Ten Unspeakable Hundred-Thousand-Koṭi-Nayutas
The children give a final, precise measure of what following a good friend's own teaching accomplishes — ten unspeakable hundred-thousand-koṭi-nayutas each of merit, of pure and profound minds, of bodhisattva faculties, and of seven further qualities besides.
An Exact, Unspeakable Measure
「善男子！略說菩薩摩訶薩，若能隨順善知識教得十不可說百千億那由他諸功德；明十不可說百千億那由他淨直深心；增長十不可說百千億那由他菩薩諸根；淨十不可說百千億那由他菩薩諸持；滅十不可說百千億那由他諸障礙法；超十不可說百千億那由他諸惡魔業；入十不可說百千億那由他菩薩法門；滿十不可說百千億那由他諸妙功德；修十不可說百千億那由他菩薩所行；具十不可說百千億那由他菩薩大願。」
"Good man, to speak briefly: a bodhisattva mahāsattva who is able to accord with a good friend's own teaching attains ten unspeakable hundred-thousand-koṭi-nayutas of merit; clarifies ten unspeakable hundred-thousand-koṭi-nayutas of pure, upright, and profound minds; increases ten unspeakable hundred-thousand-koṭi-nayutas of bodhisattva faculties; purifies ten unspeakable hundred-thousand-koṭi-nayutas of bodhisattva retentions; extinguishes ten unspeakable hundred-thousand-koṭi-nayutas of every obstructing dharma; transcends ten unspeakable hundred-thousand-koṭi-nayutas of every evil māra's own deeds; enters ten unspeakable hundred-thousand-koṭi-nayutas of bodhisattva Dharma-gates; fulfills ten unspeakable hundred-thousand-koṭi-nayutas of every sublime merit; cultivates ten unspeakable hundred-thousand-koṭi-nayutas of the bodhisattva's own conduct; and completes ten unspeakable hundred-thousand-koṭi-nayutas of the bodhisattva's own great vows."
The phrase "unspeakable hundred-thousand-koṭi-nayuta" itself performs a kind of numerical paradox: 不可說 (unspeakable) names a quantity beyond expression, yet it is immediately quantified tenfold and multiplied by named units of scale — the text insists on precision even at a magnitude it simultaneously declares impossible to state. Fazang reads this as the same rhetorical move seen at the close of the earlier boundless-qualities list: exact enumeration pushed to a point where the numbers themselves collapse into their own admission of inexpressibility.
Part 270 Complete
This precise, tenfold measure is now given in full. Part 271 closes the entire teaching on the good friend with its final declaration: everything a bodhisattva accomplishes takes the good friend as its own root.
Continue to Part 271 →