Ten Buddhas, Ten Different Bodies
A second kalpa opens with sixty billion buddhas, and the first ten are each served by a completely different kind of being — a king, a householder, a minister, an asura, a tree-spirit, a merchant-leader, a city-spirit, Vaiśravaṇa himself, a gandharva king, a kumbhāṇḍa king — before the whole practice is declared true of every buddha there has ever been, anywhere.
Ten Buddhas, Ten Different Bodies
Unlike the eight heavenly lives just recounted, this new sequence refuses to settle into any single kind of existence — king, then householder, then minister, then further and further from anything human at all.
次復有劫，名曰：日光，有六十億佛出興於世，最初如來，名：妙相山，我時為王，名曰：大慧，於彼佛所承事供養；次有佛出，名：圓滿肩，我為居士，親近供養；次有佛出，名：離垢童子，我為大臣，親近供養；次有佛出，名：勇猛持，我為阿脩羅王，親近供養；次有佛出，名：須彌相，我為樹神，親近供養；次有佛出，名：離垢臂，我為商主，親近供養；次有佛出，名：師子遊步，我為城神，親近供養；次有佛出，名為：寶髻，我為毘沙門天王，親近供養；次有佛出，名：最上法稱，我為乾闥婆王，親近供養；次有佛出，名：光明冠，我為鳩槃荼王，親近供養。
"Next, there was another kalpa, named Sunlight, in which sixty billion buddhas arose in the world. The very first tathāgata was named Mountain of Wondrous Marks; at that time I was a king named Great Wisdom, and served and made offerings at that buddha's place. Next a buddha appeared, named Fully Rounded Shoulders; I was a householder, and drew near to him and made offerings. Next a buddha appeared, named Youth Free of Stain; I was a great minister, and drew near to him and made offerings. Next a buddha appeared, named Upholder of Courage; I was an asura king, and drew near to him and made offerings. Next a buddha appeared, named Mark of Sumeru; I was a tree-spirit, and drew near to him and made offerings. Next a buddha appeared, named Arm Free of Stain; I was a merchant-leader, and drew near to him and made offerings. Next a buddha appeared, named Lion's Gait; I was a city-spirit, and drew near to him and made offerings. Next a buddha appeared, named Jewelled Topknot; I was the heavenly king Vaiśravaṇa, and drew near to him and made offerings. Next a buddha appeared, named Supreme Renown of the Dharma; I was a gandharva king, and drew near to him and made offerings. Next a buddha appeared, named Crown of Light; I was a kumbhāṇḍa king, and drew near to him and made offerings.
我時為王⋯⋯我為居士⋯⋯我為大臣⋯⋯我為阿脩羅王⋯⋯我為樹神 — counted directly, ten buddhas are served across ten lives, and every one of the ten identities is different from every other — king, householder, minister, asura king, tree-spirit, merchant-leader, city-spirit, Vaiśravaṇa, gandharva king, kumbhāṇḍa king. The eight lives recounted in Part 1176 climbed one fixed ladder, heaven by heaven. This sequence has no ladder at all — human, spirit, and semi-divine forms mixed together with no evident order beyond the order the buddhas themselves appeared in.
Everywhere, in Just the Same Way
The specific count of one kalpa's sixty billion buddhas becomes the occasion for a claim that drops every count entirely — the same practice, she says, holds at the place of every buddha there has ever been.
「於彼劫中，如是次第有六十億如來出興於世。我常於此受種種身，一一佛所親近供養，教化成就無量眾生；於一一佛所，得種種三昧門、種種陀羅尼門、種種神通門、種種辯才門、種種一切智門、種種法明門、種種智慧門，照種種十方海，入種種佛剎海，見種種諸佛海，清淨成就，增長廣大。如於此劫中親近供養爾所諸佛，於一切處、一切世界海微塵數劫，所有諸佛出興于世，親近供養，聽聞說法，信受護持，亦復如是。如是，一切諸如來所，皆悉修習此解脫門，復得無量解脫方便。
"Within that kalpa, sixty billion tathāgatas arose in the world one after another in just this way. I constantly took on every kind of body in that time, drawing near to and making offerings at the place of each and every buddha, teaching and bringing measureless beings to accomplishment; at the place of each and every buddha, I attained every kind of gate of samādhi, every kind of gate of dhāraṇī, every kind of gate of spiritual power, every kind of gate of eloquence, every kind of gate of all-knowing wisdom, every kind of gate of dharma-illumination, and every kind of gate of wisdom, illuminating every kind of ocean of the ten directions, entering every kind of ocean of buddha-lands, and beholding every kind of ocean of buddhas, my purity accomplished and ever increasing and growing vast. And just as, in this kalpa, I drew near to and made offerings to that many buddhas, so too, in every place, throughout kalpas as many as the fine motes of dust in every world-ocean, whatever buddhas arose in the world, I drew near to them, made offerings to them, heard their dharma expounded, believed it, received it, and upheld it, in just the same way. Thus, at the place of every single tathāgata, I fully cultivated this liberation-gate, and thereby attained measureless skilful means of liberation.
受種種身⋯⋯種種三昧門⋯⋯種種諸佛海 — took on every kind of body⋯⋯every kind of gate of samādhi⋯⋯every kind of ocean of buddhas. Counted directly, 種種, every kind of, opens eleven separate items in this single passage — one for the bodies themselves, seven for gates of attainment, three for oceans seen and entered. Every specific count this two-kalpa story has offered — ten thousand buddhas, sixty billion buddhas, ten named identities, eight heavenly lives — collapses here into a single word repeated eleven times, as the particular numbers give way to an unbounded claim.
Part 1177 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle seventy-three. Part 1178 turns from prose to verse, as the night-spirit retells this entire story a second time in song, beginning with the same world-ocean, the same kalpa, and the same ten thousand buddhas that opened the account many Parts ago.