維摩義記 2.40

2.40

Next is the specific explanation. In this chapter, many are addressed: the first four are individually enumerated, and the text below—"All such bodhisattvas each said to [the Buddha]"—summarily mentions the rest. In the aforementioned individual treatments, he first addresses Maitreya to explain the fruit of the dharmakāya. Maitreya is a family name, translated here as "Benevolence" (ci); his personal name is Ajita, translated here as "Unconquered" (wusheng); he was the son of a chief minister of Vārāṇasī. When Maitreya was first born, he was endowed with all the physical marks and signs. The king of Vārāṇasī, named Brahmadatta, heard that he had been born with marks of merit surpassing other people; fearing that he would become a calamity to the state, he plotted to harm him and thereupon demanded him from his father to examine him. The father knew the king's intention and immediately replied to the king: "His maternal family has taken him away." Returning home, he immediately sent someone to deliver him to the kingdom of Bāvarī in South India to be raised by his maternal family. Maitreya's maternal uncle had the family name of Bāvarī; he had dark-blue hair and hands that touched his knees, and being clever, wise, and broadly learned, he was the foremost teacher of the world. He taught using what he knew. At the age of seven, Maitreya took instruction from him; in a single day, what he mastered surpassed many years' study, and before long he had completely mastered it. To make Maitreya's virtues known, his maternal uncle wished to establish an unrestricted great assembly on his own to make them evident. His family's goods were few, so he dispatched two disciples to Maitreya's family to request wealth and goods. On the way, the two disciples heard that the Buddha had just appeared in the world and diverted their path to behold him. At that time, the two were eaten by tigers; through the wholesome karma of turning toward the Buddha, they were together reborn in heaven, and so their mission failed to reach its destination. That Bāvarī waited a long time without result, and so, gathering all that his family possessed, he set up the assembly. When the assembly had completed seven days, at the very end a brāhmaṇa arrived; the wealth and food were both exhausted and he received nothing at all. He then flew into a great rage and said to Bāvarī: "I will certainly use a magic spell to shatter your head into seven pieces!" Bāvarī heard this and became extremely distressed. The two previous disciples who had been reborn in heaven saw their teacher's distress from afar and questioned him from the sky: "Why is the master like this?" Then Bāvarī fully stated what had happened to answer the two devas. He then asked them: "Who are you devas that you come to question me?" The devas answered him in full and told him: "The Buddha has already appeared in the world; why do you not go and see him? What benefit is there in vain sorrow?" That Bāvarī had previously read prophetic books and knew that the Buddha had appeared; hearing what they said, he immediately sent Maitreya together with sixteen people to go and verify the truth or falsehood of it, instructing them to observe whether the Buddha was endowed with the thirty-two physical marks and eighty secondary signs, and also instructing them to formulate questions in their minds in private: "Who is my master? How old is he now? How many physical marks are on his body?" Maitreya received the instruction and went there to test him. He saw that the Buddha's physical marks were clear and complete, and when he formulated the questions in his mind, [the Buddha] answered fully in accordance with the questions. At that time, Maitreya and the sixteen people went forth under the Buddha. The sixteen people immediately became arhats, while Maitreya alone did not grasp the extinction of outflows, aspiring instead to seek the Buddha Way. The Tathāgata then bestowed a prophecy upon him, saying that in his next lifetime he would be reborn in Tuṣita Heaven, and that after completing that celestial lifespan, he would descend to be born in Jambudvīpa and achieve the Buddha Way. The aspects of his attaining the Way are fully explained in the sūtra. Now the Buddha addresses him: first is the addressing, and then the declining. In the declining, he first explains his own incapability; below "suoyi" (the reason is), he explains it; and below "gwo" (therefore), he concludes. In the explanation, "suoyi" questions the preceding and raises the following. Below, it formally analyzes it, in which there are three parts: First, citing the circumstances of his being rebuked in the past. Second, from "shi Weimojie" (at that time Vimalakīrti) onward, revealing Vimalakīrti's words of instructive rebuke. Third, from "shizun Weimojie shuo shi fa" (World-Honoured One, when Vimalakīrti preached this dharma) onward, explaining the benefit of the instructive rebuke. In the first part, "recalling the past" cites the time he was rebuked. "Expounding the non-retrogressing stage for the king of Tuṣita and his retinue" highlights the event of his being rebuked. Because the Buddha's prophecy stated that Maitreya, upon relinquishing his body, would be born in Tuṣita, the Tuṣita heavenly king and his retinue frequently came to request the Dharma. On one occasion, they came to ask about the practices of the bhūmis, and Maitreya expounded them for them. From the pure mind upward is called the non-retrogressing stage; one may also call from the lineage stage upward the non-retrogressing stage. The practice that approaches the bhūmi in this position is called the practice of the bhūmi; one may also ask about the practice of completing the bhūmi and call that the practice of the bhūmi. That deva asked about the meaning of cultivation and accomplishment according to signs, and Maitreya expounded it for them; expounding signs obscures the real, and for this reason he was rebuked.