Light from the Soles of the Feet
Seated on the lotus, the bodhisattva sends out light ten times, and the order is exact: the lowest part of the body reaches the lowest destiny, and each emission moves upward together, feet to hells, crown to the buddhas. What is done for the first four is not to teach but to stop pain.
Feet to Crown
The hells, the animals, Yama's realm and the human destiny each receive light that ends suffering; the devas and asuras, the śrāvakas, the pratyekabuddhas and the bodhisattvas of the nine grounds each receive light that simply reaches them.
「佛子！此大菩薩并其眷屬坐華座時，所有光明及以言音普皆充滿十方法界，一切世界咸悉震動，惡趣休息，國土嚴淨，同行菩薩靡不來集，人天音樂同時發聲，所有眾生悉得安樂，以不思議供養之具供一切佛，諸佛眾會悉皆顯現。
"Child of the Buddha! When this great bodhisattva and their retinue take their seats upon the flower-thrones, all their radiance and all their speech fill the dharma-realm of the ten directions everywhere; every world shakes; the evil destinies come to rest; the lands are made pure and adorned; bodhisattvas of like practice all come and gather; the music of gods and humans sounds at the same moment; all beings obtain ease and joy; with inconceivable offerings they make offerings to all the buddhas; and the assemblies of all the buddhas are made manifest.
「佛子！此菩薩坐彼大蓮華座時，於兩足下放百萬阿僧祇光明，普照十方諸大地獄，滅眾生苦；於兩膝輪放百萬阿僧祇光明，普照十方諸畜生趣，滅眾生苦；於𪗇輪中放百萬阿僧祇光明，普照十方閻羅王界，滅眾生苦；從左右脇放百萬阿僧祇光明，普照十方一切人趣，滅眾生苦；從兩手中放百萬阿僧祇光明，普照十方一切諸天及阿脩羅所有宮殿；從兩肩上放百萬阿僧祇光明，普照十方一切聲聞；從其項背放百萬阿僧祇光明，普照十方辟支佛身；從其面門放百萬阿僧祇光明，普照十方初始發心乃至九地諸菩薩身；從兩眉間放百萬阿僧祇光明，普照十方受職菩薩，令魔宮殿悉皆不現。
"Child of the Buddha! When this bodhisattva sits upon that great lotus-throne, from beneath their two feet they send forth a million asaṃkhyeyas of lights, illumining everywhere the great hells of the ten directions and extinguishing beings' suffering; from the wheels of their two knees they send forth a million asaṃkhyeyas of lights, illumining everywhere the animal destinies of the ten directions and extinguishing beings' suffering; from the wheel of the navel they send forth a million asaṃkhyeyas of lights, illumining everywhere the realm of King Yama in the ten directions and extinguishing beings' suffering; from their left and right sides they send forth a million asaṃkhyeyas of lights, illumining everywhere the whole human destiny of the ten directions and extinguishing beings' suffering; from their two hands they send forth a million asaṃkhyeyas of lights, illumining everywhere all the palaces of the devas and asuras of the ten directions; from their two shoulders they send forth a million asaṃkhyeyas of lights, illumining everywhere all the śrāvakas of the ten directions; from the nape and back they send forth a million asaṃkhyeyas of lights, illumining everywhere the bodies of the pratyekabuddhas of the ten directions; from their face they send forth a million asaṃkhyeyas of lights, illumining everywhere the bodies of the bodhisattvas of the ten directions, from those who have just first roused the mind up to those on the ninth ground; and from between their brows they send forth a million asaṃkhyeyas of lights, illumining everywhere the consecrated bodhisattvas of the ten directions and causing Māra's palaces all to disappear.
The third emission comes from 𪗇輪, written with a rare graph that the tradition reads as 臍, the navel; between the knees and the flanks, nothing else fits. Reading the ten emissions in order gives a body mapped onto the cosmos from the ground up, and it is worth noticing where the pain is: the four lowest lights all end with 滅眾生苦, extinguishing beings' suffering, and the six above them do not, because there is none there to extinguish.
令魔宮殿悉皆不現 — causing Māra's palaces all to disappear. Māra is not fought here, and his hosts are not mentioned. The light that reaches the other consecrated bodhisattvas simply leaves his architecture invisible, which is the eighth ground's lesson about effort applied to the last obstacle in the chapter.
The Net Called Blazing Radiance
The tenth emission goes from the crown to the buddhas themselves, and becomes a structure — a net standing in the air that makes the offering, and whose offering exceeds everything given from the first arousing of the mind through the ninth ground.
從其頂上放百萬阿僧祇三千大千世界微塵數光明，普照十方一切世界諸佛如來道場眾會，右遶十匝，住虛空中，成光明網，名：熾然光明，發起種種諸供養事供養於佛，餘諸菩薩從初發心乃至九地所有供養而比於此，百分不及一，乃至算數譬諭所不能及。其光明網普於十方一一如來眾會之前，雨眾妙香、華鬘、衣服、幢幡、寶蓋、諸摩尼等莊嚴之具以為供養，皆從出世善根所生，超過一切世間境界。若有眾生見知此者，皆於阿耨多羅三藐三菩提得不退轉。
From the crown of their head they send forth lights as numerous as the dust-motes of a million asaṃkhyeyas of great trichiliocosms, illumining everywhere the assemblies at the awakening-sites of all the buddhas, the Tathāgatas, throughout all the worlds of the ten directions; and circling them ten times to the right, the lights abide in open space and become a net of radiance named Blazing Radiance, which raises up every kind of offering and makes offerings to the buddhas — and all the offerings of every other bodhisattva, from the first arousing of the mind up through the ninth ground, compared with this, do not amount to one part in a hundred, nor to anything that reckoning or comparison could reach. That net of radiance, before each single Tathāgata's assembly throughout the ten directions, rains down every fine incense, flower-garlands, garments, banners and pennants, jewelled canopies, maṇi jewels and other ornaments as offerings, all of them produced from world-transcending wholesome roots and surpassing every domain of the world. If there are beings who see and know this, they all become irreversible in unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening.
成光明網 — the lights become a net of radiance. Light in this sūtra usually spreads or shines; here it takes a shape, and the shape is the one the whole text has been built on since Indra's net. Note also that the net, not the bodhisattva, is what makes the offering; on this ground the offering has become something the person's radiance does on its own.
若有眾生見知此者，皆於阿耨多羅三藐三菩提得不退轉 — if there are beings who see and know this, they all become irreversible in unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening. Merely witnessing the consecration is enough. The sentence sits inside the ceremony and quietly extends its benefit to anyone reading the description of it.
Part 475 Complete
This continues Dharmameghā, the Ground of the Dharma-Cloud, the tenth and last of the Ten Grounds, in fascicle thirty-nine. Part 476 continues the ceremony — the great light returning to enter the buddhas beneath their feet, so that the buddhas and bodhisattvas know which bodhisattva in which world has come to the station of consecration; the light called Destroyer of Māra's Enmity sent by every consecrated bodhisattva into this one's breast; and the light from between the brows of all the buddhas of the ten directions.