The Treatise Complete: The Ocean and the Wish-Fulfilling Jewel
The sūtra closes its final sequence of similes with the great ocean, whose ten indestructible marks — from its gradual deepening to its tide that never oversteps its own bound — are mapped one by one across all ten bodhisattva grounds at once, and with a great wish-fulfilling mani-jewel, whose ten surpassing qualities are mapped one by one across the bodhisattva path in full, from the very first arising of the thought of enlightenment to the buddhas' own bestowal of the station of wisdom. The treatise then turns to its own closing account of this entire Dharma-gate's benefit: bodhisattvas all bearing the name Vajragarbha, arriving from world-systems beyond counting to bear witness that this same teaching is spoken everywhere, unaltered; worlds in the ten directions quaking in six kinds with eighteen aspects; a rain of heavenly flowers, garments, and music; and Vasubandhu's own final commentary distinguishing the merit of generating faith from the merit of making offerings — closing the entire twelve-fascicle Daśabhūmikasūtra-śāstra, and with it this 52-part translation project.
The Great Ocean's Ten Marks, Mapped Across the Ten Grounds
經曰：佛子！譬如大海，以十相故數名大海，無有能壞。何等為十？一、漸次深；二、不受死屍；三、餘水失本名；四、同一味；五、無量寶聚；六、甚深難度；七、廣大無量；八、多有大身眾生依住；九、潮不過限；十、能受一切大雨無有厭足。如是佛子！菩薩行以十相故數名菩薩行，無有能壞。何等為十？所謂菩薩歡喜地中漸次起大願故，菩薩離垢地中不共破戒死屍住故，菩薩明地中捨諸世間假名數故，菩薩焰地中恭敬三寶得一味不壞故，菩薩難勝地中無量方便智起世間所作多寶故，菩薩現前地中觀甚深因緣集法故，菩薩遠行地中以無量方便智善擇諸法故，菩薩不動地中示現起大莊嚴事故，菩薩善慧地中得甚深解脫通達世間行如實所證不過限故，菩薩法雲地中能受一切諸佛大法明雨無有厭足故。
論曰：是中難度能度大果功德者，因果相順故。十地如大海難度能度，得大菩提果故。大海有八種功德應知：一、易入功德，如經「漸次深」故。二、淨功德，如經「不受死屍」故。三、平等功德，如經「餘水失本名」故。四、護功德，如經「同一味」故。五、利益功德，如經「無量寶聚」故。六、不竭功德，謂深廣等，如經「甚深難度」故、「廣大無量」故。七、住處功德，以大眾生依住故，如經「多有大身眾生依住」故。八、護世間功德，潮不過時受水無厭，如經潮「不過限」故、「能受一切大雨無有厭足」故。大海相似法，菩薩十地行亦有十種相應知，如經「如是佛子！菩薩行以十相故，數名菩薩行，無有能壞故」如是等。云何轉盡堅固功德？
Sūtra: Son of the Buddha! It is like the great ocean, which, on account of ten distinguishing marks, is reckoned as the "great ocean," and which nothing is able to destroy. What are the ten? First, it deepens by gradual stages. Second, it does not tolerate a dead body remaining within it. Third, every other water, upon entering it, loses its own former name. Fourth, it is of a single, uniform taste. Fifth, it holds within it a boundless gathering of treasures. Sixth, it is exceedingly deep and difficult to cross. Seventh, it is vast and boundless. Eighth, many beings of great bodily size dwell and rely upon it. Ninth, its tide never oversteps its own bound. Tenth, it is able to receive every great rain that falls upon it without ever reaching its fill. Just so, son of the Buddha! A bodhisattva's practice, on account of ten distinguishing marks, is reckoned as a "bodhisattva's practice," and nothing is able to destroy it. What are the ten? Namely: in the bodhisattva's Pramuditā Ground, the Ground of Joy, the great vow arises by gradual stages; in Vimalā, the Ground Free of Defilement, he dwells apart from the dead body of broken precepts; in Prabhākarī, the Luminous Ground, he abandons every provisional name and reckoning belonging to the world; in Arciṣmatī, the Blazing Ground, he reveres the Three Jewels and attains a single, unbroken taste; in Sudurjayā, the Ground Difficult to Conquer, through boundless skillful wisdom he brings forth the many treasures accomplished within the world; in Abhimukhī, the Ground of Direct Presence, he contemplates the exceedingly profound dharma of dependent origination's own gathering; in Dūraṅgamā, the Far-Reaching Ground, through boundless skillful wisdom he skillfully selects among all dharmas; in Acalā, the Immovable Ground, he manifests the arising of great adornments; in Sādhumatī, the Ground of Excellent Wisdom, he attains an exceedingly profound liberation and thoroughly penetrates the practice of the world, his realization, just as it truly is, never overstepping its own bound; in Dharmameghā, the Ground of the Dharma-Cloud, he is able to receive every buddha's great rain of the illumination of the Dharma without ever reaching his fill.
