Crossing Between Every State of Being
A single unbroken chain of crossings carries the bodhisattva through every conceivable state — the ages of a human life, the ordained and the lay, animal and celestial beings, a single pore and every pore, a mote of dust and empty space itself — before the hymn turns to compare this mastery with the more modest wonders a śrāvaka's own concentration can already perform.
From a Child's Body to Empty Space Itself
The samādhi now crosses in a single unbroken chain: entering concentration within one state of being and emerging within the very next, moving through the stages of human life, ordained and lay practitioners, celestial and animal beings, down to the finest scale of a single pore and a single mote of dust, and outward again to the elements themselves and empty space.
「童子身中入正定，壯年身中從定出，
壯年身中入正定，老年身中從定出；
老年身中入正定，善女身中從定出；
善女身中入正定，善男身中從定出；
善男身中入正定，比丘尼身從定出；
比丘尼身入正定，比丘身中從定出；
比丘身中入正定，學無學身從定出；
學無學身入正定，辟支佛身從定出；
辟支佛身入正定，現如來身從定出；
於如來身入正定，諸天身中從定出；
諸天身中入正定，大龍身中從定出；
大龍身中入正定，夜叉身中從定出；
夜叉身中入正定，鬼神身中從定出；
鬼神身中入正定，一毛孔中從定出；
一毛孔中入正定，一切毛孔從定出；
一切毛孔入正定，一毛端頭從定出；
一毛端頭入正定，一微塵中從定出；
一微塵中入正定，一切塵中從定出；
一切塵中入正定，金剛地中從定出；
金剛地中入正定，摩尼樹上從定出；
摩尼樹上入正定，佛光明中從定出；
佛光明中入正定，於河海中從定出；
於河海中入正定，於火大中從定出；
於火大中入正定，於風起定心不亂；
於風大中入正定，於地大中從定出；
於地大中入正定，於天宮殿從定出；
於天宮殿入正定，於空起定心不亂。」
"He enters true concentration within the body of a child, and emerges from concentration within the body of a young adult; he enters true concentration within the body of a young adult, and emerges from concentration within the body of an elder; he enters true concentration within the body of an elder, and emerges from concentration within the body of a virtuous woman; he enters true concentration within the body of a virtuous woman, and emerges from concentration within the body of a virtuous man; he enters true concentration within the body of a virtuous man, and emerges from concentration within the body of a bhikṣuṇī; he enters true concentration within the body of a bhikṣuṇī, and emerges from concentration within the body of a bhikṣu;
he enters true concentration within the body of a bhikṣu, and emerges from concentration within the body of one still in training or beyond training; he enters true concentration within the body of one still in training or beyond training, and emerges from concentration within the body of a pratyekabuddha; he enters true concentration within the body of a pratyekabuddha, and emerges from concentration manifesting the body of a Tathāgata; he enters true concentration within the body of a Tathāgata, and emerges from concentration within the body of a god; he enters true concentration within the body of a god, and emerges from concentration within the body of a great nāga; he enters true concentration within the body of a great nāga, and emerges from concentration within the body of a yakṣa; he enters true concentration within the body of a yakṣa, and emerges from concentration within the body of a spirit;
he enters true concentration within the body of a spirit, and emerges from concentration within a single pore; he enters true concentration within a single pore, and emerges from concentration within every pore there is; he enters true concentration within every pore there is, and emerges from concentration at the very tip of a single hair; he enters true concentration at the tip of a single hair, and emerges from concentration within a single mote of dust; he enters true concentration within a single mote of dust, and emerges from concentration within every mote of dust there is; he enters true concentration within every mote of dust there is, and emerges from concentration within the diamond ground;
he enters true concentration within the diamond ground, and emerges from concentration upon a maṇi-jeweled tree; he enters true concentration upon a maṇi-jeweled tree, and emerges from concentration within the Buddha's own light; he enters true concentration within the Buddha's own light, and emerges from concentration within a river or the sea; he enters true concentration within a river or the sea, and emerges from concentration within the element of fire; he enters true concentration within the element of fire, and rises from concentration within the wind, his mind unconfused; he enters true concentration within the element of wind, and emerges from concentration within the element of earth; he enters true concentration within the element of earth, and emerges from concentration within a heavenly palace; he enters true concentration within a heavenly palace, and rises from concentration within empty space, his mind unconfused."
Beyond All Analogy — and Yet the Śrāvaka Already Shows a Trace of It
Even every Tathāgata throughout the ten directions could not, across immeasurable kalpas, exhaust the telling of this samādhi, and no analogy could ever fully illustrate it. And yet, the hymn notes, even a śrāvaka's own concentration — someone who has not fully cultivated great compassion — can already manifest wonders that hint at what fuller compassion makes possible.
「是名無量功德者，三昧自在難思議，
十方一切諸如來，於無量劫說不盡。
一切如來咸共說，眾生業報難思議，
諸龍變化佛自在，菩薩神力亦難思。
欲以譬諭而顯示，終無有諭能諭此，
然諸智慧聰達人，因於譬故解其義。
聲聞心住八解脫，所有變現皆自在，
能以一身現多身，復以多身為一身。
於虛空中入火定，行住坐臥悉在空，
身上出水身下火，身上出火身下水。
如是皆於一念中，種種自在無邊量。
彼不具足大慈悲，不為眾生求佛道，
尚能現此難思事，況大饒益自在力。」
"This is called the one of immeasurable merit, whose sovereign and unhindered mastery of samādhi is inconceivable; every single Tathāgata throughout the ten directions, even across immeasurable kalpas, could never exhaust its telling.
Every Tathāgata alike proclaims that living beings' own karmic recompense is inconceivable, that the transformations of every nāga and the Buddha's own sovereign mastery are likewise so, and that the bodhisattva's own spiritual power is likewise inconceivable. Though one might wish to illustrate it through analogy, there is, in the end, no analogy at all able to illustrate this fully; and yet the wise and the perceptive, by means of analogy, still come to understand its meaning.
A śrāvaka, his mind abiding within the eight liberations, has every manner of transformation entirely sovereign and unhindered — able, with a single body, to manifest many bodies, and, further, with many bodies, to become a single body. Within empty space he enters the concentration of fire, walking, standing, sitting, and lying down all within that very space, water emerging from the upper part of his body while fire emerges from the lower, or fire emerging from the upper part of his body while water emerges from the lower. All of this, within a single thought, is a sovereign mastery of every kind, without any boundary or measure. Such a one, not yet fully endowed with great compassion, and not seeking the buddha-path for the sake of living beings, is nonetheless able to manifest such inconceivable feats as these — how much more so, then, the great, richly beneficial, sovereign, and unhindered power of a bodhisattva!"
This unbroken chain of crossings — the "transcending samādhi" (超越三昧) of Huayan literature — is deliberately constructed to erase the felt distance between categories a reader might otherwise treat as absolute: youth and age, ordained and lay, animal and celestial being, even a Tathāgata and a single mote of dust are all connected here by the same act of entering and emerging, with no crossing marked as more difficult or more remarkable than any other. The comparison to the śrāvaka that follows is a deliberate move of humility built into the text's own structure: rather than simply asserting the bodhisattva's superiority, it first credits what a lesser degree of realization can already do, and only then argues from that acknowledged wonder to something greater — compassion, not mere technical mastery of concentration, being the actual difference the verse cares about.
Part 61 Complete
This closes Part 61. Foremost in Virtue's hymn continues in Part 62, carrying fascicle fifteen toward its own conclusion.