The Buddha's Domain, Chapter Ten and Fascicle Thirteen Complete
The ninth of Mañjuśrī's questions closes the sequence of individual dialogues: Foremost in Virtue Bodhisattva answers why one and the same path yields buddha-lands that appear so different from one another. Then the nine bodhisattvas turn together to Mañjuśrī himself, asking him to expound the Buddha's own domain — and his answer, and the assembly's closing manifestation, bring fascicle thirteen to its close.
Mañjuśrī Questions Foremost in Virtue
Mañjuśrī's ninth and final individual question goes to Foremost in Virtue Bodhisattva: every buddha attains liberation by one and the same path alone — so why does one now see every buddha-land's worlds, assemblies, teachings, lifespans, and radiance to be so different from one another, when no one has ever attained awakening without possessing every one of the Buddha's own qualities in full?
爾時，文殊師利菩薩問賢首菩薩言：「佛子！諸佛世尊，唯以一道，而得出離。云何今見一切佛土，所有眾事，種種不同？所謂：世界、眾生界、說法調伏、壽量、光明、神通、眾會、教儀、法住，各有差別。無有不具一切佛法，而成阿耨多羅三藐三菩提者。」
時，賢首菩薩以頌答曰：
「文殊法常爾，法王唯一法，
一切無礙人，一道出生死。
一切諸佛身，唯是一法身，
一心一智慧，力無畏亦然。
如本趣菩提，所有迴向心，
得如是剎土，眾會及說法。
一切諸佛剎，莊嚴悉圓滿，
隨眾生行異，如是見不同。
佛剎與佛身，眾會及言說，
如是諸佛法，眾生莫能見。
其心已清淨，諸願皆具足，
如是明達人，於此乃能覩。
隨眾生心樂，及以業果力，
如是見差別，此佛威神故。
佛剎無分別，無憎無有愛，
但隨眾生心，如是見有殊。
以是於世界，所見各差別，
非一切如來，大仙之過咎。
一切諸世界，所應受化者，
常見人中雄，諸佛法如是。」
At that time, Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva asked Foremost in Virtue Bodhisattva, saying: "Son of the Buddha! Every buddha, every world-honored one, attains liberation by means of one and the same path alone. How is it, then, that one now sees every buddha-land's manifold affairs to be so different from one another — namely, their worlds, their realms of living beings, their manner of teaching the Dharma and taming beings, their lifespans, their radiance, their spiritual powers, their assemblies, their forms of instruction, and the duration of their Dharma each having their own distinctions? And yet there has never been anyone who, without possessing every one of the Buddha's own qualities in full, has accomplished unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening."
At that time, Foremost in Virtue Bodhisattva answered with a verse, saying:
"It is Mañjuśrī's own Dharma-nature that is forever thus: the Dharma-king holds only a single Dharma; every one who is without any obstruction leaves birth-and-death by this one path alone.
Every single buddha's own body is only ever one and the same Dharma-body; one mind, one wisdom, and likewise one set of powers and fearlessnesses.
According to the mind of dedication that one originally brought when first going forth toward bodhi, one comes to obtain just such a land, just such an assembly, and just such a teaching of the Dharma.
Every single buddha-land's own adornment is entirely and perfectly complete; yet, according to the different conduct of living beings, what is seen of it differs accordingly.
Buddha-lands and the Buddha's own body, assemblies and their teaching — such is the Buddha's own Dharma, which living beings are unable to behold.
Only one whose mind has already become pure, and whose every vow has been entirely fulfilled — such a clear and penetrating person alone is able to behold it here.
According to the pleasure of each living being's own mind, and the power of their own karmic fruit, they behold it as differing thus — this is due to the Buddha's own awesome spiritual power.
The Buddha's own land makes no discrimination at all, holding no hatred and no love; it is only according to each living being's own mind that it comes to be seen as differing thus.
And so it is that, throughout the world, what is seen differs from one to another — this is no fault at all belonging to any Tathāgata, any great sage.
Throughout every world, whoever is fit to be transformed forever beholds the hero among humankind — such is every buddha's own Dharma."
The Nine Bodhisattvas Question Mañjuśrī on the Buddha's Domain
With all nine having answered in turn, the bodhisattvas now turn together to Mañjuśrī himself, asking him to expound, in his own wondrous eloquence, the Tathāgata's domain in full — its nature, its cause, how it ferries beings across, how one enters it, its wisdom, its dharma, its teaching, its knowing, its realization, its manifestation, and its vastness.
爾時，諸菩薩謂文殊師利菩薩言：「佛子！我等所解，各自說已。唯願仁者，以妙辯才，演暢如來所有境界！何等是佛境界？何等是佛境界因？何等是佛境界度？何等是佛境界入？何等是佛境界智？何等是佛境界法？何等是佛境界說？何等是佛境界知？何等是佛境界證？何等是佛境界現？何等是佛境界廣？」
時，文殊師利菩薩以頌答曰：
「如來深境界，其量等虛空，
一切眾生入，而實無所入。
如來深境界，所有勝妙因，
億劫常宣說，亦復不能盡。
隨其心智慧，誘進咸令益，
如是度眾生，諸佛之境界。
世間諸國土，一切皆隨入，
智身無有色，非彼所能見。
諸佛智自在，三世無所礙，
如是慧境界，平等如虛空。
法界眾生界，究竟無差別，
一切悉了知，此是如來境。
一切世間中，所有諸音聲，
佛智皆隨了，亦無有分別。
非識所能識，亦非心境界，
其性本清淨，開示諸群生。
非業非煩惱，無物無住處，
無照無所行，平等行世間。
一切眾生心，普在三世中，
如來於一念，一切悉明達。」
At that time, the bodhisattvas said to Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva: "Son of the Buddha! Each of us has now spoken of our own understanding. We only wish that you, sir, with your own wondrous eloquence, would fully expound the Tathāgata's own domain! What is the Buddha's domain? What is the cause of the Buddha's domain? What is the ferrying-across of the Buddha's domain? What is the entering of the Buddha's domain? What is the wisdom of the Buddha's domain? What is the dharma of the Buddha's domain? What is the teaching of the Buddha's domain? What is the knowing of the Buddha's domain? What is the realization of the Buddha's domain? What is the manifestation of the Buddha's domain? What is the vastness of the Buddha's domain?"
