The Second Ground Complete
The second ground ends as the first did — going forth, a count of attainments, and then the whole ground said again in verse. The count has gone from a hundred to a thousand. The verse retraces everything Vimalā has covered, and it does something the prose did not quite do so plainly: it puts the discipline and the compassion in a single line, with the second following from the first.
A Thousand in a Single Thought
The passage is the first ground's, shortened, with every number multiplied by ten. Its abbreviation is itself informative — the sūtra now trusts the reader to know the shape of the list and gives only its ends.
是菩薩若欲捨家於佛法中勤行精進，便能捨家、妻子、五欲。既出家已，勤行精進，於一念頃，得千三昧，得見千佛，知千佛神力，能動千世界，乃至能示現千身，於一一身能示現千菩薩以為眷屬；若以菩薩殊勝願力自在示現，過於是數，百劫、千劫乃至百千億那由他劫不能數知。」
Should this bodhisattva wish to leave the household life and practice with diligent effort within the Buddha's Dharma, they are able to give up home, wife and children, and the five desires. Having gone forth, practicing with diligent effort, in the space of a single thought they attain a thousand samādhis, come to see a thousand buddhas, know the spiritual power of a thousand buddhas, are able to shake a thousand worlds, and so on up to being able to manifest a thousand bodies, and in each single body to display a thousand bodhisattvas as their retinue. And if by the surpassing power of a bodhisattva's own vows they display themselves with sovereign freedom, it goes beyond this number — a hundred kalpas, a thousand kalpas, on up to a hundred thousand million nayutas of kalpas could not count it or know it."
Vimalā in Verse
Vajragarbha retraces the ground from its entrance. The ten minds, the ten courses of action, the destinies they lead to, the vehicles they produce — and then the reflections on beings, compressed to a line or two each, the images from Part 418 arriving in quick succession.
爾時，金剛藏菩薩欲重宣其義而說頌曰：
「質直柔軟及堪能，調伏寂靜與純善，速出生死廣大意，以此十心入二地。
住此成就戒功德，遠離殺生不惱害，亦離偷盜及邪婬，妄惡乖離無義語。
不貪財物常慈愍，正道直心無諂偽，離險捨慢極調柔，依教而行不放逸。
地獄畜生受眾苦，餓鬼燒然出猛焰，一切皆由罪所致，我當離彼住實法。
人中隨意得受生，乃至頂天禪定樂，獨覺聲聞佛乘道，皆因十善而成就。
Then Vajragarbha Bodhisattva, wishing to state this meaning again, spoke in verse, saying:
"Upright, pliant, and capable; well tamed, still, and purely good; with a broad and great intent to leave birth and death swiftly — by these ten minds one enters the second ground. Abiding here they accomplish the merit of discipline: far removed from killing and from doing harm, free as well of stealing and of sexual misconduct, and of speech that is false, harsh, divisive, or without meaning. They covet neither goods nor property and are constantly kind and pitying; on the right path, with a straight mind, without flattery or falsity; leaving danger behind, casting off conceit, utterly pliant, they act according to the teaching and are never heedless. In the hells and among animals beings undergo every suffering, and hungry ghosts burn and give off fierce flames — all of it brought about by offences. I should leave these behind and abide in the real Dharma. Birth among humans as one wishes, on up to the joy of meditative absorption in the highest heaven, and the paths of the pratyekabuddha, the śrāvaka, and the buddha vehicle — all are accomplished by means of the ten wholesome courses.
如是思惟不放逸，自持淨戒教他護，復見群生受眾苦，轉更增益大悲心。
凡愚邪智不正解，常懷忿恨多諍訟，貪求境界無足期，我應令彼除三毒。
愚癡大暗所纏覆，入大險道邪見網，生死籠檻怨所拘，我應令彼摧魔賊。
四流漂蕩心沒溺，三界焚如苦無量，計蘊為宅我在中，為欲度彼勤行道。
設求出離心下劣，捨於最上佛智慧，我欲令彼住大乘，發勤精進無厭足。
Reflecting thus and never heedless, they keep the pure precepts themselves and teach others to guard them; and seeing again the multitude undergoing every suffering, their mind of great compassion increases still further. The foolish, of wrong understanding and no right comprehension, constantly harbor wrath and resentment and are much given to quarreling; craving after objects, they have no term of satisfaction — I should cause them to remove the three poisons. Wrapped about and covered by the great darkness of delusion, they enter the great perilous road and the net of wrong views; held in the cage of birth and death, bound fast by enmity — I should cause them to crush the brigands of Māra. Adrift upon the four floods, their minds drowning; the three realms ablaze, their suffering measureless; reckoning the aggregates a house with a self inside it — wishing to ferry them across, I diligently practice the path. Should they seek deliverance with an inferior mind, abandoning the supreme wisdom of a buddha, I wish to cause them to abide in the Great Vehicle, and I give rise to diligent effort, never satisfied.
菩薩住此集功德，見無量佛咸供養，億劫修治善更明，如以好藥鍊真金。
佛子住此作輪王，普化眾生行十善，所有善法皆修習，為成十力救於世。
欲捨王位及財寶，即棄居家依佛教，勇猛精勤一念中，獲千三昧見千佛。
所有種種神通力，此地菩薩皆能現，願力所作復過此，無量自在度群生。
一切世間利益者，所修菩薩最勝行，如是第二地功德，為諸佛子已開演。」
A bodhisattva abiding here gathers merit, sees measureless buddhas and makes offerings to them all; through koṭis of kalpas cultivating and refining, their goodness grows brighter still — as one refines true gold with a fine reagent. A child of the Buddha abiding here becomes a wheel-turning king, universally transforming beings so that they practice the ten wholesome courses; every wholesome dharma they cultivate, so as to accomplish the ten powers and rescue the world. Wishing to give up the royal throne and its treasures, they forsake the household life and rely upon the Buddha's teaching; valorous and diligent, within a single thought they gain a thousand samādhis and behold a thousand buddhas. Every kind of spiritual power a bodhisattva on this ground is able to manifest; and what is done by the power of vows exceeds even this — measurelessly sovereign, ferrying the multitude across. Such is the practice, most supreme among bodhisattvas, of one who benefits all the world; and such is the merit of the second ground, now unfolded and expounded for the children of the Buddha."
自持淨戒教他護，復見群生受眾苦，轉更增益大悲心 — they keep the precepts themselves and teach others to guard them, and seeing the multitude suffer, compassion increases still further. The verse states in one movement what the prose spread across Parts 415 to 418: discipline first, then seeing, then compassion enlarged. The order is not incidental. Compassion is presented here as something discipline makes possible rather than as its motive.
The verse's version of the refining simile changes the agent. The prose said alum; the verse says 好藥, a fine reagent — literally a good medicine. Both name the same operation, and the second word carries an implication the first does not, since medicine is what one gives to something that can be healed rather than to something that must be burned.
設求出離心下劣 — should they seek deliverance with an inferior mind. The verse keeps the reflection that was the most surprising of the ten, and keeps its tone. These beings are seeking deliverance, and the bodhisattva's response is not correction but a wish that they ask for more. Of everything the second ground disciplines, this is the one thing it does not treat as a fault.
Second Ground Complete
This completes Vimalā, the Ground Free of Defilement, the second of the Ten Grounds. Chapter 26 continues in Part 421, still within fascicle thirty-five, as the assembly scatters flowers and praises Vajragarbha once more and asks for the third — Prabhākarī, the Luminous Ground (發光地) — which is entered by ten profound minds of its own, and which begins by contemplating everything conditioned as it truly is: impermanent, suffering, impure, and never secure.