The Manifested Lives Continue
The sequence of manifested lives continues through the full biographical arc — heavenly palace, descent, the womb, birth, school, the bodhi tree, turning the wheel of dharma — before the verse shifts from listing events to a direct statement about time itself: measureless kalpas are a single thought-moment, and a single thought-moment is measureless kalpas.
Every Kalpa Is Not Truly a Kalpa
The closing lines here make the same move as the manifested-lives sequence, but applied to time itself: every kalpa is not truly a kalpa at all, and yet for the sake of the world he manifests kalpas — nothing coming, nothing accumulated, and still the affairs of every kalpa are accomplished.
或現在天宮，或現始降神，
或入或住胎，成佛轉法輪。
或生或涅槃，或現入學堂，
或在采女中，或離俗修禪。
或坐菩提樹，自然成正覺；
或現轉法輪，或現始求道。
"Sometimes he manifests dwelling in a heavenly palace, sometimes he manifests first descending in spirit, sometimes entering the womb or dwelling within it, and sometimes attaining buddhahood and turning the wheel of dharma.
Sometimes being born, sometimes entering parinirvāṇa, sometimes manifesting entry into a school, sometimes among palace maidens, and sometimes leaving the world behind to cultivate meditation.
Sometimes sitting beneath the bodhi tree, spontaneously attaining perfect awakening; sometimes manifesting the turning of the wheel of dharma, and sometimes manifesting the very beginning of seeking the path.
或現為佛身，宴坐無量剎；
或修不退道，積集菩提具。
深入無數劫，皆悉到彼岸；
無量劫一念，一念無量劫。
一切劫非劫，為世示現劫，
無來無積集，成就諸劫事。
Sometimes manifesting as a buddha's own body, sitting in peaceful repose throughout measureless lands; sometimes cultivating the path of non-regression, accumulating the equipment of awakening.
Penetrating deeply into countless kalpas, he reaches the far shore in every one of them; measureless kalpas are a single thought-moment, and a single thought-moment is measureless kalpas.
Every kalpa is not truly a kalpa at all, yet for the sake of the world he manifests kalpas; with nothing coming and nothing accumulated, he accomplishes the affairs of every kalpa.
無量劫一念，一念無量劫 — measureless kalpas are a single thought-moment, and a single thought-moment is measureless kalpas. This line applies to time the exact same structure the whole preceding sequence applied to a single life: not one span of duration standing in for another by analogy, but the two genuinely equal, each one fully containing the other.
Part 813 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-eight, 離世間品, in fascicle fifty-nine. Part 814 continues the verse, moving from seeing every buddha within a single mote of dust to knowing the causes and conditions behind a single sentient being's own body.