Only a Buddha and Another Buddha Know
Diligence Grove Bodhisattva's hymn opens with a teaching that later became a formula in its own right — "only a buddha and another buddha" fully know that every dharma is without distinction — and defends it through gold and its color, counting and the things counted, and the fire that ends a kalpa without ever touching empty space.
Diligence Grove Bodhisattva's Hymn
爾時，精進林菩薩承佛威力，普觀十方而說頌言：
At that time, relying upon the Buddha's own awesome power, Diligence Grove Bodhisattva universally surveyed the ten directions and then spoke a verse, saying:
「諸法無差別，無有能知者，
唯佛與佛知，智慧究竟故。
如金與金色，其性無差別，
法非法亦然，體性無有異。
眾生非眾生，二俱無真實，
如是諸法性，實義俱非有。
譬如未來世，無有過去相，
諸法亦如是，無有一切相。
譬如生滅相，種種皆非實，
諸法亦復然，自性無所有。
涅槃不可取，說時有二種，
諸法亦復然，分別有殊異。
如依所數物，而有於能數，
彼性無所有，如是了知法。
譬如算數法，增一至無量，
數法無體性，智慧故差別。
譬如諸世間，劫燒有終盡，
虛空無損敗，佛智亦如是。
如十方眾生，各取虛空相，
諸佛亦如是，世間妄分別。」
"Every dharma is without distinction, and there is no one at all able to know this; only a buddha and another buddha know it, because their wisdom has reached its ultimate end. Just as gold and the color of gold have no distinction in their own nature, so too are dharma and non-dharma — their own substance and nature has no difference at all.
A living being and a non-living-being, both of these have no true reality at all; and just so is the very nature of every dharma — their true meaning, in either case, does not exist. Just as the future has, within it, no mark of the past at all, so too is it with every dharma — there is no mark of anything at all within them.
Just as the marks of arising and ceasing, of every kind, are none of them truly real, so too is it with every dharma — their own nature has nothing to it at all. Nirvāṇa cannot be grasped, and yet when it is spoken of, there are said to be two kinds; so too is it with every dharma — when discriminated, they are said to be distinct.
Just as it is only in dependence on the things counted that there comes to be a counting of them, and that counted thing's own nature has nothing to it at all, so too should dharmas be understood. Just as the method of counting increases by one all the way to the immeasurable, the method of counting has no substance or nature of its own — it is wisdom alone that makes the distinctions.
Just as, throughout the world, the kalpa-ending fire eventually reaches its end, and yet empty space itself is never damaged or destroyed, so too is the Buddha's own wisdom. Just as living beings of the ten directions each grasp their own mark of empty space, so too do buddhas appear — through the world's own false discrimination."
"Only a buddha and another buddha" (唯佛與佛) would later become one of the most quoted formulas in East Asian Buddhism, most famously through the Lotus Sūtra's own use of the same phrase to describe the "true aspect of all dharmas." Here in the Avataṃsaka it appears in a different context but makes a related claim: that the sameness underlying every apparent distinction — gold and its color, a being and a non-being, counting and the things counted — is not a conclusion reasoning can fully deliver, but something only complete wisdom actually sees.
Part 124 Complete
This closes Part 124. Chapter 20 continues in Part 125 with Power Grove Bodhisattva's hymn.