A Single Phrase That Cannot Be Exhausted
The ninth treasury, upholding, retains every sūtra, every buddha's name, and every prophecy across indescribably indescribable lifetimes without forgetting a single word — a treasury the sūtra calls the buddha's own domain, understood fully by no one else. The tenth, eloquence, can speak for kalpas beyond counting and still not exhaust the meaning of a single phrase, because the kalpas themselves run out first.
Retaining Everything, Then Speaking It Without End
The ninth and tenth treasuries form the chapter's own closing pair: upholding is the capacity to retain without forgetting, and eloquence is the capacity to speak without exhausting what has been retained. Between them they claim something striking about meaning itself — that a single phrase of the Dharma contains more than could be spoken even if the very count of the kalpas ran out first.
「佛子！何等為菩薩摩訶薩持藏？此菩薩持諸佛所說修多羅，文句義理，無有忘失；一生持，乃至不可說不可說生持；持一佛名號，乃至不可說不可說佛名號；持一劫數，乃至不可說不可說劫數；持一佛授記，乃至不可說不可說佛授記；持一修多羅，乃至不可說不可說修多羅；持一眾會，乃至不可說不可說眾會；持演一法，乃至演不可說不可說法；持一根無量種種性，乃至不可說不可說根無量種種性；持一煩惱種種性，乃至不可說不可說煩惱種種性；持一三昧種種性，乃至不可說不可說三昧種種性。佛子！此持藏無邊難滿，難至其底，難得親近，無能制伏，無量無盡，具大威力，是佛境界，唯佛能了。是名：菩薩摩訶薩第九持藏。
"Son of the Buddha! What is the bodhisattva-mahāsattva's treasury of upholding? This bodhisattva upholds every sūtra spoken by every buddha, its script and its phrases, its meaning and its principle, forgetting none of it; upholding it across one lifetime, up to upholding it across indescribably indescribable lifetimes; upholding the name of one buddha, up to the names of indescribably indescribable buddhas; upholding the number of one kalpa, up to the numbers of indescribably indescribable kalpas; upholding one buddha's own prophecy, up to indescribably indescribable buddhas' own prophecies; upholding one sūtra, up to indescribably indescribable sūtras; upholding one assembly, up to indescribably indescribable assemblies; upholding one dharma being expounded, up to indescribably indescribable dharmas being expounded; upholding one faculty's own immeasurable and various natures, up to the immeasurable and various natures of indescribably indescribable faculties; upholding one affliction's own various natures, up to the various natures of indescribably indescribable afflictions; upholding one samādhi's own various natures, up to the various natures of indescribably indescribable samādhis. Son of the Buddha! This treasury of upholding is boundless and difficult to fill, difficult to reach the very bottom of, difficult to draw near to, unable to be subdued by anything, immeasurable and inexhaustible, endowed with great awesome power — it is the buddha's own domain, and only a buddha can fully understand it. This is called the bodhisattva-mahāsattva's ninth treasury: the treasury of upholding.
「佛子！何等為菩薩摩訶薩辯藏？此菩薩有深智慧，了知實相，廣為眾生演說諸法，不違一切諸佛經典；說一品法，乃至不可說不可說品法；說一佛名號，乃至不可說不可說佛名號；如是，說一世界，說一佛授記，說一修多羅，說一眾會，說演一法，說一根無量種種性，說一煩惱無量種種性，說一三昧無量種種性，乃至說不可說不可說三昧無量種種性；或一日說，或半月、一月說，或百年、千年、百千年說，或一劫、百劫、千劫、百千劫說，或百千億那由他劫說，或無數無量乃至不可說不可說劫說。劫數可盡，一文一句，義理難盡。何以故？此菩薩成就十種無盡藏故。成就此藏，得攝一切法陀羅尼門現在前，百萬阿僧祇陀羅尼以為眷屬；得此陀羅尼已，以法光明，廣為眾生演說於法。其說法時，以廣長舌出妙音聲，充滿十方一切世界；隨其根性，悉令滿足，心得歡喜，滅除一切煩惱纏垢。善入一切音聲、言語、文字、辯才，令一切眾生佛種不斷，淨心相續，亦以法光明而演說法，無有窮盡，不生疲倦。何以故？此菩薩成就盡虛空遍法界無邊身故。是為菩薩摩訶薩第十辯藏。此藏無窮盡、無分段、無間、無斷、無變異、無隔礙、無退轉，甚深無底，難可得入，普入一切佛法之門。
"Son of the Buddha! What is the bodhisattva-mahāsattva's treasury of eloquence? This bodhisattva has profound wisdom, understanding reality exactly as it is, and extensively expounds every dharma for the sake of living beings, never once contradicting any of the scriptures of any buddha; expounding one section of the Dharma, up to indescribably indescribable sections of the Dharma; expounding the name of one buddha, up to the names of indescribably indescribable buddhas; and likewise, expounding one world, expounding one buddha's own prophecy, expounding one sūtra, expounding one assembly, expounding one dharma, expounding one faculty's own immeasurable and various natures, expounding one affliction's own immeasurable and various natures, expounding one samādhi's own immeasurable and various natures, up to expounding the immeasurable and various natures of indescribably indescribable samādhis; whether expounding it for a single day, or for half a month or a month, or for a hundred years, a thousand years, or hundreds of thousands of years, or for one kalpa, a hundred kalpas, a thousand kalpas, or hundreds of thousands of kalpas, or for hundreds of thousands of millions of nayutas of kalpas, or for countless, immeasurable kalpas up to indescribably indescribable kalpas. The very number of those kalpas could be exhausted, and yet a single script or a single phrase, its meaning and its principle, could never be exhausted. Why is this so? Because this bodhisattva has accomplished the ten kinds of inexhaustible treasuries. Having accomplished this treasury, they attain the dhāraṇī-gate that gathers in every dharma, manifesting directly before them, together with a million asaṃkhyeyas of dhāraṇīs as its own retinue; having attained this dhāraṇī, they use the light of the Dharma to extensively expound the Dharma for the sake of living beings. When they expound the Dharma, they emit a wondrous voice from their own broad and long tongue, filling every world of the ten directions entirely; and according to each being's own faculties, they cause every one of them to become entirely satisfied, their mind filled with joy, extinguishing every entanglement and stain of affliction. Skillfully entering every sound, every language, every script, and every eloquence, they cause the buddha-lineage of every living being to remain unbroken, their pure mind continuing without interruption, and likewise, using the light of the Dharma, they expound the Dharma without any exhaustion at all, never growing weary. Why is this so? Because this bodhisattva has accomplished a boundless body that fills the whole of empty space and pervades the entire Dharma-realm. This is the bodhisattva-mahāsattva's tenth treasury: the treasury of eloquence. This treasury is without exhaustion, without division into segments, without interruption, without any break, without any change or alteration, without any barrier or obstruction, and without any turning back; it is profound and without any bottom, difficult to enter, and universally enters the very gateway of every buddha's own Dharma."
"The very number of those kalpas could be exhausted, and yet a single script or a single phrase could never be exhausted" is the treasury of eloquence naming its own limit condition precisely: not that speech is infinite in duration, but that meaning outruns duration entirely. The reason given afterward is worth pausing on — this inexhaustibility is not a property of language itself but a consequence of "a boundless body that fills the whole of empty space and pervades the entire Dharma-realm"; eloquence here is downstream of embodiment, not a separate gift layered on top of it.
Part 172 Complete
This closes Part 172. Chapter 22 concludes in Part 173, completing fascicle twenty-one.