Every Living Being's Own Karma and Affliction
The comparisons of knowledge close with karma and affliction — the resolve's own aim reaching all the way to cutting off the entire net of every affliction there is, light and heavy, dormant and manifest, rooted in ignorance, craving, and the sixty-two views. The chapter then returns once more to giving, with its most elaborate comparison of offering yet: countless buddhas honored across countless kalpas, their relics enshrined in towering stūpas that themselves radiate light across countless worlds.
Every Living Being's Own Karma
The resolve aims at understanding, entirely and without exception, the karma of every living being across the three periods of time — the whole net of karma, not merely its instances one by one.
「佛子！復置此諭。假使有人，於一念頃，能知東方無數世界所有眾生種種差別業。廣說乃至，此十方眾生種種差別業，可知邊際；菩薩初發阿耨多羅三藐三菩提心善根邊際，不可得知。何以故？佛子！菩薩不齊限，但為知爾所眾生業故，發阿耨多羅三藐三菩提心；欲悉知三世一切眾生業，乃至欲悉知一切業網故，發阿耨多羅三藐三菩提心。」
"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 karma of every living being throughout countless worlds to the east. Speaking at length, all the way to: the very limit of the manifold, distinct karma of the living beings of these ten directions could still be known; whereas the very limit of the wholesome root that is the bodhisattva's first giving rise of the mind of unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening cannot be known at all. 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 karma; he wishes to understand entirely the karma of every living being across the three periods of time, all the way to wishing to understand entirely the whole net of every karma there is — it is for this reason that he gives rise to the mind of unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening."
Cutting Off the Entire Net of Affliction
The resolve's own aim, applied now to affliction, becomes a detailed taxonomy in its own right — light and heavy, dormant and manifest, rooted in ignorance and craving, in greed, hatred, and delusion, in self and self-conceit, in the sixty-two views that spring from a view of self — all of it cut off, so that the very nature of omniscience becomes pure.
「佛子！復置此諭。假使有人，於一念頃，能知東方無數世界所有眾生種種煩惱；念念如是，盡阿僧祇劫，此諸煩惱種種差別，無有能得知其邊際。有第二人，於一念頃，能知前人阿僧祇劫所知眾生煩惱差別；如是，復盡阿僧祇劫。次第廣說，乃至第十。南、西、北方，四維、上、下，亦復如是。佛子！此十方眾生煩惱差別，可知邊際；菩薩初發阿耨多羅三藐三菩提心善根邊際，不可得知。何以故？佛子！菩薩不齊限，但為知爾所世界眾生煩惱故，發阿耨多羅三藐三菩提心；為盡知一切世界所有眾生煩惱差別故，發阿耨多羅三藐三菩提心。所謂：欲盡知輕煩惱、重煩惱、眠煩惱、起煩惱，一一眾生無量煩惱種種差別、種種覺觀，淨治一切諸雜染故；欲盡知依無明煩惱、愛相應煩惱，斷一切諸有趣煩惱結故；欲盡知貪分煩惱、瞋分煩惱、癡分煩惱、等分煩惱，斷一切煩惱根本故；欲悉知我煩惱、我所煩惱、我慢煩惱，覺悟一切煩惱盡無餘故；欲悉知從顛倒分別生根本煩惱、隨煩惱，因身見生六十二見，調伏一切煩惱故；欲悉知蓋煩惱、障煩惱，發大悲救護心，斷一切煩惱網，令一切智性清淨故，發阿耨多羅三藐三菩提心。」
"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 afflictions of every living being throughout countless worlds to the east; and, thought after thought in just this way, across an entire asaṃkhyeya kalpa, still none would be able to know the very limit of these manifold, distinct afflictions. And there is a second person who, within the space of a single thought, is able to know the very distinctions among the afflictions that the first person came to know across an entire asaṃkhyeya kalpa; and, likewise, this too continues 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 afflictions of the living beings of these ten directions could still be known; whereas the very limit of the wholesome root that is the bodhisattva's first giving rise of the mind of unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening cannot be known at all. 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 worlds' own living beings' afflictions; he gives rise to the mind of unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening for the sake of understanding entirely the distinctions among the afflictions of every living being throughout every world. Namely: wishing to understand entirely light afflictions, heavy afflictions, dormant afflictions, and manifest afflictions, and each and every living being's own immeasurable, manifold, distinct afflictions and manifold initial and sustained thoughts, purifying and treating every kind of defilement; wishing to understand entirely afflictions dependent on ignorance and afflictions bound together with craving, cutting off every bond of affliction that leads to any state of existence; wishing to understand entirely the portion of affliction belonging to greed, the portion belonging to hatred, the portion belonging to delusion, and the portion held equally among them, cutting off the very root of every affliction; wishing to understand entirely the affliction of self, the affliction of what belongs to self, and the affliction of self-conceit, awakening to and exhausting every affliction without anything left over; wishing to understand entirely the root afflictions and secondary afflictions that arise from inverted discrimination, and the sixty-two views that arise from the view of a self, taming and subduing every affliction; wishing to understand entirely the afflictions that are hindrances and the afflictions that are obstructions, giving rise to a mind of great compassion that rescues and protects, cutting off the entire net of affliction, and causing the very nature of omniscience to become pure — it is for these reasons that he gives rise to the mind of unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening."
