Sunlight Drying the Mire
The seventh ground's gold is set with other stones, and its second simile finally lets the sun into a chapter that has preferred moonlight. What the sun does here is not shine but dry — the standing water of a whole continent, and the confusions of every being. Then the station, and the verse begins.
Gold, and the Sun
Seven grounds of goldsmithing arrive at inlay — gold no longer alone, its brightness doubled by what has been set into it. The sun then does something no previous simile has done: it removes water rather than adding light.
譬如真金，以眾妙寶間錯莊嚴，轉更增勝，倍益光明，餘莊嚴具所不能及；菩薩住此第七地所有善根亦復如是，以方便慧力轉更明淨，非是二乘之所能及。佛子！譬如日光，星月等光無能及者，閻浮提地所有泥潦悉能乾竭；此遠行地菩薩亦復如是，一切二乘無有能及，悉能乾竭一切眾生諸惑泥潦。此菩薩，十波羅蜜中，方便波羅蜜偏多；餘非不行，但隨力隨分。
It is like true gold inlaid and set about with every fine jewel, growing more surpassing still and doubled in brightness, such as no other ornament can match; the wholesome roots of a bodhisattva abiding on this seventh ground are likewise — by the power of skillful means and wisdom they grow brighter and purer still, and the two vehicles cannot match them. Child of the Buddha! It is like the light of the sun, which the light of the stars and the moon cannot equal, and which is able to dry up all the mire and standing water of the land of Jambudvīpa; a bodhisattva of this Far-Reaching Ground is likewise — none of the two vehicles can equal them, and they are able to dry up all the mire of the confusions of every being. In this bodhisattva, among the ten pāramitās, the pāramitā of skillful means predominates. It is not that they fail to practice the others, but they do so according to their strength and according to their share.
「佛子！是名：略說菩薩摩訶薩第七遠行地。菩薩住此地，多作自在天王，善為眾生說證智法，令其證入。布施、愛語、利行、同事——如是一切諸所作業，皆不離念佛，乃至不離念具足一切種、一切智智。復作是念：『我當於一切眾生中為首、為勝，乃至為一切智智依止者。』此菩薩若發勤精進，於一念頃，得百千億那由他三昧，乃至示現百千億那由他菩薩以為眷屬；若以菩薩殊勝願力自在示現，過於此數，乃至百千億那由他劫不能數知。」
"Child of the Buddha! This is called, spoken in brief, the bodhisattva mahāsattva's seventh ground, Dūraṅgamā, the Far-Reaching Ground. A bodhisattva abiding on this ground most often becomes a Sovereign Deva King, and skillfully expounds for beings the dharma of realized wisdom, causing them to realize it and to enter it. Giving, kind speech, beneficial conduct, and working alongside others — in all such deeds as these they never depart from the recollection of the Buddha, and so on up to never departing from the recollection of being fully endowed with all modes and with all-knowing wisdom itself. And they think further: 'Among all sentient beings I ought to be the foremost and the best, and so on up to being that upon which all-knowing wisdom itself relies.' Should this bodhisattva rouse diligent effort, in the space of a single thought they attain a hundred thousand koṭis of nayutas of samādhis, and so on up to displaying a hundred thousand koṭis of nayutas of 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, on up to a hundred thousand koṭis of nayutas of kalpas being unable to count it or know it."
以眾妙寶間錯莊嚴 — inlaid and set about with every fine jewel. The gold of the earlier grounds was worked on alone; here other materials are brought into it, and the brightness is doubled by what is not gold. It is the fitting image for a ground whose predominant pāramitā is skillful means, which is precisely the capacity to make use of what is not oneself.
悉能乾竭一切眾生諸惑泥潦 — able to dry up all the mire of the confusions of every being. 泥潦 is not deep water but sodden ground and standing puddles: the kind of wet that makes travel slow and dirty rather than the kind that drowns. Against the ocean of Part 452, this is the smaller and more accurate image of what confusion mostly does to people. And the sun does not fight it; it simply goes on shining until the ground is passable.
The Verse Begins
The verse restates the ten pairs in compressed form, and the compression is remarkable: eight of them fit into a single stanza, four characters each for the concession and four for what follows it.
爾時，金剛藏菩薩欲重宣此義而說頌曰：
「第一義智三昧道，六地修行心滿足，即時成就方便慧，菩薩以此入七地。
雖明三脫起慈悲，雖等如來勤供佛，雖觀於空集福德，菩薩以此昇七地。
遠離三界而莊嚴，滅除惑火而起焰，知法無二勤作業，了剎皆空樂嚴土，
解身不動具諸相，達聲性離善開演，入於一念事各別，智者以此昇七地。
Then Vajragarbha Bodhisattva, wishing to state this meaning again, spoke in verse, saying:
"The samādhi-path of the wisdom of ultimate meaning — on the sixth ground its cultivation fulfils the mind; then at once skillful means and wisdom are accomplished, and by this the bodhisattva enters the seventh ground. Though clear in the three liberations, they rouse loving-kindness and compassion; though equal to the Tathāgata, they diligently make offerings to the buddhas; though contemplating emptiness, they gather merit — and by this the bodhisattva ascends the seventh ground. Far removed from the three realms, yet they adorn them; having extinguished the fire of confusion, yet they raise up flame; knowing that dharmas are not two, yet they diligently act; comprehending that all lands are empty, yet they delight in adorning them; understanding the body to be unmoving, yet they are complete in the marks; penetrating that the nature of sound is apart, yet they expound it skillfully; entering into a single thought, yet each thing is distinct — and by this the wise ascend the seventh ground.
入於一念事各別 — entering into a single thought, yet each thing is distinct. The prose version of this pair, in Part 448, needed a whole clause about beings' understanding to explain why a bodhisattva who knows the three times to be one moment would still work through kalpas. The verse drops the explanation and states only the two halves, and the compression makes the point better: the single thought does not blur what is in it.
Note that the verse changes 熾然 to 起焰 — extinguishing the fire of confusion and then raising up flame. Both are the same claim as Part 452's 而還熾然，雖然不燒, but the verse's phrasing makes the deliberateness plainer. The flame is raised, not merely permitted.
Part 453 Complete
This continues Dūraṅgamā, the seventh of the Ten Grounds. Chapter 26 concludes fascicle thirty-seven in Part 454, as the verse finishes — the ten pāramitās each in half a line, the reminder that this ground is called neither with nor without afflictions, the worldly arts mastered, the king's son and the ship at sea once more — and closes on a ground that gods, humans, śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas alike are unable to know.