After contemplating in this way, King of
the Honored Multitude Bodhisattva cognized his own body as nothing more than
the great earth element, and keeping his mind on great earth element, he took
the woman’s hand and sat beside her on a single seat. He then told the woman,
“You should take refuge in the World-Honored One and generate an aspiration for
Buddha Bodhi. The Dharma path of the World-Honored One does not praise the
worldly practices of sexual desire and craving pursued by unwise and deluded
ordinary beings. On the contrary, only by cultivating dispassion or detachment from
desire and eliminating craving can one accomplish the Buddhahood Path and
become the Great Venerable, whom all sentient beings in heaven and the human
realm revere and study under.” At that moment, having heard the teaching of
King of the Honored Multitude Bodhisattva, the woman’s heart became filled with
immeasurable joy. She rose from her seat, and, with the sincerest reverence,
prostrated before King of the Honored Multitude Bodhisattva and said, “I
previously harbored thoughts of unwholesome desire and craving toward you. Now,
I wish to confess and repent before you in person.” Thereupon, the woman generated
the pure and wholesome aspiration for the unsurpassed, perfect enlightenment of
all Buddhas and Tathāgatas, vowing to benefit all sentient beings so that they,
too, could accomplish the Buddhahood Path. At this point, the World-Honored One
emphasized, “A bodhisattva like King of the Honored Multitude, who is able to
liberate and guide sentient beings through skillful means, ensures that the
followers he liberates and guides—both in the past and present—will henceforth
never regress from the Buddha Bodhi or fall into the three evil destinies.”
Moreover, due to King of the Honored Multitude Bodhisattva’s wisdom and
skillful means, the woman immediately confessed with utmost sincerity and made
great vows, so that after ninety-nine kalpas, she would accomplish the
Buddhahood Path.
In this story, King of the Honored
Multitude Bodhisattva contemplated the following Dharma teaching: “The internal
great earth element and the external great earth element are one great earth
element.” This involves analyzing and deconstructing a sentient being’s physical
body to clearly understand that the body is nothing but a composition of the
four great elements: earth, water, fire, and wind. The five sense faculties—the
eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and body—that held the woman’s hand and sat together
with her on the same seat are, in fact, the great earth element, no different
from the great earth element of solid matter in mountains, rivers, and land of
the external material world. There was no “self” that held the woman’s hand and
sat with her. (Part 3/4)
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