The Wisdom That Recalls Past Abodes
The third penetration reaches into the past — first the beginningless, ordinary details of every being's countless former lives, then the full biographies of specific buddhas, and finally, at a scale where even biography gives out, nothing left to recall but bare names.
Every Life, from Beginningless Time
Before the memory turns cosmic, it stays close to the ground — a name, a clan, a meal, a sorrow.
佛子！菩薩摩訶薩以宿住隨念智通，能知自身及不可說不可說佛剎微塵數世界中一切眾生，過去不可說不可說佛剎微塵數劫宿住之事。所謂：某處生，如是名，如是姓，如是種族，如是飲食，如是苦樂。從無始來，於諸有中，以因以緣，展轉滋長，次第相續，輪迴不絕，種種品類、種種國土、種種趣生、種種形相、種種業行、種種結使、種種心念、種種因緣、受生差別，如是等事皆悉了知。
Sons of the Buddha! Through the penetration of the wisdom that recollects past abodes, the bodhisattva-mahāsattva is able to know, of himself and of all beings throughout worlds as numerous as the dust-motes of ineffably ineffable buddha-lands, the matters of their past abodes throughout ineffably ineffable kalpas — namely: born in such-and-such a place, with such a name, such a clan, such a lineage, such food, such suffering and happiness. From beginningless time, amid the realms of existence, through causes and conditions, growing and spreading one upon another, continuing in sequence, revolving without cease — manifold kinds, manifold lands, manifold destinies of birth, manifold forms, manifold deeds, manifold afflictive bonds, manifold thoughts, manifold causes and conditions, distinctions in how birth is received — all such matters he fully knows.
某處生，如是名，如是姓，如是種族，如是飲食，如是苦樂 — born in such-and-such a place, with such a name, such a clan, such food, such suffering and happiness. The list opens on the smallest scale it will ever use in this penetration — what someone ate, what they suffered — before the very next sentence pulls back to beginningless time and every possible kind of rebirth. Cosmic memory is built out of ordinary memory, not a separate kind of knowing.
The Names of Buddhas Beyond Number
The same memory that holds one person's meals also holds full biographies of specific buddhas — and then, at a large enough scale, biography itself gives way to something smaller: a name, repeated past counting.
又憶過去爾所佛剎微塵數劫，爾所佛剎微塵數世界中，有爾所佛剎微塵數諸佛，一一佛如是名號，如是出興，如是眾會，如是父母，如是侍者，如是聲聞，如是最勝二大弟子，於如是城邑，如是出家，復於如是菩提樹下成最正覺，於如是處，坐如是座，演說如是若干經典，如是利益爾所眾生，於爾所時住於壽命，施作如是若干佛事，依無餘依般涅槃界而般涅槃，般涅槃後法住久近，如是一切悉能憶念。
Further, he recalls that throughout that many kalpas as numerous as the dust-motes of buddha-lands, in the past, amid that many worlds as numerous as the dust-motes of buddha-lands, there were that many buddhas as numerous as the dust-motes of buddha-lands — each and every buddha with such a name, such an arising into the world, such an assembly, such parents, such an attendant, such śrāvakas, such two foremost great disciples; in such a city, such a going-forth from household life, and beneath such a bodhi tree attaining unsurpassed perfect awakening; in such a place, seated on such a seat, expounding such and so many sūtras, benefiting that many beings in such a way, abiding in a lifespan of that duration, performing such and so many buddha-works, entering parinirvāṇa by way of the nirvāṇa-realm without residue, and how long or short the dharma abides after the parinirvāṇa — all of this he is entirely able to recall.
又憶念不可說不可說佛剎微塵數諸佛名號，一一名號有不可說不可說佛剎微塵數佛，從初發心，起願修行，供養諸佛，調伏眾生，眾會說法，壽命多少，神通變化，乃至入於無餘涅槃，般涅槃後法住久近，造立塔廟種種莊嚴，令諸眾生種植善根，皆悉能知。是名：菩薩摩訶薩第三知過去際劫宿住智神通。
Further, he recalls the names of buddhas as numerous as the dust-motes of ineffably ineffable buddha-lands, and for each and every name there are buddhas as numerous as the dust-motes of ineffably ineffable buddha-lands — from their first arousing of the resolve for awakening, giving rise to vows and cultivating practice, making offerings to buddhas, taming beings, teaching the dharma to assemblies, the length of their lifespan, their spiritual powers and transformations, up to their entering nirvāṇa without residue, how long or short the dharma abides after their parinirvāṇa, the erecting of stūpas and shrines with every manner of adornment, and causing beings to plant wholesome roots — all of this he is able to know. This is called the bodhisattva-mahāsattva's third spiritual penetration, that of the wisdom that knows past abodes throughout past kalpas.
又憶念不可說不可說佛剎微塵數諸佛名號 — further, he recalls the names of buddhas beyond number. The paragraph before this one gave a single set of buddhas a full biography — parents, disciples, city, lifespan. This paragraph holds a number too vast for any of that, and what remains, once biography is no longer possible, is simply their names — the memory does not fail at this scale, it compresses.
Part 548 Complete
This continues chapter twenty-eight, 十通品, The Ten Kinds of Spiritual Penetration, in fascicle forty-four. Part 549 turns from the past to the future — the fourth penetration, 盡未來際劫智通, the wisdom that knows every kalpa to the very end of the future, including which beings' wholesome roots are complete and which are not.