Not Leaving Here, Seen There
Why can many worlds enter one without harm? Because there is no one in them for it to happen to. The sūtra runs through the old synonyms for a self — living being, person, mind-born entity, māṇava — and gives each denial a name; then it says plainly that the bodhisattva who appears everywhere never left.
Nine Names for Nine Knowings
Each clause pairs something known with a title earned by knowing it, and the titles are all forms of abiding in an absence — until the last, which is great compassion.
何以故？菩薩知一切法皆無我故，是名：入無命法、無作法者；菩薩於一切世間勤修行無諍法故，是名：住無我法者；菩薩如實見一切身皆從緣起故，是名：住無眾生法者；菩薩知一切生滅法皆從因生故，是名：住無補伽羅法者；菩薩知諸法本性平等故，是名：住無意生、無摩納婆法者；菩薩知一切法本性寂靜故，是名：住寂靜法者；菩薩知一切法一相故，是名：住無分別法者；菩薩知法界無有種種差別法故，是名：住不思議法者；菩薩勤修一切方便，善調伏眾生故，是名：住大悲法者。
Why is this so? Because the bodhisattva knows that all dharmas are without a self, they are called one who has entered the dharma without a life-principle and the dharma without an agent. Because the bodhisattva diligently cultivates the dharma of non-contention in every world, they are called one who abides in the dharma without a self. Because the bodhisattva sees, exactly as it is, that every body arises from conditions, they are called one who abides in the dharma without a living being. Because the bodhisattva knows that all dharmas that arise and cease are born from causes, they are called one who abides in the dharma without a person. Because the bodhisattva knows that the intrinsic nature of dharmas is the same, they are called one who abides in the dharma without a mind-born entity and without a māṇava. Because the bodhisattva knows that the intrinsic nature of all dharmas is quiescent, they are called one who abides in the quiescent dharma. Because the bodhisattva knows that all dharmas are of one characteristic, they are called one who abides in the undiscriminating dharma. Because the bodhisattva knows that in the dharma-realm there are no various differentiated dharmas, they are called one who abides in the inconceivable dharma. And because the bodhisattva diligently cultivates every skillful means and tames beings well, they are called one who abides in the dharma of great compassion.
補伽羅 pudgala, 摩納婆 māṇava, 意生 the mind-born — these are the old Indian synonyms for the self that Buddhist analysis keeps refusing, and the sūtra keeps two of them in transliteration rather than translating them away. Each denial is paired with a positive knowing: conditions, causes, sameness. Nothing is being emptied out; something is being seen instead.
是名：住大悲法者 — they are called one who abides in the dharma of great compassion. The list of no-self titles ends with a title earned by taming beings, and it is the only item whose ground is an activity rather than an insight. Placed last, it reads as the answer to the obvious objection: if there is no one there, who is being helped.
Here and There, No Difference
Then the plainest statement in the chapter of what this samādhi does — and the return of the conjuror, now to make the point that a conjured ground does not damage the real one.
「佛子！菩薩如是能以阿僧祇世界入一世界，知無數眾生種種差別，見無數菩薩各各發趣，觀無數諸佛處處出興；彼諸如來所演說法，其諸菩薩悉能領受，亦見自身於中修行；然不捨此處而見在彼，亦不捨彼處而見在此，彼身、此身無有差別。入法界故，常勤觀察無有休息，不捨智慧無退轉故。
"Child of the Buddha! In this way a bodhisattva can bring asaṃkhyeyas of worlds into a single world; they know the many differences among numberless beings, see numberless bodhisattvas each setting out on their course, and behold numberless buddhas appearing here and there. Whatever Dharma those Tathāgatas expound, those bodhisattvas can all receive it, and they also see their own body cultivating practice there — and yet, without leaving this place, they are seen to be there, and without leaving that place, they are seen to be here; and that body and this body are without any difference. Because they have entered the dharma-realm, they contemplate constantly and diligently and never rest, for they do not forsake wisdom and do not regress.
如有幻師隨於一處作諸幻術，不以幻地故壞於本地，不以幻日故壞於本日。菩薩摩訶薩亦復如是，於無國土現有國土，於有國土現無國土；於有眾生現無眾生，於無眾生現有眾生；無色現色，色現無色；初不亂後，後不亂初。
It is as when a conjuror performs his conjurings in some one place: the conjured ground does not thereby destroy the actual ground, and the conjured day does not destroy the actual day. A bodhisattva mahāsattva is likewise: where there is no land they display a land, and where there is a land they display no land; where there are beings they display no beings, and where there are no beings they display beings; where there is no form they display form, and form they display as formless — and the beginning does not confuse the end, nor the end the beginning.
不捨此處而見在彼 — without leaving this place, they are seen to be there. Note the passive. The bodhisattva is not described as travelling or as projecting; they are seen elsewhere, and the seeing belongs to whoever is there. The eighth ground's 於一佛剎其身不動 stands behind this, but here the emphasis has moved to the identity of the two bodies: 無有差別.
初不亂後，後不亂初 — the beginning does not confuse the end, nor the end the beginning. After three pairs of reversals, this is the guarantee that the reversals are not chaos. Everything in this samādhi is exchangeable and nothing is disordered, which is exactly what a good conjuror's performance is like.
Part 500 Complete
This continues chapter twenty-seven, 十定品, The Ten Concentrations, in fascicle forty. Part 501 closes the second samādhi and fascicle forty — knowing dharma-illusion and so knowing wisdom-illusion and karma-illusion, entering the world without leaving space because the two do not differ, showing numberless kalpas in one thought without enlarging the thought, and the conjuror who is never taken in by his own trick.