Where Does a Conjured Thing Stand
The Buddha answers the failed search with a question of his own about stage-magic, and then makes a promise that costs the assembly nothing: anything at all done toward Samantabhadra — seeing, hearing the name, remembering, merely setting out — is not wasted. But being shown him takes a vow.
Not Even an Illusion Has a Place
The argument is by degree. If the appearances a conjuror produces cannot be given a location, then a fortiori nothing can be said about where a secret body, speech and mind abide.
佛言：「如是如是！善男子！當知皆以普賢菩薩住不思議解脫之力。普眼！於汝意云何？頗有人能說幻術文字中種種幻相所住處不？」答言：「不也。」佛言：「普眼！幻中幻相尚不可說，何況普賢菩薩祕密身境界、祕密語境界、祕密意境界，而於其中能入能見！何以故？普賢菩薩境界甚深，不可思議，無有量、已過量。
The Buddha said: "So it is, so it is, good man! Know that all of this is by the power of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva's abiding in inconceivable liberation. Universal Eye! What do you think? Is there anyone who could say where the various conjured appearances within an illusionist's spells and syllables abide?" He answered: "There is not." The Buddha said: "Universal Eye! If even the conjured appearances within a conjuring cannot be spoken of, how much less could one enter into or see the domain of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva's secret body, the domain of his secret speech, and the domain of his secret mind! Why is this so? Samantabhadra Bodhisattva's domain is profound and inconceivable, without measure, and already beyond measure.
舉要言之，普賢菩薩以金剛慧普入法界，於一切世界無所行、無所住，知一切眾生身皆即非身，無去無來，得無斷盡、無差別自在神通，無依無作，無有動轉，至於法界究竟邊際。善男子！若有得見普賢菩薩，若得承事，若得聞名，若有思惟，若有憶念，若生信解，若勤觀察，若始趣向，若正求覓，若興誓願，相續不絕，皆獲利益，無空過者。」
To state the essential point: Samantabhadra Bodhisattva, with vajra wisdom, enters the dharma-realm universally; within all worlds he goes nowhere and abides nowhere; he knows that the bodies of all beings are precisely not bodies; he neither comes nor goes; he has attained a sovereign spiritual penetration that is unbroken and undifferentiated; he depends on nothing and contrives nothing, and there is no shifting or moving in him; and he reaches the ultimate limit of the dharma-realm. Good man! If there is anyone who gets to see Samantabhadra Bodhisattva, or gets to serve him, or gets to hear his name, or thinks upon him, or calls him to mind, or gives rise to faith and understanding in him, or diligently contemplates him, or merely begins to turn toward him, or truly searches for him, or raises a vow toward him — if it continues without a break, all of them obtain benefit, and not one of them passes in vain."
幻中幻相尚不可說 — if even the conjured appearances within a conjuring cannot be spoken of. The conjuror simile has run through the last two chapters, applied to a bodhisattva's manifestations in Part 464 and to the Tathāgata's in Part 473. Here it turns into an argument about location, and the point is not that Samantabhadra is unreal but that "where" is the wrong question to put to him.
若始趣向 — or merely begins to turn toward him. The list of ten is arranged from the greatest access to the least, and the least is simply starting out in his direction. The condition attached is not intensity but 相續不絕, continuing without a break.
What Must Be Vowed
Homage is paid three times, and it is not enough. What the Buddha then asks for is a vow with content — to enter the non-dual, to appear throughout the world, to know beings' faculties, to gather Samantabhadra's path everywhere.
爾時，普眼及一切菩薩眾於普賢菩薩心生渴仰，願得瞻覲，作如是言：「南無一切諸佛！南無普賢菩薩！」如是三稱，頭頂禮敬。
Then Universal Eye and all the bodhisattva hosts, longing and thirsting in their hearts for Samantabhadra Bodhisattva and wishing to look upon him, spoke thus: "Homage to all the buddhas! Homage to Samantabhadra Bodhisattva!" Three times they said it in this way, and bowed their heads to the ground in reverence.
爾時，佛告普眼菩薩及諸眾會言：「諸佛子！汝等宜更禮敬普賢，慇懃求請，又應專至觀察十方，想普賢身現在其前。如是思惟，周遍法界，深心信解，厭離一切，誓與普賢同一行願：入於不二真實之法，其身普現一切世間，悉知眾生諸根差別，遍一切處集普賢道。若能發起如是大願，則當得見普賢菩薩。」是時，普眼聞佛此語，與諸菩薩俱時頂禮，求請得見普賢大士。
Then the Buddha said to Universal Eye Bodhisattva and to all the assembly: "Children of the Buddha! You should pay reverence to Samantabhadra again and earnestly make your request; and you should also contemplate the ten directions single-mindedly, and imagine Samantabhadra's body present before you. Reflecting in this way, pervading the whole dharma-realm, with profound faith and understanding, wearying of everything, vow to be one in practice and in vow with Samantabhadra — to enter the true dharma that is not two, to make your body appear universally throughout every world, to know all the differences among beings' faculties, and everywhere to gather the path of Samantabhadra. If you can raise up such a great vow, then you will get to see Samantabhadra Bodhisattva." At this Universal Eye, hearing these words of the Buddha, together with all the bodhisattvas bowed their heads at once and made their request to see the great being Samantabhadra.
誓與普賢同一行願 — vow to be one in practice and in vow with Samantabhadra. The instruction is not to look harder but to want the same things. The four items that follow are Samantabhadra's own programme, and being able to see him turns out to be a matter of having taken it up.
想普賢身現在其前 — imagine Samantabhadra's body present before you. A contemplative instruction, plainly given: visualize him in front of you. What could not be found by searching the room is approached by a deliberate act of imagination — and the next Part will show what answers it.
Part 493 Complete
This continues chapter twenty-seven, 十定品, The Ten Concentrations, in fascicle forty. Part 494 answers the request: Samantabhadra manifests a form-body as is fitting, and the assembly sees him seated on a lotus close beside the Tathāgata — and simultaneously in every buddha's presence in every other world, expounding the bodhisattva's practices there; and ten thousand kinds of cloud rain down while ineffably many worlds shake.