Well-Seen's Own Answer Begins
Well-Seen opens by calling himself young and newly ordained, then immediately undercuts that modesty — within this single lifetime he has already served thirty-eight Ganges' sands of buddhas, dwelling with some for a single night and others for kalpas beyond telling.
"My Own Years Are Still Few"
Well-Seen's own modesty about his youth is immediately overturned by what follows — thirty-eight Ganges' sands of buddhas served within one lifetime, the time spent with each ranging from a single day and night to spans this sūtra can only call unspeakable.
善見答言：「善男子！我年既少，出家又近。我此生中，於三十八恒河沙佛所淨修梵行，或有佛所一日一夜淨修梵行，或有佛所七日七夜淨修梵行，或有佛所半月、一月、一歲、百歲、萬歲、億歲、那由他歲，乃至不可說不可說歲，或一小劫、或半大劫、或一大劫、或百大劫，乃至不可說不可說大劫，聽聞妙法，受行其教，莊嚴諸願，入所證處，淨修諸行，滿足六種波羅蜜海。
Well-Seen replied: "Good son, my own years are still few, and I left the household life only recently. Within this one life of mine, I have purely cultivated pure conduct at the places of thirty-eight Ganges' sands of buddhas, at some buddhas' places purely cultivating pure conduct for a day and a night, at some buddhas' places purely cultivating pure conduct for seven days and nights, at some buddhas' places for half a month, a month, a year, a hundred years, ten thousand years, a hundred million years, a nayuta of years, even up to years numbering the Unspeakably Unspeakable, or one small kalpa, or half a great kalpa, or one great kalpa, or a hundred great kalpas, even up to great kalpas numbering the Unspeakably Unspeakable, listening to and hearing the wondrous dharma, receiving and practicing their teaching, adorning every vow, entering the place of their own realization, purely cultivating every practice, and fulfilling the ocean of the six pāramitās.
我年既少，出家又近 — my own years are still few, and I left the household life only recently. Every previous teacher who confessed a limit did so after describing a vast attainment. Well-Seen reverses the order — the modest confession comes first, and only afterward does the scale of thirty-eight Ganges' sands of buddhas reveal how little that modesty actually meant.
Every Buddha Distinct, None Ever Confused
Well-Seen adds a claim of precision to this vast scale — he witnessed each buddha's own path to awakening and each one's own teaching without ever mixing one with another, and understood the very vows that first set each buddha's own path in motion.
亦見彼佛成道說法，各各差別，無有雜亂，住持遺教，乃至滅盡。亦知彼佛本所興願，以三昧願力嚴淨一切諸佛國土，以入一切行三昧力淨修一切諸菩薩行，以普賢乘出離力清淨一切佛波羅蜜。
I also saw those buddhas accomplish the path and teach the dharma, each one distinct, without any confusion, upholding their own bequeathed teaching, even until it was entirely extinguished. I also knew those buddhas' own original vows, through the power of samādhi-vows adorning and purifying every buddha's own land, through the power of the samādhi of entering every practice purely cultivating every bodhisattva practice, and through the power of renunciation in the vehicle of Samantabhadra purifying every buddha's own pāramitā.
Part 987 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle sixty-five. Part 988 turns to what Well-Seen sees in every direction at once as he simply walks in meditation — every world, every buddha-land, and every being's own conduct appearing before him within a single thought.