Ten Things That Complete the Practice
Fascicle sixty-nine opens with Good-Wealth changing his question. For thirty-two teachers he has asked how a bodhisattva learns and cultivates; here he asks about the grounds — how they are cultivated, brought forth, and accomplished — and gets a list of ten in reply.
What He Took From the Last Teacher
Ten things understood, all of them traced back to a single moment in Vāsantī's past — the instant a spirit woke her.
爾時，善財童子了知彼婆珊婆演底夜神初發菩提心所生菩薩藏、所發菩薩願、所淨菩薩度、所入菩薩地、所修菩薩行、所行出離道、一切智光海、普救眾生心、普遍大悲雲、於一切佛剎盡未來際常能出生普賢行願。
At that time, Good-Wealth fully understood, concerning that night-spirit Vāsantī's first giving rise to the mind of awakening, the bodhisattva-treasury it had produced, the bodhisattva vows she had made, the bodhisattva crossings she had purified, the bodhisattva grounds she had entered, the bodhisattva practices she had cultivated, the path of deliverance she had walked, her ocean of the light of all-knowing wisdom, her mind that rescues beings universally, her universally pervading cloud of great compassion, and how in every buddha-land, to the end of all future time, she could constantly bring forth Samantabhadra's practices and vows.
了知彼婆珊婆演底夜神初發菩提心所生菩薩藏 — he fully understood, concerning that night-spirit Vāsantī's first giving rise to the mind of awakening, the bodhisattva-treasury it had produced. Everything in this long sentence hangs on 初發菩提心, the first arising of the aspiration — the event she described in Parts 1080 and 1081. What Good-Wealth carries away is not her liberation but an understanding of how much came out of one night in a bedroom.
A Different Question
Three clauses where there is normally one, and the subject has shifted. He no longer asks about practices; he asks about grounds — and about three distinct operations upon them.
漸次遊行，至普德淨光夜神所，頂禮其足，遶無數匝，於前合掌而作是言：「聖者！我已先發阿耨多羅三藐三菩提心，而我未知菩薩云何修行菩薩地？云何出生菩薩地？云何成就菩薩地？」
Journeying onward by stages, he came to where the night-spirit Universal Virtue's Pure Light was, bowed his head at her feet, circled her countless times, and joining his palms before her said this: "Noble one, I have already given rise to the mind of anuttara-samyak-sambodhi, but I do not yet know how a bodhisattva cultivates the bodhisattva grounds, how a bodhisattva brings forth the bodhisattva grounds, or how a bodhisattva accomplishes the bodhisattva grounds."
夜神答言：「善哉善哉！善男子！汝已能發阿耨多羅三藐三菩提心，今復問於菩薩地修行、出生及以成就。
The night-spirit answered: "Excellent, excellent! Good son, you have already been able to give rise to the mind of anuttara-samyak-sambodhi, and now you further ask about the cultivating, the bringing forth, and the accomplishing of the bodhisattva grounds.
云何修行菩薩地？云何出生菩薩地？云何成就菩薩地？ — how does a bodhisattva cultivate, bring forth, and accomplish the bodhisattva grounds? This is the first substantive change to Good-Wealth's standing question in many fascicles. The formula he has used since the pilgrimage began asks 云何學菩薩行、云何修菩薩道 — how to learn the practices and cultivate the path. Here he asks about 地, the grounds, and he distinguishes three verbs; and the night-spirit's reply repeats all three back to him before answering, which is the sūtra's way of confirming that the change was deliberate.
Five, and Then Five More
Every one of the ten is something a bodhisattva sees, knows, or attains regarding buddhas — and three of them concern what comes out of a single pore.
「善男子！菩薩成就十法，能圓滿菩薩行。何者為十？一者，得清淨三昧，常見一切佛；二者，得清淨眼，常觀一切佛相好莊嚴；三者，知一切如來無量無邊功德大海；四者，知等法界無量諸佛法光明海；五者，知一切如來，一一毛孔放等眾生數大光明海，利益無量一切眾生；
"Good son, when a bodhisattva accomplishes ten dharmas, they can fulfill the bodhisattva practices. What are these ten? First, attaining pure samādhi and constantly seeing every buddha. Second, attaining the pure eye and constantly beholding every buddha's adornment of marks and signs. Third, knowing the great ocean of every tathāgata's measureless, boundless merit. Fourth, knowing the ocean of the light of the dharma of measureless buddhas, equal to the dharma-realm. Fifth, knowing that every tathāgata, from each single pore, releases an ocean of great light equal in number to beings, benefiting measureless beings of every kind.
六者，見一切如來，一一毛孔出一切寶色光明焰海；七者，於念念中出現一切佛變化海充滿法界，究竟一切諸佛境界調伏眾生；八者，得佛音聲同一切眾生言音海，轉三世一切佛法輪；九者，知一切佛無邊名號海；十者，知一切佛調伏眾生不思議自在力。善男子！菩薩成就此十種法，則能圓滿菩薩諸行。
Sixth, seeing that every tathāgata, from each single pore, sends forth an ocean of flaming light of every jewel-color. Seventh, that in thought after thought there appears an ocean of every buddha's transformations, filling the dharma-realm, bringing to its consummation the domain of every buddha and taming beings. Eighth, attaining a buddha's voice, the same as the ocean of the speech and sounds of all beings, and turning the dharma-wheel of every buddha of the three times. Ninth, knowing the boundless ocean of every buddha's names. Tenth, knowing every buddha's inconceivable sovereign power in taming beings. Good son, when a bodhisattva accomplishes these ten dharmas, they can then fulfill the bodhisattva practices.
一一毛孔放等眾生數大光明海 — from each single pore, an ocean of great light equal in number to beings. The fifth and sixth items both begin at a pore, and the fifth attaches a specific quantity to it: one light for every being there is. Good-Wealth's own farewell verse in the previous part had spent four stanzas on Vāsantī's pores; the teacher he has now reached opens her teaching with the same anatomy, applied to buddhas.
得佛音聲同一切眾生言音海 — attaining a buddha's voice, the same as the ocean of the speech and sounds of all beings. The eighth item does not say the bodhisattva's voice reaches every language; it says it is 同, the same as, the whole ocean of what beings say. Vāsantī claimed in her gāthā that her ears missed nothing; here the corresponding claim is made of a mouth.
Part 1083 Complete
This opens chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle sixty-nine. Part 1084 gives her own liberation — a universal roaming step within the joy of tranquil meditation — and ten negations by which she knows that a tathāgata neither goes nor comes, is neither born nor extinguished, is neither real nor false.