Knowing Every Kalpa Yet to Come
The third penetration looked backward; the fourth looks forward, sorting every future being's karma into ten paired categories before naming buddhas yet to appear. The fifth turns from time to sound — an ear that hears every buddha in every direction and forgets not one word.
Knowing Every Kalpa Yet to Come
Where the third penetration recalled beginningless lives already lived, the fourth turns to lives not yet lived — and sorts them with the same precision.
佛子！菩薩摩訶薩以知盡未來際劫智通，知不可說不可說佛剎微塵數世界中所有劫，一一劫中所有眾生，命終受生，諸有相續，業行果報，若善，若不善，若出離，若不出離，若決定，若不決定，若邪定，若正定，若善根與使俱，若善根不與使俱，若具足善根，若不具足善根，若攝取善根，若不攝取善根，若積集善根，若不積集善根，若積集罪法，若不積集罪法，如是一切皆能了知。
Sons of the Buddha! Through the penetration of the wisdom that knows every kalpa to the very end of the future, the bodhisattva-mahāsattva knows every kalpa throughout worlds as numerous as the dust-motes of ineffably ineffable buddha-lands; in each and every kalpa, all beings — ending their lives and receiving new birth, the continuation of the realms of existence, the fruits and results of their deeds — whether wholesome or unwholesome, whether leading to release or not, whether fixed or not fixed, whether wrongly fixed or rightly fixed, whether their wholesome roots are bound with afflictions or not, whether their wholesome roots are complete or incomplete, whether they gather in wholesome roots or do not, whether they accumulate wholesome roots or do not, whether they accumulate transgressive dharmas or do not — all such things he is entirely able to know.
又知不可說不可說佛剎微塵數世界，盡未來際有不可說不可說佛剎微塵數劫，一一劫有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諸佛如來，一一如來，從初發心，起願立行，供養諸佛，教化眾生，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，如是等事悉能了知。是名：菩薩摩訶薩第四知盡未來際劫智神通。
Further, he knows that throughout worlds as numerous as the dust-motes of ineffably ineffable buddha-lands, to the very end of the future there will be ineffably ineffable kalpas as numerous as the dust-motes of buddha-lands; in each and every kalpa there will be names of buddhas as numerous as the dust-motes of ineffably ineffable buddha-lands, and for each and every name there will be tathāgatas as numerous as the dust-motes of ineffably ineffable buddha-lands — each and every tathāgata, from their first arousing of the resolve, giving rise to vows and establishing practice, making offerings to buddhas, teaching and transforming 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 such matters he is entirely able to know. This is called the bodhisattva-mahāsattva's fourth spiritual penetration, that of the wisdom that knows every kalpa to the very end of the future.
若善，若不善，若出離，若不出離，若決定，若不決定，若邪定，若正定… — whether wholesome or unwholesome, whether leading to release or not, whether fixed or not, whether wrongly fixed or rightly fixed… Ten paired categories sort every possible future karmic state before a single future buddha is even named — the same move Part 548 made with the past, except there the taxonomy came first as ordinary detail and only afterward scaled up to bare names. Here it scales the same way, from classification to names beyond counting, in the same order.
The Unobstructed Ear
The fifth penetration leaves time behind for sound — and for a memory that never drops a single word of what it hears.
「佛子！菩薩摩訶薩成就無礙清淨天耳，圓滿廣大，聰徹離障，了達無礙，具足成就，於諸一切所有音聲，欲聞、不聞，隨意自在。佛子！東方有不可說不可說佛剎微塵數佛，是諸佛所說、所示、所開、所演、所安立、所教化、所調伏、所憶念、所分別，甚深廣大、種種差別、無量方便、無量善巧清淨之法，於彼一切皆能受持。又於其中若義、若文、若一人、若眾會，如其音辭，如其智慧，如所了達，如所示現，如所調伏，如其境界，如其所依，如其出道，於彼一切悉能記持，不忘不失，不斷不退，無迷無惑；為他演說，令得悟解，終不忘失一文一句。如東方，南、西、北方，四維、上、下，亦復如是。是名：菩薩摩訶薩第五無礙清淨天耳智神通。
Sons of the Buddha! The bodhisattva-mahāsattva accomplishes an unobstructed, pure divine ear — perfect and vast, keen and penetrating, free of hindrance, comprehending without obstruction, fully and completely accomplished — so that with regard to every sound that exists, to hear it or not to hear it is entirely as he wishes, with sovereign freedom. Sons of the Buddha! In the east there are buddhas as numerous as the dust-motes of ineffably ineffable buddha-lands, and what these buddhas speak, show, open, expound, establish, teach, tame, hold in mindfulness, and discriminate — dharmas profound and vast, manifold and distinct, measureless in skillful means, measureless in skillful and pure quality — of all of it he is able to uphold and retain. And further, within it, whether the meaning or the letter, whether for a single person or for an assembly, according to its sounds and words, its wisdom, what is comprehended, what is displayed, what is tamed, its own realm, its own basis, its own path of release, of all of it he is entirely able to remember and hold, never forgetting, never losing it, never interrupting, never regressing, without confusion or doubt; expounding it for others, causing them to attain understanding, he never forgets even a single word or phrase. As in the east, so too in the south, west, and north, the four intermediate directions, above and below. This is called the bodhisattva-mahāsattva's fifth spiritual penetration, that of the wisdom of the unobstructed, pure divine ear.
欲聞、不聞，隨意自在 — to hear it or not to hear it is entirely as he wishes. The ear's power is defined first by what it can decline, not only by what it can catch. Only after that sovereign freedom is established does the passage describe what happens when the bodhisattva does choose to listen — and what he hears he then teaches to others without losing a single word, so the ear's real power turns out to be retention and transmission, not simply reception.
Part 549 Complete
This continues chapter twenty-eight, 十通品, The Ten Kinds of Spiritual Penetration, in fascicle forty-four. Part 550 turns to the sixth penetration — a bodhisattva who, upon merely hearing the name of a buddha in some far world he has never visited, at once sees himself standing in that buddha's presence.