The Great Lotus Flower Upon the Waters
Before a world takes shape, a single lotus flower announces how many buddhas will appear within the coming age, and ten separately named wind-wheels raise Sumeru, its surrounding mountain rings, the great earth, its oceans, and its jewels one at a time; the tathāgata's own appearance is then shown proceeding the same way, each wind-wheel answered by a light of wisdom bearing an equally specific name.
Ten Wind-Wheels Build a World, Piece by Piece
A single lotus flower upon the primordial waters already tells the gods how many buddhas a coming age will hold; ten named wind-wheels then raise every feature of the world in turn, from Sumeru down to the wish-fulfilling trees, before the tathāgata's own lights of wisdom begin to answer them one by one.
「復次，佛子！譬如世界初欲成時，有大水生，遍滿三千大千世界；生大蓮華，名：如來出現功德寶莊嚴，遍覆水上，光照十方一切世界。時，摩醯首羅、淨居天等見是華已，即決定知於此劫中有爾所佛出興于世。佛子！爾時，其中有風輪起，名：善淨光明，能成色界諸天宮殿。有風輪起，名：淨光莊嚴，能成欲界諸天宮殿。有風輪起，名：堅密無能壞，能成大小諸輪圍山及金剛山。有風輪起，名：勝高，能成須彌山王。有風輪起，名：不動，能成十大山王。何等為十？所謂：佉陀羅山、仙人山、伏魔山、大伏魔山、持雙山、尼民陀羅山、目真隣陀山、摩訶目真隣陀山、香山、雪山。有風輪起，名為：安住，能成大地。有風輪起，名為：莊嚴，能成地天宮殿、龍宮殿、乾闥婆宮殿。有風輪起，名：無盡藏，能成三千大千世界一切大海。有風輪起，名：普光明藏，能成三千大千世界諸摩尼寶。有風輪起，名：堅固根，能成一切諸如意樹。佛子！大雲所雨一味之水，無有分別；以眾生善根不同故，風輪不同；風輪差別故，世界差別。
"Furthermore, Sons of the Buddha! It is like when a world is first about to be formed: great waters arise, filling the entire great trichiliocosm; a great lotus flower is born, named Jeweled Adornment of the Merit of the Tathāgata's Appearance, covering the surface of the water entirely, its light illuminating every world of the ten directions. At that time, Maheśvara, the gods of the pure abodes, and others, seeing this flower, know with certainty how many buddhas will appear in the world within this kalpa. Sons of the Buddha! At that time, among the waters, a wind-wheel arises, named Well-Purified Light, able to form the palaces of the heavens of the form realm. A wind-wheel arises, named Adornment of Pure Light, able to form the palaces of the heavens of the desire realm. A wind-wheel arises, named Firm, Dense, and Unable to Be Destroyed, able to form the great and small encircling mountains and the vajra mountains. A wind-wheel arises, named Supremely Lofty, able to form Sumeru, king of mountains. A wind-wheel arises, named Unmoving, able to form the ten great kings of mountains. What are these ten? They are: Mount Khadiraka, Mount of the Sages, Mount of Subduing Māra, Mount of Greatly Subduing Māra, Mount Yugandhara, Mount Nimindhara, Mount Mucilinda, Mount Mahāmucilinda, Mount of Fragrance, and Mount of Snow. A wind-wheel arises, named Dwelling Securely, able to form the great earth. A wind-wheel arises, named Adornment, able to form the palaces of the earth-gods, the palaces of the nāgas, and the palaces of the gandharvas. A wind-wheel arises, named Inexhaustible Treasury, able to form every great ocean of the great trichiliocosm. A wind-wheel arises, named Treasury of Universal Light, able to form every maṇi jewel of the great trichiliocosm. A wind-wheel arises, named Firm Root, able to form every wish-fulfilling tree there is. Sons of the Buddha! The single flavor of water rained down by the great cloud makes no discrimination of its own; it is only because the wholesome roots of sentient beings differ that the wind-wheels differ, and because the wind-wheels differ that the worlds differ.
佛子！如來出現亦復如是，具足一切善根功德，放於無上大智光明，名：不斷如來種不思議智，普照十方一切世界，與諸菩薩一切如來灌頂之記：當成正覺出興於世。佛子！如來出現復有無上大智光明，名：清淨離垢，能成如來無漏無盡智。復有無上大智光明，名：普照，能成如來普入法界不思議智。
Sons of the Buddha! The tathāgata's appearance is likewise just the same: endowed with every wholesome root and merit, he emits an unsurpassed light of great wisdom, named the Inconceivable Wisdom of the Unbroken Lineage of the Tathāgata, universally illuminating every world of the ten directions, and bestowing upon every bodhisattva the anointing prediction of every tathāgata — that they shall attain perfect awakening and appear in the world. Sons of the Buddha! The tathāgata's appearance further has an unsurpassed light of great wisdom, named Pure and Free of Defilement, able to form the tathāgata's own undefiled, inexhaustible wisdom. There is further an unsurpassed light of great wisdom, named Universal Illumination, able to form the tathāgata's own inconceivable wisdom that universally enters the dharma-realm.
十大山王 — the ten great kings of mountains. This list names the traditional ring of mountains surrounding Sumeru in the same breath as two mountains named for their function rather than their place — Mount of Subduing Māra and Mount of Greatly Subduing Māra — sitting among proper geographic names like Khadiraka and Mucilinda without any distinction drawn between the two kinds of naming, exactly as the wind-wheels themselves are named for what they accomplish rather than for any location.
Part 642 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-seven, 如來出現品, in fascicle fifty. Part 643 continues with the remaining eight lights of great wisdom, each answering one of the wind-wheels already named.