Every Stage of the Path, Seeing the Same Throne
The throne finished, the assembly begins to respond to it — and the sūtra names every stage that responds. A hundred million bodhisattvas at each of the Ten Abodes, from the Initial Resolve through Consecration, each react in their own distinctive way, followed by bodhisattvas perfected in giving, moral discipline, patience, diligence, meditative absorption, and wisdom in turn.
Ten Abodes, Six Perfections, One Throne
The description of the throne itself is finished; what follows is a census of everyone in the assembly who responds to it, beginning with the Ten Abodes — the same ten stages the sūtra taught at length many fascicles ago, here compressed into a single line each: the Initial Resolve doubling its own resolve at the very sight of the throne, Cultivating the Ground rejoicing, and so on through Consecration manifesting the ten powers of immeasurable Tathāgatas.
有百萬億初發心菩薩，纔見此座，倍更增長一切智心；百萬億治地菩薩，心淨歡喜；百萬億修行菩薩，悟解清淨；百萬億生貴菩薩，住勝志樂；百萬億方便具足菩薩，起大乘行；百萬億正心住菩薩，勤修一切菩薩道；百萬億不退菩薩，淨修一切菩薩地；百萬億童真菩薩，得一切菩薩三昧光明；百萬億法王子菩薩，入不思議諸佛境界；百萬億灌頂菩薩，能現無量如來十力。
There were a hundred million bodhisattvas of the Initial Resolve, who, the very moment they saw this throne, doubled and increased all the more their mind set upon all-knowing wisdom; a hundred million bodhisattvas Cultivating the Ground, their mind pure and joyful; a hundred million bodhisattvas Cultivating Practice, their understanding pure; a hundred million bodhisattvas of Noble Birth, abiding in supreme aspiration and delight; a hundred million bodhisattvas Fully Endowed with Skillful Means, giving rise to the practice of the Great Vehicle; a hundred million bodhisattvas of the Rectified Mind, diligently cultivating every bodhisattva path; a hundred million bodhisattvas of Non-Regression, purely cultivating every bodhisattva ground; a hundred million bodhisattvas of Youthful Innocence, attaining the light of every bodhisattva's own samādhi; a hundred million bodhisattvas of the Dharma-Prince, entering the inconceivable domain of every buddha; and a hundred million bodhisattvas of Consecration, able to manifest the ten powers of immeasurable Tathāgatas.
百萬億菩薩，得自在神通；百萬億菩薩，生清淨解；百萬億菩薩，心生愛樂；百萬億菩薩，深信不壞；百萬億菩薩，勢力廣大；百萬億菩薩，名稱增長；百萬億菩薩，演說法義，令智決定；百萬億菩薩，正念不亂；百萬億菩薩，生決定智；百萬億菩薩，得聞持力，持一切佛法；百萬億菩薩，出生無量廣大覺解；百萬億菩薩，安住信根；百萬億菩薩，得檀波羅蜜，能一切施；百萬億菩薩，得尸波羅蜜，具持眾戒；百萬億菩薩，得忍波羅蜜，心不妄動，悉能忍受一切佛法；百萬億菩薩，得精進波羅蜜，能行無量出離精進；百萬億菩薩，得禪波羅蜜，具足無量禪定光明；百萬億菩薩，得般若波羅蜜，智慧光明能普照耀；百萬億菩薩，成就大願，悉皆清淨；百萬億菩薩，得智慧燈，明照法門；百萬億菩薩，為十方諸佛法光所照；百萬億菩薩，周遍十方，演離癡法；百萬億菩薩，普入一切諸佛剎土；百萬億菩薩，法身隨到一切佛國；百萬億菩薩，得佛音聲，能廣開悟；百萬億菩薩，得出生一切智方便；百萬億菩薩，得成就一切法門；百萬億菩薩，成就法智，猶如寶幢，能普顯示一切佛法；百萬億菩薩，能悉示現如來境界。
A hundred million bodhisattvas, attaining sovereign spiritual powers; a hundred million bodhisattvas, giving rise to pure understanding; a hundred million bodhisattvas, their mind giving rise to love and delight; a hundred million bodhisattvas, their deep faith unbreakable; a hundred million bodhisattvas, their power vast and expansive; a hundred million bodhisattvas, their renown ever increasing; a hundred million bodhisattvas, expounding the meaning of the Dharma, causing wisdom to become resolute; a hundred million bodhisattvas, their right mindfulness never confused; a hundred million bodhisattvas, giving rise to resolute wisdom; a hundred million bodhisattvas, attaining the power of retentive learning, upholding every buddha's own Dharma; a hundred million bodhisattvas, bringing forth immeasurable, vast and expansive awakened understanding; a hundred million bodhisattvas, abiding securely in the faculty of faith; a hundred million bodhisattvas, attaining the perfection of giving, able to give everything; a hundred million bodhisattvas, attaining the perfection of moral discipline, fully upholding every precept; a hundred million bodhisattvas, attaining the perfection of patience, their mind never moved by falsehood, entirely able to bear and accept every buddha's own Dharma; a hundred million bodhisattvas, attaining the perfection of diligence, able to practice immeasurable diligence in renunciation; a hundred million bodhisattvas, attaining the perfection of meditative absorption, fully endowed with the immeasurable light of meditative concentration; a hundred million bodhisattvas, attaining the perfection of wisdom, its light of wisdom able to shine forth universally; a hundred million bodhisattvas, accomplishing their great vows, every one of them entirely pure; a hundred million bodhisattvas, attaining the lamp of wisdom, brightly illuminating the Dharma-gate; a hundred million bodhisattvas, illumined by the Dharma-light of every buddha of the ten directions; a hundred million bodhisattvas, pervading the ten directions universally, expounding the Dharma that frees from delusion; a hundred million bodhisattvas, universally entering every buddha's own land; a hundred million bodhisattvas, their Dharma-body arriving at every buddha-land they wish; a hundred million bodhisattvas, attaining the buddha's own voice, able to awaken understanding extensively; a hundred million bodhisattvas, attaining the skillful means that brings forth all-knowing wisdom; a hundred million bodhisattvas, attaining the accomplishment of every Dharma-gate; a hundred million bodhisattvas, accomplishing the wisdom of the Dharma, like a jeweled banner, able to universally display every buddha's own Dharma; and a hundred million bodhisattvas, entirely able to manifest the Tathāgata's own domain.
The Ten Abodes appear here exactly as the earlier chapter defined them — resolve, ground, practice, birth, skillful means, mind, non-regression, innocence, princehood, consecration — but compressed from full doctrinal exposition into a single defining reaction each, as though the throne itself were now testing whether that earlier teaching actually took. What follows widens the lens from stage to virtue: the same "a hundred million bodhisattvas" formula applied not to a rank on the path but to a perfection attained, giving each of the six pāramitās its own moment in the same unbroken list.
Part 178 Complete
This closes Part 178. Chapter 23 continues in Part 179 with the eight classes of guardian kings and the heavenly kings of every realm.