The Colors Conclude
The list that began with abstract virtues — compassion, fearlessness, nobility — ends with actual images: a net of countless lights, an unequalled moon, clouds of flowers, a fragrance surpassing every world. Then the passage explains, in plain terms, exactly who all of it was ever for.
Sun, Moon, and Fragrant Flame
Near its end the list stops naming qualities and starts naming things — light, flowers, fragrance, sound — before it names, at last, who all of this was for.
眾皆往詣色、種種色、成就色、出離色、隨所化者威儀色、見無厭足色、種種明淨色、能放無數光網色、不可說光明種種差別色、不可思香光明超過三界色、不可量日輪光明照耀色、示現無比月身色、無量可愛樂華雲色、出生種種蓮華鬘雲莊嚴色、超過一切世間香焰普熏色、出生一切如來藏色、不可說音聲開示演暢一切法色、具足一切普賢行色。
color that all beings journey toward, manifold color, color of accomplishment, color of release, color of dignified bearing that follows those to be transformed, color that beings never tire of seeing, color manifold, bright, and pure, color able to emit countless nets of light, color of ineffable light, manifold and distinct, color of inconceivable fragrant light surpassing the three realms, color of the immeasurable sun's wheel, radiant with light, color manifesting an unequalled moon-body, color of measureless, delightful clouds of flowers, color producing manifold garlands of lotus-cloud adornment, color of a fragrant flame surpassing every worldly scent, perfuming all, color giving birth to the treasury of every tathāgata, color of ineffable sounds that reveal and proclaim every dharma, and color complete with every practice of Samantabhadra.
佛子！菩薩摩訶薩深入如是無色法界，能現此等種種色身，令所化者見，令所化者念，為所化者轉法輪；隨所化者時，隨所化者相，令所化者親近，令所化者開悟，為所化者起種種神通，為所化者現種種自在，為所化者施種種能事。是名：菩薩摩訶薩為度一切眾生故勤修成就第八無數色身智神通。
Sons of the Buddha! The bodhisattva-mahāsattva, entering deeply into this formless dharma-realm, is able to manifest all these manifold bodies of form, causing those to be transformed to see them, causing them to hold them in mind, turning the Dharma-wheel for them; according to the time and form appropriate to each, causing them to draw near, causing them to awaken, giving rise to manifold spiritual powers for their sake, manifesting manifold sovereign freedoms for their sake, and bestowing manifold capable deeds for their sake. This is called the bodhisattva-mahāsattva's eighth spiritual penetration — diligently cultivated and accomplished for the sake of delivering all beings — the wisdom of countless bodies of form.
令所化者見，令所化者念…為所化者施種種能事 — causing those to be transformed to see them, causing them to hold them in mind… bestowing manifold capable deeds for their sake. Nearly a hundred named colors, and the closing sentence never once returns to what the bodhisattva himself gains from any of it. Every clause names 所化者, those to be transformed, as its subject — the display was never about the one displaying.
The list's final turn — from named virtues to a net of light, a sun, an unequalled moon, clouds of flowers, an unmatched fragrance — reads almost as a small poem embedded inside a taxonomy, the one moment in nearly a hundred items where the language stops classifying and starts simply describing something beautiful.
Part 552 Complete
This continues chapter twenty-eight, 十通品, The Ten Kinds of Spiritual Penetration, in fascicle forty-four. Part 553 turns to the ninth penetration, 一切法智通, the wisdom of all dharmas — a bodhisattva who has passed beyond every dualism the sūtra can name: self, other, being, non-being, saṃsāra, nirvāṇa.