The Moon Reflected in Every Water
Wisdom Banner Bodhisattva speaks the chapter's fifth verse, reaching for the sūtra's most memorable image yet: just as a pure, full moon appears reflected in every body of water without the original moon ever becoming two, so too does the Buddha manifest immeasurable bodies throughout every land while his own body remains never two. The verse closes with birth, the accomplishment of the path, and nirvāṇa all displayed within a single thought, like a form made by illusion that never truly arises at all.
One Moon, Countless Reflections
The verse opens by establishing that the Buddha's manifested bodies exceed even the countable number of all living beings across the three periods of time, before reaching for its central simile: the moon, whose reflected images are immeasurable across every body of water, yet whose original self has never once been two. Applied to the Buddha, the image resolves a puzzle raised by the previous three verses — how manifestation without number can still leave the manifesting Buddha whole, singular, and unmultiplied.
「若人能信受，一切智無礙，
修習菩提行，其心不可量。
一切國土中，普現無量身，
而身不在處，亦不住於法。
一一諸如來，神力示現身，
不可思議劫，算數莫能盡。
三世諸眾生，悉可知其數，
如來所示現，其數不可得。
或時示一二，乃至無量身，
普現十方剎，其實無二種。
譬如淨滿月，普現一切水，
影像雖無量，本月未曾二。
如是無礙智，成就等正覺，
普現一切剎，佛體亦無二。
"If a person is able to believe and accept all-knowing wisdom, unobstructed, and cultivate and practice the conduct of bodhi, their mind cannot be measured at all. Throughout every land, he universally manifests immeasurable bodies, and yet his body is not located in any place, nor does it abide in any dharma. Each and every Tathāgata, through spiritual power, manifests bodies, and throughout inconceivable kalpas, no counting could ever exhaust them. The number of all living beings across the three periods of time could entirely be known, yet the number of what the Tathāgata manifests can never be obtained.
At times he displays one or two bodies, or even up to immeasurable bodies, universally manifesting throughout the lands of the ten directions, yet in reality there is no duality at all. Just as a pure and full moon universally appears in every body of water, though its reflected images are immeasurable, the original moon has never once been two. Just so, unobstructed wisdom accomplishes the truly and fully awakened one, universally manifesting throughout every land, and yet the Buddha's own body is likewise never two.
非一亦非二，亦復非無量，
隨其所應化，示現無量身。
佛身非過去，亦復非未來，
一念現出生，成道及涅槃。
如幻所作色，無生亦無起，
佛身亦如是，示現無有生。」
Neither one, nor two, and likewise not immeasurable either; according to whoever is to be transformed, he manifests immeasurable bodies. The Buddha's body is not the past, and likewise is not the future either; within a single thought he manifests birth, the accomplishment of the path, and nirvāṇa. Just as a form made by illusion neither arises nor is produced, so too is the Buddha's body — it manifests without any arising at all."
The moon-in-water simile is one of the most widely used images in Mahāyāna literature for exactly this problem — how a single reality can appear multiplied without dividing. Here the sūtra pushes the image further than usual, using it to explain not just multiplicity but time itself: birth, awakening, and nirvāṇa, ordinarily spread across a lifetime, are said to appear together "within a single thought," the way a moon's reflection appears complete the instant still water forms, without any process of arising at all.
Part 202 Complete
This closes Part 202. Chapter 24 continues in Part 203 with Jeweled Banner Bodhisattva's own verse.