Ten Reasons This Is Inconceivable
Having described the transformed pavilion and grove in physical detail, the sūtra now asks why any of it is possible at all, and answers with ten specific powers of the tathāgata — each one, on its own, already enough to call the whole scene inconceivable.
A Single Pore Holding Every World's Own Ages
The list moves from broad qualities — the tathāgata's own roots of goodness, his own pure dharmas, his own awesome power — down to something far more specific and startling: a single mote of dust holding the reflected image of the entire dharma-realm, and a single pore holding the formation, abiding, and destruction of every world in the ten directions.
何以故？如來善根不思議故，如來白法不思議故，如來威力不思議故，如來能以一身自在變化遍一切世界不思議故，如來能以神力令一切佛及佛國莊嚴皆入其身不思議故，如來能於一微塵內普現一切法界影像不思議故，如來能於一毛孔中示現過去一切諸佛不思議故，如來隨放一一光明悉能遍照一切世界不思議故，如來能於一毛孔中出一切佛剎微塵數變化雲充滿一切諸佛國土不思議故，如來能於一毛孔中普現一切十方世界成、住、壞劫不思議故。
Why is this so? Because the tathāgata's own roots of goodness are inconceivable; because the tathāgata's own pure dharmas are inconceivable; because the tathāgata's own awesome power is inconceivable; because the tathāgata is able, with a single body, to transform freely and pervade every world, and this is inconceivable; because the tathāgata is able, through spiritual power, to cause the adornments of every buddha and every buddha-land to enter into his own body, and this is inconceivable; because the tathāgata is able, within a single mote of dust, to universally manifest the reflected images of the entire dharma-realm, and this is inconceivable; because the tathāgata is able, within a single pore, to manifest every buddha of the past, and this is inconceivable; because the tathāgata, wherever he sends forth even a single ray of light, is able to universally illuminate every world, and this is inconceivable; because the tathāgata is able, within a single pore, to send forth transformation-clouds as numerous as fine motes of dust in every buddha-land, filling every buddha-land, and this is inconceivable; and because the tathāgata is able, within a single pore, to universally manifest the ages of formation, abiding, and destruction of every world in the ten directions, and this is inconceivable.
如來能於一毛孔中普現一切十方世界成、住、壞劫 — the tathāgata is able, within a single pore, to universally manifest the ages of formation, abiding, and destruction of every world in the ten directions. The list builds from the general toward the impossibly specific, ending not with a claim about the whole cosmos but about a single pore on the tathāgata's own body, which turns out to hold that entire cosmos's full life cycle within it.
Part 836 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle sixty. Part 837 turns to the vision itself, as everyone present sees the same transformed scene extending, without any difference, through the entire dharma-realm and every world within it.