Ten Grounds and Ten Gates of Wisdom
The list of seats ends with the bodhisattvas — one seat for beginners, one for each of the ten grounds, one for the vajra-wielders — and then the sūtra asks its own question, why can she do this at all, and answers with ten gates of prajñā.
Beginners, and the First Five Grounds
The bodhisattva seats are graded, and the first of them holds those who have only just made the aspiration — given, of all things, a gate named for the vows of every buddha.
或見處座，初發心諸菩薩所共圍遶；此比丘尼為說法門，名：一切佛願聚。或見處座，第二地諸菩薩所共圍遶；此比丘尼為說法門，名：離垢輪。或見處座，第三地諸菩薩所共圍遶；此比丘尼為說法門，名：寂靜莊嚴。或見處座，第四地諸菩薩所共圍遶；此比丘尼為說法門，名：生一切智境界。或見處座，第五地諸菩薩所共圍遶；此比丘尼為說法門，名：妙華藏。
On one seat he saw her surrounded together by the bodhisattvas who have first given rise to the aspiration; for them this bhikṣuṇī taught a dharma-gate named the Gathering of Every Buddha's Vows. On one seat he saw her surrounded together by the bodhisattvas of the second ground; for them this bhikṣuṇī taught a dharma-gate named the Wheel Free of Defilement. On one seat he saw her surrounded together by the bodhisattvas of the third ground; for them this bhikṣuṇī taught a dharma-gate named Tranquil Adornment. On one seat he saw her surrounded together by the bodhisattvas of the fourth ground; for them this bhikṣuṇī taught a dharma-gate named Giving Rise to the Domain of All-Knowing Wisdom. On one seat he saw her surrounded together by the bodhisattvas of the fifth ground; for them this bhikṣuṇī taught a dharma-gate named the Wondrous Flower Treasury.
初發心諸菩薩 — the bodhisattvas who have first given rise to the aspiration, and the gate they are given is 一切佛願聚, the Gathering of Every Buddha's Vows. The least advanced assembly on the list receives the widest possible subject. Nothing is graded down for beginners here; what changes from seat to seat is the gate, not its scale.
The Last Five Grounds, and the Vajra-Wielders
The ninth ground's gate is the strangest name in the series — an adornment made of power that attains nothing — and the list closes on the spirits who guard buddhas rather than on bodhisattvas at all.
或見處座，第六地諸菩薩所共圍遶；此比丘尼為說法門，名：毘盧遮那藏。或見處座，第七地諸菩薩所共圍遶；此比丘尼為說法門，名：普莊嚴地。或見處座，第八地諸菩薩所共圍遶；此比丘尼為說法門，名：遍法界境界身。或見處座，第九地諸菩薩所共圍遶；此比丘尼為說法門，名：無所得力莊嚴。或見處座，第十地諸菩薩所共圍遶；此比丘尼為說法門，名：無礙輪。或見處座，執金剛神所共圍遶；此比丘尼為說法門，名：金剛智那羅延莊嚴。
On one seat he saw her surrounded together by the bodhisattvas of the sixth ground; for them this bhikṣuṇī taught a dharma-gate named the Vairocana Treasury. On one seat he saw her surrounded together by the bodhisattvas of the seventh ground; for them this bhikṣuṇī taught a dharma-gate named the Ground of Universal Adornment. On one seat he saw her surrounded together by the bodhisattvas of the eighth ground; for them this bhikṣuṇī taught a dharma-gate named the Body Whose Domain Pervades the Dharma-Realm. On one seat he saw her surrounded together by the bodhisattvas of the ninth ground; for them this bhikṣuṇī taught a dharma-gate named the Adornment of the Power of Nothing to Be Attained. On one seat he saw her surrounded together by the bodhisattvas of the tenth ground; for them this bhikṣuṇī taught a dharma-gate named the Unobstructed Wheel. On one seat he saw her surrounded together by the vajra-wielding spirits; for them this bhikṣuṇī taught a dharma-gate named the Nārāyaṇa Adornment of Vajra Wisdom.
