Like an Illusion, a Reflection, a Dream
The litany continues through prophecies bestowed on every bodhisattva, causing them to enter the buddha's own family and receive consecration; a buddha-body that manifests throughout the world like a reflection while never abiding within birth-and-death; and the teaching, at the passage's center, that every world is like an illusion, a reflection, a dream, and a conjured apparition, with mind alone as its true nature.
A Buddha-Body Manifested Like a Reflection
The unbroken litany moves from the Tathāgata's own qualities to what those qualities accomplish for others — bestowing prophecies, pulling living beings out of the mire and onto the ground of wisdom, and manifesting a body throughout the world "like a reflection" precisely because it never abides within birth-and-death. At the passage's center sits one of the sūtra's clearest statements of the teaching on emptiness: every world is like an illusion, a reflection, a dream, and a conjured apparition, with mind alone as its true nature.
住一切智，善能開演種種文句真實之義，能悉深入無邊智海，出生無量功德慧藏；恒以佛日普照法界，隨本願力常現不沒；恒住法界，住佛所住，無有變異；於我、我所俱無所著，住出世法，世法無染；於一切世間建智慧幢，其智廣大，超過世間，無所染著；拔諸眾生令出淤泥，置於最上智慧之地，所有福德饒益眾生而無有盡；了知一切菩薩智慧，信向決定，當成正覺；以大慈悲，現不可說無量佛身種種莊嚴；以妙音聲，演無量法，隨眾生意，悉令滿足；於去、來、今，心常清淨，令諸眾生不著境界；恒與一切諸菩薩記，令其皆入佛之種性，生在佛家，得佛灌頂；常遊十方，未曾休息，而於一切無所樂著；
Abiding in all-knowing wisdom, skillfully able to expound the true and real meaning of every kind of phrase, entirely able to enter deeply into the boundless ocean of wisdom, bringing forth the treasury of immeasurable merit and wisdom; forever, with the buddha's own sun, universally illuminating the Dharma-realm, forever manifesting in accordance with the power of his original vow, never once setting; forever abiding in the Dharma-realm, abiding in what every buddha abides in, without any change or alteration; clinging to neither self nor what belongs to self, abiding in the transcendent Dharma, unstained by any worldly dharma; raising the banner of wisdom throughout every world, his wisdom vast and expansive, transcending the world entirely, stained and attached to nothing at all; pulling every living being out of the mire, placing them upon the most supreme ground of wisdom, his every merit benefiting living beings inexhaustibly; understanding entirely every bodhisattva's own wisdom, their faith and direction resolute, certain to accomplish true and perfect awakening; with great compassion, manifesting indescribable, immeasurable buddha-bodies, adorned in every kind of way; with a wondrous voice, expounding immeasurable Dharma, according with the intent of every living being, causing every one of them to be entirely satisfied; throughout the past, the future, and the present, his mind forever pure, causing every living being to cling to no domain at all; forever bestowing prophecies upon every bodhisattva, causing every one of them to enter the buddha's own lineage, to be born within the buddha's own family, and to attain the buddha's own consecration; forever roaming throughout the ten directions, never once resting, and yet clinging to and delighting in nothing at all;
法界佛剎悉能遍往，諸眾生心靡不了知；所有福德，離世清淨；不住生死，而於世間如影普現；以智慧月普照法界，了達一切悉無所得；恒以智慧，知諸世間如幻、如影、如夢、如化，一切皆以心為自性，如是而住；隨諸眾生業報不同、心樂差別、諸根各異，而現佛身；如來恒以無數眾生而為所緣，為說世間皆從緣起，知諸法相皆悉無相，唯是一相智慧之本；欲令眾生離諸相著，示現一切世間性相而行於世，為其開示無上菩提；為欲救護一切眾生，出現世間開示佛道，令其得見如來身相，攀緣憶念，勤加修習。
Able to go pervasively throughout the Dharma-realm and every buddha-land entirely, understanding completely the mind of every living being; his every merit transcending the world, entirely pure; not abiding within birth-and-death, and yet universally manifesting throughout the world like a reflection; with the moon of wisdom universally illuminating the Dharma-realm, understanding entirely that nothing at all can ever be found or grasped; forever, through wisdom, knowing every world to be like an illusion, like a reflection, like a dream, like a conjured apparition, everything having mind alone as its own nature, and abiding accordingly; according with the different karmic retributions, the distinct delights of mind, and the varying faculties of every living being, manifesting the buddha's own body accordingly; the Tathāgata forever takes countless living beings as his own object, expounding for them that the world entirely arises through dependent origination, and that the characteristics of every dharma are all entirely without any characteristic at all, being solely the very root of the wisdom of a single characteristic; wishing to cause living beings to be free of every attachment to characteristics, manifesting the very nature and characteristics of every worldly thing while himself moving through the world, opening up and revealing unsurpassed bodhi for their sake; and, wishing to rescue and protect every living being, appearing in the world to open up and reveal the buddha path, causing them to be able to behold the Tathāgata's own bodily form, to hold onto it and keep it in mind, and to diligently apply themselves to its cultivation and practice.
"Not abiding within birth-and-death, and yet universally manifesting throughout the world like a reflection" is the passage's own resolution of a question the whole chapter has been circling: how a Buddha who has transcended saṃsāra can still be present within it. The answer given is the classic four similes — illusion, reflection, dream, conjured apparition — applied not only to the world living beings inhabit but to the buddha-body itself, which appears "like a reflection" for the same reason a reflection can appear in still water without the water containing anything solid.
Part 186 Complete
This closes Part 186. Chapter 23 continues in Part 187 with the litany of the Tathāgata's qualities continuing further.