Thirty Buddhas, Three Gates
Her closing verses begin by telling Good-Wealth to listen, and then start counting. Buddhas arrive ten at a time, each with a name of five characters or fewer, and at the end of every decade she notes that she woke up to one more gate.
Listen, Good-Wealth
Three stanzas of preamble. She names her listener in the first line, states what the verse is about, and then goes straight back to the eon she has just finished describing in prose.
「善財聽我說，甚深難見法，
普照於三世，一切差別門。
如我初發心，專求佛功德，
所入諸解脫，汝今應諦聽。
我念過去世，過剎微塵劫，
次前有一劫，名圓滿清淨。
"Good-Wealth, listen as I speak
of a dharma profound and hard to see,
universally illuminating the three times,
the gate of every distinction there is.
How I first gave rise to the mind,
single-mindedly seeking a buddha's merits,
and the liberations I entered —
to these you should now listen closely.
I recall a past age,
more eons ago than the motes of dust of a land;
just before it there was an eon
named Perfect and Complete Purity.
善財聽我說 — Good-Wealth, listen as I speak. The first three characters of her verse are his name. The first three characters of the verse he sang to her in Part 1103 were 我善財得見, I, Good-Wealth, have been able to see. Each of them opens by naming him, and the difference is the verb: his verse begins with what he saw, hers begins with an instruction to listen. She is not returning his praise. She is giving him something to do.
名圓滿清淨 — named Perfect and Complete Purity. The eon-name is identical to the one given in the prose at Part 1104, which is how a reader knows the verse has gone back to the same place rather than a new one. The verse is not summarising the prose account; it is retelling it with a different instrument, and the instrument turns out to be a list.
The First Ten Buddhas
The world is named, the buddhas are counted, and then — for the first time in this whole account — they are named one by one.
是時有世界，名為遍照燈，
須彌塵數佛，於中出興世：
初佛名智焰，次佛名法幢，
第三法須彌，第四德師子，
第五寂靜王，第六滅諸見，
第七高名稱，第八大功德，
第九名勝日，第十名月面。
於此十佛所，最初悟法門。
At that time there was a world
named Lamp of Universal Illumination,
where buddhas as many as Sumeru's dust
appeared and arose in the world:
the first buddha named Wisdom-Flame,
the next buddha named Dharma-Banner,
the third, Dharma-Sumeru,
the fourth, Lion of Virtue,
the fifth, King of Tranquillity,
the sixth, Extinguisher of All Views,
the seventh, Lofty Renown,
the eighth, Great Merit,
the ninth named Victorious Sun,
the tenth named Moon-Face.
At the place of these ten buddhas
I first awoke to a dharma-gate.
名為遍照燈 — named Lamp of Universal Illumination. The prose at Part 1104 named this world 毘盧遮那大威德, Vairocana's Great Majestic Virtue, transliterating the buddha's Sanskrit name. The verse, which has only five characters a line to work in, uses 遍照 instead — the standard Chinese translation of that same name, the one this sūtra uses in its opening fascicles when it calls the Buddha 遍照尊, the universally illumining honoured one. The second element differs too, 燈 against 大威德, so this is not a simple substitution; but the eon-name is identical in both passages, and a verse that must fit five characters has reached for the translated form of the name the prose spelled out in sound.
須彌塵數佛 — buddhas as many as Sumeru's dust. The prose at Part 1104 wrote 須彌山微塵數如來, six characters for the measure and two for the buddhas. The verse drops 山 and 微 and gets the same quantity into four. Reading the two side by side is a short lesson in what Chinese verse does under a syllable count, and the sūtra loses nothing by it.
第十名月面 — the tenth named Moon-Face. After Wisdom-Flame, Dharma-Sumeru, Lion of Virtue, King of Tranquillity, and Extinguisher of All Views, the decade ends on a name that is simply a description of somebody's face. The list does not build to a climax and does not apologise for that. These are ten buddhas, and one of them is called Moon-Face.
Two More Tens, Two More Gates
The pattern now repeats exactly, and the repetition is the point. Ten buddhas, one gate; ten buddhas, one gate.
從此後次第，復有十佛出：
初名虛空處，第二名普光，
三名住諸方，四名正念海，
五名高勝光，六名須彌雲，
七名法焰佛，八名山勝佛，
九名大悲華，十名法界華。
此十出現時，第二悟法門。
After this, in succession,
ten more buddhas appeared:
the first named Abode of Empty Space,
the second named Universal Light,
the third named Dwelling in All Quarters,
the fourth named Ocean of Right Mindfulness,
the fifth named Lofty Victorious Light,
the sixth named Sumeru-Cloud,
the seventh, Dharma-Flame Buddha,
the eighth, Mountain-Victor Buddha,
the ninth named Flower of Great Compassion,
the tenth named Flower of the Dharma-Realm.
When these ten appeared,
I awoke to a second dharma-gate.
從此後次第，復有十佛出：
第一光幢佛，第二智慧佛，
第三心義佛，第四德主佛，
第五天慧佛，第六慧王佛，
第七勝智佛，第八光王佛，
第九勇猛佛，第十蓮華佛。
於此十佛所，第三悟法門。
After this, in succession,
ten more buddhas appeared:
the first, Light-Banner Buddha;
the second, Wisdom Buddha;
the third, Buddha of the Mind's Meaning;
the fourth, Lord of Virtue Buddha;
the fifth, Deva-Wisdom Buddha;
the sixth, Wisdom-King Buddha;
the seventh, Victorious Wisdom Buddha;
the eighth, Light-King Buddha;
the ninth, Valiant Buddha;
the tenth, Lotus Buddha.
At the place of these ten buddhas
I awoke to a third dharma-gate.
最初悟法門 … 第二悟法門 … 第三悟法門 — I first awoke to a dharma-gate … I awoke to a second … I awoke to a third. Three couplets, one per decade, and they are the only first-person statements in this whole stretch of verse. Everything between them is names. The arithmetic is stated without comment: ten buddhas produce one gate. Whatever a liberation-gate costs, this is the price in attendance.
The third decade is the tidiest of the three: every one of its ten names ends in 佛, buddha, where the first two decades mixed 名, named, with 佛 and with nothing at all. A reader looking for a reason will not find one in the text. The most that can be said is that the verse is holding to five characters a line and the padding syllable changes as the names change length.
復有十佛出 — ten more buddhas appeared. The phrase will open eight more stanzas before this verse is done. It is worth being plain about what that does to a reader: the effect is not awe but a kind of levelling. Buddhas arrive in tens the way years arrive, and the person counting them has been present for all of it.
Part 1117 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle seventy. Part 1118 carries the count onward through five more decades of buddhas, fifty names in all, with no couplets between them.