Thunder, Lightning, and Nectar
Having explained the name by what this ground receives, the sūtra explains it twice more by what it gives — the whole apparatus of a storm assembled out of compassion, penetration and merit — and then begins listing what such a bodhisattva can do with a world simply by thinking of it.
The Cloud That Is Raised
Every part of the weather is assigned: compassion is the cloud, the Dharma is the thunder, the penetrations and fearlessnesses are the lightning, merit and wisdom are the thick cloud-mass, and what falls is nectar.
佛子！此地菩薩以自願力，起大悲雲，震大法雷，通、明、無畏以為電光，福德、智慧而為密雲，現種種身，周旋往返，於一念頃，普遍十方百千億那由他世界微塵數國土，演說大法，摧伏魔怨；復過此數，於無量百千億那由他世界微塵數國土，隨諸眾生心之所樂，霔甘露雨，滅除一切眾惑塵焰。是故此地名為：法雲。佛子！此地菩薩於一世界從兜率天下乃至涅槃，隨所應度眾生心而現佛事；若二、若三，乃至如上微塵數國土，復過於此，乃至無量百千億那由他世界微塵數國土，皆亦如是。是故此地名為：法雲。
Child of the Buddha! A bodhisattva on this ground, by the power of their own vows, raises up a cloud of great compassion, sounds the thunder of the great Dharma, makes the penetrations, the clear knowledges and the fearlessnesses their lightning, and merit and wisdom their dense cloud-mass; and manifesting every kind of body, coming and going about, in the space of a single thought they pervade lands as numerous as the dust-motes of a hundred thousand koṭis of nayutas of worlds in the ten directions, expounding the great Dharma and crushing the enmity of Māra. And beyond even that number, in lands as numerous as the dust-motes of measureless hundreds of thousands of koṭis of nayutas of worlds, in accordance with what beings' minds delight in, they pour down a rain of nectar and extinguish all the dust and flame of every confusion. It is for this reason that this ground is named the Dharma-Cloud. Child of the Buddha! A bodhisattva on this ground, in a single world, from the descent from the Tuṣita heaven up to nirvāṇa, manifests a buddha's work in accordance with the minds of the beings to be liberated; and in two worlds, or three, and on up to lands as numerous as the dust-motes described above, and beyond that, on up to lands as numerous as the dust-motes of measureless hundreds of thousands of koṭis of nayutas of worlds, it is likewise. It is for this reason that this ground is named the Dharma-Cloud.
通、明、無畏以為電光 — the penetrations, the clear knowledges and the fearlessnesses as their lightning. Lightning is what makes a storm visible before the rain arrives, and it is also what frightens. The powers acquired over ten grounds are assigned to that role: they announce, they are not what nourishes. What nourishes is 甘露雨, the rain of nectar, and it falls 隨諸眾生心之所樂.
從兜率天下乃至涅槃 — from the descent from the Tuṣita heaven up to nirvāṇa. This is exactly what the deva maidens sang of the Buddha in Part 473. Here it is said of a bodhisattva of the tenth ground, in every world at once, which is as close as the chapter comes to stating what 墮在佛數 — counted among the buddhas — actually means in practice.
Worlds at a Thought
Narrow and wide, defiled and pure, upright and inverted — all interchangeable; a world set inside a dust-mote without the mote growing; and beings moved between worlds without being harmed by it.
「佛子！此地菩薩智慧明達，神通自在。隨其心念，能以狹世界作廣世界，廣世界作狹世界；垢世界作淨世界，淨世界作垢世界；亂住、次住、倒住、正住，如是無量一切世界皆能互作。或隨心念，於一塵中置一世界須彌盧等一切山川，塵相如故，世界不減；或復於一微塵之中置二、置三，乃至不可說世界須彌盧等一切山川，而彼微塵體相如本，於中世界悉得明現。或隨心念，於一世界中示現二世界莊嚴，乃至不可說世界莊嚴；或於一世界莊嚴中示現二世界，乃至不可說世界。或隨心念，以不可說世界中眾生置一世界；或隨心念，以一世界中眾生置不可說世界，而於眾生無所嬈害。或隨心念，於一毛孔示現一切佛境界莊嚴之事。
"Child of the Buddha! A bodhisattva on this ground is bright and penetrating in wisdom and sovereignly free in the spiritual penetrations. According with the thoughts of their mind, they can make a narrow world into a wide world and a wide world into a narrow one; make a defiled world into a pure world and a pure world into a defiled one; and disordered abiding, ordered abiding, inverted abiding and upright abiding — measureless worlds such as these they can all make into one another. Sometimes, according with the thoughts of their mind, they place within a single mote of dust a world with its Sumeru and all its mountains and rivers, the mote's appearance remaining as it was and the world not diminished; or again within a single dust-mote they place two, or three, and on up to ineffably many worlds with their Sumerus and all their mountains and rivers, while the substance and appearance of that mote stay as they were, and the worlds within it are all clearly manifest. Sometimes, according with the thoughts of their mind, within a single world they display the adornments of two worlds, and on up to those of ineffably many worlds; or within the adornments of a single world they display two worlds, and on up to ineffably many. Sometimes, according with the thoughts of their mind, they place the beings of ineffably many worlds within a single world; or, according with the thoughts of their mind, they place the beings of a single world within ineffably many worlds — and to those beings there is no disturbance or harm. Sometimes, according with the thoughts of their mind, within a single pore they display all the adorned matters of the buddhas' domain.
或隨心念，於一念中示現不可說世界微塵數身，一一身示現如是微塵數手，一一手各執恒河沙數華匳、香篋、鬘蓋、幢幡，周遍十方，供養於佛；一一身復示現爾許微塵數頭，一一頭復現爾許微塵數舌，於念念中，周遍十方，歎佛功德。
Sometimes, according with the thoughts of their mind, in a single thought they display bodies as numerous as the dust-motes of ineffably many worlds; each single body displays that same number of hands; each single hand holds Ganges-sands of flower-caskets, incense-boxes, garland-canopies, banners and pennants, pervading the ten directions and making offerings to the buddhas; and each single body displays that same number of heads again, and each single head displays that same number of tongues, which in thought after thought pervade the ten directions praising the merits of the buddhas.
而於眾生無所嬈害 — and to those beings there is no disturbance or harm. The clause is easy to skim past and is the ethical hinge of the whole list. Worlds may be narrowed, widened, inverted and interchanged, and the beings inside them are moved between worlds; the one condition attached is that none of them is troubled by it.
塵相如故，世界不減 — the mote's appearance remaining as it was and the world not diminished. Both halves are needed. The mote does not swell to accommodate the world, and the world is not shrunk to fit the mote. This is the Huayan formula the whole sūtra is built on, stated here as a plain description of what someone can do.
Part 480 Complete
This continues Dharmameghā, the Ground of the Dharma-Cloud, the tenth and last of the Ten Grounds, in fascicle thirty-nine. Part 481 finishes the display — a body pervading the three times with buddhas and lands within it, boundless worlds made into one ocean bearing a single great lotus, breath that shakes the ten directions without frightening anyone, a buddha's body shown in one's own and one's own in a buddha's — and then the whole assembly wonders aloud what a buddha must be, if a bodhisattva can do this much.