Ten Kinds of Palace, Ten Kinds of Delight
Continuing the previous garden-grove metaphor with a new one, ten kinds of palace range across every realm of existence — the desire realm, the form realm, the Pure Abodes — and include, strikingly, an ordinary household with wife and family; ten kinds of delight follow, moving from right mindfulness through samādhi and dhāraṇī to the destruction of every heretical teaching.
A Household Counted as a Palace
Where the previous garden groves found a place to dwell in birth-and-death and the māras' own palaces, this list of palaces finds one in an ordinary household — a bodhisattva's wife and family, kept for the sake of beings who once practiced alongside them — before the questions turn to delight, ending on the sharp edge of turning the dharma-wheel to destroy every heretical teaching.
「佛子！菩薩摩訶薩有十種宮殿。何等為十？所謂：菩提心是菩薩宮殿，恒不忘失故；十善業道福德智慧是菩薩宮殿，教化欲界眾生故；四梵住禪定是菩薩宮殿，教化色界眾生故；生淨居天是菩薩宮殿，一切煩惱不染故；生無色界是菩薩宮殿，令諸眾生離難處故；生雜染世界是菩薩宮殿，令一切眾生斷煩惱故；現處內宮妻子、眷屬是菩薩宮殿，成就往昔同行眾生故；現居輪王、護世、釋、梵是菩薩宮殿，為調伏自在心眾生故；住一切菩薩行遊戲神通皆得自在是菩薩宮殿，善遊戲諸禪解脫三昧智慧故；一切佛所受無上自在、一切智王灌頂記是菩薩宮殿，住十力莊嚴作一切法王自在事故。是為十。若諸菩薩安住其中，則得法灌頂，於一切世間神力自在。
"Son of the Buddha! A bodhisattva-mahāsattva has ten kinds of palace. What are these ten? Namely: the mind of awakening is a bodhisattva's palace, because it is never forgotten; the ten wholesome courses of action, merit, and wisdom are a bodhisattva's palace, because they teach and transform beings of the desire realm; the four abodes of Brahmā and meditative concentration are a bodhisattva's palace, because they teach and transform beings of the form realm; being born in the Pure Abodes is a bodhisattva's palace, because they are untainted by any affliction there; being born in the formless realm is a bodhisattva's palace, because it causes sentient beings to leave every place of difficulty; being born in a defiled world is a bodhisattva's palace, because it causes every sentient being to cut off affliction; manifesting a household with wife and family is a bodhisattva's palace, because it brings to accomplishment those sentient beings who once practiced alongside them in ages past; manifesting as a wheel-turning king, a guardian of the world, Indra, or Brahmā is a bodhisattva's palace, because it tames sentient beings whose minds delight in sovereign power; abiding in every bodhisattva practice with playful spiritual power and complete sovereign freedom is a bodhisattva's palace, because they play skillfully within every meditation, liberation, samādhi, and wisdom; and receiving, from every buddha, unsurpassed sovereign freedom and the consecrating prediction as king of all-knowing wisdom is a bodhisattva's palace, because, adorned with the ten powers, they carry out every sovereign act of a dharma-king. These are the ten. If bodhisattvas abide within these, they attain the dharma-consecration and sovereign spiritual power throughout every world.
「佛子！菩薩摩訶薩有十種所樂。何等為十？所謂：樂正念，心不散亂故；樂智慧，分別諸法故；樂往詣一切佛所，聽法無厭故；樂諸佛，充滿十方無邊際故；樂菩薩，自在為諸眾生以無量門而現身故；樂諸三昧門，於一三昧門入一切三昧門故；樂陀羅尼，持法不忘轉授眾生故；樂無礙辯才，於一文一句經不可說劫分別演說無窮盡故；樂成正覺，為一切眾生以無量門示現於身成正覺故；樂轉法輪，摧滅一切異道法故。是為十。若諸菩薩安住此法，則得一切諸佛如來無上法樂。
Son of the Buddha! A bodhisattva-mahāsattva has ten kinds of delight. What are these ten? Namely: delighting in right mindfulness, because the mind is never scattered; delighting in wisdom, because it discerns every dharma; delighting in journeying to every buddha's presence, because listening to the dharma never grows wearisome; delighting in every buddha, because they fill the ten directions without limit; delighting in every bodhisattva, because they sovereignly manifest their bodies for sentient beings through measureless gateways; delighting in every gateway of samādhi, because entering a single gateway of samādhi enters every gateway of samādhi; delighting in dhāraṇī, because it retains the dharma without forgetting and passes it on to sentient beings; delighting in unobstructed eloquence, because a single word or a single phrase can be expounded distinctly across unspeakably many kalpas without ever being exhausted; delighting in attaining perfect awakening, because it is manifested in one's own body for every sentient being through measureless gateways; and delighting in turning the dharma-wheel, because it destroys every heretical teaching. These are the ten. If bodhisattvas abide in this dharma, they attain the unsurpassed dharma-joy shared by every buddha tathāgata.
現處內宮妻子、眷屬是菩薩宮殿，成就往昔同行眾生故 — manifesting a household with wife and family is a bodhisattva's palace, because it brings to accomplishment those sentient beings who once practiced alongside them in ages past. This entry gives an ordinary domestic life a purpose entirely oriented outward: a household is not held up as a private comfort but justified the same way every other entry in the list is, by what it accomplishes for other beings — specifically, beings with whom the bodhisattva shares a history of practice reaching back before this lifetime.
Part 707 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-eight, 離世間品, in fascicle fifty-four. Part 708 answers the next question with ten kinds of adornment, from unbreakable power to a single land made from every land at once.