Karma Without an Owner, Dharma Without Division
The dialogue continues with two more of Mañjuśrī's questions. Foremost in Treasure Bodhisattva answers how karma ripens so precisely though no self performs it, through nine images of things that produce effects without any doer behind them. Foremost in Merit Bodhisattva then answers how the Buddha's single realization appears as countless different teachings, through nine images of one nature manifesting as many without ever dividing itself.
Mañjuśrī Questions Foremost in Treasure
Mañjuśrī turns next to Foremost in Treasure Bodhisattva, asking how living beings, equally composed of the four great elements and equally without a self or anything belonging to a self, still come to experience such different fortunes — suffering and pleasure, beauty and ugliness, present recompense and recompense yet to come — when the Dharma-realm itself holds no beauty and no ugliness at all.
爾時，文殊師利菩薩問寶首菩薩言：「佛子！一切眾生，等有四大，無我、無我所。云何而有受苦、受樂，端正、醜陋，內好、外好，少受、多受，或受現報，或受後報？然法界中，無美、無惡。」
時，寶首菩薩以頌答曰：
「隨其所行業，如是果報生，
作者無所有，諸佛之所說。
譬如淨明鏡，隨其所對質，
現像各不同，業性亦如是。
亦如田種子，各各不相知，
自然能出生，業性亦如是。
又如巧幻師，在彼四衢道，
示現眾色相，業性亦如是。
如機關木人，能出種種聲，
彼無我非我，業性亦如是。
亦如眾鳥類，從㲉而得出，
音聲各不同，業性亦如是。
譬如胎藏中，諸根悉成就，
體相無來處，業性亦如是。
又如在地獄，種種諸苦事，
彼悉無所從，業性亦如是。
譬如轉輪王，成就勝七寶，
來處不可得，業性亦如是。
又如諸世界，大火所燒然，
此火無來處，業性亦如是。」
At that time, Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva asked Foremost in Treasure Bodhisattva, saying: "Son of the Buddha! All living beings equally possess the four great elements, and are without self and without anything belonging to a self. How is it, then, that there is the experiencing of suffering and the experiencing of pleasure, being upright and being ugly, being good within and good without, experiencing little and experiencing much, or experiencing recompense in this very life, or experiencing recompense in a life to come? And yet within the Dharma-realm, there is no beauty and no ugliness at all."
At that time, Foremost in Treasure Bodhisattva answered with a verse, saying:
"According to whatever karma one has enacted, just such a fruit of recompense arises; yet there is no doer at all to be found — this is what the buddhas themselves have taught.
Just as, in a clear and bright mirror, according to whatever it faces, the images that appear are each different — so too it is with the nature of karma.
Just as, among the seeds sown in a field, each one does not know any other, yet each is able to sprout of its own accord — so too it is with the nature of karma.
Just as a skillful illusionist, standing at a crossroads where four ways meet, displays a manifold array of forms — so too it is with the nature of karma.
Just as a mechanical wooden figure is able to produce various sounds, yet it is without a self and without anything other than a self — so too it is with the nature of karma.
Just as the many kinds of birds each emerge from their own egg, their calls each being different — so too it is with the nature of karma.
Just as, within the womb, every one of the faculties is fully formed, yet the body and its features come from nowhere at all — so too it is with the nature of karma.
Just as, within the hells, every manner of suffering occurs, yet all of it comes from nowhere at all — so too it is with the nature of karma.
Just as a wheel-turning king comes to possess the finest of the seven treasures, yet whence they come cannot be found — so too it is with the nature of karma.
Just as, in every world, a great fire burns and blazes, yet this fire comes from nowhere at all — so too it is with the nature of karma."
Mañjuśrī Questions Foremost in Merit
Mañjuśrī then asks Foremost in Merit Bodhisattva how the Tathāgata's single realization comes to be taught as immeasurable dharmas, manifested as immeasurable buddha-lands, and displayed through immeasurable bodies, voices, and spiritual powers, when within the nature of dharmas itself, not one of these distinguishing marks can ever be found.
