Ten Kinds of Body

Furthermore, suppose that at a single hair's-tip, moment after moment, there emerged assembly-grounds beyond telling, beyond all telling; and at every single hair's-tip, entirely in the same way. Through kalpas to the very end of the future, those kalpas could reach their end, and yet those assemblies would never be exhausted. Those very assemblies, moment after moment, each with their own distinct words, each with their own distinct question; the bodhisattva, in a single thought, is entirely able to receive and understand all of it, without fear, without timidity, without doubt, and without error, and reflects in this way: "Suppose every living being, through such verbal karma as this, were all to come at once to ask of me — I would teach the Dharma for them without break and without end, causing everyone to rejoice, and to abide upon the wholesome path; and further cause them to skillfully understand every kind of speech, able to teach every kind of dharma for the sake of living beings, while making no discrimination at all regarding language. Suppose, moreover, that every kind of speech beyond telling, beyond all telling, were to come to question and challenge me — in a single thought I would receive and understand it all, and with a single sound answer every one of them, universally causing them to open to understanding, with nothing at all left over. This is because I have attained the consecration of all-knowing wisdom, because I have attained the unobstructed treasury, because I have attained the fully perfected light of every dharma, and because I am fully endowed with the very wisdom of all-knowing wisdom."

Son of the Buddha, this bodhisattva-mahāsattva, having abided settled in this practice of wholesome dharmas, is able to purify themselves, and is also able, through skillful means free of attachment, to universally benefit every living being, and yet sees no living being at all who has attained release. Just as within this great trichiliocosm, so too within trichiliocosms beyond telling, transforming their own body to a golden color, their wondrous voice fully endowed, they perform the Buddha's own work, meeting no obstruction at all in any dharma.

Son of the Buddha, this bodhisattva-mahāsattva accomplishes ten kinds of body. Namely: a body that enters the boundless Dharma-realm beyond every destiny, because it extinguishes every worldly thing; a body that enters the boundless Dharma-realm within every destiny, because it is born within every worldly thing; an unborn body, because it abides in the unborn, equal Dharma; an unceasing body, because every kind of cessation, spoken of, can never actually be found; a non-illusory body, because it attains what is exactly as real; a non-false body, because it manifests in accordance with what is fitting; an unshifting body, because it leaves behind dying here and being born there; an indestructible body, because the very nature of the Dharma-realm can never be destroyed; a body of a single mark, because the path of language across the three periods of time is cut off; and a markless body, because it is skillfully able to contemplate the marks of every dharma.

The bodhisattva, having accomplished such ten kinds of body as this, becomes a dwelling for every living being, because they nurture and grow every wholesome root; becomes a rescuer for every living being, because they cause them to attain great security; becomes a refuge for every living being, because they become a great place of reliance for them; becomes a guide for every living being, because they cause them to attain unsurpassed release; becomes a teacher for every living being, because they cause them to enter into the true Dharma; becomes a lamp for every living being, because they cause them to clearly see their own karmic recompense; becomes a light for every living being, because they cause the most profound, wondrous Dharma to be illumined; becomes a torch for every one of the three periods of time, because they cause beings to awaken to and understand the true Dharma; becomes an illumination for the whole world, because they cause beings to enter into the ground of light; and becomes a brightness for every destiny, because they manifest the Tathāgata's own sovereign freedom. Son of the Buddha, this is called the bodhisattva-mahāsattva's own ninth practice, the practice of wholesome dharmas. The bodhisattva, abiding settled in this practice, becomes a cool and refreshing pool of Dharma for every living being, because they are able to exhaust the very source of every buddha-dharma.