The King's Son
Vimuktacandra raises an objection that has been available since the first ground — surely a bodhisattva already surpassed the other vehicles long ago? The answer distinguishes two ways of outranking someone, and the simile it uses is of a prince who has always outranked the court and only later deserves to.
Cultivated, Not Inherited
The description of this bodhisattva's mastery comes with an unusual qualification attached — one that points forward to the ground above and quietly says what is different about it.
此菩薩於三千大千世界中為大明師，唯除如來及八地已上其餘菩薩，深心妙行無與等者，諸禪三昧、三摩鉢底、神通解脫皆得現前。然是修成，非如八地報得成就。此地菩薩於念念中具足修習方便智力及一切菩提分法，轉勝圓滿。
This bodhisattva is a great and illuminating teacher throughout the three-thousandfold great thousand world; excepting only the tathāgatas and those bodhisattvas of the eighth ground and above, there is none whose profound mind and wondrous practice can equal theirs. Every dhyāna, samādhi and samāpatti, every spiritual power and liberation, stands present before them — and yet these are accomplished by cultivation, and not as on the eighth ground, where they are accomplished as a matured result. A bodhisattva of this ground, in every thought-moment, cultivates completely the power of skillful wisdom and all the factors of awakening, and these grow more surpassing and complete.
「佛子！菩薩住此地，入菩薩善觀擇三昧、善擇義三昧、最勝慧三昧、分別義藏三昧、如實分別義三昧、善住堅固根三昧、智慧神通門三昧、法界業三昧、如來勝利三昧、種種義藏生死涅槃門三昧，入如是等具足大智神通門百萬三昧，淨治此地。是菩薩得此三昧，善治淨方便慧故，大悲力故，超過二乘地，得觀察智慧地。「佛子！菩薩住此地，善淨無量身業無相行，善淨無量語業無相行，善淨無量意業無相行故，得無生法忍光明。」
"Child of the Buddha! A bodhisattva abiding on this ground enters the bodhisattva samādhi of skillful contemplation and discernment, the samādhi of skillfully discerning the meaning, the samādhi of most supreme discernment, the samādhi of the treasury that discriminates meaning, the samādhi of discriminating meaning as it truly is, the samādhi of abiding well in firm faculties, the samādhi of the gateway of wisdom and spiritual power, the samādhi of the work of the dharma-realm, the samādhi of a tathāgata's supreme benefit, and the samādhi of the gateway of birth-and-death and of nirvāṇa within the treasury of every meaning; and entering a million such samādhis, complete in the gateway of great wisdom and spiritual power, they purify and prepare this ground. This bodhisattva, having gained these samādhis — because they have well purified skillful means and wisdom, and because of the power of great compassion — passes beyond the ground of the two vehicles and gains the ground of contemplating wisdom. "Child of the Buddha! Because a bodhisattva abiding on this ground well purifies the measureless signless practice of bodily action, well purifies the measureless signless practice of verbal action, and well purifies the measureless signless practice of mental action, they obtain the radiance of the forbearance of the non-arising of dharmas."
然是修成，非如八地報得成就 — these are accomplished by cultivation, and not as on the eighth ground, where they are accomplished as a matured result. The distinction is between a capacity one keeps in being and one that has become one's nature. Everything this bodhisattva can do, they are doing; on the ground above, the same abilities will simply be what they are. It is the same difference Part 449 drew between the exerted portion and the effortless.
得無生法忍光明 — they obtain the radiance of the forbearance of the non-arising of dharmas. Since Part 440 the sūtra has repeatedly noted that this forbearance had not yet been attained. Here it grants the radiance of it — light cast by something not yet arrived at. The precision is characteristic: not the thing, and not nothing.
By Whose Power
The objection is fair and the answer concedes it immediately. What it then supplies is a distinction between two grounds on which the same fact can be true.
解脫月菩薩言：「佛子！菩薩從初地來所有無量身、語、意業，豈不超過二乘耶？」金剛藏菩薩言：「佛子！彼悉超過，然但以願求諸佛法故，非是自智觀察之力；今第七地自智力故，一切二乘所不能及。譬如王子，生在王家，王后所生，具足王相，生已即勝一切臣眾，但以王力，非是自力；若身長大，藝業悉成，乃以自力超過一切。
Vimuktacandra Bodhisattva said: "Child of the Buddha! The measureless actions of body, speech and mind that a bodhisattva has had ever since the first ground — do these not already surpass the two vehicles?" Vajragarbha Bodhisattva said: "Child of the Buddha! They do all surpass them; but only because of vowing and seeking the buddha-dharmas, and not by the power of their own wisdom's contemplation. Now, on the seventh ground, it is by the power of their own wisdom, and all the two vehicles cannot reach them. It is like a king's son, born into a royal house, born of the queen, complete in the marks of a king: from birth he surpasses all the ministers and the whole court — but only by the king's power, and not by his own. When his body has grown and his arts and skills are all accomplished, then it is by his own power that he surpasses them all.
菩薩摩訶薩亦復如是，初發心時，以志求大法故，超過一切聲聞、獨覺；今住此地，以自所行智慧力故，出過一切二乘之上。佛子！菩薩住此第七地，得甚深遠離無行、常行身語意業，勤求上道而不捨離，是故菩薩雖行實際而不作證。」
So it is with a bodhisattva mahāsattva: when they first arouse the mind, because their resolve seeks the great Dharma, they surpass all śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas; and now, abiding on this ground, it is by the power of the wisdom of their own practice that they rise above all the two vehicles. Child of the Buddha! A bodhisattva abiding on this seventh ground gains a profound and far-removed action of body, of speech and of mind that is without acting and yet constantly acting; they diligently seek the higher path and do not abandon it — and therefore, though the bodhisattva walks within the real limit, they do not realize it."
但以王力，非是自力 — only by the king's power, not by his own. The prince's rank was never in doubt and was also never earned; the simile grants the objection its full force rather than arguing with it. What changes when he grows up is not his position but whether the position is his. And the sūtra applies this to the moment of first arousing the mind — that first act really did surpass the other vehicles, on borrowed authority, and seven grounds later the same person deserves it.
無行、常行 — without acting and yet constantly acting. The seventh ground's signature contradiction, now applied to the bodhisattva's own conduct rather than to their relation to the world. And it produces the line the ground ends on: 雖行實際而不作證, though they walk within the real limit, they do not realize it. The real limit is the place where a practitioner would stop; this bodhisattva stands in it and declines to arrive.
Part 451 Complete
This continues Dūraṅgamā, the seventh of the Ten Grounds. Chapter 26 continues in Part 452 as Vimuktacandra asks from which ground a bodhisattva can enter the attainment of cessation, and learns that from the sixth they can, and here can enter and rise from it in thought after thought without realizing it — like someone who takes ship upon the ocean and by skill comes to no harm in the water.