Every Living Being's Own Understanding and Faculties

"Son of the Buddha! Let us set aside this analogy once more. Suppose there were a person who, within the space of a single thought, is able to know the manifold, distinct understanding of every living being throughout asaṃkhyeya worlds to the east; and, thought after thought in just this way, across an entire asaṃkhyeya kalpa. And there is a second person who, within the space of a single thought, is able to know the very distinctions of understanding that the first person came to know across an entire asaṃkhyeya kalpa; and, likewise, this too continues across an entire asaṃkhyeya kalpa. Continuing on in succession, up to a tenth person. And it is likewise so to the south, the west, and the north, and in the four intermediate directions, and above and below. Son of the Buddha, the very limit of the manifold, distinct understanding of the living beings of these ten directions could still be known; whereas the merit and wholesome root that is the bodhisattva's first giving rise of the mind of unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening has no one at all able to know its own limit. Why is this so? Son of the Buddha, the bodhisattva does not set himself a fixed measure, giving rise to the mind of unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening merely for the sake of knowing that very number of living beings' own understanding; he gives rise to the mind of unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening for the sake of understanding entirely the manifold, distinct understanding of every living being throughout every world. Namely: wishing to know that every distinct understanding is boundless, and that the understanding of a single living being and the understanding of countless living beings are equal; wishing to attain the light of skillful wisdom regarding inexpressible, distinct understanding; wishing to understand entirely, without anything at all left over, the each and every distinct understanding within the very ocean of living beings; wishing to understand entirely the manifold, immeasurable, wholesome and unwholesome understanding of the past, the present, and the future; wishing to understand entirely understanding that is similar and understanding that is dissimilar; wishing to understand entirely that every understanding is itself a single understanding, and a single understanding is itself every understanding; wishing to attain the Tathāgata's own power of understanding; wishing to understand entirely the distinctions between superior understanding and unsurpassed understanding, understanding with something remaining and understanding with nothing remaining, equal understanding and unequal understanding; wishing to understand entirely the distinctions between understanding that depends on something and understanding that depends on nothing, shared understanding and unshared understanding, bounded understanding and boundless understanding, distinct understanding and undifferentiated understanding, wholesome understanding and unwholesome understanding, worldly understanding and world-transcending understanding; wishing, within every wondrous understanding, great understanding, immeasurable understanding, and understanding of the right position, to attain the Tathāgata's own unobstructed wisdom of liberation; wishing, through immeasurable skillful means, to understand entirely, without anything at all left over, the pure understanding, defiled understanding, vast understanding, brief understanding, subtle understanding, and coarse understanding of each and every living being throughout the realms of every living being in the ten directions; wishing to understand entirely, without anything at all left over, profound and secret understanding, skillful-means understanding, discriminative understanding, spontaneous understanding, understanding that arises according to its own cause, and understanding that arises according to its own condition, the entire net of understanding — it is for these reasons that he gives rise to the mind of unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening."

"Son of the Buddha! Let us set aside this analogy once more. Suppose there were a person who, within the space of a single thought, is able to know the distinctions among the very faculties of every living being throughout countless worlds to the east; and, thought after thought in just this way, across an entire asaṃkhyeya kalpa. And there is a second person who, within the space of a single thought, is able to know the very distinctions among the faculties that the first person came to know, thought after thought, across an entire asaṃkhyeya kalpa. Continuing on to be told at length, up to a tenth person. And it is likewise so to the south, the west, and the north, and in the four intermediate directions, and above and below. Son of the Buddha, the very limit of the distinctions among the faculties of every living being throughout the worlds of these ten directions could still be known; whereas the merit and wholesome root that is the bodhisattva's first giving rise of the mind of unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening has no one at all able to know its own limit. Why is this so? The bodhisattva does not set himself a fixed measure, giving rise to the mind of unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening merely for the sake of knowing that very number of worlds' own living beings' faculties; he gives rise to the mind of unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening for the sake of understanding entirely the manifold distinctions among the faculties of every living being throughout every world, and, to speak at length, all the way to wishing to understand entirely the whole net of every faculty there is."