The Fourth Ground Complete
The verse finishes the Blazing Ground by running its whole training past once more in compressed form, and then names precisely what the ground removes — the view of the body, at the head of sixty-two. It closes on the two similes from Part 431, and on a line that reaches forward past six grounds to something not yet described.
The Training, and What Is Parted From
Everything Parts 428 through 430 set out in prose arrives here at a run — foundations of mindfulness, right efforts, bases, faculties, strengths, factors, path — followed by the reasons, and then by the clearest statement the ground gives of its own work.
得是法已增慈愍，轉更勤修四念處，身受心法內外觀，世間貪愛皆除遣。
菩薩修治四勤行，惡法除滅善增長，神足根力悉善修，七覺八道亦如是。
為度眾生修彼行，本願所護慈悲首，求一切智及佛土，亦念如來十種力，
四無所畏不共法，殊特相好深美音；亦求妙道解脫處，及大方便修行彼。
Having gained this Dharma their pity increases, and they cultivate the four foundations of mindfulness with still greater diligence — body, feelings, mind and dharmas contemplated within and without — until every craving for the world is driven out. The bodhisattva cultivates the four diligent practices; evil dharmas are removed and extinguished and good ones increase; the bases of power, the faculties and the strengths they cultivate well, and the seven factors and the eightfold path likewise. To deliver beings they cultivate those practices, guarded by their original vows, with loving-kindness and compassion at the head; they seek all-knowing wisdom and buddha-lands, and hold in mind the Tathāgata's ten powers, the four fearlessnesses and the unshared dharmas, the extraordinary marks and features and the deep and beautiful voice; they seek too the wondrous path and the place of liberation, and cultivate them by great skillful means.
身見為首六十二，我及我所無量種，蘊界處等諸取著，此四地中一切離。
如來所訶煩惱行，以無義利皆除斷；智者修行清淨業，為度眾生無不作。
菩薩勤修不懈怠，即得十心皆具足，專求佛道無厭倦，志期受職度眾生。
恭敬尊德修行法，知恩易誨無慍暴，捨慢離諂心調柔，轉更精勤不退轉。
The view of the body leading the sixty-two, the measureless kinds of I and of mine, all the graspings at aggregates, elements and sense-fields — within this fourth ground, from every one of these they part. Whatever conduct of the afflictions the Tathāgata has censured, having no true benefit, they cut off entirely; the wise one practices pure works, and for the deliverance of beings there is nothing they will not do. The bodhisattva, cultivating diligently and never slackening, comes to possess the ten minds in full; single-mindedly seeking the buddha path without weariness, they set their will upon receiving the consecration and delivering beings. Revering the honored and virtuous, they practice the Dharma; knowing kindness, easily taught, without anger or harshness; casting off conceit and leaving flattery behind, their mind grown pliant, they are ever more diligent and never turn back.
身見為首六十二 — the view of the body leading the sixty-two. The prose in Part 430 said the view of the body leads a procession; the verse puts a number on it. The sixty-two are the classical inventory of speculative views about self and world, and naming them here makes the fourth ground's work exact: not sixty-two errors corrected one at a time, but one error removed, after which the sixty-two have nothing to stand on.
志期受職度眾生 — they set their will upon receiving the consecration and delivering beings. This is the verse reaching a very long way forward. Consecration belongs to the tenth ground, six beyond where the bodhisattva is standing, and it is named here as what they are already aiming at. It echoes the instruction in Part 410 that a bodhisattva on the first ground should enquire about the tenth.
Like True Gold
The closing stanzas gather the ground's results, return to the two similes, name the station, and set down the count — and then Vajragarbha ends, as he now does, without apology.
菩薩住此焰慧地，其心清淨永不失，悟解決定善增長，疑網垢濁悉皆離。
此地菩薩人中勝，供那由他無量佛，聽聞正法亦出家，不可沮壞如真金。
菩薩住此具功德，以智方便修行道，不為眾魔心退轉，譬如妙寶無能壞。
A bodhisattva abiding on this Blazing Ground — their mind is pure and never lost, their understanding resolute and their goodness increasing, and the net of doubt and the turbid stain are entirely left behind. A bodhisattva of this ground is foremost among humankind; they make offerings to measureless nayutas of buddhas, listen to the true Dharma and go forth as well, and cannot be broken down — like true gold. Abiding here the bodhisattva is complete in merit; by wisdom and skillful means they practice the path, and their mind is not turned back by the hosts of Māra — like a wondrous jewel that nothing can damage.
住此多作焰天王，於法自在眾所尊，普化群生除惡見，專求佛智修善業。
菩薩勤加精進力，獲三昧等皆億數；若以願智力所為，過於此數無能知。
如是菩薩第四地，所行清淨微妙道，功德義智共相應，我為佛子已宣說。」
Abiding here they most often become a Yāma heaven king, sovereign in the Dharma and honored by the multitude; universally transforming the multitude of beings and removing evil views, they single-mindedly seek a buddha's wisdom and cultivate good works. The bodhisattva, adding diligently to the power of effort, obtains samādhis and the rest by koṭis; and what is done by the power of vow-wisdom exceeds this number, and none can know it. Such is the bodhisattva's fourth ground, the pure and subtly wondrous path they practice, in accord together with merit, with meaning, and with wisdom — which I have now proclaimed for the children of the Buddha."
不可沮壞如真金 — cannot be broken down, like true gold. The verse takes the two similes of Part 431 and applies them to the person rather than to their wholesome roots. What was said of gold and jewel is now said of the bodhisattva, and the property that carries over from both is the same one: nothing external can spoil this. The prose had 眾魔煩惱悉不能壞; the verse says it twice more.
Note where the ground's achievements are placed in that stanza. Foremost among humankind, offerings to measureless buddhas, hearing the Dharma, going forth — and then the unbreakability, last, as the summary of the rest. It is not an additional attainment but what the others amount to.
Fourth Ground Complete
This completes Arciṣmatī, the Blazing Ground, fourth of the Ten Grounds. Chapter 26 continues in Part 433, still within fascicle thirty-six, as the assembly responds and Vimuktacandra asks for the fifth — Sudurjayā, the Ground Difficult to Conquer — which is entered by ten kinds of equal and pure mind, reaching back across the buddha-dharmas of past, future and present, and where the bodhisattva comes to know the four noble truths as they truly are.