無所得力莊嚴 — the Adornment of the Power of Nothing to Be Attained. 無所得 is the standard formula for the absence of any graspable object, and joining it to 力, power, makes the name deliberately self-cancelling: a strength whose whole content is that there is nothing to get. It is given to the ninth ground, the last before the tenth, where a bodhisattva's capacities are at their most formidable.
金剛智那羅延莊嚴 — the Nārāyaṇa Adornment of Vajra Wisdom. 那羅延 is a transliteration this translation has carried since the opening fascicles, where a vajra-wielding spirit bears it as part of his own name; here it stands for sheer indestructible strength, and the gate given to the vajra-wielders is the only one in either list named for force.
Only Those Already Ripe
Having counted the seats, the sūtra states the condition for sitting on one — and then asks the question the whole passage has been building toward.
善財童子見如是等一切諸趣所有眾生已成熟者、已調伏者，堪為法器，皆入此園，各於座下圍遶而坐。師子頻申比丘尼，隨其欲解勝劣差別而為說法，令於阿耨多羅三藐三菩提得不退轉。何以故？
Good-Wealth saw that of all the beings in every destiny of existence such as these, those already ripened and those already tamed, fit to be vessels for the dharma, all entered this garden and sat encircling her beneath each of her seats. The bhikṣuṇī Lion's Roar taught the dharma in accordance with the differences of their aspiration and understanding, superior or lesser, causing them to become irreversible in anuttara-samyak-sambodhi. Why was this?
已成熟者、已調伏者，堪為法器 — those already ripened, those already tamed, fit to be vessels for the dharma. The garden holds every being in the trichiliocosm without crowding, but not every being is in it. Admission has a condition, and it is not devotion or merit but readiness — the same word, 成熟, used of fruit.
Ten Gates of Prajñā
The answer to 何以故 — why was this — is not her compassion or her vow but her wisdom, itemized. Ten gates are named, and they are called only the foremost of countless millions.
此比丘尼入普眼捨得般若波羅蜜門、說一切佛法般若波羅蜜門、法界差別般若波羅蜜門、散壞一切障礙輪般若波羅蜜門、生一切眾生善心般若波羅蜜門、殊勝莊嚴般若波羅蜜門、無礙真實藏般若波羅蜜門、法界圓滿般若波羅蜜門、心藏般若波羅蜜門、普出生藏般若波羅蜜門，此十般若波羅蜜門為首，入如是等無數百萬般若波羅蜜門。
This bhikṣuṇī had entered the prajñāpāramitā-gate of the universal eye's giving and gaining, the prajñāpāramitā-gate of teaching every buddha-dharma, the prajñāpāramitā-gate of the differentiations of the dharma-realm, the prajñāpāramitā-gate of scattering and destroying every wheel of obstruction, the prajñāpāramitā-gate of giving rise to a good mind in every being, the prajñāpāramitā-gate of surpassing adornment, the prajñāpāramitā-gate of the unobstructed treasury of the real, the prajñāpāramitā-gate of the fullness of the dharma-realm, the prajñāpāramitā-gate of the mind-treasury, and the prajñāpāramitā-gate of the treasury that universally gives birth. With these ten prajñāpāramitā-gates as the foremost, she had entered countless millions of prajñāpāramitā-gates such as these.
普眼捨得 — the universal eye's giving and gaining. 捨 is releasing and 得 is obtaining, paired as a single gate; the first and governing item of the ten is not a kind of knowledge but a way of holding and letting go at once. This translation has used the same rendering for this gate since its earlier appearances in the pilgrimage, and keeps it here.
此十般若波羅蜜門為首，入如是等無數百萬般若波羅蜜門 — with these ten as the foremost, she had entered countless millions of them. The number ten is never a total in this sūtra; it is the shape a list takes when it is meant to stand for an unlimited one.
Part 1058 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle sixty-seven. Part 1059 reveals that every bodhisattva and being in the Garden of Sunlight was first set on the path by Lion's Roar herself, and then Good-Wealth wishes to circle her — and finds the garden's own trees circling with him.