Commentary: Here, "the meritorious quality of a great fruit difficult to cross yet crossed" is spoken of because cause and fruit accord with one another: the ten grounds are like the great ocean, difficult to cross yet crossed, since through them the fruit of great enlightenment is attained. The great ocean should be understood to have eight kinds of meritorious quality. First, the meritorious quality of ease of entry — as the sūtra says, "it deepens by gradual stages." Second, the meritorious quality of purity — as the sūtra says, "it does not tolerate a dead body remaining within it." Third, the meritorious quality of equality — as the sūtra says, "every other water loses its own former name." Fourth, the meritorious quality of protection — as the sūtra says, "it is of a single, uniform taste." Fifth, the meritorious quality of benefit — as the sūtra says, "it holds within it a boundless gathering of treasures." Sixth, the meritorious quality of inexhaustibility — meaning its depth and breadth, and so forth — as the sūtra says, "it is exceedingly deep and difficult to cross," and "it is vast and boundless." Seventh, the meritorious quality of being a dwelling-place, since great beings dwell and rely upon it — as the sūtra says, "many beings of great bodily size dwell and rely upon it." Eighth, the meritorious quality of protecting the world: its tide, at the proper time, never oversteps its own bound, and it receives water without ever reaching its fill — as the sūtra says its tide "never oversteps its own bound" and it "is able to receive every great rain that falls upon it without ever reaching its fill." The dharma that resembles the great ocean — the bodhisattva's practice through the ten grounds — should likewise be understood to have ten corresponding marks, as the sūtra says, "Just so, son of the Buddha! A bodhisattva's practice, on account of ten distinguishing marks, is reckoned as a bodhisattva's practice, and nothing is able to destroy it," and so on. What, then, is the meritorious quality of thorough refinement and unshakeable firmness?
Fazang reads the sūtra's own summary word — 不壞, "nothing is able to destroy it" — as the single claim the whole simile exists to make: 謂此十相同一大海不可易奪，故云不壞。地法亦爾，同一佛智，義分十地，不易奪故也 — "these ten marks all belong to one and the same great ocean and cannot be exchanged or taken from it, hence 'nothing is able to destroy it'; the dharma of the grounds is just the same — it is one and the same buddha-wisdom, distinguished in meaning into ten grounds, and this distinction cannot be exchanged or taken away either." He then shows his working on why the sūtra's ten marks collapse into the commentary's eight meritorious qualities: 攝十為八：以六七為一，九十亦爾 — "gathering the ten into eight, the sixth and seventh are treated as one, and likewise the ninth and tenth" — depth-and-breadth folding into a single "inexhaustibility," and the tide's twin restraints (never overstepping, never reaching its fill) folding into a single "protecting the world." On that fourth quality, "protection," he offers two readings at once rather than choosing between them: 護名為捨，捨餘一切差別相故 — "protection means letting go, letting go of every other distinguishing mark" — and, immediately after, 護同一味，恆不失故 — "or, protection is remaining of a single taste, never losing it." Most tellingly, he reads the ocean's eighth quality — receiving the tide's rain without limit — as a deliberate foreshadowing of the very two grounds this simile is building toward: 此喻九地應機說法，受水無厭能容納百川...餘法雲地受佛法雨利益世間 — "this illustrates the Ninth Ground's teaching the Dharma according to capacity, receiving water without ever tiring of it, able to hold every hundred rivers... the remaining [share belongs to] Dharmameghā, which receives the rain of the buddha-dharma to benefit the world" — the ocean's very last mark, that is, already pointing past itself toward the ground this whole treatise is about to close.
