Ten Kinds of Mindfulness
The eighth treasury recollects one life, then countless lives; one kalpa, then kalpas beyond counting; one buddha's name, one sūtra, one assembly, then each multiplied to the indescribable. What holds all of this without confusion is mindfulness itself, and the chapter names ten distinct qualities it must have — tranquil, pure, lucid, radiant, and unobstructed among them.
From One Life to the Indescribable
The treasury of mindfulness proceeds by a single repeated gesture: name one instance of something — a life, a kalpa, a buddha's name, a scripture, an assembly, a faculty, an affliction, a samādhi — and then multiply it outward to what the sūtra calls "indescribably indescribable." The mindfulness capable of holding every one of these instances without becoming confused is then given ten names of its own.
「佛子！何等為菩薩摩訶薩念藏？此菩薩捨離癡惑，得具足念，憶念過去一生、二生，乃至十生、百生、千生、百千生、無量百千生，成劫、壞劫、成壞劫、非一成劫、非一壞劫、非一成壞劫，百劫、千劫、百千億那由他，乃至無數、無量、無邊、無等、不可數、不可稱、不可思、不可量、不可說、不可說不可說劫；念一佛名號，乃至不可說不可說佛名號；念一佛出世說授記，乃至不可說不可說佛出世說授記；念一佛出世說修多羅，乃至不可說不可說佛出世說修多羅；如修多羅，祇夜、授記、伽他、尼陀那、優陀那、本事、本生、方廣、未曾有、譬諭、論議，亦如是；
"Son of the Buddha! What is the bodhisattva-mahāsattva's treasury of mindfulness? This bodhisattva, having abandoned delusion and confusion, attains a fully complete mindfulness, and recollects the past: one life, two lives, up to ten lives, a hundred lives, a thousand lives, a hundred thousand lives, immeasurable hundreds of thousands of lives; kalpas of formation, kalpas of dissolution, kalpas of formation and dissolution together, not just one kalpa of formation, not just one kalpa of dissolution, not just one kalpa of formation and dissolution together; a hundred kalpas, a thousand kalpas, hundreds of thousands of millions of nayutas of kalpas, and on up to kalpas that are countless, immeasurable, boundless, without equal, uncountable, inexpressible, inconceivable, unmeasurable, indescribable, and indescribably indescribable; recollects the name of one buddha, up to the names of indescribably indescribable buddhas; recollects one buddha appearing in the world and giving a prophecy, up to indescribably indescribable buddhas appearing in the world and giving prophecies; recollects one buddha appearing in the world and expounding a sūtra, up to indescribably indescribable buddhas appearing in the world and expounding sūtras; and it is exactly the same with the scriptural genres of geya, vyākaraṇa, gāthā, nidāna, udāna, itivṛttaka, jātaka, vaipulya, adbhutadharma, avadāna, and upadeśa;
念一眾會，乃至不可說不可說眾會；念演一法，乃至演不可說不可說法；念一根種種性，乃至不可說不可說根種種性；念一根無量種種性，乃至不可說不可說根無量種種性；念一煩惱種種性，乃至不可說不可說煩惱種種性；念一三昧種種性，乃至不可說不可說三昧種種性。此念有十種，所謂：寂靜念、清淨念、不濁念、明徹念、離塵念、離種種塵念、離垢念、光耀念、可愛樂念、無障礙念。菩薩住是念時，一切世間無能嬈亂，一切異論無能變動，往世善根悉得清淨，於諸世法無所染著，眾魔外道所不能壞，轉身受生無所忘失；過、現、未來，說法無盡；於一切世界中，與眾生同住，曾無過咎；入一切諸佛眾會道場無所障礙，一切佛所悉得親近。是名：菩薩摩訶薩第八念藏。
recollects one assembly, up to indescribably indescribable assemblies; recollects one dharma being expounded, up to indescribably indescribable dharmas being expounded; recollects one faculty's own various natures, up to the various natures of indescribably indescribable faculties; recollects one faculty's own immeasurable and various natures, up to the immeasurable and various natures of indescribably indescribable faculties; recollects one affliction's own various natures, up to the various natures of indescribably indescribable afflictions; recollects one samādhi's own various natures, up to the various natures of indescribably indescribable samādhis. This mindfulness has ten kinds, namely: tranquil mindfulness, pure mindfulness, unclouded mindfulness, lucid mindfulness, mindfulness free of defilement, mindfulness free of every kind of defilement, mindfulness free of stain, radiant mindfulness, mindfulness that is lovable and delightful, and unobstructed mindfulness. When the bodhisattva abides in this mindfulness, no worldly thing at all is able to disturb or confuse them, no divergent doctrine at all is able to shake or alter them, every wholesome root from past ages becomes entirely pure, they are stained and attached to no worldly dharma at all, every host of Māra and every non-Buddhist path is unable to destroy them, and passing from one body to receive birth in the next, they forget nothing at all; throughout the past, the present, and the future, their expounding of the Dharma is inexhaustible; dwelling together with living beings within every world there is, they are entirely without fault; entering every assembly and awakening-site of every buddha without any obstruction at all, they are able to draw near to every buddha entirely. This is called the bodhisattva-mahāsattva's eighth treasury: the treasury of mindfulness.
The eleven scriptural genres named here alongside sūtra — geya, vyākaraṇa, gāthā, nidāna, udāna, itivṛttaka, jātaka, vaipulya, adbhutadharma, avadāna, and upadeśa — are the classical twelvefold division of the Buddhist canon by literary form: verse summaries, prophecies, unprompted verses, origin stories, parables, past-life tales, and so on. What this treasury claims a bodhisattva can hold in mind is not one of each but the indescribably indescribable number of each — and the ten qualities of mindfulness that follow describe the kind of mind capable of holding that much without becoming clouded, scattered, or confused by any of it.
Part 171 Complete
This closes Part 171. Chapter 22 continues in Part 172 with the treasuries of upholding and eloquence.