Muktaka
Sudhana’s next visitation with another layman, Muktaka (The Liberated One), is anything other than an ordinary occurrence. The lines of this astonishing text is revealing something quite extraordinary. Sudhana has advanced to such a stage that since his departure from Megha and his arriving at the splendid abode of Mukata a miraculous transformation has gradually occurred within his own mindset:
…his mind illumined by the lightning of knowledge of those who realize Thusness, realizing the exaltation of faith in omniscience, never without the exaltation of faith in the buddha-teaching, filled with the exaltation of the empowerment of Buddha, illumined by the inherent mental light of all buddhas, hearing the vow to penetrate all networks of worlds with his own body, intent on putting all universes at once into his own body, made his way gradually to the country Vanavasin, arriving there after twelve years…
Once again the “twelve-year” journey is indicative of a continual maturation away from the usual twelve links of conditioning into the true substance of meditation in a transformative-mode of consciousness. Sudhana’s intent of “putting all universes at once into his own body” is something in league with Muktaka that we will encounter soon. What the text is extrapolating is a singularly known phenomenon within these blogs and that is the nature of the Manomayakāya, or the Mind-Made Body. Indeed, it is through the Manomayakāya that Sudhana and others in this sutra navigate through the Sambhogakayic-field—one that contains “all these Transcendent Buddha-fields”. Yea, the entire majestic Avataṃsaka itself is a Sambhogakayic-Wonder.
When we first are introduced to Muktaka he is qualitatively within an enlightening concentration known as the “collection of all Buddha-fields”:
At that juncture Muktaka entered an enlightening concentration medium
called “collection of all buddha-fields,” led by a mystic formula of endless
progression, accomplishing entry into this concentration by the power of
his past roots of goodness, by the empowerment of the Buddha, and by
Manjushri’s attention and gift of the light of knowledge. As soon as
Muktaka had entered that state, his body became pure, and by that purity of
body as many buddhas in the ten directions as atoms in ten buddha-lands
were visible within his body, along with the adornments of their pure lands,
their congregations, their pure lights, their past actions and abodes, their
mystical projections, their vows, their pure arrays of liberative practices,
their manifestations of attainment of perfect enlightenment, their turnings
of the wheel of teaching, their developments of sentient beings, and the ultimate consummation of their teaching. All these were visible within
Muktaka’s body without mutual confusion, without mutual obstruction,
clearly distinct, showing the various individual ages accurately defined, the
various arrays of the buddha-lands, the various adornments of the congregations of enlightening beings, and the various miracles of the buddhas.
Within this miraculous medium, Muktaka instantaneously becomes at-one-ment with all Buddha-fields within the ten-directions. As he describes it, he goes “in and out of liberation of Buddhas called unobstructed manifestation.” Thus he unobstructively sees such superlative Buddhas such as “Beam of Light Illuminating the Cosmos” in such wonderful Dharmatic-Realms like “Pure Clarity of Jewel-like Splendor.” Yet, the Transcendent Mechanism in which he is empowered to traverse such Realms is his own marvelous Manomayakāya. Also, observe how similar in context this relates to The Lankavatara Sutra:
I see whatever buddha I wish to see in whatever time in whatever abode involved in whatever past practice, whatever buddha I wish to see in whatever miraculous performances, in whatever teaching activity: and yet the buddhas do not come here, nor do I go there. Without discerning any coming from anywhere on the part of the buddhas, without discerning any going on the part of my own body, knowing the buddhas as like a dream, knowing my own mind as dreamlike thought, knowing the buddhas as like a reflection, knowing my own mind as like a vessel of clear water, knowing the buddhas as like magically produced forms, knowing my mind as like magic, knowing the nature of voices of the buddhas as the reverberation of the sound of echoes in the mountains, knowing my own mind as like an echo, I realize, I am mindful,
that all enlightenment principles of enlightening beings are based on one’s
own mind, that all their purification of buddha-lands, all enlightening practices, all development and guidance of sentient beings, all undertaking of
the vows of enlightening beings, all attainment to the ocean of omniscience,
roaming in the inconceivable liberation of enlightening beings, attainment
of the enlightenment of buddhas, spiritual communion with the cosmos,
and knowledge of subtle communion with all ages, [all are based on one’s
own mind.] (Brackets Mine)
Such then is Sudhana’s exposure to an amazing mechanism that he slowly discerns he is already quite-able to produce within his own mind-field. It is one that will prove invaluable in his subsequent transcendental rendezvouses.