Virtue-Cloud's Own Response Begins
Virtue-Cloud calls Good-Wealth's question the most difficult among difficulties, and lists eleven things it actually asks for at once. Then, rather than answering directly, he describes his own attainment: an eye of faith so clear it beholds buddhas beyond any number, in every direction, all at once.
The Most Difficult Among Difficulties
Good-Wealth's single question, Virtue-Cloud reveals, was never really one question — it names eleven distinct things at once: the bodhisattva's own practice, state, path of departure, path of purity, vast mind, spiritual power, gate of liberation, worldly deeds, accord with beings, gate between birth-and-death and nirvāṇa, and freedom from attachment to either the conditioned or the unconditioned.
時，德雲比丘告善財言：「善哉善哉！善男子！汝已能發阿耨多羅三藐三菩提心，復能請問諸菩薩行。如是之事，難中之難。所謂：求菩薩行，求菩薩境界，求菩薩出離道，求菩薩清淨道，求菩薩清淨廣大心，求菩薩成就神通，求菩薩示現解脫門，求菩薩示現世間所作業，求菩薩隨順眾生心，求菩薩生死涅槃門，求菩薩觀察有為、無為心無所著。
At that time, the monk Virtue-Cloud said to Good-Wealth: "Excellent, excellent! Good son! You have already been able to give rise to the mind of unsurpassed, perfect enlightenment, and you are further able to ask about the bodhisattva's own practice. A matter such as this is the most difficult among difficulties. Namely: to seek the bodhisattva's own practice; to seek the bodhisattva's own state; to seek the bodhisattva's own path of departure; to seek the bodhisattva's own path of purity; to seek the bodhisattva's own vast and pure mind; to seek the bodhisattva's own accomplishment of spiritual power; to seek the bodhisattva's own manifestation of the gate of liberation; to seek the bodhisattva's own manifestation of the deeds carried out in the world; to seek the bodhisattva's own accord with the minds of sentient beings; to seek the bodhisattva's own gate of birth-and-death and nirvāṇa; to seek the bodhisattva's own observation of the conditioned and the unconditioned, his mind attached to neither.
如是之事，難中之難 — a matter such as this is the most difficult among difficulties. Virtue-Cloud does not soften Good-Wealth's question or simplify it; he names its full difficulty first, and only then begins to unpack everything it actually contains.
Buddhas Beyond Any Number
Rather than answering the eleven-part question outright, Virtue-Cloud describes what his own eye of faith already sees: buddhas counted upward from one, through every named quantity Sanskrit numeration offers, past every countable number entirely, into totals as numerous as the motes of dust in unspeakably unspeakable buddha-lands — repeated in all ten directions at once.
「善男子！我得自在決定解力，信眼清淨，智光照曜，普觀境界，離一切障，善巧觀察，普眼明徹，具清淨行，往詣十方一切國土，恭敬供養一切諸佛，常念一切諸佛如來，總持一切諸佛正法，常見一切十方諸佛。所謂：見於東方一佛、二佛、十佛、百佛、千佛、百千佛、億佛、百億佛、千億佛、百千億佛、那由他億佛、百那由他億佛、千那由他億佛、百千那由他億佛，乃至見無數、無量、無邊、無等、不可數、不可稱、不可思、不可量、不可說、不可說不可說佛，乃至見閻浮提微塵數佛、四天下微塵數佛、千世界微塵數佛、二千世界微塵數佛、三千世界微塵數佛、佛剎微塵數佛，乃至不可說不可說佛剎微塵數佛；如東方，南、西、北方，四維、上、下，亦復如是。一一方中所有諸佛，種種色相、種種形貌、種種神通、種種遊戲、種種眾會莊嚴道場、種種光明無邊照耀、種種國土、種種壽命，隨諸眾生種種心樂，示現種種成正覺門，於大眾中而師子吼。
Good son! I have attained the power of self-mastered, resolute understanding; my eye of faith is pure, the light of my wisdom blazes bright, I universally observe every state, departed from every obstruction; skillfully observing, my universal eye is bright and clear, complete in pure conduct, I go to every land throughout the ten directions, reverently making offerings to every buddha, constantly holding every buddha and tathāgata in mind, wholly retaining the true dharma of every buddha, and constantly beholding every buddha throughout the ten directions. Namely: I behold, in the eastern direction, one buddha, two buddhas, ten buddhas, a hundred buddhas, a thousand buddhas, a hundred thousand buddhas, a hundred million buddhas, ten thousand million buddhas, a hundred thousand million buddhas, a thousand hundred-thousand-million buddhas, a nayuta of hundred millions of buddhas, a hundred nayutas of hundred millions of buddhas, a thousand nayutas of hundred millions of buddhas, a hundred thousand nayutas of hundred millions of buddhas, and on up to beholding buddhas beyond number, beyond measure, beyond boundary, beyond compare, uncountable, indescribable, inconceivable, immeasurable, unspeakable, and unspeakably unspeakable in number, and on up to beholding buddhas as numerous as every mote of dust in Jambudvīpa, as numerous as every mote of dust in the four continents, as numerous as every mote of dust in a thousand worlds, in two thousand worlds, in three thousand worlds, as numerous as every mote of dust in a buddha-land, and on up to as numerous as every mote of dust in unspeakably unspeakable buddha-lands; and just as in the eastern direction, so too in the south, west, and north, the four intermediate directions, above, and below. Every one of the buddhas present in every one of these directions has every kind of physical form, every kind of appearance, every kind of spiritual power, every kind of playful manifestation, every kind of assembly adorning the site of awakening, every kind of light shining without boundary, every kind of land, and every kind of lifespan; and in accordance with the various delights of the minds of sentient beings, each manifests every kind of gate to true enlightenment, roaring the lion's roar amid the great assembly.
不可說不可說佛剎微塵數佛 — as numerous as every mote of dust in unspeakably unspeakable buddha-lands. Virtue-Cloud's count does not simply say "infinite"; it climbs through every namable quantity first — ones, tens, hundreds, nayutas — before finally exhausting language itself and reaching for a number built from dust in lands that cannot even be spoken of.
Part 903 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle sixty-two. Part 904 turns to Virtue-Cloud's own confession of limitation, and to the vast list of gates for calling every buddha to mind that he says lie beyond what he alone can fully know.