Overall Teaching

Mañjuśrī touches Sudhana’s head after Sudhana searched for him and said that those without the effort and roots are unable to know.

Summary

1. Sudhana passed more than one hundred and ten cities to get to Sumanamukha, constantly thinking about Mañjuśrī.[1]

2. Mañjuśrī reached his hand over a hundred and ten leagues and laid it on Sudhana’s head and said that those who do not have the effort, the roots of goodness, and who are not minded by the Buddhas, are not able to know, believe, or attain.[2]

3. As a result of Mañjuśrī’s speech, Sudhana was imbued with countless facets of truth and illumined with the great light of infinite knowledge and plunged into the sphere of Samantabhadra’s practice.[3]

4.     Mañjuśrī then left Sudhana.[4]

[1] As regards why Maitreya directed Sudhana to Mañjuśrī, Maitreya was “showing that the ultimate result [buddhahood] is the same as the cause [bodhicitta], because the way into eternity of the silent function of universally illumined knowledge is not of the past, present, or future and has no beginning or end, no exit or entry.

 “Sudhana traveled through a hundred and ten cities to see Mañjuśrī, representing simultaneous certainty of the principles he had practiced. The unity of all buddhas and sentient beings in the same one real universe is the place where Mañjuśrī is seen.”

[2] “Laying the hand on the head symbolizes mutual identification of cause and effect. The hundred and ten leagues symbolize having passed through the causes and effects of the five ranks.” 

[3] “Introduction to the realm of the practice of Samantabhadra means introduction to perpetual practice of Samantabhadra after the fruition of buddhahood.”

[4] “After establishing Sudhana in his own place, Mañjuśrī disappeared, illustrating how after the fruition of buddhahood one is not different from when one was among ordinary mortals. After one attains buddhahood, buddha is basically nonexistent, so Mañjuśrī ‘disappeared.’

 “Sudhana saw as many spiritual benefactors as atoms in a billion-world universe, in a sense that knowledge of the body of reality (Dharmakāya) pervades the real universe evenly, so he saw everything everywhere as no different from the body of Mañjuśrī, the personification of wisdom.” (1625–1626)