A Clod of Earth
Vimuktacandra asks his question again, straight out — if that is a bodhisattva's power, what is a buddha's? — and Vajragarbha does not answer it. He points out that the question compares a handful of soil with all the earth there is, and then supplies a comparison of his own.
What Even the Ninth Ground Cannot Know
The assembly is returned to its places, the samādhi is named and its scope described; and then the sūtra states the limit of who can understand this ground — including the Dharma-prince of the ninth, whose knowing was the whole subject of fascicle thirty-eight.
金剛藏菩薩示現如是大神力已，還令眾會各在本處。時，諸大眾得未曾有，生奇特想，默然而住，向金剛藏一心瞻仰。爾時，解脫月菩薩白金剛藏菩薩言：「佛子！今此三昧，甚為希有，有大勢力，其名何等？」金剛藏言：「此三昧名：一切佛國土體性。」又問：「此三昧境界云何？」答言：「佛子！若菩薩修此三昧，隨心所念，能於身中現恒河沙世界微塵數佛剎，復過此數，無量無邊。
When Vajragarbha Bodhisattva had displayed such great spiritual power as this, he caused the assembly each to be in their own place again. Then the great assembly, having gained what they had never had before, conceived a thought of wonder, and remained silent, gazing single-mindedly toward Vajragarbha. Then Vimuktacandra Bodhisattva said to Vajragarbha Bodhisattva: "Child of the Buddha! This samādhi is exceedingly rare and has great power. What is its name?" Vajragarbha said: "This samādhi is named the Essential Nature of All Buddha-Lands." He asked further: "And what is the domain of this samādhi?" He answered: "Child of the Buddha! If a bodhisattva cultivates this samādhi, then according with the thoughts of their mind they can manifest within their body buddha-lands as numerous as the dust-motes of Ganges-sands of worlds, and beyond that number, measureless and boundless.
「佛子！菩薩住法雲地，得如是等無量百千諸大三昧，故此菩薩身、身業不可測知，語、語業，意、意業，神通自在，觀察三世三昧境界、智慧境界，遊戲一切諸解脫門；變化所作、神力所作、光明所作，略說乃至舉足、下足，如是一切諸有所作，乃至法王子、住善慧地菩薩皆不能知。佛子！此法雲地菩薩所有境界，略說如是；若廣說者，假使無量百千阿僧祇劫亦不能盡。」
"Child of the Buddha! Because a bodhisattva abiding on the Ground of the Dharma-Cloud obtains measureless hundreds of thousands of great samādhis such as these, this bodhisattva's body and works of body cannot be fathomed or known, nor their speech and works of speech, nor their mind and works of mind, nor their sovereign freedom in the spiritual penetrations, nor their contemplation of the domain of the samādhis and the domain of wisdom throughout the three times, nor their playing within all the gateways of liberation; what is done by transformation, what is done by spiritual power, what is done by radiance — and, to speak in brief, even the lifting of a foot and the setting down of a foot — all such things as they do, even the Dharma-prince, the bodhisattva abiding on the Ground of Excellent Wisdom, is unable to know. Child of the Buddha! The domain of a bodhisattva on this Ground of the Dharma-Cloud is thus in brief; were it to be spoken of in full, measureless hundreds of thousands of asaṃkhyeyas of kalpas would not exhaust it."
略說乃至舉足、下足 — to speak in brief, even the lifting of a foot and the setting down of a foot. The list runs from body, speech and mind through samādhi and liberation and then arrives at walking. It is the plainest item and the one that makes the claim bite: what cannot be fathomed is not only the miracles but how such a person takes a step.
The Question Set Aside
Two comparisons, and neither is an answer. The first shows the question to be badly formed; the second builds a quantity of bodhisattva-wisdom so large that its failure is the whole point.
解脫月菩薩言：「佛子！若菩薩神通境界如是，佛神通力其復云何？」金剛藏言：「佛子！譬如有人，於四天下取一塊土，而作是言：『為無邊世界大地土多，為此土多？』我觀汝問亦復如是，如來智慧無邊無等，云何而與菩薩比量？復次，佛子！如四天下取少許土，餘者無量；此法雲地神通智慧，於無量劫但說少分，況如來地！
Vimuktacandra Bodhisattva said: "Child of the Buddha! If a bodhisattva's domain of spiritual penetration is like this, then what is a buddha's power of spiritual penetration?" Vajragarbha said: "Child of the Buddha! It is as though someone took a clod of earth from the four continents and then said: 'Which is more — the earth of all the boundless worlds, or this clod?' I regard your question as being of that kind. The Tathāgata's wisdom is boundless and without equal; how could it be measured against a bodhisattva's? And further, Child of the Buddha! Just as, when a little earth is taken from the four continents, what remains is measureless — of the spiritual penetration and wisdom of this Ground of the Dharma-Cloud, measureless kalpas could tell only a small part; how much more so of the ground of the Tathāgata!
佛子！我今為汝引事為證，令汝得知如來境界。佛子！假使十方，一一方各有無邊世界微塵數諸佛國土，一一國土得如是地菩薩充滿，如甘蔗、竹、葦、稻、麻、叢林，彼諸菩薩於百千億那由他劫修菩薩行所生智慧，比一如來智慧境界，百分不及一，乃至優波尼沙陀分亦不能及。
Child of the Buddha! I shall now draw a case as evidence for you, so that you may know the Tathāgata's domain. Child of the Buddha! Suppose that in each of the ten directions there were buddha-lands as numerous as the dust-motes of boundless worlds; and that each single land were filled with bodhisattvas who had attained this ground, thick as sugarcane, bamboo, reeds, rice, hemp and thickets; the wisdom born of those bodhisattvas' practice through a hundred thousand koṭis of nayutas of kalpas, compared with the domain of a single Tathāgata's wisdom, does not amount to one part in a hundred, nor even to an upaniṣad fraction.
如甘蔗、竹、葦、稻、麻、叢林 — thick as sugarcane, bamboo, reeds, rice, hemp and thickets. The old simile for crowdedness in Indian texts, and the six items are ordinary crops. Tenth-ground bodhisattvas — each of whom, three Parts ago, could hold the Dharma-rain of measureless buddhas — are here imagined standing as close together as a cane field, filling every land there is, and still falling short.
我觀汝問亦復如是 — I regard your question as being of that kind. Vajragarbha does not scold. He points out that Vimuktacandra has asked for a ratio between a handful and the whole ground it came from, and then, having said the comparison cannot be made, spends the rest of the passage making it anyway — because a listener who has been shown the size of the failure has learned something a refusal alone would not teach.
Part 482 Complete
This continues Dharmameghā, the Ground of the Dharma-Cloud, the tenth and last of the Ten Grounds, in fascicle thirty-nine. Part 483 completes the ground — the goldsmith's ornament worn by the Sovereign Deva King, the light of Maheśvara that cools body and mind, the pāramitā of wisdom most predominant, the station of Maheśvara himself, and the four great rivers of Lake Anavatapta flowing out to fill the sea.