Unspeakable Vows for Unspeakable Worlds
The boundless list closes on its own largest scale yet: consummating boundless pāramitās, receiving boundless predictions, penetrating boundless gates of forbearance, and across boundless kalpas, adorned by a great vow, purifying unspeakable buddha-worlds and raising unspeakable bodhisattva vows and conduct.
From Boundless to Unspeakable
「……到諸菩薩難至之趣；攝持菩薩勇猛功德；證於菩薩離生淨妙難證之法；覺悟菩薩諸莊嚴行；於一切處，顯現菩薩自在神力；受持菩薩無壞法雲；增廣菩薩無量無邊淨智慧行；究竟無量諸波羅蜜，受於菩薩無量記別；深入菩薩無量忍門；修治菩薩不思議地諸正法門；於無量劫，以大弘誓而自莊嚴，供養諸佛，淨不可說諸佛世界，發不可說菩薩願行。」
"… reach the bodhisattva's own destinations, difficult to arrive at; uphold the bodhisattva's own valiant, courageous merit; realize the bodhisattva's own pure and sublime dharma of transcending birth, difficult to realize; awaken to the bodhisattva's own adorned conduct; manifest the bodhisattva's own sovereign spiritual power in every place; uphold the bodhisattva's own indestructible cloud of Dharma; increase and expand the bodhisattva's own boundless, limitless practice of pure wisdom; consummate boundless pāramitās, receiving boundless distinct predictions as a bodhisattva; penetrate deeply into the bodhisattva's own boundless gates of forbearance; cultivate and refine the bodhisattva's own inconceivable grounds and every true Dharma-gate; and throughout boundless kalpas, adorning oneself with a great, far-reaching vow, make offerings to every buddha, purify unspeakable, unspeakable buddha-worlds, and raise unspeakable, unspeakable bodhisattva vows and conduct."
The list's own closing move is a final escalation: after dozens of clauses built on 無量 (boundless), the very last phrases shift to 不可說 (unspeakable, literally "cannot be spoken"), a term this collection has reserved for quantities beyond even boundless counting. Fazang reads this closing intensification as the list's own self-undoing — having enumerated boundlessness at exhausting length, the text finally admits that even "boundless" falls short, and reaches for a word that names its own inability to be said at all.
Part 255 Complete — The Boundless List Concludes
The full exhortation against complacency, and its list of boundless qualities, is now complete. Part 256 turns to the children's own summary statement of everything a bodhisattva's practice entails, and their teaching on the paramount importance of the good friend.
Continue to Part 256 →