Sunlight Among the Seven Jewel Mountains
The first concentration ends with the oldest meditation in the tradition — a monk looking at his own body — set beside a bodhisattva looking at the Dharma-body and finding every world inside it. Then the second opens, and its image is light bouncing between mountains until no one can say where it came from.
The Monk, and the Dharma-Body
The comparison is not decorative. Both are contemplations of a body one is inside, and both end in non-attachment; only the body differs.
「佛子！菩薩摩訶薩住此三昧，超過世間，遠離世間，無能惑亂，無能映奪。佛子！譬如比丘觀察內身，住不淨觀，審見其身皆是不淨。菩薩摩訶薩亦復如是，住此三昧，觀察法身，見諸世間普入其身，於中明見一切世間及世間法，於諸世間及世間法皆無所著。佛子！是名菩薩摩訶薩第一普光明大三昧善巧智。
"Child of the Buddha! A bodhisattva mahāsattva abiding in this samādhi passes beyond the world and is far removed from it; nothing can confuse them and nothing can outshine them. Child of the Buddha! It is like a monk contemplating the body within, abiding in the contemplation of impurity, and examining his body and seeing it to be entirely impure. A bodhisattva mahāsattva is likewise: abiding in this samādhi they contemplate the Dharma-body, and they see all worlds enter universally into that body; within it they see clearly every world and every dharma of the world, and toward those worlds and those dharmas they are attached to nothing at all. Child of the Buddha! This is called the bodhisattva mahāsattva's skillful knowledge in the first great samādhi, Universal Light.
譬如比丘觀察內身，住不淨觀 — like a monk contemplating the body within, abiding in the contemplation of impurity. The aśubha-bhāvanā is the plainest practice in the canon, and this sūtra reaches for it at the summit of its own visionary chapter. The point of contact is method rather than content: look steadily at the body you are in until you stop taking hold of what appears there.
Worlds Entering, Nothing Confused
The second samādhi begins with a cascade of bodies, lights, colours and worlds — and then insists twice that nothing thereby gets muddled or destroyed.
「佛子！云何為菩薩摩訶薩妙光明三昧？佛子！此菩薩摩訶薩能入三千大千世界微塵數三千大千世界，於一一世界現三千大千世界微塵數身，一一身放三千大千世界微塵數光，一一光現三千大千世界微塵數色，一一色照三千大千世界微塵數世界，一一世界中調伏三千大千世界微塵數眾生。是諸世界種種不同，菩薩悉知，所謂：世界雜染、世界清淨、世界所因、世界建立、世界同住、世界光色、世界來往；如是一切，菩薩悉知，菩薩悉入。是諸世界亦悉來入菩薩之身，然諸世界無有雜亂，種種諸法亦不壞滅。
"Child of the Buddha! What is the bodhisattva mahāsattva's samādhi of Wondrous Light? Child of the Buddha! This bodhisattva mahāsattva can enter great trichiliocosms as numerous as the dust-motes of a great trichiliocosm; in each single world they manifest bodies as numerous as the dust-motes of a great trichiliocosm; each single body sends forth lights as numerous as the dust-motes of a great trichiliocosm; each single light displays colours as numerous as the dust-motes of a great trichiliocosm; each single colour illumines worlds as numerous as the dust-motes of a great trichiliocosm; and in each single world they tame and guide beings as numerous as the dust-motes of a great trichiliocosm. Those worlds differ in every kind of way, and the bodhisattva knows them all — namely, worlds defiled and worlds pure, what worlds are caused by, how worlds are established, worlds that abide together, the light and colour of worlds, and the coming and going of worlds. All of this the bodhisattva knows, and into all of it the bodhisattva enters. And those worlds all come and enter into the bodhisattva's body as well, and yet the worlds are not thrown into disorder, nor are any of their dharmas destroyed.
佛子！譬如日出遶須彌山、照七寶山，其七寶山及寶山間皆有光影分明顯現，其寶山上所有日影莫不顯現山間影中，其七山間所有日影亦悉顯現山上影中；如是展轉，更相影現，或說日影出七寶山，或說日影出七山間，或說日影入七寶山，或說日影入七山間；但此日影更相照現，無有邊際，體性非有，亦復非無，不住於山，不離於山，不住於水，亦不離水。
Child of the Buddha! It is like the sun rising and circling Mount Sumeru, shining upon the seven jewel mountains, so that upon those seven jewel mountains and in the spaces between them light and reflection appear distinctly; and every reflection of the sun upon the jewel mountains appears within the reflections in the spaces between, and every reflection of the sun in the spaces between the seven mountains appears within the reflections upon the mountains. In this way, turn by turn, they mirror one another; and one may say that the sun's reflection comes out of the seven jewel mountains, or that it comes out of the spaces between them, or that it enters into the seven jewel mountains, or that it enters into the spaces between. But these reflections of the sun merely shine into one another without any limit; their substance is neither existent nor non-existent; they do not abide in the mountains and are not apart from them, do not abide in the water and are not apart from it.
更相影現，無有邊際 — turn by turn they mirror one another, without any limit. This is Indra's net told with real optics: sunlight between polished mountains, each reflection appearing in every other, and no way to name an original. The four "one may say" clauses are offered and left standing, because each is as true as the others.
體性非有，亦復非無 — their substance is neither existent nor non-existent. The formula is applied to a reflection, where it is least contentious and most instructive. Nobody argues about whether a glare on a mountainside exists; the sūtra borrows that ease and hands it to the worlds entering the bodhisattva's body in the passage above.
Part 498 Complete
This continues chapter twenty-seven, 十定品, The Ten Concentrations, in fascicle forty. Part 499 applies the simile — a bodhisattva in this samādhi neither destroys the world's arrangement nor abolishes the nature of its dharmas, abiding neither inside worlds nor outside them — and gives the conjuror who makes a day look like a hundred years without shortening the day, matched to asaṃkhyeyas of worlds entering one world with everything in them intact.