The Wish-Fulfilling Mani-Jewel's Ten Qualities, and the Bodhisattva Path in Full
經曰：佛子！譬如大摩尼寶珠，過十寶性：一、出大海；二、巧匠善治；三、善轉精妙；四、善清淨；五、善淨光澤；六、善鑽穿；七、貫以寶縷；八、置在琉璃高幢；九、放一切光明；十、隨王意雨眾寶物，能與一切眾生一切寶物。如是佛子！菩薩發薩婆若心，過十聖性：一、初發心布施離慳；二、善修持戒正行明淨；三、善修禪定三昧三摩跋提令轉精妙；四、菩提分善清淨；五、方便神通善淨光澤；六、因緣集觀善鑽穿；七、種種方便智縷善貫穿；八、置於自在神通幢上；九、觀眾生行放多聞智慧光明；十、諸佛授智位。爾時能為一切眾生現作佛事，即名得薩婆若。
論曰：是中轉盡堅固功德者，大摩尼寶喻，如經「佛子！譬如大摩尼寶珠等」故。過十寶性者，摩尼寶過毘琉璃等，以出故取，乃至放一切光明，示現此寶有八種功德攝故。八種功德者：一、出功德，選擇而取，以善觀故。二、色功德，巧匠善治故。三、形相功德，善轉精妙故。四、無垢功德，善清淨故。五、明淨功德，善淨光澤故。六、起行功德，善鑽穿故。貫以寶縷故，置在琉璃高幢故，此三句示現。七、神力功德，放一切光明遍照一切處故。八、不護功德，隨王意雨眾寶物，能與一切眾生一切寶物；正智受位故，一切眾生同善根藏故。過十聖性者，過聲聞辟支佛等性故。聲聞有八種性，四行、四果差別故。辟支佛有二種性，行、果差別故。如是十地影像分已說。云何地利益分？
Sūtra: Son of the Buddha! It is like a great wish-fulfilling mani-jewel, which surpasses ten qualities possessed by ordinary jewels. First, it arises from the great ocean. Second, a skilled craftsman works it well. Third, it is well turned and refined to a sublime fineness. Fourth, it is well purified. Fifth, its luster is well made clear and radiant. Sixth, it is well drilled through. Seventh, it is strung upon a thread of jewels. Eighth, it is set upon a lofty banner of lapis lazuli. Ninth, it emits every kind of light. Tenth, according to the king's own wish, it rains down every manner of precious thing, able to bestow every precious thing upon every sentient being. Just so, son of the Buddha! A bodhisattva who has given rise to the mind set upon the wisdom of omniscience surpasses ten qualities possessed by the noble ones. First, at his very first arising of the thought of enlightenment, he practices giving, apart from miserliness. Second, he skillfully cultivates the upholding of the precepts, his right conduct clear and pure. Third, he skillfully cultivates dhyāna, samādhi, and samāpatti, causing them to become ever more refined and sublime. Fourth, the factors of enlightenment are well purified within him. Fifth, his skillful means and spiritual powers are well made clear and radiant. Sixth, his contemplation of the gathering of dependent origination is well drilled through. Seventh, the thread of his manifold skillful wisdom is well strung through. Eighth, he is set upon the lofty banner of self-mastering spiritual power. Ninth, contemplating the conduct of sentient beings, he emits the light of vast learning and wisdom. Tenth, every buddha bestows upon him the station of wisdom. At that time, he is able, for every sentient being, to manifest and perform the buddhas' own works — and this is what is called attaining the wisdom of omniscience.
