大方廣佛華嚴經疏 5.5

5.5

Fourth, determining the numbers: for an assembly that accords with the dharmadhātu, how could it be known by counting? Speaking in terms of the text, the total count across the nine assemblies comes to one hundred and seventy-five assemblies in all. In the general prologue there are forty-one assemblies: one of common birth, thirty-nine of different birth, and one from the lion throne. If we also take those that flowed forth from the bodhi tree earlier and the boundless bodhisattvas in the palaces, there are forty-three assemblies in all. These forty-three pervade the nine assemblies: in the first assembly there are two assemblies, namely the newly gathered assembly from the ten directions and the assembly from between the Buddha's eyebrows, adding up to forty-five; in the second assembly there are two assemblies, new and old; in the third and fourth assemblies there are four assemblies each, namely the new and old, the Dharma-verifying assembly, and the deva assembly; in the fifth assembly there are one hundred and eleven assemblies, namely the new and old assemblies, the offering assemblies in the chapter on ascending to the heavens numbering one hundred and seven, along with the deva assembly and the Dharma-verifying assembly; in the sixth assembly there are four assemblies, namely the deva assembly, common birth, different birth, and the Dharma-verifying assembly; in the seventh and eighth assemblies there is only one assembly each, namely the old assembly of Samantabhadra and others; in the ninth assembly there are three assemblies, namely the old assemblies of bodhisattvas, śrāvakas, and deva kings and others. Although the old assemblies recur, they are all taken because they differ according to the assembly. Yet these various assemblies may be unified into one, because they are the assembly of the Ekayāna. Or they may be divided into two, because there are real assemblies and transformed assemblies. Or they can be three: humans, devas, and spirits. Or four: Buddhas, bodhisattvas, humans, and non-humans. Or five, opening non-humans into devas and spirits. Or six, adding animals. Or seven, dividing devas into desire and form [realms]. Or eight, bodhisattvas having this world and other worlds. Or nine, other directions having host and companions. Or ten, adding śrāvakas. Or one hundred and seventy-five, as explained before. Or immeasurable and boundless, because the categories of meaning are varied, and each may take the number of paramāṇus of Buddha lands as its measure. Again, as with the newly gathered bodhisattvas and the assemblies emerging from the rays of light from the pores, by analogy with the above it is all like this, so each and every assembly has no limit. This is still according to differentiated marks; if interpenetrated and integrated, each assembly possesses all one hundred and seventy-five assemblies, because assemblies that accord with the pratītyasamutpāda of the dharmadhātu exist mutually within one another. The above was just concerning one realm; if extending to the ten directions and the different types of lands as numerous as paramāṇus, in an inexhaustible, inexhaustible Indrajāla, this is the count of the assembly of the Huayan ocean gathering.