The Sun Has No Day, No Night
Having refused to measure her wisdom in kalpas, the night-spirit reaches for the sun twice over — once for a thing that has no day or night of its own, and once for a reflection that touches every clear water on earth without the sun itself ever leaving the sky.
The Sun Has No Day, No Night
The first simile takes the very words Good-Wealth's question was built from — before, after, former, later — and shows they belong to the viewer, not to the sun.
「善男子！譬如日輪，無有晝夜；但出時名：晝，沒時名：夜。菩薩智輪亦復如是，無有分別，亦無三世；但隨心現，教化眾生，言其止住前劫、後劫。
"Good son, it is like the disc of the sun, which has no day and no night of its own — it is only when it rises that the time is called day, and only when it sets that the time is called night. The bodhisattva's wheel of wisdom is just the same: it holds no discrimination, and has no three times of its own; it is only that, appearing according to the minds of beings and teaching and transforming them, one speaks of it as abiding in a former kalpa or a later kalpa.
但出時名：晝，沒時名：夜 — it is only when it rises that the time is called day, and only when it sets that the time is called night. Day and night are not two different states of the sun; they are two names a viewer applies to the same sun at different moments. The simile maps this exactly onto Good-Wealth's own question: 前劫、後劫, a former kalpa and a later kalpa, are shown to be the same kind of naming — words applied by someone watching, never a distinction belonging to the wisdom itself.
A Reflection in Every Clear Water
The second simile moves from time to space — a single sun, never leaving its place in the sky, seen everywhere at once because of what it touches, not because it travels.
「善男子！譬如日輪，住閻浮空，其影悉現一切寶物及以河海諸淨水中，一切眾生莫不目見，而彼淨日不來至此。菩薩智輪亦復如是，出諸有海，住佛實法，寂靜空中無有所依，為欲化度諸眾生故，而於諸趣隨類受生；實不生死，無所染著，無長短劫諸想分別。何以故？菩薩究竟離心想，見一切顛倒；得真實見，見法實性；知一切世間如夢如幻，無有眾生，但以大悲大願力故，現眾生前教化調伏。
"Good son, it is like the disc of the sun, dwelling in the sky above Jambudvīpa, whose reflection appears entirely within every jewel and every clear water of river and sea, so that there is not a single being who does not see it with their own eyes — and yet that pure sun itself never comes to any of those places. The bodhisattva's wheel of wisdom is just the same: it has emerged from every ocean of existence, and abides in the buddha's own true dharma, in a tranquil emptiness that relies on nothing; and yet, wishing to transform and deliver every being, it takes birth according to kind within every destiny. In truth it neither is born nor dies, is stained by nothing, and holds no notion at all of a kalpa long or short. Why is this so? Because the bodhisattva has, in the end, left behind every notion of mind, and sees every inversion of view; has attained true seeing, seeing the real nature of dharmas; knows that the whole world is like a dream, like an illusion, and that there are, in truth, no beings at all — and it is only through the power of great compassion and great vow that it appears before beings, teaching and transforming them.
知一切世間如夢如幻，無有眾生⋯⋯但以大悲大願力故，現眾生前教化調伏 — knows that the whole world is like a dream, like an illusion, and that there are, in truth, no beings at all⋯⋯and it is only through the power of great compassion and great vow that it appears before beings. The same reversal marks this passage that marked Part 1145's opening claim, ten reasons why every pleasure traces back to the Buddha: a position stated in its most absolute form — no beings exist at all — turned, by a single 但, only, into the very reason for continuing to teach them. Knowing beings are illusory does not end the teaching in this fascicle; it is what the teaching is built on.
Part 1168 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle seventy-three. Part 1169 continues the night-spirit's answer with two further similes — a boatman who never rests on either shore, and empty space itself, unmoved by every world that forms and dissolves within it.