Everyone Inside His Body
The list of what a tenth-ground bodhisattva can do ends, and the assembly asks the question the whole chapter has been building toward: if a bodhisattva can do this, what is a buddha? Vajragarbha answers by entering a samādhi, and everyone present discovers where they are standing.
The Last of the Display
A body containing the three times; boundless worlds made into one sea with a single lotus on it; wind out of a pore and breath that shakes the ten directions, both without frightening anyone; and finally a buddha's body and one's own, each shown inside the other.
或隨心念，於一念間普遍十方，示成正覺乃至涅槃，及以國土莊嚴之事；或現其身普遍三世，而於身中有無量諸佛及佛國土莊嚴之事，世界成壞靡不皆現；或於自身一毛孔中出一切風，而於眾生無所惱害。或隨心念，以無邊世界為一大海，此海水中現大蓮華，光明嚴好，遍覆無量無邊世界，於中示現大菩提樹莊嚴之事，乃至示成一切種智；或於其身現十方世界一切光明，摩尼寶珠、日月星宿、雲電等光靡不皆現；或以口噓氣，能動十方無量世界，而不令眾生有驚怖想；或現十方風災、火災及以水災；或隨眾生心之所樂，示現色身，莊嚴具足；或於自身示現佛身，或於佛身而現自身；或於佛身現己國土，或於己國土而現佛身。佛子！此法雲地菩薩能現如是及餘無量百千億那由他自在神力。」
Sometimes, according with the thoughts of their mind, in a single instant they pervade the ten directions, displaying the accomplishing of perfect awakening and on up to nirvāṇa, and the adornments of the lands as well; or they manifest a body pervading the three times, within which body are measureless buddhas and the adornments of buddha-lands, and the forming and dissolving of worlds is all made manifest; or from a single pore of their own body they send out all the winds, and yet to beings there is no distress or harm. Sometimes, according with the thoughts of their mind, they make boundless worlds into a single great ocean, and in the water of that ocean there appears a great lotus, radiant and finely adorned, covering measureless and boundless worlds, within which is displayed the adornment of the great bodhi tree, on up to the display of accomplishing the wisdom of all modes; or upon their body they manifest all the lights of the worlds of the ten directions, so that the light of maṇi jewels, of sun and moon and stars, of clouds and lightning, is all made manifest; or with a breath from their mouth they can shake measureless worlds in the ten directions, and yet not cause beings to have any thought of alarm; or they display the calamities of wind, of fire and of water in the ten directions; or, according with what beings' minds delight in, they display a form-body complete in its adornments; or within their own body they display a buddha's body, or within a buddha's body they display their own; or within a buddha's body they display their own land, or within their own land they display a buddha's body. Child of the Buddha! A bodhisattva of this Ground of the Dharma-Cloud can display such sovereign spiritual powers as these, and measureless hundreds of thousands of koṭis of nayutas of others besides."
而不令眾生有驚怖想 — and yet not cause beings to have any thought of alarm. This is the third time in two Parts that a display of power is qualified by the harmlessness of its effect on people. Wind from a pore, worlds shaken by a breath, beings moved between worlds — each is followed by the same reassurance, which is the chapter's way of distinguishing this from Māra's kind of power.
或於自身示現佛身，或於佛身而現自身 — within their own body they display a buddha's body, or within a buddha's body they display their own. The pair is symmetrical and the sūtra does not privilege either direction. It is the last item before the display ends, and it sets up the question the assembly is about to ask.
Then What Is a Buddha?
The doubt is unspoken but general, and Vimuktacandra names it. What Vajragarbha does about it is not to explain but to demonstrate, and the demonstration is a place rather than an argument.
爾時，會中諸菩薩及天、龍、夜叉、乾闥婆、阿脩羅、護世四王、釋提桓因、梵天、淨居、摩醯首羅諸天子等，咸作是念：「若菩薩神通智力能如是者，佛復云何？」爾時，解脫月菩薩知諸眾會心之所念，白金剛藏菩薩言：「佛子！今此大眾聞其菩薩神通智力，墮在疑網。善哉仁者！為斷彼疑，當少示現菩薩神力莊嚴之事。」
Then the bodhisattvas in the assembly, and the devas, nāgas, yakṣas, gandharvas and asuras, the Four Kings who guard the world, Śakra Devānām Indra, and the sons of the gods of the Brahmā heavens, of the Pure Abodes and of Maheśvara's heaven, all thought thus: "If a bodhisattva's spiritual penetrations and powers of wisdom can be like this, then what must a buddha be?" Then Vimuktacandra Bodhisattva, knowing what the assembly was thinking, said to Vajragarbha Bodhisattva: "Child of the Buddha! This great assembly, hearing of that bodhisattva's spiritual penetrations and powers of wisdom, has fallen into a net of doubt. It would be good, venerable one, if to cut off their doubt you would display a little of the adorned matters of a bodhisattva's spiritual power."
時，金剛藏菩薩即入一切佛國土體性三昧。入此三昧時，諸菩薩及一切大眾，皆自見身在金剛藏菩薩身內，於中悉見三千大千世界，所有種種莊嚴之事，經於億劫說不能盡。又於其中見菩提樹，其身周圍十萬三千大千世界，高百萬三千大千世界，枝葉所蔭亦復如是。稱樹形量，有師子座，座上有佛，號：一切智通王。一切大眾悉見其佛坐菩提樹下師子座上，種種諸相以為莊嚴，假使億劫說不能盡。
Then Vajragarbha Bodhisattva at once entered the samādhi of the essential nature of all buddha-lands. When he entered this samādhi, the bodhisattvas and the whole great assembly each saw their own body within Vajragarbha Bodhisattva's body; and within it they saw a great trichiliocosm entire, with all its many adornments, such as a koṭi of kalpas of speaking could not exhaust. And within it they saw a bodhi tree, the girth of whose trunk was a hundred thousand great trichiliocosms and whose height was a million great trichiliocosms, the shade of whose branches and leaves was of like measure. Matched to the size of that tree there was a lion-throne, and upon that throne there was a buddha named All-Knowing Penetration King. The whole great assembly saw that buddha seated upon the lion-throne beneath the bodhi tree, adorned with every kind of mark, such as a koṭi of kalpas of speaking could not exhaust.
當少示現 — display a little. Vimuktacandra asks for a small demonstration, and what follows is an entire trichiliocosm containing a bodhi tree a million world-systems tall. The understatement is the point: this is the little that was asked for.
皆自見身在金剛藏菩薩身內 — each saw their own body within Vajragarbha Bodhisattva's body. Nothing is done to the assembly; they simply see where they already are. The question was what a buddha could be, given what a bodhisattva can do, and the answer offered is not a comparison but a change of vantage — and inside that vantage there is a buddha already seated.
Part 481 Complete
This continues Dharmameghā, the Ground of the Dharma-Cloud, the tenth and last of the Ten Grounds, in fascicle thirty-nine. Part 482 returns the assembly to their places and names the samādhi; then Vimuktacandra asks his question again — if this is a bodhisattva's spiritual power, what is a buddha's? — and Vajragarbha answers with a clod of earth taken from the four continents and set against the whole earth of boundless worlds.