Overall Teaching

The devas come to encourage the Bodhisattva to leave home and attain Buddhahood.

Summary

1.     While the Bodhisattva was with his consorts the devas considered that the time has come for the Bodhisattva to go forth for awakening.

2.     They asked the Bodhisattva when they would see him going forward and becoming a Buddha and teaching the Dharma.

3.     The Bodhisattva, through his aeons of practice, had achieved knowledge of timeliness, including knowing the perfect time for going forth and attaining awakening.

4.     In verse the devas’ song which encourages the Bodhisattva to go forth and attain awakening is recounted.

5.     The Bodhisattva’s home was exquisite and adorned like a divine palace. While in that palace the Bodhisattva was adorned with flowers, jewellery, oils, and good clothing. He was attended by many consorts who resembled goddesses. While usually he woke up to music played by the consorts, today the devas’ power made the music resound with songs encouraging him to go forth from home. They included verses that stated, for instance:

a. Having practiced the six perfections in past lives, now he must utilise them in going forth and saving beings by defeating Māra.

b. He should go to the supreme tree and grant the nectar of immortality to all beings.

c. Having given away all things in past lives, such as his body, kingdom, and family, he should now give away the supreme Dharma.

d. Various jātaka stories are recounted, such as the story of Śyāma, Maṇicūḍa,  Viśvāntāra, Kṣantivādin, Sahodhana, Candraprabha, his lives as a parrot, bear, horse, etc. wherein he developed the requisite qualities for Buddhahood.

6.     From the sounds of the consorts’ instruments, words uttered:

a.     The world is impermanent and things pass away like clouds or lightning.

b.    Beautiful forms in the world catch beings like a snare catches a monkey.

c. The wise understand desire as being like a bone among dogs. The learned see them as arising from conceptualisation.

d. Wealth and power disappear and dissipate and one can become a beggar and disagreeable to people as death.

e.     The Bodhisattva should teach us how to avoid old age, sickness, and death.

f.      The time for going forth has come.

g. Dependent origination which gives rise to suffering cannot be perfectly discerned. Its features are imputations of the mind. Arising and ceasing of consciousness is seen to be illusory and conceptuality.

h.    Nothing is where the five aggregates come together.

i.  Remember your previous actions, and do not forget to bring the noble wealth of the Dharma to all beings.

7.     The Bodhisattva could never stop thinking about the Dharma, even when with the consorts. He taught the Dharma without holding anything back, fulfilling both the Perfection of Generosity and Wisdom.

8.     Just as Bodhisattvas in the past, he acted in conformity with the ways of the worlds while being beyond the world.

9.     He ripened those in his company as friends—watching for the time to ripen their potential.

10.  He wished only for helping the world and for leaving home to attain Buddhahood and nirvāṇa. With no desires, he delighted only in giving.

11.  Encouraged by the verses from the instruments he manifested the four Dharma Gates in order to mature his retinue of consorts:

a.     The Dharma Gate of Pure Accomplishment

i. Four means of attracting disciples, kind talk, meaningful actions, and practicing what one preaches.

b.    The Dharma Gate of the Irreversible State

i. Power of aspiration towards omniscience and ensuring capacity of the Three Jewels is upheld and not wasted.

c.     The Dharma Gate of Putting Great Compassion into Practice

i. Disposition of never abandoning any sentient beings.

d.    The Dharma Gate of the Great Array

i. Unique strength of the accumulation of wisdom, ascertaining the meaning of different categories related to all the factors of awakening.

12.  The Bodhisattva caused miraculous displays of the Dharma gates to emerge from the sounds of music. The words that emerged, in verse, include virtues such as:

a.     Six Perfections

b.    Four Immeasurables

c.     Four Applications of Mindfulness

d.    Five Powers

e.     Five Faculties

f.      Noble Eightfold Path

13.  Thus he matured 84,000 women and hundreds of gods for attaining Buddhahood.

14.  A deva from Tuṣita, Hṛīdeva, with 32,000 gods in his assembly, arrived in mid-air at the Bodhisattva’s palace and in verse said:

a. You have acted in conformity with the world to ripen gods and humans, but now the time has come for you to consider leaving home.

b.    Only one with sight can show the way.

c. May those beings who are slaves to desire, when being trained by you, also form the wish to leave their own homes.

d. When the world of gods and humans hear that you have renounced such a dominion, they will long for the same.

e.     Being in the prime of life is the best time for him to leave home.

f.  The Four Guardians of the World are awaiting with their offering bowls at the feet of the Bodhi Tree, including Brahmā, who awaits to request you to turn the Dharma Wheel.

g. Fulfil the sweet-sounding and soft words of Dīpaṅkara’s prophecy of his awakening.