Dighanikaya 28.157

28.157

Gaṇanāya vāti piṇḍagaṇanāya. Saṅkhānenāti acchiddakavasena manogaṇanāya. Ubhayathāpi piṇḍagaṇanameva dasseti. Idaṃ vuttaṃ hoti, vassānaṃ satavasena sahassavasena satasahassavasena koṭivasena piṇḍaṃ katvāpi ettakāni vassasatānīti vā ettakā vassakoṭiyoti vā evaṃ saṅkhātuṃ na sakkā. Tumhe pana attano dasannaṃ pāramīnaṃ pūritattā sabbaññutaññāṇassa suppaṭividdhattā yasmā vo anāvaraṇañāṇaṃ sūraṃ vahati. Tasmā desanāñāṇakusalataṃ purakkhatvā vassagaṇanāyapi pariyantikaṃ katvā kappagaṇanāyapi paricchinditvā ettakanti dassethāti dīpeti. Pāḷiyattho panettha vuttanayoyeva. Sesamidhāpi purimanayeneva yojetabbaṃ.

"By calculation": by aggregate calculation. "Or by reckoning": by uninterrupted mental reckoning. In both ways, he points to aggregate calculation alone. This is what is meant: Even having made an aggregate by way of hundreds of years, thousands, hundreds of thousands, or ten millions, it is not possible to reckon in this way: "There are this many hundreds of years" or "There are this many ten-millions of years". But you, having fulfilled the ten perfections and thoroughly penetrated the knowledge of omniscience, because your unobstructed knowledge proceeds vigorously—therefore, putting the skill of the knowledge of teaching in the forefront, having made a limit even by calculation of years, and having delimited even by calculation of aeons, you show that "it is this much"; this is what he explains. The meaning of the Pāḷi text here is just in the manner already stated. The rest here also should be construed in the manner previously stated.