Ten Powers Complete the Path, Ten Kinds of Measureless Path
The tenth and final member of the ascending path is the tathāgata's own ten powers, closing a sequence that began three Parts ago with the single, unabandoned mind of awakening. A new list of ten kinds of measureless path follows immediately, each one reasoning directly from an existing measurelessness — empty space, the dharma-realm, every buddha's own voice — to the bodhisattva path's own equal measurelessness.
Measureless Because Its Object Is Measureless
The ten kinds of measureless path all share one argument structure: because some existing thing is already measureless — space, the dharma-realm, a buddha's voice — the bodhisattva path oriented toward it must be measureless too. The path's own vastness is never asserted directly; it is derived, each time, from the vastness of whatever it takes as its object.
學佛十力是菩薩道。所謂：善知是處、非處智；善知一切眾生、去、來現在業報因果智；善知一切眾生上、中、下根不同隨宜說法智；善知一切眾生種種無量性智；善知一切眾生軟、中、上解差別令入法方便智；遍一切世間、一切剎、一切三世、一切劫，普現如來形相威儀而亦不捨菩薩所行智；善知一切諸禪解脫及諸三昧若垢若淨、時與非時，方便出生諸菩薩解脫門智；知一切眾生於諸趣中死此生彼差別智；於一念中悉知三世一切劫數智；善知一切眾生樂欲、諸使、惑習滅盡智，而不捨離諸菩薩行。是為十。若諸菩薩安住此法，則得一切如來無上巧方便道。
"Studying the tathāgata's own ten powers is a bodhisattva's path. Namely: the wisdom that skillfully knows what is possible and what is impossible; the wisdom that skillfully knows the causes and effects of every sentient being's karmic retribution across past, future, and present; the wisdom that skillfully knows every sentient being's superior, middling, and inferior faculties, teaching the dharma fittingly for each; the wisdom that skillfully knows every sentient being's own measureless variety of dispositions; the wisdom of skillful means that skillfully knows the distinct differences among every sentient being's weak, middling, and superior understanding, causing them to enter the dharma; the wisdom that, throughout every world, every land, every one of the three times, and every kalpa, universally manifests the tathāgata's own form and bearing while never abandoning bodhisattva conduct; the wisdom that skillfully knows every meditative absorption, liberation, and samādhi, whether defiled or pure, whether timely or untimely, skillfully bringing forth every bodhisattva's own gate of liberation; the wisdom that knows the distinct ways every sentient being dies here and is born there among the different destinies; the wisdom that fully knows, within a single thought, every number of kalpas across the three times; and the wisdom that skillfully knows the extinction of every sentient being's desires, latent tendencies, and habitual afflictions, while never abandoning bodhisattva practice. These are the ten. If bodhisattvas abide within this dharma, they attain every tathāgata's own unsurpassed path of skillful means.
「佛子！菩薩摩訶薩有無量道、無量助道、無量修道、無量莊嚴道。「佛子！菩薩摩訶薩有十種無量道。何等為十？所謂：虛空無量故，菩薩道亦無量；法界無邊故，菩薩道亦無量；眾生界無盡故，菩薩道亦無量；世界無際故，菩薩道亦無量；劫數不可盡故，菩薩道亦無量；一切眾生語言法無量故，菩薩道亦無量；如來身無量故，菩薩道亦無量；佛音聲無量故，菩薩道亦無量；如來力無量故，菩薩道亦無量；一切智智無量故，菩薩道亦無量。是為十。
Son of the Buddha! A bodhisattva-mahāsattva has a measureless path, measureless supporting paths, measureless cultivated paths, and measureless adorned paths. Son of the Buddha! A bodhisattva-mahāsattva has ten kinds of measureless path. What are these ten? Namely: because empty space is measureless, a bodhisattva's path is likewise measureless; because the dharma-realm is boundless, a bodhisattva's path is likewise measureless; because the realm of sentient beings is inexhaustible, a bodhisattva's path is likewise measureless; because worlds are without limit, a bodhisattva's path is likewise measureless; because the number of kalpas can never be exhausted, a bodhisattva's path is likewise measureless; because the language of every sentient being is measureless, a bodhisattva's path is likewise measureless; because the tathāgata's own body is measureless, a bodhisattva's path is likewise measureless; because a buddha's own voice is measureless, a bodhisattva's path is likewise measureless; because the tathāgata's own power is measureless, a bodhisattva's path is likewise measureless; and because all-knowing wisdom itself is measureless, a bodhisattva's path is likewise measureless. These are the ten.
虛空無量故，菩薩道亦無量 — because empty space is measureless, a bodhisattva's path is likewise measureless. This opening entry sets the pattern the remaining nine repeat exactly: the path's measurelessness is never claimed on its own terms, only inferred, entry after entry, from something else already agreed to be measureless.
Part 753 Complete
This completes the ascending ten-part bodhisattva path and opens the ten kinds of measureless path, continuing chapter thirty-eight, 離世間品, in fascicle fifty-seven. Part 754 opens ten kinds of measureless supporting path, matched item for item against the same list of measureless things.