Assemblies the Size of Worlds
Every order of being comes to pay respects — and the Brahmā kings, characteristically, come to make a request. Then the seventh concentration opens, and its subject is what a buddha's gathering looks like when its size is given in world-systems.
Who Comes, and What They Do
Nine kinds of king are named, each with a different action — bowing, raising incense-cloud, circling, entreating, praising, drawing near, serving.
佛子！菩薩摩訶薩住此三昧，得十種不空時，諸天王眾皆來頂禮，諸龍王眾興大香雲，諸夜叉王頂禮其足，阿脩羅王恭敬供養，迦樓羅王前後圍遶，諸梵天王悉來勸請，緊那羅王、摩睺羅伽王咸共稱讚，乾闥婆王常來親近，諸人王眾承事供養。佛子！是為菩薩摩訶薩第六智光明藏大三昧善巧智。
Child of the Buddha! When a bodhisattva mahāsattva abiding in this samādhi obtains the ten kinds of not-in-vain, the hosts of deva kings all come and bow their heads; the hosts of nāga kings raise up great clouds of incense; the yakṣa kings bow their heads to their feet; the asura kings make reverent offerings; the garuḍa kings surround them before and behind; the Brahmā kings all come and entreat them; the kiṃnara kings and mahoraga kings praise them together; the gandharva kings constantly draw near them; and the hosts of human kings serve them and make offerings. Child of the Buddha! This is the bodhisattva mahāsattva's skillful knowledge in the sixth great samādhi, the treasury of wisdom's radiance.
諸梵天王悉來勸請 — the Brahmā kings all come and entreat them. Brahmā's role in Buddhist narrative has been fixed since the beginning: he is the one who asks the newly awakened Buddha to teach. Among eight kinds of homage, the Brahmās alone are described as making a request, and the sūtra keeps the old office intact.
Entering Direction by Direction
The seventh samādhi asks its own name-question and answers by describing what is seen — first the buddhas, then their assemblies in ten aspects, then those assemblies measured.
「佛子！云何為菩薩摩訶薩了知一切世界佛莊嚴三昧？佛子！此三昧何故名了知一切世界佛莊嚴？佛子！菩薩摩訶薩住此三昧，能次第入東方世界，能次第入南方世界，西方、北方、四維、上下，所有世界悉亦如是，能次第入。皆見諸佛出興於世，亦見彼佛一切神力，亦見諸佛所有遊戲，亦見諸佛廣大威德，亦見諸佛最勝自在，亦見諸佛大師子吼，亦見諸佛所修諸行，亦見諸佛種種莊嚴，亦見諸佛神足變化，亦見諸佛眾會雲集、眾會清淨、眾會廣大、眾會一相、眾會多相、眾會處所、眾會居止、眾會成熟、眾會調伏、眾會威德，如是一切悉皆明見。
"Child of the Buddha! What is the bodhisattva mahāsattva's samādhi of comprehending the buddha-adornments of all worlds? Child of the Buddha! Why is this samādhi named comprehending the buddha-adornments of all worlds? Child of the Buddha! A bodhisattva mahāsattva abiding in this samādhi can enter in order the worlds of the east; can enter in order the worlds of the south; and the west, the north, the four intermediate directions, above and below — all the worlds there are, likewise, they can enter in order. Everywhere they see the buddhas appearing in the world; they see all those buddhas' spiritual powers; they see the buddhas at their play; they see the buddhas' vast and awesome virtue; they see the buddhas' most surpassing sovereign freedom; they see the buddhas' great lion's roar; they see the practices the buddhas cultivated; they see the buddhas' every kind of adornment; they see the buddhas' miraculous transformations; and they see the buddhas' assemblies gathering like clouds — their assemblies pure, their assemblies vast, their assemblies of one aspect, their assemblies of many aspects, the places of their assemblies, the dwellings of their assemblies, their assemblies ripened, their assemblies tamed, and the awesome virtue of their assemblies. All of this they see clearly.
亦見眾會其量大小等閻浮提，亦見眾會等四天下，亦見眾會等小千界，亦見眾會等中千界，亦見眾會量等三千大千世界。亦見眾會充滿百千億那由他佛剎，亦見眾會充滿阿僧祇佛剎，亦見眾會充滿百佛剎微塵數佛剎，亦見眾會充滿千佛剎微塵數佛剎，亦見眾會充滿百千億那由他佛剎微塵數佛剎，亦見眾會充滿無數佛剎微塵數佛剎，亦見眾會充滿無量佛剎微塵數佛剎，亦見眾會充滿無邊佛剎微塵數佛剎，亦見眾會充滿無等佛剎微塵數佛剎，亦見眾會充滿不可數佛剎微塵數佛剎，亦見眾會充滿不可稱佛剎微塵數佛剎，亦見眾會充滿不可思佛剎微塵數佛剎，亦見眾會充滿不可量佛剎微塵數佛剎，亦見眾會充滿不可說佛剎微塵數佛剎，亦見眾會充滿不可說不可說佛剎微塵數佛剎。
They see assemblies whose extent, great or small, is equal to Jambūdvīpa; they see assemblies equal to the four continents; they see assemblies equal to a lesser chiliocosm; they see assemblies equal to a middling chiliocosm; they see assemblies whose extent is equal to a great trichiliocosm. They see assemblies filling a hundred thousand koṭis of nayutas of buddha-lands; assemblies filling asaṃkhyeyas of buddha-lands; assemblies filling buddha-lands as numerous as the dust-motes of a hundred buddha-lands; of a thousand buddha-lands; of a hundred thousand koṭis of nayutas of buddha-lands; assemblies filling buddha-lands as numerous 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.
眾會一相、眾會多相 — assemblies of one aspect, assemblies of many aspects. Set among clouds and vastness, this pair is the doctrinal one: some gatherings are uniform and some are of every kind, and the samādhi sees both without preferring either. The chapter has made the same refusal about entering and rising, and about two and not-two.
亦見諸佛所有遊戲 — they see the buddhas at their play. 遊戲 is the ordinary word for playing, used throughout this literature for what a buddha's spiritual powers are. It sits in the list between awesome virtue and sovereign freedom, and it is the least strenuous term available.
Part 508 Complete
This continues chapter twenty-seven, 十定品, The Ten Concentrations, in fascicle forty-one. Part 509 continues the seventh samādhi — the buddhas seen displaying every kind of mark, time, land and transformation in those assemblies, and the bodhisattva seeing their own body there too, teaching, receiving the Buddha's words, standing in space, abiding in the Dharma-body, and never wearying — and then seeing all of it without discriminating land, being, buddha or dharma.