Twelve Gateways of Upholding
Future kalpas are entered in one thought and counted in the dust of continents and buddha-lands. Then the mind enters what the sūtra calls 持 — holding, upholding, being held — and each gateway is given with what it produces, ending with the lock taken off a door.
Kalpas in the Dust of Continents
The count begins with ordinary multiples and then switches units to dust-motes, moving outward through Jambūdvīpa, the four continents, the chiliocosms, and buddha-lands beyond speaking.
此菩薩於一念中，能入一劫、百劫、千劫、百千劫、百千億那由他劫，入閻浮提微塵數劫，入四天下微塵數劫，入小千世界微塵數劫，入中千世界微塵數劫，入大千世界微塵數劫，入佛剎微塵數劫，入百千佛剎微塵數劫，入百千億那由他佛剎微塵數劫，入無數佛剎微塵數劫，入無量佛剎微塵數劫，入無邊佛剎微塵數劫，入無等佛剎微塵數劫，入不可數佛剎微塵數劫，入不可稱佛剎微塵數劫，入不可思佛剎微塵數劫，入不可量佛剎微塵數劫，入不可說佛剎微塵數劫，入不可說不可說佛剎微塵數劫。如是未來一切世界所有劫數，能以智慧皆悉了知。
In a single thought this bodhisattva can enter one kalpa, a hundred kalpas, a thousand kalpas, a hundred thousand kalpas, a hundred thousand koṭis of nayutas of kalpas; can enter kalpas as numerous as the dust-motes of Jambūdvīpa; kalpas as numerous as the dust-motes of the four continents; as the dust-motes of a lesser chiliocosm; as the dust-motes of a middling chiliocosm; as the dust-motes of a great chiliocosm; as the dust-motes of a buddha-land; as the dust-motes of a hundred thousand buddha-lands; as the dust-motes of a hundred thousand koṭis of nayutas of buddha-lands; as the dust-motes of numberless buddha-lands, of measureless buddha-lands, of boundless buddha-lands, of buddha-lands without equal, of buddha-lands that cannot be counted, that cannot be reckoned, that cannot be conceived, that cannot be measured, that cannot be spoken, and of buddha-lands ineffably ineffable. All the numbers of kalpas there are in all future worlds, they can know entirely with wisdom.
入閻浮提微塵數劫 — kalpas as numerous as the dust-motes of Jambūdvīpa. The unit changes without comment from numbers to grains of a continent, and the continent named first is the ordinary one people live on. Everything larger is built by widening that same measure, so the whole list keeps a foot on this ground.
What the Mind Then Enters
Each gateway names something upheld and then what upholding it does. The list is announced as ten and given as twelve, which the text lets stand.
以了知故，其心復入十種持門。何者為十？所謂：入佛持故，得不可說佛剎微塵數諸佛護念；入法持故，得十種陀羅尼光明無盡辯才；入行持故，出生圓滿殊勝諸願；入力持故，無能映蔽，無能摧伏；入智持故，所行佛法無有障礙；入大悲持故，轉於不退清淨法輪。
Because they know it entirely, their mind enters further into ten gateways of upholding. What are the ten? Namely: because they enter the upholding of the Buddha, they are held in mind by buddhas as numerous as the dust-motes of ineffably many buddha-lands. Because they enter the upholding of the Dharma, they obtain ten kinds of dhāraṇī-radiance and inexhaustible eloquence. Because they enter the upholding of practice, perfect and surpassing vows are produced in them. Because they enter the upholding of power, nothing can outshine them and nothing can crush them. Because they enter the upholding of wisdom, the buddha-dharmas they practice meet no obstruction. Because they enter the upholding of great compassion, they turn the pure and non-regressing Dharma-wheel.
入差別善巧句持故，轉一切文字輪，淨一切法門地；入師子受生法持故，開法關鑰，出欲淤泥；入智力持故，修菩薩行常不休息；入善友力持故，令無邊眾生普得清淨；入無住力持故，入不可說不可說廣大劫；入法力持故，以無礙方便智，知一切法自性清淨。
Because they enter the upholding of differentiated and skillful phrases, they turn the wheel of every written letter and purify the ground of every dharma-gateway. Because they enter the upholding of the dharma of the lion's birth, they open the lock of the Dharma and come out of the mire of desire. Because they enter the upholding of the power of wisdom, they cultivate the bodhisattva's practice and never rest. Because they enter the upholding of the power of good friends, they cause boundless beings to be universally purified. Because they enter the upholding of the power of non-abiding, they enter ineffably ineffable vast kalpas. And because they enter the upholding of the power of the Dharma, with the unobstructed wisdom of skillful means they know that all dharmas are intrinsically pure.
開法關鑰，出欲淤泥 — they open the lock of the Dharma and come out of the mire of desire. 關鑰 is the bolt and key of a gate; 淤泥 is the sucking mud the seventh ground's sunlight dried up in Part 453. A lion is born standing, and the gateway named for that birth is the one that gets a person unstuck and through a door.
入無住力持故，入不可說不可說廣大劫 — because they enter the upholding of the power of non-abiding, they enter ineffably ineffable vast kalpas. The pairing is the chapter's logic in one line: what lets someone move through unlimited time is precisely not settling anywhere in it.
Part 506 Complete
This continues chapter twenty-seven, 十定品, The Ten Concentrations, in fascicle forty-one. Part 507 gives the skillful knowings this samādhi confers — of kalpas and lands and beings and their differing karma and habits and thinking beyond speaking — and the sunrise that shows villages, palaces, mountains, birds and orchards to anyone with eyes, while the sunlight itself makes no distinction at all.