Buddha-Lands Crossed in a Single Step
The answer to how far and how long is given as arithmetic, and the arithmetic does not resolve. Uncountable steps per thought, uncountable buddha-lands per step, for uncountable eons — and he entered every one of them and made an offering.
The Arithmetic of the Journey
Three nested magnitudes — eons, steps within a thought, buddha-lands within a step — and then the detail that makes the figures matter: he stopped at each one.
正趣菩薩言：「善男子！我從東方妙藏世界普勝生佛所而來此土，於彼佛所得此法門，從彼發來已經不可說不可說佛剎微塵數劫，一一念中舉不可說不可說佛剎微塵數步，一一步過不可說不可說世界微塵數佛剎。一一佛剎，我皆遍入，至其佛所，以妙供具而為供養；此諸供具，皆是無上心所成，無作法所印，諸如來所忍，諸菩薩所歎。
Right Course Bodhisattva said: "Good son, I have come to this land from the presence of the Buddha Universal Victory Arising, in the Wondrous Treasury world in the east, and it was at that buddha's place that I attained this dharma-gate. Since setting out from there, eons as numerous as the fine motes of dust in unspeakably unspeakable buddha-lands have already passed; and in each single thought I raise steps as numerous as the fine motes of dust in unspeakably unspeakable buddha-lands, and each single step passes buddha-lands as numerous as the motes of dust in unspeakably unspeakable worlds. Into every single one of those buddha-lands I enter throughout, and reaching the place of its buddha, I make offerings with wondrous offering-implements; and all these offerings are formed by the unsurpassed mind, sealed by the dharma of non-doing, accepted by every tathāgata, and praised by every bodhisattva.
一一佛剎，我皆遍入，至其佛所，以妙供具而為供養 — into every single one of those buddha-lands I enter throughout, and reaching the place of its buddha, I make offerings. The numbers would be empty rhetoric without this clause. He is not covering distance; he is visiting. The unspeakable figure is a count of stops, not of miles.
此諸供具，皆是無上心所成，無作法所印 — all these offerings are formed by the unsurpassed mind, sealed by the dharma of non-doing. 無作, non-doing, and 所成, formed or made, sit in the same sentence without contradiction: the offerings are produced by mind rather than by manufacture, and 印, sealed, marks them as authenticated by that fact.
普勝生佛 — the Buddha Universal Victory Arising. The name is plain Chinese rather than transliteration, so we render its sense; the final character 生 can be read either as arising or as being born, and the Chinese does not settle which.
And the Same in Every Other Direction
Having described what he does in the east he came from, he adds, in one clause, that the whole account holds in nine more directions.
善男子！我又普見彼世界中一切眾生，悉知其心，悉知其根，隨其欲解，現身說法，或放光明，或施財寶，種種方便，教化調伏，無有休息。如從東方，南、西、北方，四維、上、下，亦復如是。
Good son, I also see universally every being in those worlds, and know each of their minds entirely and each of their faculties entirely; and in accordance with what each desires and understands, I manifest a body and teach the dharma, sometimes releasing radiance, sometimes bestowing wealth and jewels — by every kind of skillful means teaching, transforming and taming them, without rest. And as with the east, so it is also with the south, the west, the north, the four intermediate directions, the zenith, and the nadir.
Swift, and Everywhere
His confession takes his own specialty — speed and reach — and describes bodhisattvas for whom the category no longer applies, because there is nowhere left to travel to.
「善男子！我唯得此菩薩普疾行解脫，能疾周遍到一切處。如諸菩薩摩訶薩，普於十方無所不至，智慧境界等無差別，善布其身悉遍法界，至一切道，入一切剎，知一切法，到一切世，平等演說一切法門，同時照耀一切眾生，於諸佛所不生分別，於一切處無有障礙；而我云何能知能說彼功德行？
"Good son, I have attained only this bodhisattva liberation of the universally swift practice, which can reach everywhere throughout, and swiftly. But the bodhisattva-mahāsattvas reach everywhere universally throughout the ten directions, with nowhere they do not go; their domain of wisdom is equal, without any difference; they spread their bodies skillfully so as to pervade the whole dharma-realm; they reach every path, enter every buddha-land, know every dharma, and arrive in every age; they expound every dharma-gate equally and illuminate every being at one and the same time; they give rise to no discrimination toward any buddha, and in every place there is nothing that obstructs them. How, then, could I know or speak of their meritorious practice?
善布其身悉遍法界 — they spread their bodies skillfully so as to pervade the whole dharma-realm. 布 is the ordinary verb for spreading a cloth or laying something out. The bodhisattvas he describes do not cross the dharma-realm quickly; they are already laid out across it, which is why his own swiftness reads to him as a limitation.
A Thirtieth Teacher, and What Came With the Road
The next teacher is not human, and not a bodhisattva either — the sūtra calls him 神, a spirit. And the journey itself again yields thirteen attainments before Good-Wealth arrives.
「善男子！於此南方有城，名：墮羅鉢底；其中有神，名曰：大天。汝詣彼問：菩薩云何學菩薩行、修菩薩道？」時，善財童子頂禮其足，遶無數匝，慇懃瞻仰，辭退而去。
"Good son, to the south of here there is a city named Dvāravatī, and within it there is a spirit named Great God. You should go to him and ask: how does a bodhisattva learn the bodhisattva practices, and cultivate the bodhisattva path?" At that time, Good-Wealth bowed his head at his feet, circled him countless times, gazed up at him with earnest devotion, took his leave, and departed.
爾時，善財童子入菩薩廣大行，求菩薩智慧境，見菩薩神通事，念菩薩勝功德，生菩薩大歡喜，起菩薩堅精進，入菩薩不思議自在解脫，行菩薩功德地，觀菩薩三昧地，住菩薩總持地，入菩薩大願地，得菩薩辯才地，成菩薩諸力地。
At that time, Good-Wealth entered the bodhisattvas' vast practice, sought the bodhisattvas' domain of wisdom, saw the bodhisattvas' works of spiritual power, held in mind the bodhisattvas' surpassing merit, gave rise to the bodhisattvas' great delight, raised the bodhisattvas' firm diligence, entered the bodhisattvas' inconceivable sovereign liberation, walked the bodhisattvas' ground of merit, contemplated the bodhisattvas' ground of samādhi, abided in the bodhisattvas' ground of comprehensive retention, entered the bodhisattvas' ground of great vows, attained the bodhisattvas' ground of eloquence, and accomplished the bodhisattvas' ground of every power.
其中有神，名曰：大天 — within it there is a spirit named Great God. 神 is the word for a local or tutelary spirit, not 菩薩 or 天子; and 大天, Great God, is plain Chinese. After a bodhisattva who crossed unspeakable buddha-lands to get here, the next teacher is a city's own resident deity. The sūtra's ordering of teachers has never tracked rank, and this juxtaposition is the sharpest instance of it so far.
墮羅鉢底 — Dvāravatī. The name is pure transliteration in the Chinese, and it is one of the few place-names in this pilgrimage that corresponds to a real and well-known Indian city — the Dvāravatī of the epics, on the western coast.
Part 1069 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle sixty-eight. Part 1070 has Good-Wealth reach Dvāravatī and find Great God, who stretches out four arms, washes his own face with the water of the four great oceans, scatters golden flowers over Good-Wealth, and then tells him how rare a bodhisattva is.