Remembering the Dream After Waking
What use is a concentration one has to leave? The sūtra answers with waking: the dream's world is gone and the dream is remembered, and that is exactly what a bodhisattva brings back to teach with. Then the fifth samādhi opens, and it is about the past.
What Is Carried Out
Three verbs govern the whole passage — enter, rise, and not lose — and everything that follows is what the not-losing is for.
菩薩摩訶薩於此三昧，入已而起，起已不失。譬如有人從睡得寤，憶所夢事，覺時雖無夢中境界，而能憶念、心不忘失。菩薩摩訶薩亦復如是，入於三昧，見佛聞法，從定而起，憶持不忘，而以此法開曉一切道場眾會，莊嚴一切諸佛國土，無量義趣悉得明達，一切法門皆亦清淨，然大智炬，長諸佛種，無畏具足，辯才不竭，開示演說甚深法藏。是為菩薩摩訶薩第四清淨深心行大三昧善巧智。
A bodhisattva mahāsattva, in this samādhi, enters it and rises from it, and having risen does not lose it. It is like someone who wakes from sleep and remembers what was dreamt: though on waking the dream's own realm is not there, they can still call it to mind, and it is not forgotten. A bodhisattva mahāsattva is likewise: they enter the samādhi, see the buddhas and hear the Dharma, and rising from the concentration they remember and retain it without forgetting, and with this Dharma they enlighten every assembly at every awakening-site, adorn all the buddha-lands, penetrate measureless meanings and purposes clearly, and purify every dharma-gateway; they light the great torch of wisdom and cause the buddha-lineage to grow; they are complete in fearlessness, their eloquence is never exhausted, and they open up and expound the profound treasury of the Dharma. This is the bodhisattva mahāsattva's skillful knowledge in the fourth great samādhi, the conduct of the pure and profound mind.
覺時雖無夢中境界，而能憶念 — though on waking the dream's own realm is not there, they can still call it to mind. The comparison is exact and unsentimental. Part 503 established that the buddhas seen in this samādhi cannot be found as things; the dream simile says that this does not make what was seen useless, because remembering is not the same as still having.
長諸佛種 — they cause the buddha-lineage to grow. 種 is a seed as well as a lineage. What is carried out of the concentration is not a private possession but something planted in the assemblies the bodhisattva then goes and speaks to.
Sequences Inside Sequences
The fifth samādhi knows the past as a nesting of orders — kalpas within lands, lands within kalpas, teachings within appearances, inclinations within teachings — and each list is picked up by the next.
「佛子！云何為菩薩摩訶薩知過去莊嚴藏三昧？佛子！此菩薩摩訶薩能知過去諸佛出現，所謂：劫次第中諸剎次第，剎次第中諸劫次第，劫次第中諸佛出現次第，佛出現次第中說法次第，說法次第中諸心樂次第，心樂次第中諸根次第，根次第中調伏次第，調伏次第中諸佛壽命次第，壽命次第中知億那由他年歲數量次第。
"Child of the Buddha! What is the bodhisattva mahāsattva's samādhi of knowing the treasury of past adornments? Child of the Buddha! This bodhisattva mahāsattva can know the appearing of the buddhas of the past — namely: within the sequence of kalpas, the sequence of lands; within the sequence of lands, the sequence of kalpas; within the sequence of kalpas, the sequence of the buddhas' appearing; within the sequence of the buddhas' appearing, the sequence of their expounding the Dharma; within the sequence of their expounding, the sequence of what minds delight in; within the sequence of what minds delight in, the sequence of the faculties; within the sequence of the faculties, the sequence of their taming; within the sequence of taming, the sequence of the buddhas' life-spans; and within the sequence of life-spans, the knowing of the sequence of the number of koṭis of nayutas of years.
佛子！此菩薩摩訶薩得如是無邊次第智故，則知過去諸佛，則知過去諸剎，則知過去諸法門，則知過去諸劫，則知過去諸法，則知過去諸心，則知過去諸解，則知過去諸眾生，則知過去諸煩惱，則知過去諸儀式，則知過去諸清淨。佛子！此三昧名：過去清淨藏，於一念中，能入百劫，能入千劫，能入百千劫，能入百千億那由他劫，能入無數劫，能入無量劫，能入無邊劫，能入無等劫，能入不可數劫，能入不可稱劫，能入不可思劫，能入不可量劫，能入不可說劫，能入不可說不可說劫。佛子！彼菩薩摩訶薩入此三昧，不滅現在，不緣過去。
Child of the Buddha! Because this bodhisattva mahāsattva obtains such boundless knowledge of sequence, they know the buddhas of the past; they know the lands of the past; they know the dharma-gateways of the past; they know the kalpas of the past; they know the dharmas of the past; they know the minds of the past; they know the understandings of the past; they know the beings of the past; they know the afflictions of the past; they know the observances of the past; and they know the purifications of the past. Child of the Buddha! This samādhi is named the pure treasury of the past. In a single thought they can enter a hundred kalpas, a thousand kalpas, a hundred thousand kalpas, a hundred thousand koṭis of nayutas of kalpas; they can enter numberless kalpas, measureless kalpas, boundless kalpas, kalpas without equal, kalpas that cannot be counted, kalpas that cannot be reckoned, kalpas that cannot be conceived, kalpas that cannot be measured, kalpas that cannot be spoken, and kalpas ineffably ineffable. Child of the Buddha! When that bodhisattva mahāsattva enters this samādhi, they do not extinguish the present, and they do not take the past as their object.
不滅現在，不緣過去 — they do not extinguish the present, and they do not take the past as their object. The sentence guards the whole samādhi. Knowing the past this thoroughly might be expected either to blot out where one is or to make the past into something one is looking at; the sūtra denies both in eight characters, and then moves straight on to what the practitioner receives on rising.
則知過去諸儀式 — they know the observances of the past. Among buddhas, kalpas, minds and afflictions, 儀式 is the small human item: how things were done, the forms and ceremonies people kept. A samādhi that reaches the ineffable is described as knowing that too.
Part 504 Complete
This continues chapter twenty-seven, 十定品, The Ten Concentrations, in fascicle forty-one. Part 505 gives the ten inconceivable dharmas of consecration received from the Tathāgata on rising from this samādhi — eloquence that does not go against the meaning, speech that never fails, fearlessness, truthfulness, being what beings rely on — obtained in a single moment, as consciousness takes hold of a birth at the very instant the embryo forms.