Walking Through Walls, Sitting in Mid-Air
The spiritual power that neither abides nor acts turns out to look, in practice, exactly like the miraculous feats this sūtra reserves for its most advanced figures — a body that passes through solid walls, enters earth as though it were water, and touches the sun and moon with an outstretched hand.
A Body That Ignores Every Ordinary Limit
Every physical constraint a body normally obeys is reversed one by one: walls become passable as empty space, water becomes as solid as earth and earth as fluid as water, and Well-Abiding's own body rises to touch the sun and moon and reach the height of Brahmā's own palace.
「善男子！我以得此神通力故，於虛空中或行、或住、或坐、或臥、或隱、或顯，或現一身，或現多身，穿度牆壁猶如虛空；於虛空中結跏趺坐，往來自在猶如飛鳥；入地如水，履水如地，遍身上下普出煙焰如大火聚。或時震動一切大地，或時以手摩觸日月，或現其身高至梵宮。或現燒香雲，或現寶焰雲，或現變化雲，或現光網雲，皆悉廣大彌覆十方。
"Good son! Because I have attained this spiritual power, within empty space I sometimes walk, sometimes stand still, sometimes sit, sometimes lie down, sometimes hide myself, sometimes make myself manifest; I sometimes manifest a single body, sometimes manifest many bodies; I pass through walls just as though passing through empty space; I sit cross-legged within empty space, coming and going freely just like a bird in flight; I enter the earth as though entering water, and walk upon water as though walking upon earth; smoke and flame pour forth from every part of my own body, above and below, like a great mass of fire. Sometimes I shake the whole of the great earth; sometimes I reach out my hand and touch the sun and moon; sometimes I manifest my own body rising as high as the palace of Brahmā. Sometimes I manifest a cloud of burning incense, sometimes a cloud of jeweled flames, sometimes a cloud of transformation, sometimes a cloud of a net of light — every one of them vast, spreading to cover the ten directions entirely.
入地如水，履水如地 — I enter the earth as though entering water, and walk upon water as though walking upon earth. This single reversal — the two most solid and most fluid things in the ordinary world, exchanging their own properties — captures the whole point of the previous Part's "spiritual power that neither abides nor acts": nothing here is fixed enough to obstruct him.
Unspeakably Many Worlds, Every Body an Offering
A single thought-moment carries Well-Abiding past worlds beyond counting, and at every buddha's own place he manifests bodies as numerous as motes of dust, each one raining down its own cloud of offerings — ten distinct kinds, from flowers to curtains, poured out at once.
或一念中過於東方一世界、二世界、百世界、千世界、百千世界，乃至無量世界，乃至不可說不可說世界；或過閻浮提微塵數世界，或過不可說不可說佛剎微塵數世界。於彼一切諸佛國土佛世尊前聽聞說法，一一佛所現無量佛剎微塵數差別身，一一身雨無量佛剎微塵數供養雲，所謂：一切華雲、一切香雲、一切鬘雲、一切末香雲、一切塗香雲、一切蓋雲、一切衣雲、一切幢雲、一切幡雲、一切帳雲，以一切身雲而為供養。
In a single thought-moment, I sometimes pass through, in the eastern direction, one world, two worlds, a hundred worlds, a thousand worlds, a hundred thousand worlds, and on up to measureless worlds, and on up to unspeakably unspeakable worlds; I sometimes pass through worlds as numerous as every mote of dust in Jambudvīpa, and I sometimes pass through worlds as numerous as every mote of dust in unspeakably unspeakable buddha-lands. In every one of those buddha-lands, before the World-Honored buddhas, I hear and listen to the dharma spoken; at every one of those buddhas' own places, I manifest bodies as numerous and varied as every mote of dust in measureless buddha-lands, and from every one of those bodies I rain down clouds of offerings as numerous as every mote of dust in measureless buddha-lands, namely: every kind of flower-cloud, every kind of incense-cloud, every kind of garland-cloud, every kind of powdered-incense-cloud, every kind of anointing-incense-cloud, every kind of canopy-cloud, every kind of garment-cloud, every kind of banner-cloud, every kind of pennant-cloud, and every kind of curtain-cloud, making offerings with every kind of body-cloud.
一一身雨無量佛剎微塵數供養雲 — from every one of those bodies I rain down clouds of offerings as numerous as every mote of dust in measureless buddha-lands. The multiplication compounds twice over here: not one offering but a cloud of them, not one body making that offering but bodies as numerous as dust motes, each one raining its own cloud in turn.
Part 915 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle sixty-two. Part 916 turns to what happens to sentient beings who simply catch sight of Well-Abiding's form, and to his own confession of limitation before naming Good-Wealth's fourth teacher.