Entering the Vast Through the Small
Light emitted from the Buddha's own two knees reveals that this exact assembly — ten bodhisattvas gathered in light — is happening identically at the place of every buddha throughout the Dharma-realm. The sūtra then describes what these bodhisattvas have already attained: bodies born from all-knowing wisdom itself, sovereign mastery entering the vast through the small and the small through the vast, before Vajra Banner Bodhisattva rises to speak.
What the Banner Bodhisattvas Have Already Attained
Before any of the ten bodhisattvas speaks a word, the sūtra pauses to describe what they have already accomplished across ages of shared practice with Vairocana himself — a body without any difference across the Dharma-realm, sovereign entry into the vast through the small and the small through the vast, and finally vajra-like concentration that cuts off every doubt. Only after this description does Vajra Banner Bodhisattva rise to speak the chapter's very first verse.
爾時，世尊從兩膝輪，放百千億那由他光明，普照十方盡法界、虛空界、一切世界。彼諸菩薩，皆見於此佛神變相；此諸菩薩，亦見於彼一切如來神變之相。如是菩薩皆與毘盧遮那如來，於往昔時，同種善根，修菩薩行；悉已悟入諸佛自在甚深解脫，得無差別法界之身，入一切土而無所住；見無量佛，悉往承事；於一念中，周行法界，自在無礙；心意清淨，如無價寶；無量無數諸佛如來，常加護念，共與其力，到於究竟第一彼岸；恒以淨念住無上覺，念念恒入一切智處；以小入大，以大入小，皆得自在，通達無礙；已得佛身，與佛同住；獲一切智，從一切智而生其身；一切如來所行之處，悉能隨入；
At that time, the World-Honored One, from the wheel-marks upon his two knees, emitted a hundred thousand million nayutas of lights, universally illuminating the ten directions, the entire Dharma-realm, the realm of empty space, and every world. Every one of those bodhisattvas beheld this very spiritual transformation of the Buddha; and these bodhisattvas likewise beheld the spiritual transformation of every Tathāgata there. Bodhisattvas such as these had all, together with the Tathāgata Vairocana, in ages past, planted the same wholesome roots and cultivated the bodhisattva's own practice; they had all already awakened and entered the sovereign and profound liberation of every buddha, attained a body of the Dharma-realm without any difference, and entered every land while abiding nowhere at all; beholding immeasurable buddhas, they went entirely to serve them; within a single thought, they traveled throughout the Dharma-realm, sovereign and unobstructed; their mind and intention pure, like a priceless jewel; immeasurable, countless buddhas and Tathāgatas forever added their own mindful protection, together bestowing their power upon them, so that they reached the ultimate, foremost shore; forever abiding in unsurpassed awakening through pure mindfulness, in thought after thought forever entering the very place of all-knowing wisdom; entering the vast through the small, and the small through the vast, attaining sovereign mastery in every case, penetrating through without any obstruction; having already attained the buddha's own body, abiding together with the buddhas; attaining all-knowing wisdom, their own body born from all-knowing wisdom itself; entirely able to follow and enter wherever every Tathāgata has gone;
開闡無量智慧法門，到金剛幢大智彼岸，獲金剛定，斷諸疑惑；已得諸佛自在神通，普於一切十方國土，教化調伏百千萬億無數眾生；於一切數，雖無所著，善能修學，成就究竟，方便安立一切諸法。如是等百千億那由他不可說無盡清淨三世一切無量功德藏諸菩薩眾，皆來集會，在於佛所；因光所見，一切佛所，悉亦如是。爾時，金剛幢菩薩承佛神力，普觀十方而說頌言：
opening up and expounding immeasurable gateways of wisdom, reaching the further shore of the vajra banner's own great wisdom, attaining vajra-like concentration, and cutting off every doubt and confusion; having already attained the sovereign spiritual powers of every buddha, universally teaching, transforming, and taming countless hundreds of thousands of millions of living beings throughout every land of the ten directions; and, although clinging to no number at all, skillfully able to study and cultivate, accomplishing the ultimate, and establishing every dharma through skillful means. Bodhisattva multitudes such as these — treasuries of a hundred thousand million nayutas of indescribable, inexhaustible, pure, immeasurable merit across the three periods of time — all came together and gathered, present at the Buddha's own place; and, seen through that very light, it was exactly the same at the place of every buddha. At that time, Vajra Banner Bodhisattva, relying upon the Buddha's own spiritual power, universally surveyed the ten directions, and spoke a verse, saying:
"Entering the vast through the small, and the small through the vast" states, in eight characters, the same principle of non-obstruction that the previous chapter spent seven Parts demonstrating through a single throne containing a hundred million of everything. Here the sūtra states it directly as an attainment rather than showing it through description — one more sign that this chapter, unlike the last, intends to move quickly through preparation and into the bodhisattvas' own verses of praise.
Part 197 Complete
This closes Part 197. Chapter 24 continues in Part 198 with Vajra Banner Bodhisattva's own verse of praise.