Commentary: Here, "the meritorious quality of thorough refinement and unshakeable firmness" is the simile of the great mani-jewel — as the sūtra says, "Son of the Buddha! It is like a great mani-jewel," and so on. "It surpasses ten qualities possessed by ordinary jewels" means that the mani-jewel surpasses beryl and every other jewel, from its being taken up out of the ocean all the way to its emitting every kind of light — showing that this jewel is gathered under eight kinds of meritorious quality. The eight kinds of meritorious quality are these. First, the meritorious quality of extraction: it is selected and taken up through skillful observation. Second, the meritorious quality of color: a skilled craftsman works it well. Third, the meritorious quality of shape: it is well turned and refined to a sublime fineness. Fourth, the meritorious quality of being free of blemish: it is well purified. Fifth, the meritorious quality of clarity and purity: its luster is well made clear and radiant. Sixth, the meritorious quality of the arising of function: it is well drilled through — that it is strung upon a thread of jewels, and that it is set upon a lofty banner of lapis lazuli, these three clauses together make this manifest. Seventh, the meritorious quality of spiritual power: it emits every kind of light, illumining every place everywhere. Eighth, the meritorious quality of unstinting giving: according to the king's own wish it rains down every manner of precious thing, able to bestow every precious thing upon every sentient being — since he has received his station through right wisdom, and since every sentient being alike shares in this treasury of roots of goodness. "It surpasses ten qualities possessed by the noble ones" means that it surpasses the qualities possessed by śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas, and the rest: a śrāvaka has eight kinds of quality, distinguished by four practices and four fruits; a pratyekabuddha has two kinds of quality, distinguished by practice and fruit. Thus the division of the ten grounds' own illustrative images has now been explained. What, then, is the division of the ground's own benefits?
Fazang notices something the ocean simile does not do: the jewel's ten qualities are matched one for one against the bodhisattva path in its entirety, from the first thought of enlightenment to buddhahood itself, rather than against ten separate grounds. His gloss on the very first quality already sets this in motion — 以善觀者，顯法也，謂初地聖智出煩惱海，善觀察也 — "'through skillful observation' makes the dharma manifest: it means the First Ground's noble wisdom arising out of the ocean of affliction, through skillful observation" — so that "arising from the great ocean," the jewel's first surpassing quality, is glossed not as a fact about jewels but as the very moment a bodhisattva's wisdom first emerges from kleśa. He reads the sixth through eighth qualities together as a single act rather than three: 六異相莊嚴名為起行，三句合釋可知 — "the sixth, adorned with a distinguishing mark, is named 'the arising of function'; these three clauses [drilling, stringing, mounting] are to be understood as explained together" — before closing on the jewel's last and, on his reading, defining quality: 隨王雨寶故無護惜 — "according to the king's wish it rains down treasures, and so it is without any protective withholding." Where the ocean simile closed by describing eight qualities the great ocean simply has, the jewel simile closes on a quality it gives away entirely, without reservation — the treasury of a bodhisattva's own roots of goodness proving, in the end, to be a treasury he does not keep for himself: 以己善根與一切眾生同一善藏，合與眾生寶物也 — "his own roots of goodness are one and the same treasury of goodness shared with every sentient being, matching the jewel's own giving of treasure to every being."
