Equal to Empty Space
Before the bodhisattva's own birth, light pouring from every pore of his body fills Māyā's own — and she names the paradox outright, rather than leaving her listener to notice it alone.
The Wheel of Merit of Every Tathāgata's Own Birth
Māyā's account moves back further still, to the moment just before the birth she already described — when light from the bodhisattva's own body first entered hers.
「又，善男子！我於淨飯王宮，菩薩將欲下生之時，見菩薩身一一毛孔咸放光明，名：一切如來受生功德輪，一一毛孔皆現不可說不可說佛剎微塵數菩薩受生莊嚴。彼諸光明，皆悉普照一切世界；照世界已，來入我頂乃至一切諸毛孔中。又，彼光中普現一切菩薩名號、受生神變、宮殿眷屬、五欲自娛；又見出家、往詣道場、成等正覺、坐師子座、菩薩圍遶、諸王供養、為諸大眾轉正法輪；又見如來往昔修行菩薩道時，於諸佛所恭敬供養，發菩提心，淨佛國土，念念示現無量化身，充遍十方一切世界，乃至最後入般涅槃。如是等事，靡不皆見。
"Moreover, good son! In King Śuddhodana's own palace, when the bodhisattva was about to descend and be born, I saw every single pore of the bodhisattva's body release light, named the Wheel of Merit of Every Tathāgata's Own Birth, and within every single pore there appeared the adornments of the births of bodhisattvas as numerous as the fine motes of dust in ineffable, ineffable buddha-lands. Every one of those lights universally illumined every world; and having illumined the worlds, they came and entered the crown of my head, and then spread throughout every one of my own pores. Moreover, within that light there universally appeared the names of every bodhisattva, the spiritual transformations of their births, their palaces and retinues, and their own amusement in the five desires; and I also saw their going forth from the household life, their journeying to the awakening-site, their accomplishment of perfect and complete awakening, their sitting upon a lion-throne, surrounded by bodhisattvas, receiving offerings from every king, and turning the wheel of the true Dharma for every great assembly; and I also saw how the tathāgata, in ages past, while practicing the bodhisattva path, reverently made offerings at the place of every buddha, gave rise to the mind of bodhi, purified every buddha-land, and, in thought after thought, manifested measureless transformation-bodies, filling every world throughout the ten directions, all the way to their final entry into parinirvāṇa. Of every such matter as this, there was not one I did not behold.
一切如來受生功德輪 — the Wheel of Merit of Every Tathāgata's Own Birth. The light that fills Māyā's body is not left unnamed. It carries a title naming exactly what it will show her — every buddha's own birth — before a single vision inside it has appeared.
Equal to Empty Space
Having described what she saw, Māyā turns to what happened to her — and states the paradox in her own body outright, rather than leaving it for her listener to notice.
「又，善男子！彼妙光明入我身時，我身形量雖不逾本，然其實已超諸世間。所以者何？我身爾時量同虛空，悉能容受十方菩薩受生莊嚴諸宮殿故。
"Moreover, good son! When that wondrous light entered my own body, although my body's own form and stature did not exceed its original measure, in truth it had already transcended every world. Why is this? Because, at that time, my own body was equal in measure to empty space itself, entirely able to hold the adorned palaces of the births of every bodhisattva throughout the ten directions.
我身形量雖不逾本，然其實已超諸世間 — although my body's own form and stature did not exceed its original measure, in truth it had already transcended every world. Māyā states the paradox directly rather than leaving it implicit: nothing about her outward size changed at all, and yet her body became, in that same moment, equal to space itself — vast enough to hold the birth-palaces of every bodhisattva throughout the ten directions.
Part 1240 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle seventy-six. Part 1241 turns to the bodhisattva's own descent from Tuṣita Heaven, and the vast assembly of bodhisattvas who share every one of his own qualities in common.