Its Weight Not Diminished
The last of the powers, and then a sentence that quietly declines everything the powers could be used for. Having gained absorptions that would carry them to the highest heavens, the bodhisattva chooses instead to be born wherever the work can be done. And the third ground gets its own version of the goldsmith simile, with a detail the first two did not have.
Seeing Where Beings Go, and Declining to Follow
The divine eye is described entirely in terms of causation — what beings did, and therefore where they are going. Then, in a single short sentence, the sūtra says what the bodhisattva does with everything gained on this ground.
此菩薩天眼清淨過於人眼，見諸眾生生時、死時、好色、惡色，善趣、惡趣，隨業而去。若彼眾生成就身惡行，成就語惡行，成就意惡行，誹謗賢聖；具足邪見及邪見業因緣，身壞命終，必墮惡趣，生地獄中。若彼眾生成就身善行，成就語善行，成就意善行，不謗賢聖，具足正見；正見業因緣，身壞命終，必生善趣諸天之中。菩薩天眼皆如實知。
This bodhisattva's divine eye is pure, surpassing the human eye: they see beings at the time of their dying and at the time of their birth, of fair form or of ugly form, in good destinies or in evil destinies, going according to their deeds. If those beings have accomplished evil conduct of body, evil conduct of speech, and evil conduct of mind, and have slandered the worthy and the noble; if they are fully possessed of wrong views, and of the causes and conditions of deeds done out of wrong views — then when the body breaks up and life ends, they will surely fall into an evil destiny and be born among the hells. If those beings have accomplished good conduct of body, good conduct of speech, and good conduct of mind, have not slandered the worthy and the noble, and are fully possessed of right view; and by the causes and conditions of deeds done out of right view — then when the body breaks up and life ends, they will surely be born in a good destiny, among the gods. All of this the bodhisattva's divine eye knows as it truly is.
此菩薩於諸禪三昧、三摩鉢底能入能出，然不隨其力受生，但隨能滿菩提分處，以意願力而生其中。
This bodhisattva is able to enter and to leave every dhyāna, samādhi, and samāpatti; and yet they do not take rebirth by the force of those attainments, but rather are born wherever the factors of awakening can be fulfilled, by the power of their own intention.
然不隨其力受生 — they do not take rebirth by the force of those attainments. This is the sentence the whole third ground has been building toward, and it needs the preceding pages to land. Absorption of the kind just described carries its own momentum: it deposits a person in the heavens corresponding to it, which is what such states do. The bodhisattva has cultivated them fully and then refuses the destination.
What replaces that momentum is 意願力, the power of intention, and the criterion is stated plainly — wherever the factors of awakening can be fulfilled. Not wherever is most pleasant, nor wherever most beings suffer, but wherever the work can actually be completed. It is the same practical judgment the second ground called worldly wisdom, applied now to the question of where to exist.
The Bonds Grow Thin
The offerings passage repeats, with medicinal broths in place of medicine and one added clause about listening. Then the ground's characteristic result: not the acquisition of anything, but a steady thinning of what was already there.
「佛子！是菩薩住此發光地，以願力故，得見多佛。所謂：見多百佛，見多千佛，見多百千佛，乃至見多百千億那由他佛。悉以廣大心、深心，恭敬尊重，承事供養，衣服、飲食、臥具、湯藥，一切資生悉以奉施，亦以供養一切眾僧，以此善根迴向阿耨多羅三藐三菩提。於其佛所，恭敬聽法，聞已受持，隨力修行。
"Child of the Buddha! A bodhisattva abiding on this Luminous Ground, by the power of vows, comes to see many buddhas. That is to say: they see many hundreds of buddhas, see many thousands of buddhas, see many hundreds of thousands of buddhas, on up to seeing many hundreds of thousands of millions of nayutas of buddhas. With a vast mind and a profound mind they revere and honor them all, attend upon them and make offerings to them — robes, food and drink, bedding, and medicinal broths, every requisite of life presented as a gift — and they make offerings to the whole Saṅgha as well, dedicating these wholesome roots to unsurpassed, perfect awakening. In the presence of those buddhas they listen reverently to the Dharma, and having heard it they receive and uphold it, practicing it according to their strength.
此菩薩觀一切法，不生不滅，因緣而有；見縛先滅，一切欲縛、色縛、有縛、無明縛皆轉微薄；於無量百千億那由他劫不積集故，邪貪、邪瞋及以邪癡，悉得除斷，所有善根轉更明淨。
This bodhisattva contemplates all dharmas as neither arising nor ceasing, existing through causes and conditions. The bond of views is extinguished first, and all the bonds of desire, of form, of existence, and of ignorance grow steadily thinner. Because throughout measureless hundreds of thousands of millions of nayutas of kalpas they do not accumulate them, wrong greed, wrong hatred, and wrong delusion are all cut off and removed, and every wholesome root they have grows brighter and purer still.
佛子！譬如真金善巧鍊治，稱兩不減，轉更明淨。菩薩亦復如是，住此發光地，不積集故，邪貪、邪瞋及以邪癡，皆得除斷，所有善根轉更明淨。
Child of the Buddha! It is like true gold skillfully refined: its weight is not diminished, and it grows brighter and purer. A bodhisattva is likewise: abiding on this Luminous Ground, because they do not accumulate them, wrong greed, wrong hatred, and wrong delusion are all cut off and removed, and every wholesome root they have grows brighter and purer still.
此菩薩忍辱心、柔和心、諧順心、悅美心、不瞋心、不動心、不濁心、無高下心、不望報心、報恩心、不諂心、不誑心、無譣詖心皆轉清淨。此菩薩於四攝中，利行偏多；十波羅蜜中，忍波羅蜜偏多；餘非不修，但隨力隨分。
In this bodhisattva a mind of patience, a gentle mind, a harmonious and accordant mind, a mind pleasing and agreeable, a mind without anger, an unmoving mind, an unclouded mind, a mind that neither exalts nor abases, a mind that looks for no reward, a mind that repays kindness, a mind without flattery, a mind without deceit, and a mind without crookedness — all of these grow steadily purer. In this bodhisattva, among the four means of gathering, beneficial conduct predominates; among the ten pāramitās, the pāramitā of patience predominates. It is not that they fail to cultivate the others, but they do so according to their strength and according to their share.
稱兩不減 — its weight is not diminished. Each ground has given this simile a different operation, and this is the first to say what refining does not cost. Fire on the first ground and alum on the second both removed something; here the sūtra adds that nothing of the gold itself was ever among what was removed. What a person loses in this process is only what was never theirs to begin with.
Note the direction of the whole passage. Wrong greed, hatred, and delusion are cut off not by being attacked but by 不積集, by not being accumulated — over measureless kalpas of simply not adding to them. This is what a ground whose predominant pāramitā is patience would look like from the inside.
The list of thirteen minds contains one entry that breaks its own pattern. Twelve of them are absences or evennesses — no anger, no flattery, no crookedness, neither exalting nor abasing, looking for no reward. Then 報恩心, a mind that repays kindness, which is not an absence at all, and which sits immediately after the refusal to expect anything in return. Wanting no repayment and giving it are apparently the same disposition seen from two sides.
Part 425 Complete
This continues Prabhākarī, the third of the Ten Grounds. Chapter 26 continues in Part 426 as the ground closes — its worldly fruit a king of the Trāyastriṃśa heaven, able by skillful means to bring beings to give up craving; a hundred thousand samādhis and a hundred thousand buddhas in a single thought for one who goes forth; and Vajragarbha's verse restating the whole of the Luminous Ground, from the ten minds that enter it to the fire pit and the absorptions.