Ten Kalpas of Ganges-Sand Buddhas
The goddess Sovereign Light finally speaks, naming her own liberation-gate and unspooling a memory that runs through ten kalpas of buddhas — every one of them recalled in such detail she can still see each of their own birth, their seven steps, and their lion's roar.
Ten Kalpas of Ganges-Sand Buddhas
Sovereign Light's own account opens with a single named liberation-gate, then runs backward through kalpa after kalpa, each one measured by exactly how many buddhas she served within it.
善男子！我得菩薩解脫，名：無礙念清淨莊嚴。善男子！我以此解脫力，憶念過去，有最勝劫，名：青蓮華。我於彼劫中，供養恒河沙數諸佛如來。彼諸如來，從初出家，我皆瞻奉，守護供養，造僧伽藍，營辦什物。又，彼諸佛從為菩薩住母胎時，誕生之時，行七步時，大師子吼時，住童子位在宮中時，向菩提樹成正覺時，轉正法輪現佛神變教化調伏眾生之時；如是一切諸所作事，從初發心乃至法盡，我皆明憶，無有遺餘，常現在前，念持不忘。又，憶過去劫，名：善地，我於彼供養十恒河沙數諸佛如來；又，過去劫名為：妙德，我於彼供養一佛世界微塵數諸佛如來；又，劫名：無所得，我於彼供養八十四億百千那由他諸佛如來；又，劫名：善光，我於彼供養閻浮提微塵數諸佛如來；又，劫名：無量光，我於彼供養二十恒河沙數諸佛如來；又，劫名：最勝德，我於彼供養一恒河沙數諸佛如來；又，劫名：善悲，我於彼供養八十恒河沙數諸佛如來；又，劫名：勝遊，我於彼供養六十恒河沙數諸佛如來；又，劫名：妙月，我於彼供養七十恒河沙數諸佛如來。「善男子！如是憶念恒河沙劫，我常不捨諸佛如來、應、正等覺，從彼一切諸如來所，聞此無礙念清淨莊嚴菩薩解脫，受持修行恒不忘失。如是，先劫所有如來，從初菩薩，乃至法盡，一切所作，我以淨嚴解脫之力，皆隨憶念，明了現前，持而順行，曾無懈廢。
"Good son! I have attained a bodhisattva's own liberation-gate, named Unobstructed Recollection's Pure Adornment. Good son! Through the power of this liberation-gate, I recollect that in ages past there was a most supreme kalpa, named Blue Lotus. Within that kalpa, I made offerings to tathāgatas as numerous as the sands of the Ganges. From the very moment each of those tathāgatas went forth from the household life, I attended and revered them, guarded and made offerings to them, built monasteries for them, and provided for their every necessity. Moreover, from the time each of those buddhas, as a bodhisattva, dwelt within his mother's womb, to his own birth, his taking of seven steps, his great lion's roar, his dwelling as a youth within the palace, his going to the bodhi-tree to accomplish perfect awakening, and his turning of the true Dharma-wheel, manifesting a buddha's own spiritual transformations to teach and tame every being — every deed such as these, from the very first arising of the mind of bodhi all the way to the Dharma's own final end, I remember clearly, without a single thing left out, forever present before me, held in mind and never forgotten. Moreover, I recollect a kalpa in ages past, named Good Ground, where I made offerings to tathāgatas as numerous as ten times the sands of the Ganges; and a kalpa in ages past named Wondrous Virtue, where I made offerings to tathāgatas as numerous as the fine motes of dust in a single buddha-world; and a kalpa named Nothing Attained, where I made offerings to eighty-four koṭis of hundred-thousand nayutas of tathāgatas; and a kalpa named Good Light, where I made offerings to tathāgatas as numerous as the fine motes of dust in Jambudvīpa; and a kalpa named Measureless Light, where I made offerings to tathāgatas as numerous as twenty times the sands of the Ganges; and a kalpa named Supreme Virtue, where I made offerings to tathāgatas as numerous as the sands of the Ganges; and a kalpa named Good Compassion, where I made offerings to tathāgatas as numerous as eighty times the sands of the Ganges; and a kalpa named Supreme Journey, where I made offerings to tathāgatas as numerous as sixty times the sands of the Ganges; and a kalpa named Wondrous Moon, where I made offerings to tathāgatas as numerous as seventy times the sands of the Ganges. Good son! Recollecting kalpas as numerous as the sands of the Ganges in this way, I have never once forsaken any tathāgata, worthy one, and truly and rightly awakened one; and from the place of every one of those tathāgatas, I heard this bodhisattva's own liberation-gate of Unobstructed Recollection's Pure Adornment, upholding and cultivating it, forever without forgetting it. In this way, every deed of every tathāgata throughout those former kalpas, from his very first arising as a bodhisattva all the way to the Dharma's own final end, I recollect entirely through the power of this pure and adorned liberation-gate, clearly present before me, upholding it and acting in accord with it, never once growing lax or remiss.
青蓮華⋯善地⋯妙德⋯無所得⋯善光⋯無量光⋯最勝德⋯善悲⋯勝遊⋯妙月 — Blue Lotus⋯Good Ground⋯Wondrous Virtue⋯Nothing Attained⋯Good Light⋯Measureless Light⋯Supreme Virtue⋯Good Compassion⋯Supreme Journey⋯Wondrous Moon. Ten named kalpas in all, each with its own precise measure of buddhas served — the sands of the Ganges alone measure seven of them, at one, ten, twenty, sixty, seventy, and eighty times that count (one and Blue Lotus's own unmultiplied count both land on the same figure), while the remaining three kalpas are measured instead in dust motes and nayutas.
Part 1247 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle seventy-six. Part 1248 turns to Sovereign Light's own humility formula and the qualities of the bodhisattva-mahāsattvas she says she cannot fully describe.