At that time, Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva answered with a verse, saying:
"The Tathāgata's own profound domain, its measure equal to empty space itself — every living being enters into it, and yet, in reality, there is nothing at all that is entered.
The Tathāgata's own profound domain, and every one of its supremely excellent causes — proclaimed forever across a hundred million kalpas, it still could never be exhausted.
According to each being's own mind and wisdom, guiding them onward so that each is entirely benefited — thus does he ferry living beings across; this is the domain of every buddha.
Every land throughout the world — he enters into every single one of them entirely; his body of wisdom has no form at all, and is not something that any of them are able to see.
Every buddha's own wisdom is sovereign and unhindered, obstructed by nothing at all across the three periods of time; such is the domain of wisdom, equal throughout like empty space itself.
The Dharma-realm and the realm of living beings, in the very end, have no distinction at all; understanding this entirely and completely — this is the Tathāgata's own domain.
Whatever sound there is, throughout the whole of the world, the Buddha's own wisdom understands every one of them entirely, and yet makes no discrimination among them at all.
It is not something that consciousness is able to know, nor is it any object within the mind's own domain; its nature is originally and fundamentally pure, and it opens and reveals itself to every multitude of beings.
It is neither karma nor affliction; it has no thing at all, and no dwelling-place at all; without any illumining and without any going, it moves equally throughout the world.
Every living being's own mind, universally present throughout the three periods of time — the Tathāgata, within a single thought, understands every one of them entirely and completely."
Fascicle Thirteen's Closing Manifestation
With Mañjuśrī's own verse, the tenth chapter's dialogue ends. The fascicle then closes not with a new teaching but with a single statement, drawing together everything the assembly has witnessed since the light first began to spread: every distinction among living beings, everywhere, standing entirely revealed.
爾時，此娑婆世界中，一切眾生所有法差別、業差別、世間差別、身差別、根差別、受生差別、持戒果差別、犯戒果差別、國土果差別，以佛神力，悉皆明現。如是，東方百千億那由他無數無量、無邊無等、不可數、不可稱、不可思、不可量、不可說，盡法界、虛空界、一切世界中，所有眾生法差別，乃至國土果差別，悉以佛神力故，分明顯現；南、西、北方，四維、上、下，亦復如是。
At that time, throughout this Sahā world, every distinction among living beings' own dharmas, distinction of karma, distinction of world, distinction of body, distinction of faculty, distinction of the manner of receiving birth, distinction of the fruit of upholding the precepts, distinction of the fruit of transgressing the precepts, and distinction of the fruit of one's own land — through the Buddha's own spiritual power, all of it was entirely and clearly revealed. And thus, throughout hundreds of thousands of millions of nayutas of countless, immeasurable, boundless, unequaled, uncountable, inexpressible, inconceivable, immeasurable, ineffable worlds to the east, throughout the whole extent of the Dharma-realm and the realm of empty space, every distinction among living beings' own dharmas, reaching even to the distinction of the fruit of their own land, was entirely, through the Buddha's own spiritual power, clearly manifested; and it was likewise so to the south, west, and north, in the four intermediate directions, and above and below.
This closing statement belongs, in the CBETA source text, exactly here — after Mañjuśrī's own verse on the Buddha's domain, immediately before the marker that closes fascicle thirteen — and not, as an earlier working draft of this site briefly and mistakenly placed it, at the end of chapter nine. Read in its correct position, it reads less as chapter ten's own conclusion and more as the whole fascicle's: a single closing gesture drawing together both of its chapters, the light's expansion and the bodhisattvas' dialogue alike, into one final act of revelation. Everything that was said in this fascicle — image after image showing how one nature appears as boundless difference — is here enacted rather than merely argued: the distinctions themselves, of karma, body, and fate, "entirely and clearly revealed" across every world without limit.
Part 47 Complete — Chapter Ten Complete, Fascicle Thirteen Complete
This closes Part 47, the sūtra's tenth chapter, "The Bodhisattvas' Questions on Clarification" (菩薩問明品第十), and fascicle thirteen as a whole: nine dialogues between Mañjuśrī and his companion bodhisattvas, each dissolving an apparent paradox about mind, karma, teaching, and buddha-lands, followed by the nine bodhisattvas' own question to Mañjuśrī on the Buddha's domain, and a closing manifestation of every living being's distinctions throughout every world. Fascicle fourteen opens with the sūtra's eleventh chapter, "The Chapter of Pure Conduct" (淨行品第十一), already translated in full on its own page on this site; Part 48 will pick up fascicle fourteen with the chapter that follows.