The Conjuror Who Knows His Art
Fascicle thirty-nine opens on the last ground with a song. The deva maidens praise a body seated in one land and present in all of them, and reach for the same simile the devas used two grounds ago — a conjuror at work in a crowd, except that this one knows exactly what he is doing.
Fascicle Thirty-Nine Opens
The heading names the tenth ground before anything is said of it, and the offerings begin at once — incense from the bodhisattvas, robes from the Sovereign Deva King's host, and music from the deva maidens.
大方廣佛華嚴經卷第三十九
于闐國三藏實叉難陀奉制譯
十地品第二十六之六
第十地
The Great and Vast Buddha's Flower Ornament Sūtra, Fascicle Thirty-Nine
Translated by imperial command by Śikṣānanda, Tripiṭaka Master of the Kingdom of Khotan
Chapter Twenty-Six, The Ten Grounds, Part Six
The Tenth Ground
淨居天眾那由他，聞此地中諸勝行，空中踊躍心歡喜，悉共虔誠供養佛。
不可思議菩薩眾，亦在空中大歡喜，俱然最上悅意香，普熏眾會令清淨。
自在天王與天眾，無量億數在虛空，普散天衣供養佛，百千萬種繽紛下。
天諸采女無有量，靡不歡欣供養佛，各奏種種妙樂音，悉以此言而讚歎：
Nayutas of gods of the Pure Abodes, hearing of the surpassing practices of this ground, leapt up in the air with glad hearts and all together made reverent offerings to the Buddha. Inconceivably many bodhisattvas, also in the air, were greatly gladdened, and all at once burned the finest incense of delight, perfuming the whole assembly and making it pure. The Sovereign Deva King and his hosts, measureless koṭis of them, in open space scattered heavenly robes everywhere as offerings to the Buddha, a hundred thousand ten-thousand kinds of them falling in profusion. The deva maidens were without number, and there was not one who did not offer gladly to the Buddha, each performing every kind of wondrous music; and with these words they all spoke in praise:
One Body, and Every Life of It
What the maidens sing is a whole buddha-life at once — Tuṣita, the descent, the womb, the birth, the going forth, the awakening-site, the teaching, the parinirvāṇa — all of it visible in every land simultaneously, and none of it more real than the rest.
「佛身安坐一國土，一切世界悉現身，身相端嚴無量億，法界廣大悉充滿。
於一毛孔放光明，普滅世間煩惱暗，國土微塵可知數，此光明數不可測。
或見如來具眾相，轉於無上正法輪，或見遊行諸佛剎，或見寂然安不動。
或現住於兜率宮，或現下生入母胎，或示住胎或出胎，悉令無量國中見。
或現出家修世道，或現道場成正覺，或現說法或涅槃，普使十方無不覩。
"The Buddha's body sits at rest in a single land, and in all worlds it manifests that body; the marks of that body are upright and majestic, measureless koṭis of them, and the dharma-realm, vast and wide, is entirely filled by it. From a single pore he sends forth radiance that everywhere extinguishes the world's darkness of affliction; the dust-motes of the lands may be known and numbered, but the number of these lights cannot be measured. Some see the Tathāgata complete in every mark, turning the unsurpassed wheel of the true Dharma; some see him travelling through the buddha-lands; and some see him at rest, still and unmoving. Sometimes he appears abiding in the Tuṣita palace; sometimes he appears descending to be born and entering a mother's womb; sometimes he shows himself dwelling in the womb, or coming forth from it — causing it to be seen in measureless lands. Sometimes he appears going forth from home and cultivating the world's path; sometimes he appears at the awakening-site accomplishing perfect awakening; sometimes he appears expounding the Dharma, and sometimes entering nirvāṇa — causing all in the ten directions to behold it.
譬如幻師知幻術，在於大眾多所作；如來智慧亦復然，於世間中普現身。
佛住甚深真法性，寂滅無相同虛空，而於第一實義中，示現種種所行事。
所作利益眾生事，皆依法性而得有，相與無相無差別，入於究竟皆無相。
若有欲得如來智，應離一切妄分別，有無通達皆平等，疾作人天大導師。」
無量無邊天女眾，種種言音稱讚已，身心寂靜共安樂，瞻仰如來默然住。
即時菩薩解脫月，知諸眾會咸寂靜，向金剛藏而請言：
「大無畏者真佛子！從第九地入十地，所有功德諸行相，及以神通變化事，願聰慧者為宣說！」
It is like a conjuror who knows his art and performs many things in the midst of a crowd; the Tathāgata's wisdom is likewise, manifesting a body everywhere within the world. The Buddha abides in the profound true nature of dharmas, quiescent and without characteristics, the same as open space; and yet within the ultimate reality he displays every kind of thing that is done. The deeds done to benefit beings all come to be in dependence on the nature of dharmas; characteristic and characteristiclessness are without difference, and entering the ultimate, all is without characteristics. If there is one who wishes to attain the Tathāgata's wisdom, they should leave behind every false discrimination; penetrating existence and non-existence as alike the same, they will swiftly become a great guide for gods and humans." When the measureless, boundless host of deva maidens had praised him in every kind of speech, their bodies and minds became quiet and at ease together, and they gazed up at the Tathāgata and remained silent. At that moment Vimuktacandra Bodhisattva, knowing that the whole assembly had become still, addressed Vajragarbha and asked: "Greatly fearless one, true child of the Buddha! From the ninth ground one enters the tenth — all its merits and the aspects of its practice, and its spiritual penetrations and transformations, may you of keen wisdom expound them for us!"
國土微塵可知數，此光明數不可測 — the dust-motes of the lands may be known and numbered, but the number of these lights cannot be measured. The ninth ground had just finished counting dust-motes exactly. The maidens use that achievement as their unit of comparison and then leave it behind, which is a courteous way of announcing that a tenth ground exists.
譬如幻師知幻術 — like a conjuror who knows his art. The devas used this simile at the end of the eighth ground, in Part 464, of the bodhisattva. Here the deva maidens apply it to the Tathāgata, and add 知幻術 — he knows the trick. The whole buddha-life just enumerated, from Tuṣita to nirvāṇa, is placed inside that clause.
Part 473 Complete
This opens Dharmameghā, the Ground of the Dharma-Cloud, the tenth and last of the Ten Grounds, in fascicle thirty-nine. Part 474 begins Vajragarbha's answer — what is gathered from the first ground through the ninth that makes a bodhisattva ready for the station of consecration, the hundred million asaṃkhyeyas of samādhis that then appear, and the great jewelled lotus, vast as a million trichiliocosms, that grows up beneath the last of them.