The Ninety-Eighth Buddha, and What She Did With Them All
The catalogue reaches its ninety-eighth and final name, and then, in a single sentence, the whole point of naming ninety-eight buddhas one after another finally arrives: what she did, every single time, was the same thing.
A Crown Sealed by Samādhi
The final stretch of names, and two of them reach for objects rather than qualities — a seal, a crown — before the list returns to its ordinary vocabulary of light and space.
次有佛興，名：寶山威德賢；次有佛興，名：賢德廣大光；次有佛興，名：普智雲；次有佛興，名：法力功德山；次有佛興，名：功德香焰王；次有佛興，名：金色摩尼山妙音聲；次有佛興，名：頂髻出一切法光明雲；次有佛興，名：法輪熾盛光；次有佛興，名：無上功德山；次有佛興，名：精進炬光明雲；次有佛興，名：三昧印廣大光明冠；
"Next a buddha appeared, named Worthy One of the Majestic Virtue of the Jewel Mountain; next a buddha appeared, named Vast Light of Worthy Virtue; next a buddha appeared, named Cloud of Universal Wisdom; next a buddha appeared, named Mountain of the Merit of the Power of Dharma; next a buddha appeared, named King of the Flame of Fragrant Merit; next a buddha appeared, named Wondrous Voice of the Golden Maṇi Mountain; next a buddha appeared, named Cloud of Light Sending Forth Every Dharma From the Crown; next a buddha appeared, named Blazing Light of the Dharma-Wheel; next a buddha appeared, named Mountain of Unsurpassed Merit; next a buddha appeared, named Cloud of the Light of the Torch of Vigour; next a buddha appeared, named Crown of Vast Light Sealed by Samādhi;
三昧印廣大光明冠 — Crown of Vast Light Sealed by Samādhi. Ninety-eight names have, by this point, tried mountains, clouds, jewels, flowers and lions; this one alone reaches for a crown, and seals it with the specific vocabulary of a meditative attainment, 印, seal. It sits between a torch of vigour and, two names later, a jewelled gate; the list has not stopped inventing new combinations even this close to its own end.
The Last Buddha, and the True Total
Seventeen more names bring the count to ninety-eight, and then the sūtra does what it has done with every such list in this fascicle — gives the final name, and immediately says how many there really were.
次有佛興，名：寶光明功德王；次有佛興，名：法炬寶蓋音；次有佛興，名：普照虛空界無畏法光明；次有佛興，名：月相莊嚴幢；次有佛興，名：光明焰山雲；次有佛興，名：照無障礙法虛空；次有佛興，名：開顯智光身；次有佛興，名：世主德光明音；次有佛興，名：一切法三昧光明音；次有佛興，名：法音功德藏；
next a buddha appeared, named King of the Merit of Jewelled Light; next a buddha appeared, named Sound of the Jewelled Canopy of the Torch of Dharma; next a buddha appeared, named Fearless Light of Dharma Universally Illuminating the Realm of Empty Space; next a buddha appeared, named Banner Adorned With the Marks of the Moon; next a buddha appeared, named Cloud of the Mountain of the Flame of Light; next a buddha appeared, named Empty Space Illuminated by the Unobstructed Dharma; next a buddha appeared, named Body of Revealed Wisdom-Light; next a buddha appeared, named Sound of the Light of the Virtue of the World's Own Lord; next a buddha appeared, named Sound of the Light of the Samādhi of Every Dharma; next a buddha appeared, named Treasury of the Merit of the Voice of Dharma;
次有佛興，名：熾然焰法海雲；次有佛興，名：普照三世相大光明；次有佛興，名：普照法輪山；次有佛興，名：法界師子光；次有佛興，名：須彌華光明；次有佛興，名：一切三昧海師子焰；次有佛興，名：普智光明燈。「善男子！如是等須彌山微塵數如來，其最後佛，名：法界城智慧燈，並於離垢光明劫中，出興于世。
next a buddha appeared, named Cloud of the Blazing Flame of the Dharma-Ocean; next a buddha appeared, named Great Light Universally Illuminating the Marks of the Three Times; next a buddha appeared, named Mountain of the Dharma-Wheel Universally Illuminating; next a buddha appeared, named Lion-Light of the Dharma-Realm; next a buddha appeared, named Sumeru Flower Light; next a buddha appeared, named Lion-Flame of the Ocean of Every Samādhi; next a buddha appeared, named Lamp of the Light of Universal Wisdom. Good son, tathāgatas such as these, as numerous as the fine motes of dust of Mount Sumeru — the last of them named Lamp of the Wisdom of the City of the Dharma-Realm — all appeared in the world within the eon Free of the Stain of Light.
