Space Holds Everything and Is Neither
The ninth concentration closes with two dozen sentences all built the same way — able to do this, and yet not abandoning that. Open space is the figure: it takes in every object there is, and is itself neither something nor nothing.
Able to, and Yet Not Abandoning
Eight concessions in a row, and each protects the ordinary side of the pair — long sitting, objects of attention, appearances, the stages of the path.
「佛子！菩薩摩訶薩雖能於定一念入出，而亦不廢長時在定，亦無所著；雖於境界無所依住，而亦不捨一切所緣；雖善入剎那際，而為利益一切眾生，現佛神通無有厭足；雖等入法界，而不得其邊；雖無所住、無有處所，而恒趣入一切智道，以變化力普入無量眾生眾中，具足莊嚴一切世界；雖離世間顛倒分別，超過一切分別之地，亦不捨於種種諸相；雖能具足方便善巧，而究竟清淨；雖不分別菩薩諸地，而皆已善入。
"Child of the Buddha! Though a bodhisattva mahāsattva can enter and leave concentration in a single thought, they do not on that account give up long abiding in concentration, and yet they cling to nothing in it. Though they rest on nothing within any domain, they do not forsake any object of attention. Though they enter well into the very instant, yet for the benefit of all beings they display the buddhas' spiritual penetration and are never satisfied with what they have done. Though they enter the dharma-realm evenly, they do not find its edge. Though they abide nowhere and have no place, yet they constantly turn toward the path of all-knowing wisdom, and by the power of transformation enter universally among measureless multitudes of beings and completely adorn every world. Though they are apart from the world's inverted discriminations and have passed beyond every ground of discrimination, they do not forsake appearances of every kind. Though they can be complete in skillful means, they are ultimately pure. And though they do not discriminate the bodhisattva grounds, they have already entered them all well.
雖能於定一念入出，而亦不廢長時在定 — though they can enter and leave concentration in a single thought, they do not on that account give up long abiding in concentration. The first concession is the most practical in the chapter. Someone who can do it instantly might reasonably conclude that sitting for a long time is unnecessary; the sūtra rules that out in its opening clause.
現佛神通無有厭足 — they display the buddhas' spiritual penetration and are never satisfied with what they have done. 無有厭足, never satisfied, has been used all through the Ten Grounds of the appetite that keeps a bodhisattva working. Here it is attached to acting for beings rather than to seeking anything.
Like Space
Twelve more pairs, and the figure that governs them: something that holds every object without being an object.
佛子！譬如虛空，雖能容受一切諸物，而離有無。菩薩摩訶薩亦復如是，雖普入一切世間，而離世間想；雖勤度一切眾生，而離眾生想；雖深知一切法，而離諸法想；雖樂見一切佛，而離諸佛想；雖善入種種三昧，而知一切法自性皆如，無所染著；雖以無邊辯才演無盡法句，而心恒住離文字法。
Child of the Buddha! It is like open space, which can contain and receive all things whatever, and is yet apart from existence and non-existence. A bodhisattva mahāsattva is likewise: though they enter universally into every world, they are apart from any notion of a world; though they diligently liberate all beings, they are apart from any notion of a being; though they know all dharmas deeply, they are apart from any notion of dharmas; though they delight to see all the buddhas, they are apart from any notion of buddhas; though they enter well into every kind of samādhi, they know that the own-nature of all dharmas is just so, and are stained by nothing; and though with boundless eloquence they set forth inexhaustible phrases of Dharma, their mind abides constantly in the dharma that is apart from letters.
雖樂觀察無言說法，而恒示現清淨音聲；雖住一切離言法際，而恒示現種種色相；雖教化眾生，而知一切法畢竟性空；雖勤修大悲度脫眾生，而知眾生界無盡無散；雖了達法界常住不變，而以三輪調伏眾生恒不休息；雖常安住如來所住，而智慧清淨，心無怖畏，分別演說種種諸法，轉於法輪常不休息。佛子！是為菩薩摩訶薩第九法界自在大三昧善巧智。
Though they delight to contemplate the dharma that is beyond speech, they constantly display a pure voice; though they abide at the limit of all dharmas apart from words, they constantly display forms and appearances of every kind; though they teach and transform beings, they know that all dharmas are ultimately empty of nature; though they diligently cultivate great compassion and liberate beings, they know that the realm of beings is inexhaustible and never dispersed; though they comprehend that the dharma-realm abides constantly and does not change, they tame beings with the three wheels and never rest; and though they constantly abide where the Tathāgata abides, their wisdom is pure, their mind without fear, and they discriminate and expound the dharmas of every kind, turning the Dharma-wheel and never resting. Child of the Buddha! This is the bodhisattva mahāsattva's skillful knowledge in the ninth great samādhi, sovereign freedom in the dharma-realm.
知眾生界無盡無散 — they know that the realm of beings is inexhaustible and never dispersed. The concession here is bleaker than the others and is offered without comfort: liberating beings is diligent work, and the supply does not run down. Nothing in the sentence suggests this is a reason to stop.
心恒住離文字法 — their mind abides constantly in the dharma that is apart from letters. Said of someone described in the same breath as setting forth inexhaustible phrases of Dharma. The pairing has run through the whole chapter — 真如入，言說起 in Part 516 — and it is the condition under which a text like this one can be spoken at all.
Part 528 Complete — Fascicle 42 Complete
The ninth of the ten great samādhis is finished, and with it fascicle forty-two. Part 529 opens fascicle forty-three and 十定品第二十七之四 with the last of the ten, the samādhi of the unobstructed wheel — in which works of body, speech and mind are unobstructed, a buddha-land is unobstructed, and the Dharma-wheel that is turned is pure.