Ten Stories, Story by Story
Good-Wealth's ascent through Dharma-Jewel-Topknot's house moves from ordinary charity on the ground floor to fifth-ground bodhisattvas, a hundred million gates of prajñāpāramitā, and a tenth floor filled entirely with tathāgatas — one building holding the entire path within it.
Floors One Through Five
The house's lower floors begin with plain charity — food, clothing, ornaments, attendants — before the fifth floor turns from giving to gathering, filling with bodhisattvas as advanced as the fifth ground.
見最下層，施諸飲食。見第二層，施諸寶衣。見第三層，布施一切寶莊嚴具。見第四層，施諸采女并及一切上妙珍寶。見第五層，乃至五地菩薩雲集，演說諸法利益世間，成就一切陀羅尼門、諸三昧印、諸三昧行智慧光明。
On the lowest floor, he saw food and drink being given to all. On the second floor, he saw jeweled clothing being given to all. On the third floor, he saw every kind of jeweled ornament being given as alms. On the fourth floor, he saw serving maidens being given, along with every kind of supreme and wondrous treasure. On the fifth floor, bodhisattvas up through the fifth ground gathered like clouds, proclaiming the dharma for the world's own benefit, having accomplished every dhāraṇī-gate, every seal of samādhi, and the wisdom-light of every samādhi practice.
The Sixth Floor's Hundred Million Gates
The sixth floor holds bodhisattvas of profound wisdom revealing gate after gate of prajñāpāramitā — fourteen named here, and a hundred million asaṃkhyeyas more only gestured toward.
見第六層，有諸菩薩皆已成就甚深智慧，於諸法性明了通達，成就廣大總持三昧無障礙門，所行無礙，不住二法，在不可說妙莊嚴道場中而共集會，分別顯示般若波羅蜜門，所謂：寂靜藏般若波羅蜜門、善分別諸眾生智般若波羅蜜門、不可動轉般若波羅蜜門、離欲光明般若波羅蜜門、不可降伏藏般若波羅蜜門、照眾生輪般若波羅蜜門、海藏般若波羅蜜門、普眼捨得般若波羅蜜門、入無盡藏般若波羅蜜門、一切方便海般若波羅蜜門、入一切世間海般若波羅蜜門、無礙辯才般若波羅蜜門、隨順眾生般若波羅蜜門、無礙光明般若波羅蜜門、常觀宿緣而布法雲般若波羅蜜門……說如是等百萬阿僧祇般若波羅蜜門。
On the sixth floor, there were bodhisattvas who had all accomplished profound wisdom, clearly penetrating the nature of every dharma, having accomplished the vast unobstructed gate of dhāraṇī and samādhi, moving without obstruction, abiding in no dualistic dharma, gathered together within an unspeakable and wondrously adorned place of enlightenment, distinctly revealing gates of prajñāpāramitā — namely: the prajñāpāramitā-gate of the Treasury of Tranquility, the prajñāpāramitā-gate of skillfully discerning the wisdom of every being, the prajñāpāramitā-gate of what cannot be shaken or moved, the prajñāpāramitā-gate of the light of freedom from desire, the prajñāpāramitā-gate of the Treasury that cannot be subdued, the prajñāpāramitā-gate of illuminating the wheel of beings, the prajñāpāramitā-gate of the Sea Treasury, the prajñāpāramitā-gate of the universal eye's giving and gaining, the prajñāpāramitā-gate of entering the Inexhaustible Treasury, the prajñāpāramitā-gate of the sea of every skillful means, the prajñāpāramitā-gate of entering the sea of every world, the prajñāpāramitā-gate of unobstructed eloquence, the prajñāpāramitā-gate of according with every being, the prajñāpāramitā-gate of unobstructed light, and the prajñāpāramitā-gate of ever contemplating past conditions and spreading clouds of dharma — and so on, proclaiming a hundred million asaṃkhyeyas of such prajñāpāramitā-gates.
This is the shortest of this pilgrimage's enumerated lists so far — fourteen named gates rather than the hundred-odd of Loving-Conduct's own dhāraṇī-list — but the closing line puts it in proportion all the same: a hundred million asaṃkhyeyas of such gates, of which only fourteen are ever spoken aloud.
Floors Seven Through Ten
The house's upper floors rise in rank precisely as they rise in height — bodhisattvas who see all things as an echo, bodhisattvas with spiritual powers reaching every land, one-more-life bodhisattvas, and finally, on the tenth floor, tathāgatas themselves, filling the space entirely.
見第七層，有諸菩薩得如響忍，以方便智分別觀察而得出離，悉能聞持諸佛正法。見第八層，無量菩薩共集其中，皆得神通無有退墮，能以一音遍十方剎，其身普現一切道場，盡于法界靡不周遍，普入佛境，普見佛身，普於一切佛眾會中而為上首演說於法。見第九層，一生所繫諸菩薩眾於中集會。見第十層，一切如來充滿其中，從初發心，修菩薩行，超出生死，成滿大願及神通力，淨佛國土道場眾會，轉正法輪，調伏眾生。如是一切，悉使明見。
On the seventh floor, there were bodhisattvas who had attained the acceptance that all things are like an echo, and through skillful, discerning wisdom had attained liberation, all able to hear and hold every buddha's true dharma. On the eighth floor, measureless bodhisattvas gathered together, all having attained spiritual powers without regressing, able with a single voice to reach every land in the ten directions, their own bodies appearing universally in every place of enlightenment, reaching throughout the entire dharma-realm without exception, universally entering every buddha's own domain, universally beholding every buddha's own body, and serving as foremost teachers proclaiming the dharma within every buddha's own assembly. On the ninth floor, the assembly of bodhisattvas bound to one more life gathered together. On the tenth floor, every tathāgata filled the space entirely, from their first arising of the mind of bodhi, through cultivating the bodhisattva practices, transcending birth and death, perfecting their great vows and spiritual powers, purifying buddha-lands and places of enlightenment and their assemblies, turning the wheel of the true dharma, and taming beings. All of this, he was made to see with complete clarity.
從初發心 — from their first arising of the mind of bodhi. The tenth floor's tathāgatas are shown not as finished beings but as an entire path compressed into a single glance — the same first thought of bodhicitta Good-Wealth himself gave rise to, carried all the way through to buddhahood, filling the topmost room of an ordinary house in a market town.
Part 1010 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle sixty-six. Part 1011 turns to Good-Wealth's question about what could possibly cause such a vision, and Dharma-Jewel-Topknot's answer — a single act of devotion, many ages ago, to a buddha entering a city.