The Sūtra's Own Close: The Ground's Twofold Benefit of Faith and Offering
經曰：佛子！是菩薩行，善集一切種一切智智功德集法門品。若眾生不深種善根者，不能得聞。解脫月菩薩言：佛子！此集一切種一切智智功德集法門品，若得聞者，此人成就幾許功德？金剛藏菩薩言：佛子！隨一切智智所攝觀集諸功德，此集一切種一切智智功德集法門品亦復如是。此人得聞此法門，所得功德亦復如是。何以故？佛子！若非菩薩不得聞此集一切種一切智智功德集法門品，何況能信、何況能持、何況正修行。
說此經時，以佛神力、以得法力，十方世界十億佛土微塵數等諸佛世界，六種十八相動，所謂動、遍動、等遍動，踊、遍踊、等遍踊，覺、遍覺、等遍覺，起、遍起、等遍起，震、遍震、等遍震，吼、遍吼、等遍吼。以佛神力、以得法力故，雨種種天花如雲而下，雨天衣、雨天寶、雨天莊嚴具、雨天蓋、雨天幡、雨天幢、雨天伎樂、雨天音聲，讚歎一切智地及讚十地殊勝之事。如此世界四天下他化自在天中，自在天王宮摩尼寶藏殿說十地法，如是十方一切世界周遍皆說此十地法。
以佛神力故，十方過十億佛土微塵數等世界，有十億佛土微塵數等諸菩薩來集，遍滿十方虛空。到已皆作是言：善哉善哉！佛子！善說菩薩住諸地相。佛子！我等一切亦名金剛藏，從名金剛勝世界金剛幢佛所來。彼一切世界皆承佛神力說此法門，眾會亦如是，字句亦如是，釋名亦如是，義趣亦如是，不增不減。佛子！是故我等承佛神力，來到此眾為證是法。佛子！如我等來至此眾，如是十方一切世界，一一世界中四天下，上他化自在天中自在天王宮摩尼寶藏殿，皆有十億佛土微塵數等菩薩往為作證。
爾時金剛藏菩薩摩訶薩承佛神力說此經時，如來隨喜，彼一切菩薩眾及一切天、龍、夜叉、乾闥婆、阿修羅、迦樓羅、緊那羅、摩睺羅伽、四天王、釋提桓因、梵天王、摩醯首羅、淨居天眾皆大歡喜。佛在他化自在天中成道未久第二七日，自在天王宮摩尼寶藏殿，金剛藏菩薩說，歡喜奉行。
論曰：是中地利益者，有二種：一、生信功德；二、供養功德。復次此法門中，決定信說大利益義示現。如經「佛子！是菩薩行善集一切種一切智智功德集法門品」如是等，「解脫月菩薩言」如是等，「金剛藏菩薩言」如是等故。為於此經中生信得功德，復生信功德緣生義故，以神通力示現六種十八相動。如經「說此經時以佛神力以得法力故」如是等。是中六種動者：一、動；二、踊；三、上去；四、起；五、下去；六、吼，十八相。此六種動等相，下中上如是次第應知。器世間中，依四種眾生聚：一、依不善眾生；二、依信種種天眾生；三、依我慢眾生；四、依呪術眾生。為此眾生下中上次第差別故，動乃至吼，如是十八句異義應知。如是生信功德及緣生義已說。
是中供養功德者，如經「雨種種天華如雲而下」如是等。一切世界說此法門示現，為無量法門利益眾生示現，如經「如此世界四天下」如是等。餘者易解。
Sūtra: Son of the Buddha! This bodhisattva practice well gathers together the Dharma-gate that assembles the merit of the wisdom of all modes, the wisdom of omniscience. Should sentient beings not have deeply planted roots of goodness, they are unable to hear it at all. Vimuktacandra Bodhisattva said: "Son of the Buddha! This Dharma-gate that assembles the merit of the wisdom of all modes, the wisdom of omniscience — for one who is able to hear it, how much merit does such a person accomplish?" Vajragarbha Bodhisattva said: "Son of the Buddha! Just as the merit gathered and contemplated, comprehended within the wisdom of all modes, the wisdom of omniscience, is itself boundless, so too is this Dharma-gate that assembles the merit of the wisdom of all modes, the wisdom of omniscience. This person, having heard this Dharma-gate, attains merit that is likewise boundless. Why is this so? Son of the Buddha! Unless one is a bodhisattva, one cannot even hear this Dharma-gate that assembles the merit of the wisdom of all modes, the wisdom of omniscience — how much less, then, be able to believe it; how much less be able to uphold it; how much less truly practice it accordingly."
When this sūtra was being taught, through the Buddha's own majestic spiritual power and through the power attained through the Dharma, buddha-world-systems in the ten directions, as numerous as the fine motes of dust in ten koṭis of buddha-lands, quaked in six kinds, with eighteen aspects: namely, quaking, quaking everywhere, quaking everywhere equally; surging, surging everywhere, surging everywhere equally; heaving, heaving everywhere, heaving everywhere equally; arising, arising everywhere, arising everywhere equally; shaking, shaking everywhere, shaking everywhere equally; and roaring, roaring everywhere, roaring everywhere equally. Through the Buddha's own majestic spiritual power and through the power attained through the Dharma, there rained down every manner of heavenly flower, falling like clouds; there rained down heavenly garments, heavenly treasures, heavenly ornaments, heavenly canopies, heavenly banners, heavenly pennants, heavenly music, and heavenly voices, praising the ground of the wisdom of omniscience and praising the surpassing excellence of the ten grounds. Just as, in this world, within the four continents, in the Heaven of Free Enjoyment of Others' Emanations, in the Mani-Treasury Hall of the palace of the King of that Heaven, the Dharma of the ten grounds was taught, so too, throughout the ten directions, in every world-system without exception, this Dharma of the ten grounds was taught everywhere at once.
