The Buddhas' Water of Wisdom
The coronation is explained in a sentence, the ground gets its name, and then the tenth ground begins doing what it does — knowing how everything gathers, how everything is transformed, what sustains it, and finally the buddhas' own subtleties and secrets.
What Gathers, and What Is Transformed
集 is the word the Buddha used for the origin of suffering — the gathering-up that produces something. Here it is asked of everything there is, including the dharma-realm, space, and nirvāṇa.
菩薩受職亦復如是，諸佛智水灌其頂故，名為：受職；具足如來十種力故，墮在佛數。佛子！是名：菩薩受大智職。菩薩以此大智職故，能行無量百千萬億那由他難行之行，增長無量智慧功德，名為：安住法雲地。「佛子！菩薩摩訶薩住此法雲地，如實知欲界集、色界集、無色界集、世界集、法界集、有為界集、無為界集、眾生界集、識界集、虛空界集、涅槃界集。此菩薩如實知諸見煩惱行集，知世界成壞集，知聲聞行集、辟支佛行集、菩薩行集、如來力無所畏色身法身集、一切種一切智智集、示得菩提轉法輪集、入一切法分別決定智集。舉要言之，以一切智，知一切集。
A bodhisattva's receiving of consecration is likewise: because the buddhas' water of wisdom is poured upon their head, it is called receiving consecration; and because they are complete in the Tathāgata's ten kinds of power, they are counted among the buddhas. Child of the Buddha! This is called the bodhisattva's receiving of the consecration of great wisdom. Because of this consecration of great wisdom, the bodhisattva is able to practice measureless hundreds of thousands of ten-thousands of koṭis of nayutas of hard practices, and to increase measureless wisdom and merit; and this is called abiding on Dharmameghā, the Ground of the Dharma-Cloud. "Child of the Buddha! A bodhisattva mahāsattva abiding on this Ground of the Dharma-Cloud knows exactly as they are the gathering of the desire realm, the gathering of the form realm, the gathering of the formless realm, the gathering of a world, the gathering of the dharma-realm, the gathering of the conditioned realm, the gathering of the unconditioned realm, the gathering of the realm of beings, the gathering of the realm of consciousness, the gathering of the realm of open space, and the gathering of the realm of nirvāṇa. This bodhisattva knows exactly as they are the gathering of the conduct of views and afflictions; knows the gathering of a world's forming and dissolving; knows the gathering of the practice of the śrāvakas, the gathering of the practice of the pratyekabuddhas, the gathering of bodhisattva practice, the gathering of the Tathāgata's powers and fearlessnesses and of his form-body and Dharma-body, the gathering of all modes and of all-knowing wisdom itself, the gathering of the display of attaining bodhi and turning the Dharma-wheel, and the gathering of the wisdom that enters and decides the discrimination of all dharmas. To state the essential point: with all-knowing wisdom, they know every gathering.
佛子！此菩薩摩訶薩以如是上上覺慧，如實知眾生業化、煩惱化、諸見化、世界化、法界化、聲聞化、辟支佛化、菩薩化、如來化、一切分別無分別化，如是等皆如實知。又如實知佛持、法持、僧持、業持、煩惱持、時持、願持、供養持、行持、劫持、智持，如是等皆如實知。
Child of the Buddha! With such higher and higher awakened wisdom, this bodhisattva mahāsattva knows exactly as they are the transformation of beings' karma, the transformation of afflictions, the transformation of views, the transformation of worlds, the transformation of the dharma-realm, the transformation of śrāvakas, the transformation of pratyekabuddhas, the transformation of bodhisattvas, the transformation of tathāgatas, and the transformation of all that is discriminated and undiscriminated — all such things as these they know exactly as they are. They know too, exactly as they are, the sustaining of the Buddha, the sustaining of the Dharma, the sustaining of the Saṅgha, the sustaining of karma, the sustaining of afflictions, the sustaining of time, the sustaining of vows, the sustaining of offerings, the sustaining of practice, the sustaining of kalpas, and the sustaining of wisdom — all such things as these they know exactly as they are.
涅槃界集 — the gathering of the realm of nirvāṇa. The list begins with the three realms, where a gathering-up plainly produces suffering, and ends with nirvāṇa, where nothing is supposed to be produced at all. Placing it last, in the same grammatical slot, is the tenth ground's characteristic gesture: the same question is asked of everything without exception.
持 — sustaining, holding up. The eleven items include time, kalpas and afflictions alongside the Three Jewels, and the word is the same 持 that named the dhāraṇīs of the ninth ground. What holds a teaching in a mind and what holds a world in existence are being described with one term.
The Subtle Knowledges, and the Secrets
Ten subtle knowledges follow a buddha's whole career from practice to the duration of his teaching after him; and then ten secrets, of which the fourth is simply about knowing when to act and when not to.
又如實知諸佛如來入微細智，所謂：修行微細智、命終微細智、受生微細智、出家微細智、現神通微細智、成正覺微細智、轉法輪微細智、住壽命微細智、般涅槃微細智、教法住微細智，如是等皆如實知。
They know too, exactly as they are, the subtle knowledges into which the buddhas, the Tathāgatas, enter — namely, the subtle knowledge of cultivation, the subtle knowledge of the ending of a life, the subtle knowledge of taking birth, the subtle knowledge of going forth from home, the subtle knowledge of displaying spiritual penetrations, the subtle knowledge of accomplishing perfect awakening, the subtle knowledge of turning the Dharma-wheel, the subtle knowledge of the duration of the life-span, the subtle knowledge of entering parinirvāṇa, and the subtle knowledge of how long the teaching remains — all such things as these they know exactly as they are.
又入如來祕密處，所謂：身祕密、語祕密、心祕密、時非時思量祕密、授菩薩記祕密、攝眾生祕密、種種乘祕密、一切眾生根行差別祕密、業所作祕密、得菩提行祕密，如是等皆如實知。
They enter too into the Tathāgata's secret places — namely, the secret of body, the secret of speech, the secret of mind, the secret of deliberating what is the time and what is not the time, the secret of conferring prediction upon a bodhisattva, the secret of gathering in beings, the secret of the several vehicles, the secret of the differences in the faculties and conduct of every being, the secret of what karma does, and the secret of the practice by which bodhi is attained — all such things as these they know exactly as they are.
時非時思量祕密 — the secret of deliberating what is the time and what is not the time. Among secrets of body, speech and mind, and of conferring prophecy, this one is about timing, and it is the least mystical item on the list. A buddha's hardest concealed knowledge, on this account, is when to say something and when to wait.
教法住微細智 — the subtle knowledge of how long the teaching remains. The series of subtle knowledges does not stop at parinirvāṇa. What a buddha also knows subtly is the afterlife of his own Dharma in the world — how long it will last, which is a question about other people rather than about himself.
Part 477 Complete
This continues Dharmameghā, the Ground of the Dharma-Cloud, the tenth and last of the Ten Grounds, in fascicle thirty-nine. Part 478 continues with the buddhas' knowledge of entering kalpas — one kalpa into asaṃkhyeyas of kalpas and back, a thought into a kalpa and a kalpa into a thought, long into short and short into long — the knowledges of entering a hair's path and a dust-mote, and the liberations this ground obtains.