Sudhana's Vision in the Tower
Maitreya then said to Sudhana:
"You ask how to learn and carry out the practice of bodhisattvas.
Go into this great tower containing the adornments of Vairocana and
look around. Then you will know how to learn the practice of
bodhisattvas."
Then Sudhana said:
"Please open the door of the tower, and I will enter."
Maitreya went up to the door and snapped his fingers. The door of
the great tower opened, and Maitreya told Sudhana to go in.
With a sense of great wonderment, Sudhana went into the tower. As
soon as he had entered, the door closed behind him.
Once inside, Sudhana saw that the tower was immensely vast and
wide, as measureless as the sky, as vast as all of space. It was
adorned with countless canopies, banners, pennants, arrays of
jewels, garlands of pearls and gems, nets of gold and jewels, nets
of bells and chimes, with flowers showering down and beautiful
fragrances in the air.
Inside the great tower Sudhana saw hundreds of thousands of other
towers similarly adorned. He saw those towers as infinitely vast as
space, evenly arrayed in all directions, yet all distinct from each
other and not interfering with each other. Each tower appears
reflected in each and every object within all the other
towers.
Seeing the inconceivable realm of the great tower, Sudhana was
filled with joy. His mind was cleared of all concepts and freed of
all obstructions. He was freed from all scattering of attention,
and his intellect followed the unobstructed eye of liberation. His
body tranquil, seeing all things without hindrance, he bowed in all
directions with his whole body.
The instant he bowed, by the power of Maitreya, Sudhana perceived
himself in all those towers, and in all those towers he saw various
inconceivable scenes.
In one tower Sudhana saw the place where the enlightening being
Maitreya first aspired to supreme perfect enlightenment. Sudhana
perceived the lifespans of the sentient beings and the buddha of
that time, and he saw himself in the presence of that buddha, and
he saw all that buddha's works.
In one tower Sudhana saw where Maitreya first attained absorption
in love, from which he got his name Maitreya means "The Loving
One." In another tower he saw where Maitreya carried out spiritual
practice. In another tower he saw where Maitreya fulfilled the ways
of transcendence. In another tower he saw where Maitreya attained
the acceptance of all things as unborn and unreal.
In one tower Sudhana saw Maitreya as a sovereign ruler directing
people to virtuous action. In another tower he saw Maitreya as a
world-guardian bestowing well-being and happiness on the world. In
other towers he saw Maitreya in the forms of all sorts of beings
helping sentient beings living on all planes of existence toward
enlightenment.
In one tower Sudhana saw Maitreya expounding the Teaching to
would-be bodhisattvas who had just set their minds on
enlightenment. In another tower he saw Maitreya praising the stages
of the bodhisattva path to those who had undertaken practice. In
other towers he saw Maitreya explaining the Teaching to
bodhisattvas at various stages of development.
In one tower Sudhana saw Maitreya speaking of the infinity of
fulfilling transcendent ways. In another tower he saw Maitreya
speaking of impartiality in approaching and entering into all
studies.
In another tower he saw Maitreya speaking of the breadth of entry
into concentration, and in another, of the depth of liberation. In
another tower he saw Maitreya speaking of pervading the realm of
higher knowledge with quiescent meditation, concentration, and
trance. In another tower he saw Maitreya speaking of methods of
guidance in bodhisattva practice.
In another tower Sudhana saw Maitreya with a group of bodhisattvas
engaged in the same practice as he engages in, speaking of the
varios arts and sciences to be employed for the benefit of the
world.
In different towers Sudhana saw Maitreya engaged in various
practices walking meditation, recitation, contemplation of
theoretical structures, teaching and explaining, recording the
Teaching in writing.
In different towers he saw Maitreya absorbed in concentration on
universal love, absorbed in all sorts of meditation and
immeasurable states, absorbed in the totalizing points, absorbed in
the liberations. In another tower he saw Maitreya absorbed in the
practice of bringing forth the higher knowledge of enlightening
beings.
In one tower Sudhana saw bodhisattvas absorbed in an enlightening
concentration in which phantoms of all kinds of beings emanated
from their pores supernatural beings, human beings of all ranks
and conditions, people following the Teaching at various levels. He
saw multitudes of buddha-bodies and countless multitudes of phantom
sentient beings emerge. Sudhana heard various aspects of the
Teaching being broadcast from the pores of some of these
bodhisattvas.
In another tower Sudhana saw all the audiences of the buddhas
gathering together. He saw the differences among those buddhas, the
differences in the lands and eras in which they worked, the variety
of their teachings, and the variety of the outwardness of their
projected manifestations. He saw the different lengths of time the
True Teaching endured in the various settings, and the differences
in the audiences listening to the buddhas.
Then, in the middle of the great tower containing the adornments of
Vairocana, amidst the hundreds of thousands of other towers,
Sudhana saw one tower that was bigger than the others, and arrayed
with adornments surpassing all the others.
