A Jewel Wrapped in Coloured Cloth
The last of the ten concentrations opens with the word 無礙 repeated until it stops sounding like a claim — body, speech, mind, land, light, transformation, wheel. Then the figure that governs the whole thing: a maṇi wrapped in a coloured cloth takes the colour and remains a maṇi.
Fascicle Forty-Three Opens
Everything about this samādhi is described as meeting no obstruction, and then everything about it is described as continuous — not broken, not regressing, not resting, not weary, not scattered.
大方廣佛華嚴經卷第四十三
于闐國三藏實叉難陀奉制譯
十定品第二十七之四
The Great and Vast Buddha's Flower Ornament Sūtra, Fascicle Forty-Three
Translated by imperial command by Śikṣānanda, Tripiṭaka Master of the Kingdom of Khotan
Chapter Twenty-Seven, The Ten Concentrations, Part Four
「佛子！云何為菩薩摩訶薩無礙輪三昧？佛子！菩薩摩訶薩入此三昧時，住無礙身業、無礙語業、無礙意業，住無礙佛國土，得無礙成就眾生智，獲無礙調伏眾生智，放無礙光明，現無礙光明網，示無礙廣大變化，轉無礙清淨法輪，得菩薩無礙自在，普入諸佛力，普住諸佛智，作佛所作，淨佛所淨，現佛神通，令佛歡喜，行如來行，住如來道，常得親近無量諸佛，作諸佛事紹諸佛種。
"Child of the Buddha! What is the bodhisattva mahāsattva's samādhi of the unobstructed wheel? Child of the Buddha! When a bodhisattva mahāsattva enters this samādhi, they abide in unobstructed works of body, unobstructed works of speech and unobstructed works of mind; they abide in an unobstructed buddha-land; they obtain unobstructed wisdom that brings beings to accomplishment; they gain unobstructed wisdom that tames beings; they send forth unobstructed radiance; they display an unobstructed net of radiance; they show unobstructed vast transformations; they turn the unobstructed pure Dharma-wheel; and they attain a bodhisattva's unobstructed sovereign freedom. They enter universally into the buddhas' powers and abide universally in the buddhas' wisdom; they do what the buddhas do and purify what the buddhas purify; they display the buddhas' spiritual penetration and gladden the buddhas; they walk the Tathāgata's practice and abide on the Tathāgata's path; they constantly draw near to measureless buddhas, perform the buddhas' work, and carry on the buddhas' lineage.
無礙輪 — the unobstructed wheel. 輪 is the Dharma-wheel, and the whole samādhi is named for a wheel that nothing stops. Note where the word 無礙 is applied: to works of body and speech before radiance and transformation, so that the freedom is first of all in what a person does and says.
The Maṇi in the Cloth
The bodhisattva looks at all-knowing wisdom in nine ways, and holds to Samantabhadra's ten vastnesses without a break — and then the reason is given by a jewel that takes on a colour.
「佛子！菩薩摩訶薩住此三昧已，觀一切智，總觀一切智，別觀一切智，隨順一切智，顯示一切智，攀緣一切智，見一切智，總見一切智，別見一切智，於普賢菩薩廣大願、廣大心、廣大行、廣大所趣、廣大所入、廣大光明、廣大出現、廣大護念、廣大變化、廣大道，不斷不退，無休無替，無倦無捨，無散無亂，常增進，恒相續。何以故？此菩薩摩訶薩於諸法中，成就大願，發行大乘，入於佛法大方便海；以勝願力，於諸菩薩所行之行，智慧明照皆得善巧，具足菩薩神通變化，善能護念一切眾生；如去、來、今一切諸佛之所護念，於諸眾生恒起大悲，成就如來不變異法。
"Child of the Buddha! A bodhisattva mahāsattva who abides in this samādhi contemplates all-knowing wisdom; contemplates it as a whole; contemplates it in its particulars; accords with it; makes it manifest; takes it as their object; sees it; sees it as a whole; and sees it in its particulars. And toward Samantabhadra Bodhisattva's vast vows, vast mind, vast practice, vast direction, vast entering, vast radiance, vast appearing, vast holding in mind, vast transformations and vast path, they are unbroken and unregressing, without rest and without substitute, without weariness and without abandoning, unscattered and undistracted, constantly advancing and continuing on. Why is this so? Because among all dharmas this bodhisattva mahāsattva has accomplished great vows, has set out upon the Great Vehicle, and has entered the great ocean of the skillful means of the buddhas' Dharma; because by the power of surpassing vows their wisdom shines clear upon all the practices a bodhisattva performs and they attain skill in them all; because they are complete in a bodhisattva's spiritual penetrations and transformations and can well hold all beings in mind; and because, as all the buddhas of past, future and present hold beings in mind, they constantly give rise to great compassion toward beings and accomplish the Tathāgata's unchanging dharma.
佛子！譬如有人以摩尼寶置色衣中，其摩尼寶雖同衣色，不捨自性。菩薩摩訶薩亦復如是，成就智慧以為心寶，觀一切智普皆明現，然不捨於菩薩諸行。何以故？菩薩摩訶薩發大誓願，利益一切眾生，度脫一切眾生，承事一切諸佛，嚴淨一切世界，安慰眾生，深入法海；為淨眾生界，現大自在，給施眾生，普照世間，入於無邊幻化法門，不退不轉，無疲無厭。
Child of the Buddha! It is as though someone were to place a maṇi jewel within a coloured cloth: though the maṇi takes on the colour of the cloth, it does not forsake its own nature. A bodhisattva mahāsattva is likewise: having accomplished wisdom, they take it as the jewel of their mind, and contemplating all-knowing wisdom they make it wholly manifest — and yet they do not forsake any of the bodhisattva's practices. Why is this so? Because a bodhisattva mahāsattva has roused great vows: to benefit all beings, to liberate all beings, to serve all the buddhas, to adorn and purify all worlds, to console beings, and to enter deeply into the ocean of Dharma; and because, in order to purify the realm of beings, they display great sovereign freedom, give to beings, illumine the world everywhere, and enter the boundless dharma-gateway of conjuring — without regressing, without turning back, without fatigue and without weariness.
其摩尼寶雖同衣色，不捨自性 — though the maṇi takes on the colour of the cloth, it does not forsake its own nature. The jewel takes the colour: it does not resist the cloth, and it is not damaged by it. Applied to someone whose mind rests on all-knowing wisdom while they go on doing the ordinary work of a bodhisattva, the point is that the two are not in competition.
觀一切智，總觀一切智，別觀一切智 — contemplates all-knowing wisdom, as a whole, and in its particulars. Nine verbs of looking, and 攀緣 among them — the technical term for the mind's grasping at an object, usually a fault. Here it is listed without embarrassment: even taking all-knowing wisdom as an object is part of the approach to it.
Part 529 Complete
This opens fascicle forty-three and 十定品第二十七之四, and begins the tenth and last of the ten great samādhis. Part 530 gives three more reasons for never tiring — space, which bears up the worlds without wearing out; nirvāṇa, in which countless beings have been extinguished and which is never tired of them; and all-knowing wisdom itself — and then the great lotus that reaches to the ends of the ten directions.