The Lotus That Grows for a Throne
The tenth ground is the station of consecration, and it arrives as a coronation does — a hundred million samādhis, then one final samādhi, and then, suddenly, a lotus the size of a million world-systems growing up out of nothing to be sat upon.
What Nine Grounds Gather
Vajragarbha answers by summarizing everything from the first ground onward in a single sentence — and the ninth ground's thickets are named in it, so that the tenth is reached by way of having gone into people rather than away from them.
爾時，金剛藏菩薩摩訶薩告解脫月菩薩言：「佛子！菩薩摩訶薩從初地乃至第九地，以如是無量智慧觀察覺了已，善思惟修習，善滿足白法，集無邊助道法，增長大福德智慧，廣行大悲，知世界差別，入眾生界稠林，入如來所行處，隨順如來寂滅行，常觀察如來力、無所畏、不共佛法，名為：得一切種、一切智智受職位。
Then Vajragarbha Bodhisattva mahāsattva said to Vimuktacandra Bodhisattva: "Child of the Buddha! When a bodhisattva mahāsattva, from the first ground up through the ninth, has contemplated and comprehended with such measureless wisdom as this; has thought upon it well and cultivated it well; has well brought the bright dharmas to fullness; has gathered boundless dharmas that aid the path; has increased great merit and wisdom; has practiced great compassion widely; knows the differences among worlds; has entered the thickets of the realm of beings; has entered the place where the Tathāgata moves; accords with the Tathāgata's quiescent conduct; and constantly contemplates the Tathāgata's powers, fearlessnesses and unshared buddha-dharmas — this is called attaining the station of consecration into all modes and all-knowing wisdom itself.
「佛子！菩薩摩訶薩以如是智慧入受職地已，即得菩薩離垢三昧、入法界差別三昧、莊嚴道場三昧、一切種華光三昧、海藏三昧、海印三昧、虛空界廣大三昧、觀一切法自性三昧、知一切眾生心行三昧、一切佛皆現前三昧，如是等百萬阿僧祇三昧皆現在前。菩薩於此一切三昧，若入若起，皆得善巧，亦善了知一切三昧所作差別。
"Child of the Buddha! When with such wisdom a bodhisattva mahāsattva has entered the ground of consecration, they at once attain the bodhisattva samādhi free of defilement, the samādhi of entering the differences of the dharma-realm, the samādhi of adorning the awakening-site, the samādhi of the flower-radiance of every kind, the samādhi of the ocean's treasury, the ocean-seal samādhi, the samādhi of the vastness of the realm of open space, the samādhi of contemplating the own-nature of all dharmas, the samādhi of knowing the mental conduct of all beings, and the samādhi in which all buddhas stand present — a million asaṃkhyeyas of such samādhis as these all stand present before them. In all these samādhis, whether entering them or rising from them, the bodhisattva attains skill, and knows well too the differences in what each samādhi does.
入眾生界稠林 — has entered the thickets of the realm of beings. The word 稠林 belongs to the ninth ground, where it named eleven kinds of undergrowth inside ordinary people. Its appearance in the qualification for consecration is deliberate: what earns the last ground is not withdrawal into subtlety but having gone into the undergrowth.
若入若起，皆得善巧 — whether entering them or rising from them, they attain skill. Rising from a samādhi is named alongside entering it, and given equal weight. For a ground whose work will be to rain Dharma on worlds, coming out of absorption is the operative half of the skill.
The Lotus, and the Seat
The final samādhi is named for the office it confers, and the flower that appears is described the way a throne is described — its stem, its dais, its stamens, its petals, each of a different precious substance.
其最後三昧，名：受一切智勝職位。此三昧現在前時，有大寶蓮華忽然出生。其華廣大，量等百萬三千大千世界，以眾妙寶間錯莊嚴，超過一切世間境界；出世善根之所生起，知諸法如幻性眾行所成，恒放光明普照法界，非諸天處之所能有；毘瑠璃摩尼寶為莖，栴檀王為臺，碼碯為鬚，閻浮檀金為葉，其華常有無量光明，眾寶為藏，寶網彌覆，十三千大千世界微塵數蓮華以為眷屬。爾時，菩薩坐此華座，身相大小正相稱可；無量菩薩以為眷屬，各坐其餘蓮華之上，周匝圍遶，一一各得百萬三昧，向大菩薩一心瞻仰。
The last of those samādhis is named Receiving the Surpassing Station of All-Knowing Wisdom. When this samādhi stands present, a great jewelled lotus suddenly comes into being. That flower is vast and wide, its measure equal to a million great trichiliocosms; it is adorned and inlaid with every fine jewel, surpassing every domain of the world; it is produced from world-transcending wholesome roots, and is formed of the many practices that know the nature of dharmas to be like a conjuring; it constantly sends forth radiance illumining the dharma-realm everywhere, and is such as no heavenly abode could possess. Beryl and maṇi jewels are its stem, the king of sandalwood its dais, agate its stamens, and Jambūnada gold its petals; that flower always has measureless radiance, every jewel is its treasury, and a net of jewels covers it over; and lotuses as numerous as the dust-motes of ten great trichiliocosms are its retinue. Then the bodhisattva sits upon this flower-seat, the size of their body's form exactly answering to it; and measureless bodhisattvas as their retinue each sit upon one of the other lotuses, surrounding them on every side, each of them attaining a million samādhis, and gazing single-mindedly toward that great bodhisattva.
知諸法如幻性眾行所成 — formed of the many practices that know the nature of dharmas to be like a conjuring. The lotus is not a reward manifested by merit alone; the sūtra says what it is made of, and it is made of practice that has understood emptiness. Note that the deva maidens' conjuror simile from Part 473 is picked up here in the very material of the throne.
身相大小正相稱可 — the size of their body's form exactly answering to it. The flower is a million world-systems wide and the seated body fits it precisely, which is stated without any explanation at all. The eighth ground's exchange of bodies and the ninth ground's dust-mote counting have made a sentence like this unremarkable by the time it arrives.
Part 474 Complete
This continues Dharmameghā, the Ground of the Dharma-Cloud, the tenth and last of the Ten Grounds, in fascicle thirty-nine. Part 475 continues the consecration — light sent from the soles of the feet and every part of the body until the hells are cooled and the worlds shake, and then the light that goes out from between the brows of the buddhas of the ten directions and enters the crown of this bodhisattva's head.