Through the Buddha's own majestic spiritual power, beyond world-systems in the ten directions as numerous as the fine motes of dust in ten koṭis of buddha-lands, bodhisattvas as numerous as the fine motes of dust in ten koṭis of buddha-lands came together and assembled, filling the empty space of the ten directions entirely. Having arrived, they all spoke thus: "Excellent, excellent, son of the Buddha! Well have you expounded the marks of a bodhisattva's dwelling within the grounds. Son of the Buddha! Every one of us likewise bears the name Vajragarbha, and we have come from the buddha named Vajradhvaja, the Vajra-Banner Buddha, in the world named Vajraśreṣṭha, the World of Supreme Vajra. In every one of those world-systems, this same Dharma-gate is being taught, each sustained by the Buddha's own majestic spiritual power; the assemblies gathered there are likewise the same, the words and phrases are likewise the same, the explanations of the names are likewise the same, and the meaning and purport are likewise the same, neither increased nor diminished. Son of the Buddha! It is for this reason that we, sustained by the Buddha's own majestic spiritual power, have come to this assembly to bear witness to this Dharma. Son of the Buddha! Just as we have come to this assembly, so too, throughout every world-system of the ten directions, within each and every one of the four continents, above, in the Heaven of Free Enjoyment of Others' Emanations, in the Mani-Treasury Hall of the palace of the King of that Heaven, there are bodhisattvas as numerous as the fine motes of dust in ten koṭis of buddha-lands, everywhere gone forth to bear witness likewise."
At that time, when Vajragarbha Bodhisattva-mahāsattva, sustained by the Buddha's own majestic spiritual power, taught this sūtra, the Tathāgata rejoiced, and that entire assembly of bodhisattvas, together with every god, nāga, yakṣa, gandharva, asura, garuḍa, kiṃnara, and mahoraga, the Four Heavenly Kings, Śakra, the Brahmā King, Maheśvara, and the host of gods of the Pure Abodes, were all greatly joyful. The Buddha, not long after attaining the path, on the second week thereafter, in the Heaven of Free Enjoyment of Others' Emanations, in the Mani-Treasury Hall of the palace of the King of that Heaven — Vajragarbha Bodhisattva having taught thus, the assembly received it with joy and undertook to practice it accordingly.
Commentary: Here, the benefit of the ground is of two kinds: first, the merit of generating faith; second, the merit of making offerings. Furthermore, within this Dharma-gate, it is made manifest that decisive faith is what accomplishes great benefit — as the sūtra says, "Son of the Buddha! This bodhisattva practice well gathers together the Dharma-gate that assembles the merit of the wisdom of all modes, the wisdom of omniscience," and so on; "Vimuktacandra Bodhisattva said," and so on; and "Vajragarbha Bodhisattva said," and so on. In order that merit be attained through the generating of faith within this sūtra, and further, in order to show the meaning of the conditions that give rise to that merit, spiritual power is shown to manifest as a shaking in six kinds, with eighteen aspects — as the sūtra says, "when this sūtra was being taught, through the Buddha's own majestic spiritual power and through the power attained through the Dharma," and so on. Here, the six kinds of shaking are: first, quaking; second, surging; third, rising up; fourth, arising; fifth, sinking down; sixth, roaring — eighteen aspects in all. These six kinds of shaking and their aspects should be understood, in each case, according to their own order of lower, middle, and upper degree. Within the receptacle world, this rests upon four kinds of gatherings of sentient beings: first, those resting upon unwholesome sentient beings; second, those resting upon sentient beings of various faithful gods; third, those resting upon sentient beings of pride; fourth, those resting upon sentient beings who practice spells. For the sake of these sentient beings, in accordance with their own order of lower, middle, and upper degree, the earth quakes and so on up to roars — and thus these eighteen phrases, each of a different meaning, should be understood accordingly. This concludes the explanation of the merit of generating faith and the meaning of the conditions that give rise to it.
Here, the merit of making offerings is as the sūtra says, "there rained down every manner of heavenly flower, falling like clouds," and so on. That this Dharma-gate is taught throughout every world-system is shown in order to make manifest the benefiting of sentient beings through boundless Dharma-gates — as the sūtra says, "just as, in this world, within the four continents," and so on. The rest is easily understood.
