Rain Only the Ocean Can Hold
Sixteen ways of putting one kalpa inside another, twelve knowledges of entering, ten liberations — and then the simile that gives the tenth ground its name, in which a dragon king's rain falls and there is nowhere on earth able to take it except the sea.
Kalpas Inside Kalpas
The pairs run both ways without exception — long into short and short into long, a thought into a kalpa and a kalpa into a thought, and, most strangely, kalpas with a buddha in them into kalpas that have none.
又知諸佛所有入劫智，所謂：一劫入阿僧祇劫、阿僧祇劫入一劫、有數劫入無數劫、無數劫入有數劫、一念入劫、劫入一念、劫入非劫、非劫入劫、有佛劫入無佛劫、無佛劫入有佛劫、過去未來劫入現在劫、現在劫入過去未來劫、過去劫入未來劫、未來劫入過去劫、長劫入短劫、短劫入長劫，如是等皆如實知。
They know too the buddhas' knowledge of entering kalpas — namely, one kalpa entering asaṃkhyeyas of kalpas and asaṃkhyeyas of kalpas entering one kalpa; numbered kalpas entering numberless kalpas and numberless kalpas entering numbered kalpas; a single thought entering a kalpa and a kalpa entering a single thought; a kalpa entering what is not a kalpa and what is not a kalpa entering a kalpa; kalpas that have a buddha entering kalpas that have none and kalpas that have no buddha entering kalpas that have one; past and future kalpas entering the present kalpa and the present kalpa entering past and future kalpas; past kalpas entering future kalpas and future kalpas entering past kalpas; long kalpas entering short kalpas and short kalpas entering long kalpas — all such things as these they know exactly as they are.
又知如來諸所入智，所謂：入毛道智、入微塵智、入國土身正覺智、入眾生身正覺智、入眾生心正覺智、入眾生行正覺智、入隨順一切處正覺智、入示現遍行智、入示現順行智、入示現逆行智、入示現思議不思議世間了知不了知行智、入示現聲聞智辟支佛智菩薩行如來行智。佛子！一切諸佛所有智慧廣大無量，此地菩薩皆能得入。「佛子！菩薩摩訶薩住此地，即得菩薩不思議解脫、無障礙解脫、淨觀察解脫、普照明解脫、如來藏解脫、隨順無礙輪解脫、通達三世解脫、法界藏解脫、光明輪解脫、無餘境界解脫；此十為首，有無量百千阿僧祇解脫門，皆於此第十地中得。如是乃至無量百千阿僧祇三昧門、無量百千阿僧祇陀羅尼門、無量百千阿僧祇神通門，皆悉成就。
They know too the knowledges of all that the Tathāgata enters — namely, the knowledge of entering the path of a hair, the knowledge of entering a dust-mote, the knowledge of perfect awakening entering the body of a land, the knowledge of perfect awakening entering the bodies of beings, the knowledge of perfect awakening entering the minds of beings, the knowledge of perfect awakening entering the conduct of beings, the knowledge of perfect awakening entering in accordance with every place, the knowledge of entering the display of universal conduct, the knowledge of entering the display of conduct that goes with the grain, the knowledge of entering the display of conduct that goes against it, the knowledge of entering the display of conduct in the conceivable and inconceivable worlds that is understood and not understood, and the knowledge of entering the display of the wisdom of śrāvakas, the wisdom of pratyekabuddhas, and the practice of bodhisattvas and of tathāgatas. Child of the Buddha! All the wisdom that all the buddhas possess is vast and measureless, and a bodhisattva on this ground can enter into all of it. "Child of the Buddha! A bodhisattva mahāsattva abiding on this ground at once obtains the bodhisattva liberation of the inconceivable, the liberation of no obstruction, the liberation of pure contemplation, the liberation of universal illumination, the liberation of the Tathāgata's treasury, the liberation of according with the unobstructed wheel, the liberation of penetrating the three times, the liberation of the treasury of the dharma-realm, the liberation of the wheel of radiance, and the liberation of the domain in which nothing is left over. These ten are the foremost, and there are measureless hundreds of thousands of asaṃkhyeyas of gateways of liberation, all obtained on this tenth ground. And likewise measureless hundreds of thousands of asaṃkhyeyas of gateways of samādhi, of dhāraṇī and of spiritual penetration are all brought to accomplishment.
有佛劫入無佛劫 — kalpas that have a buddha entering kalpas that have none. Buddhist cosmology divides time sharply into ages when a buddha's teaching is available and long empty ages when it is not. Of all the pairs in the list this is the one that matters practically, and the reader living in the second kind of age is presumably meant to notice it.
入示現順行智、入示現逆行智 — the knowledge of entering the display of conduct that goes with the grain, and of conduct that goes against it. 逆行 covers a buddha's behaviour that looks wrong from outside. The tenth ground is said to enter this knowledge, which is to say it can tell the difference between what merely appears contrary and what is.
The Dragon's Rain
Then the image the whole ground is named after. Four verbs are used and repeated — to settle, to receive, to gather in, to hold — and everything short of the tenth ground fails at all four.
「佛子！此菩薩摩訶薩通達如是智慧，隨順無量菩提，成就善巧念力，十方無量諸佛所有無量大法明、大法照、大法雨，於一念頃皆能安、能受、能攝、能持。譬如娑伽羅龍王所霔大雨，唯除大海，餘一切處皆不能安、不能受、不能攝、不能持。如來祕密藏大法明、大法照、大法雨亦復如是，唯除第十地菩薩，餘一切眾生、聲聞、獨覺乃至第九地菩薩，皆不能安、不能受、不能攝、不能持。
"Child of the Buddha! This bodhisattva mahāsattva penetrates such wisdom as this, accords with measureless bodhi, and accomplishes the skillful power of recollection; and the measureless great light of Dharma, great illumination of Dharma and great rain of Dharma of all the measureless buddhas of the ten directions, they are able in the space of a single thought to settle, to receive, to gather in and to hold. It is like the great rain poured down by Sāgara, the dragon king — apart from the great ocean alone, there is no other place at all able to settle it, able to receive it, able to gather it in or able to hold it. The great light of Dharma, great illumination of Dharma and great rain of Dharma of the Tathāgata's secret treasury are likewise: apart from a bodhisattva of the tenth ground alone, all other beings, śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas, and even bodhisattvas up to the ninth ground, are unable to settle it, unable to receive it, unable to gather it in and unable to hold it.
能安、能受、能攝、能持 — able to settle it, to receive it, to gather it in, to hold it. The four verbs are not synonyms piled up for weight. To settle is to let the water come to rest without being torn open by it; to receive is to take it; to gather in is to draw it together; to hold is to keep it. A field is destroyed by a rain like this; only something already vast is unchanged by it.
乃至第九地菩薩 — and even bodhisattvas up to the ninth ground. The ninth ground was the great Dharma-master who could retain everything he heard from every buddha at a hair-tip. The chapter has been careful to build that, and here it says plainly that it is still not enough.
Part 478 Complete
This continues Dharmameghā, the Ground of the Dharma-Cloud, the tenth and last of the Ten Grounds, in fascicle thirty-nine. Part 479 completes the simile from the ocean's side — one dragon king's rain or measureless dragon kings' rain falling at once, all of it held because the vessel is vast — and gives the ground its name; then Vimuktacandra asks how many buddhas' Dharma-rain can be received in a single thought, and Vajragarbha answers with a comparison rather than a number.