The Earth Trembles, Bodhisattvas Bear Witness
The same signs that marked the ninth dedication's own close return for the tenth: worlds as numerous as the dust motes of a million buddha-lands tremble in six ways, a rain of heavenly flowers and music falls, and bodhisattvas all named Vajra Banner arrive from the distant world of Vajra Light to bear witness — this very teaching, they say, is being expounded, word for word, throughout every Tuṣita Heaven in the ten directions at once.
Six Kinds of Trembling, a Rain of Heaven's Own Offerings
The Buddha's own spiritual power sets worlds beyond counting trembling in six distinct ways, before a rain of heavenly flowers, garlands, incense, and music falls — devas' sons singing praise, forgetting nothing, their light illuminating the whole of empty space, as the Tathāgata's own transformation body expounds this very teaching, identically, within the Tuṣita Heaven of every world at once.
」爾時，佛神力故，十方各百萬佛剎微塵數世界六種震動，所謂：動、遍動、等遍動，起、遍起、等遍起，涌、遍涌、等遍涌，震、遍震、等遍震，吼、遍吼、等遍吼，擊、遍擊、等遍擊。佛神力故，法如是故，雨眾天華、天鬘、天末香、天諸雜香、天衣服、天珍寶、天莊嚴具、天摩尼寶、天沈水香、天栴檀香、天上妙蓋、天種種幢、天雜色幡、阿僧祇諸天身；無量百千億不可說天妙法音、不可思議天讚佛音、阿僧祇天歡喜音，咸稱善哉；無量阿僧祇百千那由他諸天恭敬禮拜；無數天子常念諸佛，希求如來無量功德，心不捨離；無數天子作眾妓樂，歌詠讚歎供養如來；百千阿僧祇諸天放大光明，普照盡虛空遍法界一切佛剎，現無量阿僧祇諸佛境界；如來化身出過諸天，如於此世界兜率陀天宮說如是法，周遍十方一切世界兜率天宮悉亦如是。
"Then, through the Buddha's own spiritual power, worlds as numerous as the dust motes of a million buddha-lands in each of the ten directions trembled in six ways, namely: trembling, universally trembling, equally and universally trembling; rising, universally rising, equally and universally rising; surging, universally surging, equally and universally surging; quaking, universally quaking, equally and universally quaking; roaring, universally roaring, equally and universally roaring; and crashing, universally crashing, equally and universally crashing. Through the Buddha's own spiritual power, and because the Dharma is thus, there rained down a multitude of heavenly flowers, heavenly garlands, heavenly powdered incense, every kind of heavenly incense, heavenly garments, heavenly treasures, heavenly adornments, heavenly maṇi jewels, heavenly aloeswood incense, heavenly sandalwood incense, heavenly supreme canopies, every kind of heavenly banner, heavenly streamers of every color, and asaṃkhyeya heavenly bodies; immeasurable hundreds of thousands of millions of inexpressible, wondrous heavenly voices of the Dharma, inconceivable heavenly voices praising the Buddha, asaṃkhyeya heavenly voices of joy, all proclaiming excellent; immeasurable asaṃkhyeya hundreds of thousands of nayutas of devas reverently bowing in worship; countless devas' sons forever mindful of every buddha, seeking the Tathāgata's own immeasurable merit, their minds never abandoning it; countless devas' sons making every kind of music, singing and praising in offering to the Tathāgata; hundreds of thousands of asaṃkhyeya devas emitting great light, universally illuminating every buddha-land throughout the whole of empty space and the entire dharma-realm, manifesting the immeasurable, asaṃkhyeya domain of every buddha; the Tathāgata's own transformation body surpassing every deva, just as within this world he expounds this very Dharma in the palace of Tuṣita Heaven, so too is it throughout every world in the ten directions, within the palace of Tuṣita Heaven.
Six kinds of trembling, each doubled into ordinary, universal, and equally universal forms, produce eighteen distinct movements from what sounds like a single event — the same insistence on precision within apparent excess that runs through this whole sūtra's descriptive method, applied here to the earth itself rather than to jewels or vows.
Bodhisattvas Named Vajra Banner Arrive to Bear Witness
From beyond worlds as numerous as the dust motes of a million buddha-lands, an assembly of bodhisattvas arrives, filling the ten directions — all of a single name, Vajra Banner, all traveling from the world Vajra Light, where the Buddha Vajra Banner teaches. Their testimony is exact: this same Dharma, with the same assembly, the same words, and the same meaning, is being expounded in every world at once, neither increased nor decreased.
爾時，復以佛神力故，十方各過百萬佛剎微塵數世界外，各有百萬佛剎微塵數諸菩薩而來集會，周遍十方，咸作是言：「善哉善哉！佛子！乃能說此諸大迴向。佛子！我等皆同一號，名：金剛幢，悉從金剛光世界金剛幢佛所來詣此土。彼諸世界悉以佛神力故而說是法，眾會眷屬、文辭句義，皆亦如是，不增不減。我等皆承佛神力，從彼土來為汝作證。如我來此眾會為汝作證，十方所有一切世界兜率天宮寶莊嚴殿諸菩薩眾來為作證，亦復如是。
Then, further through the Buddha's own spiritual power, beyond worlds as numerous as the dust motes of a million buddha-lands in each of the ten directions, there were bodhisattvas as numerous as the dust motes of a million buddha-lands who came together in assembly, filling the ten directions entirely, all speaking these words: "Excellent, excellent! Child of the Buddha! You have been able to expound these great dedications. Child of the Buddha! We are all of a single name, called Vajra Banner, all having come to this land from the presence of the Buddha Vajra Banner in the world Vajra Light. In all of those worlds, this very Dharma is expounded entirely through the Buddha's own spiritual power, and the assembly, its retinue, its words, phrases, and meaning, are all exactly the same, neither increased nor decreased. We have all, through the Buddha's own spiritual power, come from that land to bear witness for you. Just as we have come to this assembly to bear witness for you, so too do the assemblies of bodhisattvas from the jeweled, adorned palace within the Tuṣita Heaven of every world throughout the ten directions come to bear witness, in exactly the same way."
"Neither increased nor decreased" is the precise claim being tested by this whole scene — not that the same general teaching is given everywhere, but that the identical words, in the identical order, with an identical assembly, are spoken in countless worlds simultaneously. The witnesses arrive specifically to certify this exactness, not merely a family resemblance between separate sermons.
Part 393 Complete
This closes the prose section of the tenth dedication entirely. Chapter 25 continues in Part 394 as Vajra Banner Bodhisattva, receiving the Buddha's own spiritual power, surveys every assembly throughout the dharma-realm and rises to speak the tenth dedication's verse, opening with praise for the bodhisattva who has become a great teacher of the Dharma, drinking from the Dharma's own ocean.