Ten Kinds of King Out of One Pore
A pore shows the tathāgata's whole career from the first resolve onward. Another produces every class of being that rules anything — and each appears to whoever can be reached that way. Then she says six things she had never done until now.
A Career Inside a Pore
Two more sights. The first turns every mark of a buddha into more buddhas; the second puts the whole of a buddha's biography inside a single opening in his skin.
又，善男子！我觀如來一一相，念念出一切佛剎微塵數諸相莊嚴如來身雲，遍往十方一切世界；既見是已，生大歡喜。又，善男子！我觀如來一一毛孔，於念念中，出不可說佛剎微塵數佛變化雲，示現如來從初發心、修波羅蜜、具莊嚴道、入菩薩地；既見是已，生大歡喜。
Again, good son, I contemplate each single mark of the tathāgata, from which there come forth, in thought after thought, clouds of tathāgata-bodies adorned with every mark, as numerous as the fine motes of dust of every buddha-land, going everywhere throughout all the worlds of the ten directions; and having seen this, great joy arose in me. Again, good son, I contemplate each single pore of the tathāgata, from which, in thought after thought, there come forth clouds of buddha-transformations as numerous as the fine motes of dust of ineffably many buddha-lands, displaying how the tathāgata first gave rise to the mind of awakening, cultivated the perfections, completed the road of adornment, and entered the bodhisattva grounds; and having seen this, great joy arose in me.
我觀如來一一相，念念出一切佛剎微塵數諸相莊嚴如來身雲 — I contemplate each single mark of the tathāgata, from which there come forth clouds of tathāgata-bodies adorned with every mark. One mark produces bodies that have all the marks, each of whose marks will do the same. The sentence is recursive and does not say so; it simply states the rule once and leaves the reader to notice that it has no bottom.
示現如來從初發心、修波羅蜜、具莊嚴道、入菩薩地 — displaying how the tathāgata first gave rise to the mind of awakening, cultivated the perfections, completed the road of adornment, and entered the bodhisattva grounds. Four stages, and what is startling is where they are being shown: inside a pore, in thought after thought. A buddha's biography is not something that happened once and finished. It is playing continuously, at every point of his surface, for anyone looking closely enough — and the person looking is a spirit whose work is done in the dark.
Every Class of King
Then the pores produce rulers — first the gods, and then, in one sweep, every other order of being that has kings at all.
又，善男子！我觀如來一一毛孔，念念出現不可說不可說佛剎微塵數天王身雲，及以天王自在神變，充遍一切十方法界，應以天王身而得度者，即現其前而為說法；既見是已，生大歡喜。如天王身雲，其龍王、夜叉王、乾闥婆王、阿脩羅王、迦樓羅王、緊那羅王、摩睺羅伽王、人王、梵王身雲，莫不皆於一一毛孔，如是出現，如是說法；
Again, good son, I contemplate each single pore of the tathāgata, from which there come forth, in thought after thought, clouds of deva-king bodies as numerous as the fine motes of dust of ineffably ineffable buddha-lands, together with the deva-kings' own sovereign spiritual transformations, filling all the dharma-realms of the ten directions; and for those who can be delivered by the body of a deva-king, they appear before them and teach the dharma; and having seen this, great joy arose in me. And as with the clouds of deva-king bodies, so too the clouds of bodies of nāga-kings, yakṣa-kings, gandharva-kings, asura-kings, garuḍa-kings, kiṃnara-kings, mahoraga-kings, human kings and Brahmā-kings — there is not one of them that does not come forth from each single pore in this same way and teach the dharma in this same way;
Ten kinds of king are named. The first eight — deva, nāga, yakṣa, gandharva, asura, garuḍa, kiṃnara, mahoraga — are the standard eightfold assembly, 天龍八部, the fixed cast of non-human beings who attend a buddha's teaching throughout this literature. Then two more are added that do not belong to that set: 人王, human kings, and 梵王, Brahmā-kings. The list runs from the highest heaven down to the human and back up again, and the point of including humans in a roll of supernatural orders is that from inside a pore the distinction does not signify.
