Samantabhadra Opens the Teaching
For the first time in this chapter, Samantabhadra himself speaks — unfolding the Lion's-Vigor Samādhi in ten sweeping declarations equal to the Dharma-realm itself, then contemplating the Buddha, the assembly, and the illusory nature of every dharma before restating it all in nine verses.
Ten Declarations, Equal to the Dharma-Realm
◎爾時，普賢菩薩觀察一切大眾，欲重開發，顯現照明；以法界等方便，廣說師子奮迅三昧；法界等、虛空界等、三世等、一切眾生界等、一切劫等、一切業性等、眾生希望等、眾生欲等、法光明等、隨時教化等、一切眾生根等，為諸菩薩十種廣說師子奮迅三昧。
「何等為十？所謂：廣說一切法界中，一切佛剎微塵等佛，次第興世，演說正法；廣說虛空界等，一切佛剎中，盡未來劫一切諸佛所說；廣說一切佛剎中，一切如來現成正覺；廣說虛空界等，一切佛剎中，佛坐道場，眷屬圍遶，菩薩大眾，皆悉往詣；廣說一念中，三世一切佛出變化身，充滿一切法界；廣說一身充滿一切世界海、一切佛剎海，平等照持；廣說一一境界中，顯現三世一切諸佛自在功德地；廣說一一微塵中，顯現三世一切佛剎微塵等，佛自在神力；廣說一一毛孔，出三世一切佛大願海音，開發化導，盡未來劫一切菩薩；廣說處法界等師子之座，大眾圍遶，莊嚴道場，各隨其處，轉妙法輪，盡未來劫，未曾斷絕。佛子！此師子奮迅三昧，有如是等不可說佛剎微塵等廣說，唯是如來智慧境界。」
At that time, Samantabhadra Bodhisattva, having observed the whole great assembly, wishing to open and reveal it once more, manifesting its illumination, through skillful means equal to the Dharma-realm, expounded broadly the Lion's-Vigor Samādhi — equal to the Dharma-realm, equal to the realm of space, equal to the three times, equal to the realm of every sentient being, equal to every eon, equal to the nature of every karma, equal to every sentient being's hope, equal to every sentient being's desire, equal to the light of the Dharma, equal to teaching and transforming according to the time, and equal to the faculties of every sentient being — for the sake of the bodhisattvas, expounding the Lion's-Vigor Samādhi broadly in ten ways.
"What are these ten? They are: expounding broadly how, within the entire Dharma-realm, buddhas as numerous as motes of dust in every buddha-land arise in the world one after another, expounding the true Dharma; expounding broadly, equal to the realm of space, what every buddha in every buddha-land will teach through every eon yet to come; expounding broadly how, in every buddha-land, every tathāgata presently attains perfect awakening; expounding broadly, equal to the realm of space, how in every buddha-land the Buddha sits at the bodhimaṇḍa, surrounded by his retinue, with the entire great assembly of bodhisattvas coming before him; expounding broadly how, in a single thought-moment, every buddha of the three times sends forth transformation-bodies filling the entire Dharma-realm; expounding broadly how a single body fills the entire ocean of every world and every buddha-land, illumining and sustaining all equally; expounding broadly how, within every single domain, the ground of sovereign merit of every buddha of the three times is made manifest; expounding broadly how, within every single mote of dust, the sovereign spiritual power of every buddha, as numerous as motes of dust in every buddha-land through the three times, is made manifest; expounding broadly how, from every single pore, the ocean-voice of the great vow of every buddha of the three times comes forth, opening and guiding every bodhisattva through every eon yet to come; and expounding broadly how, seated upon a lion-throne equal to the Dharma-realm, surrounded by the great assembly, adorning the bodhimaṇḍa, each in their own place turns the sublime Dharma-wheel without ever ceasing through every eon yet to come. Buddha's children! This Lion's-Vigor Samādhi has expositions as broad as these, as numerous as motes of dust in buddha-lands beyond telling — this is the domain of the Tathāgata's own wisdom alone."
Fazang reads this whole section as answering a question the text itself does not ask aloud: why does Samantabhadra, rather than the Buddha, now take up the teaching? His answer: 前明教主自入此定廣現其事，開現法界未有言說；今明普賢以言廣說，更重開前定用法界使顯現照明，令諸菩薩同入此法 — "earlier, the teaching's own master entered this samādhi himself and broadly manifested its effects, opening and revealing the Dharma-realm without yet a single word being spoken; now Samantabhadra, through speech, expounds it broadly, reopening once more the very function of that same samādhi across the Dharma-realm, so as to make it shine forth in illumination, and so that the bodhisattvas may enter this very Dharma together." The Buddha's own silent samādhi and Samantabhadra's spoken exposition are not two different teachings but the same single teaching in two registers — first shown, now said — which is also why Samantabhadra's own name recurs throughout this chapter's title itself, "entering the Dharma-realm," standing for the entering as such.
