The Question List Closes, the Ten Bases Begin
The question list turns, in its final stretch, to the traditional stages of a buddha's own life — descending from Tuṣita, entering the womb, the first smile, the seven steps, the great departure, the site of awakening, subduing māra, turning the dharma-wheel, and parinirvāṇa — before Samantabhadra finally answers, opening with the ten things a bodhisattva-mahāsattva relies upon.
From a Buddha's Whole Life to the First Ten Answers
The question list's closing stretch retells the traditional stages of a buddha's biography as a sequence of questions rather than a narrative — birth, smile, seven steps, renunciation, awakening, the turning of the wheel, and final nirvāṇa — before Samantabhadra begins answering at last, opening not with a single response but with the first of what becomes a long series of ten-fold lists: the ten things a bodhisattva relies upon.
何等為首？何等為眼？何等為耳？何等為鼻？何等為舌？何等為身？何等為意？何等為行？何等為住？何等為坐？何等為臥？何等為所住處？何等為所行處？何等為觀察？何等為普觀察？何等為奮迅？何等為師子吼？何等為清淨施？何等為清淨戒？何等為清淨忍？何等為清淨精進？何等為清淨定？何等為清淨慧？何等為清淨慈？何等為清淨悲？何等為清淨喜？何等為清淨捨？何等為義？何等為法？何等為福德助道具？何等為智慧助道具？何等為明足？何等為求法？何等為明了法？何等為修行法？何等為魔？何等為魔業？何等為捨離魔業？何等為見佛？何等為佛業？何等為慢業？何等為智業？何等為魔所攝持？何等為佛所攝持？何等為法所攝持？何等為住兜率天所作業？何故於兜率天宮歿？何故現處胎？何等為現微細趣？何故現初生？何故現微笑？何故示行七步？何故現童子地？何故現處內宮？何故現出家？何故示苦行？云何往詣道場？云何坐道場？何等為坐道場時奇特相？何故示降魔？何等為成如來力？云何轉法輪？何故因轉法輪得白淨法？何故如來、應、正等覺示般涅槃？善哉！佛子！如是等法，願為演說！」
What is the head? What is the eye? What is the ear? What is the nose? What is the tongue? What is the body? What is the mind? What is walking? What is standing? What is sitting? What is lying down? What is a place of abiding? What is a place of practice? What is observation? What is universal observation? What is vigorous exertion? What is a lion's roar? What is pure generosity? What is pure moral discipline? What is pure patience? What is pure diligence? What is pure concentration? What is pure wisdom? What is pure loving-kindness? What is pure compassion? What is pure sympathetic joy? What is pure equanimity? What is meaning? What is dharma? What is a provision of merit that aids the path? What is a provision of wisdom that aids the path? What is being complete in knowledge? What is seeking the dharma? What is clearly understanding the dharma? What is practicing the dharma? What is a māra? What is a māra's activity? What is abandoning a māra's activity? What is seeing a buddha? What is a buddha's activity? What is the activity of pride? What is the activity of wisdom? What is being held by a māra? What is being held by a buddha? What is being held by the dharma? What is the activity carried out while dwelling in the Tuṣita heaven? Why does he pass away from the Tuṣita palace? Why does he manifest dwelling in the womb? What is manifesting the subtle destinies? Why does he manifest his first birth? Why does he manifest a smile? Why does he display walking seven steps? Why does he manifest the stage of a young prince? Why does he manifest dwelling within the palace? Why does he manifest going forth from home? Why does he display ascetic practice? How does he journey to the site of awakening? How does he sit at the site of awakening? What is the extraordinary mark at the moment he sits at the site of awakening? Why does he display subduing māra? What is accomplishing the tathāgata's own power? How does he turn the dharma-wheel? Why, through turning the dharma-wheel, does he attain the pure, white dharma? Why does the tathāgata, the worthy one, the perfectly and fully awakened one, manifest parinirvāṇa? Excellent! Son of the Buddha! I ask that you expound dharmas such as these!"
爾時，普賢菩薩告普慧等諸菩薩言：「佛子！菩薩摩訶薩有十種依。何等為十？所謂：以菩提心為依，恒不忘失故；以善知識為依，和合如一故；以善根為依，修集增長故；以波羅蜜為依，具足修行故；以一切法為依，究竟出離故；以大願為依，增長菩提故；以諸行為依，普皆成就故；以一切菩薩為依，同一智慧故；以供養諸佛為依，信心清淨故；以一切如來為依，如慈父教誨不斷故。是為十。若諸菩薩安住此法，則得為如來無上大智所依處。
At that time, Samantabhadra Bodhisattva spoke to Universal Wisdom and the other bodhisattvas: "Son of the Buddha! A bodhisattva-mahāsattva has ten kinds of basis. What are these ten? Namely: taking the mind of awakening as their basis, because they never forget it; taking a good spiritual friend as their basis, because they are harmonized with them as one; taking roots of goodness as their basis, because they cultivate and increase them; taking the pāramitās as their basis, because they practice them to completion; taking every dharma as their basis, because they ultimately transcend through them; taking their great vow as their basis, because it increases their awakening; taking every practice as their basis, because they accomplish every one of them completely; taking every bodhisattva as their basis, because they share one and the same wisdom; taking making offerings to every buddha as their basis, because their faith is thereby made pure; and taking every tathāgata as their basis, because his teaching, like a loving father's, never ceases. These are the ten. If bodhisattvas abide in this dharma, they become a basis for the tathāgata's own unsurpassed great wisdom."
以一切如來為依，如慈父教誨不斷故 — taking every tathāgata as their basis, because his teaching, like a loving father's, never ceases. The list of ten bases climbs from an inward resolve (the mind of awakening) through relationships and practices to end on this image of unbroken paternal instruction — a notably warm, domestic comparison for a text that has just spent an enormous list cataloguing cosmic-scale abstractions, and a reminder that the chapter's method is to answer even its most sweeping questions with something recognizably human.
Part 686 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-eight, 離世間品, in fascicle fifty-three. Part 687 answers the second question with ten extraordinary thoughts a bodhisattva holds toward their own roots of goodness, their own body, and the buddhas themselves.