Bhīṣmottaranirghoṣa's Own Confession of Limitation
Having just given Good-Wealth a vision spanning kalpas and countless buddhas, Bhīṣmottaranirghoṣa still insists this is only a single liberation, describes the great bodhisattvas at large in six sweeping clauses, and then closes with ten questions he answers only by admitting he cannot answer them.
Ten Things He Cannot Know or Describe
After naming what the great bodhisattvas accomplish — sovereign mastery, wisdom born in a single thought, a body dividing itself across every land — the sage turns the same vision that just amazed Good-Wealth into evidence of his own limits, closing with ten distinct things about those bodhisattvas that remain entirely beyond him.
仙人言：「善男子！我唯知此菩薩無勝幢解脫。如諸菩薩摩訶薩成就一切殊勝三昧，於一切時而得自在，於一念頃出生諸佛無量智慧，以佛智燈而為莊嚴普照世間，一念普入三世境界，分形遍往十方國土，智身普入一切法界，隨眾生心普現其前觀其根行而為利益，放淨光明甚可愛樂；而我云何能知能說彼功德行、彼殊勝願、彼莊嚴剎、彼智境界、彼三昧所行、彼神通變化、彼解脫遊戲、彼身相差別、彼音聲清淨、彼智慧光明？
The sage said: "Good son, I know only this bodhisattva liberation, Unsurpassed Banner. As for the great bodhisattvas, who accomplish every kind of supreme samādhi, who attain sovereign mastery at every moment, who bring forth the immeasurable wisdom of every buddha within a single thought, who use the lamp of a buddha's own wisdom as their own adornment, universally illuminating the world, who universally enter the domain of the three times within a single thought, who divide their own form and travel throughout every land in the ten directions, whose body of wisdom universally enters the entire dharma-realm, and who, in accordance with every being's own mind, universally appear before them, observing their faculties and conduct, and bring them benefit, emitting a pure light most lovable and delightful — how could I possibly know or describe their own meritorious practice, their own supreme vows, their own adorned lands, their own domain of wisdom, their own practice within samādhi, their own spiritual transformations, their own playful liberation, their own distinctions of bodily form, their own pure voice, or their own light of wisdom?
我唯知此菩薩無勝幢解脫 — I know only this bodhisattva liberation, Unsurpassed Banner. This is now the eighth teacher in a row to open a confession of limitation with some version of this same sentence — a fixed refrain running through the entire pilgrimage, no matter how vast the single liberation-gate just demonstrated has actually turned out to be.
Part 962 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle sixty-four. Part 963 turns to Bhīṣmottaranirghoṣa naming Good-Wealth's ninth teacher, the brahmin Fierce-Heat in the village of Iṣāna, and Good-Wealth's joyful departure south.