A Hair's Tip Measuring Space
The Ten Grounds chapter ends. Its last stanzas gather the whole thing into lists — mountains, grounds, the jewel's stages — and then close on a comparison that concedes defeat: you could count the dust of every land in a moment, and still not finish saying this.
What the Cloud Receives and Gives
The ocean and the rain again; the merit of one footstep; the offerings; the light that shows the road. All of it is the tenth ground told a third time, now at its shortest.
受生捨俗成正道，轉妙法輪入涅槃，乃至寂滅解脫法，及所未說皆能了。
菩薩住此法雲地，具足念力持佛法，譬如大海受龍雨，此地受法亦復然。
十方無量諸眾生，悉得聞持持佛法，於一佛所所聞法，過於彼數無有量。
以昔智願威神力，一念普遍十方土，霔甘露雨滅煩惱，是故佛說名法雲。
神通示現遍十方，超出人天世間境，復過是數無量億，世智思惟必迷悶。
一舉足量智功德，乃至九地不能知，何況一切諸眾生，及以聲聞辟支佛。
Taking birth, leaving the household life, accomplishing the true path, turning the wondrous Dharma-wheel, entering nirvāṇa; and on up to the dharma of quiescence and liberation, and what has not been spoken of — all of it they can comprehend. A bodhisattva abiding on this Ground of the Dharma-Cloud, complete in the power of recollection, upholds the buddhas' Dharma; as the great ocean receives the dragon's rain, so this ground receives the Dharma. Though measureless beings in the ten directions all attained the retention of hearing and upheld the buddhas' Dharma, what is heard in the presence of a single buddha here exceeds that number beyond measure. By the majestic power of their former wisdom and vows, in a single thought they pervade the lands of the ten directions, pouring down a rain of nectar that extinguishes the afflictions — and it is for this that the Buddha named it the Dharma-Cloud. Their displays of spiritual penetration pervade the ten directions, surpassing the domain of gods and humans and the world, and beyond that number by measureless koṭis — worldly wisdom trying to think it must fall into confusion. The merit of the wisdom in the lifting of a single foot, even one on the ninth ground cannot know; how much less any being at all, or any śrāvaka or pratyekabuddha.
此地菩薩供養佛，十方國土悉周遍，亦供現前諸聖眾，具足莊嚴佛功德。
住於此地復為說，三世法界無礙智，眾生國土悉亦然，乃至一切佛功德。
此地菩薩智光明，能示眾生正法路，自在天光除世暗，此光滅暗亦如是。
住此多作三界王，善能演說三乘法，無量三昧一念得，所見諸佛亦如是。
此地我今已略說，若欲廣說不可盡。如是諸地佛智中，如十山王嶷然住。
A bodhisattva on this ground makes offerings to the buddhas, pervading all the lands of the ten directions entirely, and makes offerings also to the assemblies of noble ones present there, complete in the adornment of a buddha's merits. Abiding on this ground, there is expounded for them further the unobstructed wisdom of the three times and the dharma-realm, and of beings and lands likewise, on up to all the merits of a buddha. The light of wisdom of a bodhisattva on this ground can show beings the road of the true Dharma; as the light of the Sovereign Deva removes the world's darkness, so this light extinguishes darkness too. Abiding here they most often become a king of the three realms, well able to expound the dharma of the three vehicles; measureless samādhis are attained in a single thought, and the buddhas they behold are likewise. This ground I have now set out in brief; were one to expound it in full it could not be exhausted. Thus do the grounds stand within the buddhas' wisdom, as the ten mountain kings stand towering.
一舉足量智功德，乃至九地不能知 — the merit of the wisdom in the lifting of a single foot, even one on the ninth ground cannot know. The prose said this in Part 482 and the verse keeps it, out of everything it might have kept. After all the world-shaking and the nets of light, the image the chapter chooses to repeat is a person taking one step.
The Chapter Closes
Three recapitulations in three stanzas each — the mountains, the grounds by their leading quality, the jewel's ten stages — and then two lines about measurement that end the chapter.
初地藝業不可盡，譬如雪山集眾藥；二地戒聞如香山；三如鞞陀發妙華；
焰慧道寶無有盡，譬如仙山仁善住；五地神通如由乾；六如馬耳具眾果；
七地大慧如尼民；八地自在如輪圍；九如計都集無礙；十如須彌具眾德。
初地願首二持戒；三地功德四專一；五地微妙六甚深；七廣大慧八莊嚴；
九地思量微妙義，出過一切世間道；十地受持諸佛法，如是行海無盡竭。
On the first ground the arts and crafts cannot be exhausted, as the Snow Mountain gathers every herb; on the second, precepts and learning, like the Fragrant Mountain; the third is like Vaidharī, putting forth wondrous flowers. On the Blazing Ground the jewels of the path are without end, as sages dwell well upon the Ṛṣi Mountain; the fifth ground's penetrations are like Yugaṃdhara; the sixth like Horse-Ear, complete with every fruit; the seventh ground's great wisdom is like Nimindhara; the eighth ground's sovereign freedom like Cakravāḍa; the ninth like Ketumatī, gathering the unobstructed; the tenth like Sumeru, complete in every virtue. The first ground has vows at its head, the second the keeping of precepts; the third has merit, the fourth single-minded focus; the fifth is subtle, the sixth profound; the seventh has vast wisdom, the eighth adornment; the ninth deliberates upon subtle meaning, surpassing every path of the world; and the tenth upholds the buddhas' dharmas — such is this ocean of practice, which never runs dry.
十行超世發心初，持戒第二禪第三，行淨第四成就五，緣生第六貫穿七，
第八置在金剛幢，第九觀察眾稠林，第十灌頂隨王意，如是德寶漸清淨。
十方國土碎為塵，可於一念知其數，毫末度空可知量，億劫說此不可盡。」
Ten practices surpassing the world — the first is the rousing of the mind; the keeping of precepts is the second and dhyāna the third; purity of conduct is the fourth and accomplishment the fifth; dependent arising the sixth and the threading-through the seventh; the eighth is being set upon the vajra staff; the ninth is contemplating the many thickets; the tenth is consecration according with the king's intent — and so these jewels of virtue are made pure by degrees. The lands of the ten directions ground into dust could be known and numbered in a single thought; the whole of space could be measured out with the tip of a hair — but a koṭi of kalpas of speaking could not exhaust this."
毫末度空可知量 — the whole of space could be measured out with the tip of a hair. The final comparison does not say the task is impossible; it says it is easier than what has just been attempted. A chapter that has counted the dust-motes of every element in every world ends by naming two absurd measurements as the achievable ones.
如是德寶漸清淨 — and so these jewels of virtue are made pure by degrees. 漸, by degrees, is the last word the chapter gives to the whole ascent. Ten grounds of consecrations and world-shakings, summed up as something that gets cleaner gradually.
Part 489 Complete — Chapter 26 Complete — Fascicle 39 Complete
Dharmameghā, the Ground of the Dharma-Cloud, is finished, and with it the whole of chapter twenty-six, 十地品, the Ten Grounds — begun at Part 400 and running through six divisions and six fascicles — and fascicle thirty-nine as well. All Ten Grounds are now complete. Part 490 opens fascicle forty with chapter twenty-seven, 十定品, The Ten Concentrations, as the World-Honored One sits newly awakened at the site of awakening in Magadha, entering in the Hall of Universal Light the samādhi of the buddhas of the instant; and Universal Eye Bodhisattva rises to ask him how many samādhis and liberations Samantabhadra and those who abide in his practices and vows have accomplished.