Buddhas Named Ten at a Time
Four eons, four worlds, forty buddhas named in order — and after each set of ten, the same admission. She served every one of them, and it had not yet worked. This is the most patient passage in the fascicle, and its subject is how long it takes.
Four Cycles, Each Ending the Same Way
The pattern is fixed: an eon and a world are named, then ten buddhas in numbered order, then one stanza saying it was not yet enough.
初佛功德海；第二功德燈；
第三妙寶幢；第四虛空智；
第五蓮華藏；第六無礙慧；
第七法月王；第八智燈輪；
第九兩足尊，寶焰山燈王；
第十調御師，三世華光音。
如是等諸佛，我悉曾供養，
然未得慧眼，入於解脫海。
從此次第有，一切寶光剎，
其劫名天勝，五百佛興世。
最初月光輪；第二名日燈；
第三名光幢；第四寶須彌；
第五名華焰；第六號燈海；
第七熾然佛；第八天藏佛；
九光明王幢；十普智光王。
如是等諸佛，我悉曾供養，
尚於諸法中，無而計為有。
從此復有劫，名曰梵光明；
世界蓮華燈，莊嚴極殊妙。
彼有無量佛，一一無量眾，
我悉曾供養，尊重聽聞法。
初寶須彌佛；二功德海佛；
三法界音佛；四法震雷佛；
五名法幢佛；六名地光佛；
七名法力光；八名虛空覺；
第九須彌光；第十功德雲。
如是等如來，我悉曾供養，
未能明了法，而入諸佛海。
次後復有劫，名為功德月；
爾時有世界，其名功德幢。
彼中有諸佛，八十那由他，
我皆以妙供，深心而敬奉。
初乾闥婆王；二名大樹王；
三功德須彌；第四寶眼佛；
第五盧舍那；第六光莊嚴；
第七法海佛；第八光勝佛；
九名賢勝佛；第十法王佛。
如是等諸佛，我悉曾供養，
然未得深智，入於諸法海。
The first buddha, Ocean of Merit; the second, Lamp of Merit; the third, Wondrous Jewel Banner; the fourth, Wisdom of Empty Space; the fifth, Lotus Treasury; the sixth, Unobstructed Wisdom; the seventh, Dharma-Moon King; the eighth, Wheel of the Lamp of Wisdom; the ninth, honored among the two-footed, Jewel-Flame Mountain Lamp King; the tenth, the Tamer, Flower-Light-Sound of the Three Times.
Buddhas such as these I served with offerings, every one; and yet I had not gained the eye of wisdom, nor entered the ocean of liberation.
After this there came in order the land All-Jewel Light, its eon named Heaven-Surpassing, in which five hundred buddhas arose in the world.
The first, Moonlight Wheel; the second, named Sun-Lamp; the third, named Light Banner; the fourth, Jewel Sumeru; the fifth, named Flower Flame; the sixth, called Ocean of Lamps; the seventh, Blazing Buddha; the eighth, Heavenly Treasury Buddha; the ninth, Radiance-King Banner; the tenth, Universal Wisdom Light King.
Buddhas such as these I served with offerings, every one; and still, among all dharmas, I reckoned as existent what does not exist.
After this there was again an eon, named Brahmā Radiance; its world was Lotus Lamp, most surpassing and wondrous in its adornment.
There were measureless buddhas there, each with a measureless assembly; I served them all with offerings, honoring them and hearing the dharma.
The first, Jewel Sumeru Buddha; the second, Ocean of Merit Buddha; the third, Dharma-Realm Sound Buddha; the fourth, Dharma Thunder-Peal Buddha; the fifth, named Dharma Banner Buddha; the sixth, named Earth Light Buddha; the seventh, named Light of Dharma-Power; the eighth, named Awakening of Empty Space; the ninth, Sumeru Light; the tenth, Cloud of Merit.
Tathāgatas such as these I served with offerings, every one; and yet I could not clearly understand the dharma so as to enter the ocean of the buddhas.
Next after this there was again an eon named Moon of Merit; and at that time there was a world whose name was Banner of Merit.
There were buddhas there, eighty nayutas of them; and with wondrous offerings, with a profound mind, I revered and served them all.
The first, Gandharva King; the second, named Great Tree King; the third, Merit Sumeru; the fourth, Jewel Eye Buddha; the fifth, Vairocana; the sixth, Light Adornment; the seventh, Dharma Ocean Buddha; the eighth, Light Victory Buddha; the ninth, named Worthy Victory Buddha; the tenth, Dharma King Buddha.
Buddhas such as these I served with offerings, every one; and yet I had not gained the profound wisdom that enters the ocean of all dharmas.
如是等諸佛，我悉曾供養，然未得慧眼 — buddhas such as these I served with offerings, every one; and yet I had not gained the eye of wisdom. The refrain closes all four cycles, and each time it names a different shortfall: no eye of wisdom, no entry into the ocean of liberation; then a false reckoning of existence; then no clear understanding; then no profound wisdom. Forty buddhas served, and the verse's whole point is that service alone did not do it.
尚於諸法中，無而計為有 — and still, among all dharmas, I reckoned as existent what does not exist. This is the sharpest of the four admissions and the most technical: 無而計為有, taking the non-existent for existent, is the root error the Madhyamaka analysis addresses. She had been making offerings to buddhas for ten eons and was still making it.
第九兩足尊，寶焰山燈王；第十調御師，三世華光音 — the ninth, honored among the two-footed, Jewel-Flame Mountain Lamp King; the tenth, the Tamer, Flower-Light-Sound of the Three Times. The verse has to fit two names into five characters each, and for the last two of the first ten it borrows standard epithets — 兩足尊, honored among bipeds, and 調御師, the Tamer of beings — as line-fillers. The metre is doing work the prose lists never have to.
第五盧舍那 — the fifth, Vairocana. In the fourth cycle, among forty otherwise unfamiliar names, the buddha of this sūtra's own opening vision appears as one entry in a list — the fifth of ten, in an eon called Moon of Merit, served like the others and no differently.
Part 1096 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle sixty-nine. Part 1097 continues the same count through further eons — a land called Vajra Jewel in an eon called Tranquil Wisdom — until at last something changes, and she gains what forty buddhas' worth of offerings had not given her.