Ten Doors of Emptiness
The three liberation gateways of Part 443 turn out to be doors onto a great many rooms. Ten samādhis on emptiness are named, and each is a heading under which a hundred thousand more stand waiting. What the sūtra says the bodhisattva can do afterward is unexpectedly plain: they are no longer frightened by an argument.
Emptiness, Ten Ways
The ten names are not synonyms. Read in order they move from emptiness as a subject, through emptiness qualified in various ways, to two that concern how one holds it — and the last of those undoes even that.
「佛子！菩薩住此現前地，得入空三昧、自性空三昧、第一義空三昧、第一空三昧、大空三昧、合空三昧、起空三昧、如實不分別空三昧、不捨離空三昧、離不離空三昧。此菩薩得如是十空三昧門為首，百千空三昧皆悉現前；如是十無相、十無願三昧門為首，百千無相、無願三昧門皆悉現前。
"Child of the Buddha! A bodhisattva abiding on this Ground of Direct Presence gains entry into the samādhi of emptiness, the samādhi of the emptiness of own-nature, the samādhi of the emptiness of ultimate meaning, the samādhi of foremost emptiness, the samādhi of great emptiness, the samādhi of conjoined emptiness, the samādhi of arisen emptiness, the samādhi of emptiness undiscriminated as it truly is, the samādhi of emptiness not forsaken, and the samādhi of emptiness neither apart nor not apart. This bodhisattva, taking these ten gateways of the samādhi of emptiness as their head, has a hundred thousand samādhis of emptiness all standing present before them; and likewise, taking the ten gateways of the samādhis of signlessness and of wishlessness as their head, a hundred thousand gateways of the samādhis of signlessness and of wishlessness all stand present before them.
「佛子！菩薩住此現前地，復更修習滿足不可壞心、決定心、純善心、甚深心、不退轉心、不休息心、廣大心、無邊心、求智心、方便慧相應心，皆悉圓滿。
"Child of the Buddha! A bodhisattva abiding on this Ground of Direct Presence further cultivates and brings to fullness an indestructible mind, a resolute mind, a purely good mind, a profound mind, a mind that does not turn back, a mind that does not rest, a vast mind, a boundless mind, a mind that seeks wisdom, and a mind in accord with skillful means and discernment — all of them complete.
不捨離空三昧、離不離空三昧 — the samādhi of emptiness not forsaken, and the samādhi of emptiness neither apart nor not apart. The ninth guards against treating emptiness as something one visits and leaves; the tenth then guards against the ninth. Having said that emptiness is not to be let go of, the sūtra immediately declines to let "not letting go" become a position either. The list ends by dismantling its own last rung.
Note the arithmetic. Ten named samādhis, each the head of a hundred thousand; and then the same structure again for signlessness and for wishlessness. The three gateways of Part 443 were doors, and this passage is what is behind them — not a single state but an enormous, articulated territory.
No Longer Frightened by an Argument
What follows the samādhis is a list of practical consequences, and the first of them is the least mystical thing said on this ground.
「佛子！菩薩以此心順佛菩提，不懼異論，入諸智地，離二乘道，趣於佛智，諸煩惱魔無能沮壞，住於菩薩智慧光明，於空、無相、無願法中皆善修習，方便智慧恒共相應，菩提分法常行不捨。佛子！菩薩住此現前地中，得般若波羅蜜行增上，得第三明利順忍，以於諸法如實相隨順無違故。
"Child of the Buddha! By these minds the bodhisattva accords with a buddha's awakening and does not fear differing doctrines; they enter the grounds of wisdom, depart from the path of the two vehicles, and head toward a buddha's wisdom. The Māra of the afflictions cannot break them down; they abide in the radiance of a bodhisattva's wisdom; within the dharmas of emptiness, signlessness and wishlessness they cultivate well; skillful means and wisdom are constantly in accord together in them; and they constantly practice the factors of awakening and do not abandon them. Child of the Buddha! A bodhisattva abiding on this Ground of Direct Presence attains a preeminence in the practice of the pāramitā of wisdom, and obtains the third bright and keen forbearance of conformity — because toward the true characteristic of dharmas they accord without contradiction.
「佛子！菩薩住此現前地已，以願力故，得見多佛。所謂：見多百佛，乃至見多百千億那由他佛。悉以廣大心、深心，供養恭敬，尊重讚歎，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。於諸佛所，恭敬聽法，聞已受持，得如實三昧智慧光明，隨順修行，憶持不捨。又得諸佛甚深法藏，經於百劫，經於千劫，乃至無量百千億那由他劫，所有善根轉更明淨。
"Child of the Buddha! A bodhisattva already abiding on this Ground of Direct Presence, by the power of vows, comes to see many buddhas. That is to say: they see many hundreds 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 make offerings to them all, revering, honoring and praising 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; they obtain the radiance of the wisdom of the samādhi of things as they truly are, practice in accord with it, and hold it in memory without letting it go. They obtain, moreover, the profound Dharma-treasury of the buddhas; and passing through a hundred kalpas, a thousand kalpas, on up to measureless hundreds of thousands of millions of nayutas of kalpas, all their wholesome roots grow brighter and purer still.
不懼異論 — they do not fear differing doctrines. Of everything the emptiness samādhis might have produced, this is what the sūtra names first, and it is a description of intellectual temperament rather than of attainment. Someone who has seen that all dharmas are the same in having no own-nature has nothing invested in a position, and therefore nothing to lose in an argument. Fear of another view is fear for something one is holding.
The third forbearance is again carefully qualified. This is 明利順忍, the bright and keen forbearance that conforms — the same kind named in Part 440 when the ground was entered, now in its third degree. The 無生法忍, the forbearance of the non-arising of dharmas, is still not claimed. Three grades into a forbearance and the sūtra is still marking which one this is not.
Part 444 Complete
This continues Abhimukhī, the sixth of the Ten Grounds. Chapter 26 continues in Part 445 with two similes for what this ground's wholesome roots become — true gold burnished again and again with beryl, growing brighter and more quiet until nothing can outshine it; and moonlight falling on beings' bodies to cool them, which the four winds cannot destroy — after which the ground is named and its worldly station given.