The Vastness of a Single Buddha-Land, Fascicle 48 Complete
A simile of the first dhyāna's foretaste of Brahmā's world gives way to the sutra's most extreme thought experiment yet — grinding whole buddha-lands to dust, walking one grain at a time across the ten directions, and repeating the entire operation eighty times over — only to declare it all still visible, in a single thought, to a bodhisattva's purified eye.
Eighty Rounds of Dust, Seen in a Single Thought
The Buddha poses to Bodhisattva Jeweled Hand a measure of vastness that defeats ordinary reckoning eighty times over, and Jeweled Hand's own astonishment becomes the sutra's answer to what such teaching is worth.
佛子！如得初禪，雖未命終，見梵天處所有宮殿而得受於梵世安樂；得諸禪者悉亦如是。菩薩摩訶薩住清淨金網轉輪王位，放摩尼髻清淨光明；若有眾生遇斯光者，皆得菩薩第十地位，成就無量智慧光明，得十種清淨眼，乃至十種清淨意，具足無量甚深三昧，成就如是清淨肉眼。「佛子！假使有人以億那由他佛剎碎為微塵，一塵一剎復以爾許微塵數佛剎碎為微塵，如是微塵悉置左手持以東行，過爾許微塵數世界乃下一塵，如是東行盡此微塵，南西北方、四維上下亦復如是；如是十方所有世界若著微塵及不著者，悉以集成一佛國土。寶手！於汝意云何？如是佛土廣大無量可思議不？」
"Son of the Buddha! Just as one who has attained the first dhyāna, though not yet having ended this life, beholds the palaces belonging to the realm of Brahmā and thereby comes to receive the peace and joy of the Brahmā world — one who has attained any of the dhyānas is likewise just the same. A bodhisattva-mahāsattva dwelling in the stage of the pure golden-net wheel-turning king emits the pure light of his maṇi-jeweled crown; whatever sentient being encounters this light attains the bodhisattva's tenth ground, accomplishing measureless light of wisdom, gaining ten kinds of pure eyes and even ten kinds of pure minds, and being endowed with measureless, profound samādhis, thereby accomplishing a pure fleshly eye such as this. "Son of the Buddha! Suppose there were a person who ground a koṭi of nayutas of buddha-lands into motes of dust, and then, for each single mote from each single land, again ground that same number of motes' worth of buddha-lands into dust, and placed all of these motes of dust in his left hand and traveled eastward, setting down a single mote only after passing that same number of motes' worth of worlds, continuing eastward until this dust was exhausted, and did the very same to the south, west, and north, and to the four intermediate directions, and above and below — and suppose that all the worlds of the ten directions thus reached, whether marked with a mote of dust or not, were gathered together to form a single buddha-land. Jeweled Hand! What do you think? Is such a buddha-land vast and measureless beyond conception, or not?"
答曰：「不也！如是佛土廣大無量，希有奇特，不可思議。若有眾生聞此譬諭能生信解，當知更為希有奇特。」佛言：「寶手！如是如是！如汝所說！若有善男子、善女人聞此譬諭而生信者，我授彼記，決定當成阿耨多羅三藐三菩提，當獲如來無上智慧。寶手！設復有人以千億佛剎微塵數如上所說廣大佛土末為微塵，以此微塵依前譬諭一一下盡，乃至集成一佛國土，復末為塵，如是次第展轉乃至經八十返；如是一切廣大佛土所有微塵，菩薩業報清淨肉眼於一念中悉能明見，亦見百億廣大佛剎微塵數佛，如玻瓈鏡清淨光明，照十佛剎微塵數世界。寶手！如是皆是清淨金網轉輪王甚深三昧福德善根之所成就。」
He answered: "No, it is not merely vast! Such a buddha-land is vast and measureless, rare and extraordinary, inconceivable. If any sentient being, hearing this simile, is able to give rise to faith and understanding, know that this too should be counted rarer and more extraordinary still." The Buddha said: "Jeweled Hand! Just so, just so! Just as you have said! If any good son or good daughter, hearing this simile, gives rise to faith, I bestow upon them the prediction that they will certainly attain unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening, and will attain the tathāgata's unsurpassed wisdom. Jeweled Hand! Suppose further that someone ground into dust a buddha-land as vast as the one just described, multiplied by motes of dust in a thousand koṭis of buddha-lands, and, following the same simile as before, set down these motes one by one until they were exhausted, gathering them together into a single buddha-land, and then ground that land into dust once more, repeating this same procedure in succession through eighty full rounds — every single mote of dust in all of these vast buddha-lands is entirely and clearly seen, within a single thought, by the pure fleshly eye born of a bodhisattva's karmic reward, who likewise sees buddhas as numerous as motes of dust in a hundred koṭis of vast buddha-lands, as though in a pure crystal mirror of light, illuminating worlds as numerous as motes of dust in ten buddha-lands. Jeweled Hand! All of this is accomplished by the meritorious, wholesome roots of the profound samādhi of the pure golden-net wheel-turning king."
如是次第展轉乃至經八十返 — repeating this same procedure in succession through eighty full rounds. The number eighty recurs at the very close of this fascicle much as it does at the level of the whole sutra, whose received Tang translation itself runs to eighty fascicles — whether by design or coincidence, the text's final gesture in fascicle forty-eight is to multiply an already unthinkable vastness by itself eighty times, then declare the entire result visible within a single thought to a purified eye.
Chapter 35 and Fascicle 48 Complete
This completes both chapter thirty-five, 如來隨好光明功德品 ("The Merit and Light of the Tathāgata's Minor Marks"), and fascicle forty-eight of eighty. Fascicle forty-nine opens chapter thirty-six, 普賢行品 ("The Practices of Samantabhadra"), spoken once again by Samantabhadra Bodhisattva-Mahāsattva, which Part 626 will begin.