Space in a Worm-Eaten Mustard Seed
The measuring runs up from a krośa to world-systems beyond speaking, and then the sūtra says what it has been building toward: none of it changes the size of what is seen. Three similes follow, and the smallest of them is a hole in a seed.
Up to Worlds Beyond Speaking
The scale continues from where Part 509 left it, and ends with a light-net whose measure is simply the dharma-realm.
或見佛身一俱盧舍量，或見佛身半由旬量，或見佛身一由旬量，或見佛身十由旬量，或見佛身百由旬量，或見佛身千由旬量，或見佛身百千由旬量，或見佛身閻浮提量，或見佛身四天下量，或見佛身小千界量，或見佛身中千界量，或見佛身大千界量，或見佛身百大千世界量，或見佛身千大千世界量，或見佛身百千大千世界量，或見佛身百千億那由他大千世界量，或見佛身無數大千世界量，或見佛身無量大千世界量，或見佛身無邊大千世界量，或見佛身無等大千世界量，或見佛身不可數大千世界量，或見佛身不可稱大千世界量，或見佛身不可思大千世界量，或見佛身不可量大千世界量，或見佛身不可說大千世界量，或見佛身不可說不可說大千世界量。
They may see the buddha-body a krośa in measure; or half a yojana; or one yojana; or ten yojanas; or a hundred yojanas; or a thousand yojanas; or a hundred thousand yojanas; or the measure of Jambūdvīpa; or the measure of the four continents; or the measure of a lesser chiliocosm; or of a middling chiliocosm; or of a great chiliocosm; or the measure of a hundred great chiliocosms; of a thousand; of a hundred thousand; of a hundred thousand koṭis of nayutas of great chiliocosms; or the measure of numberless great chiliocosms, of measureless great chiliocosms, of boundless great chiliocosms, of great chiliocosms without equal, of great chiliocosms that cannot be counted, that cannot be reckoned, that cannot be conceived, that cannot be measured, that cannot be spoken, and of great chiliocosms ineffably ineffable.
佛子！菩薩如是見諸如來無量色相、無量形狀、無量示現、無量光明、無量光明網，其光分量等于法界，於法界中無所不照，普令發起無上智慧；又見佛身，無有染著，無有障礙，上妙清淨。佛子！菩薩如是見於佛身，而如來身不增不減。
Child of the Buddha! A bodhisattva sees in this way the Tathāgatas' measureless colours and marks, measureless shapes, measureless displays, measureless radiance, and measureless nets of radiance, whose light in its extent is equal to the dharma-realm and within the dharma-realm leaves nothing unillumined, causing unsurpassed wisdom to be roused everywhere. And they see the buddha-body as without defilement or attachment, without obstruction, supremely fine and pure. Child of the Buddha! A bodhisattva sees the buddha-body in this way, and yet the Tathāgata's body neither increases nor decreases.
其光分量等于法界 — whose light in its extent is equal to the dharma-realm. The list of measurements has been climbing for two Parts, and it stops here, where the unit becomes everything there is. Note what follows immediately: 無所不照, nothing left unillumined — a measurement is turned into a statement about coverage.
Three Ways Nothing Changes
Space, the moon, and the mind of someone dying. The first two are about the seen; the third, surprisingly, is about the seer.
譬如虛空，於蟲所食芥子孔中亦不減小，於無數世界中亦不增廣；其諸佛身亦復如是，見大之時亦無所增，見小之時亦無所減。佛子！譬如月輪，閻浮提人見其形小而亦不減，月中住者見其形大而亦不增；菩薩摩訶薩亦復如是，住此三昧，隨其心樂，見諸佛身種種化相，言辭演法，受持不忘，而如來身不增不減。
It is like open space, which is not made smaller within the hole a worm has eaten in a mustard seed, and is not made broader within numberless worlds; the bodies of the buddhas are likewise — when seen as large nothing is added to them, and when seen as small nothing is taken away. Child of the Buddha! It is like the disc of the moon: the people of Jambūdvīpa see its shape as small, and yet it is not diminished; those who dwell within the moon see its shape as large, and yet it is not enlarged. A bodhisattva mahāsattva is likewise: abiding in this samādhi, according to what their mind delights in, they see the buddhas' bodies in every kind of transformed appearance, and their speech expounding the Dharma, and they receive and retain it without forgetting — and yet the Tathāgata's body neither increases nor decreases.
佛子！譬如眾生命終之後，將受生時，不離於心，所見清淨；菩薩摩訶薩亦復如是，不離於此甚深三昧，所見清淨。
Child of the Buddha! It is as when a being, after their life has ended and when they are about to take birth, does not depart from mind, and what is seen is vivid and clear; a bodhisattva mahāsattva is likewise — they do not depart from this profound samādhi, and what is seen is clear.
於蟲所食芥子孔中亦不減小 — not made smaller within the hole a worm has eaten in a mustard seed. The mustard seed is the tradition's smallest ordinary object, and the sūtra makes it smaller still by taking only the worm-hole in it. Space is fully present there and is not thereby a small amount of space. Every claim in this chapter about worlds inside dust-motes rests on this observation.
譬如眾生命終之後，將受生時，不離於心 — as when a being, after their life has ended and about to take birth, does not depart from mind. The comparison is to the intermediate state, where perception is traditionally said to be unusually vivid because there is no body to dull it. It is an unsettling image for a meditative attainment, and it is chosen for one feature only: continuity of mind across a gap.
Part 510 Complete
This continues chapter twenty-seven, 十定品, The Ten Concentrations, in fascicle forty-one. Part 511 gives the ten swift accomplishments of this samādhi — light cast on the world, the Dharma-wheel turned, Māra's armies broken, doubts cut off and gladness roused — and the ten seals with which such a bodhisattva stamps all dharmas, each of them a way of being the same as the Tathāgatas.