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.