Present, and Not to Be Found
Hearing the name alone gives the assembly measureless samādhis. Then they look for the man and cannot find him — not his body, not his seat — and the Buddha says twice that he is right here, sitting close by, and has not moved at all.
The Name, and the Looking
What the name does to them is stated first, and it is enormous; what their looking accomplishes is stated second, and it is nothing.
爾時，會中諸菩薩眾聞普賢名，即時獲得不可思議無量三昧，其心無礙寂然不動，智慧廣大難可測量，境界甚深無能與等；現前悉見無數諸佛，得如來力，同如來性，去、來、現在靡不明照，所有福德不可窮盡，一切神通皆已具足。其諸菩薩於普賢所，心生尊重，渴仰欲見，悉於眾會周遍觀察而竟不覩，亦不見其所坐之座。此由如來威力所持，亦是普賢神通自在使其然耳。
Then the bodhisattva hosts in the assembly, hearing Samantabhadra's name, at that very moment obtained inconceivable and measureless samādhis. Their minds were unobstructed, still and unmoving; their wisdom was vast and hard to fathom; the domain they saw was profound, and nothing could equal it. Present before them they saw numberless buddhas; they obtained the Tathāgata's power and were the same as the Tathāgata in nature; past, future and present were all clearly illumined for them; their merit could not be exhausted, and every spiritual penetration was already complete in them. Toward Samantabhadra those bodhisattvas conceived reverence, and longed and thirsted to see him; but though they looked everywhere throughout the assembly, in the end they did not behold him, nor did they see the seat on which he sat. This was because of what the Tathāgata's majestic power upheld, and it was also Samantabhadra's own sovereign spiritual penetration that made it so.
爾時，普眼菩薩白佛言：「世尊！普賢菩薩今何所在？」佛言：「普眼！普賢菩薩今現在此道場眾會，親近我住，初無動移。」是時，普眼及諸菩薩復更觀察道場眾會，周遍求覓，白佛言：「世尊！我等今者猶未得見普賢菩薩其身及座。」
Then Universal Eye Bodhisattva said to the Buddha: "World-Honored One! Where is Samantabhadra Bodhisattva now?" The Buddha said: "Universal Eye! Samantabhadra Bodhisattva is present now in this assembly at the awakening-site, abiding close beside me, and has not moved at all." At this Universal Eye and the other bodhisattvas contemplated the assembly at the awakening-site again, searching everywhere, and said to the Buddha: "World-Honored One! Even now we have not been able to see Samantabhadra Bodhisattva's body or his seat."
此由如來威力所持，亦是普賢神通自在使其然耳 — this was because of what the Tathāgata's majestic power upheld, and it was also Samantabhadra's own sovereign spiritual penetration that made it so. The invisibility is deliberate and doubly caused. Nobody is failing; the failure is being arranged, and the sūtra says so before the assembly starts looking, so that the reader watches the search knowing what they do not.
親近我住，初無動移 — abiding close beside me, and has not moved at all. The Buddha's answer is spatial and completely unhelpful, and it is repeated later in almost the same words. A chapter about concentration begins with a man who cannot be located while sitting still in plain view.
Why He Cannot Be Seen
The Buddha's explanation is not that Samantabhadra is hidden but that where he abides cannot be spoken — and then Universal Eye tries ten thousand asaṃkhyeyas of samādhis and reports back exactly what he did not find.
佛言：「如是，善男子！汝等何故而不得見？善男子！普賢菩薩住處甚深不可說故。普賢菩薩獲無邊智慧門，入師子奮迅定，得無上自在用，入清淨無礙際，生如來十種力，以法界藏為身，一切如來共所護念，於一念頃悉能證入三世諸佛無差別智，是故汝等不能見耳。」
The Buddha said: "So it is, good men! And why is it that you cannot see him? Good men, it is because the place where Samantabhadra Bodhisattva abides is profound and cannot be spoken. Samantabhadra Bodhisattva has obtained the boundless gateways of wisdom; he has entered the samādhi of the lion's vigorous stride; he has gained the unsurpassed sovereign functioning; he has entered the pure and unobstructed limit; he has given birth to the Tathāgata's ten kinds of power; he takes the treasury of the dharma-realm as his body; all the Tathāgatas together hold him in mind; and in the space of a single thought he can realize and enter the undifferentiated wisdom of the buddhas of the three times. It is for this that you cannot see him."
爾時，普眼菩薩聞如來說普賢菩薩清淨功德，得十千阿僧祇三昧；以三昧力復遍觀察，渴仰欲見普賢菩薩，亦不能覩。其餘一切諸菩薩眾俱亦不見。時，普眼菩薩從三昧起，白佛言：「世尊！我已入十千阿僧祇三昧，求見普賢而竟不得，不見其身及身業、語及語業、意及意業、座及住處，悉皆不見。」
Then Universal Eye Bodhisattva, hearing the Tathāgata expound Samantabhadra Bodhisattva's pure merits, obtained ten thousand asaṃkhyeyas of samādhis; and by the power of those samādhis he contemplated everywhere again, longing and thirsting to see Samantabhadra Bodhisattva, and still could not behold him. Nor did any of the other bodhisattva hosts see him. Then Universal Eye Bodhisattva rose from those samādhis and said to the Buddha: "World-Honored One! I have entered ten thousand asaṃkhyeyas of samādhis and sought to see Samantabhadra, and in the end I could not. I did not see his body or the works of his body, his speech or the works of his speech, his mind or the works of his mind, his seat or the place where he abides — none of it did I see."
以法界藏為身 — he takes the treasury of the dharma-realm as his body. Among the reasons given, this is the one that settles the matter. Someone whose body is the dharma-realm cannot be picked out within it, and the assembly has been scanning a room for a person who is not in the room in that way.
不見其身及身業、語及語業、意及意業、座及住處 — the report is exhaustive and honest, and it is the same triad of body, speech and mind by which the tenth ground was said to be unfathomable in Part 482. Universal Eye does not conclude that Samantabhadra is absent; he reports precisely what he failed to see, which is why the Buddha can work with the answer.
Part 492 Complete
This continues chapter twenty-seven, 十定品, The Ten Concentrations, in fascicle forty. Part 493 gives the Buddha's reply — that not even the appearances conjured by an illusionist can be said to have a place, much less Samantabhadra's secret body, speech and mind — and then the promise that whoever sees him, serves him, hears his name, thinks of him, remembers him, believes in him, seeks him or vows toward him, without interruption, gains benefit and none of it is wasted.