應以天王身而得度者，即現其前而為說法 — for those who can be delivered by the body of a deva-king, they appear before them and teach the dharma. The formula is the one readers know best from the Lotus Sūtra's chapter on Avalokiteśvara, where a bodhisattva takes whatever shape will reach a given person. Here the same principle is operating at a level below any bodhisattva's decision: it is what the pores of a buddha do, automatically, in thought after thought, to everyone at once.
莫不皆於一一毛孔，如是出現，如是說法 — there is not one of them that does not come forth from each single pore in this same way, and teach the dharma in this same way. The sūtra saves itself nine repetitions with 如是, in this same way, used twice. It is worth noticing what the abbreviation implies: that having stated the pattern once, the text expects a reader to be able to generate the other nine without help. This chapter trains that skill by using it.
Six Things Never Done Before
The refrain ends, and she says what all that watching did. The measure she gives for her own joy is the dharma-realm.
我見是已，於念念中，生大歡喜，生大信樂，量與法界薩婆若等。昔所未得而今始得，昔所未證而今始證，昔所未入而今始入，昔所未滿而今始滿，昔所未見而今始見，昔所未聞而今始聞。
And having seen this, in thought after thought great joy arose in me, and great faith and delight arose in me, in measure equal to the dharma-realm and to all-knowing wisdom itself. What I had never gained before I now first gained; what I had never realised before I now first realised; what I had never entered before I now first entered; what I had never fulfilled before I now first fulfilled; what I had never seen before I now first saw; what I had never heard before I now first heard.
昔所未得而今始得 … 昔所未聞而今始聞 — what I had never gained before I now first gained … what I had never heard before I now first heard. Six clauses, each built on the same frame with one verb changed: 得, 證, 入, 滿, 見, 聞 — gained, realised, entered, fulfilled, seen, heard. The first four are the vocabulary of attainment and the last two are the vocabulary of an ordinary afternoon. The sequence does not climb toward the technical terms; it descends into seeing and hearing, and stops there, because seeing is what she has been doing for the whole of this passage.
量與法界薩婆若等 — in measure equal to the dharma-realm and to all-knowing wisdom itself. 薩婆若 is sarvajñā, all-knowing wisdom, kept as a transliteration rather than translated — a habit this sūtra keeps for a handful of terms, and it occurs four times in fascicle seventy-one. What is being measured is her joy, and the two things it is said to be as large as are the totality of reality and the totality of knowledge. The gate is called Vast Joy, and this is the sūtra saying how vast.
Because Dharmas Have One Mark
And the reason, in four clauses — two of which turn on a character that has been doing other work all through this part.
何以故？以能了知法界相故，知一切法唯一相故，能平等入三世道故，能說一切無邊法故。「善男子！我入此菩薩念念出生廣大喜莊嚴解脫光明海。
Why is that? Because I am able to understand fully the mark of the dharma-realm; because I know that all dharmas have but a single mark; because I am able to enter equally into the paths of the three times; and because I am able to expound every boundless dharma. "Good son, I have entered this bodhisattva ocean of the light of the liberation of Bringing Forth Vast Joy and Adornment in Thought After Thought.
以能了知法界相故，知一切法唯一相故 — because I am able to understand fully the mark of the dharma-realm; because I know that all dharmas have but a single mark. The character 相 occurs four times in this part and the four are worth reading together. Twice it meant a buddha's bodily marks — 我觀如來一一相, each single mark of the tathāgata, and 諸相莊嚴, adorned with every mark. Here it means the character or aspect a thing has, and the claim is that there is only one of them. A passage that began by multiplying a buddha's marks without limit ends by saying that everything has the same one.
我入此菩薩念念出生廣大喜莊嚴解脫光明海 — I have entered this bodhisattva ocean of the light of the liberation of Bringing Forth Vast Joy and Adornment in Thought After Thought. She names the gate again and adds two characters to it: 光明海, an ocean of light. Good-Wealth asked four questions about this gate in Part 1120 and he has now had all four answered — the work it does was the thirty-seven diagnoses, the domain it ranges in was the assemblies at the awakening-sites, the means it sets in motion were the gifts of dharma, and what it contemplates is a buddha's pores.
Part 1124 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle seventy-one. Part 1125 gives a run of definitions of that liberation — boundless, inexhaustible, without edge, profound, vast, indestructible, bottomless — and then a series of similes in which it is like earth, like water, like fire, like wind.