In that tower Sudhana saw a billion-world universe. He saw the
landscape of each world, and in each world he saw Maitreya being
born and going through all the stages of the quest for
enlightenment, awakening to enlightenment, and then going forth to
teach, using various manifestations of the Teaching. And everywhere
in all these worlds Sudhana perceived himself at Maitreya's
feet.
As he looked upon all those assemblies being taught by Maitreya in
all those worlds, and all the works Maitreya was carrying out with
them, Sudhana heard a vast multitude of voices pouring forth from
all the objects and all the living beings, retelling the stories of
countless numbers of quests for enlightenment, in different worlds
at different times, carried out in different ways.
By listening to all those voices Sudhana heard all facets of the
Teaching, and his mind was flooded with joy.
Sudhana also saw measureless arrays of images, reflections of the
assemblies of the buddhas, circles of bodhisattvas, congregations
of believers and followers. He saw all sorts of lands and worlds
and planes of existence. He saw countless bodhisattvas engaged in
various activities, working for the good of all.
Sudhana saw webs of jewel lights coming from the pillars some
sapphire, some topaz, some ruby, some crystal, some golden, some
emerald, some diamond, some rainbow of light. The vision was
delightful to the body and the mind, and supremely pleasant to the
eye.
Sudhana saw figurines made of jewels, holding myriads of flowers,
garlands, parasols, banners, strings of jewels, ornaments. Some of
the figures were bowing, crowned with jewels, with a steady gaze
and palms joined in a gesture of respect.
Sudhana also saw pearl necklaces giving forth delicate clouds of
pure water transmitting all fragrances. He saw long streams flowing
from webs of strings of bluegreen jewels. He saw the inner chamber
adorned with jewel bells and sets of chimes, silk streamers, heaps
of varios gems. He saw countless superb lotuses of all colors and
sizes growing in lotus ponds. He saw arrays of various figures
women and men, boys and girls, Indra and Brahma, gods and dragons,
goblins and titans, all sorts of saints and sages and enlightening
beings all joining their palms and bowing in a gesture of
respect.
Sudhana also saw figures of buddhas adorned with their special
marks of greatness sitting in the lotus posture.
Sudhana saw the surface of the ground was covered with a mosaic of
precious stones. In each inlaid stone he saw inconceivable
reflections of lands and buddhas and all the adornments in all the
towers.
Sudhana looked at the flowers, fruits, and buds of the jewel trees
surrounding him and saw figures of all kinds of beings buddhas,
bodhisattvas, gods and dragons, emperors and princes, grandees and
government ministers, women and men, boys and girls, monks and nuns
and male and female believers.
Some were holding garlands of flowers, some strings of jewels, some
other kinds of ornaments. Some were bowing with palms joined and a
steady gaze, paying their respects. Some were singing hymns of
praise. Some were in a trance. Some had a golden luster, some a
silver luster, some a frosty luster, some a sapphire luster. Some
were shining with the colors of all jewels, some were shining like
bodies of light.
From the crescents adorning the towers, Sudhana saw the reflections
of countless suns and stars shining in all directions.
Sudhana saw that the walls of the towers were covered with mosaics
of jewels. In each jewel he saw Maitreya carrying out the practices
of bodhisattvas, sacrificing himself for the good of others, giving
people the things they needed, teaching in all sorts of ways.
In this way Sudhana saw in each facet of the mosaic walls
Maitreya's practice of generosity, discipline, tolerance, energy,
meditation, and wisdom over countless eons.
In one tower Sudhana saw magical arrays of all the spiritual
benefactors with whom Maitreya had studied, and he perceived
himself also to be in the presence of all those benefactors, who
made him welcome and told him not to weary, but to behold the
wonder of the bodhisattva Maitreya.
In this way Sudhana saw all these magnificent scenes projected from
each of the towers, and every object in towers. He saw all this by
the power of unwavering mindfulness, by all-encompassing purity of
vision, by standing on the ground of knowledge that flows from the
perception of bodhisattvas.
It was like when a person dreams of all sorts of pleasant scenes
with all attachments removed and feels joy it may seem to last a
day, a week, a year, a century, even longer, but when the person
awakes, he remembers it all.
In the same way, Sudhana saw the whole supernal manifestation of
the tower of Vairocana, was perfectly aware of it, understood it,
contemplatated it, used it as a means, and saw himself within it
by the knowledge of the collection of dreams that constitutes the
world, abiding in the vast unobstructed perception of bodhisattvas,
his intellect having entered into the inconceivable wisdom of
bodhisattvas.
Though the whole experience only took a short time, in that short
time, with th perception of a bodhisattva, by the power of
Maitreya, Sudhana had the sense of billions of eons of time
passing.
Sudhana saw all those miraculous displays by the inconceivable
direction of the magic of the Maitreya's enlightening knowledge,
and by bringing forth the magic of the knowledge of truth, and by
the power of the mystic knowledge mastered by a
bodhisattva.