Buddhas in a Number Equal to the Mind
Stainless Banner Bodhisattva speaks the chapter's eighth verse, promising that even a person who wished to behold buddhas equal in number to living beings themselves would find no mind left unanswered — and that whoever takes the Buddha as their own domain, single-mindedly recollecting him without ceasing, comes to behold buddhas in a number equal to their own mind. The verse's foundation for this is stated directly: the Buddha's body and the world are, in every case, without any self at all.
No Self At All, in the Buddha or the World
The verse opens with a claim about scale that sounds almost impossible: even a person wishing to behold buddhas equal in number to all living beings would find every wish answered, though the Buddha comes from no place at all. It then narrows to the practical: single-minded recollection of the Buddha without ceasing yields a beholding equal to one's own mind — grounded, the verse insists near its close, in the recognition that the Buddha's body and the world share the same nature, being in every case without any self.
「如來大智光，普淨諸世間，
世間既淨已，開示諸佛法。
設有人欲見，眾生數等佛，
靡不應其心，而實無來處。
以佛為境界，專念而不息，
此人得見佛，其數與心等。
成就白淨法，具足諸功德，
彼於一切智，專念心不捨。
導師為眾生，如應演說法，
隨於可化處，普現最勝身。
佛身及世間，一切皆無我，
悟此成正覺，復為眾生說。
"The Tathāgata's great light of wisdom universally purifies every world; once the world has been purified, he opens up and reveals the Dharma of every buddha. Suppose there were a person who wished to behold buddhas equal in number to living beings themselves; there is none whose mind would go unanswered, and yet in reality there is no place from which he comes. Taking the Buddha as one's own domain, single-mindedly recollecting him without ceasing, this person comes to behold the Buddha, in a number equal to their own mind. Accomplishing the pure and undefiled Dharma, possessed fully of every merit, that person, toward all-knowing wisdom, single-mindedly recollects it, their mind never abandoning it. The Guiding Teacher, for the sake of living beings, expounds the Dharma according to what is fitting; according to wherever transformation is possible, he universally manifests his most supreme body. The Buddha's body and the world — in every case there is no self at all; awakening to this, he accomplishes true awakening, and then again expounds it for the sake of living beings.
一切人師子，無量自在力，
示現念等身，其身各不同。
世間如是身，諸佛身亦然，
了知其自性，是則說名佛。
如來普知見，明了一切法，
佛法及菩提，二俱不可得。
導師無來去，亦復無所住，
遠離諸顛倒，是名等正覺。」
Every Lion Among Humankind possesses immeasurable sovereign power; he displays bodies equal to every thought, and each of those bodies is different from the rest. Just as bodies in the world are like this, so too are the bodies of every buddha; understanding their own nature entirely — this indeed is what is called 'buddha.' The Tathāgata universally knows and sees, understanding every dharma with total clarity; the Buddha's own Dharma and bodhi — neither of the two can ever be obtained. The Guiding Teacher neither comes nor goes, and likewise has nowhere he abides at all; far removed from every distorted view — this indeed is called 'the truly and fully awakened one.'"
"The Buddha's own Dharma and bodhi — neither of the two can ever be obtained" closes the verse's argument in a way that could easily sound like a denial, but functions instead as its foundation: because neither the Buddha's Dharma nor bodhi itself is a thing to be grasped and possessed, the earlier promise — that recollection yields buddhas equal to the mind — is not a magical multiplication but a recognition, in each recollecting mind, of what was never separate from it to begin with.
Part 205 Complete
This closes Part 205. Chapter 24 continues in Part 206 with Constellation Banner Bodhisattva's own verse.