaṇī said that this is the medium of wisdom in the total array learned from buddhas as numerous as grains of sand in the Ganges, each aspect of each buddha being different and unique, springing from complete knowledge and compassion.

b.     As regards this “way of the arrangement of the totality,” Maitrāyaṇī explained that each array of buddhas she saw are contained in one single array.[8] These arrays are a means of access to the Perfection of Wisdom.

c.     However, she claimed that she cannot tell of the practices of bodhisattvas whose minds are like space. Thus Sudhana should go to Trināyana, to find Sudarśana.

d.     Sudhana, paying respects to Maitrāyaṇī, left.

The Teachers representing the Ten Abodes (according to Li (1581-2))

In short, these ten abodes are the states of mind in which a bodhisattva practices understanding that their mind and the buddha’s mind are ultimately identical, and this is done through bodhisattva activity, which is the essence of bodhicitta itself. The power of the Buddha Vairocana (embodying Buddha as ultimate principle) is what manifests this action in others—all is interpenetrating, and buddhahood is present in saṃsāra; it is just not realised due to ignorance and lack of good roots (a common theme in the sūtra). Knowledge of this in some degree or other is abiding in one of the abodes. If the descriptions are taken literally, the attainments may appear completely unrealistic and unattainable, but if the metaphorical descriptions are understood, the teaching that the abodes of bodhisattvas are our abodes here in saṃsāra becomes very apparent and it is clear that in them we may attain buddhahood in this very body. Li summarises these as follows (my paraphrase):

1. Meghaśrī (Inspiration): taught way of meditation to bring out buddha-knowledge in one’s own mind and see realms of the buddhas everywhere.

2. Sāgaramegha (Preparing the Ground): taught the way to contemplate the twelve links in saṃsāra as fundamentally the pure ocean of buddha-lands.

3. Supratiṣṭhita (Practice): taught the way to emerge unimpeded into the ordinary world through freedom of knowledge of reality.

4. Megha (Noble Birth): taught way to live in the ordinary world and cultivate worldly letters and understand all they imply.

5. Muktaka (Skill in Means): taught way of spontaneous meditation on the body containing countless buddha-lands.

6. Sāradhvaja (Correct State of Mind): taught spiritual power of tranquil function freed from defilements.

7. Āśā (Nonretrogression): taught way to live in the world to develop and extend great compassion.

8. Bhiṣmottaranirghoṣa (Innocence): taught way to appear similar to misguided people by means of effortless knowledge.

9.     Jayoṣmāyatana (Spiritual Prince): taught way of asceticism to contact heretic cultists.

10. Maitrāyaṇī (Coronation): taught way of simultaneous completeness of knowledge and compassion, including all ranks, when knowledge is fulfilled and compassion complete.

Li: “The next ten teachers represent the ten practices for self-help and helping others. It is not that the ten abodes do not include self-help and helping others, but the polish of the teachings of the ten practices is necessary lest one be incapable of autonomy in the different realms of the world.”

[1] She represents the tenth abode: coronation. Li: “As she was spontaneously compassionate yet unaffected by the habits of attraction that result in bondage to existence, Maitrāyaṇī is represented as a girl. Her compassion was born of knowledge and she was independent and fearless, her father was a king called Lion Banner (Siṃhaketu).”  2 Li: The palace is the abode of coronation, i.e. attainment of buddhahood.

[2] Li: This represents the knowledge and compassion of the five ranks (five stages to Buddhahood).

[3] Li: Representing how the bodhisattva path allows all beings to enter its chamber of compassion, wherein five ranks of bodhisattvas sojourn, with countless people coming and going.

[4] Li: Crystal base = purity of body of relity. Lapis pillars = maintenance of pure conduct. Diamond walls = protection by knowledge. Golden fences = outward strictness in discipline. Bright windows = illumination of the ordinary world by the Dharma.

[5] Li: representing undefiled heart.

[6] Li: representing covering beings with knowledge.

[7] Li: This reflects the sūtra’s teaching that everything contains everything else, interpenetrating simultaneously, and thus buddhas are seen in everything.

[8] Li: Her list is, in brief, the ten abodes, ten practices, and ten dedications, (“three decads”) then the ten stages of faith (which are belief in the three decads). The ten stages are also developments of the three decads, with nothing new added, plus the eleventh stage (buddhahood). They produce six ranks (5 bodhisattva ranks and 1 buddha rank). The five ranks (or “paths”) are those of: accumulation, preparation, seeing, cultivation, and no-more learning. This is discussed in the handouts on the Ten Stages Sūtra.