Not to Be Seen in Form and Mark
Valiant Banner Bodhisattva speaks the chapter's third verse, moving through five paired similes — a clear eye and the sun, diligence and the ocean's floor, fertile soil and a harvest, a treasury and an end to poverty, agada medicine and every poison — before turning to its sharpest claim: even offering treasures across countless kalpas is not true giving if the Buddha's own true reality goes unknown, since the Buddha can never be seen within form and mark alone.
Five Similes, Then the Turn
The verse opens with five similes of steady cause and effect — a clear eye needs the sun to see, diligence reaches the ocean's floor, fertile soil yields a harvest, a treasury ends poverty, agada medicine dissolves poison — each illustrating how a pure mind, through the Buddha's own power, comes to behold the Tathāgata and his Dharma. It then turns: even boundless giving is not true giving without knowing the Buddha's true reality, and that reality, like empty space itself, is never found in form and mark, however immeasurable those marks may be.
「譬如明淨眼，因日覩眾色，
淨心亦復然，佛力見如來。
如以精進力，能盡海源底，
智力亦如是，得見無量佛。
譬如良沃田，所種必滋長，
如是淨心地，出生諸佛法。
如人獲寶藏，永離貧窮苦，
菩薩得佛法，離垢心清淨。
譬如伽陀藥，能消一切毒，
佛法亦如是，滅諸煩惱患。
真實善知識，如來所稱讚，
以彼威神故，得聞諸佛法。
"Just as a bright and clear eye beholds every form because of the sun, so too is a pure mind — it beholds the Tathāgata through the Buddha's own power. Just as through the power of diligence one can reach the very floor of the ocean's source, so too is the power of wisdom — one comes to behold immeasurable buddhas. Just as in good and fertile soil whatever is planted must surely flourish, so too does this ground of a pure mind give birth to the Dharma of every buddha.
Just as a person who obtains a treasury of jewels forever leaves behind the suffering of poverty, so too does a bodhisattva who obtains the Buddha's own Dharma leave behind defilement, their mind made pure. Just as the agada medicine is able to dissolve every poison, so too is the Buddha's own Dharma — it extinguishes every affliction and trouble. A true and genuine good spiritual friend is one praised by the Tathāgata himself; it is through that very awesome spiritual power that one comes to hear the Dharma of every buddha.
設於無數劫，財寶施於佛，
不知佛實相，此亦不名施。
無量眾色相，莊嚴於佛身，
非於色相中，而能見於佛。
如來等正覺，寂然恒不動，
而能普現身，遍滿十方界。
譬如虛空界，不生亦不滅，
諸佛法如是，畢竟無生滅。」
Even if, throughout countless kalpas, one gives treasures and riches to the Buddha, without knowing the Buddha's own true reality, this too cannot be called giving. Immeasurable forms and marks adorn the Buddha's own body, and yet it is not within form and mark that one is able to behold the Buddha. The Tathāgata, the truly and fully awakened one, is tranquil and forever unmoving, and yet is able to universally manifest his body, filling the ten directions entirely. Just as the realm of empty space neither arises nor ceases, so too is the Dharma of every buddha — ultimately without arising or ceasing."
"Even if, throughout countless kalpas, one gives treasures and riches to the Buddha, without knowing the Buddha's own true reality, this too cannot be called giving" is a striking claim to place inside a verse of praise — it reframes the entire preceding catalogue of offerings, thrones, and jeweled clouds from earlier chapters as insufficient on their own. The verse's closing simile, empty space that neither arises nor ceases, gives the reason: the Dharma of every buddha shares that same nature, and no quantity of form-based giving can substitute for knowing it.
Part 200 Complete
This closes Part 200. Chapter 24 continues in Part 201 with Light Banner Bodhisattva's own verse.