The Treasury of Inexhaustible Merit
Endowed finally explains her one small vessel — through the liberation she calls the Treasury of Inexhaustible Merit, it feeds every being from a hundred up to every being in the ten directions at once, and never once runs low, extending from food and drink to clothing, garlands, incense, and every necessity of life.
One Small Vessel, Every Delicious Food
Good-Wealth's own standard question finally receives its answer — the single small vessel is not empty at all, but the very instrument of a liberation that produces exactly what any being desires, in whatever quantity is needed.
爾時，善財既見具足優婆夷已，頂禮其足，恭敬圍遶，合掌而立，白言：「聖者！我已先發阿耨多羅三藐三菩提心，而未知菩薩云何學菩薩行？云何修菩薩道？我聞聖者善能誘誨，願為我說！」彼即告言：「善男子！我得菩薩無盡福德藏解脫門，能於如是一小器中，隨諸眾生種種欲樂，出生種種美味飲食，悉令充滿。
At that time, Good-Wealth, having seen the laywoman Endowed, bowed his head at her feet, reverently circumambulated her, and stood with palms joined, saying: "Noble one! I have already given rise to the mind of anuttara-samyak-sambodhi, but I do not yet know how a bodhisattva learns the bodhisattva practices, or how a bodhisattva cultivates the bodhisattva path. I have heard that the noble one is skilled in guiding and instructing others — I wish that you would explain it to me!" She then said: "Good son, I have attained the bodhisattva liberation-gate, the Treasury of Inexhaustible Merit, able, within this single small vessel, in accordance with every being's own various desires and delights, to give rise to every kind of delicious food and drink, causing all of them to be entirely filled.
From a Hundred Beings to Every Being in the Ten Directions
The vessel's own capacity scales without ever weakening — a hundred beings, a thousand, koṭis of nayutas, up to every being in every world of the ten directions at once — and no matter how far the number climbs, the food inside never diminishes at all.
假使百眾生、千眾生、百千眾生、億眾生、百億眾生、千億眾生、百千億那由他眾生，乃至不可說不可說眾生；假使閻浮提微塵數眾生、一四天下微塵數眾生，小千世界、中千世界、大千世界，乃至不可說不可說佛剎微塵數眾生；假使十方世界一切眾生，隨其欲樂悉令充滿，而其飲食無有窮盡亦不減少。如是飲食，如是種種上味、種種床座、種種衣服、種種臥具、種種車乘、種種華、種種鬘、種種香、種種塗香、種種燒香、種種末香、種種珍寶、種種瓔珞、種種幢、種種幡、種種蓋、種種上妙資生之具，隨意所樂悉令充足。
Suppose there were a hundred beings, a thousand beings, a hundred thousand beings, a hundred million beings, ten billion beings, a hundred billion beings, or a hundred thousand koṭis of nayutas of beings, even up to beings numbering the Unspeakably Unspeakable; suppose there were beings as numerous as the fine motes of dust in Jambudvīpa, or as numerous as the fine motes of dust in a single set of four continents, a small-thousand world-system, a medium-thousand world-system, a great-thousand world-system, even up to beings as numerous as the fine motes of dust in the Unspeakably Unspeakable buddha-lands; suppose there were every being in every world of the ten directions — in accordance with their own desires and delights, all of them would be entirely filled, and yet this food and drink would never be exhausted, nor would it ever diminish. Just as with this food and drink, so too with every kind of supreme flavor, every kind of bed and seat, every kind of clothing, every kind of bedding, every kind of carriage and vehicle, every kind of flower, every kind of garland, every kind of incense, every kind of scented ointment, every kind of burning incense, every kind of powdered incense, every kind of rare treasure, every kind of necklace, every kind of banner, every kind of pennant, every kind of canopy, and every kind of supreme and wondrous necessity of life — in accordance with each one's own wish and delight, all of it entirely satisfied.
而其飲食無有窮盡亦不減少 — this food and drink would never be exhausted, nor would it ever diminish. Every other quantity in this sūtra measures something growing larger. This vessel is defined instead by something staying exactly the same size no matter how much is taken from it — the actual miracle here is not abundance, but a supply that resists depletion altogether.
Part 998 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle sixty-five. Part 999 turns to what Endowed's food actually does for those who eat it — śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas attaining their own final fruit, across every world in every direction.