A Final Offering: Buddhas Honored, Stūpas Raised, Relics Enshrined
The chapter's series of comparisons returns once more to giving, now at its most elaborate: countless buddhas honored with every fine offering across countless kalpas, and, after each buddha's own passing, towering stūpas raised from the treasures of countless worlds, each one holding countless images whose own light illumines countless worlds in turn.
「佛子！復置此諭。假使有人，於一念頃，以諸種種上味飲食、香華、衣服、幢幡、傘蓋，及僧伽藍、上妙宮殿、寶帳、網幔，種種莊嚴師子之座及眾妙寶，供養東方無數諸佛，及無數世界所有眾生，恭敬尊重，禮拜讚歎，曲躬瞻仰，相續不絕，經無數劫。又勸彼眾生，悉令如是供養於佛。至佛滅後，各為起塔。其塔高廣，無數世界眾寶所成種種莊嚴。一一塔中，各有無數如來形像，光明遍照無數世界，經無數劫。南、西、北方，四維、上、下，亦復如是。佛子！於汝意云何，此人功德寧為多不？」天帝言：「是人功德，唯佛乃知，餘無能測。」
「佛子！此人功德比菩薩初發心功德，百分不及一，千分不及一，百千分不及一，乃至優波尼沙陀分亦不及一。
"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, with every kind of the finest food and drink, fragrant flowers, garments, banners and pennants, and parasols, and with monasteries, the finest palace halls, jeweled canopies and netted curtains, thrones adorned in every manner, and every kind of wondrous treasure, made offering to countless buddhas to the east, and to the living beings of countless worlds, revering and honoring them, bowing and praising them, bending low and gazing up at them in reverence, continuing without ceasing, across countless kalpas. And he further urged those living beings to likewise make offering to the Buddha in just this way. When the Buddha had passed into extinction, each of them raised a stūpa for him. Those stūpas, tall and vast, were made from the treasures of countless worlds, adorned in every manner. Within each and every stūpa, there were, each one, countless images of the Tathāgata's own form, their light universally illumining countless worlds, continuing across countless kalpas. And it was likewise so to the south, the west, and the north, and in the four intermediate directions, and above and below. Son of the Buddha, what do you think — is this person's merit great or not?" Śakra said: "This person's merit only a buddha could ever know; there is none among all the rest who could fathom it."
"Son of the Buddha! This person's own merit, compared to the merit of a bodhisattva's first giving rise of the resolve, does not amount to one part in a hundred, does not amount to one part in a thousand, does not amount to one part in a hundred thousand — not even one part in an upaniṣad fraction does it amount to.
This return to a comparison of offering, after a run of comparisons about knowledge, closes the circle the chapter opened many Parts ago — but at a scale even the opening comparisons did not reach, extending the devotion itself past a buddha's own lifetime into the stūpas and relic-images raised afterward. The chapter's method throughout has been to keep raising the stakes of what could, in principle, still be known or measured — armies of beings surpassing one another across kalpas, taxonomies of understanding, affliction, and karma exhaustively enumerated — only to declare, every single time, that the first resolve's own limit remains beyond even that. What follows next completes the explanation for why: not because the resolve is simply larger by degree, but because of what it fundamentally is.
Part 92 Complete
This closes Part 92. Chapter 17 continues in Part 93 with the chapter's own explanation for why this final, most elaborate offering still falls short, followed by the sixfold earthquake and the arrival of countless witnessing buddhas that will lead into the chapter's own closing hymn.