Countless Buddhas Named Dharma Wisdom Bear Witness
The chapter's own teaching is confirmed exactly as chapter fifteen's was: a sixfold earthquake spreads across countless worlds, and countless buddhas — every one bearing Dharma Wisdom's own name — appear to praise him, grant prophecy to the bodhisattvas who have just given rise to the resolve while listening, and confirm that this very teaching is proclaimed, in these very same words, throughout every world of the ten directions at once.
A Sixfold Earthquake
爾時，佛神力故，十方各一萬佛剎微塵數世界六種震動。所謂：動、遍動、等遍動，起、遍起、等遍起，涌、遍涌、等遍涌，震、遍震、等遍震，吼、遍吼、等遍吼，擊、遍擊、等遍擊。雨眾天華、天香、天末香、天華鬘、天衣、天寶、天莊嚴具，作天妓樂，放天光明及天音聲。
At that time, through the Buddha's own spiritual power, worlds as numerous as the fine motes of dust in ten thousand buddha-lands in each of the ten directions shook in six ways. Namely: moving, universally moving, equally and universally moving; rising, universally rising, equally and universally rising; surging, universally surging, equally and universally surging; quaking, universally quaking, equally and universally quaking; roaring, universally roaring, equally and universally roaring; and crashing, universally crashing, equally and universally crashing. It rained a multitude of heavenly flowers, heavenly fragrance, heavenly powdered incense, heavenly flower garlands, heavenly garments, heavenly treasures, and heavenly adorning implements, playing heavenly music, and emitting heavenly light and heavenly sound.
Countless Buddhas Named Dharma Wisdom, Granting Prophecy
Countless buddhas bearing Dharma Wisdom's own name appear before him, confirming that they too proclaim this very teaching, and granting prophecy to the bodhisattvas — as numerous as the fine motes of dust in ten thousand buddha-lands — who gave rise to the awakening-mind while listening: that in a distant age to come, they shall all accomplish buddhahood together, every one titled the Tathāgata of the Pure Mind.
是時，十方各過十佛剎微塵數世界外，有萬佛剎微塵數佛，同名：法慧，各現其身，在法慧菩薩前作如是言：「善哉！善哉！法慧！汝於今者，能說此法；我等十方各萬佛剎微塵數佛，亦說是法；一切諸佛，悉如是說。汝說此法時，有萬佛剎微塵數菩薩發菩提心。我等今者，悉授其記，於當來世過千不可說無邊劫，同一劫中而得作佛，出興於世，皆號：清淨心如來，所住世界各各差別。我等悉當護持此法，令未來世一切菩薩，未曾聞者皆悉得聞。如此娑婆世界四天下須彌頂上說如是法，令諸眾生聞已受化；如是十方百千億那由他無數、無量、無邊、無等、不可數、不可稱、不可思、不可量、不可說，盡法界、虛空界，諸世界中亦說此法教化眾生。其說法者，同名：法慧；悉以佛神力故，世尊本願力故，為欲顯示佛法故，為以智光普照故，為欲開闡實義故，為令證得法性故，為令眾會悉歡喜故，為欲開示佛法因故，為得一切佛平等故，為了法界無有二故，說如是法。」
At that time, beyond worlds as numerous as the fine motes of dust in ten buddha-lands in each of the ten directions, there were buddhas as numerous as the fine motes of dust in ten thousand buddha-lands, all alike bearing the very same name, Dharma Wisdom, who each manifested their own body before Dharma Wisdom Bodhisattva and spoke these very words: "Excellent! Excellent! Dharma Wisdom! You are now able to proclaim this very Dharma; we ourselves, buddhas as numerous as the fine motes of dust in ten thousand buddha-lands in each of the ten directions, likewise proclaim this very Dharma; every single buddha, without exception, proclaims it in just this way. As you were proclaiming this Dharma, bodhisattvas as numerous as the fine motes of dust in ten thousand buddha-lands gave rise to the mind of bodhi. We ourselves now grant every one of them a prophecy: in an age to come, beyond a thousand ineffable, boundless kalpas, within one and the same kalpa, they shall accomplish buddhahood and appear within the world, every one of them titled Tathāgata of the Pure Mind, each dwelling within his own distinct world. We ourselves shall entirely guard and uphold this very Dharma, causing every bodhisattva of ages to come who has never yet heard it to come to hear it entirely. Just as, atop the summit of Mount Sumeru within the four continents of this Sahā world, this very Dharma is proclaimed, causing living beings, upon hearing it, to receive its transformation — so too, throughout the ten directions, within hundreds of thousands of millions of nayutas of countless, immeasurable, boundless, unequaled, uncountable, inexpressible, inconceivable, immeasurable, ineffable worlds, filling the whole Dharma-realm and the realm of empty space, is this very Dharma likewise proclaimed, transforming living beings. Those who proclaim it there alike bear the very same name, Dharma Wisdom; entirely through the Buddha's own spiritual power, through the World-Honored One's own original vow-power, for the sake of revealing the Buddha's own Dharma, for the sake of universally illumining with the light of wisdom, for the sake of opening up and expounding the true and real meaning, for the sake of causing beings to realize the very nature of dharmas, for the sake of causing the assembly to entirely rejoice, for the sake of opening up and revealing the very cause of the Buddha's own Dharma, for the sake of attaining the equality of every buddha, and for the sake of understanding that the Dharma-realm has no duality at all — it is for these reasons that this very Dharma is proclaimed."
Dharma Wisdom Prepares to Speak the Closing Hymn
爾時，法慧菩薩普觀盡虛空界十方國土一切眾會，欲悉成就諸眾生故，欲悉淨治諸業果報故，欲悉開顯清淨法界故，欲悉拔除雜染根本故，欲悉增長廣大信解故，欲悉令知無量眾生根故，欲悉令知三世法平等故，欲悉令觀察涅槃界故，欲增長自清淨善根故；承佛威力，即說頌言：
At that time, Dharma Wisdom Bodhisattva universally surveyed the entire assembly throughout the lands of the ten directions, filling the whole realm of empty space, wishing to bring every living being entirely to accomplishment, wishing to purify entirely every karmic fruit of recompense, wishing to open up and reveal entirely the pure Dharma-realm, wishing to uproot entirely the very root of defilement, wishing to increase entirely vast and expansive faith and understanding, wishing to cause every immeasurable living being's own faculties to be entirely known, wishing to cause the equality of the Dharma across the three periods of time to be entirely known, wishing to cause the realm of nirvāṇa to be entirely contemplated, and wishing to increase his own pure wholesome root; and, receiving the Buddha's own awesome power, he then spoke a verse, saying:
The prophecy given here — that the newly resolved bodhisattvas will all accomplish buddhahood together, in the same kalpa, every one titled Tathāgata of the Pure Mind — is a striking detail: not one buddha alone but a whole cohort, distinguished from one another only by the world each comes to dwell within, unified by a single title that names the very quality this chapter has spent so many Parts describing. This closes the chapter's own narrative frame; what remains is Dharma Wisdom's own closing hymn, restating in verse everything the prose comparisons have already established at such length.
Part 94 Complete
This closes Part 94. Chapter 17 continues in Part 95 with the opening of Dharma Wisdom's own closing hymn — two hundred and forty-two lines restating the merit of the first resolve in verse.