如是等須彌山微塵數如來，其最後佛，名：法界城智慧燈 — tathāgatas such as these, as numerous as the fine motes of dust of Mount Sumeru — the last of them named Lamp of the Wisdom of the City of the Dharma-Realm. Ninety-eight names have been given, one after another, without a single number attached to any of them until this closing sentence — and the true count, exactly as with the previous night-spirit's samādhis in Part 1112 and dhāraṇī-wheels in Part 1136, turns out to be a measure beyond counting, the fine motes of dust of Mount Sumeru. Ninety-eight named buddhas were a sample; the real total was never meant to be countable at all.
法界城智慧燈 — Lamp of the Wisdom of the City of the Dharma-Realm. The last of the ninety-eight, and the only one to carry 城, city, in its name. Two rows further on, when this night-spirit gives the humility formula that closes her whole account, she will describe her own work as causing beings to leave 三界城, the city of the three realms, and abide instead in 一切智無上法城, the unsurpassed dharma-city of all-knowing wisdom. The last buddha's name and her own closing image share the same architecture before either sentence has finished being spoken.
Under Every One, the Same Gate
Ninety-eight names, and now, at last, the sentence they were all building toward — not what each buddha was called, but what she did every single time one appeared.
我皆尊重，親近供養，聽聞受持所說妙法；亦於彼一切諸如來所，出家學道，護持法教，入此菩薩甚深自在妙音解脫，種種方便教化成熟無量眾生。從是已來，於佛剎微塵數劫，所有諸佛出興於世；我皆供養，修行其法。
I honoured every one of them, drew near to them and made offerings to them, and heard and upheld the wondrous dharma they spoke; and at the place of every one of those tathāgatas, I went forth from home and learned the path, safeguarded the teaching of the dharma, entered this bodhisattva liberation of the Profound and Sovereign Wondrous Voice, and by every kind of skilful means taught and brought to ripeness measureless beings. From that time onward, through eons as numerous as the fine motes of dust of a buddha-land, all the buddhas that appeared in the world — I made offerings to every one of them, and practised their dharma.
入此菩薩甚深自在妙音解脫 — I entered this bodhisattva liberation of the Profound and Sovereign Wondrous Voice. This is the sentence that gives the entire catalogue its point. Ninety-eight buddhas were named, and under every single one of them — 亦於彼一切諸如來所, at the place of every one of those tathāgatas — she entered the same gate she is at this moment teaching Good-Wealth. The gate is not something she reached once, at the end of a long path. It is something she kept re-entering, once per buddha, ninety-eight times over, and then again through a further span of eons too numerous to name individually at all.
出家學道 — I went forth from home and learned the path. The phrase occurs here without further comment, but it means she left lay life and became ordained under every one of these ninety-eight buddhas — a renunciation repeated as many times as there were buddhas to renounce the world for. The catalogue that looked, at first, like an inventory of names turns out, in this one sentence, to have also been an inventory of her own ordinations.
Part 1141 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle seventy-one. Part 1142 has her wake alone in the long night of beings' ignorance, closes her account with the humility formula, and names the thirty-eighth teacher — a night-spirit whose own name is a flower already in bloom.