Light in the Remotest Dark
The ninth ground's two similes both raise the eighth ground's by one degree — the crown now sits on a wheel-turning king, and the Brahmā King is lord of two thousand worlds rather than one. What his light is praised for is not its reach but where it reaches: the places nothing else gets to.
The Crown, and the Dark Places
What this bodhisattva does with the buddhas is now specified — they put questions — and what they obtain from doing so is the dhāraṇī of expounding the Dharma.
「佛子！菩薩住此第九地，晝夜專勤更無餘念，唯入佛境界親近如來，入諸菩薩甚深解脫，常在三昧，恒見諸佛，未曾捨離。一一劫中見無量佛、無量百佛、無量千佛，乃至無量百千億那由他佛，恭敬尊重，承事供養，於諸佛所種種問難，得說法陀羅尼，所有善根轉更明淨。
"Child of the Buddha! A bodhisattva abiding on this ninth ground is diligent and single-minded day and night, with no other thought than to enter the domain of the buddhas and draw near to the Tathāgata, to enter the profound liberations of the bodhisattvas, to remain constantly in samādhi and constantly to behold the buddhas, never once departing from them. In each single kalpa they see measureless buddhas, measureless hundreds of buddhas, measureless thousands of buddhas, on up to measureless hundreds of thousands of koṭis of nayutas of buddhas; and revering and honoring them, serving and making offerings to them, they put every kind of difficult question in the presence of those buddhas and obtain the dhāraṇī of expounding the Dharma, and all their wholesome roots grow brighter and purer still.
譬如真金，善巧金師用作寶冠，轉輪聖王以嚴其首，四天下內一切小王及諸臣民諸莊嚴具無與等者；此第九地菩薩善根亦復如是，一切聲聞、辟支佛及下地菩薩所有善根無能與等。佛子！譬如二千世界主大梵天王，身出光明，二千界中幽遠之處悉能照耀，除其黑闇；此地菩薩所有善根亦復如是，能出光明照眾生心，煩惱黑闇皆令息滅。此菩薩，十波羅蜜中，力波羅蜜最勝；餘波羅蜜非不修行，但隨力隨分。「佛子！是名：略說菩薩摩訶薩第九善慧地；若廣說者，於無量劫亦不能盡。
It is like true gold that a skilled goldsmith has made into a jewelled crown, with which a wheel-turning sage king adorns his head, such that no ornament of any lesser king or of any minister or subject within the four continents can be compared with it; the wholesome roots of a bodhisattva on this ninth ground are likewise — the wholesome roots of all śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas, and of bodhisattvas on the grounds below, cannot be compared with them. Child of the Buddha! It is like the Great Brahmā King, lord of two thousand worlds, from whose body a radiance goes forth that is able to illumine even the remote and hidden places within those two thousand worlds and remove their darkness; the wholesome roots of a bodhisattva on this ground are likewise able to send forth a radiance that shines upon the minds of beings and causes the darkness of their afflictions all to be extinguished. In this bodhisattva, among the ten pāramitās, the pāramitā of power is the most surpassing. It is not that they fail to practice the other pāramitās, but they do so according to their strength and according to their share. "Child of the Buddha! This is called, spoken in brief, the bodhisattva mahāsattva's ninth ground, Sādhumatī, the Ground of Excellent Wisdom; were it to be spoken of in full, measureless kalpas would not exhaust it.
二千界中幽遠之處悉能照耀 — able to illumine even the remote and hidden places within those two thousand worlds. 幽遠 means both far off and deeply shadowed. The eighth ground's Brahmā King filled a thousand worlds with light; this one is measured instead by what he reaches in them — and the corresponding claim about the bodhisattva is that the radiance falls on 眾生心, on the minds of beings, which is precisely where the thickets were.
於諸佛所種種問難 — they put every kind of difficult question in the presence of those buddhas. The bodhisattva who in Part 469 could not be stumped by the questions of a whole world is here shown doing the asking. What is obtained by it is 說法陀羅尼, the retention that enables expounding — which is to say, they ask in order to be able to answer.
Lord of Two Thousand Worlds
The station and its numbers, with the samādhis now counted in the dust-motes of a million asaṃkhyeyas of lands.
佛子！菩薩摩訶薩住此地，多作二千世界主大梵天王，善能統理，自在饒益，能為一切聲聞、緣覺及諸菩薩分別演說波羅蜜行；隨眾生心，所有問難無能屈者。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，得百萬阿僧祇國土微塵數三昧，乃至示現百萬阿僧祇國土微塵數菩薩以為眷屬；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! A bodhisattva mahāsattva abiding on this ground most often becomes a Great Brahmā King, lord of two thousand worlds, well able to govern and order them, benefiting beings with sovereign freedom, and able to discriminate and expound the practice of the pāramitās for all śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas and bodhisattvas; and in accordance with beings' minds, there is no difficult question by which they can be stumped. 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 all modes and of 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 samādhis as numerous as the dust-motes of a million asaṃkhyeyas of lands, and so on up to displaying bodhisattvas as numerous as the dust-motes of a million asaṃkhyeyas of lands 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."
善能統理 — well able to govern and order them. This is the first ground-station described in administrative terms rather than by radiance or freedom alone. It belongs to the ninth ground's whole character: what is praised here is competence at the work of running things for others, which is exactly what a teacher of eighty-four thousand kinds of person needs.
Part 470 Complete
This continues Sādhumatī, the Ground of Excellent Wisdom, the ninth of the Ten Grounds, in fascicle thirty-eight. Part 471 begins Vajragarbha's closing verse for this ground — entry through the Tathāgata's secret places, the dharmas known as wholesome and unwholesome and indeterminate, the swift-turning aspects of mind, and the beginningless thicket that neither meditative absorption nor anything short of the vajra-path can finally cut down.