The Great Dharma-Master
Everything the ninth ground knows about people it now spends on speaking to them. The bodhisattva becomes a Dharma-master, and the four unhindered wisdoms — of dharma, of meaning, of language, of eloquence — are set out and then turned over again and again, each round giving them a different work.
Each in Their Own Vehicle
The teaching is fitted not only to what a hearer believes but to what has been sown in them — their births, their afflictions, what sleeps in them, what binds them, the perfumings of their habits.
「佛子！此菩薩善能演說聲聞乘法、獨覺乘法、菩薩乘法、如來地法；一切行處，智隨行故，能隨眾生根性、欲解、所行有異、諸聚差別，亦隨受生、煩惱、眠、縛、諸業習氣而為說法，令生信解，增益智慧，各於其乘而得解脫。「佛子！菩薩住此善慧地，作大法師，具法師行，善能守護如來法藏，以無量善巧智，起四無礙辯，用菩薩言辭而演說法。此菩薩常隨四無礙智轉，無暫捨離。
"Child of the Buddha! This bodhisattva is well able to expound the dharma of the śrāvaka vehicle, the dharma of the pratyekabuddha vehicle, the dharma of the bodhisattva vehicle, and the dharma of the ground of the Tathāgata; and because in every place of conduct their wisdom goes along with that conduct, they are able to expound the Dharma in accordance with beings' faculties and natures, their desires and understandings, the differences in what they do and the differences among the groups they belong to, and also in accordance with their births, their afflictions, what lies dormant in them, what binds them, and the habitual perfumings of their deeds — so that faith and understanding are born in them, their wisdom is increased, and each of them obtains liberation within their own vehicle. "Child of the Buddha! A bodhisattva abiding on this Ground of Excellent Wisdom becomes a great Dharma-master, complete in the conduct of a Dharma-master, well able to guard and protect the Tathāgata's treasury of Dharma; and with measureless skillful wisdom they raise up the four unhindered eloquences and expound the Dharma using a bodhisattva's own speech. This bodhisattva constantly turns along with the four unhindered wisdoms, and does not let go of them for a moment.
各於其乘而得解脫 — each of them obtains liberation within their own vehicle. Not everyone is moved into the greater vehicle. The ninth ground's Dharma-master is prepared to give a person the liberation available to them where they stand, which is a harder discipline than it sounds and follows directly from having seen all eleven thickets.
Four Wisdoms, Turned Over
The four are named once and then redefined five more times. The repetition is not decoration — each round shifts what "dharma", "meaning", "language" and "eloquence" pick out, so that the set is shown working at six different depths.
何等為四，所謂：法無礙智、義無礙智、辭無礙智、樂說無礙智。此菩薩以法無礙智，知諸法自相；義無礙智，知諸法別相；辭無礙智，無錯謬說；樂說無礙智，無斷盡說。復次，以法無礙智，知諸法自性；義無礙智，知諸法生滅；辭無礙智，安立一切法不斷說；樂說無礙智，隨所安立，不可壞無邊說。復次，以法無礙智，知現在法差別；義無礙智，知過去、未來法差別；辭無礙智，於去、來、今法無錯謬說；樂說無礙智，於一一世無邊法明了說。
What are the four? Namely, the unhindered wisdom of dharmas, the unhindered wisdom of meaning, the unhindered wisdom of language, and the unhindered wisdom of eloquence. With the unhindered wisdom of dharmas this bodhisattva knows the own-characteristic of dharmas; with the unhindered wisdom of meaning, the distinguishing characteristics of dharmas; with the unhindered wisdom of language, they speak without error or confusion; and with the unhindered wisdom of eloquence, they speak without ever being cut off or exhausted. Again, with the unhindered wisdom of dharmas they know the own-nature of dharmas; with the unhindered wisdom of meaning, the arising and ceasing of dharmas; with the unhindered wisdom of language, they establish all dharmas and speak of them without interruption; and with the unhindered wisdom of eloquence, they speak in accordance with what has been established, indestructibly and boundlessly. Again, with the unhindered wisdom of dharmas they know the differences among present dharmas; with the unhindered wisdom of meaning, the differences among past and future dharmas; with the unhindered wisdom of language, they speak of past, future and present dharmas without error or confusion; and with the unhindered wisdom of eloquence, they speak with clarity of the boundless dharmas of each single age.
復次，以法無礙智，知法差別；義無礙智，知義差別；辭無礙智，隨其言音說；樂說無礙智，隨其心樂說。復次，法無礙智，以法智知差別不異；義無礙智，以比智知差別如實；辭無礙智，以世智差別說；樂說無礙智，以第一義智善巧說。復次，法無礙智，知諸法一相不壞；義無礙智，知蘊、界、處、諦、緣起善巧；辭無礙智，以一切世間易解了美妙音聲、文字說；樂說無礙智，以轉勝無邊法明說。
Again, with the unhindered wisdom of dharmas they know the differences among dharmas; with the unhindered wisdom of meaning, the differences among meanings; with the unhindered wisdom of language, they speak in accordance with a hearer's own speech and sounds; and with the unhindered wisdom of eloquence, they speak in accordance with what a hearer's mind delights in. Again, the unhindered wisdom of dharmas, by the wisdom of dharma, knows differences as not differing; the unhindered wisdom of meaning, by inferential wisdom, knows differences exactly as they are; the unhindered wisdom of language, by worldly wisdom, speaks of them differentially; and the unhindered wisdom of eloquence, by the wisdom of ultimate meaning, speaks of them skilfully. Again, the unhindered wisdom of dharmas knows that dharmas have one characteristic, indestructible; the unhindered wisdom of meaning knows skilfully the aggregates, the elements, the sense-fields, the truths and dependent origination; the unhindered wisdom of language speaks with sounds and words that are lovely and easily understood by everyone in the world; and the unhindered wisdom of eloquence speaks with an ever more surpassing and boundless light of Dharma.
以法智知差別不異；以比智知差別如實 — by the wisdom of dharma, knows differences as not differing; by inferential wisdom, knows differences exactly as they are. 法智 and 比智 are the direct and the inferential knowledges of the old abhidharma, and the pairing here is exact: what is known directly is sameness, what is known by inference is the difference. Neither is corrected by the other.
以一切世間易解了美妙音聲、文字說 — speaks with sounds and words that are lovely and easily understood by everyone in the world. It is worth noticing that ease of understanding is listed as an attainment of the ninth ground, alongside the wisdom of ultimate meaning. Clarity is not treated here as a concession made to weak hearers; it is one of the four wisdoms doing its own work.
Part 467 Complete
This continues Sādhumatī, the Ground of Excellent Wisdom, the ninth of the Ten Grounds, in fascicle thirty-eight. Part 468 completes the rounds of the four wisdoms — the one vehicle and the many vehicles, the buddhas awakening in a single thought, the Tathāgata's speech and powers and great compassion — and then the dhāraṇīs this Dharma-master obtains, in their hundreds of thousands of asaṃkhyeyas.