Counting Every Grain of Sand
Sovereign Lord puts his own counting method to its first test — a heap of sand measureless yojanas wide, every grain within it known — before scaling up to every world in every direction, and every name that world, kalpa, buddha, and being actually carries.
Sand, Worlds, and Every Name Within Them
Sovereign Lord's own demonstration moves outward in scale without ever losing precision — from a single measureless heap of sand counted grain by grain, to every world in all ten directions, down to the individual name of every kalpa, buddha, dharma, and being contained in them.
「善男子！我以此菩薩算法，算無量由旬廣大沙聚，悉知其內顆粒多少；亦能算知東方所有一切世界種種差別次第安住，南西北方、四維上下亦復如是；亦能算知十方所有一切世界廣狹大小及以名字，其中所有一切劫名、一切佛名、一切法名、一切眾生名、一切業名、一切菩薩名、一切諦名，皆悉了知。
"Good son, using this bodhisattva counting method, I can calculate a vast heap of sand measureless yojanas in extent, entirely knowing exactly how many grains are within it; I am also able to calculate and know every world in the east, each one distinct, abiding in its own sequence, and likewise for the south, west, north, the four intermediate directions, above and below; I am also able to calculate and know the breadth, narrowness, size, and name of every world in the ten directions, and every kalpa's name, every buddha's name, every dharma's name, every being's name, every karma's name, every bodhisattva's name, and every truth's name within them, all of it entirely and clearly known.
Eleven Things Still Beyond Him
Having just demonstrated a mastery of number that reaches every grain of sand and every name in the universe, Sovereign Lord still closes with the same confession every teacher before him has made — naming eleven distinct things about the great bodhisattvas that no amount of counting could ever capture.
「善男子！我唯知此一切工巧大神通智光明法門。如諸菩薩摩訶薩，能知一切諸眾生數，能知一切諸法品類數，能知一切諸法差別數，能知一切三世數，能知一切眾生名數，能知一切諸法名數，能知一切諸如來數，能知一切諸佛名數，能知一切諸菩薩數，能知一切菩薩名數；而我何能說其功德，示其所行，顯其境界，讚其勝力，辨其樂欲，宣其助道，彰其大願，歎其妙行，闡其諸度，演其清淨，發其殊勝智慧光明？
"Good son, I know only this dharma-gate of the great spiritual wisdom-light of every skillful craft. As for the great bodhisattvas, able to know the number of every being, able to know the number of every category of dharma, able to know the number of every distinction among dharmas, able to know the number of the three times entirely, able to know the number of every being's own name, able to know the number of every dharma's own name, able to know the number of every tathāgata, able to know the number of every buddha's own name, able to know the number of every bodhisattva, and able to know the number of every bodhisattva's own name — how could I possibly describe their own merit, reveal their own conduct, manifest their own domain, praise their own supreme power, discern their own delights and desires, proclaim what aids their own path, display their own great vows, extol their own wondrous practice, elucidate their every pāramitā, expound their own purity, or bring forth their own supreme light of wisdom?
而我何能說其功德 — how could I possibly describe their own merit. Where most teachers close with a single rhetorical question, Sovereign Lord's own confession lists eleven separate verbs in a row — describe, reveal, manifest, praise, discern, proclaim, display, extol, elucidate, expound, bring forth — as though even naming everything he cannot do required its own careful enumeration.
Part 994 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle sixty-five. Part 995 turns to Sovereign Lord naming Good-Wealth's thirteenth teacher, the laywoman Endowed, in the great city of Sea-Dwelling.