爾時，文殊師利菩薩問德首菩薩言：「佛子！如來所悟，唯是一法。云何乃說無量諸法，現無量剎，化無量眾，演無量音，示無量身，知無量心，現無量神通，普能震動無量世界，示現無量殊勝莊嚴，顯示無邊種種境界？而法性中，此差別相，皆不可得。」
時，德首菩薩以頌答曰：
「佛子所問義，甚深難可了，
智者能知此，常樂佛功德。
譬如地性一，眾生各別住，
地無一異念，諸佛法如是。
亦如火性一，能燒一切物，
火焰無分別，諸佛法如是。
亦如大海一，波濤千萬異，
水無種種殊，諸佛法如是。
亦如風性一，能吹一切物，
風無一異念，諸佛法如是。
亦如大雲雷，普雨一切地，
雨滴無差別，諸佛法如是。
亦如地界一，能生種種芽，
非地有殊異，諸佛法如是。
如日無雲曀，普照於十方，
光明無異性，諸佛法如是。
亦如空中月，世間靡不見，
非月往其處，諸佛法如是。
譬如大梵王，應現滿三千，
其身無別異，諸佛法如是。」
At that time, Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva asked Foremost in Merit Bodhisattva, saying: "Son of the Buddha! What the Tathāgata has awakened to is only a single dharma. How is it, then, that he goes on to teach immeasurable dharmas, manifests immeasurable buddha-lands, transforms immeasurable multitudes, proclaims immeasurable sounds, displays immeasurable bodies, knows immeasurable minds, manifests immeasurable spiritual powers, is universally able to shake immeasurable worlds, displays immeasurable, supremely excellent adornments, and reveals boundless and manifold states? And yet within the nature of dharmas, not one of these distinguishing marks can ever be found at all."
At that time, Foremost in Merit Bodhisattva answered with a verse, saying:
"The meaning that the Buddha's son has asked is exceedingly profound and hard to fully understand; only the wise are able to know this, forever delighting in the Buddha's own merit.
Just as the nature of earth is one, though living beings each dwell separately upon it, the earth itself has no thought of oneness or difference — so too it is with every buddha's Dharma.
Just as the nature of fire is one, able to burn every single thing, the flame itself makes no discrimination — so too it is with every buddha's Dharma.
Just as the great ocean is one, though its waves and billows are a thousand, ten thousand different shapes, the water itself has no manifold distinction — so too it is with every buddha's Dharma.
Just as the nature of wind is one, able to blow upon every single thing, the wind itself has no thought of oneness or difference — so too it is with every buddha's Dharma.
Just as a great cloud's thunder universally rains upon every land, the raindrops themselves have no distinction — so too it is with every buddha's Dharma.
Just as the element of earth is one, able to give rise to every kind of sprout, it is not that the earth itself is manifold and different — so too it is with every buddha's Dharma.
Just as the sun, free of clouds and haze, universally illumines the ten directions, its light itself has no differing nature — so too it is with every buddha's Dharma.
Just as the moon in the sky is seen by everyone in the world without exception, it is not that the moon itself goes to each of their places — so too it is with every buddha's Dharma.
Just as the great Brahmā king manifests himself, filling the whole of the three-thousandfold world, his body itself having no separate distinction — so too it is with every buddha's Dharma."
The Chinese text itself shortens this bodhisattva's name to 德首 in the question-and-answer formula, though the chapter's opening roster gives his full name as 功德首 — the same figure the earlier Parts of this chapter's introduction rendered as "Foremost in Merit." This translation keeps that established rendering throughout rather than treating the shortened form as a different name, since the sūtra itself uses both interchangeably for the same speaker. Note, too, how the two dialogues in this Part answer structurally different questions with the same underlying move: Foremost in Treasure dissolves the search for karma's hidden owner, while Foremost in Merit dissolves the search for the Buddha's teaching's hidden multiplicity — in both cases, the apparent puzzle is resolved not by finding what was missing, but by seeing that nothing was ever missing a single, findable source to begin with.
Part 44 Complete
This closes Part 44. Fascicle thirteen's tenth chapter continues with Mañjuśrī's next question — to Foremost in Vision, on how the Buddha's field of merit is truly equal and undivided, and yet living beings who give offerings within it receive such different fruits.