On the eleven qualifying phrases opening the passage — "equal to the Dharma-realm, equal to the realm of space," and so on — Fazang reads the first as the general term and the remaining ten as its particular unfoldings, each one specifying a different axis along which the coming tenfold exposition will prove boundless: reach across space, extension through time, the number of beings addressed, the number of eons spanned, and so on. He notes plainly why no lesser skillful means could serve here: 以奮迅定業用廣大，用餘方便不能顯故 — "because the function of this vigorous samādhi is so vast in scope that any lesser skillful means would be unable to make it manifest" — which is why all eleven phrases are drawn from what has "no fixed limit" (無分齊法) rather than any bounded measure. The ten declarations that follow, Fazang notes, correspond one-for-one to these same eleven qualifiers in sequence (the tenth declaration alone absorbing the final two), so that the passage's own form performs exactly the totality its content is describing.
Samantabhadra's Own Verse
爾時，普賢菩薩摩訶薩欲重明師子奮迅三昧，承佛神力觀察如來；觀察大眾；觀察如來不可思議境界；觀察諸佛三昧；觀察不可思議世界；觀察不可思議智慧；觀察一切法，皆悉如幻；觀察不可思議諸佛平等；觀察無量無邊，一切音聲語言道故；以偈頌曰：
「一一毛孔中， 普現最勝海，佛處如來座， 菩薩眾圍遶。一一毛孔中， 無量諸佛海，道場處華座， 轉淨妙法輪。一一毛孔中， 一切剎塵等，最勝跏趺坐， 演說普賢行。最勝坐一剎， 充滿十方界，無盡菩薩雲， 來詣於佛所。無量億佛剎， 塵數菩薩集，圍遶於如來， 為說諸法界。顯現諸佛剎， 入法界智海，安住普賢行， 滿足諸佛行。安住於如來， 一切諸世界，深入菩薩行， 樂聞勝法雲。一一剎無量， 億劫修諸行，修習彼行已， 究竟深法海，滿足大願海， 安住如來地。出生最勝法， 具足普賢行，成就功德海， 得無量自在，如來身雲覆， 一切諸佛剎，普雨甘露法， 令眾住佛道。」
At that time, Samantabhadra Bodhisattva-mahāsattva, wishing to clarify the Lion's-Vigor Samādhi once more, sustained by the Buddha's own spiritual power, contemplated the Tathāgata; contemplated the great assembly; contemplated the Tathāgata's own inconceivable domain; contemplated the samādhis of every buddha; contemplated the inconceivable worlds; contemplated inconceivable wisdom; contemplated how every dharma is entirely like an illusion; contemplated the inconceivable equality of every buddha; and contemplated the boundless, immeasurable path of every sound and every language — and spoke in verse, saying:
Within every single pore, the ocean of the Supreme One appears everywhere — the Buddha abiding on the Tathāgata's own throne, surrounded by the assembly of bodhisattvas.
Within every single pore, an ocean of buddhas beyond measure, the bodhimaṇḍa upon a flower-throne, turning the pure and sublime Dharma-wheel.
Within every single pore, equal to the motes of dust in every land, the Supreme One sits cross-legged, expounding the practice of Samantabhadra.
The Supreme One, seated in a single land, fills the ten directions entirely; inexhaustible clouds of bodhisattvas come before the Buddha.
Buddha-lands beyond a hundred million, bodhisattvas as numerous as motes of dust gather, surrounding the Tathāgata, to hear him expound every dharma-realm.
Manifesting every buddha-land, entering the wisdom-ocean of the Dharma-realm, abiding in the practice of Samantabhadra, fulfilling entirely the practice of every buddha.
Abiding within the Tathāgata, within every world there is, entering deeply into the bodhisattva's own practice, delighting to hear the cloud of the supreme Dharma.
In every single land, through a hundred million eons cultivating every practice; having cultivated that practice, reaching the very depths of the ocean of Dharma, fulfilling entirely the ocean of the great vow, abiding on the Tathāgata's own ground.
Giving rise to the supreme Dharma, fully endowed with the practice of Samantabhadra, accomplishing the ocean of merit, attaining sovereignty beyond measure — the Tathāgata's own body, a cloud covering every buddha-land, everywhere raining down the ambrosial Dharma, causing every being to abide in the buddha's own path.
Fazang matches this closing verse to the prose declarations that precede it, clause by clause, and reads the nine-fold contemplation introducing it — of the Tathāgata, the assembly, the inconceivable domain, the samādhis of every buddha, and so on — as itself already the verse's true content, restated once in the register of silent contemplation and again in the register of spoken verse, exactly as the whole section has already restated the Buddha's own silent samādhi in Samantabhadra's spoken exposition. He notes one deliberate structural choice: the eighth and ninth verses each run longer than the standard four lines — six and eight lines respectively — and reads this lengthening as tracking a shift in the verse's own subject, from a single land's practice cultivated over eons to the completed fruit that practice yields, a fruit substantial enough that the verse form itself has to stretch to hold it. With Samantabhadra's own opening teaching now complete — spoken once in prose, once more in verse — the chapter is ready, at last, to turn its light of illumination toward a single dying, doubting person: the Buddha's own release of light from between his brows, and what that light shows the assembly next.
Part 6 Complete
This closes Part 6, and with it the whole opening arc of the chapter: the assembly at Jetavana, the Buddha's samādhi, the ten directions gathering, the śrāvakas' blindness, ten hymns of praise, and Samantabhadra's own teaching. Part 7 turns to the Buddha's release of light from between his brows, and to Śākyamuni's own vast retinue of past lives made visible within it — the last movement of the chapter's opening before Sudhana himself finally enters the story.
Continue to Part 7 — The Buddha's Light, and What It Shows →