Fazang's own outline of this closing division is careful about a textual variant most readers would never notice: 於中有三：初顯法利益、二結通十方、三他方來證。若依論經，更有第四如來隨喜、第五佛在下結說究竟。今依此經 — "within this there are three parts: first, showing the benefit of the Dharma; second, a closing statement extending it through the ten directions; third, witnesses arriving from other regions. Following the treatise's own recension of the sūtra, there is further a fourth part, the Tathāgata's rejoicing, and a fifth, the Buddha's own closing statement bringing the exposition to its end — but here I follow this sūtra," i.e., the version he is himself commenting on, which folds those last two into the third. He then traces "the merit of generating faith" through its own two-step structure — 先聞益、後動地 — "first, the benefit of hearing; then, the earth's shaking" — glossing the two questions Vimuktacandra and Vajragarbha exchange as together showing why this teaching is so rarely heard: 以發菩提心行菩薩道者，是此法器故方說聞 — "only one who has given rise to the thought of enlightenment and practices the bodhisattva path is a fit vessel for this Dharma, and it is for this reason alone that hearing it is spoken of at all." The eighteen-aspect quaking he reads, as at the very first assembly of this whole sūtra, against four classes of beings it addresses in turn from lowest to highest — the unwholesome, the merely faithful, the prideful, and practitioners of spells — a structure he simply notes repeats what "the previous assemblies" already established, each ground's own teaching having quaked the earth the same way before it.
Fazang closes his commentary on the entire Ten Grounds chapter with a verse-tally, and within it a detail worth sitting with: of the whole closing division of similes — mountain, ocean, jewel, and a pond simile the sūtra passes over — the verses spend eleven lines on the mountain, four on the ocean, and four on the jewel, then explicitly decline to versify the pond simile or the Ninth Ground's own benefits at all: 池喻及九地利益等並略不頌 — "the pond simile and the benefit of the Ninth Ground and so forth are all, in brief, left unversified." The exposition's own final two verses, he says, simply 結說無盡 — "close the exposition, without end" — an ending that refuses to resolve into tidy finality even as it stops. His own commentary then ends in four characters, no more: 十地品竟 — "the chapter on the Ten Grounds is complete." It is fitting that Vasubandhu's own commentary, translated here for the last time, ends in a hand full of characters, no more: 餘者易解 — "the rest is easily understood." After twelve fascicles of a treatise built almost entirely from the question "why?", its author's very last words decline to ask one.
Part 52 Complete — The Treatise on the Sūtra of the Ten Grounds, Now Entirely Translated
This closes Part 52, and with it the entire Tenth Ground: Dharmameghā, the Ground of the Dharma-Cloud. Parts 46 through 52 — the sūtra's own account of the ten equal minds by which a bodhisattva enters this ground, the great rain of the Dharma that gives the ground its name, the closing sequence of ten similes comparing the ten grounds to ten great mountain-kings, and now the great ocean's ten indestructible marks, the wish-fulfilling mani-jewel's ten surpassing qualities, and the treatise's own final account of this Dharma-gate's twofold benefit — have now translated the whole of fascicle twelve of this twelve-fascicle treatise. And with fascicle twelve complete, this closes the entire 52-part translation project: the whole of Vasubandhu's Daśabhūmikasūtra-śāstra, from Part 1's opening assembly in the palace of the King of the Heaven of Free Enjoyment of Others' Emanations and Vajragarbha Bodhisattva's entry into samādhi, through all ten bodhisattva grounds in turn — Pramuditā, the Ground of Joy; Vimalā, the Ground Free of Defilement; Prabhākarī, the Luminous Ground; Arciṣmatī, the Blazing Ground; Sudurjayā, the Ground Difficult to Conquer; Abhimukhī, the Ground of Direct Presence; Dūraṅgamā, the Far-Reaching Ground; Acalā, the Immovable Ground; Sādhumatī, the Ground of Excellent Wisdom — to Dharmameghā, the Ground of the Dharma-Cloud, here at its close. Across this collection's reading notes, two commentators have carried the weight of a text whose own author, Vasubandhu, so often asks "why?" and so rarely elaborates further: Jingying Huiyuan's surviving 十地經論義記 (X0753) through the Second Ground and partway through the Third, and, for every ground thereafter, Fazang's 華嚴經探玄記 (T1733) — a Huayan patriarch reading a Yogācāra treatise on a Madhyamaka-adjacent sūtra, and finding, across that distance, still more to say. The sūtra itself, and this translation with it, ends where Vasubandhu himself chose to stop explaining.
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